Chapter 212 : Chapter 212

It was obvious that a group of people had once camped here. They had wasted a long stretch of time in this place, and in the end, aside from a floor full of trash and bellies full of resentment, they had taken nothing away.

“It seems our noble Second Prince spent a rather... unforgettable stretch of time here.”

Logaris lifted his foot and casually flicked the toe of his shoe.

Clang.

An empty dark-green wine bottle flew through the air, struck the wall in the distance, and shattered into pieces. The crisp sound of breaking glass echoed through the deathly silent hall, sounding especially harsh.

He bent down and picked up a crumpled sheet of parchment from the floor.

It was covered in chaotic lines, formulas, and smudges of black ink, all of it reeking of frustration and violent irritation.

“It seems His Highness the Second Prince’s Court Mage Corps is not all that impressive after all,” Logaris remarked dryly.

“With this level of skill, they still wanted to crack Mad King Maxim’s legacy? Did the Second Prince raise that pack of court mages on their looks alone?”

Sylvia did not answer.

She was standing before the thirty-meter-tall statue of the woman, head tilted back, her expression complicated.

As her blood seeped into the groove in the stone book, the entire hall began to change.

Rumble—

A deep mechanical grinding rose from the depths underground, like some slumbering beast shifting in its sleep.

Stone dust fluttered down from the eyelids of the thirty-meter-tall female statue at the center. Those lifeless stone eyes suddenly lit up with a ghostly blue radiance. The thick stone book in her hands began turning its pages without any wind, producing an endless rustling sound.

Hum—

Countless golden runes erupted from the pages.

They rapidly arranged and recombined in midair. In only a few seconds, the once-empty hall was filled with thousands of intricate three-dimensional projections.

Among those projections were geometric models that constantly shifted shape, alchemical formulas simulating active reactions, and densely packed sequences of ancient demonic script.

In an instant, the entire hall became a starry sea glittering with the radiance of truth.

Sylvia instinctively tightened her grip on her sword hilt, her body going taut. If magical fluctuations on this scale were from an offensive spellwork, she and Logaris would be blasted into serious injury in an instant.

“Do not be nervous.” Logaris looked up at the sea of runes, golden light reflected in his lenses. “This is a test, not a trap.”

A hollow, emotionless voice—neither male nor female—echoed above the hall.

“Reason Lock.”

“Truth favors only the wise.”

“Solve three, and the path shall reveal itself.”

The rules were simple and brutal.

Logaris stared in concentration at the nearest puzzle.

It was a model concerning “Mana Reflux Interference Under Multiple Casting.” Around the model were several scorched marks, and chaotic magical fluctuations still lingered in the surrounding space.

Logaris stretched out a hand, his fingertips lightly brushing those marks.

“Tch.”

A dismissive sound of disgust escaped his nose.

“What is it?” Sylvia stepped closer.

“It seems our dear Second Prince smashed his head bloody against this one.” Logaris pointed at the blackened traces. “This was most likely the backlash from a failed attempt at brute-force decryption. Judging by the degree of mana decay, they must have spent at least three months grinding away at this problem. And in the end, this was their only result—proof that the road was blocked.”

Sylvia looked at the complicated model and felt dizzy just staring at it. “Is it difficult?”

“For mediocrities, it is an insurmountable chasm.”

Logaris raised his right hand, his long fingers moving lightly through the air.

Pale-blue threads of mana flowed from his fingertips, sketching one precise corrective rune after another in the air, before stabbing straight into the model’s seemingly perfect operational trajectory.

Time passed bit by bit, but Logaris did not pause for even an instant.

“The interference in multiple casting is, at its core, resonance between wave frequencies. It is like three people running across the same narrow plank bridge at the same time. The bridge is bound to start shaking.”

His fingers moved so quickly that only afterimages could be seen.

The model, which had been vibrating chaotically only moments ago, suddenly froze for an instant as his final rune sank into place.

The next second—

Click.

A crisp locking sound rang out.

The chaotic model instantly became orderly. Golden lines flowed through it in smooth operation, not the slightest trace of obstruction remaining.

Boom!

The model exploded and transformed into a stream of pure light, which shot straight into the center of Logaris’s brow.

His body jolted, and his eyes closed.

A massive torrent of information exploded inside his mind.

[Multiple Casting · Mana Throttling Spellwork]

[Effect: Optimizes mana circuits, reducing mana consumption by 30% when performing compound spellcasting of three layers or more.]

Logaris opened his eyes, and a flash of delight passed through his pale-blue pupils.

Good stuff.

A thirty-percent reduction in consumption did not merely mean that his endurance had risen by an entire tier. More importantly, the core principles of many large-scale modern magitech devices—such as those terrifyingly power-hungry long-range magitech cannons—were based on stacked multiple casting.

“That is it... solved?” Sylvia was left staring in a daze.

From the moment Logaris began until the moment he finished, less than half an hour had passed. Yet the Second Prince’s team had burned through three whole months here.

“Nothing more than a warm-up.”

Logaris rolled his neck, producing a series of sharp cracks. The light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter—the excitement of a hunter spotting prey.

“The next one.”

He had no intention of resting at all. He walked straight toward the second floating puzzle.

This one was an alchemical problem: Enchanting Liquid Metal with Memory.

The question required the solidification of three or more transformation memories without damaging the metal’s ductility.

Logaris looked at the floating metal sample and tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“Using a traditional cold-forging method obviously will not work. Once the structure is destroyed, what memory is left to preserve?”

He pulled an extremely unstable bottle of Crimson Lotus Solvent from his Spatial Ring, then took out an ice-attribute magic crystal and began preparing a neutralizing agent on the spot.

“If physical methods will not work, then we use alchemical transmutation instead.”

He muttered to himself as he splashed the mixed reagent directly onto the projection model.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—

Large quantities of white smoke poured out of the model.

An hour later.

Golden light exploded once more.

[Formula: Liquid Memory Metal (Improved)]

[Description: An alloy formula with extremely high plasticity. It can retain memory of five forms and possesses tremendous resistance to physical impact.]

Logaris drew in a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the urge to throw his head back and laugh to the sky.

Memory metal!

And one capable of remembering five forms, at that!

Very little memory metal still existed in the present world, and every single gram was worth a fortune. But with this formula in hand, the Northern Territory’s magitech armor would undergo a qualitative leap.

Just imagine it: ordinarily, it would be a portable suitcase, but in battle it could instantly unfold into a suit of heavy armor that covered the entire body...

This was not a formula at all.

It was a key to the future.

“Only one remains.”

Watching Logaris in his current state, Sylvia began to feel that something was subtly wrong. Right now, he did not look like a man exploring a ruin.

He looked like a starving ghost that had stumbled into an all-you-can-eat banquet hall.