Chapter 108: Chapter 105: Test! Invisible Enemy?
In his dorm room, the world reshaped itself through Allen’s senses.
In the corner, a few nearly imperceptible specks of dust tumbled in a faint air current.
Beneath Ah Fu’s ramrod-straight chest, the Middle-Tier Magic Stone that served as his Energy Core pulsed steadily, appearing as a bright blue point of light in Allen’s vision.
Even the warning Rune Circuits on the dorm walls looked like glowing blue veins, outlining the room’s skeleton.
With another thought, the image shifted.
The world lost its color, replaced by a thermal image composed of reds, yellows, and blues.
Ah Fu radiated a small amount of heat, while the Alchemy Machine, which had just been running on overload, appeared a blinding crimson.
"The scout is in position," Allen muttered to himself.
He severed the connection with the Demon Eye, and the black sphere floating in midair fell silently back onto the desk.
Allen took out another piece of Alchemy Equipnt: the monocle he had designed long ago.
The manufacturing process itself wasn’t complex. It shared the sa technical principles as the Demon Eye’s reconnaissance module, and the corresponding detection Runes had already been etched onto the lens.
The real difficulty lay in linking DSeek with the monocle.
DSeek existed only on a purely spiritual plane.
The monocle, however, was a physical entity.
Projecting the computational results from his Sea of Spirit onto a physical lens wasn’t hard to solve. The challenge was enabling DSeek to "see" the perspective captured by the lens. It required a two-way bridge.
In search of a "bridge" for seamless interaction, Allen had invested a great deal of ti in the Central Library.
He finally found it in a corner dedicated to ancient Witchcraft: the original version of the "Cluster Link Formation"—an obsolete piece of Low-level Witchcraft called Communication Magic.
In the early days of the Wizarding World, when magical communication thods were scarce, this Witchcraft had enjoyed a brief period of popularity.
However, its requirents were extrely demanding: two Wizards had to cast the spell in sync, projecting their Spiritual Power onto a preset frequency at the exact sa mont to establish a link.
This very requirent was precisely why Communication Magic was eventually discarded.
The author of the Scroll had written in a tone of resignation: "To use this spell to connect, one must first be connected. If one is already connected, what need is there for this spell?"
But in Allen’s eyes, this abandoned Witchcraft was the perfect solution.
He didn’t need long-distance communication; the monocle would be pressed against his skin. All he required was a stable, low-consumption "port protocol."
DSeek’s power lay in analysis, and the efficiency of that analysis depended on the bandwidth and quality of its information input.
Relying on his five senses alone was like hooking up a supercomputer with a dial-up modem; you couldn’t bla it for failing to load a picture.
He needed an external device to better utilize DSeek’s capabilities.
Allen picked up the completed monocle. The modified Communication Magic Rune Array was branded onto its temple arm.
He put it on. The cool tal fra hooked behind his ear, the lens hanging in front of his right eye without obstructing his left eye’s normal vision.
Allen injected a sliver of Magic Power, and the Runes on the monocle began to activate.
DSeek: Preset external device signal received. ’ntal Handshake Protocol’ initiated.
The DSeek interface, which had previously existed only in his mind, now overlaid his real-world vision with clarity and stability for the first ti.
Rows of data and analytical charts materialized as translucent, ethereal blue lights, hovering before his eyes.
He could even use his Spiritual Power to interact directly with the interface—dragging windows, zooming maps—just like a scene from a sci-fi movie from his past life.
DSeek finally had its own "eyes" and display.
"From now on, I’ll call you ’The Perceiver’."
Allen murmured, naming it as he gazed at the reflection of his own deep blue eyes in the lens.
「The next afternoon, Silent Forest Docking Point One.」
Allen stepped off the Alchemy Airship alone.
He had no intention of going deep into the forest. Today’s goal was simply to conduct an outdoor test of the new reconnaissance system composed of the Demon Eye and "The Perceiver" in a real-world environnt.
The wind at the forest’s edge carried the fresh scent of grass and trees, rustling the tips of his black hair.
"Go."
With a simple command, the black Demon Eye rose silently from his palm. Soon, it beca a nearly imperceptible blur and disappeared into the high canopy.
