Chapter 489: Tests and Global Broadcast

Immediately following this, Xia Duo made another laboratory version of the Communication Magic Tool; after all, how could one use it if there were only one? If passed directly to a layperson, the recipient would have to manually decrypt the encrypted information, which would be extremely inconvenient.

Furthermore, to sell the product more conveniently, Xia Duo directly limited it so that only Communication Magic Tools connected via the 【Twin Arcane Mark】 could communicate with each other. If two people could not even meet once, then long-distance communication would not actually be very necessary.

Of course, on the other hand, the 2nd Circle 【Background Communication】 simplified by Xia Duo could also be used, though it could only be used for direct communication between people—analogous to a conversation, but transmitting text information.

Next was the actual testing. Xia Duo put away these two laboratory versions of the Communication Magic Tool and came to the Tilake Research Lab, first checking on their research progress, and then calling Dien out.

"Come over and help me perform a test of the Communication Magic Tool."

"Mm, okay!" Dien agreed quite readily.

In fact, he had been so busy these past few days that he couldn't tell night from day. Aside from experiments regarding Permanent Magic, he spent more time supplementing his own knowledge. Xia Duo had provided the members of the Progress Society with theoretical knowledge such as Arcane Geometry, and in this regard, the progress of Sami and the others was slightly faster.

This made Dien feel pressured, so he utilized almost all of his free time. However, squeezing himself like this for a long time also left him somewhat exhausted. With Xia Duo looking for him for something this time, he could just as well come out to relax and adjust.

Soon, the two passed through a Portal and arrived at Savile Town. The first thing to test was the communication connection under the normal Magic Net environment of the outside world.

Xia Duo took out the two laboratory-version Communication Magic Tools that had just been made but not yet "encapsulated," handed one to Dien, and casually cast 【Twin Arcane Mark】, leaving two identical marks in both Communication Magic Tools simultaneously.

If this step were performed by two people casting together, it might have a certain ritualistic significance, indicating that this was the beginning of the two people establishing a connection; of course, casting it alone was also possible.

Since Dien had not yet learned this spell, Xia Duo would be the one to cast it.

"I'll teach you how to use this Communication Magic Tool first."

The use of the Communication Magic Tool was very simple; one only needed to be in a focused state, activate the Communication Magic Tool, and then input text, which would exist in the form of light and shadow.

While called text, it was essentially still a Projection, only the text projection carried the least amount of information, and a 2nd Circle Spell could only achieve this much.

If Dien were a person from Earth, perhaps he could insert some emoticons into the text to express more complex information. However, as of now, Xia Duo had no intention of introducing emoji packs to the magic world.

Before long, Dien completely understood how to use this Communication Magic Tool with its very strange shape, but just as he was about to activate and use it, Xia Duo stopped him again.

"Wait a moment."

It was unclear if it was the influence of the papermaking incident from a while back, but Xia Duo was now very sensitive to these things being done in the outside world. Although the Communication Magic Tool was already an existing "old thing," he still could not be certain if anyone was currently divining for technological breakthroughs in this area.

But if one were overly cautious about everything, then nothing would ever get done.

Therefore, after thinking it over, Xia Duo still decided to conduct the test in the outside world, though he would still perform some simple Protection. Casting 【Nondetection】 on Dien was one such measure.

At the same time, Xia Duo decided that after the Communication Magic Tool, and after becoming an Advanced Arcanist, aside from his normal "leveling up," the first thing he would do was research Scrying spells and anti-Scrying spells.

This was somewhat like electronic warfare in modern conflicts on Earth: reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, jamming and anti-jamming.

Seizing the initiative could be considered a key factor in success or failure.

After completing the basic protective work, Xia Duo told Dien to conduct the test after receiving his notification, and then he teleported to the north. He teleported as far as possible, and what met his eyes was an unfamiliar forest.

Fuzzy Teleportation did not require specific coordinates, but the risks were greater, though generally still under control. Usually, Mages were not very willing to accept spells with high uncertainty.

Based on the position of the sun, Xia Duo roughly judged which direction was south, then flew to a high place to gaze toward the south. The earth was flat, and looking out, it seemed one could see to the end of the world.

But the fact was that human vision was limited; it became blurry beyond a certain distance. Coupled with various mountain ranges much higher than the eye's current altitude blocking the view, the range one could actually see (see clearly) was very limited.

Xia Duo would naturally not fly too high; the limit of his field of vision was probably the Wolf God Mountain to the south of the Green Pearl Forest.

Based on the size and clarity of Wolf God Mountain, it was theoretically possible to judge the distance, but Xia Duo didn't need to go to such trouble. He only needed to know roughly that this teleportation had gone very far, far enough to exceed the range of ordinary Communication Spells.

He first tried several conventional single-person Communication Spells, but there was no response from Dien's side; he must not have received them. If there were no Magic Array at the level of a Mage Tower, Xia Duo felt that he and Niya would not be able to contact each other from time to time so easily.

Of course, it was not that there were no Communication Magic Tools that could contact over long distances, but those Communication Magic Tools were not based on 【Sending】. Many were related to Projections and summoning, and some were even related to curses.

For ordinary Mages, the threshold was extremely high; it was better to borrow the Communication Magic Array of a Mage Tower.

Xia Duo remembered that Lady Patti should have a long-distance Communication Magic Tool in her possession, one that could even reach Savile Town from the Langasi side, but that Communication Magic Tool had very many usage restrictions.

At the very least, it was not like the Communication Magic Tool Xia Duo had made, which could be used at any time.

……

——2nd Circle 【Background Communication】 · {Test Start}

Similar to the Fuzzy Teleportation of 【Teleportation】, 【Background Communication】 could also be sent fuzzily, but even a fuzzy transmission was similar to the precise delivery of big data on Earth.

【Background Communication】 utilized Magic Web Background Fluctuation to transmit information; it was essentially a global broadcast on a super-large scale.

The target Xia Duo chose was 【South, Scene, Dien's image】. Within the spell's effective range, although the spell would not automatically search for the target, only those matching the target could receive it.

Of course, on the other hand, this kind of global broadcast-style communication was also very easy to intercept, especially when the number of users was small and it was not encrypted.

If the number of users were large, it would not be so easy to find specific information.

Based on this, Xia Duo also inferred that in the future, there might be monitors specifically targeting Magic Web Background Fluctuation.

All in all, encrypted communication was still the major trend, and there was no need to worry about not being able to sell Communication Magic Tools.