Arnold and Madilith returned to the camp after being gone for five minutes.
No one questioned what they were doing. The two went their separate ways.
Arnold sat next to Anais again. she didn't ask what Madilith wanted so the two went right back to their earlier discussions.
Arnold had noticed a notification flying next to his status while he was heading back earlier.
· Death Flag detected!
This animalistic killing intent felt closer to beast than man. Arnold had been feeling it for a while now since returning to the camp. While he is able to ignore people's glares, blatant killing intent was troublesome to ignore since it can't be easily shrugged off.
Of course, that doesn't mean that it'll interfere with tasks that require his full attention. It'll still feel like a mosquito buzzing near his ear, though.
This is a Death Flag so it was something he could not ignore but in order to respond to the threat appropriately, he'd need to observe the aggressor's actions first—
The killing intent was coming from Hofir, who was sitting on the other end of the camp. Madilith was by his side casually speaking to him. Noticing that he was ignoring her, Madilith pulled his cheek with a pout. Hofir's expression loosened and he hurriedly apologized to her.
'That woman is such a…' Arnold wanted to say "bitch" but felt like she's something much worse.
"It's really impossible for ordinary magicians to multicast…?" Anais sulked after hearing Arnold's answer in response to her question from before. She was asking Arnold to help her with some important work from the academy that she wanted to finish during her spare time in the dungeon. The work wasn't needed for her grades since all of it was excluded in last year's curriculum. She was mainly doing them because they were difficult tasks that not even last year's top students could complete without guidance from professors and University students. By completing them, she'd be able to present them to the university in her portfolio.
It wasn't needed for her to go this far since she already has near-perfect marks in all her classes but she felt that this was something she wanted to do. Anais was the kind of person who wants to not only answer expectations but exceed them even if the payoff wasn't anything special.
Anais came to Arnold for help, thinking that he was more knowledgeable than her in the subjects (a misunderstanding that arose from the recent events).
Well, he was once the Supreme Sorcerer and now had the mind of a genius. Of course he can help her.
Arnold replied to Anais:
"Unless your mana channels have three extra lanes around your core then yes, it's impossible."
A mana core wasn't actually a physical object within a person but rather an accumulation of one's mana in the shape of a sphere. Your mana channels curl around this core to extract its energy and distribute the mana into spells or rather magic circles which produce those spells.
"The extra loops imply that your channels are larger than the average magician which allows you to handle larger amounts of mana and even be able to multicast. This is a rare occurrence. Only one out of ten thousand magicians are capable of multicasting. And even though they exist, they can't cast two spells higher than the second rank at the same time so not even the most elite magicians can do anything remarkable with their potential. That's even rarer. Not even the Archmage can do this even with her immense mana pool."
Hell, not even Lauran will be able to multicast two Tenth-Rank spells for example. Neither could Lufulur. The only person capable of doing this would be Elora, a Magic Manipulator, hence the name. Of course, she wouldn't be able to do this at her current level of strength and experience.
In order to help her get full control of her abilities, she'd need a certain device that will allow her to modify her class to suit her needs (yes, this is possible but only for her class). The device can't currently be built due to humanity's lacking magic technology so Elora is limited in what she could do.
Arnold might request help from the Magic Towers to build it. While he doesn't trust the Towers due to the conspiracies and schemes going on in the shadows (partly the fault of the Republic and Ronia's faction), he still considered them a valuable asset to have for the future. He'll need them to work with him to build teleportation gates since he can't exactly dedicate his time to doing something like this when he has a city to run and a school career to finish. While all this was necessary, he still needed someone capable of overseeing these tasks. Lauran was the natural choice given her immense magic potential that allows her to use Seventh-Rank magic even as an untrained magician. However, he was considering adding Elora as well but only once the two grow close enough.
Arnold looked at Anais who was wracking her brains next to him. Since his earlier answer wasn't satisfactory or what she wanted to hear, she had no choice but to leave the question unanswered. No one would blame her since the question is deliberately meant to be impossible to solve. "How to multicast" sounds easy at first but the actual answer to the question was not. Or more like it was impossible to give an answer. "A regular magician can't dual-cast" isn't exactly the answer to the question but that's all she can write down. However, adding what Arnold told her before about "the extra channel loops" should earn her half the points that the "non-existent" answer should've given Anais in theory.
