Chapter 147: The Foundations of a New Network 4

Vespera was naturally the first.

She had already reopened her book.

Fundamental Runic Structures of Transmitters and Receivers.

Her gaze quickly scanned another page before she began to speak.

“I found at least twelve runic structures I don’t recognize.”

Adam raised an eyebrow.

“Twelve?”

“At least.”

She turned the book toward the group.

Several diagrams filled the page.

Circles.

Lines.

Extremely fine runic characters connected by structures Adam didn’t recognize.

Vespera placed a finger on the first one.

“This one is used almost everywhere in transmission devices.”

Adam leaned forward.

“And you know what it’s used for?”

“Not exactly.”

She seemed almost offended by her own answer.

“But I have a theory.”

Adam smiled.

“Obviously.”

Vespera ignored the remark.

“According to the diagrams, this rune always appears between the circuit that generates the signal and the one that actually sends it into the transmission medium.”

Elaria understood.

“A conversion rune?”

“Probably.”

Vespera nodded.

“I think it transforms a continuous flow of mana into controlled variations.”

Adam considered this.

“So something like a modulator.”

Vespera turned his head.

“Explain.”

“Instead of simply sending mana…”

He picked up his cup.

“Imagine I want to transmit information using the light in this room.”

He pointed to the glowing mushrooms.

“If the light always stays the same, I can’t transmit anything.”

“But if you vary it,” Elena understood.

“Exactly.”

Adam continued:

“On. Off. Stronger. Weaker. Different sequences.”

Vespera looked at the rune.

“So this structure could impose these variations on the mana.”

“It’s possible.”

She immediately moved on to a second rune.

“This one almost always appears in the receivers.”

Her finger traced several lines.

“It seems to do the opposite.”

Elaria nodded.

“Reconstructing a usable signal from the received variations.”

“Yes.”

Adam smiled.

“Modulation and demodulation.”

Vespera repeated slowly:

“Modulation… demodulation…”

Then she immediately wrote the two terms down on a piece of paper.

Adam looked at her.

“Are you really going to adopt all the words in my world?”

“Only the useful ones.”

“So all of them.”

“Probably.”

She continued.

A third rune seemed to serve to separate several signatures present in the same stream.

A fourth appeared in the repetition circuits.

A fifth probably detected the stability of a signal.

Another apparently compared a received sequence to an expected structure.

Adam sat up straight.

“That one might be related to error detection.”

Vespera nodded.

“That’s what I think too.”

She pointed to a series of small runic groups.

“And these interest me even more.”

Adam looked.

“Why?”

“They change depending on the transmission method.”

She indicated three patterns.

“Earth.”

First.

“Wind.”

Second.

“Water.”

Third.

“The general circuits remain almost identical.”

Then his finger moved back to the different groups.

“Only this part changes.”

Elaria understood immediately.

“Interface with the environment.”

“Exactly.”

Vespera sat up slightly.

“If we understand this principle, we might not need to build three complete types of devices.”

Adam smiled.

“A common core…”

Elaria finished:

“And different modules depending on the transmission medium.”

Vespera nodded.

“That would be much more efficient.”

Adam immediately thought of his old world.

“Modular.”

Vespera looked at him.

“One more word?”

“One more word.”

She wrote it down too.

Adam sighed.

“I’m going to end up having to write you a technical dictionary.”

Shiora, still waiting her turn, replied:

“We could sell it.”

Adam slowly turned his head.

“Shiora.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You literally just spoke.”

She quietly drank her tea.

Vespera continued before the conversation could go off the rails.

“There are also limitation runes.”

Adam turned back to her.

“Limitation of what?”

“Power.”

She showed a diagram.

“Some prevent the signal from exceeding a certain amplitude.”

“To avoid interference?”

“Probably.”

“Or damaging the receiver,” Elaria added.

Vespera nodded.

“Exactly.”

Then she finally closed her book.

“I want to start by reproducing these runes individually.”

Adam immediately raised a finger.

“Not directly onto a real network.”

Vespera sighed.

“Yes, Adam.”

Astraea added calmly,

“And certainly not on the World Tree.”

Vespera looked at both of them.

“I understood.”

Adam smiled.

“Two reminders are better than one.”

Elaria naturally took over.

She placed her own book on the table.

Conductory Alloys for Extended Transmission Circuits.

“The runes are only part of the problem.”

She opened a page covered in charts.

“The ancients used highly specialized materials.”

Adam moved closer.

“The unknown alloys?”

“Yes.”

She pointed to the first composition.

“This one uses mainly copper, with a small proportion of mithril and a third metal that I haven’t yet identified.”

Adam looked at the listed properties.

“High mana conductivity.”

“Very high.”

Elaria added:

“But that’s not what interests me most.”

She scrolled down to another line.

“Look at this.”

Adam read.

