New Discoveries
"This inscription set is exclusive to the Propulsion Department; it doesn't exist outside. Only the power unit of the Floating City requires such a complex power set."
Henry explained the inscription in front of where they were standing to Fran very smoothly. He seemed to know the inscription very well, so he spoke without any pauses.
Fran had been listening to Henry's explanations for several days and had already gained a relatively deep understanding of these Magic Inscription.
Of course, this in-depth understanding ultimately comes from the Panel's enhancement. If Fran hadn't learned this kind of systematic knowledge from scratch, it might have taken Henry two or three months to teach her before she could even reach the level of mastery.
Now, Fran looked at her own Panel.
[You listen to an experienced mage explain the inscriptions related to the power system of the Floating City. Although you don't understand them yet... you will soon understand them. Magic Inscription +10]
[Magic Inscription (Mastery) (1/10000): You are now proficient in Magic Inscription and can easily set up the entire inscription set for a small to medium-sized device.]
After Fran reached mastery of Magic Inscription, she experienced a long-lost feeling of knowledge flowing through her mind and being naturally understood.
She hadn't felt this way since leaving the City of Apprentices.
She slowly opened her previously closed eyes; she could now understand the knowledge that Henry had just explained very well.
She glanced at the inscriptions around her and immediately sensed the difference in the inscription groups here. The inscription groups seemed to have formed a system, capable of being completely copied from the surrounding areas.
"This is an integrated module; as long as you copy it, you can get the corresponding effect." Fran understood the effect of this module.
But when she raised her head, she noticed something strange.
Two of the Magic Inscription that were originally neatly arranged suddenly shifted slightly outwards, a difference so obvious to the naked eye that Fran frowned.
But when Fran examined the inscriptions closely to find out why they were misaligned, she noticed something unusual.
The protruding inscriptions seemed to form a unique system with the other neatly arranged inscriptions around them, a system that appeared to have some function that Fran was unaware of.
She stretched out her hand, but suddenly pulled it back halfway up, as if she now understood the effects of this Magic Inscription system.
Fran lowered her head, interrupting Henry's explanation, and asked him a question:
Why is part of the inscription on the right side protruding?
Upon hearing this, Henry's lips stopped moving, and a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth appeared as if he hesitated for a moment before offering his explanation.
"I wouldn't know about that. Normally, these should be neatly arranged... If the Magic Inscription aren't neatly arranged, they could very well produce other effects..."
"Perhaps this is a change that suddenly appeared after the last inspection?"
"For some reason, the inscriptions here sometimes change, affecting the overall effect of the inscription set. I don't know why."
"Maybe if I figure it out, I might even win the Magic Barrier Award..."
Henry finished speaking without taking a breath, then looked at Fran with some tension in his eyes. When he saw Fran staring at the unusual inscriptions in deep thought, he became extremely nervous as well.
"Thank you for your guidance, Mage Henry. Your instruction has given me new insights into the Magic Inscription group of the Propulsion Department, enabling me to handle the work much better."
"You can go back and rest now. I'll ask you for advice if I need anything."
She winked at Henry, indicating that Henry could leave now.
Henry's expression softened. Even though Fran didn't say anything to him, Fran usually wouldn't say a long, insincere message to Henry after asking him questions.
"She seems to know about the anomaly there." Henry understood Fran's meaning; this was the only way he could subtly remind her.
Today, he deliberately took Fran on a tour of the entire Propulsion Department, and then stopped here, just to explain to Fran the trap he had prepared for her.
After Henry left, Fran looked at the small circuit on the wall and then at the mages who were testing the speed measuring components. She already knew what was going on.
After reaching the mastery level in Magic Inscription on the first day, she realized that something was wrong with the entire department; there might be some extremely shady things being hidden here.
The small modified inscription group in front of her might have been made by those mages with secret intentions, and she wasn't sure what their purpose was.
All she knew was that if something went wrong and triggered this circuit, the inscription array here would burn out, and the entire wall of inscriptions would turn into a pile of junk.
Fran rolled her eyes. Someone was trying to cause trouble here, or was hiding something, which was an obstacle for her, someone who wanted to learn more about secrets.
