Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 338 - 331: Tangmo’s Discovery

Chapter 338: Chapter 331: Tangmo’s Discovery

"Nothing." Yalunte looked at him, revealing an unfathomable smile. Cheng Ziang couldn’t decipher his thoughts for a while, he could only look at him with suspicion.

"Anyway, our task is to figure out how to map out the Magic Array and then find a way to get the Magic Crystal to install." Cheng Ziang shook his head, removing any distracting thoughts from his mind, then said seriously to him.

"As for the Magic Crystals, I’ll figure out a way to get them, you just be in charge of mapping the Magic Array and inscribing the runes on them." Yalunte suggested.

As a graduate of Haiya Academy, mandatory courses include mapping Magic Arrays and inscribing runes, so Yalunte could not surpass him in this regard, even if Cheng Ziang did not have to use it himself.

In order to activate the magic power within the Magic Crystal through the Magic Array, it is necessary to engrave the output runes on the Magic Crystal, otherwise, the magic power inside the Crystal cannot be guided into the routes of the Magic Array. Also, not all materials can be used to map the Magic Array. It must be a material that allows the flow of magic power, and the best material is the powder ground from a Magic Crystal that contains light magic power. A mage will mix this powder with water into a dough and shape it into a cylindrical form like chalk, for easy application on the ground to map the Magic Array.

The simplest method to engrave runes on a Magic Crystal is to use another sharp Magic Crystal. The reason why it’s called a Magic Crystal is that it is a type of crystalline mineral, somewhat similar to Calcite.

When depleted of magic power, this mineral presents a semi-transparent colorless state, but once magic power fills it, it becomes completely opaque. The density of magic power in a Magic Crystal is differentiated by the color intensity of the Crystal, irrelevant to its actual color.

There are many colors of Magic Crystals, the most common are purple and green, followed by red. Thus, Magic Crystals have also become a great decoration, used for clothing, furniture, and even architecture.

As long as there are no engraved output runes, the magic power inside Magic Crystals remains stable. No matter how many shards the Crystal breaks into, its magic power won’t be guided out. Therefore, Crystal shards filled with magic power are also crushed and used as medicine. However, Earthlings tend to see this practice as somewhat superstitious.

"Can you even handle it? According to the distribution shown in the diagram, the Magic Array need at least twelve pieces of high-concentration magic to operate." Cheng Ziang asked him skeptically.

"Don’t worry. In my younger days, I wandering around, so poor that I didn’t have a single gold coin. How do you think I survived?" Yalunte said while displaying a smug expression.

"So, you like to play this trick too..." Cheng Ziang said somewhat speechlessly.

With the planning done, Cheng Ziang started to map the Magic Array on the ground with the materials Shariya provided. As a mage, he naturally carried these basic materials required to draw Magic Arrays.

On the one hand, after Cheng Ziang left, Shariya and Tangmo started studying the photographs and diagrams that he sent over. As the study progressed, they gradually recognized the mysteries of the runes of the Otherworld Gate.

Tangmo shuffled between flipping books and decoding runes, bustling about, to the point of developing blisters on her lips, causing Luo’er to feel distressed while watching her.

Baiyue, on the other hand, was not much better. Long-term calculation kept her brain in high gear all the time. In the end, she started feeling dizzy when she looked at the numbers and had to rest a little before she started feeling better. She felt more tired after this high-intensity calculation than the night before her Graduation Exam.

Tangmo was sitting cross-legged on the floor, dark circles appearing around her eyes. She looked at the assorted notes and slips of paper stuck around her while squinting her eyes, a sleepy look on her face, and started to feel groggy.

All of a sudden, she seemed to have an out of body experience, soaring at high speed in Earth’s high atmosphere. Every time she arrived at a large city, her eyes would zoom in on the city like a satellite and display its basic information.

She reduced her vision and quickly zoomed out to the high sky, overlooking the blue Earth. The Earth she saw was full of glowing lines. Lines were connected from the North Pole to the South Pole, and there were circles of coils enveloping the globe, intersecting with the line between the two poles."

"This is... latitude and longitude..." Tangmo muttered to herself. Suddenly, she regained her awareness from an absent-minded state and appeared excited, as if she had realized something.

"Yue’er, I have a question!" Tangmo grabbed a slip of paper, rushed to Baiyue’s side excitedly, grabbed her hand and said.

"You, you say..." Seeing her somewhat frenzied state, Baiyue was feeling lingering fear and uneasily said.

"I ask you, what are the latitude and longitude coordinates of the Otherworld Gate in Ulysses City?" Tangmo asked excitedly.

