Chapter 139: Proper Path

After the discussion of the Honeycomb Magic Web and also the promise of ‘rewards’, Gawain didn’t ask Rebecca and Jenni to leave. Instead, he took out some of the blueprints he had drawn recently. Using his own understanding, he had made a summary and calculations for the ‘logic of runes’.

Rebecca’s attention had been drawn to Gawain’s blueprints while Jenni immediately noticed Gawain’s calculations. The latter was astonished as she widened her eyes and asked, “Are these all done by you?”

“When I had nothing to do during my spare time, I would study the information that you provided to me and attempt to form my own rune arrangement.” Gawain laughed and nodded before saying, “In terms of magic theory, I am still at the fundamental level.”

“This… this isn’t a problem about the fundamentals.” Jenni looked at Gawain’s conclusion with disbelief and said, “These calculation methods and… the writing habits. Have you already had access to these things previously?”

“During the Gondor Empire period, there were plenty of contributions in terms of mathematical sciences. Of course, the logic of runes had yet to be developed,” Gawain casually elaborated, while only he knew about the actual situation. He might not have had any contact with rune logic previously, but the mathematical ideology of his previous life was still around. Even if the formulas were different, the logic and method of calculation would still be applicable. As of now, the rune logic formulas that Jenni came up with were rather simple. As such, it wasn’t difficult for Gawain to make calculations with these formulas by using his experience.

When Gawain noticed that Jenni still wanted to ask questions, he quickly changed the topic to the next phase. “Let’s take a look at these things first.”

“Is this the ‘second-generation Magic Powered Engine’ that you mentioned previously? Something called the rotor-type engine…” Rebecca flipped through the blueprints and said, “I have never seen this before… This magic circle seems to be of the fire element?”

“It is the Scorching Ray magic circle. Grade-two magic that could release a focused heat ray from the magic circle,” Gawain explained. “This is merely low-grade magic and is even one grade lower than Large Fireball… You have never seen it before?”

“I have never seen it before.” Rebecca shook her head and said, “Back then, Aunt Heidi had taught me the Scorching Ray’s spell mold. She felt that the spell was similar to Fireball and thought I might be able to learn it. As a result, my head hurt when I learned this magic and had a mental trauma. Afterward, whenever I tried to learn how to turn this spell mold into a magic circle, I would always fall asleep during the lecture…”

Gawain was dumbstruck as he looked at his great-granddaughter who spoke about her dark history in a straightforward matter.

This so-called Scorching Ray wasn’t a profound spell. In Gawain’s opinion, the ability to shoot out a Scorching Ray had a truly eye-catching effect, but it was actually a grade-two magic and was just one grade superior to the grade-one Small Fireball. Rebecca had used her tenacious spirit to forcefully learn the Large Fireball and became a ‘grade-three mage’. Logically, Scorching Ray shouldn’t be a problem for her. However, in a world filled with people of extraordinary talents, the so-called spellcasting talent was determined by the heavens. For a mage who relied on individual capability to cast spells, even if there was a natural law in spellcasting, no matter how hard a person worked, it would be useless.

Overworking would only cause pain in their heads.

To just give an extra note. Rebecca might only know the ‘Fireball’ spell, but she could actually say that she knew two spells. If she used less magic, it would be the Small Fireball spell, and if she used more magic, it would be the Large Fireball spell. One spell was grade one and the other spell was grade three. The spell mold was almost the same, but the latter would require more magic and greater focus to control. Rebecca was innately able to record only one spell mold, and that spell mold just happened to be Fireball. As such, there wasn’t a problem if she said she knew two spells…

Gawain had a feeling if this young lady continued on her proper talent, she would probably create a nuclear fusion…

“Lord Ancestor, why are you looking at me like that?” Rebecca had finished reading the blueprints and lifted her head up to ask curiously, “Could it be that you are preparing to create this rotor-type Magic Powered Engine?”

“When creating complex magic-powered machines or high-grade magical tools, our great problem is ‘interference’.” Gawain talked about the things he had been considering recently, “When the magic circles are in operation, the energy flow in between the runes would produce interference. Two neighboring magic circles would also have interference. High-grade magical tools had complicated magic circles and many runes, causing greater interference. This is also the main problem why there are rarely any finished magical tools, and they are mostly very expensive. Since a long time ago, traditional mages haven’t been able to resolve this problem. This is also the most important reason why extraordinary items aren’t generalized.”

Jenni looked at the calculation formulas written by Gawain and had a sudden enlightenment before she revealed a pensive expression.

Gawain continued to talk, “We have already discussed the rotor-type engine previously. Its only problem is interference, and there are too many Repulsion magic circles. They are arranged symmetrically. Therefore, interference is inevitable. There isn’t a choice but to give up for now. But this heat-ray magic circle…”

“The heat-ray magic circles wouldn’t have any interference problems, right?” Rebecca wasn’t really sure as she said, “I might not know how to cast the spell, but I know that such magic circles are already very common. Many mages like to set up such traps in their mage towers. The firepower is good, and it wouldn’t blow up the surrounding things, unlike Fireball. It could also accurately eliminate intruders…”

Gawain waved his hand and said, “That’s right. Heat-ray magic circles are already in use, but that is with traditional mages carving them on expensive magic-guiding bases to ‘solve’ the interference problem. But I plan to draw it on the very-cheap copper base. The runes’ materials will be the even-cheaper quartz sand and blood-tree resin. Therefore, there is the problem of interference again.”

