When Gawain and Heidi questioned in unison, Rebecca’s neck shrunk by over two-thirds of the length at a visible speed. Gawain was thinking, if his tone was a little more severe, would this young lady be able to perform a head disappearing act?
However, no matter how much her neck could shrink, Rebecca still had to give an explanation. Rebecca carefully looked at the two seniors who were qualified to hang her up to beat and spoke truthfully, “It isn’t my fault… Before the experiment on the ore, I was testing the new detonation rune base plate at the Rune Research Center. Aunt suddenly called me over to help with the experiment, and I simply put it into my bag… When I arrived here, I casually put it on the experiment table…”
“…Don’t you have anything similar to a safety regulation when doing magic experiments?” Gawain’s canthus[1] twitched as he looked at Heidi. “Can you actually put such a dangerous thing on the experiment table?”
In his opinion, Rebecca’s actions were the same as welding a detonator or sawing a lightbulb.
“Of course we have safety regulations!” Heidi immediately rectified the reputation of the Mages, but she quickly turned her head away with embarrassment. “But Rebecca, she… Since a young age, I never really allowed her near the laboratory. Therefore, her knowledge in this aspect isn’t sufficient. This is a problem with my teaching.”
“The regulation must be thorough in all aspects. It is especially so for the magic laboratories. Those who didn’t receive proper safety education cannot participate in experiments.” Gawain shook his head and sighed. “It is fortunate that it is only a detonation rune that doesn’t have much firepower…”
“Logically, it shouldn’t have any danger too.” Rebecca felt a little wronged as she said, “This might be a detonation rune base plate, but before contacting a source of magic, this is only a passive rune array. It is the same as a piece of metal plate that is carved with a pattern. How can it explode…?”
Gawain frowned in response as he knew that Rebecca was right.
The detonation rune was different from the Earth’s detonator. The latter had a certain risk of explosion, but the detonation rune… actually wouldn’t explode by itself.
It didn’t have any structure to store energy, and if this thing was required to explode, it would need to be assembled with a component that could store magic. This was also the reason why Gawain felt that the detonation rune was far safer than the Earth’s explosives.
Since it exploded, there was only one explanation: there was a pure enough magic in the vicinity that could detonate it.
“It should still be related to the new ore.” Gawain looked at the other corner of the experiment table that was still stacked with untested ore samples. Those ores had been cut into fist-sized shards, and each of them was reflecting the luster of magic materials. “Heidi, have you inspected if they are able to store magic?”
“It doesn’t have that trait. It might be a superior magic conductor, but it isn’t able to store magic. The rate of magic dispersion is similar to the purple steel and copper.” Heidi shook her head and said, “Could it be the strange magic field?”
The new ore possessed many strange traits — like how it was able to disperse magic into the air at the same rapid speed as the magic was poured in, or like how a peculiar “field” would be formed when two pieces of ores were placed close together. In the eyes of Gawain and Heidi, it seemed like the magic field had an unknown function.
Perhaps… it was the magic field that activated the detonation rune.
“It is very likely.” Gawain nodded. “Heidi, try activating the magic field again. Rebecca, do you have extra detonation runes?”
“I do, I do!” Rebecca nodded happily and took out a long bag from her mage robes and poured the contents out on the table. A large pile of rune base plates fell out with a “pitter-patter”. She then looked through the pile and said, “Let me see… Scorching Ray, Small Fireball, detonation, detonation, detonation… These are all the detonation base plates!”
Gawain was flabbergasted as he watched the silly girl taking out a stack of explosives and was immediately perspiring with cold sweat. “Do you always bring these things along with you?!”
“Not always. I have been working on the generalization of the magic circles with Jenni for the past two days, so I have been bringing these base plates along.”
“…Before Rebecca enters the laboratory next time, you better search her body first.” Gawain’s eyelids twitched as he looked at Heidi with particularly stern eyes. “Didn’t this child ever blow herself up before since young?”
