Chapter 53: The Magic Network

Rebecca’s reason for saying “it can’t be used” was simple.

Ordinary people lack the ability to charge a magic circle with energy, and they can’t control when it turns on or off.

The professional magic circles crafted by mages are fundamentally different from the simple symbols that common folk carve into stone. It’s like the difference between picking up a random stick from the roadside to use as a cane, versus engineering a wheelchair with all sorts of technical know-how. The gap is as wide as that between raw materials and industrial products. The symbols carved into stone don’t require anyone’s intervention to keep working—they produce a faint effect continuously without any skill needed. But magic circles? They’re complex mechanisms that need to be operated.

Running on two legs just means lifting your feet, but to reach seventy miles per hour, you need to buy a car, fuel it, and get a driver’s license. Magic circles are the same: they require energy infusion and a skilled professional to manage their activation and shutdown—even the simplest ones.

Heddy and Rebecca could, without worrying about status, go to the blacksmith’s and carve simple combustion-assisting magic circles on every furnace. But they couldn’t stay there all day, recharging the magic circles every time a batch of ore was smelted, nor could they control the energy flow of all the circles simultaneously.

“If you want to carve the charging part onto the furnace, its size is inevitably limited. Even with Aunt Heddy’s skill, you’d probably only manage to carve auxiliary magic circles of second level or below,” Rebecca explained seriously, trying to look professional. “And such small-scale magic circles can’t be self-charging—magic circles that can draw ambient mana on their own have to be at least as big as a whole tent. So the furnace’s magic circles must be charged by someone. Also, even the simplest magic circles require precise on-off control, which ordinary people can’t handle…”

Through Gawain Cecil’s memories, Gawain knew that magic circles in this world had extremely complex classifications and operating principles. Setting aside the headache-inducing technical details, they could be roughly categorized as follows:

By scale: small, medium, large, and super-large. The smallest magic circles can be carved onto armor or weapons, while the two largest magic circles in the world are located in the Northern Violet Kingdom’s Thousand Towers City and the “Sanctuary of the Stars” built by the elves in the southern continent. These two are city-sized, outlined by city roads—truly terrifying in scale.

By functional complexity: single-function and composite.

By charging method: self-charging and externally charged. Self-charging magic circles have a complex “absorption” structure that draws ambient mana to recharge themselves. But since ambient mana outside of mana foci is very sparse, the absorption structures are huge, making all self-charging magic circles enormous. All small magic circles must rely on external energy infusion.

Moreover, self-charging magic circles are rarely used in this world because they’re inefficient.

A self-charging structure often occupies 80% of the magic circle’s area but provides less energy than a single branch of a mana focus. That large area could instead hold several complex rune arrays. So, for efficiency, mages prefer to charge magic circles themselves rather than use slow, bulky self-charging structures.

This is why all large-scale magical facilities are located near mana foci—because charging is convenient.

Gawain stroked his chin, staring at the blacksmith’s furnace before him.

Then he asked two questions:

“Is it absolutely necessary to carve the charging part onto the furnace?”

“Is it absolutely necessary to cram all functions into a single magic circle?”

Rebecca blinked, a little puzzled. “If not, then what?”

Gawain felt he’d grasped the crux of the problem: people in this world seemed focused only on turning mana into raw, brute force or on individual power usage, never considering how to spread this “supernatural power” more broadly and at a lower level.

“Why not carve a large self-charging magic circle that absorbs ambient mana from the air, then leave an ‘output port’ on this large circle to supply energy to small magic circles on the furnace? That solves the charging problem. As for the on-off control, you can make the connection between the furnace and the self-charging circle controllable—cut the connection, and the small circle naturally stops. The large self-charging circle itself can dissipate excess energy, so there’s no risk of overload…”

Rebecca quickly grasped Gawain’s idea in her own way. “You mean breaking the magic circle into pieces and using them together? You can do that?”

“That’s one way to think about it,” Gawain nodded. “I think I should discuss it with Heddy—she’s more of an expert.”

Rebecca wholeheartedly agreed. Although Aunt Heddy’s spellcasting precision was only enough to trace the human body’s outline, her theoretical knowledge might surpass many mid-level mages!

So Gawain hurriedly left the blacksmith’s shop with his companions, leaving old blacksmith Hammer and a group of apprentices and laborers staring at each other in confusion.

