Chapter 138: The Power of Calculation

“The infinite expansion structure of the Ley Network?” When Rebecca suddenly blurted out this string of words, even Gawain felt momentarily dazed. “Did you mention this to me before?”

“It wasn’t me who brought it up—it was you who mentioned it to me! Don’t you remember?” Rebecca waved her arms excitedly (to be honest, Gawain was a bit worried she might accidentally smack herself in the head with that iron staff). “You told me before that the Ley Network should become something more open, more expandable, easier to lay out and add or remove units from. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time but couldn’t make much progress—until recently—”

She gestured toward Jenny, who was still catching her breath nearby. “Jenny came by not long ago, and she brought some early research notes from the Wild Mage. That’s when I finally managed to complete the system. Ancestor, you know, the Wild Mage’s notebooks only cover part of the work. The Ley Network shown there is just the conclusion of the latter half, without the derivation process or the construction principles from the first half. So before, we could only ‘simulate’ the Ley Network in a clumsy way. But the materials Jenny has include the full logic behind the initial construction of the foundational runes…”

Though Rebecca usually seemed a bit scatterbrained, once she got into these technical topics, she just wouldn’t stop talking. Gawain knew she could go on until the next meal, so he quickly interrupted her. “Okay, okay, I get what you mean. You’ve finally pieced together the theory and now truly understand the Ley Network’s principles from the ground up, rather than just copying the old patterns. I understand that. Now show me this infinite expansion structure you’re talking about.”

“Let’s go inside and take a look—there are lots of diagrams!” Rebecca grabbed Gawain’s arm and pulled him toward the tent, calling back loudly to Jenny, “You should come too! Most of the calculations were done by you, after all!”

Inside Gawain’s tent, Rebecca excitedly spread out the scrolls Jenny had brought, laying them out in order until the entire table was covered. Finally, she unfolded a large blueprint of her own and placed it right in the center.

The sheets were filled with formulas, geometric figures, and logical deductions. They rigorously and astonishingly optimized and combined the foundational runes. Each page was dense with lines and patterns. Even Gawain, who knew quite a bit about magic, felt overwhelmed at first glance. But on the last sheet Rebecca laid out, all the complex calculations and connections had been simplified.

There was only one basic unit diagram—a symmetrical hexagonal structure composed of eight rune nodes: six forming the border and two inside. Its elegant simplicity was almost unbelievable. Gawain’s eyes were immediately drawn to it.

“This is…”

“The most basic unit of the Ley Network,” Rebecca’s eyes sparkled. “After all possible optimizations and simplifications, I found that the Ley Network only needs these eight rune nodes to perform the most fundamental charging and output functions. Inside, there’s only one interference node, so each of these ‘units’ stays well below the interference threshold. The more units you connect, the lower the overall interference becomes. See, it’s symmetrical, with opposite sides complementing each other, so…”

Gawain stopped hearing Rebecca’s words. In his mind, a breathtaking vision of the future unfolded—

This hexagonal basic unit was expanding, extending. Through its fundamental symmetrical structure, countless hexagons connected like a honeycomb, spreading across every possible place—factories, cities, anywhere humans gathered. This great energy device had finally broken free from the limitations of “magic circles.” After Rebecca and Jenny’s tireless optimizations, it had become the smallest basic unit, and thus the greatest magical marvel.

The Ley Network could finally live up to its name as a true “network.”

“How do we connect this structure to Ley Network Mark One?” Gawain immediately asked a practical question.

Ley Network Mark One and its counterpart Mark Two were currently operating in the steel mill and brick kiln. Several smaller “prototype Ley Networks” powered mana engines in the mines. Though these older models were called “old,” the oldest had only been running for a few months. Now Rebecca had developed a more advanced “honeycomb Ley Network,” but tearing out the old ones to replace them all at once would be costly and wasteful for the territory.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already thought about that,” Rebecca said confidently. “Although this hexagonal structure looks completely different from the old Ley Network, it’s actually cut and reshaped from the old model. They can connect directly. We just need to slightly adjust the rune patterns at the connection points. Jenny is a level-four runesmith—she’s the best person for this.”

Gawain nodded approvingly. “Good. From now on, all Ley Networks in the territory will be built on this new ‘honeycomb Ley Network’ foundation… But one thing to confirm—how safe is it?”

At that moment, Gawain’s mind flashed to a serious risk: the “Ley Network collapse.”

