Sword of Dawn

The old blacksmith blinked. In fact, he didn't quite understand the meaning of restricting output, but he nodded quickly: "Yes, yes, it's the rune."

Gawain looked at Rebecca: "Do you think that if the runes are replaced with...well, why not call Heidi over..."

Rebecca blushed immediately: "My lord ancestor, I also understand magic theory! It's just that I can't build a spell model..."

"Theoretical knowledge is not bad?" Gao Wen raised his eyebrows, "Then how do you think to solve this problem?"

Rebecca thought about it hard: "Since you just said that the rune is a shortcoming, then replace the rune?"

"Replace it with what?"

Rebecca continued to use her brain: "Actually, the functions of these runes are very simple. They are nothing more than raising temperature, controlling air flow, controlling impurities, etc., and they are of the type with extremely weak effects. If you use real magic circles instead , the efficiency can be increased many times—and the magic circle can channel energy by itself, and it will not self-destruct even if it runs continuously..."

Gao Wen raised his eyebrows: "Carve a set of magic circles on each iron furnace?"

"But it's not actually possible," Rebecca stuck out her tongue. "Aunt Hetty and I can help carve a few magic circles, but... blacksmiths and blacksmith apprentices can't use them!"

Chapter 0053 Magic Web

The reason Rebecca said "it won't work" is simple.

Ordinary people do not have the ability to charge the magic circle, nor can they control the start and stop of the magic circle.

The professional magic circles of mages are completely different from the simple symbols engraved on stones by ordinary people. The latter is like picking up a stick from the side of the road as a crutch, while the former uses various technical means to create a wheelchair. The gap is equivalent to raw materials and industrial products - the symbols engraved on the stone will continue to produce effects without the participation of outsiders. Although weak, it does not require any skills, but the magic circle... It is a complex thing that works .

To run on two legs, you only need to lift your legs to walk, but if you want to reach a speed of [-] miles per hour, you must at least buy a car, fill up the gas and get a driver's license. Professionals are responsible for opening and closing - even the simplest magic circle is the same.

Hetty and Rebecca could go to the blacksmith's shop to carve a simple combustion-supporting magic circle on every furnace regardless of their status, but they couldn't stay here all day and recharge the magic circle every other ore furnace. , and is also responsible for controlling the energy flow of all magic circles.

"If you want to engrave a magic circle on the stove, its size is doomed to be limited. Even with Aunt Hetty's ability, you can probably only carve auxiliary magic circles of the second level and below," Rebecca explained seriously. He said, and tried to make his expression look professional, "It is impossible for such a small-scale magic circle to be self-charging - a magic circle that can absorb free magic power by itself must be at least as big as a whole tent, so The magic circle on the furnace must be recharged by someone. In addition, even the simplest magic circle only needs to be switched on and off, and ordinary people cannot control it..."

Through Gawain Cecil's memory, Gawain knew that the magic circles in this world have very complicated classifications and operating principles, and if they don't consider the overwhelming professional knowledge, they can also be roughly classified:

In terms of scale, it can be divided into small, medium, large and super large. The smallest magic circle can be engraved on armor and swords, and the two largest magic circles in the world are located in the city of a thousand towers and the mainland of the Violet Kingdom in the north. The "Temple of Stars" built by the southern elves, the two magic circles are based on the city and outlined by the city's roads, which can be described as terrifying in scale.

According to the classification of functional complexity, it can be divided into two types: single function type and composite type.

According to the charging method, it can be divided into self-charging and external charging. The self-charging magic circle has a complex "absorbing" structure, which can absorb the free magic power from the outside to self-charging. However, since the free magic power in nature is very thin except for the magic focus, the absorption structure of the self-charging circle will be quite large, so all self-charging circles occupy a huge area, and all small magic circles They can only supplement energy by means of external energy injection.

And in this world, the self-charging magic circle is actually something that is rarely used - because the efficiency is too low.

A self-charging structure often occupies 80.00% of the area of ​​the entire magic circle, but the energy it can provide cannot compare to the weight of any one branch of the magic focus, and several functions can be packed into such a large area of ​​drawing area Complex rune array, so from the perspective of efficiency, mages would rather choose to charge the magic circle by themselves, rather than choose a slow and huge self-charging structure.

This is why all the large magic facilities in this world are located near the magic focus: it is because of the convenience of charging.

Gao Wen stroked his chin and looked at the blacksmith's furnace in front of him.

Then he asked two questions:

"Do you have to draw the charging part on the stove?"

"Do you have to put all the functions in a magic circle?"

