Reforged Chapter 53: Magical Circuitry

Duke had just finished creating an arcane circuit, which had drained most of his energy.

Although Duke desperately wanted to rest, he couldn't afford to give up.

This was an all-out effort. If he failed this time, he couldn't even begin to imagine the cost and suffering it would take to attempt it again.

With gritted teeth, he pushed forward!

At that moment, the magical power gushing from the arcane circuit was like a wellspring of oil, igniting every drop of energy and transforming it into fire elementals.

Duke was unaware that at this very moment, he was causing a great deal of trouble for the old man as well.

The fire elementals that emanated from Duke seemed to have brought the flames of Stormwind City into the small room, concentrating an overwhelming amount of fire elementals. Nearly everything combustible in the room was set ablaze.

Fortunately, the old man, Norton, had a magical shield. However, the chairs Duke was sitting on, the tea table, and even the walls were engulfed in roaring flames.

Unable to withstand the intense heat and pressure of the fire elementals, all the glass windows in the room exploded simultaneously. Huge tongues of fire leapt into the air and then countless fire elementals poured out like liquid from the windows, forming numerous fiery waterfalls.

The fire waterfalls struck the ground like water, instantly turning the grass to charred remains. Numerous fire elementals exploded into enormous, mist-like fireballs. Upon encountering solid obstacles, the fireballs erupted, sending countless flaming arrows in all directions.

"Ahh!" Yelled Itana, who was waiting outside the courtyard.

Daniel had already grabbed her by the hand at the moment the windows exploded and started running.

The flames, over a person's height, nearly scorched their backsides. Daniel, not daring to look back, ran until they were two buildings away and hid behind a mage's laboratory protected by a magical barrier before stopping.

Flames surrounded Norton's laboratory, spreading to all the trees in the courtyard. Accompanied by the crackling sounds of burning wood and collapsing trees, Norton's entire courtyard was destroyed.

The courtyards of four other mages to the front, back, left, and right were also engulfed in this vortex of destruction.

Fortunately, this was the experimental area of the academy.

Mages were known for their life-risking experiments.

The academy had long been prepared for such explosive experiments.

Only the courtyards were affected. As soon as the waves of fire touched the buildings, a brilliant magical glow would activate. The buildings' magical barriers had come into effect.

They successfully resisted the impact of the fire waves. As a result, the fiery torrents were forced to advance through the gaps between the buildings, carrying debris and dirt along the way.

This was like squeezing toothpaste. The original range of the sea of flames was only a few dozen meters, but under compression, the wall of fire continued to advance in all directions for hundreds of meters before finally stopping.

The entire Royal Academy of Magic, including its mages and apprentices, was alerted!

"Damn it, who's undergoing a breakthrough?!"

"Such an exaggerated magical fluctuation. Is it Khadgar?"

"No, it's not him, it's... Norton's laboratory?"

"Could it be...?"

Amidst the flurry of speculation, Daniel and Itana were clueless. Still in shock, they stared at the drastically changed experimental area, unable to utter a single word.

...

Every road and street had turned a charred black, with ash and burnt debris blowing all around. Many stone statues on the main road of the testing area had half their faces blackened from smoke.

"Did Duke do this?" Itana asked, still in shock.

"Uh, probably!" Daniel was unsure.

As the one responsible, Duke's endeavor to create a magical circuit continued.

In his mind, he felt a sudden explosion, as if a massive, scorching power had erupted from a region of his mental seascape that he had never consciously reached.

Like a volcanic eruption, the fiery power that seemed to disdain Duke's mental sea for its small size, began to create a space within his psychic world.

Flames exploded, and countless fireballs carried countless red threads of psychic power, representing fire. They shot out from the gaps in the arcane circuit.

Like a proud emperor sending a messenger to circle on horseback, marking the range of his territory, the fiery threads of psychic power attempted to trace a circle even larger than the arcane circuit.

"Damn it, this is courting death!" Duke's face turned pale.

Beside him, the system sprite's warnings sounded nonstop.

"Warning!"

"Warning-"

"The host's arcane energy is insufficient to complete the construction of the [Fire] magic circuit. If this continues, the host will have all energy drained in three minutes and fifty-seven seconds, causing total psychic exhaustion and death."

Not just the system sprite, but Duke himself was frantic.

"Is there any alternative?"

It was clear that Duke had unwittingly fallen into a trap. When Kael'thas had first constructed his own arcane-fire magic circuit, his situation had been quite different. Even without the pure magical power of the Sunwell to support him, as the Sun King's most valued heir, he must have had other means of supplying magic.

But this was Stormwind City, and Duke didn't know if there were ley lines or magical power sources here. He certainly wouldn't have time to find them.

"Is there any alternative?!" Duke asked for the second time.

"Scanning... Protective measures detected, but a password is needed for activation! Do you want to enter the password now, host?"

"Yes, try 'Kael'thas'!"

"Comparing the original notebook and the translated version, automatically translating Common into Thalassian. Testing password... Password incorrect, please re-enter."

"Sun King?"

"Incorrect."

"Sunwell? Sin'dorei? Beloved? Light of the High Elves?"

"Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Still wrong!"

Duke was nearly driven mad. He was about to be drained into a husk, but he still had to stand here like a fool, testing passwords?

"Sunstrider? Arcane? Ashes..." Duke tried over a hundred passwords in one breath, and all of them were wrong!

"Isn't there some automatic input for a large number of passwords, testing for correctness?"

"What you're talking about is the simple password consisting of 10 numbers from 0 to 9, as well as the letters from a to z, and all the symbols on the keyboard. This system can attempt to crack such passwords using high-speed switching methods. However, this is a passphrase, and without saying the correct passphrase, it's impossible to activate the protective program. Also, it seems that the appropriate tone is required."

"Damn it! Do we still have to rely on the Sunwell?" On the brink of death, Duke couldn't help but curse.

"'Damn it! Do we still have to rely on the Sunwell?'... Congratulations, host! The password is correct!"

"..."