"Umm..." Baiyue thought for a while and answered, "131 degrees East, 25 degrees South."

Baiyue’s mind always remembered such small details and trivia.

"To the decimal place!" Tangmo urged excitedly.

"Umm..." Baiyue thought for a moment, then said with little confidence, "East...131.036 degrees, South...25.348 degrees...approximately..."

"Right, that’s correct." After hearing her response, Tangmo looked at the paper slip in her hand and said with a slight tremble.

"Are you okay, Moumou...sister?" Baiyue carefully looked at her, fearing she would fall ill again and become another Momo.

"Right, since they are coordinates, then we should consider longitude and latitude... " Tangmo ignored her question, focusing on the note in her hand, mumbling to herself. Overly excited, she even tore the scab on the corner of her mouth, causing blood to spill out.

"Dean Shariya." Tangmo approached Shariya and called out loudly.

"What’s wrong, you seem to be injured?" Shariya turned around, and when he saw the blood at the corner of Tangmo’s mouth, he couldn’t help but furrow his brows.

"It’s just a minor injury," Tangmo asked excitedly, "Dean Shariya, do you know which of these runes represent numbers?"

"Numbers?" Shariya took the photographs and notes handed to him with a furrowed brow, thought for a while, then reluctantly replied, "I might need some time to translate. I have read some books about the Otherworld Gate before, but I just can’t remember them right now."

"No problem, but hurry up!" Tangmo waved her hand, urging him.

"I’ll do my best." Shariya nodded, then began comparing the blueprints and the note, starting to decipher the text.

"Are you okay?" Seeing the blood on her mouth, Luo’er couldn’t help but to take a step forward, gently wiping the wound at her mouth.

"I’m fine, I just thought of a direction." Tangmo grabbed his hand, pleased, and smiled.

"I thought you were ill again," Luo’er sighed in relief.

"Don’t worry, I won’t let her take over again!" Tangmo assured him confidently.

After a while, Shariya finally found the translation method following a thorough review of many notes, and then separated the numerical runes on the Otherworld Gate, using corresponding Arabic numerals to represent different numbers.

"Why is it base-12?" Tangmo frowned when she saw the note, but was nevertheless determined to continue the investigation.

"Forget it, Yue’er, convert these numbers into the data we need!" Tangmo handed the blueprints and notes to Baiyue, instructed, "Once you’ve calculated the result, tell me right away!"

"Got it!" Baiyue took the documents and nodded solemnly.

After assigning Baiyue the task, Tangmo didn’t even have a moment to catch her breath before she continued to examine the blueprints and pictures brought back by Cheng Ziang, trying to find the numbers according to the conversion units provided by Shariya.

The research work continued until nightfall. For the first time, Luo’er and Hu Daoke felt useless. Apart from maintaining vigilance and handling daily tasks, they couldn’t provide any help.

As a research specialist, Tangmo didn’t necessarily stand out in battle. But when research was needed, her role was crucial and she was even more useful than the three men in the team.

Baiyue’s talents went without saying. While Tangmo excelled in research, Baiyue was a jill-of-all-trades. She was both effective in fights and indispensable in research.

By ten in the morning on the second day, Baiyue, who had been up until midnight, finally finished calculating all the data and handed it to Tangmo. Exhausted from the intensive work, she collapsed as soon as she handed over the data and was carried back to the tent by Luo’er to rest.

The next task fell to Tangmo. She had to calculate the different effects produced by magical power flowing through different patterns. This was her strength. Although Baiyue was also skilled, Tangmo was faster and more accurate.

Among the research team, Tangmo’s knowledge in this field was second only to Shariya. However, considering Shariya’s old age and less flexible mind compared to Tangmo, she could be said to be the most knowledgeable in the group.

"The magic flows here, resulting in effect X, flows here, resulting in effect Y, and then..." Tangmo murmurs while crunching numbers. She’s parched, but too entranced to even drink.

Finally, her relentless calculations yielded an interpretation of the Otherworld Gate’s coordinate runes.

"That’s right, it’s like this, that’s right, it’s like this!" Tangmo excitedly muttered, a pleased smile on her face.

Grabbing Luo’er, who was at her side worrying about her, she clung onto him and said excitedly: "Look, look, it’s like this, it’s like this, these runes work like this!"

"Like what?" Luo’er looked at her, almost mad with excitement, and felt a chill down his spine. It seemed like her mind was breaking down from overworking. Now, Luo’er was worried; was Tangmo going crazy?