Chapter 39: Thread Construct: Engel Lied.
"So, what is the plan, Yuhao?"
Asked Kiana in the stigma space. She was wearing one of her limited edition Homu onesies, as she had just woken up.
She didn't really need sleep, but she did it anyway, as it was a nice, soft reset that relaxed her mind from all the built-up stress—and oh boy, was last week stressful.
"Well, I finished analyzing the barrier around the sage's house, and I was planning on creating a modified version of it to cover the forest."
"It's just that I seem to have underestimated the size of the forest,"
Replied the blond lad, as he was currently sitting in the backyard and brushing Fou's tail. He was using [Great Sage] to simulate modified versions of the sage's barrier in his head.
The sage's barrier was a treasure trove for [Great Sage], as it had a lot of [lines of code]—or as Yuhao liked to call them, [magic sequences]—stored inside.
"The sage's barrier used the house as a focal point and drew on ambient mana in the atmosphere to keep it running even after his death."
Kiana also analyzed the barrier's structure with her [Authority of Reason].
But unlike Yuhao, who was interested in the 'magic sequences,' she was more curious about how the mana was manipulated to create such a barrier.
The barrier was intangible the majority of the time, existing as ambient, programmed mana. It would only react if someone or something harbored impure, hostile intentions toward those in the house.
It was truly intention-activated, and Kiana was intrigued by that activation condition.
"So, if I want to cover the whole forest, I need to set up a focal point for the barrier—preferably multiple ones—so if one fails, the others can shoulder the load while I fix the broken focal point."
Yuhao theorized using an array arrangement like the true cultivator he was.
He also considered incorporating barrier techniques from other works of fiction, and so far, only two simulations had shown possible [magic sequences] that could be used.
"That would be more manageable. But what would you use for focal points?"
Asked the tuna as she got herself a cup of morning coffee with a whole strawberry cake to go with it. Not a slice—the whole cake.
She knew her stingy student would never want to use his [Nanobots] to create the barrier's focal points, even though his nanobots were theoretically the best mana-conducting material to ever exist, boasting a 99.99% magic conductivity efficiency.
And once again, she was correct. He wouldn't use his nanobots, as they were created from his mana. He wouldn't risk someone getting a hold of his mana signature and countering it—that's just a skill issue.
"Simple. I will have to create it."
He simply replied, placing Fou's brush gently aside. He stood up while carrying the cute furball in his arms and placed him on his favorite pillow.
He planned on using thread constructs made of—you guessed it—threads.
And since he had [Thread Manipulation], he could weave the threads from ambient mana in the air without having his mana signature on the constructs at all. Simple and easy—nothing complicated.
Yuhao raised his right hand, palm side up, as threads were literally weaved out of nothing.
Manipulation skills are the best type of growth skills. The skill itself is just a gate to the concept, and the wielder has to train their control over it.
The pure white threads started forming the shape of a small raven—not a full-bodied raven, just the structure—and landed on Yuhao's hand.
The construct started moving in a lifelike manner under Yuhao's control. It flapped its wings a couple of times, as if it were getting used to them, before jumping off Yuhao's palm and taking flight.
Likely, Yuhao created a raven—not a Charmony dove—so it took off into the air easily on the first try.
(AN: The constellation 『Sis-con Birdie』 is gazing in your direction.)
It circled around Yuhao a few times before bolting into the sky. All of this was still under Yuhao's control. He was testing the durability, maneuverability, and elasticity of the newly created thread construct.
After a few rounds of testing and adjusting the amount of ambient mana stored in the construct, Yuhao had his perfect focal point for the barrier.
Well, almost.
"It needs some final touches."
He started inscribing [magic sequences] regarding [Absorption], [Release], and [Control] into the construct's threads.
As mentioned before, 'magic sequence' was just a fancy way of saying 'magic spell' without a magic circle. It was the line of code that made the spell—if that makes sense.
So, adding the magic sequences into the construct allowed it to absorb ambient mana in the air, release it in the form of mana bursts or mana bullets, and control ambient mana toward the barrier when it was constructed.
"So, what do you think?" he asked the tuna living in his head, with a smug tone.
"Hmm, it looks pretty, and it's versatile. You can use it in your hunts and in maintaining the barrier once you construct it. Good job—I'd give you a golden star."
Kiana was not stingy in her praise, unlike her student.
She had to hand it to him—he was so stingy that he had to get creative to maintain his stinginess. But well, that was her beloved student.
"Bonus point for making it pretty," she added as she watched Fou chase after the thread construct, jumping in the air trying to catch it.
