Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

CH736 Development Necessity of Interplanar Travel

***

Interplanar coordinate calculations...

This was something Alex had never once expected to encounter on Verdantis.

Yet now that he had, he could not help but admit that perhaps he should have seen it coming all along.

Whether in his previous life or his current one, Alex had encountered countless discussions regarding the likelihood of a civilisation eventually developing interplanar travel.

Although the worlds of his two lives were vastly different, one conclusion remained remarkably consistent across both— the academia generally believed that interplanar travel was an inevitable development for any civilisation advanced enough to pursue it.

The most common argument was simple.

It was far too attractive—far too profitable—to ignore.

In his previous life, proponents of this theory often pointed towards the costly expeditions launched by the most advanced nations of their eras in search of new lands and opportunities.

Throughout the medieval to early modern and industrial periods of his former world, nations invested enormous sums into voyages intended to discover new territories that could be traded with, exploited, settled, or colonised.

More often than not, successful expeditions generated immense wealth for the nations that sponsored them, leading to further economic growth and development.

That growth, in turn, enabled those same nations to fund even more expeditions, creating a cycle that continued until most of the world had been explored—or at least until people believed it had been.

Once the known world had been charted and its resources extensively exploited, it became natural for humanity’s attention to shift beyond the boundaries of its own realm.

A theory surprisingly popular in both Alex’s previous life and his current one held that any sufficiently advanced world or civilisation would eventually be forced to develop interplanar travel due to resource demands alone.

Resources were rarely abundant forever. More often than not, they were finite, scarce, or increasingly difficult to acquire.

This was especially true for the resources that formed the foundation upon which an entire civilisation was built.

In Pangea, those resources were typically mana and mana-related materials—particularly those essential for cultivation.

In Alex’s previous life, that cornerstone resource had been crude oil.

Both were finite. Both were perpetually in demand.

And the reason they became the backbone of their respective civilisations was largely the same: they were simply the most efficient and readily available resources capable of sustaining the growth and operation of society at the time.

When these resources eventually ran out—or even just approached depletion—a civilisation would be forced to make a choice; either discover new sources to replenish its reserves or transition towards alternative resources.

For the former, the need for interplanar travel once a civilisation had exhausted its primary resource base was self-evident.

As for the latter, the situation was not much better. The very fact that the civilisation had relied so heavily upon a particular resource meant it had likely been the most efficient and readily available fuel source at the time.

Any alternatives already known to that civilisation would therefore fall into one of two categories; either they were inferior fuels, or they were significantly less abundant.

An inferior fuel source would gradually weaken the civilisation’s growth and productivity, potentially causing stagnation or even regression.

Meanwhile, a scarcer resource would merely delay the inevitable. Once those reserves were depleted as well, the civilisation would simply find itself facing the same problem again.

Regardless of the path chosen, interplanar travel eventually became less of an ambition and more of a necessity if the civilisation wished to continue surviving and developing.

Another major driver behind interplanar exploration—one particularly emphasised within Pangean academia—was the advancement needs of high-ranking Professionals.

The rank of a plane directly determined the upper limit of power that could be attained within it.

Short of somehow elevating the rank of the plane itself, it was extraordinarily difficult—if not outright impossible—for the strongest inhabitants of that world to surpass its natural ceiling.

As a result, the most powerful and intelligent Professionals of a plane would inevitably begin searching for methods to reach higher-ranked worlds, where their cultivation could continue progressing beyond their current limits.

Taking all of this into account, Alex realised that he should have considered the possibility that Verdantis—at its true rank rather than its apparent one—already possessed the conditions necessary to trigger the development of interplanar travel.

Alex lowered the sheet of paper in his hand and continued walking behind Duke Levin Cyrindale.

Yet his thoughts never truly left the paper—or the implications quietly hidden within its contents.

Upon reflection, Alex realised there were two primary reasons why he had never seriously considered the possibility that Verdantis either possessed, or was on the verge of developing, interplanar travel.

The first—and most obvious—reason was the Navi themselves.

As Alex had previously explained to the members of Fortuna during one of their travels, if interplanar travel was the natural trajectory of a civilisation, then the Navi represented a force actively attempting to divert worlds away from that path.

The reason was simple.

Interplanar travel exposed a civilisation to new worlds and new perspectives—perspectives that might, and most likely would, conflict with the carefully constructed narratives the Navi relied upon to consolidate their faith and facilitate their theft of Providence.

From that standpoint, it became only natural for them to keep the inhabitants of their planes isolated, whether by restricting outside contact or by controlling the pace of societal development itself.

In many cases, they even went so far as to reset a world’s progress entirely—destroying civilisations, erasing technologies, and allowing new generations of more compliant believers to emerge from the ashes.

Given how deeply entrenched the worship of both Navi and Spirits was across Verdantis, Alex had unconsciously dismissed the possibility of the plane developing interplanar travel altogether.

The second—and far less obvious—reason involved Verdantis’ system of Glyph Inscriptions.

The foundation of Runic Inscriptions was, in many ways, a form of magical mathematics.

One could even argue that Runic Inscriptions represented a high-level expression of Pangea’s mathematical mastery.

Almost every advanced runic formation required sophisticated knowledge of geometry, transplanar coordinate systems, spatial relationships, and numerous other mathematical disciplines. It was not without reason that runic formations were often referred to as Runic Circles.

Compressing countless runes and intricate runic circuits into an interconnected circular structure—or any other complex geometric arrangement, for that matter—required a level of mathematical understanding far greater than most people initially realised.

In comparison, Sigils and Talismans were considerably simpler in this regard and relied upon very few of the same underlying principles.

That was not to say Sigils were inherently inferior to Runes. Rather, the two disciplines specialised in entirely different areas of expertise.

And it just so happened that the strengths of Sigilcraft did not significantly overlap with the knowledge base required for interplanar travel.

As a result, Alex had unconsciously assumed that Verdantis had yet to develop the mathematical foundations necessary to even begin serious research into interplanar travel.

After all, if such knowledge truly existed, it should naturally have manifested itself within the plane’s Glyph Inscriptions—the highest expression of its advancement in the field.

However, here he was, having seen a piece of paper containing basic calculations related to planar geometry.

And if the name itself was not revealing enough, planar geometry was one of the foundational disciplines used in the construction of interplanar gates and portals—the very structures required to travel between planes.

This was an exceptionally difficult field of study, even within Pangea, where the discipline had been researched and refined for countless years.

***