Experiment

"This world has truly descended into chaos."

The old man muttered solemnly while gazing at the sky through the window.

"..."

The knight hesitated for a long time and couldn't help but ask.

"My Lord, do we really... have to continue targeting the new king?"

Ferguson fell silent, and a hint of complexity flickered in his brown eyes.

He knew the reason behind the question.

Before this, he had received a letter from Lucanmont, describing the new king's actions in the face of the monster horde.

With just one strike, hundreds of Chimeras and Mountain Giants were annihilated in an instant, leaving only a crater big enough to fill an entire lake. Such terrifying power was almost reaching the realm of the gods!

Even Ferguson himself hadn't anticipated that the new king possessed such ridiculous strength.

Furthermore, the new king now commanded a group of knights who could take on a hundred foes singlehandedly and were even a match for the phantasmal species from the Age of Gods.

Adding to his accomplishments in exterminating Ganna, the new king was already well-known and respected among the people, and his reputation was approaching the peak of King Uther's time!

Reputation, military, power—the new king had everything now, and no one could stop him.

They had all underestimated this new king. He was not just some rural youth to be toyed with; he was a dragon!

"The Chosen King..." Ferguson muttered softly, and he suddenly had doubts. Had Merlin only made that prophecy to align with King Uther's plan?

'Has this incubus actually foreseen something with his clairvoyance?'

Ferguson's eyes sparkled with an uncertain light, and after a long while, he slowly shook his head.

"We don't need to rush for now. I'm sure some people out there are even more troubled by this new king than we are. Let's see how they react first."

The knight was taken aback.

"My Lord, are you suggesting..."

"Camelot has been without a king for fifteen years. The arrival of this new king is bound to affect certain people's interests. Some have already taken action, while others are observing from the shadows. However, what has happened recently has undoubtedly shaken them to their core."

"Let's observe the choices made by these people, and then we'll decide our next move."

Ferguson realized that he alone was insufficient to confront the new king. He needed more allies.

Among the noble factions whose interests were touched by the new king, they would be the most suitable allies. After all, they all shared a common enemy.

However, he knew all too well the cunning nature of nobles. If he placed all his hopes in these self-serving individuals, he might end up not even knowing how he died.

So, he needed to watch and observe for a while longer, to determine who could be trusted allies and who were deceitful traitors.

But even if it came down to him standing alone, he would not give up the fight.

Even if it meant a final, desperate struggle, he would not let this country fall into the hands of outsiders.

Because it was the last mission that King Uther had entrusted to him on his deathbed!

===

During the past two weeks, Arkhan and Morgan had been staying at the mansion on the outskirts, working on improving the artificial magic circuits.

Though Arkhan had prepared beforehand, he only realized how complex and troublesome the task was once they got their hands on it.

Throughout the process, they kept encountering issues and making continuous improvements, essentially living in the workshop for nearly twenty hours a day, reaching the point of neglecting their basic needs.

Because the efficiency of the previous circuit created by Morgan was abysmally low, they decided to start from scratch and designed an entirely new artificial magic circuit based on Rune.

To mitigate the side effects of the artificial magic circuits, they added a switch to it and configured it at different power levels to reduce the strain on the host.

As for Morgan's fixation on thaumaturgical foundation connections and the idea of expanding magic circuits, Arkhan heartlessly discarded them, as all he wanted was a device that could generate magical energy.

Since he had informed everyone in advance, aside from the servants delivering their daily meals, no one else came to disturb them.

However, Artoria and the rest were still confused, not understanding what these two had been up to in the mansion for the past half month.

===

In a spacious and well-lit workshop, a puppet, similar in size to a human, lay on an examination table. Its upper body was covered in intricate, light green lines that resembled blood vessels.

"Thirty-fourth round of testing, commence."

"Phase one, activate the reaction test."

*Buzz—*

With a slight humming sound, as if a switch had been flipped, the light green lines on the puppet's upper body lit up one after another.

"Phase one, reaction test, normal."

"Phase two, magical energy response test."

The magic circle on the examination table activated, gathering the power of true ether. The light green lines suddenly emitted a strong light, and a noticeable surge of magical energy radiated from them.

"Magical energy generation time, 0.01 seconds, efficiency at 87%, normal."

"Phase three, sensory response test."

