Chapter 69 : Quentin Blackmoore
Chapter 69: Quentin Blackmoore
Quentin Blackmoore, his expression having turned so murderous it was hard to believe he was the same person as before, suddenly pulled a thick cigar from his coat and put it in his mouth.
"You're saying some interesting things. Go on."
“To begin with, rune scripts themselves have a lot of problems. If you make a mistake or an error occurs, you can’t even fix it. Sometimes the magic stone explodes and injures the magic engineer.”
Magic engineers of this era are basically at the level of directly carving terminal code without an IDE.
And they do it with the delicate hand skills of an artist.
What this means is that they have to create rune scripts directly in an extremely inconvenient, unstable, and mistake-prone environment.
No auto-complete, no real-time error checking, no run button, and no debugging tools.
If you don’t know how to use try–catch syntax to catch mistakes or exceptions during the process of imprinting rune scripts, accidents like magic stones exploding can happen.
And that’s just the software design problem. Hardware design is a completely separate issue.
“There’s another problem. From what I see, they carve the written rune scripts directly onto the magic stones. With carving knives, no less. Magic stones vary widely in size, but the smaller they are, the harder they are to engrave. It’d be better to bring in handicraft artisans to do the engraving, while magic engineers focus on the rune scripts.”
From the way Lucian does things, he even manufactures magic products himself, makes the magic stones to put into them himself, and if they fail, he repeats the magic stone manufacturing process again.
“What magic engineers need is specialization.”
So, to put it in Earth terms, traditional magic engineers are basically a combination of coder + woodcraft artisan + electrician.
Quentin Blackmoore, who had been listening quietly, had a sparkle in his eyes. He suddenly voiced the thought that had been on his mind.
“Then are you saying I should hand over my own secret techniques to others?”
“Secret techniques?”
“That’s right. Quentin Syntax was created by me. I do teach it at the academy, but I don’t want to teach it to some unknown person who hasn’t paid a single coin. By your logic, the artisan doing the handicraft work would inevitably see my syntax. And if they keep seeing it, they’ll inevitably come to understand it.”
The one who created this world’s Java is Quentin Blackmoore.
“But rune syntax like that can be used by anyone once they learn it.”
“All the more reason to control it. It’ll spread indiscriminately otherwise. Especially rune syntax that uses rune scripts—it needs to exist only in the hands of a limited number of magic engineers.”
"What do you mean...?"
“Rune scripts are tools for creating magic. Imagine the method of learning rune scripts getting into the hands of just anyone, someone without the proper qualifications. How can you know what some lunatic might do with that technology?”
After a bit of thought, Yul agreed. In this world, coding doesn’t just stop at making software like it does on Earth.
As long as you have a magic stone, anyone can use magic, and if it spreads to unspecified ordinary people, it instantly turns into bomb-making technology.
“If we control the magic stones…….”
“You mean like now, when they’re being produced in quantities as plentiful as sand on the beach?”
"Let me think about it."
Quentin Blackmoore smiled with satisfaction, then stood up and checked his watch.
“It’s already this late……. Come to think of it, are you also a student enrolling this semester? I look forward to seeing you in class. The two ideas you brought up were interesting as well. You seem to have the makings of an excellent graduate student.”
"I'm not a stude—"
Without even listening to Yul, Quentin Blackmoore left his seat. He was moving quickly, as if he were in quite a hurry.
Yul realized that the man was under a serious misunderstanding, but decided to keep his mouth shut for now.
“Hmm. Well, whatever.”
When his identity gets revealed later, he’ll just say that Lucian came up with those ideas.
Yul left his seat and decided to walk around inside the academy. There was quite a lot to see.
He bought a skewer of grilled chicken from a street vendor.
He used the money he’d received from Lucian. He’d been given 10 ducats as pocket money, which was enough to buy hundreds of small skewers.
Roughly speaking, it felt like about 3.5 million won, but prices in this world fluctuated wildly even among merchants, so he didn’t know the exact value.
‘Hmm. Come to think of it, my bank account should still exist.’