“Master, are we… still going to fire up the furnace?” an apprentice asked cautiously. He hadn’t dared breathe when the duke and viscount were standing nearby, but now he finally spoke.

The old blacksmith glared at him. “Of course we’re firing it up! Don’t even think about slacking off—whether we get to eat meat tonight depends on this batch!”

Meanwhile, Gawain had already sent Amber to fetch Heddy to his tent. But after he explained his idea, the elegant lady shook her head.

“The idea of using one magic circle to charge another is good, but it’s too difficult to operate… Mana output requires precision. If the ‘interface’ malfunctions, both magic circles will be ruined. Also, the efficiency of self-charging magic circles is a big problem. Even if you carve a magic circle as big as the blacksmith’s courtyard, the mana it produces probably wouldn’t be enough to power more than a few magical furnaces…”

Gawain looked at Heddy. He expected these objections, but he already had solutions.

He smiled faintly. As his thoughts deepened, he felt he’d finally found the right path. He pushed aside the pile of blueprints on the table and spread out a particularly large sheet covered with symbols and lines.

He had drawn this diagram days ago but only now realized its potential.

“Take a look at this,” Gawain said.

Heddy stared at the large rune array on the table, surprised. “Ancestor… you actually know how to draw magic circles?!”

“I only know a little, and this circle wasn’t created by me,” Gawain teased. “Just look it over and tell me what you think.”

Heddy lowered her head, carefully studying every symbol and their connections. Her brow furrowed. “They’re all the most basic runes… The arrangement and combinations are also very simple. The highest energy level doesn’t seem to exceed second level?”

Gawain nodded. “Because the person who left this magic circle could only control energy intensity up to second-level rune arrays.”

Heddy looked up at him in surprise, then back down, a trace of admiration creeping onto her face. “It’s really designed entirely with basic runes… Creating such a large-scale magic circle with the simplest runes… it’s an incredible feat. It looks like a structure that can draw ambient energy from the natural environment. But what are these extra complex structures for…”

Gawain pointed to the repeatedly patterned structures in the circle’s central ring. “Amplification.”

“Amplification?” Heddy’s eyes widened, then she suddenly understood. “Right! That can amplify… And these structures here can further purify the ambient energy… So these basic runes can draw ambient energy more efficiently. This is really… really…”

Heddy struggled to find the right words to describe the feeling this magic circle gave her, but Gawain knew what she meant. “It’s a tremendous effort, right? Like a cripple traveling the world on crutches, or an unarmed person carving poetry into stone with a stick. It’s an effort beyond limits—using the most basic second-level runes to create a miracle that even great mages would gape at.”

“Those great mages probably wouldn’t gape. They wouldn’t even give it a second glance,” Heddy said with a bitter smile. “Because although this magic circle is very creative, it’s still just a patchwork of second-level runes. No matter how efficient, the energy it draws can’t compare to the personal mana wells of great mages…”

“But it’s a prototype, a foundational model that can be continuously improved. It only uses second-level runes, but what if you replaced them with third-level runes? What if you increased the complexity of their combinations to third level? How many times more efficient would it be than existing self-charging magic circles?” Gawain said, pointing to several special nodes in the diagram. “And beyond efficiency, look at these more critical parts.”

“This… looks like a mana conduit?” Heddy frowned. “I saw them earlier but didn’t see corresponding energy-consuming units. Is the magic circle incomplete?”

“No, this magic circle never included energy-consuming units. Its sole function is to supply mana externally—to a weak human. Because of this, its internal interfaces differ from normal magic circles. These conduits are so ‘compatible’ that any energy-consuming unit can connect to them,” Gawain explained slowly. “Now, can this magic circle supply energy to the blacksmith’s shop?”

“If all the symbols work smoothly… no, they will definitely work. It’s almost at the limit of calculation!” Heddy’s expression grew excited. She had finally broken free from traditional mage thinking and realized the greatness of this design. “A highly efficient self-charging magic circle that can output energy over a broad ‘frequency’ range. It can fully power the blacksmith’s shop, maybe even more!”

She eagerly asked, “Ancestor, what’s the name of this genius magic circle?”

Gawain pulled out a worn notebook. “No need for me to name it—the creator already did.”

He flipped to a page with a short note:

“Annie, today I finally completed the ‘Magic Network.’ May it bless your health.”

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(End of chapter)