Chapter 132 - 131: Foreseeable Future and Unpredictable Ending

Chapter 132: Chapter 131: Foreseeable Future and Unpredictable Ending

The six rules the old man had written in his notes were the culmination of a lifetime of energy and research. However, everything came to a halt at the final question scrawled below.

"Where did the problem lie?"

Simply put, the Six Major Rune Rules had been "falsified"—falsified by the old man himself. A Magic Array calculated to be successfully constructed and operated according to his derived rules and formulas had, in reality, failed. Why did it fail? Where was the correct direction?

This was the problem Jose O’Kenley had been pondering and trying to solve all these years. He could detect that he was just a thin membrane away from success, yet like a naive virgin hovering at the entrance, he simply couldn’t find the way in. The old man felt as though he had been wandering in a dead end all these years. But knowing it was one thing; breaking out of his own mental predicament was another.

Whenever this happened, the old man desperately hoped for a "fellow traveler." By relying on another person’s different train of thought, perhaps he could find a new direction. Unfortunately, this was merely an extravagant hope. Let alone a fellow traveler, he had never even had a supporter standing behind him...

Well, not *never*. The old man recalled memories from long ago, his eyes unwittingly growing a little moist again. He hurriedly shook his head to dispel the memories and continued to focus on the manuscript paper before him.

It was just an ordinary piece of manuscript paper, but to Jose O’Kenley, an old man well over three hundred years of age, it was worth its weight in gold. Because on this manuscript paper, the old man saw the shadow of a "fellow traveler" for the very first time.

On the paper, Gaode had used passable handwriting to accurately and clearly calculate the example written in the notes, perfectly following the Six Major Rune Rules. Following Gaode’s train of thought downward, a radiant glow gradually surfaced on Jose’s aged face.

No one had ever accepted his research results, much less understood his Six Major Rune Rules. But today, someone had.

Especially when he saw that Gaode had even used special, yet concise and strange symbols to simplify his Rune formulas and derive the theoretically correct answer, a gratified smile bloomed on the old man’s face.

In all his past years, Jose had never met a Mage who could accept his "heretical" idea: to deduce an Array on paper based solely on a few theorems and calculations, rather than relying on mighty personal strength.

Jose, who had just begun entertaining the thought that "perhaps there is a successor," soon lost the capacity to care about such things. He saw something even more shocking.

"Why did it fail?

"The formula might be missing an interference constant C.

"q=E*n*C."

Interference constant... In Jose’s knowledge system, "constant" was an extremely unfamiliar, coined word. But the moment he saw the formula and the term, he immediately grasped its meaning. The thin membrane that had troubled the old man for so long was pierced in an instant.

Yes, he had long discovered that any Magic Array that was successfully derived by formula but failed in practice shared a common trait: the gap between the Theoretical Robustness Value and the actual Robustness Value always fell within a specific range. Once it exceeded this range, it was as if a "fault line" appeared—if the formula calculated successfully, reality would similarly guarantee success.

But what exactly this range was, and where it came from, the old man had never been able to figure out.

Now, with Gaode’s awakening reminder, the old man experienced a sudden epiphany. A Magic Array was reproducible. Different people constructing the same verifiably unviable Magic Array would inevitably fail, completely unaffected by their own Rune Master level. This meant there must be a common factor influencing the success rate. This factor had to be what Gaode named the "interference constant."

Who could have imagined that a freshman who had never been exposed to Rune Science could so easily solve the problem that had plagued Jose, the Chief Rune Tutor of Cyrus Academy, for years?

The old man’s tangled thoughts were finally untangled.

Although Jose O’Kenley knew clearly that realizing the formula’s flaw didn’t mean solving all the problems—deriving the specific value of this interference constant would still require a lot of time, energy, and methodology—the most crucial and difficult analytical step had been broken through. The rest was nothing more than hard labor. The perfection of the Rune formulas was only a matter of time.

Understanding the significance that perfecting the Rune formulas would bring, Jose O’Kenley stood frozen in place, speechless for a long time.

Could it really be done?

At the moment closest to success, this old man who had always focused solely on his own affairs developed a sense of timidity for the first time. He was terrified that, in the end, he would find that the so-called Rune formulas were really just his fantasy and actually made no sense at all.

Jose O’Kenley closed his eyes and took a deep breath right where he stood. Finally, he opened his eyes again, picked up the manuscript paper Gaode had left behind, and once more walked into the small inner room. The exhaustion on the old man’s face had completely dissipated.

