Wizard: Gou adds some demon hunting in the Steam Age

Chapter 115 85, 58, 89... Hiss!

Wayne looked at Marco and raised his eyebrows, so, did you go back and talk to your family?

Before he had time to say, he accompanied Lidia last night... Marco looked back and glanced at Lidia again.

Lydia looked at these two people suspiciously, what kind of riddle are you two trying to solve?

Wayne and Marco shook their heads at the same time, no.

"..."

Lacey patted the table and glared at them: "I don't need to explain the importance of this investigation, right? What time has it been? Please be more serious!"

Several people stood still and said, "Understood."

"Marco, take Lidya to stay at the Secret Adjustment Department."

"Huh?" Marco had a bitter look on his face. He was just thinking about going with him to see the city-state magic circle.

"Lydia is not familiar with the work of the Secret Investigation Department, and you don't want her to die in her first investigation mission, right?"

"I understand, Captain Lacey."

Lydia asked doubtfully: "What's the first time?"

Marco sighed helplessly and pulled her back to his desk, preparing to give her a brief explanation of the Logistics Department's first test of the investigator.

Lacey ignored them and briefly explained the situation of the city-state's magic circle: "That magic circle was built by the Klanders after the establishment of Chartland. It has been more than a hundred years ago."

"As far as I can remember, there has never been any problem. It was also used during the incident where forbidden objects were out of control. This time, the higher-ups will agree to our investigation application, and we also want to use this to check the purpose of the magic circle."

"examine?"

Wei En looked around and asked helplessly: "Captain, we are not familiar with that magic circle. What checks need to be done?"

Carly was obviously still confused and not as familiar with the investigation process as he was.

And Tina...she has no concept of what she understands and what she doesn't understand. She just does what she says, and if she can't do it, she just says it.

"There will be professional people coming to cooperate," Lacey smiled mysteriously, "and our main task is to investigate whether anyone has tampered with the magic circle in this parasite case."

professional……

Wei En nodded thoughtfully. Is it a wizard or another extraordinary person who specializes in rune magic circles?

Lacey did not explain more, but instead warned: "The location of the city-state magic circle is the core of Custer, so there is no room for carelessness."

"So after we get there, you all cheer me up and do the investigation work that needs to be done carefully. The Parliament and the Noble Committee will not give us a second chance, do you understand?"

"clear."

"Okay, let's get ready. Yegor will come and take us there later."

After Lacey finished arranging the work, she began to check the equipment on her body and the various potions that needed to be prepared in the box.

When Wayne returned to his seat, he didn't need to make any preparations. He had already checked the things that needed to be checked when he went out in the morning.

He focused on the knowledge of runes in his mind.

Rune array...

Rune array is an important branch of rune science, which not only involves individual runes, but also includes the combination of runes, the matching of nodes and textures, the integration of rune effects, and other knowledge.

Rune arrays that can be deployed in large city-states usually have three basic capabilities: detection, attack, and defense.

The main purpose is to monitor large-scale disasters, such as bone-eating parasites and widespread pollution.

The attack is self-evident, a powerful force that can deliver a fatal blow to powerful disasters or aberrations at critical moments.

Among them, detection alone includes monitoring runes for sensing abyssal creatures, aberrations, and high pollution characteristics.

Especially for aberrations that have been transformed by contamination, they can be accurately located almost immediately.

This is also the reason why Wei En can often see the city guards transporting deformed corpses in the morning. They are all discovered by the city-state magic circle and then solved by the extraordinary beings who are on duty at night.

If yesterday's guess comes true, it means that some of the runes in the city-state array responsible for detecting abyssal creatures have problems, or have been tampered with...

Boom, boom.

At this time, there was a knock on the office door.

Wayne's mental perception has already given him some information feedback in his mind about the people outside the door.

Female, 1.58 meters tall, weighing about 95 pounds, with a round face, glasses, short hair, long skirt, and a bit fat.

85, 58, 89... hiss.

"Please come in."

"Captain Lacey, am I not late?" A girl wearing glasses poked her head in.

Wei En looked at her for a few times and found that it was indeed as he perceived. She had a good figure but was dressed in a very ordinary way.

Short brown hair, a pair of big eyes, a small nose and mouth, and fair skin.

"Alicia, the time is just right." Lacey stood up and invited her to sit next to her. "That bastard Yegor hasn't arrived yet, so we have to wait."

"That's good," Alicia patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief, "I thought we were going to be late. Lydia, Marco, we meet again."

