fantasy novels Chapter 5 Let me try
Chapter 5 Let me try
"What...what's going on?!" The mayor and the townspeople retreated in fright, staring in horror at the stone formation that had begun to emit black smoke.
Jack was completely panicked at this moment. He could feel the magic power inside the formation becoming chaotic.
Moreover, there is a possibility of a backlash explosion.
Once it is completely detonated, the magic circle will be utterly destroyed.
At night, the monsters will raze this place to the ground.
As a second-tier mage, he wouldn't last more than a few days in this desolate wilderness.
"This formation is too outdated! It's beyond saving!"
Jack, no longer caring about his elegant image, put away his staff with a livid face, turned and ran towards the town entrance, shouting as he ran:
"My mana source has run out! I can't help you anymore, I'm going back to Red Dragon City!"
"..."
"Lord Jack! You can't leave! You can't abandon us!"
The mayor and several militiamen rushed forward anxiously and grabbed Jack's legs tightly.
"Get out of my way! I'm not the guardian mage of Blackrock Town, I'm just passing by! If the magic circle is broken, go find that Hamelin!" Jack angrily shook off the mayor, wanting nothing more than to escape as quickly as possible.
This commotion instantly plunged the entire square into panic.
"Is he telling the truth?!"
"It's over... the magic circle is going to be destroyed!"
"If the monsters come tonight, what will we use to stop them? It's freezing cold now; migrating with our wives and children is a sure way to die!"
The sounds of crying and sighing mingled together.
Amidst this desperate clamor, a calm voice suddenly rang out:
"Get out of the way."
The crowd looked in the direction of the sound and saw Rom slowly rolling up his coarse cloth sleeves. He walked past the crowd and headed straight for the stone formation that was emitting black smoke and could explode at any moment.
"Professor Hamelin said that this method of breaking the formation is too old, so let me give it a try."
Upon hearing this, Jack, whose leg was being held by the mayor, was taken aback for a moment, then let out a cold sneer:
"You dare to come? You're just an apprentice who doesn't even have magic perception. This kind of large magic circle has extremely complex elemental magic inside. If you dare to touch the runes even slightly, the overflowing elemental backlash will burn you to ashes!"
"Rom!"
Uncle Jill panicked and rushed forward to stop Rom, "I know you don't have any magical talent, don't be reckless! Let's go back and check on Hamelin first. If all else fails, we can all pool our resources and use the daytime to escape the famine in a wagon!"
Luo Mu didn't turn around. He glanced up at the gray sky and said coldly:
"There's no time. A blizzard is coming soon, and it will get dark much earlier than usual. There's no escaping it."
Sure enough, dark clouds had appeared on the horizon, and the surrounding light was much dimmer than before.
In the distant forest, the cold wind howled, seemingly accompanied by the faint roars of monsters.
"Sure enough...it's getting dark earlier than a few days ago!" The mayor swallowed hard, somewhat at a loss.
"Go home quickly! Lock the door!"
Someone shouted, and the crowd immediately descended into chaos.
Only Luo Mu walked directly to the stone formation and looked at the charred runes.
"Let me see what this mountain of code has become!"
Luo Mu silently read the magic circle and looked at the system panel.
[Target Scanned: Large Fire Gathering Magic Circle]
[Decompiling the underlying logic code...]
...
//Formation Name: Large-scale Fire Gathering and Cold Protection Array
Call_Server(The Flame Overlord Sleeping Deep Within the Earth); //Call a high-level leyline server across regions.
Verify_Identity("Pious Night's Watchman"); //Authentication loop
For (i=0; i<3000; i++){//A verbose safe search loop
Extract_Mana (Underground Weak Leyline Node); // Core: Gathers the surrounding leyline magic.
Filter_Impurity(Filter Warcraft Frenzy); //Filter impurities
Print_Effect(Holy Shield); // Renders extremely complex array patterns and lighting effects.
If (Magic Reserve > 80%)
Release_Heat(large-scale heat dissipation); //final heat release
}
[System Assessment: An ancient formation with acceptable logic. Repairing it requires 512 points of mental computing power.]
Looking at the code, Rom nodded to himself.
