N-A-A Chapter 158 The Mentor's Letter
Chapter 158 The Mentor's Letter
Chapter 158 The Mentor's Reply
The silence of the eagle's nest was broken by the soft sound of Phobos's wings flapping against the glass. Karen looked up from a pile of drafts, and Snow deftly slipped through the deliberately left gap in the high window, landing steadily on the unused alchemy cauldron stand beside the desk, a familiar letter tied to her lap with special magical thread.
"Thank you for your hard work, Phobos," Karen said softly, unrolling the letter. The raven affectionately nuzzled his fingers with its beak before flying back to its perch by the window and beginning to preen its feathers.
Karen took a deep breath and untied the thread. She always felt a strange sense of peace whenever she saw the professor's handwriting.
Karen,
Your letter has been read. Regarding the model derivation of the protective badge's energy decay, the basic framework is clear and the direction is correct, demonstrating your deepening understanding of the essence of energy flow. Dividing energy consumption into five stages—start-up, steady-state maintenance, impact response, overload damage, and post-impact recovery—is a reasonable starting point.
Karen's gaze swept quickly across the initial affirmation; he knew the key points were in what followed.
However, some of the ideas are too advanced, far exceeding your current knowledge and practical capabilities. This is especially true for "intelligent energy allocation." This requires you to build a complex core of predictive perception and logical allocation, which is tantamount to creating a miniature alchemical intelligent entity. Its difficulty far exceeds the value of a basic protective badge. Of course, I am not asking you to give up, but I suggest you reduce your investment of energy in this area.
Karen pursed her lips and continued reading.
The idea of "rapidly repairing material damage and smoothing textures after impact overload" is very promising, but also too complex. The instantaneous repair of materials at the microscopic level involves a great deal of complex knowledge and is not the core of the current research topic.
You should focus your efforts on the following two feasible directions that directly contribute to solving the core "decay" problem:
I. Secondary Circuit "Rune Gate" Design. This approach is correct. The "active rune dormancy" concept in Lucian's Journal can be used as a reference. You need to design a stable, reliable, and extremely low-energy-consumption rune structure as a "gate" that can instantly activate or deactivate preset secondary protection circuits in response to specific magical signals, such as the focused will of the badge wearer or the magical shockwave when attacked. The key lies in the low power consumption, high response speed, and absolute stability of the gate rune itself. Focus on the simplification, optimization, and controllable opening and closing of the basic protection runes. This is the key to solving the unnecessary energy consumption during the "steady-state maintenance period."
II. Experiments to Enhance Material Fatigue Resistance. Your proposed direction, similar to alloying with Dragonblood Mithril, is worth continuing to explore. This is a "shortcut" bestowed upon you by your talent, but you must strictly adhere to experimental protocols. I understand that your alchemical environment at Hogwarts is not entirely safe, therefore, for the time being, please refrain from researching materials with inherent dangers. Later, another gift will be sent to Hogwarts that will assist you in researching those dangerous materials; please check your mail.
Additionally, your suggestions for observing and preventing "abnormalities," as well as the defensive training you provided for your companions in advance, demonstrate clear thinking and appropriate measures.
Nico and I both agreed. Planning ahead is a wise choice, especially remaining vigilant before a storm. But remember, the fundamental guarantee is the growth of strength; don't let excessive focus on external factors cause you to neglect your own self-improvement. Focus on the present and solidify your foundation.
Castor Grindelwald's letters ended with his familiar, sharp signature.
Karen laid the letter flat on the table, her fingertips unconsciously tracing its contents. What was the gift? She was curious.
However, it's clear that we won't get there yet.
Then he picked up his own parchment, which was filled with various optimization methods, and compared it with the guidance in his mentor's letter.
Karen wasn't a stubborn person, and her advisor had said that he wasn't being asked to give up, but rather to postpone some of the research.
"Fatigue resistance of the secondary loop 'Runegate' material—" he repeated the core task in a low voice.
Without hesitation, Karen immediately began his research. He first extracted the specific requirements from Castor's letter regarding "rune gates" and "material testing," writing them out on a new piece of parchment and placing it in the most prominent position before him. Next, he pulled out a thick notebook containing notes on the principles of basic protective spells, the control of ancient rune energy nodes, and the control of rune activity from Lucian's Diary.
He first focused on the "rune gate." Several possible simplified secondary circuit structures quickly formed in his mind—a miniature deflection field? A low-power repulsive barrier? Or simply a localized reinforcement of a weak point in the basic protective layer? Each structure required a matching "gate" for control.
Karen pulled out a clean parchment and dipped his quill in ink. He first skillfully drew a basic diagram of the standard Ironclad Charm's magical flow. Then, he attempted to design a miniature rune combination at one of the secondary nodes of energy flow. This combination had to meet the following requirements: minimize energy consumption under normal conditions, be instantly activated by specific stimuli, such as the wearer's intention or external impact, and, once activated, stably perform the function of the preset secondary circuit.
He attempted to construct a miniature "lock" using several low-cost ancient runes representing "stasis" and "binding," and then used a rune representing "release" and "connection" as the "key." However, the simulated mana flow showed that the "key" rune itself required continuous mana to maintain its "standby" state, which violated the principle of low cost.
"No way," Karen frowned and crossed out the design.
He then attempted to draw inspiration from Lucien's notes on "magic catalysts," designing a structure similar to an inert crystal embedded in the circuit. Under normal conditions, it was almost transparent to the flow of magic, having no effect whatsoever. However, when magical fluctuations of a specific frequency or intensity passed through it,
It will trigger the pre-set rune reaction within it, instantly opening the secondary circuit.
"This idea works!" Karen's eyes lit up, and she quickly sketched it out on a draft paper. But new problems arose: How to ensure that this "catalyst" is only sensitive to the specific magical fluctuations that need to be responded to? How to prevent environmental clutter from triggering it accidentally? How to guarantee its instantaneous response speed and stability upon activation?
Problems came one after another, but the direction and approach of the research remained crystal clear. Karen was completely immersed in it, constantly deducing, revising, and simulating in his notes and drafts. Only the rustling of a quill pen across parchment and the occasional murmur of him reciting a rune name or a fragment of a spell could be heard in the Eagle's Nest.
Time slipped by unnoticed. When Karen felt his eyes stinging and looked up, the sky outside the window had already darkened. The table was covered with drafts of various rune structures and magic flow diagrams. Although it was still far from a mature and reliable "rune gate" design, he had initially selected two relatively feasible basic structural prototypes and listed a series of key parameters that needed to be experimentally verified.
He carefully organized the drafts about the "rune gate" and set them aside. Next was the more practical material research. Karen did not intend to study materials with a certain degree of danger. He listened to his mentor's advice and waited for the arrival of that mysterious gift. However, this did not affect Karen's research on the materials that had already been prepared.
Karen stood up, stretched his stiff neck, and walked to a locked cabinet in the corner of the room. Opening the cabinet, he found neatly arranged the precious materials he had brought back from France: small pieces of cut dragon skin, a small box of selected obsidian microcrystalline particles, and several strands of hair-thin mithril-dragon blood alloy wire gleaming with dark red and silvery-white luster.
Under the lights of the Eagle's Nest, the young alchemist's figure appeared focused and resolute, practicing the most basic alchemical creed: focus and empirical evidence.