Exploring Technology in a Wizard World

On the night of the accident at the Shambhala Town Mine, there was a sudden stir in Eden.

In a room, Pandora, the young girl who had been sleeping for a long time, suddenly furrowed her brows as if she were having a nightmare. She couldn't help but turn over... and then turned over again, and again, and one more time...

The bed was large, but it couldn't withstand Pandora's endless turning, and finally with a "thud," she fell off the bed.

On the ground, Pandora finally stopped turning, sniffed a bit, curled up, and fell deeply asleep.

Who knows how much time passed when with a "creak," the door opened, and Richard walked in.

Seeing Pandora sleeping on the ground, Richard shook his head, picked her up, and put her back on the bed. After checking to see that she wouldn't fall off again, he turned to leave.

...

Richard was completely unaware of the accident at the Shambhala Town Mine, or one could say that the impact of the accident had not spread to Jialan City.

Thus, for the next half month, he continued to immerse himself systematically and methodically into various research projects according to plan.

More than half a month later, on a day approaching the Cold Moon of November, he found himself unusually unoccupied and was instead waiting for someone in the parlor of the Blue Lake Estate.

The visitor was none other than Joseph from the Truth Society.

...

It was midday.

In the parlor of the Blue Lake Estate, the butler Jia Lie respectfully served two cups of hot tea and quickly retreated.

Sitting in the main seat of the parlor, Richard took a sip of tea, glanced at Joseph, who was seated as a guest, and frankly said, "Wizard Joseph, I'm quite curious about why you've come to see me. When I received word that you were coming a few days ago, I started guessing. Could it be the Truth Society has some mission for me? Or is it that you need some special magic rune skill services? Or perhaps, there is an issue with the information I provided you regarding the casting materials of those undead wizards?"

Joseph shook his head at Richard's words, without any verbose explanations, and said, "Wizard Richard, you're overthinking it. The reason I'm here isn't any of what you've imagined. Currently, the Truth Society doesn't need you to handle any tasks, and regarding the magic rune skill services, you've provided plenty, so it's not appropriate to ask for more. As for the clues you previously provided, we're still studying them and haven't found any issues."

"So what's going on then?" Richard asked seriously.

"Actually, I'm just passing by and decided to visit you and bring you something," Joseph said. "My primary purpose this time is to deal with something in the western part of Jialan City, the specifics of which you don't need to know—it's quite tedious and unrelated to you."

"Just like that?" Richard shrugged, "Then what did you bring me?"

"It's this." Joseph reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a fist-sized crystal ball, explaining, "This is a magic tool used for communication within our organization. It's relatively precious, but considering the inconvenience you face in contacting us from Jialan City, we decided to give you one.

If you or Wizard Vici encounter any situation, you can use this crystal ball to communicate with us and transmit information. At that time, someone will reach out to you to understand more.

Let me tell you, don't underestimate this crystal ball. It's completely different from ordinary communication crystal balls. Ordinary communication crystal balls are made using prediction magic; they are rare, easy to damage, and have significant usage limitations, often leading to one-way information transmission that falls short of real communication.

However, the type of crystal ball I'm giving you is made with a unique magic rune magic from our organization. It can be used from virtually anywhere in this world, and communication is two-way, allowing for rapid transmission of key information."

"That impressive?!" Richard's eyebrows raised with interest as he asked, "So how do you use it exactly?"

"As for the usage, indeed, this is something we need to discuss thoroughly with you because the crystal ball's operation is quite complex to prevent misuse by unauthorized individuals," Joseph said, then began explaining while holding the crystal ball. "The proper operation of the crystal ball involves three parts: initiation, transmitting information, and closing.

First is the initiation part, where you must inject twelve mana flows in sequence, specifically...

Then comes the second part, transmitting information, where you manipulate different mana flows to activate varying magic runes within the crystal ball to send pre-determined messages. For example, sending the first type of message indicates danger, the second type, safety, the third type...

The last is the third part, closing. After each use, one must turn off the crystal ball by using a mana flow..."

After a while, Joseph finished explaining, then paused to give Richard time to digest the information before looking back at him and asking, "So, Wizard Richard, are you amazed? Do you find the design of this crystal ball incredibly ingenious? Although I am not proficient in magic runes, I am aware that this crystal ball is an advanced creation of magic rune technology. You, as a Magic Rune Master, should be able to understand how remarkable this crystal ball truly is."

"I do indeed understand." Richard nodded, not denying it, but his expression didn't show excessive surprise; instead, he furrowed his brow in thought.

After pondering for a moment, he looked up at Joseph and asked seriously, "Wizard Joseph, is that all there is to using this crystal ball?"

"What else could there be?"

"Well, based on what you described, it seems like this crystal ball can only transmit some vague messages, right? Although the two parties possessing the crystal ball can indeed communicate, for communication to happen prior setup is needed to determine which signal corresponds to which situation.

Under normal circumstances, communication poses no issue. However, if events exceed expectations, communication can become very challenging to convey clearly."

"But isn't that already enough?" Joseph didn't find anything wrong with it. "The crystal ball can send a dozen types of information covering most communication scenarios, suffice for long-distance communication. If a situation truly arises unexpectedly, communication won't solve it, and sending direct support is preferable."

..." Listening to Joseph, Richard fell silent for a moment before continuing, "Have you ever considered using this crystal ball to directly send clear text messages?"

"Text messages?" Joseph was taken aback, "How is that possible? The crystal ball can't transmit images."

"While crystal balls may not transmit images, text messages don't necessarily require images for transmission," Richard said, looking at Joseph. "As you mentioned, the crystal ball can send about a dozen types of information. How about designating each type as a specific character? By arranging these characters in designated sequences, you'd form words, and by adding specific separators, you could create coherent sentences.

If there are too many characters to distinguish and send all at once, we could even encode them into different symbols, like '·' and '—'. '·————' could represent 1, '··———' could represent 2..."

Richard continued with an extensive explanation, frequently giving examples, offering Joseph a practical and feasible communication solution.

As Joseph listened, his reaction evolved from initial curiosity to polite skepticism, then to overt skepticism, followed by thoughtful consideration, and finally culminating in complete amazement.

His mouth gradually gaped wider and wider.

...