Chapter 199: Seamless Expansion
Three months later, the construction of Nightlight City was basically complete. Thick city walls, buildings of various heights arranged in order, straight and wide paved avenues crisscrossing the city, and a paved avenue extending from the North Gate, connecting Nightlight City and the northern mining area. This was a city of miracles built rapidly by the great productive force of Magic.
Some Wizard Apprentices, Reserve Citizens, and Freemen had already begun to call Ace the City Founder. They began to expect that perhaps in a hundred years, a new city-state would rise here—a magical city-state belonging to Wizards!
In the west of Nightlight City, the Magic Castle was surrounded by dense Mana.
The entire Magic Castle was densely covered with Reinforced Construction Rune Arrays, Focus Rune Arrays, and Mana Gathering Rune Arrays, which Ace deduced from the Fortification Rune. This made the entire Magic Castle exceptionally strong and formed a high-Mana concentration environment.
According to Ace’s research, the higher the Mana concentration in the environment, the more conducive it is to Wizards’ meditation. So he simply turned the entire castle into a high-Mana concentration environment.
Additionally, the Focus Rune Array would constantly soothe the apprentices’ emotions, keeping them in a focused state for a long time, which was conducive to improving their meditation, learning, and research efficiency, and enhancing the quality of their rest.
The exterior walls of the Magic Castle were covered with Suggestion Rune Arrays to repel mortals. Every mortal who arrived here would unconsciously leave the vicinity of the castle under suggestion.
Since the castle was an inner-city castle, Ace did not deploy other defensive rune arrays for the time being, except for the functional rune arrays inscribed in each room. These rune arrays could be added later; there was no rush.
The three underground levels of the castle were the Mana Siphoning Ritual Layer, the Mana Stone Conversion Layer, and the Mana Storage and Supply Layer.
The lowest underground level was equipped with a massive Mana Siphoning and Conversion Magic Array (Soul Rune level). Hundreds of conduits led to an underground magma source, siphoning the active Fire Element Mana within.
After the Fire Element Mana was siphoned to Sub-Level 3, it would be converted into attribute-less ordinary Mana through a Reverse Conversion Magic Array, then transported to Sub-Level 2 along dense magical patterns.
A massive Mana Stone Conversion Magic Array (Soul Rune level) was arranged in the center of Sub-Level 2. This Magic Array would automatically convert the Mana transported from Sub-Level 3 into ordinary Mana Stones.
Scattered around the massive Mana Stone Conversion Magic Array were hundreds of small Lesser Mana Stone Conversion Magic Arrays. Wizard Apprentices could use these conversion arrays to create Lesser Mana Stones after paying 10% of their conversion output.
They could then use these Lesser Mana Stones to create Magic Items powered by Lesser Mana Stones after systematically studying the Enchantment course in the future. This was also the magical currency system Ace planned for the future.
Sub-Level 1 was the Mana Stone Storage Room and Mana Supply Room. The ordinary Mana Stones produced naturally on Sub-Level 2 every day would be stored here. Through dense Mana supply patterns, Mana would be supplied to every rune array in the castle.
Magic Castle, inside Ace’s tower.
Ace was in the tower’s laboratory floor. His research on the miraculous stomach pouch was nearing its end. Since the Spirit of the Book awakened, its abilities had greatly improved, providing him with significant assistance. It helped him analyze the unique runes within the miraculous stomach pouch in almost two weeks.
However, the difficulty of researching Space Magic far exceeded Ace’s imagination. Even with the help of the Spirit of the Book, it took him three months to barely complete the research.
The Spatial Expansion Rune Group, Object Reduction Rune Group, and Mass Reduction Rune Group were all very unique and complex rune groups. Researching their meanings almost cost Ace his life.
Unstable spatial structures nearly swallowed him in an instant. Ultimately, he analyzed two application directions: Spatial Expansion and Unstable Collapse.
The Spatial Expansion Rune Group seemed to be a very advanced form of rune. He could not replicate it into his own Soul Sanctuary. Ace speculated that his life essence might need to leap, becoming a Formal Wizard, before he could possibly replicate it into his Soul Sanctuary.
Since he couldn’t replicate it into the Soul Sanctuary, Ace’s research focus shifted to Rune Arrays. After three months of research, utilizing some runes from the Spatial Expansion Rune Group, he successfully developed the Seamless Expansion Rune Array and the Spatial Collapse Rune Array.
The Seamless Expansion Rune Array could expand space by about one cubic meter. Once the Rune Array lost its Mana supply, the expanded space would slowly disappear.
The Spatial Collapse Rune Array was a reverse application, creating an unstable expanded spatial structure about the size of a palm. Within three seconds, it had a certain probability of collapsing rapidly. Once collapsed, it would annihilate all matter within its range and severely injure spirit bodies.
Currently, he couldn’t achieve a stable collapse. If it didn’t collapse within three seconds, its effect would be greatly diminished.
This was a research direction with immense imaginative space and destructive power. Once the collapse probability issue was solved and it became a spell, it would be an overpowered killing move.
The nature of the Object Reduction Rune Group had been determined, but due to time constraints, Ace had not fully analyzed its expressed meaning and had not yet developed specific application spells or Rune Arrays.
Ace combined the Mass Reduction Rune Group with the Transformation Spell. Previously, the mass after transformation could not be increased or decreased proportionally, confining the transformation within a certain range—neither too small nor too large. The discovery of the Mass Reduction Rune Group greatly expanded the lower limit of this transformation.
Ace believed that once he became a Formal Wizard, he might be able to reverse-engineer the Mass Reduction Rune Group to research a Mass Increase Rune Group, thereby expanding the upper limit of the Transformation Spell. Perhaps in the future, a Wizard school with transformation as its primary method could be developed.
Ace and the mirror image tested the effect of the Seamless Expansion Rune Array again, then Ace said:
“It is confirmed. This version of the Seamless Expansion Rune Array is the most stable. Even if it loses Mana supply, it can maintain spatial stability for nearly three hours. Afterward, the space will slowly disappear, taking almost a day for the extended space to vanish completely. I believe it already possesses practical value!”
The mirror image operated the Seamless Expansion Rune Array expressionlessly, nodding slightly: “Indeed. We can inscribe it in the necessary places of the castle.”
Ace and the mirror image inscribed the Seamless Expansion Rune Array in the combat training ground, the magical plant garden, the south hall of the castle, and the Monster confinement and breeding area on the west side of the castle.
At night, the main gate on the south side of the castle slowly opened automatically. Wizard Apprentices filed in with their families and friends. The construction of Nightlight City was basically complete, and today was a time for celebration.
Walking through the main gate, they were surprised to find a different world inside the hall. The space far exceeded what they saw during the castle’s construction. A transparent dome displayed the starry night sky. Oil paintings on the surrounding walls depicted every scene the apprentices experienced from leaving the Northern March to the valley.
Hundreds of dining tables were arranged in an orderly fashion in the hall. After everyone was seated, hundreds of Controllable Light Orbs emitting cold light emerged from the Controllable Light Orb Rune Arrays inscribed on the transparent dome, illuminating the crowd like a brilliant galaxy.
Ace used Advanced Magical Trickery to distribute the prepared food to every occupied table. The atmosphere gradually became lively.
Leon looked at all this excitedly, whispering to Betty:
“This is the age of Magic. This is our age. Lord Ace has applied supernatural power to every aspect of our production and life. Following his footsteps, we will surely witness a brilliant future!”
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