Free Web NovelChapter 402: Chapter 399: The Second Uploader
After completing the ceremony, Rorschach and Caroline returned to the spatial vesicle.
There was a brief interlude. Sensing the soul from its avatar return to its main body, Rorschach realized the original ceremony was no longer viable. He was about to design a new one for the Tower Spirit, but Caroline stopped him.
"I once saw Master Kano attending a meeting with other Great Mages," Caroline recalled.
"I stumbled upon it when I had something urgent to discuss with him. At first, I thought he was taking an afternoon nap, but the Master quietly told me he was in a meeting. His Spirit Body enters a secret space to communicate with the other Great Mages."
"A secret space? That’s pretty convenient. No need to travel, and it’s perfectly secure."
This was the first time Rorschach had ever heard of Great Mages having this kind of "online meeting." He’d always assumed it was like the award ceremony, with everyone possessing and controlling owls. A flock of birds would form a circle and just chirp away at each other.
Caroline had her own theory about that space. "The secret place where the Great Mages meet is probably similar to the one you found—an independent spatial vesicle that leans toward the Symbolic Realm."
"In that case, there must be a Magic spell, like the one Master Kano uses for his meetings, that would allow our Spirit Bodies to enter directly, rather than through a ritual-like ceremony. If we just have its rough coordinates, I can try to develop a method for our Spirit Bodies to get in."
These coordinates were not from a physical coordinate system, but were positional markers in a Divination sense, laid out based on the constellations. For any existence between the Material Realm and the Symbolic Realm, the starry sky was the only relatively reliable frame of reference.
However, just as Caroline was preparing to start her research from scratch, Rorschach got the answer directly from the Tower Spirit.
The Tower Spirit’s original "body" in the physical world was still operational, but Rorschach could sense that its "Soul" was no longer there. In other words, its core had now become a "terminal" that grounded the Tower Spirit from the "cloud," while the units under his command served as tools for the Tower Spirit to interface with reality.
"It can even do that..." Caroline watched as the Tower Spirit’s "old body" operated a printer, which continuously spat out coordinates Rorschach couldn’t decipher. He couldn’t understand them, but Caroline could.
She fetched a star chart drawn in southern Bayern and converted the Tower Spirit’s output into points on the map.
Now Rorschach understood as well, and he could see that the spatial vesicle moved in a very regular pattern beneath the stars.
Caroline’s interpretation was more expert. She gradually began to understand the time scale of the information provided by the Tower Spirit. "It appears this space moves in a periodic cycle under the stars, with the full cycle spanning a year. It’s spring now, so the Vesicle’s corresponding coordinate is the eighth house of the zodiac..."
At that moment, they both realized the problem: it was only the second day since the Tower Spirit had "uploaded" to the spatial vesicle. How could it provide a trajectory for an entire year?
The Tower Spirit didn’t respond. Rorschach could only guess. ’Did it calculate the trajectory? The processing units here were running the whole time it was giving us the coordinates.’
"That’s possible. If so, we’ll need to verify its accuracy later on."
Regardless, now that they had the coordinates, Caroline could design a precisely targeted Magic spell. Rorschach inscribed a Rune that targeted himself, and on its outer ring, he added a rotatable circuit based on Caroline’s design. By turning it to align with the current season, he could change the destination coordinates.
"Empty your mind, and then picture the image of that space..." Caroline advised, reclining in a chair in the workshop. She took a deep breath, and a moment later, her breathing steadied, as if she were in a light doze.
Rorschach did as she said. After closing his eyes, he recalled the scene inside the spatial vesicle. The image of the "Golden Tree" was perfectly clear, appearing first in his mind’s eye before its details began to flood uncontrollably into his vision.
Before long, Rorschach could no longer tell whether his eyes were open or closed. The "Tree of Law" had already leaped into view. Only when he saw the woman standing beneath it did he confirm that his Spirit Body had been summoned to their destination.
"Congratulations, you succeeded on your first try." Rorschach genuinely admired Caroline’s skill. One could say she was Master Kano’s most brilliant disciple.
Caroline’s gaze was completely captivated by the great tree. "The key to our success was the accurate coordinates the Tower Spirit provided. Now, your Tower Spirit seems to have fused with this ’tree.’ What are those cascading streams of light?"
She noted that this was a phenomenon that hadn’t been present last time.
"Someone must be Casting using the system I created." Rorschach explained his "Feature Symbol" and "Descriptor" Spell System to Caroline, then began analyzing the nodes on the tree.
"Shaping Power... Mapping, Repulsive Force... It’s probably the Spirit Armor Skill." Rorschach’s gaze followed the darting streams of light. The nodes woven by the tree told him which "terms" the Caster had used in sequence.
Since the nodes only corresponded to Feature Symbols and lacked Descriptors—for instance, he couldn’t know the target of the "Mapping"—he could only guess that Hanna was practicing the Spirit Armor Skill based on the order the nodes lit up.
Rorschach then tried another experiment. He attempted to cast the Fireball Skill using his system. The corresponding nodes for Magic Concentration, Elemental Transformation, and Projectile lit up in sequence, and the stream of light he produced was far brighter.
The scorching Fireball was like a miniature sun. For this space and this young "Tree of Law," the Magic Rorschach cast was a "perfect prototype."
This Fireball... was not a Fireball in the physical sense. In the Material Realm, a Fireball was supposed to be a mass of scorching plasma controlled by a Mage, but this space was not predominantly material. The "Perfect Fireball" was more like an aggregation of concepts.
As Rorschach gazed at it, he continuously received the "light" and "heat" it radiated—not just the direct sensations, but also the abstract concepts of those two properties.
As if reading Rorschach’s thoughts, measurements for the two concepts gradually emerged. One was in lumens, the other was a decaying temperature gradient—2573K at the center, dropping sharply to 478K at the edge. This proved Rorschach had contained the Fireball’s energy well; it was so concentrated that its power would decay very little before impact.
If he were to further heat and constrain the plasma’s internal pressure, it would become the High Tier Blast Fireball Technique—which, upon release, would not only produce light and heat but also the destructive force of a concussive pressure wave.
The moment Rorschach thought of the Blast Fireball Technique, another "concept" was added to those being released by the "Perfect Fireball": pressure. And the pressure at its core began to rise steadily.
’Okay, stop, stop!’
Rorschach canceled the Casting, which, fortunately, produced no after-effects in this space.
Caroline had been astounded ever since she heard about the Spell System Rorschach had created. She grew even more excited as he verified the mechanics of the "Tree of Law." The moment Rorschach finished his test, she asked eagerly, "Can I register the Magic I’ve mastered in it, too?"
"Of course. I’d be thrilled," Rorschach said. "However, right now, only Magic below Tier Six can be uploaded." He also reminded her that uploading a spell meant it would be public. "There are currently three Apprentices using the Spell Cloud. You can decide whether you want to teach them the Magic you upload, but since the system is universal, we can’t rule out the possibility of them figuring it out on their own."
"Also, as the creator and operator, I will inevitably learn your Magic as well."
Caroline replied breezily, "You’re my student, so of course that’s no problem! As for your first point... as long as it isn’t used for evil, I see no harm in more people learning it."
"The whole reason I became a teacher at the Royal Academy was to give more commoner children the opportunity to learn."
She was so excited that she gave Rorschach a hug he couldn’t refuse. "My efforts in the lecture hall pale in comparison! For you to fundamentally lower the barrier to learning Magic... nothing could be better!"
