Sword of Dawn

"Then don't touch it," Philip said a little sternly. "The paper, pen and ink are bought by the lord with money, not for you to play with."

Betty froze for a moment, then nodded in frustration: "Oh..."

Seeing the frustrated look of the little maid, Knight Philip frowned. He felt that he might be too strict, but it was his duty to protect the lord's property—especially when there was a shortage of all supplies in the territory, even a piece of paper When a pen has to be shipped from Tanzan Town, it is even more impossible to let a little girl waste those precious writing tools.

In the end, he comforted Betty a little, but the little girl left here with frustration and regret.

Looking at Betty's back walking on the ridge, Philip couldn't help but think of the conversation between Duke Gawain and Mrs. Hetty that he overheard just now.

Make them literate.

Make everyone literate.

Is it really possible?Is it really possible to do this?Will you really do this?

But if this is really done, then the little maid must be able to write.

When he came to the "blacksmith's shop", Gao Wen found that it had become a construction site. There were many busy "workers" in the large open yard, and several soldiers were guarding various supplies piled up in a corner of the yard. Rebecca He was standing in the middle of the yard, holding a large stack of papers in his hand, gesticulating and introducing something to the old blacksmith Hammer, while several apprentices of Hammer stood obediently by the side, listening attentively.

It looked like that, and it was obvious that Rebecca called Gao Wen over after the project had started successfully.

"Ah! My Lord Ancestor!" Rebecca saw Gawain who was nearly two meters tall from a distance, and then Hetty who was following Gawain, "And Aunt Hetty..."

The little girl's awe of Hetty was quite serious.

"I'll see your progress," Hetty smiled faintly. Although she didn't know how well Rebecca could do, she also felt that she needed to smile when she saw this orderly and decent scene. Encourage, "You seem confident."

"That's right! I've been studying it for several days!" Rebecca said with her arms crossed. Although she was a bit immortal due to staying up late, she was still full of vitality. "This magic circle is really amazing! Those calculation formulas Also...Let me tell you, Ancestor, those formulas are very easy to use, thousands of times easier to use than those rigid rune arrangements and spell models, and you can apply them in any way, and this magic circle..."

"Stop, stop, stop, we're not here to listen to you showing off," Hetty quickly interrupted Rebecca's chatter. She knew that this niece was really good at calculation and theoretical knowledge, but she was afraid that this girl would start chattering Will annoy my ancestors to death, "Just tell me how you plan to complete the magic circle."

As soon as she said this, Rebecca nodded vigorously: "Oh, I'm going to bury it in the ground..."

"Buried in the ground?!" Hetty was stunned for a moment, "I saw you dug a lot of trenches, but you actually planned to bury it in the ground?!"

When Gawain entered the yard, he also saw the ditches that Rebecca ordered people to dig on the ground—those lines that were either curved or straight, or intersecting or parallel formed many geometric shapes in this huge yard. structure, and formed a rough shape of a magic circle as a whole, and in some places that seemed to be nodes, there were also markers such as wooden stakes, and there were some auxiliary white lines drawn around it—considering Almost all the people who work here are illiterate and nonnumeral, and these auxiliary lines and coordinate positioning should be done by Rebecca herself.

She first draws lines on the ground, and then tells the workers where to dig and how much to dig. This should be her work process.

After hearing Heidi's words, Gawain turned his attention away from those gullies, and he glanced at Hedi curiously: "Is there anything wrong with burying the magic circle underground?"

"No...that's not a taboo," Hetty shook her head, "It's just that most of the magic circles are exposed. On the one hand, it will take a lot of effort to bury them underground, and on the other hand, magicians have to control them." The magic circle is running or monitoring its condition, and burying the magic circle will obviously cause trouble."

What she said is common sense. As a third-level mage (although she only knows how to fireball), Rebecca couldn't have known about it, but this girl still did it, which only shows her jumping head Losing control again... Hetty was a little anxious, afraid that Gawain would blame Rebecca for this, and the confidence that the latter had finally built up might be hit hard.

However, this child has been hit a lot since he was a child, so he should get over it after a while, right?

While Hetty was thinking wildly, Gawain said, "Let's not talk about why you buried the magic circle in the ground—I want to know first, how did you manage to draw it accurately on the ground?"

Rebecca was stunned for a moment, not knowing what the old ancestor's question meant.