Though Rebecca had found a way to simplify and reshape the Ley Network into an infinitely expandable web, connecting all networks together, this inevitably brought a huge danger: once all the Ley Networks were linked, their overload risks would also be connected. Massive magical energy would surge through this infinite structure, and if something went wrong—runaway mana could spread through the network, destroying all connected mana devices!

On Earth, there were circuit breakers, voltage stabilizers, and other safety devices to protect the power grid. So Gawain immediately thought the Ley Network might need similar safeguards.

Rebecca froze at Gawain’s words, mouth agape, and after a long pause said, “Ah… I honestly hadn’t thought about that…”

Then she looked at him with admiration. “Ancestor, you’re amazing! How do you always think of so many practical problems as soon as a new design is drawn, as if you’ve already seen it running for decades?”

“Ahem… old man’s experience, old man’s experience,” Gawain coughed awkwardly and steered the conversation back on track. “Now think about how to solve the network’s safety problem. In the honeycomb structure, mana flows freely, relying entirely on the network’s self-balancing and energy dissipation to keep things stable. But if one ‘unit’ loses balance, the excess mana could exceed the tolerance of neighboring units, instantly burning them out, causing a vicious cycle…”

Rebecca’s eyes widened, clearly frightened by the possible scenario. Jenny frowned, deep in thought. “Then… maybe we shouldn’t make the Ley Network too big. We could divide it into separate regions.”

“That would defeat the purpose of the honeycomb structure,” Gawain shook his head. “The whole point is to allow the Ley Network to expand infinitely, fully connected.”

Rebecca looked at him curiously. “Ancestor, what do you suggest?”

Gawain looked down at the honeycomb unit on the table and suddenly asked, “How are two of these honeycomb units connected?”

“Directly connected,” Rebecca nodded matter-of-factly. “Two rune nodes placed together—that’s the most efficient transmission.”

“Make their connection fragile,” Gawain said, drawing on knowledge from his previous life since there was no perfect solution here. “Add a barrier… a connector made of cheap blackstone would work. Blackstone conducts mana but is fragile—it shatters under intense mana fluctuations.”

“You mean, separate each honeycomb unit from others by a bit, with blackstone ‘buffer material’ in between?” Rebecca scratched her head. “But blackstone’s mana conduction isn’t great. That might reduce the whole network’s efficiency by a quarter or more…”

“But it buys safety. Even if a few units go out of control, they’d just disconnect themselves from the main network without endangering the rest,” Gawain explained. “As for efficiency loss, once many basic units connect, the overall efficiency will compensate. And this is just a preliminary solution—we’ll find better ways in the future.”

He chuckled. “The current Ley Network is still very primitive—even with the honeycomb structure. It draws energy directly from the environment, and mana devices tap directly into the network. There’s no safety buffer, no voltage regulation, no metering, not even ‘conduits’—the devices just stick themselves onto the network. Don’t you think this connection method could be improved?”

Rebecca nodded thoughtfully. Jenny, still not quite used to this open, equal exchange of ideas, looked a bit shy but her eyes showed she was thinking hard about Gawain’s words.

“This is a newborn thing. It has a long way to go,” Gawain said, not wanting to overwhelm the two girls with problems that might take years to solve. “Take it slow, no rush. You’ve done a great job this time. Want a reward?”

“I want a new crystal for my staff!” Rebecca didn’t hold back with her great-grandfather, waving her iron staff excitedly. “Look, the crystal on my staff is really old!”

Gawain glanced over and immediately saw the crystal at the top of her iron staff was indeed worn out—its luster dimmed, several small corners chipped off, and the prongs holding it were visibly bent…

This must be what happens when you use a staff like a warhammer!

Gawain raised an eyebrow, about to suggest she skip the crystal replacement and just weld a spiked triangular club from the mechanical workshop with Nicholas’s help. But then he thought, she had earned it, and that last bit of mage aura she had came from that crystal. He sighed and said, “There’s a fire-element core in the treasury, brought from the old Gondor Empire. Take it and have the runesmith craft it onto your staff.”

Then he looked at Jenny. “What about you? What reward do you want?”

Jenny immediately shrank back. “I… I just did what I was supposed to… I don’t dare ask for a reward…”

“Still not used to this place?” Gawain smiled. “Here, all contributions are valued and rewarded, regardless of your background or status. I heard from Rebecca that you did most of the calculations.”

“I…” Jenny hesitated, then finally said, “I hope you can add Mr. Ravencrest’s name to the list of contributors for the honeycomb Ley Network… because the most important formulas were summarized by him.”

“Of course,” Gawain said.

(End of chapter)