Heidi’s expression was rather subtle as she replied, “Now that you said it, it is rather strange. All along, she has been the one blowing people up. She is always playing around with Large Fireballs and has never accidentally blasted herself, not even once. At most, she would smoke her face… It is rather rare as compared to the mage apprentices who always hurt themselves.”
Gawain’s cold sweat was still flowing while he suggested that the experiment could still continue. However, before starting, he ordered Rebecca to put the rest of the detonation rune base plates at a far-enough place from the experiment table.
The firepower of the detonation base plate was seemingly very small when it exploded in the magic field as it was only emitting a firework effect. However, who knew if this silly girl would still have any other explosives that might just blast the whole laboratory’s roof off…
After all the preparations were complete, Heidi placed the detonation rune base plate in a protective magic circle before putting two pieces of the new ores at a specific distance from the detonation base plate. Immediately after, she placed her hands on the two ores and started to pour magic into them.
The two pieces of ores emitted a faint glow, while Gawain could feel that there was indeed a magic field developed during the process.
In his magic vision, at the center of the two ores, an “environment” was rapidly taking form, and it was obviously very intensive and had filled up the entire laboratory. In fact, it was possible that it extended far beyond the exterior to the laboratory. The radiance of magic was flickering and erratic: it was obvious that it was very unstable, just as Heidi mentioned.
After deactivating the magic vision, Gawain looked at the detonation base plate on the protective magic circle.
There weren’t any changes.
“There isn’t any reaction?” Rebecca scratched her head and said, “Could this base plate be faulty?”
Heidi ended the magic release, and the three minds gathered to figure out why the “detonator” didn’t explode.
Gawain remembered a detail that Rebecca mentioned earlier. “Didn’t you say that before the detonation base plate exploded, you were holding a piece of ore and preparing to pour your magic in?”
“That’s right, it was also glowing.”
“That should be the problem.” Gawain nodded. “That additional piece of ore probably activated a special function. Look for a piece of ore, and place it together with the detonation base plate. Put them nearer together.”
After everything was arranged, Heidi activated that strange magic field again.
As soon as the magic field appeared, the detonation base plate and the ore turned into a bright burning bundle inside the protective magic circle.
“This is it!” Rebecca was instantly jumping with joy. “It is a resonance! This is definitely a resonance!”
“Two of these ores would generate a magic field when magic is poured into them at the same time. If there is a third ore in the magic field, it will develop a resonance…” Heidi frowned slightly and analyzed the traits that were exhibited by these ores. Immediately after, she looked at the stack of remaining samples and said, “But those ores are also within the magic field. Why aren’t there any changes to them?”
“Perhaps it isn’t a resonance, but some kind of… magic transfer.” Gawain took in a breath to suppress the excitement in his heart before he slowly explained his conjecture. “Only those ores that are connected with the rune base plates or magic circles will have some changes. It is because they have ‘energy-consumption units’ and developed an internal flow of energy in the ores. As for the other ores, they don’t have any energy-consumption structure, and they naturally wouldn’t transfer.”
“Magic transfer? Are you talking about transmission?” Heidi looked at the unassuming rocks with astonishment and said, “This is truly something… interesting.”
“It seems like their practicality is very broad.” Gawain looked at Heidi and said, “If this ore can be purified and mass-produced, we might be able to extend our magic web system to an unbelievable scale! The magic transmission range will also be greatly expanded and can reach outside the territory!”
Heidi frowned slightly and responded, “The magic field generated right now is still too unstable. Detonating a rune base plate wouldn’t need stable magic, but it is different if we want to drive those magic-powered machines.”
“That’s why we need to continue the research and find a method to make it stable.” Gawain spoke sternly, “Not only must we make it stable, we also need to make sure we can control it. How many of these ores do we have?”
“According to the estimation from the exploration team, there is quite a lot. The eastern part of the Dark Range has a long section that is eroded by the wind. The loose and weak layers of rock there are filled with these strange and brand new ores.”