Gao Wen actually asked this question with great astonishment.

On a plane with a length and width of [-] meters, which would cause serious errors when viewed with the naked eye on the surface, Rebecca drew a magic circle full of various geometric figures that requires extremely high precision!

For Gawain's hometown world, this kind of thing is not difficult, there are countless kinds of surveying instruments and mathematical tools that can handle this kind of drawing, and in this world where magic exists, this kind of thing can actually be done—— Magicians Usually, Mage's Eye or Eagle Eye is used to look down from a high altitude, and use this simple and crude way to complete the drawing of a large magic circle, but can Rebecca do it?

Except for a few wooden stakes and some auxiliary lines, she doesn't have any advanced tools, and this world doesn't have a perfect mathematical and geometric system to help her, and she doesn't know any other magic except fireball.

She doesn't even know how to master the mage's eye, which can be mastered by a second-level mage.

So how did she do it?

Gao Wen repeated his question again: "How did you draw it on the ground accurately?"

Chapter 0061 Cecil's Pride

Rebecca didn't know why Gao Wen was interested in this question, but at least the old ancestor didn't seem to be criticizing herself, so she gave a sigh of relief: "I'll just calculate and draw at the same time... Treat the whole yard as a piece of paper It would be easier."

This answer is too general, Gao Wen frowned slightly: "What about the specifics?"

"This side of the yard is a line, and the side next to it is another line." Rebecca waved her arms vigorously and gestured, "Then take these two lines as the standard, and treat the whole yard as a piece of paper." , each line on the magic circle is divided into many key points, and the distance between each key point and the two sides of the yard can be calculated - as long as the number on the manuscript is enlarged. Calculation is the strong point of the magician !"

Calculation is indeed a magician's strong point, but ordinary magicians don't calculate like this!

Gawain stared at Rebecca dumbfounded—this girl's way of speaking was messed up, and Hetty probably didn't understand what it meant, but Gawain understood: she established a coordinate system in the yard, and then used the coordinate system to As a basis, the magic circle on the manuscript is enlarged in equal proportions.

In this way, there is no need to stand on a high place, just calculate the position of each key point, and then connect the key points according to the requirements of the manuscript.

But just coming up with this idea is not enough, Rebecca also needs to have a very strong geometric imagination and mental arithmetic ability - because this world does not have a perfect mathematics and geometry system, Rebecca either uses addition and subtraction Multiply and remove hard piles, or you must create various formulas yourself!

Of course, Rebecca's method is not the best. Gao Wen knows that there are many drawing methods from the earth that can be used in this situation, but so what?

In this world, in this era, it is already a miracle that Rebecca can do this!

"You came up with this method yourself?" Gawain looked at Rebecca with bright eyes as if he had discovered a rare treasure.

Rebecca scratched her hair: "Not all, part of it is what I saw in the wild mage's notes, and the other is what I thought..."

It turned out to be the case.

Gao Wen understood: he had also read Master Wild's notes from beginning to end, and there were indeed a lot of elementary geometry and mathematics knowledge in them. Although they were not organized into a system, they could almost be said to be some kind of "foundation". , if Rebecca herself is extremely talented in this area, it is not uncommon for her to do what she does today after being inspired.

And even when inspired by Wild Mage's notes, her results are still uncanny.

"Very good, very good solution," Gawain nodded in satisfaction, "Go on—why did you choose to bury the magic circle underground?"

"Oh, it's because your ancestor said that this magic circle is for blacksmiths," Rebecca nodded, "I just thought that blacksmiths and blacksmith apprentices are different from magicians, and the work they have to do is also similar to that of mages. Not the same, in the process of moving materials between these furnaces and making ironware, it is easy for them to accidentally destroy the structure of the magic circle. And burying the magic circle in the ground does not affect its charging, and it can also not affect the surface For future construction, as long as they are all on the radiating point of the magic circle, it will be very convenient whether it is adding a new furnace or dismantling and rebuilding the current furnace, how should I put it... Anyway, it is very convenient."

Functional partitioning, separation of energy and energy consumption parts, key system packaging, scalability...Gao Wen suddenly had a lot of words that can be used in Rebecca's thinking, and the last word he came up with was Thoughts, but another more important aspect:

Rebecca realized that this magic circle is for "ordinary people" like blacksmiths, and designed it for "ordinary people can also use it, and it is safer and more convenient to use"-even though it is just as simple as burying it , but this idea is absolutely correct.

