Watching Jelia with her eager, almost cat-like anticipation, Ali simply shook her head, unsure how much of her advice had actually been absorbed.
Clearly, the iron pot wasn’t sothing Jelia had been carrying around.
And the wild vegetables simring within it, while abundant outside, were still sourced from the wilderness.
Fortunately, Code 19 was dead, and Gick’s attention wouldn’t be on them for the ti being.
Monka had already set his plans in motion.
Whatever his intentions, Gick couldn’t access the village’s secrets without confronting him.
As long as Monka remained alive, the villagers of the forest settlent stood united as one.
How would Gick deal with Monka?
Assassination? Imprisonnt?
Neither seed like viable strategies.
Such conventional tactics wouldn’t catch a figure as prepared as Monka unawares.
Besides, killing him directly would likely eliminate the last person knowledgeable about all the village’s secrets.
"It’s quite the predicant," Ali remarked, though her face betrayed a sense of schadenfreude.
It’s natural, after all.
Seeing one’s adversary in trouble brings a special kind of joy.
If one doesn’t feel this satisfaction, then their so-called hatred might just be pretense.
True hatred doesn’t choose ans, doesn’t care about onlookers’ gaze, and seeks only the demise of its object.
That’s the essence of pure loathing.
It appeared the contents of the pot were nearly done.
Ali watched as Jelia served herself a portion in a bowl, taking it to a stone to start eating with so bread.
Roronora, too, had his own bowl.
It seed Ali was on the verge of resorting to eating with her hands.
With a sigh, Ali stood up: "After we finish eating, Roronora, you’re coming with . Regardless of how the villagers decide, it’s ti we made our move."
Seizing the mont while Gick’s attention was tied up with Monka presented the perfect opportunity to strike.
"Understood."
Though uncertain of Ali’s plan, Roronora knew that since Jelia had instructed him to follow Ali, he would comply with her directives.
With a nod, his focus returned to his bowl.
A twitch flickered at the corner of Ali’s eye.
Was she truly less important than a bowl of stew?
She decided to step outside for so fresh air before her frustration reached a boiling point.
Navigating through the increasingly narrow passageway, Ali erged once more into the embrace of sunlight.
This was the mont to test the spell matrix from the booklet.
Surveying the tranquil surroundings, Ali seated herself cross-legged atop the mound, pulling out the booklet filled with the unfinished spell matrix equations.
While the final deductions were yet incomplete, the necessary conditions and constraints were in place.
Whoever would continue the work, the outco would remain unchanged.
Like a math problem, the tools and thods might vary, but the correct result is always singular.
Following the booklet’s logic, Ali, with her solid foundation, made rapid progress.
Spell runes were deciphered and constructed one after another.
With each rune solved, Ali imdiately materialized it with her mana.
Before fully constructing the matrix, Ali had to ensure that it wasn’t so kind of devastating trap.
It wasn’t unheard of for malevolent predecessors to leave half-completed equations on paper, leading those who followed to believe they’d discovered so secret technique, only to end up with a self-destructing matrix or to find the equation fundantally flawed at a crucial juncture, resulting in a collapsing matrix and rampant mana.
Who knew if Code 19 had learned such a trick to ensnare the unwary?
Given Code 19’s matrix construction abilities, deceiving Ali would be quite the challenge, but it wasn’t necessarily all his own work.
Acquiring it from soone else would serve the sa purpose.
The key was making it believable as harmless.
Like a lie interwoven with verifiable truths, it was most effective.
Constructing the foundational rune didn’t take Ali much ti; this wasn’t particularly challenging, and any magus with a solid foundation could complete it within half an hour.
It’s worth noting that in combat, constructing a rune of similar complexity would need to be completed in no more than ten seconds.
For a magus specializing in spells, ti was life, and the length of a battle could equate to the span of life itself.
With only thirty basic runes, while not a large number, their combination could push the limits of a level 3 magus.
"Now cos the most dangerous part."
If Code 19 were to tamper with anything, he wouldn’t choose the foundational runes, as those could easily be detected and the user could abandon them if things went south, lacking sufficient lethality.
If Ali were to set a trap, she would certainly place it in the linking structure that followed the completion of the foundational runes.
The spell matrix is divided into three parts: foundational rune, linking structure, and external unit.
Generally, the foundational rune determines the functional scope of the matrix, the linking structure determines the matrix’s functional efficacy, and the external unit, not always necessary, is used to enhance certain functions or to complent the matrix itself.
Tampering with the linking structure ans that no abnormalities would be detected until the user begins charging the matrix.
As the most complex part of the matrix, issues here are the hardest to inspect.
And if problems arise at this stage, the matrix could collapse during mid-charge or during a pre-launch stress test!
Then, it would explode like a bomb.
What should a complete and functional spell matrix look like?
The various foundational runes act as the matrix’s fulcrum, the intricate linking structure serves as the skeleton for mana flow, and the diverse external units provide new mana pathways.
The entire system operates in an orderly manner, much like a well-regulated empire.
In such a structure, stability is always the primary concern, followed by the overall performance level.
After all, humans use the spell matrix, and no human can withstand such a potent mana shock without injury.
If a different species encounters an issue, they might correct it with their extraordinary racial talents.
However, most human magi would only face death.
"What an ingenious concept."
Observing the halo floating in the air, with a disk about the size of two palms at the heart of the hazy luminescence, a spell matrix suspended there, emanating a soft golden glow that turned the surrounding mana mist into a pale gold.
This was the complete form of the matrix from the booklet found in Code 19’s Space Ring.
A spell matrix of unclear function, currently demonstrating only the capabilities for powerful mana condensation, purification, and solidification.
While potentially useful for cultivation or creating specific mana environnts, it holds no significance for Ali.
If it were rely a matrix for this purpose, she has access to many superior alternatives.
What she desires is the "key" from the other booklet!
This simple rule-based encryption is a completely different concept from the complex spell encryption on the Space Ring.
Spell encryption, though intricate and with the risk of self-destruction, is ultimately based on the properties of mana.
Draining the mana directly renders any encryption spell ineffective, aning spell encryption can be forcefully solved, even quickly.
However, the rule-based encryption in the booklet differs significantly.
Setting aside whether a brute-force solution even exists, if there is one, the ti required to break it poses a huge problem.
Ti is precisely what Ali lacks the most!
If she can’t decrypt this intelligence quickly, the booklet will beco nothing more than waste paper after this period.
The spell matrix rotates slowly, its pale golden light faint yet stable.
Within a radius of thirty ters, mana converges into a space of three ters in radius, effectively increasing mana concentration tenfold!
While this effect is undeniably impressive, as ntioned before, it lacks relevance.
Neither as a magus nor to Ali personally does this spell matrix reveal sufficient value.
"It seems I must find another way. This spell matrix might have been useful to Code 19, but it’s utterly useless to ."
Ali felt a tinge of disappointnt.
Initially, her hopes were high, as all signs pointed to this being the key she sought.
Yet, the outco was beyond her expectations.
Perhaps Code 19 never intended to leave a "key" behind.
Maybe he had contemplated it but ultimately feared his secrets being exposed and chose not to preserve it.
The true answer to this question now lay only with Code 19.
With a sigh, Ali regrouped her thoughts.
If there were no shortcuts available, then she would face the challenge head-on, fair and square.
Gick’s power was undoubtedly limited.
He could mobilize magi up to the first level at most.
Magi of higher calibers weren’t individuals who could be easily commanded; they were akin to strategic deterrence in tactics and strategy.
The extent of destruction a special-level magus could unleash was beyond ordinary imagination.
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