“New ores…” Gawain touched his chin and said, “It is the same when we are smelting the Rebecca Crystals. Only the special limestones from the Dark Range can form those crystals. Pittman had also discovered a lot of medicinal ingredients that had completely unique effects…”
“I remember Ancestor saying that the Dark Wave’s corrosion of the natural environment would cause a change in characteristics to the ordinary minerals and plants,” Heidi said. “You had also guessed that there would be even more new resources on the south side of the Dark Range…”
“This isn’t the corrosion of the Dark Wave. This is a present from nature.” Gawain corrected in a serious tone before he looked outside the window. Through the window, he was able to see a small part of the Dark Range’s mountain. “I will go to the excavation ground of the new ores to take a look. That so-called Wave of Destruction… might bring more things to the world than what we can imagine.”
As Gawain, Heidi, and Rebecca were studying the new ores from the Dark Range, another team was working deep inside the Dark Range.
……
Strictly speaking, they were working deep inside the ancient fortress.
Sir Byron and his exploration team had been in this newly discovered place for over one week. They drew a detailed new map and recorded all the new things that they discovered. In between this period, they had dispatched messengers twice to send information about the progress of the exploration and had obtained a reply. Byron believed this exploration already obtained a very good result, and considering the accumulation of pressure due to the long time spent in the underground ruins, Byron judged that it was time to leave this place.
Just as he was sorting out the accumulated information and preparing to arrange the return trip, two soldiers that were tasked to scout ahead had suddenly run back to the room that was used as a temporary base. “Sir, we discovered a… strange place!”
“Strange place?” Byron frowned. These two soldiers were veterans, and they were exploring this place with him for quite a long period of time. They rarely used such a vague method to report their findings, and Byron was rather surprised.
“Yes, there is… a round-shaped hall, and there is a weird stone ring in the middle of the hall…”
[1] Canthus – the outer or inner corner of the eye, where the lower and upper lids meet.
When Gawain and Heidi questioned in unison, Rebecca’s neck shrunk by over two-thirds of the length at a visible speed. Gawain was thinking, if his tone was a little more severe, would this young lady be able to perform a head disappearing act?
However, no matter how much her neck could shrink, Rebecca still had to give an explanation. Rebecca carefully looked at the two seniors who were qualified to hang her up to beat and spoke truthfully, “It isn’t my fault… Before the experiment on the ore, I was testing the new detonation rune base plate at the Rune Research Center. Aunt suddenly called me over to help with the experiment, and I simply put it into my bag… When I arrived here, I casually put it on the experiment table…”
“…Don’t you have anything similar to a safety regulation when doing magic experiments?” Gawain’s canthus[1] twitched as he looked at Heidi. “Can you actually put such a dangerous thing on the experiment table?”
In his opinion, Rebecca’s actions were the same as welding a detonator or sawing a lightbulb.
“Of course we have safety regulations!” Heidi immediately rectified the reputation of the Mages, but she quickly turned her head away with embarrassment. “But Rebecca, she… Since a young age, I never really allowed her near the laboratory. Therefore, her knowledge in this aspect isn’t sufficient. This is a problem with my teaching.”
“The regulation must be thorough in all aspects. It is especially so for the magic laboratories. Those who didn’t receive proper safety education cannot participate in experiments.” Gawain shook his head and sighed. “It is fortunate that it is only a detonation rune that doesn’t have much firepower…”
“Logically, it shouldn’t have any danger too.” Rebecca felt a little wronged as she said, “This might be a detonation rune base plate, but before contacting a source of magic, this is only a passive rune array. It is the same as a piece of metal plate that is carved with a pattern. How can it explode…?”
Gawain frowned in response as he knew that Rebecca was right.
The detonation rune was different from the Earth’s detonator. The latter had a certain risk of explosion, but the detonation rune… actually wouldn’t explode by itself.
