Chapter 94 Mana Core
“It’s getting late. Talanis’s next stop is Leicester City, expected to arrive tomorrow afternoon. Since you plan to disembark at the next stop, you may as well rest now. The lower levels of the tower are all vacant rooms. I’ll have the golems guide you later, and you can each choose a room. If you don’t want to rest and wish to explore Talanis, you can also express your wish to the golems, and they will take you.”
Marymana clearly had other matters to attend to, and it was already difficult enough for her to make time to meet Li Wen, the “disciple” of Miranda from Milan. After speaking, she gave Li Wen a friendly smile and then vanished.
Harik and his companion were very interested in the legendary Floating Island and the Bird Association, and even at midnight, they insisted on going for a walk. Moria, naturally, couldn’t rest assured, so she followed them.
The guest rooms for repose in the Mage Tower were more spacious and comfortable than the most luxurious rooms in a typical inn. Li Wen was not one to fuss over such things. Upon entering the room, she sat on a chair and waited.
As expected, she didn’t have to wait long before three light knocks sounded on the door.
“Come in.”
Li Wen stood up.
Instead of using the door, the person teleported directly in front of Li Wen.
Marymana looked at Li Wen with her crimson eyes and said, in a rather serious tone, “Do you really have a way to solve my problem?”
“Perhaps,” Li Wen did not make any definitive statements. “As long as it’s within my capabilities with rituals and magic circles, there should be no problem.”
Between the choice of a peerless genius or an overconfident young brat, Marymana chose to see for herself.
With a wave of her hand, she activated her authority as the tower master of the Mage Tower, summoning layers of light that enclosed Li Wen.
“This is the lowest-level confinement barrier magic circle of the Mage Tower. Without active guidance, it can be dispelled solely through knowledge of magic circles. If you can break through the magic circle within fifteen minutes, I will gladly let you give it a try.”
Magic circles originated from ritual studies and have evolved into a distinct field of study. However, most Transcendent beings who have mastered rituals rarely falter in magic circle studies. It can be said that anyone who has systematically studied “Ritual Magic Studies” will generally have some understanding of magic circles.
Li Wen didn’t even bother looking at the geometric patterns formed by the light. She took the Raven Feather Dagger from her waist and casually thrust it. The light cage that had trapped Li Wen instantly collapsed and dissipated silently.
The fastest and most convenient way to break through a barrier magic circle was undoubtedly brute force. Brute force, however, had two forms: one was to overpower it through a superior strength level, and the other was, as Li Wen did, to be intimately familiar with the mana flow of the magic circle at every instant. By gently disrupting the mana flow and balance with mana or a magical weapon, the magic circle would naturally collapse and cease to function.
Of course, this was limited to lower-level magic circles that were not actively controlled.
Rituals and magic circles were originally mandatory subjects for Transcendent beings. Marymana, as an Archmage, had studied them in depth, although she was not among the top experts in the field.
Therefore, Li Wen’s move immediately brightened her eyes. It seemed that this junior apprentice was not boasting but truly possessed some skills.
Marymana directly grabbed Li Wen’s arm.
“Very good, you come with me!”
Before Li Wen could react, her vision blurred, and when she regained her senses, she was already in another place.
This was a sealed and vast space. The ground was made of glass-like transparent crystal bricks, and looking up, one could see countless streams of light converging into lines. These numerous lines formed a massive three-dimensional magic circle that supported the entire space.
At the very center of the magic circle was a Rubik’s Cube-like object composed of several cubic crystals. The surface of the cube was covered with densely packed magical characters.
This is…
“This is one of the magic circle cores beneath Talanis. That huge cube is the mana core of this entire magic circle.”
Only half of what Marymana said was correct. That massive cube-like object could by no means be the mana core, even though it did provide an incessant supply of energy to the grand magic circle.
Compared to various materials imbued with mana, mages generally preferred to construct magic circles using pure mana. The advantage of this was that it was simple and quick to set up and repair, and it was extremely versatile, suitable for most types of magic circles. However, the disadvantage was also obvious: it required an astronomical amount of mana as support, and the part responsible for this duty was called the mana core.
Li Wen remained silent, waiting for Marymana to finish speaking.
Marymana gently extended her hands, as if cradling a petite infant or a fragile precious item, and levitated a very tiny crystal from the cube-shaped object.
The crystal was entirely transparent but dim. It was about the size of a fist, a mere drop in the ocean compared to the entire cube. However, it was also covered with magical characters that were almost indiscernible to the naked eye, like an extremely downscaled version of the colossal cube.
“This is a part of the mana core responsible for conducting mana. There are some problems with the magic circle patterns on it, and it has now ceased to function,” Marymana said, holding the crystal carefully. “All you need to do is identify the incorrect magic circle patterns and tell me. Those patterns were deliberately written in the form of magical characters precisely for situations like this.”
Looking at the tiny magical characters on the crystal, even Li Wen found it a bit daunting. The so-called magical characters were made of mana and written in the form of magic. They were not static and changed every moment. It was said that during the Golden Age, magical characters were used to record almost all supernatural knowledge.
Back then, only by expending spirituality and mental power could humans comprehend magical characters.
However, the situation was different now. With the advancement of magic and related knowledge, reading magical characters could be achieved with a single spell. That spell was not even a higher-tier spell but a zero-tier magic that even apprentices could learn called “Reading Magical Characters.”
Li Wen, under the guise of Miranda’s apprentice, would naturally know such a low-level spell.
But the problem was, she actually didn’t know it.
Fortunately, though she didn’t understand magic, she understood rituals and magic circles.
Regardless of the form of expression, what was on this crystal was ultimately a magic circle. Since it was a magic circle, there must be patterns. With her knowledge of magic circles, it wouldn’t be too difficult to find these patterns, and then, by unraveling them, locate the errors within the magic circle.
The difficulty, however, lay in the fact that the magical characters on this crystal were not limited to the surface. In other words, the entire crystal, from the inside out, was composed of magical characters. Rather than calling it a crystal, it was more like a miniature magic circle condensed from a vast amount of magical characters.
