Chapter 684 "Good gods, one mistake and we might blow up?" Her survival instinct took the wheel and her Forgemaster wand appeared in her hand .
"Maybe . I'm paranoid, but the Odi were crazy, so it's not so unlikely that . . . "
"You're not paranoid . I mean, not this time . " Phloria cut him short .
"Once a safety protocol is breached, the defense readiness condition is raised . Unless the Commander promptly resets the system, two things are bound to happen . The first is the call for reinforcements, which probably failed, being the Odi dead .
"The second is triggering the failsafe mechanism protecting a base' secrets . It usually implies self-destruction so to kill the invaders and prevent state secrets from falling into the wrong hands . "
"Can you reset it?" Lith asked .
"Maybe . So far the Odi protocols are not so different from those of the Griffon Kingdom . "
'If she manages to do it, we might have enough energy for the tower!' Solus thought .
"Let me guess, that's where we're headed . " Phloria pointed at a room that was double the size of those they had encountered so far .
It had ample glass windows which allowed them to look inside and there was a small antechamber in front of it, with a desk for the secretary and seats for the guests .
"Five arrays, three mana cables, twelve purple crystals . This is going to be tricky . "
During his stay in Kulah, Lith used Invigoration so many times to scan for dangers that he had discovered new ways to use it . He placed his hands on the walls nearby rather than directly on the arrays .
He made his mana travel from a safe distance, closing it in to the magical formation to make sure that he could study them without triggering their defense mechanisms .
"Or not . " Said Phloria, while walking to the secretary's desk . "Secretaries are usually the real second in command . They know everything about their boss and organize their workday, so they have access to pretty much everything . "
Lith had already cleared the area, so she could cast some of the spells Orion had taught her . Silvery strands of energy came out from her wand, highlighting several secret compartments where Life Vision showed nothing .
"Wait, what?" Lith asked both Solus and Phloria .
'Beats me . To my mana sense, it's just a normal desk . ' Solus said .
"Paranoia . " Phloria quoted the book of Lith, chapter 1, verse 1 . "The spell I just used specifically reveals cloaked spells . Dad developed it right after studying how such spells work . "
"I'm really tempted to ask you what the heck that wand is . " No matter how much Lith looked at it, it appeared as a conducting baton made of silver to him .
"You'll have to keep your curiosity to yourself so that my father can keep his head . " She replied as several silvery runes appeared over the desk .
For the first time, Lith was interested in Royal Forgemasters' spell, looking at Phloria's actions in the detail . The magic words she used were mostly unknown and the few he recognized derived from Forgemaster spells .
She formed hand and wand signs, using both to draw energy runes in the air . After a few seconds, all the compartments opened at once . One was full of paperwork that Phloria stored for the Professors, one was for office supplies, and the last contained a small keyboard .
"Gods, even the Odi suffered from a bad case of stationery thefts if they used secret compartments for them . "
"Paranoia should tell you they are enchanted . " Lith replied with his eyes ablaze with Life Vision .
"My bad . My spells can take me only this far and the buttons all look the same . What do you make of them?" She asked .
Lith placed his hand on the desk and performed a thorough scan, hoping that Orion's spell had missed something .
'Apparently, it's as good as Invigoration and it doesn't require contact . Yondra's apprenticeship offer is becoming more interesting by the second . ' Lith thought .
Once he focused on the buttons, he could follow their enchantments as if they were power lines and discover what they were connected to .
"One button is for the door, one is for the arrays, and the other two go too far for me to follow them . " Lith said .
"They must be the one to call for the security and another to raise the alarm . " Phloria suggested .
"Do we really want to bet everything on a button?" Lith asked . The array was a minefield but facing it head-on felt safer to him .
"Do you really expect a secretary to be a Master Warden that every day has to defuse and reactivate that kind of array?" Phloria's reasoning made a lot of sense .
After Lith nodded to her, she pushed it and the arrays disappeared . Another click and the door opened .
Once inside, they ignored the papers and scanned the room for secret compartments . Lith noticed with Life Vision that almost everything in the office was enchanted, especially the desk .
It was filled with mana crystals, resembling a huge wooden communication amulet . Invigoration allowed him to peek inside its drawers, but there was nothing worth mentioning .
"More paperwork and enchanted stationery . What about you?" Lith asked .
"I can feel something enchanted behind this library, but I can't find a magical switch to open it . " Phloria replied .
Much to Lith dismay, the library behind the commander's desk was completely ordinary, so Life Vision, mana sense, and Invigoration showed nothing .
'Okay, it's my time to shine . ' Solus slipped off Lith's finger and inside the shelves in her liquid form, exploring every nook and cranny, until she found the hidden mechanism . Then she backtracked its workings until she found its trigger .
'Oh my! It seems that the Odi had developed something similar to C-4 . ' She said . 'I've stored everything for research purposes, but before opening the library I'm going to check for more surprises . '
It was the first time since he was reborn on Mogar that Lith heard about explosives, so he asked Phloria about them .
"It's ancient stuff, no one uses it anymore . Spells are much more powerful and more easily controlled . Also, if someone wears decent protection, you can't kill anyone with explosives unless you make the ceiling collapse on their heads . Why do you ask?"
"Because it's the only thing I could think about to activate the underlying arrays if we just ripped the library off the wall . " Lith said .
"That would be an incredibly crude but ingenious way to fool a Forgemaster . Good thinking . " Phloria nodded .
'Thanks . ' Solus replied in Lith's mind while Phloria and he looked for some kind of switch . Luckily for them, there was only one switch and no traps . After removing the locks, the library easily moved on its hinges, revealing a safe and a block of explosive that Solus had left to prove Lith's theory .
The safe was a small rectangular door, covered by several overlapping arrays, each one fueled by several purple crystals . Above them floated a small holographic display .
"Dammit, the magic crystals powering the safe are the same that fuel the arrays . I can't deactivate them without triggering the safe defense mechanism . " Lith said .
"Unless we know the password . " Phloria pointed at the holographic display, showing only numbers . She used another of her father's spells and the numbers lit up, revealing that each one of them was connected to two different relays .
One was linked to the safe and the other to the arrays .
"Great! The password contains all the numbers, so they can all be right or wrong depending on their sequence and repetition . I don't think even the Professors can crack it this time . " Lith said .
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login