Rebecca was stunned for a moment, and blinked for some unknown reason: "Otherwise?"

Gao Wen vaguely felt that he had grasped the crux of the problem: people in this world seemed to only focus on transforming magic power into the most primitive and crude power, or simply focused on the individual's use of power, and never considered how to make this "supernatural power" Spread out in a broader, lower-based way.

"Draw a large self-charging circle, let it absorb the free magic in the air, and then leave an 'output terminal' on this large circle, and output the magic power to the small magic circle on the furnace, so the charging problem will be solved Yes, but the switch problem... can make the connection between the furnace and the self-charging circle controllable. After cutting off, the small magic circle will naturally stop, and the large self-charging circle itself has the tendency to overcharge and dissipate. Nature, don't worry about being blown up..."

Rebecca quickly understood Gawain's idea in her own way: "Disassemble the magic circle into pieces and use them together? Is it still possible?"

"This is more or less an idea," Gawain nodded. "I think we can discuss it with Heidi—she should be more professional."

Rebecca deeply agrees with this - although Aunt Hetty's spellcasting accuracy can only reach the level of human body strokes, but in terms of theoretical knowledge, those mid-level mages may not necessarily be able to match her!

So Gao Wen led the people to leave this place in a hurry, leaving the old blacksmith Hammer and a group of apprentices and handymen looking at each other.

"Master, shall we... still turn on the furnace?" An apprentice asked cautiously. He didn't dare to breathe when the Duke and the Viscount stood in front of him just now, and finally dared to speak.

The old blacksmith glared at the apprentice: "Nonsense! Of course open the furnace! Don't try to be lazy—whether you can eat meat at night depends on the results of this furnace!"

On the other side, Gawain had already sent Amber to call Hetty to his tent, but after he finished his thoughts, the elegant lady shook her head.

"It's a good idea to use one magic circle to charge another magic circle, but it's too difficult to operate... The output of magic power is a very precise thing. Once there is a problem with the 'interface', both magic circles will be destroyed. Scrapped. And the efficiency of the self-charging magic circle is also a big problem, even if a magic circle as big as the blacksmith's compound is drawn, the magic power it produces may not be able to drive several magic furnaces..."

Gawain looked at Heidi, of course he knew that the other party would raise these difficulties, but he actually already had a solution.

So he smiled slightly. As he thought more and more deeply on this issue, he felt that he had finally found the real route he should take, so he pushed aside the pile of drawings on the table, and put An extraordinarily large drawing full of symbols and lines was spread out on the table.

The thing on this paper was drawn by him a few days ago, but until today, he didn't realize what use this thing could be useful for.

"Look at this." Gao Wen said.

Hetty looked at the large rune array on the table in surprise, and her first reaction was that her ancestor could be so knowledgeable: "Ancestor...you actually know how to draw a magic circle?!"

"I only know a little bit, and I didn't create this magic circle," Gawain said deliberately, "Look at it first, what do you think?"

Hetty lowered her head, carefully studied each symbol on it and the connection rules between symbols, and slowly frowned: "All are the most basic runes...the arrangement and combination are also the most basic, as if the highest The energy level does not exceed the second level?"

Gao Wen nodded: "Because the person who left behind this magic circle can only control the rune array with energy intensity level two at most."

Hetty looked up at him in surprise, and when she looked down again, the expression on her face couldn't help showing a hint of admiration: "It turns out that all the designs were completed with basic runes...with the most basic runes Wen created such a large-scale magic circle, this... is really an incredible creation... This seems to be a structure that can absorb free energy from the natural environment? But what are these redundant and complicated structures..."

Gao Wen pointed to the repeating structures in the ring area of ​​the magic circle: "Zoom in."

"Zoom in?" Hetty's eyes widened, and then suddenly realized, "That's right! This can be zoomed in... and the structure here can further purify free energy... In this way, these basic runes can be used at a higher level. The efficiency to absorb free energy, this is really... really..."

Hetty spent "really" for a long time and couldn't think of the right words to describe the feeling this magic circle gave her, but Gawain knew what she wanted to say: "It's really hard work, right? It's like a lame person supporting himself The crutch has traveled all over the world, as if an unarmed person carved a poem on a stone with a wooden stick. This is an effort beyond the limit, using the most basic second-order runes to draw a world that can make those great magicians dumbfounded. Miracle."

"Those great magicians probably won't be dumbfounded, they won't even look at it straight in the face," Hetty smiled wryly and shook his head, "Because although this magic circle is very creative, it is made of second-order runes after all. After all, no matter how efficient it is, the energy it absorbs cannot compare to the personal magic power wells owned by great magicians..."

