Chapter 751 Communication Coding

Here's the improved translation incorporating the expert suggestions:

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Acheronides hadn't been researching communication magic circles recently, so Liszt left her laboratory and headed to the mage tower to inquire whether the Magic Guild's mages had developed a solution.

Before he could ask, Cris arrived at Thorn Castle.

"Cris, you're early today?"

Normally Cris came to Thorn Castle in the afternoon to assist Acheronides with magic experiments while seeking magical knowledge. She now proudly positioned herself as Acheronides' student—acting like her loyal acolyte. Of course, any mage would gladly serve as an Archmage's apprentice.

"Your Highness, the Magic Guild's project has progressed. I was about to report to Lady Acheronides." Cris maintained equal respect toward Liszt.

She was content being an Archmage's acolyte, but wouldn't refuse becoming a Dragon Knight's disciple either—after all, in Flame Territory, Archmage and Dragon Knight were family. The exact allegiance mattered little.

"Oh? What progress?"

"Regarding Your Highness's proposed communication circle, we've made initial headway. We've successfully inscribed a circle that triggers long-distance magical feedback, though actual messaging remains distant."

Just as he sought answers, they came unbidden.

Liszt's eyes lit up: "Explain—no, let's discuss this in the lab first. Move!"

Back in the laboratory, Cris detailed their findings. Their magic circle could trigger elemental feedback—fire magic here caused fire magic fluctuations there—but the patterns were random.

They couldn't shape magic into Serpent Tongue for messaging.

Writing runes on one circle only produced chaotic energy fluctuations on the other, never matching characters. The Guild mages, stumped, planned to consult Acheronides.

But Liszt saw the solution: "Cris, does each element only affect its own type? Fire to fire, water to water?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Then it's actually simple to solve!"

"Your Highness—you've solved the text transmission problem?" Cris was taken aback. Though she knew Liszt's theoretical mastery, practical magic circles were different—especially modeling challenges.

Acheronides watched curiously, unsurprised.

To her, Liszt overflowed with profound wisdom—most of her knowledge came from him, even her access to the Magic Web and attainment of Archmage rank. Were he to practice magic, he'd surely become an Archmage.

Liszt smiled.

Pausing thoughtfully, he explained: "Eight magic elements exist—fire, water, earth, wind, thunder, light, ice, dark. Since each only interacts with itself, we'll create an eight-base coding system."

"Eight-base coding?"

"Assign fire as 0, water as 1... up to dark as 7. Cycle every eight counts—we'll translate language into this 0-7 numbering."

"Is that really possible?" Both women looked perplexed.

Humans are wired for base-ten—ten fingers, grouping by tens. But with eight elements, base-ten doesn't work—we must use base-eight.

"Actually," Liszt added, "base-eight is too complicated. Thunder, light, ice and dark are rare—many mages don't specialize in these elements. A binary system would work better."

Here's the edited translation incorporating the expert suggestions:

Both looked confused: "Binary?"

"Fire-attribute magic represents 0, water-attribute magic represents 1. Binary can easily express... For example, 1 in binary is one fire-attribute magic, 2 is one fire-attribute and one water-attribute magic, 3 is two fire-attribute magics, 4 is one fire-attribute and two water-attribute magics..."

After listening to Liszt's rapid-fire explanation, Cris remained totally lost.

But Acheronides was fascinated and quickly grasped the idea: "So as long as we keep combining 0 and 1, we can express any information?"

"Yes."

"Brother, Acheronides seems to have understood. As long as we use the runes of the magic circle to control it, we can quickly transmit magic feedback. This way, we don't need the magic activity on both sides of the circle to be identical—only the attribute sequence needs to be correct."

"Exactly, that's it... I've already explained the specific encoding method to you. Now, Acheronides, you'll lead the creation of binary-encoded serpent tongue... Start with simple, commonly used word encodings—just get it working. I plan to install this on the expedition fleet. Then, let the mages of the Magic Guild slowly encode the rest."

...

While Acheronides and the mages of the Magic Guild were working through the octal and binary codes, Liszt himself was deep in thought.

He had a sudden idea.

If a magic circle could express binary, could it evolve into something more complex, like a calculator—or even a computer? Perhaps constrained by materials, personal magic computers might not be feasible, but a supercomputer wasn't out of the question.

"Is such a possibility real?"

Maybe not, or maybe it is.

But even if a computer could be built, the difficulty would likely be immense. The theories involved are too many, especially regarding hardware logic, which couldn't be figured out quickly. Even though mages are intelligent, suddenly exposing them to an entirely new system would still confuse them.

"If I have time, I can discuss these ideas with Acheronides. The rest depends on whether the mages are willing to delve into it. After all, I don't have time to work on something like a computer."

Having experienced the thrill of dragon-riding, Liszt had long been immersed in the thrill of power. Industrial revolutions, technological revolutions—none of that mattered much to him now. Living in such a fantastical world, exploring its secrets was far more interesting than advancing technology.

The smoke mission during the New Year festival perfectly expressed his aspirations.

"The world is vast, with many wonders yet unseen. Whether the seas or the continents, they all await your exploration."

...

Once the New Year festival passed.

The Marquis Merlin and his family departed, followed by the Marquis Niuwei and his household.

Even Penelope and Lvera left Thorn Fortress. They hadn't returned to their own castles in a long time, and too much backlogged work awaited their attention.

The lively, bustling atmosphere of Thorn Fortress suddenly turned quiet and empty.

However, Liszt didn't show any sadness about everyone leaving. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

Mary Dawnbreak had returned from the Kingdom of the Eagle, bringing news of the Wyvern Phoenix at Mount Fireburn.

In a remote wilderness of the Kingdom of the Eagle, there was indeed a Mount Fireburn, and local residents had heard of the Wyvern Phoenix. Some had even seen a powerful noble leading an order of knights to capture it, only for the knights to return in failure after losing over half their numbers. They never found the phoenix—instead, they were nearly destroyed by the magical beasts in the forest.

"Acheronides, hurry up and make an encoded communication magic circle. We'll test its maximum range and signal strength for long-distance transmission as we travel." "Got it."