A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 607 Something's Wrong

It has been three months since the launch of Kepler.

The weather was already showing signs of getting hot, but one of the offices in the Tower of Stars was already bustling with activity.

"This is not right." Poincaré stared at the whiteboard in front of him, which not only contained formulas written directly on it, but also many waveforms drawn by a machine.

"What's wrong?" It wasn't just Kano asking; other veterans watching the live stream through the communication system were also asking.

Poincaré began his speech, but soon the others expressed their headaches and begged him to stop his charade—or rather, to describe his discovery in a more concise way.

“I’ve already been very brief,” Poincaré raised an eyebrow. “For a high-level spellcaster, mathematics is a fundamental skill.”

"Of course, but we each have our own areas of expertise. You wouldn't want to hear me rattle off a long string of words from Old English to modern linguistics about how phonological changes affect the singing, would you?"

"Now that you mention it, I'm quite interested, Master Hadinan." For some reason, Poincaré wanted to challenge the chief of the Dark Tower.

"Analyzing from the perspectives of language structure and phenomenology, and introducing paradigms from the field of psychoanalysis."

"No, thank you, Master Feuerbach. I understand what you mean. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have imposed my expertise on you."

Poincaré stared at the complex spectrum for a moment, then, trying to organize his thoughts, pointed to the thickest and most prominent band and said:

"Now we can see a complete chain of spells, from the most basic and confirmed 'Magic Condensation' to the most advanced unknown node codenamed '3_θ'. Each peak represents a basic spell, or a node on the Tree of Truth."

"Thanks to Master Rorschach for his theoretical support in this area. Although I don't know how he cracked the node information, the feedback from the 'Kepler' station suggests that the results found and corresponding to the nodes are basically reliable."

"Very clear."

"It's clear that this is the result of a lot of filtering and mathematical transformations. Sorry, getting back to the main point, their peak intensity represents the activity level at the time of observation. To be precise, the peak intensity is related to the number of users and the energy level corresponding to the node, so we can see that it is high at both ends and low in the middle."

"Yes, your summary is a bit too simplistic."

"Thank you. The specific functional relationship between the two factors and the peak strength still needs to be verified. It is worth mentioning that the impact of many alchemy devices on the link is beyond imagination, far exceeding that of an ordinary individual spellcaster, causing great trouble to our work."

As he spoke, Master Poincaré looked at a receiver, which showed a white dog's head winking as if to say: It's none of my business.

"The overlapping peaks represent the intersection of links; it doesn't mean that a triple peak means three intersections, but rather that it exhibits a binomial distribution pattern."

"Excuse me, Master Poincaré, this part can be skipped. We'd like to know where things went wrong," Cano said from the sidelines.

"Okay, I've finished explaining the true meaning of the main peak. Now let's look at these noises. They are either caused by distortion in the receiving equipment, or by some interference or mutual influence between nodes in the original layer."

"In the known chain—from the nodes that have been cracked—it is mainly a chain of evocation spells related to 'lightning' and 'fire.' Ha, evocation magic is always the easiest to figure out. Its noise is very messy, but the peak strength is almost consistent."

"However, note that this link has a known node that can 'resurrect'; I suspect it's related to the natural system."

All attention was focused on the receiver representing Kober. The Forest Tower had been frequently in the spotlight lately, whether actively or passively, positively or negatively.

"Its mixed peaks are quite unusual; some are even comparable in strength to the main peak. I mean, there's no reason for it to have more than twenty ring ranks, right? Is the upper limit of nature magic really that high?"

"Anyway, it's unfathomable," Kober replied.

"No, no, no, if that's the case, I'll change careers on the spot. But in the last few days, Kepler Station has sent several sets of repeated observation data. They have recorded the three links that have been locked in again, including this one that is strongly correlated with the natural system."

"Interestingly, the spurious peaks have completely changed, and the frequency position of the main peak has also shifted slightly. The errors in the other two chains are negligible."

Feuerbach stated directly: "Nature magic, of course, is related to the Mother Goddess, meaning that the Mother Goddess can influence the Tree of Truth and the spell chain."

Everyone fell silent for a moment, and the noise of the instruments in the office suddenly took over.

If Mother Earth can directly influence the Primal Layer and the Tree of Truth, then she can essentially "flirt" with all spellcasters—just thinking about it sends chills down my spine.

Kober broke the brief silence first: "There's nothing surprising. When the pollution broke out in the central part of the empire at the beginning of the year, the magic in the Forest Tower in a specific location went out of control."

"It's different! This has a global impact!" Some of the chiefs were not so calm.

Poincaré tapped his writing tablet, drawing the attention of these elders back to himself, a move that made it seem as if he were lecturing the other masters:

"The bad news is that we've also detected similar superimposed peaks in the other two chains, not just the ones related to nature magic, but they're not as prominent as the one I've mentioned, to the point that they could shake the main peak."

"Furthermore, what I mean by 'incorrect' is that Kepler re-observed the 'natural system' related chains today, and the position of the main peak has shifted back, and the noise pattern has changed again. Is that good news?"

"Of course not, because we don't know why it changed or why it was changed back."

Sometimes research can be frustrating; the result of in-depth exploration may be to learn more, or it may be to learn more about the unknown, and often the latter is more common.

Rorschach did have a conjecture, but he couldn't verify it and couldn't directly discuss it with the other elders and chiefs. The strong connection to nature magic wasn't just with the Mother Goddess, but also with Dryaz; perhaps He was maintaining and correcting the link?

But when did His divine power become so strong? To be able to go toe-to-toe with the Mother Goddess? In Rorschach's memory, there was only one god who could dominate an entire era.

Poincaré concluded the discussion by saying: "Whether we use mathematical language or plain language, we will face a harsh reality: the Mother Goddess can not only influence our material world, but also exert influence on the Primitive Dimension."

Kano suddenly suggested, "We need to emulate the Empire, deploy magic weavers, and change the way we cast spells."

"You mean you'll use that 'string magic' exclusively from now on?"

Rorschach, of course, had to stand up for his teacher and himself: "I agree with Master Cano's proposal. I will publish a basic spellcasting chart and tutorial to the guild to ensure that everyone can learn it. At the very least, all alchemy equipment should be manufactured according to the new standards to guarantee safety."

"Why should your set of spell standards guarantee safety?"

Feuerbach wanted to say no comment, but offered to vouch for Rorschach. Unexpectedly, the young man laid his cards on the table: "Because I have a substitute for the Tree of Truth."

(End of this chapter)