"Alicia, long time no see."

Alicia?

When Wei En heard her name, he didn't have much impression. He thought she was the person who was proficient in rune circles and cooperated with their investigation.

She doesn't look like a wizard...

Marco and the others obviously knew Alicia, but they didn't look familiar to them. It was probably just enough to say hello when they met.

Is he also a noble?

With this in mind, he continued to learn the knowledge related to the rune array, hoping that it would be useful in later investigations.

At least... at least you have to be able to understand most of the runes, right?

"Are you ready?"

Not long after, Yegor, wearing a crisp uniform of the head of the Investigation Department, pushed the door open with a cigar in his mouth.

"Just waiting for you."

"Sorry, sorry, Balazs was too long-winded and took up some time."

Lacey didn't believe his excuse and waved to Wayne and the others, "Let's go."

"good."

Immediately afterwards, a group of six people, led by Yegor, took a mechanical wheeled vehicle of the Secret Adjustment Department and headed towards the junction of Natoli Street and Basil Street.

There……

When Wei En heard the address, he felt familiar. When he arrived at the destination, he found that the core of the magic circle was located above the city that never sleeps.

Coincidence?

"Alicia, how are you doing, Master Nifa recently?"

"Sorry, Minister Yegor, I haven't seen the teacher for a while. The last time we met, she said she would cooperate with Director Alais in the detention area for a while."

Yegor nodded and said casually: "I heard Balaz mention it. It seems that there is something wrong with the magic circle in the detention area and it is being repaired."

"Yes."

Wei En pulled Tina and followed quietly, looking at this extremely ordinary three-story building, which looked very much like his residence on Golden Street.

If someone hadn't led the way, it would be hard for him to believe that the core rune array of the entire Custer City-State would be in such a place.

But soon, he found that he wanted to be simple.

After three inspections, they were led by guards and entered a mechanical device similar to an elevator all the way down.

After only descending about a hundred meters, they arrived at the core of the rune array—a huge space comparable to that of the Evernight City.

Guards wearing black armor stood all around, guarding a stone tower-shaped building in the middle.

[You are scanned by Amilcar Dragneel's mental perception. Reward: Survival point +1. 】

【……】

[You are scanned by Seimyan Tovani’s mental perception. Reward: Survival point +1. 】

Wei En glanced at the dozens of prompts on the panel and stopped paying attention. Instead, he counted the guards around him.

One, two, three... there are 300 guards in total.

Although he didn't know the strength of these guards, their equipment was much more sophisticated than the sentry tower guards he had seen yesterday.

Muskets, shields, turrets, and...huh?

Mental perception not getting any feedback?

Wei En looked at the stone tower in the middle. Does the rune array still have the ability to block perception?

Tsk.

In such a heavily guarded place, can anyone really do anything to the city-state's rune array without alerting the guards?

"Please, there are scholars in charge of the rune array on the first floor of the stone tower, and they will answer your questions. But..."

The guard reminded him lukewarmly: "According to the order, you only have one hour. Please leave regardless of whether there is any investigation discovery."

Yegor said lazily: "We know the rules."

After saying that, he led several people from the investigation department and walked straight to the stone tower.

Only then did Wei En notice his feet.

As he walked on the smooth road, the clanking sound made him realize that it was paved not with stone slabs, but with metal.

Sal metal?

He looked at the metal pavement painted with black paint and could already sense that there were dense rune patterns and nodes there.

Six-sided, nine-sided, twelve-sided... twelve-pointed star?

In this core place, there are twelve-pointed stars on the outer circle and nine-pointed stars on the inside. When you get to the foot of the stone tower, you can already see the nodes of the six-pointed star array.

It turns out that the rune arrays of the city-state are overlapping and combined...

Wei En looked around again thoughtfully. It was indeed a very complex array structure.

After entering the stone tower, an old man wearing a monocle, a black robe, and a scholar's appearance walked over.

"Minister Yegor, I am Lin Qiaoya who is on duty today. Please show me the application documents."

"Excuse me, Professor Lin Qiaoya."

The laziness on Yegor's face rarely calmed down, and he respectfully handed over the parchment in his hand.

professor?

Wei En looked at the old man curiously, with a serious look on his face.

"Follow me." Lin Qiaoya glanced at the application documents, turned around and walked back indifferently.

"Captain, who is this?"

Lacey explained in a low voice: "The professor at Custer Public School is a scholar who specializes in the study of large-scale rune formations."

