Chapter 1120: Constant Dilemma, Shortcut Solution

Time spent in devotion always passes quickly; in the blink of an eye, it was already the end of March.

Just as Xia Duo had anticipated, the Magic Net environment restoration project outside the Tower of Time had reached its final finishing stages by this time.

Xia Duo did not participate in this step, instead leaving it entirely to Aiboke to complete; he still felt quite at ease with Aiboke.

He himself came to the Arcane Garden to perform Magic Permanence on the Code Sculpture.

Six days ago, the 【Code Sculpture Constant Matrix Final Version】 was completed, including the proportional adjustments for the enlarged size to suit the viewing angle, the layout of the Code text on the four sides of the base, the decorative patterns on the sculpture, and the critical issue of precision—all had been solved by Xia Duo one by one.

However, because this sculpture was not originally a piece of real stone, but rather transformed from a large mass of pure water via Petrification Magic, although the Petrification Magic from the ancient statue could achieve a more thorough petrification effect than ordinary spells.

It still had to wait for a period of time, waiting for its materiality to become completely stable, before subsequent Magic Permanence processing could be carried out.

This wait lasted a full six days; now that the materiality of the Code Sculpture was stable, it was time for Xia Duo to endow it with more functions!

Arcane Garden.

Beside the square well where Xia Duo had manufactured his first large sculpture, a blue-black sculpture standing ten meters tall stood silently.

After multiple design adjustments, this time when Xia Duo came to the foot of the sculpture and looked up at it, he no longer felt the sense of disharmony from the first time.

The Code text on the base was clearly visible; stepping back a few paces, the main body of the sculpture—that giant stone Code—was reflecting a dazzling radiance in the brightly lit Arcane Garden.

This light even momentarily masked its blue-black natural color, possessing a metallic texture shimmering with silver light.

The various decorative patterns on the enlarged sculpture were also very rich, but they did not exist to overshadow the main subject; instead, they set off the giant Code book and the Code text on the four sides of the base below, making them appear even more solemn and grave.

Originally, Xia Duo had prepared to change the color of this sculpture, but now he decided not to; it was just fine as it was!

Not only that, Xia Duo would also issue black Mage Robes to personnel in the Territory engaged in Judgment and judicial-related work in the future, to manifest the solemnity and authority of the law and legal workers.

But those were matters for later; right now, there was only one goal in Xia Duo's eyes, and that was to complete the Magic Permanence of the Code Sculpture.

In Xia Duo's original plan, besides the most basic Automatic Protection function, this Code Sculpture should also possess the functions of automatically broadcasting the Code content to those approaching, and automatically transmitting the corresponding Code content based on the keywords of the approaching person's surface consciousness information.

Of course, there were also functions such as increasing deterrence and increasing nighttime brightness, but those were secondary; it wouldn't matter if they were absent, but the core functions could not be missing.

Yet over these past few days, Xia Duo had been unable to complete such a design scheme; it was not that the spell itself could not be realized, but the problem lay in the Permanency.

Permanency does not actually refer to any specific spell used for making things constant, but rather a design theory for the permanency of specific spells.

The key lies in constructing the cyclic operation of the spell's various Element Units, so that the spell does not disintegrate due to the Magic Net's tendency to autonomously recover, thereby allowing the spell effect to exist permanently (theoretically).

Therefore, the spellcasting complexity of a 【Spell Constant Version】 is far greater than the spell itself; after all, it involves element circulation, and even if the scheme has been researched, the actual spellcasting is quite complex.

It is easy to understand from another perspective: if a spell is made constant, it is equivalent to a spell being cast countless times; if the spellcasting difficulty were very low, then what would be the point of normal spells?

The Automatic Psychic Broadcast spell that Xia Duo designed for the Code Sculpture not only had to consider scenarios where multiple people used it simultaneously, but also scenarios for specific responses.

Consequently, the final design of this spell was itself a very complex 8th Circle spell.

Although Xia Duo had already come into contact with the ninth layer of the Magic Net and could cast conventional 9th Circle spells (the Watchtower's 【Blazing Sun】), it was still very difficult to perform Permanency on an 8th Circle spell.

It was not just that the element circulation design was difficult; the spellcasting was even more difficult!

The element circulation design could be completed eventually by spending more time, but the difficulty of spellcasting could not be solved by general methods.

What Xia Duo could think of was to design a Ritual Magic and call more people to work together, but after his calculations, to complete the Permanency of this spell, not counting others, at least three Archmages were required!

Besides Xia Duo, where else could one find an Archmage in the Tower of Time? As for going to Seventon to invite people, Xia Duo had never considered it; letting three Archmages give up a considerable amount of time to familiarize themselves with the spell, and then possibly having to attempt it several times to complete the Permanency—the cost involved was not small.

Beyond the fact that the spell itself would be leaked, more importantly, there was the matter of personal favors.

As the saying goes, "Sentient beings fear the result, Bodhisattvas fear the cause"; although Xia Duo had not reached that level of cultivation, he knew that debts of favor are hard to repay. If one were a person with nothing, one would naturally not care about debts of favor, but Xia Duo was not.

The higher his position, the more sensitive he became to these things.

Perhaps there were some wild Archmages outside the Seven Towers who would come as long as they were paid, but Xia Duo did not trust those people much.

During these few days of waiting for the Code Sculpture's materiality to stabilize, Xia Duo had also seriously considered whether to ask for help, but in the end, he gave up.

Because he was still unsure whether continuing to use his own scheme could complete the element circulation design of the spell before the Land Granting Ceremony; if it could not be completed, then much of the effort during this period would be meaningless.

Or perhaps postpone the Land Granting Ceremony.

Postponing the Land Granting Ceremony alone would be easy to handle, but a series of subsequent plans would have to be postponed as a result, and that was not something Xia Duo could accept.

Just last night, under Niya's reminder, Xia Duo thought of a shortcut and decided to use this method.

His purpose in performing Magic Permanence on the Code Sculpture lay more in the result than the process; that 【Interactive Codex Preaching Technique】 had already been researched by him, and the Permanency scheme was only unfinished due to time issues.

As for the spellcasting difficulty, that was not a failure of strategy; it was determined by the physiological limits of humans. Even if a Great Arcanist were brought in, it was not certain that they could complete the Permanency spellcasting of this spell alone.

From this perspective, Xia Duo's bet on the future development of Mithral Component Magic Items should be correct.

Constant Magic Items are indeed only suitable for a few high-end products; although they might not necessarily decline in the future, and might even become more popular among high-end products, overall, they would certainly not be as widespread as Mithral Component types.

As for now, Xia Duo had already deeply felt the difference between them.