The Demon Eye’s flight speed wasn’t fast. In the pursuit of miniaturization, Allen hadn’t designed a jet propulsion system for it like the one on his Flying Skateboard. It relied entirely on its Anti-Gravity Rune module to adjust its altitude and direction.
Wearing "The Perceiver," Allen leaned leisurely against an ancient tree.
At first, he could barely follow the Demon Eye’s trajectory with his enhanced vision. But a few seconds later, the black sphere activated its illusion and vanished completely from his senses. Neither his sight nor Magic Detection could pick it up any longer.
Soon, a view of the forest appeared in his right eye.
The feed from the Demon Eye, transmitted in real-ti to Allen’s mind via the "Cluster Link Formation," was intercepted by DSeek. After analysis, it projected the surrounding terrain onto the lens of "The Perceiver."
With an external device, DSeek imdiately went to work. It divided the shades of color from the view of magical energy fluctuations into 1,000 brightness levels, then processed and displayed this data on the lens, constructing a professional-grade tactical map.
The Demon Eye beca a stealthy aerial scout, circling above the forest.
It deftly dodged intersecting branches, flew silently past a flock of noisy sharp-beaked birds, and even dared to lower its altitude to skim over the head of a dozing giant-horned deer.
From start to finish, not a single creature discovered the spy from the sky.
Only once, when the Demon Eye flew past a winged serpent that was hunting, did the flying Magical Beast—extrely sensitive to air currents—seem to notice sothing. It raised its head warily, its triangular pupils scanning the sky, but ultimately found nothing and lowered its head again to deal with the prey in its claws.
DSeek provided its assessnt: "The combination of the Illusion Rune and the Silent Iron shell provides a stealth effect that exceeds expectations."
Allen nodded in satisfaction.
This didn’t just an he now possessed a reconnaissance unit; more importantly, this set of Anti-Gravity and stealth technologies paved the way for him to create aerial combat units in the future.
’Perhaps I can create an upscaled version of the Demon Eye in the future and send it ten thousand ters into the sky...’
’Reconnaissance at extre altitudes would surely provide even better stealth and a much wider detection range.’
A thought flashed through his mind. ’My very own high-altitude reconnaissance satellite.’
’No, I’ll need more. One, ten, a hundred... enough to form a Celestial Eye network covering the entire plane.’
’By then, everything will be under my watch.’
Just as Allen was lost in his reverie, a clump of low bushes in the feed from the Demon Eye suddenly twitched on the lens of "The Perceiver."
DSeek: Moving target detected.
DSeek: Magic Power Level: 1.
DSeek: Threat Assessnt: None.
DSeek automatically initiated visual tracking, and a red box locked onto the target.
A gray rabbit erged from the bushes, twitched its long ears, and began nibbling on the tender grass.
In the view of "The Perceiver," the number "1" was brightly displayed above the rabbit’s head.
The corners of Allen’s mouth curled up uncontrollably as a long-buried mory surfaced.
He said in a very low voice, "Heh. Power level of one. Pathetic."
As soon as the words left his lips, a sense of perverse satisfaction washed over him.
...
DSeek: Anomaly! Logical contradiction in sensor data!
DSeek: Executing big data analysis... Anomaly detected!
On the tactical map projected by "The Perceiver," a glaring red exclamation mark suddenly began flashing frantically.
The Demon Eye’s bird’s-eye view revealed an extrely faint, unnatural depression in the grass on a patch of empty ground five ters behind Allen.
But in thermal and magic-spectrum modes, that area showed as completely normal.
DSeek: Warning! Unidentified lurking creature detected!
DSeek: Unknown target area locked! Assessing threat level... Failure!
A target that was not only invisible but could also deceive both thermal imaging and Magic Detection!
But it couldn’t erase the effects of its presence on its surroundings. This tiny contradiction was caught by DSeek.
The image on the lens of "The Perceiver" zood in abruptly.
On the edge of the tactical map, the red exclamation mark was still flashing. Its location... was less than five ters behind him!
The smile on Allen’s face froze instantly.
His body didn’t even have ti to react. A bone-chilling, soul-freezing malice pricked at his back.
He whipped his head around.
There was nothing behind him but mottled tree shadows and the silent woods.
But on the lens of "The Perceiver," the red marker representing a fatal threat clearly showed that sothing was there, silently "watching" him.
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