A mainstream mage would never consider that her magic circle would be used by mortals as an option, but Rebecca... fortunately, she is a non-mainstream mage who has only learned one fireball technique for five years. Her thinking is completely different. Will follow the logic of a regular mage!

"Have you thought of all these ideas?" Gawain came back from the brief shock, he saw the thoughtful look on Hetty's face next to him, and couldn't help asking with a smile.

"I... haven't thought about it," Hetty said with a complicated expression. Rebecca's ideas had too many irregularities, but at the same time, she could also realize the rationality of these designs, and even vaguely realized When it comes to the importance of "ordinary people can also use it", this seems to be the direction that the ancestors are obsessed with, "This is indeed very powerful, but if the magic circle is buried, what should we do in terms of monitoring? Although this magic circle composed of basic runes The formation is not as delicate and fragile as a high-level magic formation, but basic monitoring is always needed, and once it is really broken, how to repair it?"

"I keep a lot of stakes like that," Rebecca pointed to the wooden stakes in the yard, "Those stakes with ropes tied to them are monitoring points, and I will replace them with iron rods plated with mithril. The stick is in contact with the most critical part of the runes in the magic circle. Once there is a problem with the magic circle, the corresponding runes will be extinguished, and the long-term charged Mithril will quickly turn black and heat up for a period of time after losing its charge. , so that you can see at a glance which part of the magic circle is wrong, just dig up the ground in the corresponding area when repairing... Although this is a bit more troublesome than the traditional magic circle, at least you don’t have to dig up the entire yard.”

While speaking, Rebecca showed a somewhat smug smile. She shook the stack of paper in her hand, which was full of dense symbols and lines, which were obviously drawn by herself: "And this magic circle is not so easy. Bad, look, Mr. Ancestor, I rearranged its rune structure—of course, the basic principles have not changed, but on the basis of the design of the wild mage, the runes that can be superimposed are connected. And then it expands layer by layer like this..."

Damn, redundant system...

The corners of Gao Wen's eyes twitched slightly, and he looked at the stakes that Rebecca had reserved in the yard as monitoring points - primitive sensors.

Once Rebecca started balabala, it was difficult to stop, especially when she was showing off her achievements. At this time, she was still saying: "... In this way, the efficiency of the entire self-charging circle is slightly improved, and even Some of the runes are damaged, at most, the energy supply efficiency will be reduced, and the energy consumption part connected to the magic circle will not be affected much - because the magic circle as a whole is built according to the standard exceeding the demand... ..."

Rebecca talked a lot excitedly, and finally stopped. She seemed to realize that she was only talking, so she looked at Gao Wen with a little anxiety: "My lord ancestor... Are my thoughts too much?" Hu is here?"

Gao Wen didn't know what expression to make at this time. After thinking for a while, he stroked the little girl's hair with his hands: "No, you are a genius."

Rebecca: "Huh?"

"And I have another suggestion." Gawain glanced at the drawings drawn by Rebecca, and pointed at the connections of those redundant systems, "The rune connections of these parts can be easily cut off and re-fused. Once some runes are damaged, you can cut off the connection directly when repairing, and reconnect after repairing, so that the entire magic circle does not need to be shut down even when repairing."

Rebecca's eyes lit up: "That's right! Why didn't I expect...Master Zuzu, you are really smart!"

The corners of Gawain's eyes twitched slightly. He knew that Rebecca said this from the bottom of his heart, but he was still suddenly very weak...

Girl, you are the smartest!

After being stunned for a moment, Gawain couldn't help turning his head to look at Heidi: "Has no one discovered Rebecca's talent before?"

"She has always been outstanding in terms of calculation and whimsy," Hetty considered her vocabulary, "but these abilities have never been used. The standard of a mage's strength is spellcasting ability, and she has almost always been good at this aspect." It's at the bottom..."

"Great waste," Gao Wen frowned and commented unceremoniously, "Spellcasting ability is the only criterion? Why don't you compete with the gorilla?"

Even though he made such a comment, Gao Wen was also very clear that this situation had its reasons and logic.

In a period when technology cannot be used to promote the rapid development of civilization, it is normal for individual bravery to become the standard for judging individual value, and especially in this world where extraordinary power and various monsters and beasts exist, outstanding individual combat power is even more guaranteed. Preconditions for survival—survival cannot be guaranteed, so why talk about technological innovation?