Iris needs the work here to proceed smoothly in order to remain in this important position.
From this perspective, Fran needs to uncover the secrets behind the Propulsion Department and understand this hidden danger.
But what should Fran do?
She glanced at the inscription groups around her and could only sigh. The inscription groups in the entire Propulsion Department were far too complicated, and she simply couldn't find any strange parts among them.
Some sections, separated by twenty walls, can still form a loop; some inscription groups need to be viewed in conjunction with inscription groups on the other side to understand their intricacies.
Fran, with her limited understanding, was completely unable to find anything unusual about it.
Even the most primitive method is to have the sorcerers examine the forms; a quick glance at the forms is enough to spot what's wrong.
However, it seems that some of the mages tampered with parts of the forms, making them appear completely normal. Fran couldn't find a way to investigate after reviewing them.
Given the current situation, if Fran wants to take a hard line, her Magic Inscription would need to reach Extraordinary Level in order to find anything unusual in these inscriptions.
However, it seems that Fran doesn't have that time right now. Even if Henry could stay by her side every day to explain things to her, it would still take at least a month to push her to the Extraordinary level.
She doesn't have that much time; Iris's mission deadline isn't far off, and Iris certainly can't wait that long.
Moreover, the person who assigned the task to Iris probably didn't anticipate so many twists and turns in the Propulsion Department. In fact, the task was more than enough time to complete by the original deadline.
But who would have thought that something would suddenly happen to an important department of the Floating City?
Fran blinked, realizing that brute force and skill wouldn't work, so she had to use strategy.
Of course, this wasn't some brilliant scheme that Fran had devised; it was simply that Fran happened to hold power, and she could easily persuade Iris to cooperate with her.
She walked towards Iris's location. Iris was very attentive to the affairs here. After going out to handle some matters last time, she hadn't gone out again and had stayed here to supervise the group of mages.
This left the mages exhausted; in the six days since Iris arrived, they probably hadn't even had 10 hours of rest.
"Boss, there's something I want to tell you."
Iris immediately activated Soundproof Barrier. To be on the safe side, she also took out a wooden box and adjusted the knob on the top.
"Fran, you can speak now."
Fran said to Iris with a smile.
"Society President, do you know that some of those mages aren't very cooperative...?"
Iris nodded, lowered her eyes, gestured with her arm, and replied:
"I know, but I can't find the answer. Even if I did, I wouldn't know what reason to use to punish them."
"I have a way."
"You have?" Iris raised an eyebrow, calming herself to hear what Fran had to say.
"First, I'd like to do another full inspection, but that will take up a lot of time."
Iris found this strange. She knew Fran had already seen the test results and that Fran hadn't found anything unusual at all.
"Haven't you already seen it?"
"No, this time is different. This time I need each of them to check the entire rune set."
Iris weighed the options in her mind. If they were to do this, it would waste a lot of time for everyone, but...
"Yes, but only after all the functions have been tested, because that will waste a lot of time; each mage will probably need an extra ten days."
"I'll keep an eye on those mages and make sure they don't collude."
Iris understood why Fran was doing this: to conduct another overall test, and have every mage do it as well. This way, when the results came out, they could see the differences between the two records and then look them up.
Fran, however, thought about it a step further. She knew that Henry's actions just now were a reminder to her, but Henry didn't tell her the situation directly.
She could understand that Henry might have signed some contracts with serious consequences for violating them, and therefore couldn't tell her the truth directly.
Even if Fran were to bring the checklist directly to Henry, she would likely not get a satisfactory answer, because that would be a direct leak of information, as many contracts are quite restrictive.
So, what if Fran had Henry do an inspection? That is, report the contents of the inspection truthfully, then it wouldn't be a direct leak of secrets.
This was Fran's first measure. She had a second one in mind. Since someone dared to make some underhanded moves in such an important department, then they shouldn't be surprised if she, who held great power, used some underhanded tactics.
"Society President, I'll need your help later. If I get into a conflict with those mages, I'd like to ask you to intervene..."