The Magic University will definitely see her more favorably (as opposed to simply answering that she didn't know) if she presents this in her portfolio for next year. If one thought about it, maybe the scholars who wrote this question wanted students to lay down their theories? Any answer besides "I don't know" or "It's impossible" would be correct if the context was in the lines of "It might be possible if".
In any case…
'Anais might be a valuable ally as well… I'm acquainted with three magicians, two of which have monstrous potential. How did I get so lucky? Will I even need my original player character?'
Lauran might be tricky to get on board (given their history) but he was certain that Anais and Elora would be happy to help him out in the future.
Arnold suddenly had a curious question for Anais after he thought about teleportation gates.
"Hey, Anais. Do you think teleportation is possible with magical technology?"
"Of course," she nodded after closing her books, "That's how we're able to transfer back to our world, right?"
"The device on the 50th floor. Have you ever wondered how it works?"
"Of course I have." she suddenly looked at Arnold like he was a crazy person, "Don't tell me… You know how it works…?"
"…I don't…"
He was lying, of course. He knew the formulas (both magic and scientific) and needed materials to construct such a thing but had no idea of how to create it. The construction itself requires someone with a career in magical engineering (a non-existent field right now). The aforementioned formulas are the building blocks but you need a skilled architect to turn it into something greater.
"I've been thinking ever since I first discovered the device—what if we create something similar? It doesn't have to be capable of world travel or need the energy of moonlight to work. It should be a miniature version that allows us to reach point B just by stepping through the device. One in each nation or city would be more convenient for both supply chains and regular folk who want to visit family for example."
The first one will naturally be built in his city to promote tourism. The other nations should pay him to gain access to his device. All he needs now is a "Head Magician of Research" who will lead the project.
"Stepping through it… You mean like the portals we've been using?"
"Yes. What if we somehow create a device like that by utilizing the properties of both? The teleportation device was built by ancient academy scholars from a bygone era but the portals are the creations of nature itself. In order to build a device that has the properties of both, we'd need to take inspiration from them."
Anais went silent as she looked at the ground and kicked her feet as if she was on a swing.
"Those rocky structures that surrounds the platform… They're the things storing the moonlight fueling the device, right?" she asked.
"I think so."
"Uhm, would it be okay if we broke off a sample of it and took it back home to study? I don't want to be haunted by some academy scholar's ghost…"
"It couldn't hurt, I suppose. But you should take a big sample which can be used several times. There would be no way for you to come back here, after all."
"Ah, you're right."
The rocky structures were the same mineral as the core in Arnold's ring—a star's core.
The World Tree Forest has an abundance of these minerals since there had been hundreds of meteor showers that rained down on that part of the continent when the World Tree was just a sapling. Its strong gravitational force-caused by the mana that surrounded the Elven Country—was the reason for pulling all those heavenly bodies out of space.
Arnold thought about telling Anais about it but decided not to since this was a discovery she definitely wanted to make on her own. Presenting this finding to the world would be second to the sense of accomplishment she'd gain, which in turn boosts her confidence and makes her more passionate about magic.
"And another thing…" Arnold put his hands on hers and leaned close. "If you ever need funding or a lab for your research—I'll be here for you."
The Tivurgian House was not a prosperous household per se. They've lost most of their territories over the last ten years which used to generate a lot of income for them yet the current Head refuses to let the main family (Berkleys) help them. He was Marcus' great-uncle so it probably felt humiliating having to bow down to someone younger than yourself. Due to this and a lot of other factors, the House wouldn't have the resources or money to fund teleportation research. While the Star Cores were the mitochondria of the device, there were other minerals and components that Anais needed to get to make the experiments work (or at least make some breakthroughs). These were expensive and hard to obtain. Auctions and the Magic Towers will have some of them but she'll need to commission adventurers to go to dangerous places to obtain other required natural resources.
She'll need massive funding for her research. Possibly in the millions of gold. Perhaps she had considered the possibility too as she nodded vehemently with a big smile.
"But this is going to be a partnership and not some loan that needs to be repaid back later so naturally all findings will need to brought forward to me, alright? My name should also be on every report you write down of your discoveries."
The report will most likely be distributed by journalists all around the continent. This is how he'll draw attention to his expanding city that will one day rival the military powers.
Arnold made it clear that this was going to be a 50/50 relationship. Anais gets the required tools and funding so it was a deal no one could refuse.
