Free Web NovelChapter 17: Valoria’s Women Leaders’ Meetings 2
Vespera conjured several more scrolls.
"Before deciding how to use this plan, let’s compare it to other existing barriers."
In a few moments, the large table was completely covered with diagrams.
Village barriers.
Fortress barriers.
Royal barriers.
Dungeon barriers.
Detection barriers.
Military barriers.
Some were centuries old.
Others depicted the most modern techniques of the Tower of Mages.
Adam approached to examine them.
At first glance...
He understood absolutely nothing.
Thousands of runes covered each scroll.
Lines connected the symbols in every direction.
"Runes are really complicated..."
Yet...
The more he looked at the diagrams...
The more a strange feeling grew within him.
He had the feeling...
That he’d seen a similar organization before.
Without being able to remember where.
He frowned.
"That’s strange..."
Vespera noticed his expression.
"Is something wrong?"
Adam slowly shook his head.
"No... well... I don’t know."
He continued to observe several shots.
"I have the feeling their organization reminds me of something..."
"But I can’t say what."
He placed a hand against his forehead.
"Since I woke up, it sometimes happens... certain impressions come back... but my memories remain hazy."
The women nodded.
From the beginning, Adam had explained to them that he suffered from amnesia.
So this kind of reaction was not surprising.
After several minutes, Adam finally raised his head.
"Do you have any books explaining runes?"
Vespera smiled.
"Of course."
With a simple wave of her hand, a dozen books emerged from the library shelves.
Introduction to Runes.
Magical Writing.
Rune Structures.
Language of Magic Circles.
Architecture of Barriers.
Foundations of Rune Magic.
Vespera placed them in front of Adam.
"Start with these."
Adam immediately opened the first book.
Thanks to Analysis, his enhanced memory, and his Accelerated Learning Blessing,
the pages turned at an impressive speed.
One minute.
Then a second.
The women discreetly observed the scene.
Three minutes.
Five minutes.
Adam had already finished the first book.
Then the second.
Then the third.
The books kept coming.
About ten minutes later...
He closed the last book.
The whole room fell silent.
Even Vespera seemed slightly stunned.
"You... have you finished already?"
Adam nodded.
"Yes."
He looked at the different diagrams again.
This time...
His eyes opened slightly.
"I understand now..."
He grabbed several diagrams.
Then he compared them to one another.
A few seconds later...
A smile appeared on his face.
"That’s why it seemed familiar."
All the women turned their heads toward him.
"Runes aren’t just magical symbols."
Adam traced a line with his finger.
"They form a true language."
He pointed to the first group of runes.
"This one receives mana."
Then a second.
"That one checks certain conditions."
Then a third.
"Next, the energy is sent to different parts depending on the result."
He continued naturally.
"Here, several functions work together."
"There, a rune temporarily stores mana."
"Then this part starts the whole process again."
Vespera immediately picked up the diagram.
Her eyes scanned the runes.
Then she froze.
"It’s..."
She reread it a second time.
Then a third.
"That’s exactly how they work..."
A heavy silence fell over the room.
Vespera reread the diagram again.
Then another.
Then a third.
Each time...
Adam’s explanations perfectly matched the actual operation of the barriers.
"It’s... incredible..."
the dragon finally murmured.
Adam, meanwhile, continued comparing the different plans.
His gaze flicked from one to the other.
Then he suddenly frowned.
"Wait..."
He grabbed three scrolls of different levels.
A village barrier.
A military barrier.
Then the Purple-grade Urban Barrier Blueprint.
He lined them up side by side.
"I think I’ve just figured something out."
All the women moved closer.
Adam placed his finger on several groups of runes.
"They all work."
"None of them are actually wrong."
"But..."
He thought for a few seconds.
"If we compare them, we notice a detail."
He pointed to the first barrier.
"This one loses a small amount of mana with each cycle."
Then another.
"Here, the energy transfer is slower than it should be."
A third.
"This one uses two rune sequences to accomplish a task that only one could do."
He continued.
"Here, one loop is unnecessarily long."
"There, several runes perform the exact same task."
"This section creates a slight instability when the mana reserve decreases."
Vespera immediately retrieved the scroll.
After a few moments of analysis...
Her eyes widened.
"He’s right..."
Selene frowned.
"Yet this barrier has been in use for over three hundred years."
"Yes."
Adam replied.
"It works perfectly."
"But just because something works doesn’t mean it’s optimal."
The word made several heads turn.
"Optimal?"
Elaria asked.
Adam searched for the right words.
"Let’s just say... there are several ways to achieve exactly the same result."
He picked up a quill.
Then he quickly redrew part of a runic circuit.
"Look."
"Both versions produce exactly the same effect."
"They activate the same defense."
"They use the same runes." "
"But in this version..."
