Chapter 643 - Perfect Solution (Part 1) (1/2)
'It's hard to miss their importance when you see how runes affect the space around themselves and how the order of their activation can change the effects of two arrays when they are composed using the same shared runes'. Lith thought.
”Alas, I'm too old and tired to keep going. The moon is high already. Get some rest. If more creatures attack us tomorrow, I'll be counting on your protection.” Yondra smothered the fire with a finger snap and entered the women's quarters.
Lith remained alone for a while, sorting through the newly acquired information with Solus and taking notes on his own papers to store them inside Soluspedia. Soon fatigue gave him a headache and his brain begged him for a break.
'Fighting is so much easier.' He sighed.
'Your body can withstand a lot, but your mind still needs to relax. Go to sleep, I'll keep an eye on the situation.' When not in her tower form, Solus was unable to sleep or rest. It gave Lith an edge in many situations, but in the long term, it affected her sanity.
Lith went to sleep near a guard post, ready to act at the first sign of danger. He trusted no one. Morok was too strange and the soldiers too weak for his taste. The Professors were magically strong, some even more so than Lith, but as Korgh had demonstrated, it only took a single shot to take them down.
Paranoia was a cruel mistress but it had served him well too many times to ignore her. Except when it was dead wrong, of course. When morning came and nothing happened, Lith cursed at himself.
'Hindsight is always 100% correct.' Solus chuckled.
The members of the expedition went back to study the door and before any of them noticed, dawn turned into sunset. Lith had even tried using Fire Vision at noon to spot hidden compartments.
If a switch was camouflaged under a fake rock, it should have shown a different coloration in his thermal vision when compared with the rest of the rock wall after being heated for hours by Yondra's spell. Unfortunately, even this attempt failed.
Lith spent his dinner with Yondra and Quylla, comparing notes in the search for a solution. This expedition was Lith's best shot at getting his hands on ancient Odi technology that might help him solve his reincarnation problem.
'If we crack this riddle and in the future I find more ruins on my own, I'll know how to get in. If we fail despite so many wise mages working together, I might as well check the Odi off my list of possible solutions.' He thought.
During the third day, Lith started to become restless just like the Assistant Professors. The older mages knew that solving ancient mysteries required time, effort, and luck, whereas their aides took failure personally.
After whispering ”open sesame” in front of the door, obtaining nothing in return but an awkward echo, Lith asked Professor Gaakhu, the language expert:
”What's the Odi word for friends?”
”Glavrish. Why?”
After a painful second that shattered his last hopes, he replied:
”No reason. I was just curious.” He said while Solus laughed her ass off at his expense.
When dinnertime came, Lith decided to give a break to both himself and Yondra, spending the evening with his friends. After receiving her own Skinwalker, Quylla's mood had improved a lot, but she was getting gloomier with each passing day.
”Gods, it's so frustrating for me. I'm probably the one that knows the most about the Odi among all the Assistants taking part in this expedition since I've been researching them for over a year now. Yet my contribution is close to zero.” Quylla said.
”I'd rather not work while I eat. If I hear another word about arrays, I'm going to scream.” Lith said. ”But since we are already there, maybe there's something we are missing. When I taught magic to Tista, I improved my foundations by learning from my own teachings.