This is far more sophisticated than the small fire-gathering array in the stone house. The caster not only knows how to utilize underground ley line resources, but also added a safety mechanism to "filter frenzied aura".
The mage who left behind this high-level array many years ago must have been quite powerful.
However, running this thing requires 512 computing power. No wonder that second-tier mage named Jack's random patching caused the system to crash. With his strength as a second-tier mage, he probably couldn't handle such a huge framework at all.
However, in the eyes of Rom, a senior architect, there is still a lot of room for optimization in this code!
If it's about extracting magic veins from underground, why spend so much computing power on lighting and special effects? Why perform 3000 security checks before releasing heat? Were all the mages in the past fooled?
This is like a computer where you use 80% of the memory to run antivirus software and fancy desktops, leaving only 20% for actual games. No wonder it lags.
"By directly connecting the earth vein extraction module to the heat release module, bypassing those fancy verifications, the efficiency can be improved by at least several times."
Without hesitation, Rom raised his hands, seemingly gazing at the runes on the ground, but in reality, his consciousness had entered the system, and he began rapidly deleting, modifying, and reorganizing the code on the virtual keyboard.
The mayor watched as Rom stood there blankly in front of the formation, not knowing what he was doing. He wrung his hands anxiously and turned to look at Jill:
"Jill...can he really do this? When did Rom learn magic? He doesn't even have a staff!"
Seeing this, Jack, who had been stopped by the crowd, immediately let out a cold laugh:
"You bunch of country bumpkins, you actually believe this good-for-nothing's nonsense! This large magic circle is extremely complex. In my opinion, it is definitely the masterpiece left by some Grand Magister of the fourth rank or above."
Even I, a master mage, wouldn't dare say I can fully control it. This insignificant apprentice doesn't even have the most worn-out staff. What can he do? Cast spells with his mind? Nonsense!
Jack struggled to shake them off, shouting threats:
"In my opinion, the only way for you to survive now is to let me go! I'll go to the Mage Guild in Red Dragon City to report the disaster to you. Maybe before midnight, the guild will even send a high-ranking mage to repair the great array for you! If you stop me again, once the great array is destroyed, no one will survive!"
Upon hearing these words, the mayor hesitated visibly and loosened his grip on Jack's hand slightly.
Just then, a terrified scream suddenly erupted from the crowd:
"Fire! The fire is out!"
Everyone stared in horror at the center of the square.
The large fire array, which had been flashing wildly and emitting black smoke, went out completely with a muffled "whoosh" sound!
In an instant, an extremely cold air current, seemingly capable of freezing one's bones, swept across the entire square.
Without the protection of the formation, the chilling force of the blizzard descended instantly, and everyone shivered from the cold.
"It's over...it's completely over!" The mayor's face was ashen, and he collapsed onto the snow.
Seeing this, Jack laughed even more wildly, pointing at the formation and mocking, "Hahahaha! See that! I could have kept this formation going for a day or two..."
You all had to believe an outsider! This is the consequence—the great formation has completely run out of magic! It's destroyed! You're all doomed tonight!
...
"Shut up, you're so noisy."
A cold voice interrupted Jack's rant.
Rom slowly turned his head and glared coldly at Jack.
That fierce look in his eyes made Jack instinctively shut his mouth.
Rom looked back at the system panel.
The screen went out just now because he manually cut off the running process of the old version of the code.
Now, the new code has been completely refactored.
[Code refactoring complete. All unnecessary loops and lighting effects have been removed. Direct connections to ley lines have been established.]
//Simplified version of Fire Gathering Magic Circle direct connection protocol
Target = Underground Magic Node;
Action = Extract_Max (Full Power Extraction);
Execute = Ignite_Ring (ring exothermic);
//Note: Ignoring visual effects and defense verification, this is purely brute force heating.
[Estimated computing power consumption for the fix: 18 points]
[Current remaining computing power: 24 points.]
...
"18 o'clock?"
"This formation is indeed complex; just repairing it requires 18 points."
Fortunately, the computing power is sufficient... Let's solve the immediate problem first.
He took a deep breath and didn't hesitate:
"Run (executive)".
As Luo Mu pressed the Enter key in his mind, 18 points of mental computing power were instantly drained away.