He showed his diagram.
"The mana travels a shorter path."
"There are fewer unnecessary steps."
"Therefore, less energy loss."
"Less wear and tear."
"And slightly faster activation."
The women remained silent.
Adam continued.
"It’s the same here."
He pointed to another section.
"This rune receives mana..."
"Then sends it to a second..."
"Which passes it on to a third..."
"While this third rune could be directly connected to the first."
He simply drew a new line.
"Same result."
"Half the losses."
Vespera observed the change.
Then she started the mental calculation again.
Again.
Then a third time.
Finally...
She slowly raised her head.
"That’s right..."
Shiora was speechless.
"You’ve just simplified a circuit our mages have been using for centuries..."
Adam continued comparing the plans.
Then his gaze fell on the Violet plan.
He remained silent for several seconds.
"Interesting..."
"What is it?"
Isadora asked.
"This one is very different."
He gently stroked the parchment.
"It contains a great many more runes."
"Several times more than the others."
"It’s much more complex..."
"But it has far fewer... flaws."
"Flaws?"
Selene asked.
Adam shook his head.
"That’s not quite the right word."
"I’d say... potential for improvement."
He continued the comparison.
"The lower-quality blueprints are full of minor inefficiencies."
He picked up the simplest blueprint.
"The Broken Gray blueprints have a great many of them."
Then another.
"The White ones are a little better."
He continued.
"The Greens already correct a good number of these flaws."
"The Blues are much more refined."
Finally, he raised the Urban Barrier scroll.
"And this Purple blueprint..."
A slight smile appeared on his face.
"Is already exceptional."
"Its structure is much more complex."
"It contains several times more runes than the lower-tier blueprints, but they are organized in a much more intelligent way."
He paused briefly.
"Yet..."
He picked up a quill.
Then he circled three different spots.
"Even this one can still be improved."
This time...
Even Vespera remained completely still.
"You... mean..."
Adam nodded.
"Yes."
"The foundations are excellent."
"But some circuits can still be optimized." "
"The functions would remain exactly the same..."
"But they would consume less mana."
"They would respond more quickly."
"They would cause less rune wear."
"And the barrier would be even more stable in the long run."
An impressive silence filled the room.
No one spoke for several long seconds.
Finally...
Vespera sighed slowly.
"We’ve spent centuries creating barriers of ever-higher ranks..."
"Going from Off-Gray to White, then to Green, Blue, and finally Purple..."
She looked at Adam’s notes.
"While you... you try to perfect each rank to the maximum before even thinking about the next."
Adam shrugged slightly.
"I don’t know why..."
"But looking at these diagrams... I get the impression that their structure follows a precise logic."
"As if each rune were an instruction."
"And that together they formed a sequence of instructions designed to accomplish a task."
"Once you understand this logic..."
He gestured to all the barriers spread out on the table.
"You can achieve the exact same result by several different paths."
"Some are simply more efficient than others."
"Fewer unnecessary calculations, less mana wasted, better fluidity... in the end, the result is the same, but the barrier is more effective."
The five leaders then exchanged a discreet glance.
None of them uttered a word.
Since Adam had arrived in Valoria, several details had aroused the leaders’ suspicions.
The first was his physique.
In this world, men were naturally weak. Even the most talented generally excelled only in magic and possessed neither the strength nor the physical vitality that Adam displayed.
But that wasn’t the strangest thing.
His behavior was even stranger.
The men of this world felt virtually no desire for women. The very concept of a couple was almost nonexistent. When a woman desired a child, she simply entered into a contract with a man for procreation. After birth, the child was raised exclusively by its mother. The father was considered merely a biological parent who had fulfilled a duty, and then each went on with their own life.
But the passion and attraction Adam showed toward Elena or Isadora were completely foreign to them. They didn’t know any man who practiced anal sex, for example, because to them it was pointless. Yet Adam had practically destroyed both the mother and daughter’s anuses.
At first, they had simply thought he was an exception.
Then they had discovered his extraordinary statistics.
His ignorance of many things that were nonetheless basic.
His reactions to customs that any inhabitant of the continent had known since childhood.
And now...
His way of analyzing barriers.
The terms he sometimes used, like "optimization," "structure," "instruction," or "efficiency," were unknown to their schools of magic.
It wasn’t just a different kind of knowledge.
It was a completely different way of thinking.
The six women exchanged a discreet glance.
Without uttering a word, they all reached the same conclusion.
Adam probably did come from another realm...
He might not even be from this world.
Yet, seeing his genuinely perplexed expression when he spoke of his amnesia, they chose to keep their suspicions to themselves.
If Adam wasn’t yet ready to reveal his past, they wouldn’t force him.
They would simply wait until he trusted them enough to tell them the truth himself.