And as long as individual strength becomes the standard, and it continues from generation to generation without major problems, and at the same time, groups that lack strength but have wisdom cannot transform their wisdom into strength (or cannot transform it into enough strength), then this judgment The standard is likely to go on like this forever.

You can't prove that your wits will one day lead to greatness, but I've proved that my strength can guarantee survival, that's all.

But that's not a reason to keep humans in arm-wrestling matches with gorillas forever.

Rebecca is indeed extremely talented, Gao Wen finally confirmed this.

This down-and-out Viscountess, who was looked down upon by everyone, was excluded in the noble circle—because she was a descendant of the Cecil family, and she was despised in the mage circle—because she couldn’t even cast a flash, She was even whispered by the merchants and bourgeoisie in other territories—because she was really the worst lord ever, who implemented a lot of wild decrees, but did not make the territory and herself rich at all.

Because her talents are in places that others cannot see, or even understand.

In the poor and backward lower-class society that relies on the sky for food, no one can understand her calculations, and in the upper-class societies that are rich enough to hire mages, or are mid-level and high-level spellcasters, no one needs her calculations—convenience His magic can indeed solve everything. If it can't be solved, then use a more powerful spell.

With eagle eye and mage's eye, why do you need to calculate coordinates on the ground?Professional magicians can directly perceive and control large magic circles, why do we need sensors?What's more... It's impossible for a crappy mage who can only fireball to get the chance to preside over the construction of magic facilities.

That's why Rebecca was so happy when she got permission from Gao Wen: it was the first time in her life that she was allowed to do something she was good at.

"Master Ancestor..." Rebecca looked at Gao Wen's face with some anxiety, "Do you think that I..."

Gawain laughed and put his big hands on top of her head: "You are the pride of the Cecil family."

Chapter 0062 The Magic Net One and the Blacksmith Shop

Feeling the feeling of a big hand rubbing against the top of her head, Rebecca suddenly became a little dazed.

Her first reaction was that she had heard it wrong, her second reaction was that the ancestor said something wrong, and her third reaction... she took it as a kind of comfort.

It can't be ironic, can it?

The Viscountess, who had never accomplished anything since she was a child, never thought that she would be truly praised once.

Seeing Rebecca's reaction, Gawain repeated what he had just said, and then laughed: "Don't be dumbfounded, I'm seriously praising you, I'm afraid you don't even realize how incredible you are talent."

"Really?" Rebecca said in a daze, and then blinked her eyes a little embarrassedly, "But these are just clever things of mine...it's usually useless at all."

Such an outstanding talent is actually classified as a cleverness... This made Gao Wen a little speechless.

Rebecca was born too early, but fortunately, Gao Wen didn't come too late, so these talents still have a chance to be used.

Gawain took a closer look at Rebecca's adjusted structure of the magic circle - although he was a knight, Gawain Cecil was half a polymath back then, and he also had a lot of research in magic theory and other aspects In addition, the Gondor Empire is a country with exceptionally developed magic technology, and the basic knowledge of magic is well-known, so this kind of magic circle made up of basic runes is not easy for Gao Wen to understand. difficult.After taking a closer look, he determined that Rebecca's adjustments to these runes were quite reasonable. This magic circle has changed from a superficial conceptual product to one that fully meets his expectations and can lay the foundation for subsequent applications. "Prototype", if you want to continue to improve, you can only wait for the test of practice.

Gao Wen only asked one question: "Have you considered expanding it further?"

"Further expansion?" Rebecca was stunned, "How to expand? Can I make it bigger?"

"No, it means that it can be connected with other self-powered magic circles with the same frame but different scales, and even use some kind of magic circle unit as the basic structure to connect and expand infinitely, and finally form a large-scale magic circle that can cover a wider area. Network," Gao Wen looked at the neatly arranged runes, and vaguely saw the shadows that seemed to be able to be combined and repeated, so he couldn't help but put forward a rather bold idea, "Every magic unit is no longer an independent individual, but connected together—do you understand?"

Although she has outstanding mathematical talent and creativity, the concept of this level is still too difficult for Rebecca. She tried hard to think, and finally could only frown in distress: "My lord ancestor, what you said Is something... really possible?"