It didn’t have any structure to store energy, and if this thing was required to explode, it would need to be assembled with a component that could store magic. This was also the reason why Gawain felt that the detonation rune was far safer than the Earth’s explosives.
Since it exploded, there was only one explanation: there was a pure enough magic in the vicinity that could detonate it.
“It should still be related to the new ore.” Gawain looked at the other corner of the experiment table that was still stacked with untested ore samples. Those ores had been cut into fist-sized shards, and each of them was reflecting the luster of magic materials. “Heidi, have you inspected if they are able to store magic?”
“It doesn’t have that trait. It might be a superior magic conductor, but it isn’t able to store magic. The rate of magic dispersion is similar to the purple steel and copper.” Heidi shook her head and said, “Could it be the strange magic field?”
The new ore possessed many strange traits — like how it was able to disperse magic into the air at the same rapid speed as the magic was poured in, or like how a peculiar “field” would be formed when two pieces of ores were placed close together. In the eyes of Gawain and Heidi, it seemed like the magic field had an unknown function.
Perhaps… it was the magic field that activated the detonation rune.
“It is very likely.” Gawain nodded. “Heidi, try activating the magic field again. Rebecca, do you have extra detonation runes?”
“I do, I do!” Rebecca nodded happily and took out a long bag from her mage robes and poured the contents out on the table. A large pile of rune base plates fell out with a “pitter-patter”. She then looked through the pile and said, “Let me see… Scorching Ray, Small Fireball, detonation, detonation, detonation… These are all the detonation base plates!”
Gawain was flabbergasted as he watched the silly girl taking out a stack of explosives and was immediately perspiring with cold sweat. “Do you always bring these things along with you?!”
“Not always. I have been working on the generalization of the magic circles with Jenni for the past two days, so I have been bringing these base plates along.”
“…Before Rebecca enters the laboratory next time, you better search her body first.” Gawain’s eyelids twitched as he looked at Heidi with particularly stern eyes. “Didn’t this child ever blow herself up before since young?”
Heidi’s expression was rather subtle as she replied, “Now that you said it, it is rather strange. All along, she has been the one blowing people up. She is always playing around with Large Fireballs and has never accidentally blasted herself, not even once. At most, she would smoke her face… It is rather rare as compared to the mage apprentices who always hurt themselves.”
Gawain’s cold sweat was still flowing while he suggested that the experiment could still continue. However, before starting, he ordered Rebecca to put the rest of the detonation rune base plates at a far-enough place from the experiment table.
The firepower of the detonation base plate was seemingly very small when it exploded in the magic field as it was only emitting a firework effect. However, who knew if this silly girl would still have any other explosives that might just blast the whole laboratory’s roof off…
After all the preparations were complete, Heidi placed the detonation rune base plate in a protective magic circle before putting two pieces of the new ores at a specific distance from the detonation base plate. Immediately after, she placed her hands on the two ores and started to pour magic into them.
The two pieces of ores emitted a faint glow, while Gawain could feel that there was indeed a magic field developed during the process.
In his magic vision, at the center of the two ores, an “environment” was rapidly taking form, and it was obviously very intensive and had filled up the entire laboratory. In fact, it was possible that it extended far beyond the exterior to the laboratory. The radiance of magic was flickering and erratic: it was obvious that it was very unstable, just as Heidi mentioned.
After deactivating the magic vision, Gawain looked at the detonation base plate on the protective magic circle.
There weren’t any changes.
“There isn’t any reaction?” Rebecca scratched her head and said, “Could this base plate be faulty?”
Heidi ended the magic release, and the three minds gathered to figure out why the “detonator” didn’t explode.
Gawain remembered a detail that Rebecca mentioned earlier. “Didn’t you say that before the detonation base plate exploded, you were holding a piece of ore and preparing to pour your magic in?”
“That’s right, it was also glowing.”
“That should be the problem.” Gawain nodded. “That additional piece of ore probably activated a special function. Look for a piece of ore, and place it together with the detonation base plate. Put them nearer together.”