Jenni had also vaguely guessed Gawain’s meaning and said, “You wish to lower its cost. But if the magic circle is drawn on inferior magic-guiding materials, it would cause all of the runes’ grade to be suppressed by the materials, causing the effective power to be reduced. In order to ensure the magic circle’s operation, there wouldn’t be a choice but to increase the number of runes to increase the effective power. But in the minds of many traditional mages, more runes would mean a higher chance of interference being produced.”

“That’s right,” Gawain spoke unhurriedly. “Drawing the magic circles on low-grade base materials or using inferior materials to create the runes would cause the runes’ ‘effective power’ to be reduced. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the number of runes to ensure that the magic circle would function with its original effects. However, more runes would mean a higher rate of interference, causing a collapse. Traditional mages solve this problem by carving the magic circles on expensive high-grade materials using the most simplified magic-circle structure to achieve the objective… They are used to using such methods to avoid interference as they didn’t have a lack of money.”

Rebecca said, “But Lord Ancestor has been working hard on making extraordinary items… What was that term again?”

Gawain looked at Rebecca with a praising expression and said, “Low-cost mass production.”

Subsequently, he said, “All of the problems come from the magic’s characteristic ‘interference’. The magic circles’ interference is actually the stumbling block that is affecting low-cost mass production. It directly pulls up the cost of many magical tools that should be of low cost. It has also directly caused many of my designed machines to be unable to operate. But now… we have the method to eliminate interference.”

“The method is to use the rune logic’s calculation!” Jenni was engrossed. She had studied rune patterns for many years, but she would only design magic circles to complete the tasks given by her master. This was the first time she realized the true value of these mathematical tools. “Traditional mages believe that more runes in the magic circle would cause more interference and lead to the collapse of the magic circle. But in fact, we are able to calculate using the formulas so that the increase in runes won’t cause interference. On the contrary, more runes would actually increase the magic circle’s ability to resist interference. The thing that causes interference is when runes are arranged in a specific way that could produce ‘interference bonds’. But the interference from the interference bonds increases exponentially and would be far beyond the ability to resist interference that is produced by the increase of runes. As such, everyone assumed that if there were more runes in the magic circle, it would be unstable…”

Gawain laughed very heartily. “That’s right. With the rune logic, we wouldn’t need to research trial-and-error methods like those traditional mages. We don’t have to rely on luck and their unreliable experience to design the magic circles. Just like the rotor-type magic-powered engine that I designed previously, we can simply make some slight adjustments to each of the Repulsion magic circles’ rune arrangement or even redesign it to reduce the interference bonds. We can also use the same method to draw those magic circles that originally needed expensive magic-guiding materials and draw them on cheap copper bases. We can make it so cheap that everyone can use it!”

“Everyone can use it…” Jenni was obviously frightened by these words. “Is it possible?”

Gawain asked in return, “Why is it not possible? Even the workers at the brick-kiln yard and the mines are using the Magic Powered Engine. Isn’t the Magic Powered Engine a kind of magical tool?”

Jenni was instantly speechless.

“So you want us to calculate these things?” Rebecca looked at the blueprint Gawain had taken out and revealed an excited expression. “Ah, I can see that you have specially put marks beside the magic circles that state the base material and the runes materials’ cost range… You want to make the magic circles activate on such cheap base materials? It seems like it would be very challenging!”

“Are you confident?” Gawain smiled and asked.

Rebecca puffed her chest out and said, “Very!”

Jenni smiled with a shy and reserved expression and said, “I will work hard and will not disappoint you.”

The two young ladies then left with a whole bunch of new blueprints and information. Gawain relaxed and allowed his upper body to lean on the backrest of the chair while allowing his thoughts to float.

He was thinking that he had finally found a way for normal people to enter the mystical domain, a proper path.

He had also grasped the method for this world’s ‘magic’ to be utilized to the greatest efficiency.

The ‘imaginative’ characteristic of magic was the greatest assistance for his odd and wonderful ideas to turn into reality at rapid speed!

In a world without magic, a concept might need a few years or a few dozen years or a few generations of hard work to make it into reality. The difficult tool production and improvement process would have taken up a large portion of the time. However, in the world with magic, the entire process was greatly shortened. Almost all of the time, it was done with the mind and the blueprints. If a mage could calculate quickly, precisely, the moment the spell mold was completed, the spell would become ‘something’ that could be utilized in reality. Even if the magic only belonged to them temporarily, the ‘sense of reality’ of the magic had already been proven.

What Gawain wanted to achieve was to make all of those magic into Magic Powered Engines, heat-ray guns, crystal bombs, Honeycomb Magic Webs…

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