dmims Chapter 279 Progress in Defense Systems
Chapter 279 Progress in Defense Systems
Chapter 279 Progress in Defense Systems
While systematically investigating the castle's secrets, Karen's other important research—a portable autonomous defense system—also entered a critical phase.
The encounter deep within the Black Lake and the threat of Voldemort's remnant soul hung like the Sword of Damocles over his head, making him urgently need stronger self-protection capabilities, especially defensive measures that could react instantly without requiring active activation. While his previous protective badges were effective, they primarily deflected and absorbed magical impacts to a certain degree, proving somewhat inadequate in the face of complex and ever-changing combat environments, especially the unpredictable dark magic.
His idea was to create a device similar to a badge or wristband that could be worn on the chest or wrist.
The main body uses the "Mithril-Dragonblood Alloy," which he had previously successfully smelted, as the substrate and energy channel. This material has excellent affinity and conductivity for magic and possesses a certain degree of physical strength. The core is inlaid with a specially cut and treated obsidian crystal for energy storage, conversion, and release. The interior is etched with several layers of complex rune arrays using a micro-alchemy engraving pen, enabling a range of functions including detection, analysis, energy management, and defense triggering. The outer shell is considered to be wrapped in dragon skin, providing physical protection without hindering magical sensing.
Inspiration comes from many sources. For example, the concept of mental barriers in the Occupation Technique provided him with a basic logical framework for building the ability to distinguish between "self" and "external malice"; the "will guidance" technique he learned from Fiendfire inspired him to control the form and intensity of defensive magic more precisely; and the high-level defensive magic "Fire Shield" directly provided a powerful defensive template. Although it did not directly replicate its power, it borrowed its core ideas of "identifying friend from foe", "automatic triggering", and "changeable form".
The biggest challenge lies in energy supply. Maintaining a system that can continuously monitor the environment and instantly activate a defense of sufficient strength requires far more energy than previous protective badges, resulting in enormous energy consumption.
The original protective badge's method of slowly absorbing free magic to regenerate energy is insufficient to meet the demand.
At this point, the discoveries made during the earlier exploration of the Slytherin observation nodes played a crucial role. Although most of those nodes were no longer functional, their technology of absorbing and converting energy from the surrounding environment to replenish themselves greatly inspired Cullen. He spent a great deal of time in the Eyrie's alchemy workshop, repeatedly studying, deriving, reproducing, and optimizing that energy-absorbing rune sequence.
"The patterns here are incomplete. Let me see how to fix them—if we mirror and flip the structure of this node and then add a miniature energy-gathering ring—" Karen often studies the drawn node patterns until late at night.
After countless failures, he finally succeeded in reproducing and optimizing the energy extraction technology. Although Karen didn't know exactly what the original technology was like, there was no doubt that the current system was sufficient for his needs. After miniaturizing it, he etched it into the bottom layer of the defense system's substrate. This improved extraction array was far more efficient than the simple energy recovery structure he had previously designed for the protective badge. It could almost continuously extract and convert trace amounts of energy from the surrounding environment and store them in the obsidian core. Although there was still a limit to the instantaneous output power, its durability was greatly guaranteed.
With the energy problem solved, the remaining challenge was to implement the "perception-judgment-reaction" process using magical runes. This required extremely precise magical guidance and logical construction. Karen drew inspiration from Charms, including the Malice Perception Charm and the Warning Charm, and even some target tracking runes from the Quidditch Eyes of the Record, combining them with the defensive concepts of Occlumency, to gradually build the system's nervous system and brain.
This was a rather mentally taxing process. He needed to constantly perform micro-etching, inject magic for testing, adjust the rune structure, and record data—the workshop was filled with the smell of burning materials and the crackling sounds of unstable magic. Fabian tried to call him for dinner several times, but was turned away by the magical "Do Not Disturb, Experiment in Progress" sign at the door.
"Won't he wear himself out if he keeps going like this?" Fabian asked Wesley and Ernesto with some concern.
"Karen is doing what he's supposed to do," Ernesto said, though he was also worried, but he chose to trust him. "And he's doing his favorite research."