"Take it as my whimsical idea." Seeing Rebecca's embarrassment, Gawain knew he couldn't rush for quick success, so he resolutely stopped the extension of this aspect, "Now you build the Magic Net No. [-] first, Get the smithy up and running, and we'll wait for the rest."

"Okay!" Rebecca nodded happily, "Just now I was discussing the blacksmith shop with Hammer..."

"Oh?" Gawain raised his eyebrows. He did see Rebecca discussing something with Hammer just now, but the surprise brought by Magic Net No. [-] almost made him forget about it. "You guys What are you talking about?"

"About the new stove," Rebecca said with her head up, "I'm thinking, if the magic net number one is running, then a formal magic circle can be drawn on the blacksmith's stove instead of the unusable ones." Runes—the furnace can be transformed in this way, right? But I don’t know how to blacksmith, so I had to come to Hammer to discuss and see what he thinks about improving the furnace and work flow..."

The old blacksmith Hammer stood by the side with some trepidation, lowered his head and listened to the discussion between the Viscount and the Duke. He was both honored and nervous that a commoner like himself could stand here and participate in the topic of the nobles. And when he saw Gao Wen turn his attention to himself, the old blacksmith really broke out in a cold sweat: he couldn't imagine a nobleman who hadn't even pulled the bellows. To guide him what it would be like to build a blacksmith shop, but he had to cooperate, so he had already made a plan for Gao Wen to make a lot of unimaginable requests, and he had to lead the apprentices to work hard to complete the task...

This is not unusual, because it is said that a viscountess in the north wanted to instruct the gardener to prune the nursery on a whim, and stipulated that each coneflower should be divided into two buds instead of three when it blooms—— A dozen gardeners were whipped for it, until the Viscountess lost interest in the matter.

"Don't be nervous," Gawain saw Hammer's nervousness, and said calmly, "Tell me what you think."

"I...I don't have any ideas," Hamel said in a humble tone with his head lowered, "Miss Viscountess is really knowledgeable and intelligent, and the things she designs are things that poor people like us can't understand in a lifetime." It will take a lot of effort for me to learn how to use it, so how can I offer my opinion?"

Gawain looked at him and shook his head: "Of course you don't understand magic, but you know the furnace and the anvil best. You are an expert in this area, and we will all respect your opinion."

Respect...a commoner's opinion?

Hammer thought for a while that he was hallucinating, but seeing the serious expressions on the faces of Gawain, Hetty, and Rebecca, he finally confirmed that it was true—at least the Duke really said so up.

So he could only bite the bullet: "I think... I think that since the stove will use real magic to heat up in the future, instead of modifying and modifying the old stove, it is actually better to start from scratch and make a new one. out of the stove..."

Gao Wen raised his eyebrows: "Brand new?"

Hammer scratched his arm and tried to express his thoughts clearly and clearly: "Now that real magic is used, there will be no restrictions of the original runes - firstly, the furnace can be bigger, There will be a lot more steel smelted at one time, and since the magic circle will not have the problem of fragmentation, the furnace does not need to be turned off and cooled all the time, maybe it can be kept burning, which saves the cost of reheating the furnace. Time consuming. But then you have to use it all the time..."

Gawain listened carefully, interrupting only when he came across a part he thought he could make suggestions, while Hammer spoke out all his thoughts in one breath.

At the beginning, he stuttered and made mistakes due to nervousness, but soon he spoke more and more smoothly, and when he was about to finish speaking, he was completely surprised.

He didn't expect that Gao Wen was really listening to his narration seriously - a grand duke, a real great nobleman, a character that ordinary people dare not even imagine, actually stood in this messy place, listening to a man like himself Common people's opinions, and that's not listening in disguise, because Gao Wen not only nodded while listening, but even raised some detailed questions and suggestions from time to time!

Those questions and suggestions made Hammer confused from time to time: Is this really a nobleman who has never touched a bellows and a hammer before him?Why does he know so much about steel smelting?

Although many of these questions sounded a bit fanciful to Hammer, there is no doubt that those questions are closely related to the actual situation of iron and steel smelting-by no means "the golden tree chrysanthemum should be divided into two buds when it blooms." Not three" nonsense!

After Hammer finally finished speaking, Gawain breathed a sigh of relief and stared into the eyes of the old blacksmith.

The old blacksmith became nervous: "Old...Master..."