"Not only that, he is also one of the few runes experts in the entire Kingdom of Chartland."

Alicia also came over, with a little respect on her face, "He and the teacher are both very accomplished in runes."

"Is there any powerful wizard?"

"wizard……"

Alicia's smile faltered, "It's not the same direction. Professor Lin Qiaoya studies the basic theory of runes, and the wizard is good at spells."

"Their research and use of rune arrays may not exceed those of the teacher."

"Oh." Wei En nodded, not paying attention to her dissatisfaction.

For each city-state, the wizarding school is a different system from them.

Obviously they prefer to trust scholars who live in the city-state all year round, rather than the wizarding school that only sells potions, machinery or various rune props.

After several people passed through a dark corridor, they entered the real core of the magic circle.

In a wide circular room, the walls and floor were made of silver-white Sal metal. Not only was it smooth and flawless, it also shone with crystal light under the illumination of the rune patterns.

In the center of the room, there is a huge circular platform, with various rune nodes densely engraved on the surface, and a striped road extending out in all directions.

At the same time, there were several scholars wearing the same clothes as Professor Lin Qiaoya around the high platform. They held magnifying glasses in their hands and inspected the nodes and lines of the magic circle bit by bit.

"After receiving the notice from the council, we have already started inspecting the rune circle." Lin Qiaoya explained, then stretched out his hand to signal: "You can start too."

Lacey patted Alicia on the shoulder, "Let's get started."

"Um."

Alicia carefully walked onto the high platform and approached the core area of ​​the magic circle little by little. She held a larger magnifying glass in her hand to examine the runes.

Lacey also took Wei En and the others to look around and asked several scholars who were working, hoping to get some useful information from them.

"Professor Lin Qiaoya, has anything special happened here recently?" Yegor asked casually when he saw others starting to work.

"Which aspect are you referring to?"

"For example, if someone is contaminated, if a scholar who has been working here for a long time suddenly disappears, or if his temperament changes drastically, or if there are new people who have just joined here, etc."

Lin Qiaoya glared at him, "You mean you suspect us people?"

"of course not,"

Respect is due to respect, but on professional matters, Yegor did not give in, "But you must also know what happened yesterday, right?"

"What about the parasite?"

"Well, I wonder if you can tell me why the rune array did not detect any abnormalities?"

"this……"

Lin Qiaoya was speechless. No matter how angry he was at being suspected, judging from the results, the rune array did not detect the existence of the parasite.

Even now, there is still no discovery...

"So, would you like to think about the question just now?" Yegor stopped and did not continue to pester.

"Recently, two scholars have taken a long leave,"

Lin Qiaoya thought for a moment and said: "But one of them is going to Klande to attend the latest research conference on runes, and the other is going to the city-state of Andrea to purchase some teaching materials."

"Besides them?"

"My student Mikus has just passed the interview and joined the work of guarding the rune circle."

"Oh? When?"

"Ten days ago," Lin Qiaoya looked at him dissatisfied, "Do you think my students are more suspicious?"

"Sorry," Yegor shook his head, "No matter who the student is, anyone who has entered here recently will be investigated. Is there anything else?"

"No, just the three of them...well, there is one more."

Lin Qiaoya thought of something, hesitated and said, "Just the day before yesterday, a scholar's wife was contaminated by the red moon..."

"Oh? Where is the scholar?"

"He was on duty yesterday and just went back to rest today."

Yegor nodded, "I would like to ask the professor to help provide some information about these people later. We will conduct routine investigations on them later."

"……good."

Not to mention Yegor, the scholar Wei En found did not get any useful information.

I only know that the rune array has been operating normally recently, and the positioning of the aberrations is very accurate...

After briefly recording, Wei En looked at Carly Lacey and others who were still chatting with the scholars. After thinking about it, he began to look around at the rune circle.

Compared with the simplicity of the mechanical puppet, the core nodes and patterns of the city-state array are dozens or hundreds of times more complicated. With the knowledge of runes he currently has, it is almost impossible to understand its composition and rune effects.

But this did not prevent him from combining the rune knowledge in his mind to verify it.

If you don’t know how to form a rune array, can’t you identify it by looking at the picture?

Where are the runes for detecting creatures of the abyss...

Wei En slowly searched for this part of the rune nodes. Since the parasites were not found, if there is really a problem, there is a high probability that there is a problem with this part of the runes.

It's not an attack rune. It should be an elemental spell rune, right?

It looks like the lines and rune nodes of Fireball, but it is obviously more complicated than Fireball.