“Energy retention after interruption of flow: 97.8%.”

He blinked.

“Wait.”

Elaria smiled.

“Yes.”

“It retains almost all the energy?”

“For a short time.”

She turned the page.

“Then the loss gradually increases.”

Vespera moved closer immediately.

“It could act as a buffer.”

Adam nodded.

“Exactly.”

Elena looked at the three of them.

“Buffer?”

Adam thought of a simple explanation.

“Imagine a relay receives more mana than it can transmit at exactly the same instant.”

Elena nodded.

“It must either lose the excess…”

“Or hold onto it temporarily.”

“That’s it.”

Elaria tapped out the formula.

“So this alloy can absorb some of the mana, hold onto it for a few moments, and then release it.”

Adam looked at Vespera.

“To stabilize an erratic signal.”

“Or briefly power a device if the source is interrupted,” she added.

Elaria turned several more pages.

“But that’s just one example.” “

A second alloy combined black iron, copper, and a crystalline material ground into powder before being incorporated into the metal.

Its unique characteristic was different.

It prevented several nearby magical currents from mixing.

Adam looked up.

“Isolation.”

“Yes.”

Elaria smiled.

“Multiple transmission lines could pass through the same medium without causing so much interference.”

“Like multiple wires in the same cable.”

“Probably.”

Another material used a mithril base combined with an unknown metal.

This one possessed an even more unusual property.

Its conductivity changed slightly depending on the type of mana flowing through it.

Vespera frowned.

“Adaptive?”

Elaria nodded.

“Earth, Wind, or Water… the internal structure seems to reorganize itself slightly.”

Adam thought for a moment.

“So potentially a universal component.”

“Yes.”

She continued.

Some alloys were designed to withstand a constant flow for years without losing their properties.

Others absorbed almost all stray magical vibrations.

A few could even retain a precise mana signature.

Adam paused.

“Retain a signature?”

“Yes.”

Elaria turned the book toward him.

“Once exposed long enough to a certain mana pattern, the material can retain a kind of imprint.”

Lyriana looked up.

“Usable for identifying someone?”

Elaria thought for a moment.

“Perhaps.”

Adam immediately turned to Lyriana.

“You’ve already turned a network material into an identification system.”

“That’s my job.” “

Elaria continued, however:

“And some of these materials could be used for much more than this project.”

She counted.

“Temporary energy storage.”

“Stabilizing magical crystals.”

“Toolmaking.”

“Protecting complex circuits.”

“Constructing artifacts capable of withstanding multiple types of mana.”

Vespera added:

“Perhaps even improving certain teleportation formations.”

Elaria nodded.

“Potentially.”

Adam sighed.

“So the Archive has also just given us several branches of ancient metallurgy.”

“Yes.”

“This project is getting bigger every minute.”

Elaria replied very calmly:

“That’s good.”

Adam looked at her.

“For you, yes.”

Astraea then spoke.

She placed her book on her lap.

Unlike Vespera and Elaria…

She didn’t seem enthusiastic.

Rather cautious.

Very cautious.

“I have a possibility.”

Vespera immediately turned her head toward her.

Astraea raised a finger.

“A possibility.”

“Not permission.”

Vespera sat back properly.

Adam stifled a laugh.

Astraea continued:

“The World Tree could become the center of the network.”

Silence.

Even Adam didn’t respond immediately.

Astraea pointed to the ground.

“Its spiritual network already extends across practically the entire planet.”

She looked up.

“Its roots distribute mana.”

“Its spiritual branches cover immense distances.”

“And all these flows are naturally interconnected.”

Adam understood.

“So instead of building a completely artificial network…”

“You could perhaps use part of the one that already exists.”

Vespera murmured:

“A natural planetary network…”

Adam immediately felt his mind start racing again.

Nodes.

Branchs.

Continuous flows.

Points of concentration.

Regions.

Natural relays.

But Astraea immediately brought him back to reality.

“I said perhaps.”

Adam nodded.

“Yes.”

Her tone became more serious.

“We don’t touch anything until we fully understand the consequences.”

Astraea seemed satisfied.

“Good.”

She reopened her book.

“Because there is a significant problem.”

She showed several diagrams.

“The Archive’s transmissions primarily use elemental flows.”

“Earth.”

“Wind.”

“Water.”

Vespera nodded.

Astraea continued:

“But the World Tree’s internal flows contain a great deal of life energy.”

Adam frowned.

“So it’s not exactly compatible.”

“Not directly.”

She pointed to a section.

“However, the ancients also studied transmissions using neutral mana.”

Vespera leaned forward.

“Mana without elemental affinity?”

“Yes.”

Astraea nodded.

“And they possessed systems that allowed them to temporarily convert different types of mana into a neutral form to carry a signal.”

Adam understood immediately.

“Then reconversion upon arrival.”

“Exactly.”