Standing nearby, Arkhan skillfully integrated a piece of Fenghuang Down infused with his own consciousness into the puppet. After carefully observing for a moment, he furrowed his brows.

"Under normal power, sensory acuity increased threefold, normal. Mental burden increased twofold, normal. Emotional fluctuation index increased by 12%, exceeding the warning threshold by 2%."

Morgan nodded and recorded the data.

Originally, she had intended to conduct the third test using live samples, but Arkhan vehemently disagreed, so they ended up using this method.

Next, they tested the results produced by the artificial magic circuits at different power levels and recorded all the data.

It wasn't until two hours later that this round of experiments was finally completed.

Arkhan looked at the experimental data in Morgan's hands, and his brow furrowed slightly.

"It's still not quite there. The side effects of these artificial magic circuits are too extreme. At 200% power, sensitivity increases fifteenfold, and the mental burden increases tenfold. Even someone like Lamorak probably can't last more than thirty seconds in this state."

"But the efficiency of magical energy generation has increased to five times that of regular magic circuits. Just based on that, I think it's already quite impressive." Morgan said in a calm tone. "Equivalent exchange is the basic law of magecraft. If you want to obtain powerful powers, you naturally have to pay a corresponding price."

"I just feel like the cost is too high." Arkhan rubbed his temples.

"You're the most greedy man I've ever met." Morgan looked exasperated and sighed. 

Being able to transform the artificial magic circuits into their current state in just half a month was already incredible in her eyes, yet this man was still not satisfied?

Arkhan contemplated for a while and said, "Maybe we can consider not directly connecting the artificial magic circuits and the host's mind but adding a buffer zone in between to reduce the mental impact on the host."

Morgan furrowed her eyebrows.

"But that way, the artificial magic circuits won't be able to receive the host's commands in real-time, and the responsiveness will be greatly delayed."

"Then we can change the way the artificial magic circuits receive commands!"

Arkhan's eyes suddenly lit up as he seemed to have thought of something.

"Previously, we set it up for the host to regulate the output power of the artificial magic circuits themselves. But now, we can pre-set the power, and during actual combat, the host only needs a simple command, and the artificial magic circuits can adjust to the corresponding power on their own. This way, we don't have to worry about responsiveness!"

Morgan thought carefully for a while and was surprised to find that this approach seemed to be feasible!

It was just a simple power setting, and with the functionality of the Rune, it was entirely possible to achieve this.

"How can you even come up with a solution like this? What kind of brain do you have?" Morgan sighed in resignation.

Over the past half month, Arkhan had come up with countless unconventional ideas, and while most of them sounded incredibly far-fetched, the practical results were quite impressive. Even the idea of using Rune to construct the artificial magic circuits was initially his suggestion.

This left Morgan feeling quite frustrated. Clearly, she was the pioneer in this field, yet she found herself being overtaken in terms of understanding by someone else.

Was this the difference between a genius and a genius among geniuses?

Annoying, she was really annoyed!

Of course, Arkhan had no idea what Morgan was thinking at that moment. Seeing victory on the horizon once again, he was entirely focused on the experiments and couldn't wait to get started.

"Wait!" Morgan suddenly interrupted his actions. "Let's stop here for now; we're running out of time."

"What?" Arkhan looked at Morgan with confusion.

"It will be the coronation ceremony in half a month, and we should start preparing to return to Camelot, remember?"

Morgan spoke calmly as she crossed her hands below her soft bosom.

"Coronation ceremony..." Arkhan's eyes widened, and he gave a bitter smile, tapping his forehead. "Shoot, thank goodness you reminded me; I almost forgot."

"Let's leave the experiments for when we get back to Camelot. We already have a direction to follow, so we can just complete it step by step." Morgan suggested.

Arkhan nodded, surveyed the workshop, and suddenly sighed.

"I've been here for over half a month, huh... I suddenly feel like I don't want to leave..."

"You can hand over the throne to me then, so you can stay here forever." Morgan pursed her lips. 

"Even though you said you would crown me as king earlier, now you're already thinking about seizing power and overthrowing me. Your change of heart is too quick~" Arkhan teased her with a smirk.

"I did say I would crown you..." Morgan said with a hint of irony. "But the condition is that you have to have a baby with me."

"..."

Arkhan was instantly silent.