Yul recalled his assets lying dormant in a Frangia Royal Bank account. The money from selling Krelsite would be a considerable amount, and with interest, it should be steadily growing.
‘I should stop by Frangia at least once.’
He wanted to see what had happened to the Sun King.
‘And the sea elves living on the Island of Boundaries are strange too.’
It was said that the lives of sea elves were spent eternally roaming the sea. Yet now they were living up on the Island of Boundaries.
‘And there are quests, too.’
Yul had established Communion with Lucian, but he had no intention of remaining tied to him forever.
‘Could I handle more than two split souls?’
Yul pondered briefly. It would mean splitting the mind itself in two, so one person would have to exist in two places.
That’s extremely difficult. Putting the main body to sleep was partly because Lucian struggled with it, but when Yul wakes the main body, it’s hard to adapt to the discrepancy between the movements of the main body and the split soul.
Even waking a stationary main body is like that, creating another moving split soul on top of it? That would be difficult.
“So you were here! Yul!”
As he was eating skewers in the plaza, Lucian found him.
“Oh. Done unpacking?”
“Yes. Tomorrow is the entrance ceremony, and proper classes start the day after.”
"I have something I'm curious about. Can I observe the classes?"
“I’ll check whether there’s a rule allowing Seaborn into lecture halls.”
“Right. That aside, what are those guys over there doing?”
Yul lifted the skewer he’d already stripped clean and pointed toward where spectators were gathering.
“The Sinkers are having a Seaborn duel!”
“Let’s go quickly!”
“They say it’s Yuk and Brodin.”
“Oh?”
The number of spectators was steadily increasing.
“What’s a Sinker?”
“It refers to someone who established Communion with a Seaborn. In this situation, it looks like the Seaborns themselves are dueling.”
“Oh ho. Let’s go watch.”
Pushing through the crowd, they saw two people facing each other.
One was a man with a rough, menacing face. He was tall and muscular, and just one look at him made you think he was trouble.
Opposite him was Brodin, the Prince of Arsen, who had already made himself unlikable from the start and hadn’t drawn much interest.
“Take back what you just said!”
“Take it back? As if. Why would I take anything back from someone like you, abandoned even by the royal family?”
“I can’t tolerate this humiliation……!”
“Hehe. If you don’t like it, then come at me.”
Brodin, his face flushed red, shouted.
“Yeruld!”
Behind him, from the sea, a massive sperm whale surged upward. A silver-white light flowed from the body of the sperm whale, which had a Pearl gem embedded in its head.
“Woooaaah!”
“Look at those waves!”
"It's a silver-white sperm whale!"
“It’s a Heroic rank Seaborn!”
As his Seaborn Yeruld appeared, the rough-looking man on the other side shouted.
“Hahaha. Did you think you were the only one with a Heroic rank Seaborn? Come forth, Gideon!”
From the sea emerged a gigantic crustacean surrounded by massive coral reefs, its size comparable to a three-story building.
Shaped like a rock crab, it had an Onyx gem embedded in its forehead.
A conch shell sat atop the rock crab’s back, with bronze-colored barnacles growing all over it.
In its fists, it held enormous coral, the material of which looked almost metallic.
“What is that thing?”
“That’s a Seaborn too……?”
“Two Heroic rank Seaborn? Shouldn’t we go tell a professor?”
“There’s no time. When will you ever get to see a duel between Heroic rank Seaborn again?”
“But that Seaborn called Gideon has Onyx embedded in its forehead! It’s an extreme counter.”
Onyx gains a 1.5× attack effectiveness against Pearl.
Meanwhile, Yul observed the creature he was seeing for the first time.
‘That’s a sea creature too?’
Phantaratsa was so vast that there were bound to be countless sea creatures Yul had never seen. Even so, he felt that something about it was strange.
‘That’s not the kind of magic power ordinary sea creatures have.’
Just as the seas of the Great Azure Ocean and the Archipelago Ocean had different magic powers, each individual’s magic power also felt different.
The magic power emanating from the creature called Gideon felt far more sticky and sinister than others.