"But it is a prototype, a basic model that can be continuously improved. It only has second-order runes, but what if you replace the second-order runes with third-order runes on the basis of this idea? If you increase their combined complexity What about raising it to the third level? How many times will its efficiency be that of the existing self-charging magic circle?" Gao Wen pointed to several special nodes in the magic circle while talking, "In addition to efficiency, You look at these more critical parts."

"This... seems to be a magic channel?" Hetty frowned. "I saw them just now, but I didn't see the corresponding energy consumption unit. Is it because the magic circle is not complete?"

"No, from the very beginning, this magic circle does not contain energy-consuming units. Its only function is to supply magic power to the outside world—to supply magic power to a weak human being. And because of this, it is different from the internal interface of ordinary magic circles. The 'compatibility' of these channels is so high that as long as it is an energy-consuming unit, it can be connected to it," Gao Wen said slowly, "Now, can this magic circle provide energy for the blacksmith?"

"If all the symbols can function smoothly... No, they will definitely function smoothly, it has almost reached the limit of calculation!" The expression on Hetty's face gradually became agitated, and she finally got out of the traditional mage's mindset I jumped out and realized the greatness of this thing, "Highly efficient self-charging, and can also output energy at a fairly wide 'frequency', it can completely supply energy to the blacksmith shop, and even... to more Powered by things!"

Immediately afterwards, she couldn't wait to ask: "Ancestor, what is the name of this genius magic circle?"

Gao Wen took out an old notebook from his body: "I don't need to name it - its creator has already given it a name."

The note was opened, and on one of the pages was written a short line of notes:

"Annie, I finally completed the 'Magic Net' today, may it bless your health."

Chapter 0054 The Legacy of the Wild Mage

After seeing the dilapidated notebook, Hetty finally realized the source of all this: "These are... left by that wild mage?"

"That's right, a low-level mage who is rejected by the mainstream mage group and can only linger at the second level all his life, his talent is far beyond everyone's imagination, but this era has no room for him to develop at all," Gao Wen sighed. Starting with the notebook in his hand, "I've read some of the research notes in it these days. In my opinion, the value of this notebook is at least half a duchy."

Hetty was dumbfounded: "Huh?!"

However, what Gao Wen said was not exaggerated at all. In fact, from the perspective of technological development, the legacy left by the unknown wild mage will even show higher and higher value as time goes by, even though he All the researches in this field are at a very rough initial stage, but Gao Wen is quite clear that for many epoch-making ideas and ideas, the "infancy stage" is the most valuable stage.

Gawain put the notebook on the table and looked up at Hetty: "His daughter, that child named Annie is most likely suffering from elemental assimilation disease of the shadow system, which can be said to be the rarest of many mana diseases. Kind of, as a mage, you should be familiar with this disease."

"Elemental assimilation... This is a disease unique to the Violet Kingdom. The incidence rate is very low, but there is no cure." Hetty nodded slightly, "I guessed it when I saw those diaries."

In this world with magical powers, there are many things that are completely different from Gawain's hometown world. There are good and bad things among them-elemental assimilation disease is one of the worst things.

This kind of disease caused by the erosion of magic power is more common in areas with strong magic power and active elements. During the Gondor Empire period, it often occurred in the Deep Blue Well area of ​​the imperial capital, and it was almost an incurable disease even when the empire was in its heyday. One; in this era, it is the "special product" of the Violet Kingdom in the north of the mainland.

If extraordinary power has brought a gift of nature to humans in this world, then the elemental assimilation that accompanies it is like the malice mixed in this gift.

Elemental assimilation disease can only appear in newborns. It is a mutation phenomenon caused by the magic energy radiation of the fetus during the development of the mother. Children with this disease can grow normally at first, but as they age, they will gradually Showing signs of erosion and assimilation by specific elements.The patient's flesh and blood body is transformed in this process, and gradually begins to semi-elementalize, and as the normal biological tissue is elementalized little by little, they will also be rejected from the main material world—except for a very small number of people with Except for races with special talents, no elemental creature can exist in the main material world for a long time. This is the natural law of this world.

This process accelerates as the disease deepens and is irreversible. When more than half of a person's biological tissue is elementalized, he will be "exiled" from the material world and pushed to the elemental plane corresponding to his elemental assimilation disorder go.

Then die between the material world and the elemental world - the remaining biological tissue of the patient will make this process extremely terrifying, like tearing apart.

Anne, the daughter of the unknown wild mage, should have suffered from this disease, and it is the elemental assimilation of the shadow tendency: the rarest kind of elemental assimilation.

