Wizard: I Add Points and Hunt Monsters

”There was once someone who tried to create a...”

At this, the black shadow paused. The pair of glowing eyes on its blurred face stared at Wei’en, as if trying to pique his interest.

Wei’en glanced at the black shadow, then stepped onto the suspension bridge. He had no interest in indulging a stranger’s strange whims.

However, a moment ago, he had genuinely thought these Floating Islands were real, just like the Rune Patterns he had discovered on the tower earlier.

If such a cluster of Floating Islands truly existed in the real world, he would definitely find a chance to see them in the future.

”Huh? Aren’t you curious?” the black shadow asked instinctively, taken aback.

”I am, but...” Wei’en said coolly without turning back. ”I seriously doubt the truth of what you’re saying!”

The black shadow watched him disappear onto the other side of the bridge and nearly suffered internal damage from frustration. ’Kids these days, are they all so impatient? How boring, how boring...’

On the other side, once Wei’en set foot on the first Floating Island, he put that strange person out of his mind.

On this Floating Island, only about the size of four soccer fields, not much debris remained. The ground was paved with a layer of bluestone slate, and grooves that looked like drainage channels ran straight across it, up and down, left and right.

In the center of the island was a circular pattern that looked like a Hexagram. However, instead of being connected by lines, the points were small pits, each containing a humanoid statue.

In order, there was a Warrior or Knight in exquisite full-body armor, a female Wizard holding a Magic Staff, a burly and heavily-built Mechanical Transformer, and a man in leather armor...

’Hm? Long ears? An elf?’

Wei’en crouched down to observe it closely for a moment. Long ears, handsome features—it looked very much like the fantasy race of elves he’d seen in his past life.

’Does such a race still exist in this world?’

Finally, past that, were two women in revealing short skirts, holding bows and arrows...

From their clothing and appearance, he couldn’t see any difference from people in the real world, nor were there any marks to indicate their identities.

Wei’en studied them for a while, but seeing nothing of note, he stood up, looked around, and walked toward a Floating Island on his left.

That was one of the Mechanical Floating Islands, built entirely of machinery. Many black shadows lingered there, seemingly also observing the island’s structure.

”...This is actually a reflux structure. The Rune Patterns are hidden on the edges of the gears. It’s incomprehensible. How is that possible?”

”The gears are bound to turn, which means the patterns will change with them. If the other gears also turn, how could this Rune Array possibly function?”

”Or perhaps it’s trigger-based?”

”Trigger-based?”

”Meaning, when the gears all turn to a specific point, the Array activates for an instant, then immediately dissipates... Is that even possible?!”

Wei’en listened to the discussion of the surrounding black shadows while examining the layout of the Mechanical Floating Island.

From the blurred outlines of these black shadows, it wasn’t hard to tell that most of them were Mechanical Transformers. Even if they had no signs of modification on their bodies, they wore weapons or armor of mechanical construction.

’Their Origin Power is mostly above fifty? According to the Wizard ranking system, that’s at least the level of an Intermediate Mage.’

’Wizards from the Mechanical School?’

Wei’en scanned the area, the strange man’s words popping into his head. ’Could the ones who once tried to create a Floating Island be these Mechanical School Wizards?’

”Dammit, this must have been deliberately created by the Nightmare Sect to mislead people!”

”Now that you mention it, I get that feeling too...”

”But we clearly already finished a less— Huh? There’s someone else here. Everyone, record your observations. We’ll consolidate them with me later.”

Seeing the person covered in signs of mechanical modification looking at him, Wei’en calmly walked toward the other side.

’Good thing combat doesn’t exist in the Nightmare Realm World,’ he thought, ’or someone would have definitely jumped out and shouted something at me like: ”This area has been reserved by the Mechanical School...”’

Still, he hadn’t expected these people to actually be studying the mechanical structure and runes of this Floating Island.

’They—er, the Mechanical School Wizards—aren’t actually planning to replicate one of these, are they?’

With this in mind, Wei’en walked to another area that resembled a fortress on a city-state’s high wall. There was a hole in the circular dome, exposing hundreds of pipes, while broken gears and metal sheets were scattered on the ground.

He looked down at the rust-covered parts. Just as the Mechanical School Wizards outside had said, the outer rim of the gears had a coating of Sal metal engraved with Rune Patterns.

’How was this done?’

’Trigger a Rune Array when the gears turn?’

’If only two gears meshed and turned at one point, it could form a complete channel, but that would just be a single-point conduit. It would still need to connect with other patterns.’

’Could it be that the points where the gears make contact act as nodes, while the non-contact points form the pattern—creating a line along the outer circle of the gears composed of a series of semicircular gear teeth?’

’But then there would be no straight lines?’

Wei’en frowned slightly. This didn’t match any Rune Array pattern he had ever encountered. To his knowledge, all rune patterns were fixed and had symmetrical structures.

But these gears...

As he sank into thought, a piece of information from his basic knowledge of runes surfaced in his mind.

[Vortex structure is a knowledge system that only expert-level runology can access. Compared to rigid, conventional rune constructions, vortex structures can accommodate complex designs and are one of the most important branches of runology.]