It took Konrad the entire two weeks of his winter recess to translate all the remaining parts in the formation of the old man, using his notes and the magical tool called internet. He finally understood why the guy believed that there is only a single chance of entry for every person. It's because the formation he made, while being a mess of different languages and runes, basically said so in the parts translated in the notes. But some parts of the formation made Konrad puzzled untill he compared them with the golden formation and he suddenly realized what puzzled him. The incorrigible fragments around the transfer location were...exactly the same as in the golden formation! Konrad understood the language thanks to the prize from the lottery but what he had in front of him was a bunch of long weird numbers and letters. He compared the two fragments of the formations and finally came to the realization -
"Those are some kind of coordinates or ID!!! So that's why I could find the part about returning to the previous location but not about the original destination. This should have been so obvious! You enter that subspace from different places outside but the exit formation is set in place! It should obviously poses some kind of identification!
So in simple terms - The old man's formation transfer the person to a pre-established destination, In this case the golden formation, but it was made from a mishmash of rituals of different cultures, in the end allowing only a single entry as some kind of test, while the golden formation acts as a beacon and a return point for transfers from the outside!
If it's like this... i should be able to replace the mishmash with the proper magical language while changing it enough to allow unlimited access! This...! This is so awesome!"
Konrad couldn't contain his excitement while sitting on his bed with his notes. On his laptop a half completed transport formation was slowly taking shape as he messed with the graphic program.
In this two weeks Konrad made an improved and miniaturized version of the light ball formation very happy with the results. It could be now activated and deactivated with a simple command or touch and the ball would disappear while the energy would continue to gather. Of course if it continued to gather indefinitely, the formation would eventually explode so he had to make a limiter. funnily before he realized, the originally simple, single layered formation now possessed three layers containing all the instructions necessary, from the most important instructions closer to the core, to the secondary instructions on the outer layers.
Another thing he realized...The size of the formation directly correlates with the power output. The smaller the formation, the smaller the effect but also the less energy required. Of course the energy absorption also varies, and it can lengthen or shorten the speed of the formation's activation, in different situations.
Konrad wanted to just go and build the improved transport formation after completing its project that used the magical language but regretfully the school started only two days from now. He sighed and went to work. Even if he couldn't make it now, he would at least complete the project and make sure it's perfect before starting the construction.
There was also another experiment he made. He tried to draw the light ball formation on paper, and on an empty wooden disk, using a brush dipped in his blood instead of filling the preprepared grooves, and the effect were as follows.
The formation on the paper lit up for a few second before bursting in a weak explosion as if all this red was a mixture of gunpowder or something. it wasn't strong enough to damage anything but as you've probably guessed, there was nothing left from the paper formation.
The formation on the wooden disk on the other hand lit up properly and finally produced a light ball but it was clearly weaker than the similarly sized original, and fluctuated threateningly making Konrad back away in a hurry. And it was good he did so, because only a few seconds later there was a sizzling sound and the formation exploded scattering bits of wood in every direction.
This experience proved that drawing the formation on a flat surface wasn't possible. He theorized that Mana couldn't be channeled properly using flat surfaces and caused a real threat of explosion. He wasn't sure about short burst activation formations like the teleportation one but he wasn't going to try it obviously, he wasn't suicidal.
//Two days later//
Konrad was currently taking a bus, riding towards the town where his school was located. He was holding his phone, looking at the image of his newly created formation and checking once again for any mistakes.
It was an amalgamation of the transport formation of the old man and the golden formation, having the general purpose of transporting the user to the golden formation, but without any limit and being powered through the core of his choice. Of course the entire formation was written using the magical language Konrad learned thanks to his prize ball.
The reason why he didn't use a specific core in the project was because he was still not sure how he should power it. He believed that using the Mana absorbing core would allow him to spend more blood on the lottery...but he wasn't sure how much energy was required to power the transport and he had reasons to believe that the Earth wasn't as rich in Mana as the lottery space. But he had yet to confirm it...
Now He could simply use the blood absorbing core and be done with it but he had another idea. He wanted to try and create a core that possessed the abilities of both the cores! If he did that and it was a success, he would probably never use either of them and instead start on only using his personally created core because of versatility! It was a kind of a side project for him as he had an entire week free before going back home for the weekend. he would design his projects and try to test them when he returned, while slowly working on the actual formation...right. Where and how should he make it? The old man carved them in a basement in freaking stone! this is not so easy to do at all! 'I'll have to think about it...' He thought.
The ride was uneventful and soon Konrad stood in front of his school. The grounds were covered in a thin layer of snow but it was just a little. You wouldn't be able to even make a snowman with it. Konrad pouted. It was a long time since the last proper winter. The annoyingly warm weather persisted for the last few years and Konrad missed the times when he would make a snowman and a snow castle with his dad. He suddenly thought about him and sighed in realization. He would usually visit him on holidays like the winter recess or in summer, but here he was after the recess ended and only now he thinks about him...
His parents divorced when he was small and he would always visit his dad whenever he had a chance. He really loved him even though he had his imperfections.
Konrad's father, Thomas was your average neighborhood builder-renovator. He was a tall strong person whose hobbies were shooting, drawing and survival. Every time Konrad visited, Thomas would find a time for them to go into the forest, Make fire and cook something on the fire pit. They would in the meantime place some targets and shoot them with his dad's airgun. Konrad especially liked making fire and eat what they made, but the most important part was to spend the time together.
Of course his dad wasn't without flaws, or his parents wouldn't have divorced. His mom always called him extremely irresponsible, and Konrad had to admit it wasn't without reason. He remembered one time when when they made a giant bonfire on the edge of a military territory and when a military car appeared he quickly vanished asking him and his dad's girlfriend to take care of it and pretend he wasn't there. He clearly didn't want more problems for himself and a woman and a kid would just be asked to put out the fire and leave. Now Konrad would laugh from the memory but it was one of many examples of why his mom left him.
Konrad sighed and went to his room. He greeted some classmates who also stayed in the dorms and went to his room. He had some homework to do and then he would be back to designing the double formation core and improving his Mana capacity...maybe he would also call his Dad later...