Ascension of the elder

Chapter 9: Reading is good for the brain

"Well looks like we've got work to do."

Checking through the training scrolls for mages and experimenting with their use, Kyle was able to see that they had one thing in common. The mana feed largely ran through the chest node and through one of the nodes in his brain. The node in his brain was located almost exactly in the centre, between the two hemispheres. Confirming that he was correct about the node relating to magic being in the brain, Kyle then grabbed the only technique which was aimed at producing a sorcerer.

This technique was the same one his mother practised. It was called 'heavenly deliverance' for some reason. When Kyle started experimenting with this one he saw as usual some mana flowed to the chest node whilst the remaining flowed equally between the mage node and the node in between his eyes, which was the same one that ached when he tried to use his soul sight externally. Remembering that arrays have some soul energy in them and can only be produced by sorcerers, this started to make sense and maybe when he's stronger he'll be able to externalize his soul using the sorcerer node and sub-nodes.

There was a question now however. Within the brain there are 3 nodes the mage node, sorcerer node and another located towards the back but he couldn't tell if this was related to anything specifically. As there was no problem with training all these nodes and the ones in his body, in fact these all seemed designed to help people become stronger.

Now that he had an idea as to how his body now operated Kyle created an analogy so he could understand his new abilities better. The main channel was like a power grid which was capable of sending energy where it was needed, while the nodes were like solar panels which could provide power directly to where they were installed or back into the grid as needed taking some of the pressure off the grid and allowing a gradual increase in power on the grid. Finally the sub-nodes were like power outlets which allowed the use of skills. The sub-nodes also used a small amount of mana to heal and strengthen the body over time.

Finally Kyle turned his attention to the final book which Shauna had brought with the cultivation techniques. This book was simply titled 'Introduction to array creation'. This book looked old as the binding had started to fray but as this was produced in the standard form of the empire the pages would last indefinitely. On the first page Kyle saw a note which read "To my student, never cease to reach for the stars". Kyle realised this was probably the first book his mother's master had given to her on her way to become an array master.

The first array that was listed in the book was the light emitting array, which was the same array that was used in the lighting in his home rather than using torches or candles. This array was charged regularly from a large central mana crystal within the mana. While these mana crystals sound impressive they can be found in many places with a higher than average mana and are collected by low level hunters as the crystals that humans use can be found relatively close to the cities. Also these crystals are not a finite resource as they can re-grow at a reasonably fast rate.

Demon beasts are also known to eat these crystals on occasion, but they tend to go for the stronger crystals found deeper in the wildness away from the cities.

As Kyle was reading the book he began to get a handle on how arrays work. Usually an array would have a central glyph. This core glyph would be the purpose glyph which leads to its main function, in this case the core would be 'Light'. There is a circle drawn around this glyph which in turn is surrounded by several other glyphs. These surrounding glyphs are the control glyphs including some that regulate the amount of mana used, the overall light output and converting heat back into light. All in all it was a rather impressive setup which left Kyle thinking about the possibilities.

Reading further through the book, Kyle saw a few additional arrays including barrier arrays, heating arrays, water production arrays and wind generation arrays. He also saw an array which was written in his mother's hand, this was the shock array which could deliver a mild shock to people who touched it. Kyle couldn't work out why his mother wrote this array down but then had an idea. This array was very similar to a shock pen so it appeared his mum was a practical joker when she was younger.

Later in the book there was also a reference to a formation. This is when multiple arrays are laid and linked to produce a special or secondary effect. The most obvious one was for Kyle's bath which had hot water meaning there must be a water producing array and a heating array in a formation.

There was no limit to how many arrays can be linked in a formation, however you must be careful as the more arrays are linked the more chance there was of an error occurring due to a conflict between the arrays. This may simply cause the formation to fail but there have been instances where the formation was caught in a cycle until it exploded. This was something Kyle needed to be careful of.

The glyphs used in the arrays looked very similar to written Chinese or Japanese and also had a similar layout in that one glyph could represent a whole word or concept. Kyle was curious as to where these glyphs came from or who learnt how to use them.

Thinking about the uses of these glyphs and further uses, Kyle was also curious as to further development in them but he would probably run into a dead end due to the length of time people have been using them. But then it hit him, quickly flipping through the book and double checking he couldn't see anything about using two core glyphs.

"They can't be that stupid, can they?"

Saying this aloud pulled Miranda out of her cultivation. Looking at Kyle with a curious gaze she asked him

"What do you mean master."

Realising he'd spoken aloud he looked a little embarrassed and started to explain to Miranda what he'd noticed.

"Well I was just reading through this book and noticed that there was no reference to using two core glyphs in an array just that you should use an array."

Thinking about what he said light dawned in Miranda's eyes as she understood what he was talking about but then she posed another question.

"What difference would it make?"

Kyle in turn thought about this. She was right but he couldn't help but think he was missing something, when finally it hit him and he began thinking aloud while Miranda just watched him narrate enjoying his explanation.

"Each of the arrays in a formation has a specific purpose. Each array completes its purpose then adds its contribution to the whole. This means that if an array fails in its purpose it can affect the whole, but if you can complete multiple steps within an array and test it's completed function before adding it to the formation there is less chance of a fault occurring and it would also mean debugging would be much easier. You could also include more controls within each array so there would be less chance of an explosive failure."

As Kyle narrated he used a term 'debugging' which Miranda didn't understand but could guess due to what he was saying. Kyle for his part didn't realise that he was mixing previous life knowledge with this world. His debugging reference and his ideas on the arrays and formations were related to when he looked at producing a web page using html. This was back in the day so it was really awkward and the last time he messed with code he found it much easier. He read up on this and found the code used a 'black box' approach with code being used to an effect then being mixed with other 'black boxes' to complete the project. Kyle then decided.

"Righty ho, we are going to start an experiment."