Sigh. Primate murder was exuding some orange cat energy at the moment, but Kiana liked it.
Yuhao was amused by his beast's behavior—so much so that he made another two raven thread constructs to play with him.
He also started tinkering with the process and adding more abilities to the thread constructs.
Like changing its form from a raven into a spearhead to be launched at targets, or becoming a flying string that could be shot like a needle through a target.
Kiana joined in by creating a version that could sing and mimic sounds and voices—perfect for trolling and camouflage. But trolling was the original intent.
They had already decided to schedule the barrier construction for tomorrow, as Yuhao still needed to create more thread constructs to be sufficient for powering up the barrier.
He had solved the problem of the magical focal point. What remained was deciding what type of barrier he was going to construct.
Would he just construct a bootleg version of the sage's barrier—one without the intent mechanism and always tangible—or go for a [Bounded Field] type setup?
He thought for a moment and decided on using the [Bounded Field] type barrier. Not because he was a massive FATE fan—please don't misunderstand.
It just fit his newly discovered magic system better. The sage's magic relied on intent, thought, and imagination, while the new one relied on cause and effect.
Both had their pros and cons, so combining them could theoretically create a near-perfect [Bounded Field] powered by ambient mana and programmed to maintain a 'boundary' between the outside world and the [Great Devil's Den] forest.
It worked by knitting a boundary line of magical energy—in this case, ambient mana—around a space to separate its inside from the outside, cutting off and isolating that space.
That could be done using the sage's magic quite easily. As for the extra modifications Yuhao planned to install in the barrier, he would need the [magic sequences] inscribed on the barrier itself.
He planned a layered system, where the bounded field would be constructed in 'layers,' each with a different set of [magic sequences] inscribed.
It was basically copying the barrier technique of Souren Araya from FATE, with the concept of Rho Aias. It wasn't a 'single barrier that blocked everything'—it was 'every layer corresponds to a different type of sealing.'
He was creating a 'world within a world,' with the monsters serving as the parasites of the new small world and the thread constructs as its protection mechanism.
"Let's break the system. Shall we? Kukuku,"
thought Yuhao as he continued using [Parallel Processing] from [Great Sage] to create thread constructs while also developing the complex [magic sequences] for the barriers.
Tomorrow was going to be a grand reveal for the entire world.
(Chapter 39 finished.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Author's Note:
Hey guys, how are you doing? I hope you're all doing wonderfully!
If you have a couple of minutes, please consider writing a review for this fanfic—it really helps in getting it featured on the 'Popular' page over at Webnovel.
Here's a new chapter, fresh out of the oven. Not much action in this one—it's mainly focused on fleshing out the barrier and its significance within the world.
I didn't want to just say "Yuhao created a barrier around the forest" and move on. I spent several hours digging through the FATE wiki for details on bounded fields and Rho Aias, as well as the Mahouka wiki to figure out the kind of [Magic Sequence] to use for the first layer.
(Spoiler: it starts with a "P" and it's a movement-type Systemic Magic.)
This chapter is 1.6K words without the Author's Note. This length is more manageable than the 2K–3.5K word chapters you were used to. But oh well—it is what it is.
Anyhow, don't forget to comment on memes, share your thoughts, and, most importantly, post waifu pics.
That's all for now.
Bye.
(AN: Italic bold text represents new additions and updates to his status, so you don't have to read everything.)
『...』
『Huo Yuhao』
『Class: Nanomancer』
『Class Ranking: Tier 3』
『Race: Ascended Human, White Dragon, White Tiger』
『Soul Power: 29』
『Martial Souls: [Eyes of Heaven], [White Dragon of Nihility] 『1+』, [Monster Slime] 『2+』』
『Skill Points: 811,000. 』
『Unique Skills: 』
[Great Sage]
[Golden Rule]
[True Martial Art: 7]
[Super-Growth B]
[Increased Skill Point Generation: B]
[Honkai Circuits]
[Honkai Resistance]
[Honkai Energy Manipulation]
[Honkai Rotation]
『Other Skills: 』
[Appraisal]
[Endurance]
[Item Box]
[Language Comprehension]
[Fast Reading]
[Thread Manipulation]
[Illusion Manipulation]
[Pain Resistance]
[Check Status]
[Cooking: 5]
[Taunt C]
[Weakness Detection]
[Presence Detection]
[Environment Assimilation]
『Titles: 』
[Master of the Door]
[Master of the House]
[Otherworlder]
[First [Class Holder] to Appear in the World]
[The One Who Perplexed the World's Consciousness]
[The One Who Gained the Interest of the Entire World]
[Slaughterer]
『End of status. 』