Masters and scholars have studied various elemental worlds for many years, but only for the mysterious shadow world, the research is difficult.

"Elemental assimilation disease has no cure, it can only be delayed, and the most effective 'delay' method is to bind the patient's body with magical power, just like those elemental summoners use magic shackles to force an elemental creature to stay in the material world. "Although Hetty is only a low-level mage, she still has a good understanding of these theoretical knowledge, "It's just that this is more difficult than restraining an elemental creature, because the elemental assimilation disease will continue to deepen, and the whole process requires continuous infusion of magic power Only then can..."

"A second-level mage, or a second-level mage who was rejected in the secret society, has neither the ability nor the financial resources to maintain this expensive treatment," Gawain nodded, "so he used his own method - to build an efficient The unprecedented self-charging magic circle, and broke the iron law that similar magic circles can only circulate internally, and turned this magic circle into a device for "charging" his daughter. It can be said that he was forced out, because All the large magic power focuses have been occupied, and the scattered secondary magic power focuses in the forest can't provide much energy at all, but he solved this problem with his special talent."

"But that abnormal surge of magic power destroyed his magic circle..." Hetty suddenly thought of something, "In this case, wouldn't this self-charging magic circle named 'Magic Net' have a huge impact? Flaw? When the magic power surges, it can't bear it..."

"No, the upsurge of magic power did not destroy the structure of the magic circle. It has very complete security measures," Gao Wen shook his head. "I saw the structure of the magic circle with my own eyes at the time, and I can be sure that it was intact until the end. According to In the diary of the wild mage, it was not the magic circle that went wrong in the end, but the "shadow transformation" ritual he performed. The magic restraint can only delay the process of elemental assimilation, but it cannot cure it. At that time, Anne was on the verge of losing control, so the wild The mage risked a ritual that he had no control over - and it turned out that the web produced more magic than he could handle as it surged."

"If that's the case...then I don't worry about it," Hetty nodded slowly, and then looked at the notes left by the wild mage with a complicated expression, "It's really unimaginable that a down-and-out wild mage can make This kind of thing... this large magic circle made up of basic units is different from any magic circle I know, it almost abandons all complicated and difficult structures, but brings... simplicity to the extreme."

"Please call it 'universal'," Gawain smiled, "The work of laying the experimental 'magic net' in the blacksmith shop is..."

While speaking, he hesitated between Hetty and Rebecca.It is obviously more appropriate to hand over the technical work of laying the magic circle to Hetty. However, Hetty has already undertaken most of the work of coordinating the construction of the camp. Although she is very capable in this area, the next task is to build a magic laboratory. Still waiting for her, Gawain really didn't want to continue to add to her burden; it seemed okay to leave it to Rebecca. Although she could only release fireballs, laying a magic circle was different from casting spells by oneself, especially this kind of self-charging ability. For the magic circle, as long as she can complete the construction according to the drawings, all she needs is a mastery of theoretical knowledge and computing power, but how should I put it...

Every time I saw Rebecca, I couldn't help but look like a silly roe deer... Is this girl really good?

As if seeing Gawain's hesitation, Rebecca jumped up without waiting for Hetty to say anything: "Master Ancestor! Leave it to me! I can do it!"

"Are you sure?" Gao Wen took a deep look at the other party, "The importance of this project is beyond your imagination. It can be said to be a foundation and a precursor to many of my future plans... Can you handle it?"

Rebecca stopped jumping immediately, thought for a while, and looked at Gawain timidly: "Then... will you hit me if I break it?"

Gao Wen: "...Forget it, Hetty is still here for you..."

But before he finished speaking, Rebecca plucked up her courage and said loudly, "But I still want to try!"

Gao Wen looked at the girl with interest: "Oh?"

"This magic circle... this magic circle looks very interesting to me. I think there are many places...that are very good. Maybe I can...can..." Rebecca stuttered a little bit, and it was okay for a long time. Didn't say a follow-up, just bit the bullet and said, "Although I can only fireball, I have good theoretical knowledge! My calculation skills are also good! Besides, Aunt Hetty has been so busy recently, But I did nothing but survey the land and help everyone burn the wasteland, I feel..."

Seeing Rebecca's nervous appearance, Gawain couldn't help laughing, and looked at Hetty: "Hetty, what do you mean?"

"Rebecca's theoretical knowledge and calculation ability are indeed very strong. In fact, aside from the most important item of spellcasting ability, her talent is better than mine." Hetty looked at Rebecca helplessly. It would be nice to be more stable.”

