Free Web NovelChapter 92: Chapter 79: Research Success
Darkness, endless Darkness.
In an instant, a wizened whisper reached Shire’s ears: "You’ve finally come."
But then, in the blink of an eye, light returned, and Shire found himself standing inside another Stone Ring.
"How was it?" Agatha immediately stepped forward and asked. "What did it feel like? Did anything happen?"
Shire didn’t answer right away. He looked back at the Stone Ring he had just been in, thought for a moment, and then said, "It was nothing. It was over quickly. I felt like I lost my balance for a second, but it’s fine. I’ll probably get used to it after a few more tries."
He didn’t mention the whisper he’d heard. Partly because he was afraid he might have misheard it, and partly because he truly had some secrets he couldn’t share.
"So, can you tell me how this thing works now?" Shire looked himself over, trying to feel if all his parts were still attached.
"Come with me." Agatha led him back to the previous ring. She crouched down, stroking the stone, her long fingers tracing over the patterns carved on it. "I’m now certain this is a type of Rune."
"Just as I said before, this type of Rune is completely different from the two types of runes currently in use." She picked up a book from the floor nearby, flipped to a dog-eared page, and handed it to Shire. "What’s drawn here is a set of Arcane Runes. Take a look."
Shire took the book and looked at the illustration. It was a circular Magic Array with an equilateral triangle in the middle. At the junction where the triangle met the outer circle, there was a ring of strange characters.
"This is a Magic Array for creating a Magic Puppet." Agatha looked up at Shire, explaining carefully, "That ring of characters is the Runes."
"It’s that long?" Shire asked, curious. "It looks like a long sentence."
"Yes. This type of Rune is actually a variation of written language. What’s recorded within them is more like a contract," Agatha continued to explain.
"A contract?" Shire stared at the illustration, then looked at the Stone Ring on the floor.
"That’s right." Agatha nodded, but instead of answering further, she gestured for Shire to read the text below.
"It says here that Arcane Runes are various fixed phrases, with each phrase corresponding to a specific pattern. Oh, I see," Shire said, holding the book with one hand and tracing the sentences with a finger from his other hand as he read. "This is a contract established with the Creator God, and also the key to leveraging the Magic Field."
Shire read it word for word. Then he looked at Agatha, awaiting her explanation.
"Correct. Historians haven’t reached a consensus on who first invented this set of Runes. 3,000 years ago, many Mages claimed to have received certain revelations while meditating. The strange thing is, they all heard them during the same period."
"The same period?" Shire was a little surprised. "What did they all hear?"
"Various Arcane Runes. I’m not a dedicated Arcane Mage, so my knowledge of them isn’t that thorough." Agatha spread her hands and shrugged.
"However, I do know that the phenomenon of receiving revelations lasted for about 100 years. After that, no one heard any more revelations during meditation." She raised a single finger and said slowly, "Those 100 years are known as the Hundred-Year God-Awakening."
"I think I’ve heard that term before," Shire mused. "They mentioned it in my Grammar School classes."
"Yes, that’s right." Agatha nodded, looking surprised he’d actually paid attention.
"The Four Gods Church’s official story is that the Creator God entered a state of slumber, and his four children now act in his stead. Those 100 years were the time when the Creator God awoke, and afterward, he fell back into his slumber," she continued.
"So, what about the Holy Runes of the Four Gods Church you mentioned earlier?" Shire closed the book and handed it back to Agatha.
"I don’t know much about the Holy Runes, only that they also came from the Creator God’s revelations. That’s why the Church often claims that Arcane Runes are just a derivative of Holy Runes, but the Arcane Mages just scoff at that idea." Agatha took the book and placed it back on the floor.
"Now, tell me about this." Shire pointed at the floor.
"Ah, this is the really interesting part." Agatha immediately perked up. "The operational logic for this set of Runes is completely different from the other two types. They seem to be just a kind of code. I’ve started naming them. For instance, this one I call ’Mountain,’ and that one ’Square.’"
"This Teleportation Gate uses eight different Runes that operate in a fixed arrangement. Four of them are the four carved on these two Stone Rings." She pointed to the two Stone Rings as she explained to Shire.
Shire looked at the Stone Rings and saw that each was indeed composed of four parts, and each part was carved with a single pattern, different from the other three.
"What troubled me at first was how to activate them. After I read the operation and maintenance manual over there, that question became even more pressing because I couldn’t find the controller mentioned in it."
Hearing this, Shire turned to look at the "Teleportation Gate Operation and Maintenance Manual" carved into the wall in Common Speech. "And then?"
"Later, I had Caocao help me sort through those scattered stone materials," Agatha said with a smile. "Caocao is great, very dedicated. We managed to sort out six new Runes."
Shire nodded. He had indeed seen Caocao helping Agatha organize the piles of materials the other day.
"I’ve already sorted the materials by their different Runes. And I’ve discovered something strange about them," Agatha said, gently patting the Stone Ring. "They aren’t ordinary stone. You know I’m an Alchemist, so I have some knowledge of various materials, but I’ve never seen this kind of stone before."