Defense Runes, Spiritual Shield, Strong Heart, Elemental Shield...

Detection runes, found!

Wei En was shocked. He finally found this part of the rune. There was a fan-shaped area closest to the high platform.

Perception runes, so many rune nodes?

One, two, three... fifty-four,

There are 54 rune nodes responsible for monitoring the city-state alone, which is really terrifying.

"Can you also understand these runes?" Alicia, who was busy on the high platform, noticed his arrival and asked in a low voice.

"I don't understand." Wei En shook his head simply, "What about you, what did you find?"

"No," Alicia also shook her head, "These rune nodes are much more complicated than I thought. It would be great if the teacher were here."

"I can only rely on you now, come on."

Wei En encouraged her, glanced at the core runes on the high platform, and then focused on the detection runes.

The lines between these fifty-four rune nodes are intertwined, and it would take a lot of time to figure out their functions.

At this time, a mechanical voice sounded, "Level 1 disaster wave detected, location, No. 75, Ruhr Block."

Um?

When Wei En heard this message, his mind moved and he carefully observed the rune nodes on the ground. Four rune nodes just flashed a few times...

He looked at the runes, checked them again, and found the rune node for detecting aberrations.

As long as one detection rune is confirmed, the others can be split.

A minute later, Wei En found another rune node that detects large attack fluctuations.

Then there are the monitoring runes indicating that the external magic circle nodes have been destroyed...

After removing the other detection runes, only twelve rune nodes were finally displayed in front of him.

Only detect twelve abyssal creatures?

Wei En squatted on the ground, carefully observing these rune nodes, detecting abyss demon insects, balrogs, plague knights, shadow demons...

No rune node to detect bone worms?

Wei En confirmed again, frowned and stood up. He was sure that these rune nodes did not have the ability to detect bone worms.

How can it be?

At this moment, Alicia said happily: "I found it."

Wei En turned to look at her, while Yegor and others who were communicating with the scholars also gathered around.

"Huh? Found it?" Lin Qiaoya walked up to the high platform and asked, "What's the problem?"

"here!"

Alicia pointed to a rune in the core rune array, a circle with twenty-four rune nodes, and said, "I found that there are no lines passing through it."

Several people looked in the direction she pointed and saw a rune shining with a faint white light.

"Let me see."

Lin Qiaoya took out a magnifying glass and carefully observed the appearance of the rune, and murmured: "Number 13, there are 12 lines in the design, the effect is to stimulate the attack rune..."

"How is it? Is it not activated?" Alicia looked a little proud.

"...It is indeed not enabled."

Lin Qiaoya hesitated for a moment and nodded: "The lines on Unicom have been moved."

"Professor, does it affect the detection of bone worms?" Wei En asked.

He had already seen these core rune nodes and determined that none of them were for detecting bone-eating insects, so he asked this question.

"No, its function is to activate the attack spell of the rune array."

"Huh?" Yegor asked doubtfully, "What about detection?"

"I don't know either...but the mere fact that this rune has been modified shows that your suspicions are correct. Please give your feedback to the superiors truthfully."

"You don't need to tell me this. We will naturally report the results of today's investigation."

Lacey said: "I also wonder whether the function of detecting bone-eating insects has been tampered with. That is the focus of our investigation this time."

"...Probably." Professor Lin Qiaoya lost the confidence he had at the beginning. Now things have developed beyond his expectations, catching him off guard.

"Alicia, check again and see if you can find the rune."

"It's possible, but it takes time..."

Yegor said without hesitation: "I'm going to apply for a report now. Since it has been determined that there is a problem here, I think the people above will agree to conduct an in-depth investigation."

"Okay, I understand." Alicia nodded, "I'll continue to check."

"please."

After Yegor left, Professor Lin Qiaoya also hurriedly left after explaining to the scholars, saying that he was going to inform the guards outside of the discovery here so that they could be more alert.

Wei En didn't stop at the high platform, but looked around the room.

Anyway, he has confirmed that the rune that detects bone-eating insects has disappeared, and the rest is waiting for Alicia to confirm the result.

[Because your origin exceeds 30, you have successfully resisted the erosion of the origin of desire. Evaluation: Still the familiar origin, familiar taste... Special rewards: +5 survival points, +1 spiritual level, +1 toughness level. 】

Um?

At the farthest point from the exit, Wei En saw such a prompt on the panel.

Here, is it actually affected by the origin of desire? ?

Just one chapter today, more will be added tomorrow.