If Tuania’s magic power was pure darkness, then Gideon’s magic power was darkness mixed with something else.
“You know the rules of the duel.”
“Until one side shouts surrender or is rendered incapacitated.”
Lucian, who had been watching, added something to Yul.
“Killing a Seaborn is not tolerated within the academy.”
“Really? There’s a rule like that?”
“The academy has a Department of Communion. It’s a discipline that comprehensively manages the phenomena that arose after Seaborn began to form communion with humans.”
“Oh, really?”
“The Department of Communion was also first established by patrons, but…… now’s not the time to explain. The duel is starting.”
The Sinkers stepped back, closed their eyes, and focused their minds.
Then they began to control their Seaborn. The first move came from Yeruld.
The massive sperm whale surged upward, and an enormous concentration of magic power formed at its front.
“Hydro Cannon!”
Compressed seawater was fired with tremendous pressure. Yul could tell that while it was weaker than Timur’s Sea Dragon Tribe: Seawater True Sphere, it was still quite powerful.
Even after being struck by the overwhelming mass of seawater, Gideon did not budge. The two enormous coral reefs in front of it blocked the seawater as if they were shields.
“There’s an attribute counter, but can Yeruld win?”
Lucian answered Yul’s question.
“Attribute counters only apply when you land an attack. And if you don’t hit, they’re meaningless.”
Just as he said, the moment Yeruld’s Hydro Cannon ended, Gideon immediately charged forward, holding up the massive coral reefs.
With its tremendous weight, it felt as if the surrounding sea itself were shaking. However, Gideon’s charge was useless. Yeruld instantly slipped away into the open sea, evading the attack.
“If it doesn’t hit, counters don’t mean a thing!”
Brodin shouted loudly, raising his fist.
“Yeruld! Keep firing Hydro Cannon!”
Yeruld moved back and forth between the shallow waters and the open sea, and whenever Gideon’s charge ended, it continued to unleash Hydro Cannon after Hydro Cannon.
‘That kiting is something else.’
It was sturdy, but the sperm whale’s movement was faster. As Yul admired it, Gideon suddenly crouched its body, then dropped the coral reefs with a heavy thud, its guard breaking.
Kugugugung. The sound of metallic coral hitting the ground.
Perhaps the damage had accumulated, as it looked like it had lowered its guard and fallen forward.
The rough-looking man frowned.
“Damn it! Pick them up again!”
“Yeruld! Don’t miss this chance! Heroic Slash!”
The sperm whale seized the opportunity, leaping out of the water and charging, then spinning in place as it unleashed a tail strike.
The magic power gathered at the tip of its tail formed a sharp blade.
“You thought I was down?!”
At that moment, Gideon abruptly stood up and snapped its claw shut around the sperm whale’s tail.
“Smash it down!”
With overwhelming strength, it grabbed Yeruld and slammed it into the ground.
Forward, backward, again and again, it smashed it down.
“T-this can’t be! Yeruld!”
Brodin’s face turned pale. Around that time, a professor appeared, having heard the commotion.
“Stop the duel! Duels between large-sized Heroic rank Seaborn are prohibited! Student Yuk.”
“Tch. Hey, put it down, Gideon!”
The rough-looking student, under the professor’s glare, gave an order to his Seaborn, but…….
“Huh?”
Thud! Crash! Thud! Crash!
It was useless. Gideon began smashing Yeruld down even more frenziedly.
“Stop! Stop! It’s going to die at this rate!”
“G-Gideon is n-not responding to control!”
“Yerulddd!”
“This is bad... it looks like the Seaborn is going to die.”
Lucian’s face went pale. As he said, the others also seemed to think that the Seaborn called Yeruld was about to be killed.
The berserk Seaborn wasn’t listening to commands, and there seemed to be no one around who could stop it.
Thinking the Seaborn called Yeruld might die if he stayed still, Yul sighed and looked at Lucian.
“I can step in, right?”
“Yul?”
“I’ll go settle this.”
“Yes. Please do. Please prevent the Seaborn from dying.”