Chapter 108 — Runes and Formulas
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 3
In composite magic circles, the formula for calculating the "self-interference" produced within a rune-knot is...
In composite magic circles, the optimal arrangement of each rune should follow...
And there were more records after that.
A great mass of formulas, laws, and logic all but filled this appended sheet, and many more could be seen on the pages following it. Almost at a glance, Gao Yang judged that these were already summaries and derivations of practical value.
Yet they still seemed not to be the final result, and still bore certain limitations of this age: many of the summaries were pure products of experience, lacking explicit formulas; many of the formulas were too disordered, not yet simplified and merged into more general expressions; and none of it had been organized into a system, but lay scattered and isolated here, wholly without order.
But they were already astonishing things.
"Did you derive these?" Gao Yang asked, almost crying out, his eyes wide.
"No, no..." Jennie answered with some alarm. "Not all of it. Only part of this notebook is mine; the rest is... the legacy of those who came before."
As she said the words "the legacy of those who came before," an unmistakable shade of gloom and sorrow came over her face.
"Hm... that's right, there are at least four kinds of handwriting in here," Gao Yang said, glancing down at the notebook. Then, flipping through it, he suddenly found that the script at the very beginning looked vaguely familiar. After studying it closely, he turned to Hedy. "Do you have that notebook with you? The wild mage's."
To Gao Yang's mind, the wild mage's notebook was nothing short of a treasure, but its value lay in the knowledge recorded within it rather than in the notebook itself. So he had made a copy, keeping the transcribed copy for himself and giving the original as a gift to Hedy, who was devoted to the study of magic.
Hedy nodded. "I have it. These past two days I happened to be studying its discussion of general rune groups..."
As she spoke, she drew the old notebook from within her garments. Gao Yang spread it open on the table and set it beside the notebook from Jennie's hands. Sure enough, the handwriting in the first quarter of the latter was identical to the wild mage's!
This thick, old notebook was actually another relic of the wild mage? And this relic of his had been circulating among mages, studied and carried forward by at least three later owners?
"What are you..." Jennie too had seen the notebook Hedy produced, and she spoke instinctively. "Do you know its owner?"
"I have met him," Gao Yang said, and pointed to Jennie's notebook, the one containing the rune calculation formulas. "Since you have this in hand, that proves you have met him too?"
"Unfortunately, by the time I obtained this notebook it had already changed hands three times," Jennie said, shaking her head. "You have met him? Where is he now? Could he be in this camp as well?"
A look of reverence and excitement came over the rune master's face, but Gao Yang had no choice but to disappoint her: "He is dead. The notebook I have is his only relic. Of course, now we must add this one in your hands."
Jenny opened her mouth, but in the end it became a sigh: "Is that so..."
"You said this notebook changed hands three times, so what about its previous owners?" Gao Yang did not give Jenny much time to dwell on her feelings; he pressed on at once, "The people who carried the research in this notebook further—are they still in the royal capital or the Arcane Society? Can you get in touch with them?"
"They... are dead too," Jenny's voice suddenly sank low. "Its second owner died on an expedition, and its third owner—the one before me—was Mr. Ravencrest, who studied runes alongside me. He died on a mission arranged by our mentor. This is his legacy."