"I'm sure I'll be steady!" Rebecca puffed her chest out vigorously, but her eyes were fixed on the drawings that Gawain put on the table, which made Gawain a little curious.

So he couldn't help asking: "Are you very interested in this magic circle?"

"Yeah," Rebecca scratched her hair, "Actually, I thought about it a long time ago, if only those difficult magics could be made easier, and if I could make casting them easier, maybe I could also release them." Spells other than fireball... this magic circle inspired me a lot!"

Gawain immediately stared straight at Rebecca, and this time he gave the little girl a creepy look.

But a few seconds later, Gao Wen laughed: "Very well, then I will leave this matter to you."

Rebecca was overjoyed: "Really?!"

"Of course it's true," Gao Wen conveniently pulled out another piece of paper from under the table, which was his rough sketch of the "Blacksmith Shop", "according to this scale, the entire yard can be used as a 'magic net' covering At the same time, build the first batch of furnaces here first. You can take the materials needed to draw the magic circle from the treasure house in the mountain, where there are all ready-made - although this magic circle is large in scale, it is a 'basic magic circle' , I believe that the ready-made magic metal in the treasury and the quartz sand brought by Knight Philip from Tanzania Town are enough for you.

"This experimental magic net is called Magic Net No. [-]."

Rebecca, who was entrusted with the important task, left happily, while Hetty continued to be busy instructing the serfs and civilians who had just arrived at the camp to set up tents. For a while, only Gawain and Amber were left in the big tent.

"You seem very happy?" Miss Half Elf looked Gawain's expression up and down, "I never saw you so happy when I got the document from the old king - it was because you molested Zeng Zeng... Is the great-granddaughter interesting?"

Gao Wen: "..."

Can this guy die if he speaks nicely?

Chapter 0055 Laying the Foundation

Amber's mouth was in the random state of underdrawing and extreme underdrawing as usual. If it was normal, Gao Wen would have been ready to slap this thing on the wall with the pioneer sword at this time. However, this time, he did not interact with Amber. quarrel.

Because he's in a really good mood.

He was even in the mood to discuss some more serious issues with Amber: "Do you know how valuable that magic circle is?"

"How much is it worth?" Amber blinked. In all fairness, this half-elf lady is quite confident in her magical attainments—she believes that she knows nothing about related fields, so she is not embarrassed to admit it, " I can't even understand how many magic runes are used on it, how can I know how valuable it is..."

Gao Wen really didn't expect the other party to be so honest, and almost choked to death, but at least he had experienced the Internet age in his previous life, and even the poorest people have seen it, so he quickly adjusted his mentality: "Then let me ask you in another way——If magic changes To become something that everyone can use, or everyone can 'borrow', how valuable do you think this technology will be?"

Amber was stunned for a moment, and she said in disbelief after half a minute: "You mean... that magic circle can turn everyone into a magician? You must have seen the sun too much these two days." Did you faint from the sun?"

Gao Wen didn't pay attention to the sloppy part of the other party's words, but shook his head in a good mood: "Of course it can't turn everyone into a magician, but it may let everyone come into contact with the transcendent domain. I guess Hetty probably didn't really realize the meaning of that magic circle. It's not just as simple as "a poor spellcaster used basic runes to assemble a large magic circle". Its greatest significance is a breakthrough, a kind of " A breakthrough in universal, universal, and easy-to-use'. In order to allow his daughter who has no magical talent to receive magic power, the wild mage made the self-charging circle provide constant and adjustable magic power output to any mana-consuming unit , and before that... no great magician in the world has the concept of this, because those great magicians have always used their own hands to complete this process."

Amber didn't understand Gao Wen's thinking: "Using one's own strength to control the magic power freely, isn't that much more powerful than that wild mage who had to rely on a huge magic circle to achieve a similar goal?"

Gawain looked into Amber's eyes: "The mountain giant ape can easily smash the brown bear's head with a slap, but humans need a war hammer to do the same thing. Which one do you think is better?"

Amber: "...Huh?"

Gao Wen ignored Amber who was in shock and thinking, but stood up and came to the door of the tent.

The treasure left by the nameless wild mage not only includes a magic circle, but also a large number of research records he left in his notebook. As a "weak" with extremely limited spellcasting ability, he had to use calculations and advanced ideas To make up for his shortcomings, and his research notes have left shadows of this aspect everywhere. When Gao Wen saw those things for the first time, he was deeply surprised. He didn't even believe that those things were a Those who lived in the ignorant and oppressive Middle Ages could leave behind.

Automatic operation, compatible transmission interface, "fool-like" external control, rune arrangement rules based on geometry, rune simplification formula...