After everything was arranged, Heidi activated that strange magic field again.
As soon as the magic field appeared, the detonation base plate and the ore turned into a bright burning bundle inside the protective magic circle.
“This is it!” Rebecca was instantly jumping with joy. “It is a resonance! This is definitely a resonance!”
“Two of these ores would generate a magic field when magic is poured into them at the same time. If there is a third ore in the magic field, it will develop a resonance…” Heidi frowned slightly and analyzed the traits that were exhibited by these ores. Immediately after, she looked at the stack of remaining samples and said, “But those ores are also within the magic field. Why aren’t there any changes to them?”
“Perhaps it isn’t a resonance, but some kind of… magic transfer.” Gawain took in a breath to suppress the excitement in his heart before he slowly explained his conjecture. “Only those ores that are connected with the rune base plates or magic circles will have some changes. It is because they have ‘energy-consumption units’ and developed an internal flow of energy in the ores. As for the other ores, they don’t have any energy-consumption structure, and they naturally wouldn’t transfer.”
“Magic transfer? Are you talking about transmission?” Heidi looked at the unassuming rocks with astonishment and said, “This is truly something… interesting.”
“It seems like their practicality is very broad.” Gawain looked at Heidi and said, “If this ore can be purified and mass-produced, we might be able to extend our magic web system to an unbelievable scale! The magic transmission range will also be greatly expanded and can reach outside the territory!”
Heidi frowned slightly and responded, “The magic field generated right now is still too unstable. Detonating a rune base plate wouldn’t need stable magic, but it is different if we want to drive those magic-powered machines.”
“That’s why we need to continue the research and find a method to make it stable.” Gawain spoke sternly, “Not only must we make it stable, we also need to make sure we can control it. How many of these ores do we have?”
“According to the estimation from the exploration team, there is quite a lot. The eastern part of the Dark Range has a long section that is eroded by the wind. The loose and weak layers of rock there are filled with these strange and brand new ores.”
“New ores…” Gawain touched his chin and said, “It is the same when we are smelting the Rebecca Crystals. Only the special limestones from the Dark Range can form those crystals. Pittman had also discovered a lot of medicinal ingredients that had completely unique effects…”
“I remember Ancestor saying that the Dark Wave’s corrosion of the natural environment would cause a change in characteristics to the ordinary minerals and plants,” Heidi said. “You had also guessed that there would be even more new resources on the south side of the Dark Range…”
“This isn’t the corrosion of the Dark Wave. This is a present from nature.” Gawain corrected in a serious tone before he looked outside the window. Through the window, he was able to see a small part of the Dark Range’s mountain. “I will go to the excavation ground of the new ores to take a look. That so-called Wave of Destruction… might bring more things to the world than what we can imagine.”
As Gawain, Heidi, and Rebecca were studying the new ores from the Dark Range, another team was working deep inside the Dark Range.
……
Strictly speaking, they were working deep inside the ancient fortress.
Sir Byron and his exploration team had been in this newly discovered place for over one week. They drew a detailed new map and recorded all the new things that they discovered. In between this period, they had dispatched messengers twice to send information about the progress of the exploration and had obtained a reply. Byron believed this exploration already obtained a very good result, and considering the accumulation of pressure due to the long time spent in the underground ruins, Byron judged that it was time to leave this place.
Just as he was sorting out the accumulated information and preparing to arrange the return trip, two soldiers that were tasked to scout ahead had suddenly run back to the room that was used as a temporary base. “Sir, we discovered a… strange place!”
“Strange place?” Byron frowned. These two soldiers were veterans, and they were exploring this place with him for quite a long period of time. They rarely used such a vague method to report their findings, and Byron was rather surprised.
“Yes, there is… a round-shaped hall, and there is a weird stone ring in the middle of the hall…”
[1] Canthus – the outer or inner corner of the eye, where the lower and upper lids meet.