Finally, on another weekend evening, a sigh of relief echoed from within the Eagle's Nest. Karen looked exhausted, but his eyes shone with an astonishing light. On his wrist was a dark silver metal bracer, about two fingers wide, covered with fine black dragon skin, with a multi-faceted obsidian stone set in the center, subtly absorbing the surrounding light, occasionally flashing with a streak of extremely fast light.
"It's almost done." Karen's voice was a little hoarse, but full of a sense of accomplishment.
"You succeeded?" His three roommates immediately surrounded him, curiously examining the wristband on his wrist.
"Hmm, give it a try." Karen gestured for them to step back a few paces. "Use the standard disarming charm on me."
Wesley struck first: "Disarm you!"
The moment the red light shot out, the obsidian core of Karen's wristband suddenly lit up, revealing a layer of translucent...
An oval shield, shimmering with a faint silver light, instantly appeared in front of the red light, precisely blocking the spell. The shield flickered, as if some of the spell's energy had been absorbed, and the shield itself dimmed briefly, but quickly returned to normal.
"Merlin! It moved by itself!" Wesley exclaimed.
"It's not just about parrying," Karen explained. "It can identify the type and strength of a spell and choose the most effective way to defend against it. The Disarming Charm isn't very powerful, so it only partially blocks the spell and absorbs some energy to replenish itself. Try the Stunning Charm."
This time, Ernesto struck: "He collapsed unconscious!"
A stronger red light surged forth. The bracers reacted faster, generating a larger shield with ripples on its surface, deflecting and neutralizing more of the Stunning Curse's energy, reducing its absorption rate. The shield noticeably weakened, and its recovery speed slowed.
"Its strategy for dealing with different spells is different!" Fabian realized.
“That’s right.” Karen nodded. “I’ve entered the magical characteristics of most of the common attack spells I could find. It can quickly match and select the optimal solution. And,” he paused, “it can help determine the direction and intent of the attack to some extent. While it can’t achieve completely intelligent evasion yet, it can at least ensure that the defense always appears where it’s most needed.”
He then had Wesley and Ernesto simultaneously launch several relatively easy spells from different angles. The bracers successfully generated shields in sequence to block the attacks. Although dealing with attacks from multiple directions at the same time was somewhat difficult and the shield generation was slightly delayed, at least none of them were missed.
"That's amazing!" Wesley exclaimed. "It's like having someone constantly protecting you!"
However, the tests also revealed a problem. When Ernesto attempted to use a very obscure Slowing Charm, possibly from an old spellbook in his home and carrying a slight curse, the bracers reacted noticeably slower. Although the generated shield eventually blocked the main body of the spell, a wisp of the curse's aftershock still seeped in, causing Karen's arm to tingle slightly.
"See, this is the problem." Karen swung her arm. "For extremely obscure or highly deceptive dark magic, its identification database isn't perfect enough, and there will be delays in its judgment. After all, its identification ability comes from the attack spell data I input into it. Although I can input more, there will always be some I don't know. We can't rely solely on the data I input; we also need to enhance its own self-judgment ability. Moreover, when faced with multiple high-intensity spells or continuous magical attacks, its energy absorption and release rate still can't keep up with the consumption."
He meticulously recorded the test data: "There are still many areas that need optimization. The energy cycle efficiency needs to be improved further, the rune library needs to be greatly expanded, and it would be best to add some learning ability—but this requires more complex magical knowledge, so I'll continue to try."
Despite its flaws, this portable wristband-style autonomous defense system is already a landmark achievement. It far surpasses previous protective badges, offering not just passive defense but continuous, intelligent active protection in combat. Karen even envisions adding auxiliary counter-attack capabilities, though these are currently just ideas.
"You've done a fantastic job, Karen," Ernesto said sincerely. "Many adult wizards probably won't even get a grasp of the techniques involved in this in their entire lives."
Karen smiled, took off her wristband, and carefully placed it on a specially made stand on the worktable: "This is just the first step. Once I've optimized it further, I'll try making one for each of you. For now, let's focus on exploring the castle. Perhaps the legacy from our ancestors will give me more inspiration and make my wristband even more powerful."
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