"Yes, yes, I know! Thank you, Al!"
She didn't even ask if he actually had the means to support this vague experiment. He was officially stripped of his title of heir so he couldn't exactly rely on his family to fund the research. Their territories would be bled dry even if he was still heir.
She must have full trust in everything he says.
This trust can be broken. Did she not think of this?
Looking into her eyes and seeing her smile, Arnold thought:
'There's nothing but innocence in those eyes…'
An innocence he could exploit.
Anais didn't know that she had just sold her "soul".
**
"They're back! Everyone, gather at the white tent!" Arthur's yell reverberated throughout the camp while Arnold was chatting with Anais (and Sabrina too who joined them for some reason).
At Arthur's words, everyone left what they were doing and headed over to the white tent. There was already a large group gathered there when Arnold arrived there with Anais and Sabrina in tow.
Daraia was standing outside the white camp and reading a thick book laid on a table nearby. Arthur was standing next to her and peeking over her shoulder to read the archives.
Ten whole minutes passed by and the only sound one could hear was the flipping of pages.
"Hmm." Daraia then made a sound, "Strange occurrences? Hmm…" she silently read the page.
"There are currently six confirmed closed dungeons on the continent." Daraia said after looking up from the book, "One of them is listed under a [Strange Anomaly] section. There are a few others on that list but their names have lines scratched over them. I'll read what the anomalies are: Explorers, hired by the guilds to investigate newly-discovered regions say that an invisible barrier prevents them from going inside. Even though the dungeon itself has been reported to still be active, we have chosen to add it to the archives' closed section since entry is impossible due to a mysterious power keeping us out."
Arnold wasn't that surprised that this was happening. Rather, he'd be more surprised if the dungeon wasn't outright rejecting anyone who wanted to invade territory that didn't belong to them. The creator of the dungeon obviously didn't like just anyone going into a god's temple and taking whatever they want. The Divine Titan inside every temple was just an extra layer of security.
"Does it say where the dungeon is?" Arnold asked Daraia.
"No. but there's a map attached to the page with a red circle on it. There's nothing specific that will help us identify it though..." She held up the map.
"Hm? There's a strange glow on the map." Anais squinted while looking at it.
Arnold knew about the glow. It wasn't visible to the naked eye though. You'd need to infuse mana into your eyes in order to catch it. Which is exactly what Arnold had been doing all this time.
"Let me see the map."
"Sure." Daraia handed it over to Arnold.
"[Leverea] (Reveal)." He whispered a word in runic tongue.
A magic circle appeared over the map before the contents written on it changed completely.
"What was that just now…?" Daraia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The dungeon's influence. Or rather the creator's influence." Arnold held out the map to Arthur with a smile laced with ridicule, "It seems the creator knew what measures to take when someone unworthy of the sword were to seek it out. If the real hero was here then destiny would've appointed an angel as his guide and led him straight to the dungeon."
Arthur's eyes slowly sharpened into a glare.
"You…"
Daraia sighed and took the map since Arthur wasn't taking it.
"Hm, it looks like it's a few hours' walk from here." Daraia examined the map and quickly concluded how long the trip will be, "We should be able to leave by tomorrow morning."
She then turned to Arnold, "Can we begin with the ritual to get rid of the curse immediately?"
"That depends. Were the magicians able to finish their studies?" his sharp gaze turned to the six magicians who were picked to supply mana to the ritual.
Normally it would be unrealistic to assume anyone would be able to understand how a spell or ritual works in just a few hours but these were veterans, so surely, they'd be able to do it?
If not then it was a major misunderstanding to put more faith in them then Anais or Castacia who will help him control the antibodies and multiplier runes. One would expect "magic control" to actually require you to know the ins and outs of a rune but that was far from the truth in most cases.
Arnold was enough to respond to any errors encountered during the ritual. Anais and Castacia will just lift his burden by a major degree. His Intelligence stat was basically non-existent so he needed the extra help.
Unlike his expectations of seeing them dejectedly lower their heads, all of them gave confident smiles.
It looks like this era of magicians weren't as disappointing as he had expected.
"Hm, I see." He looked away from them and turned back to Daraia, "It looks like we can get started right away."
"Alright," she nodded, "Everyone! Move to the assigned location where the ritual will take place!"
Without wasting a single second wasted, everyone began following after Daraia and Arnold.