Chapter 1093: Maintenance of the Magic Array (and Upgrading), Eve of the Visit

Afterward, Xia Duo had to "cut the power" to the Magic Array that needed maintenance.

Although it was not actually running at the moment, in fact, it still maintained a very tight connection with the Element Pool and the energy pool, and its connection to the Magic Net was also very tight.

At the same time, the triple Magic Array did not exist completely independently; rather, they were interconnected and formed a whole. Otherwise, there would not have been a situation where two sets of arrays jointly functioned as the light bulb outside, similar to "stepless dimming."

The difficulty of maintenance lies right here: it is not only necessary to disconnect the Magic Array from the Fire Elemental Pool, the Positive Energy Pool, and the Magic Net, but also to reconnect them after maintenance, and still keep the triple Magic Array in a relatively independent, integrated state.

If there were a maintenance manual, the difficulty would only be at the operational level; practicing a few more times would make one familiar with it. But for Xia Duo, who had not obtained a detailed maintenance manual beforehand, the difficulty lay more in his understanding of the Blazing Sun Array itself.

Fortunately, he had already completed this part some time ago; otherwise, he might really have dragged this month's maintenance work into next month!

……

Cutting the power involves three steps. First, disconnect the connection between the Magic Array that needs maintenance and the other two arrays at the Magic Net level in a specific order.

Afterward, disconnect the Magic Array itself from the Magic Net, and finally, replace the Magic Array body.

Of course, except for the Arcane Crystal that serves as the energy buffering core, which must be replaced, the Mithril Components of the Magic Array do not need to be replaced every month.

As for how many months to wait before replacing them, the notes recording maintenance precautions in the library mention it—about a year or so.

But the problem was that Steven did not say much about the maintenance of the Blazing Sun Array during the handover, so Xia Duo did not know how long the Mithril Components of the Magic Array here had actually been running.

For the sake of Insurance, he prepared to replace them with new ones, and he also planned to replace the Mithril Components of the other two Magic Arrays with new ones in the coming two months.

As for the maintenance of the Watchtower itself, it does not need to be so frequent; after all, other places are not like the Blazing Sun Array, where a large flux of Elemental Energy passes through almost every moment.

Regarding this point, Xia Duo planned to formulate a fairly proper maintenance plan after conducting a comprehensive inspection of the Watchtower; of course, it might also be a maintenance plus renovation plan.

……

Relying on the pre-prepared Mithril Components and Arcane Crystal, Xia Duo quickly completed the replacement of the Magic Array body, including the Arcane Crystal. The subsequent reconnection, testing, and encapsulation were not a problem at all.

The whole process took about seven or eight hours, and this was considered fast. If it were an ordinary High Mage, it would likely be impossible to complete without ten days or half a month.

After all, if one has not reached the ninth layer of the Magic Net, one must use substitute Spellcasting when connecting the Magic Net Strings.

Substituting high-ring elements with low-ring elements increases the complexity almost geometrically, and the workload is at least a dozen times that of Xia Duo's.

Being able to complete it within half a month would be considered very diligent; it is quite common to drag it out for a month or so.

……

After completing the maintenance of the Blazing Sun Array, it was already late at night. Taking advantage of the fact that his spirit was still good, Xia Duo continued to check the main energy transmission lines of the Watchtower before sleeping peacefully.

The next day was March.

After waking up, Xia Duo performed his Meditation Training as usual, but then he sighed at how fast time flies; several months had passed since he returned from the Green Field Plane without him noticing.

In a few more days, it would be the day to visit Kangjienio. Recalling the last time he saw him, it seemed like it was over half a month ago.

And now, besides continuing to check the Watchtower, he also needed to prepare a gift for the visit five days later.

After all, the other party gave him three Ioun Stones last time; as a junior, he naturally could not show nothing. Of course, Xia Duo also harbored the thought of whether he could swindle a few more Ioun Stones during this visit.

Every Ioun Stone made by Master Kangjienio was unencrypted; obtaining one Ioun Stone was equivalent to obtaining its production method and a special Spell.

Like the three Xia Duo obtained before, they were respectively Focus Enhancement, Constitution Enhancement, and Spell Reversal, which were very useful even for a Senior Arcanist. (Xia Duo has a strong constitution, so he gave the constitution one to Niya.)

Besides the gift, Xia Duo also needed to prepare some questions. Knowing that the Master was kind and liked to mentor juniors, how could he not make good use of this opportunity!

Except for questions about Yinuosen, Xia Duo did not plan to ask too many things unrelated or loosely related to Magic, but in the field of Magic, Xia Duo had too many puzzles.

But a visit could not last too long, nor could he go every day, so he needed to choose carefully.

Those that could be solved through his own research did not need to be asked, so as not to waste time and opportunities; only those where he had no ideas at all, or those where he needed a predecessor to warn him of precautions, were worth asking.

With the help of the relaxed state during Meditation, Xia Duo carefully sorted out the problems he was currently encountering in the field of Magic.

They were mainly concentrated in several aspects: one was the macroscopic Principles, such as whether there were more fundamental theories beyond the transformation of Magic Net Strings, as well as questions related to the Soul.

Secondly, there were specific sub-fields—the exploration directions and key Element Units related to the Plane Domain. This was actually specific technology; Xia Duo was a bit embarrassed to ask, and at the same time, he was not sure if the Master could answer or would be willing to answer.

After all, mentoring juniors does not mean one has to give away technology without limit.

Xia Duo felt that the Master's mentoring might be more about research experience, methods, ideas, and even connections.

And in this regard, Xia Duo actually had many questions, such as why the "Paper-making Technique" was monitored, and why Netheril did not produce its own Mithril.

Although these questions were not directly related to Magic, they were of great significance for Xia Duo to understand this world more deeply.

Although he had some guesses himself, how could they be as direct and accurate as an explanation from an elder who had lived for hundreds of years?

As for whether Kangjienio would fool him, Xia Duo was not worried about that; he was a Senior Arcanist after all, and already counted as the absolute backbone of Netheril.

If he were to be perfunctory or fool him, Kangjienio would not have his current reputation and prestige at all.

……

After thinking carefully, Xia Duo roughly knew what he should bring to see the Master and what he should ask when he saw the Master.

He casually made some breakfast, and after eating, he went back to the Tower of Time. Some preparations could not be completed at the Watchtower, but the Tower of Time was just right, and it didn't take much effort anyway.

After getting everything ready, Xia Duo returned to the Watchtower to continue the comprehensive inspection of the entire tower.

……

Busy time always passes quickly. In the blink of an eye, five days had passed, which was the day Xia Duo officially visited Kangjienio.