After leaving the Gavin Building of the Rune Department, Gaode first returned to Building Thirty in the First District to fill his waterskin with Leakless Water. Then, he set off toward the Cultivation Building.

He didn’t realize at all what kind of inspiration the formula and that single sentence he had left on the manuscript paper had brought to his tutor. And what kind of shockwaves it would send through the entire system of Rune Science.

Right now, Gaode only realized that if he didn’t seize the time to cultivate while the effects of the Leakless Water were still active, he would definitely be heartbroken over the waste.

At the Cultivation Building, after swiping his identity nameplate at the reception counter, Gaode spent 1 Gold Coin to rent a One Tier Cultivation Room for four hours.

In fact, due to limitations in energy and Spiritual Power, the time most Mages could spend cultivating a Guiding Technique in a day was generally under two hours. Therefore, the rental fee for Cultivation Rooms was charged in two-hour blocks. However, after drinking the Leakless Water, one’s daily cultivation time could be extended by half an hour. Thus, Gaode opted for an extension.

There was no need to worry about waste. According to the Cultivation Building’s rules, if the rented duration of a Cultivation Room couldn’t be used up all at once, the remaining time would not be cleared. Instead, it would be recorded and saved for the next use.

"Cultivation Room 11 on the fourth floor."

After he paid, the receptionist handed Gaode’s identity nameplate back to him with both hands and informed him of his Cultivation Room number. Gaode thanked her, climbed to the fourth floor, and entered his rented room.

Using his identity nameplate once more, he activated the Magic Node Array inside the Cultivation Room. He then watched as the Magic Concentration displayed on the Magic Detection Device surged from an initial "3" all the way up to "48" before stabilizing.

Knowing the time had come, Gaode no longer hesitated. He immediately sat cross-legged, quickly entered a Meditation State, and began operating the Apprentice Guidance Technique, Guiding Magic Power into his body.

Compared to a Basic Cultivation Room, a One Tier Cultivation Room with a Magic Concentration as high as "48" provided immense benefits for a Mage Apprentice’s cultivation. Gaode could sense that the Star Dust representing Magic Power around him was already dense enough to gather into actual clusters. Every time he went about Guiding Magic Power into his body, he was drawing in entire "star clusters" rather than individual specks of Star Dust. The efficiency was simply unimaginable.

Nearly two hours later, Gaode, having completed a full cultivation cycle, opened his eyes with a hint of exhaustion in his gaze. This meant his cultivation time for the day had reached its limit; continuing would just be a waste of time.

However, Gaode did not end his cultivation there today. He unfastened the waterskin tied to his waist and uncorked it. A peculiar, ethereal fragrance immediately wafted out.

Placing the waterskin to his lips, he took a few large mouthfuls. GLUG GLUG GLUG. Gaode felt refreshed in both body and mind, the fatigue brought on by cultivation largely dispelled.

Having already witnessed the miraculous effects of the Leakless Water, Gaode didn’t waste any more time marveling. Instead, he entered the cultivation state once again.

Another half hour later, Gaode finally and completely finished his cultivation for the day.

"Cultivating once in a One Tier Cultivation Room yields progress equivalent to a Naked Cultivator four times over. This kind of boosted efficiency is already worth eighty percent of drinking a Basic Magic Potion," Gaode calculated silently.

Of course, the auxiliary cultivation effect of a One Tier Cultivation Room still had a slight gap compared to directly drinking a Magic Potion. After all, the former only increased the Magic Concentration in the environment; he still had to rely on himself for Guiding Magic Power into his body. Meanwhile, after drinking the latter, Magic Power could be directly generated within the body, saving the step of "Guiding into the body."

But did that mean a One Tier Cultivation Room couldn’t compare to a Basic Magic Potion?

Not necessarily. The former only cost 10 Silver Coins to assist one cultivation session, while the latter required 2 Gold Coins. That was a fourfold cost difference, yet the efficiency only differed by twenty percent. In terms of cost-effectiveness, it was an absolute victory for the One Tier Cultivation Room.

"After drinking the Leakless Water, I can effortlessly cultivate the Guiding Technique for an extra half hour. With this added half hour, the progress of a single cultivation session is almost equivalent to a Naked Cultivator six times over," Gaode muttered.

If he could use the combination of Leakless Water and a One Tier Cultivation Room every day, his cultivation speed would surpass that of drinking a Basic Magic Potion. It was just a pity that the Leakless Water was a one-time consumable.

"I’ll drink all the remaining Leakless Water after going back and see how many days its effects can last," Gaode decided inwardly.

Waste was nonexistent.