There was an “alphabet system”, which all rune crafters needed to learn. As long as one fully mastered the different meanings of every pattern, they wouldn’t have a problem discovering the true effect of composite runes via “reserve engineering”.
However, even if Angor managed to figure out the general effect of the runes, he wasn’t able to recreate them because one also needed to learn the exact process for how runes were drawn, such as the orders of strokes.
For now, he was only going to work on the first task.
It wasn’t easy because the job required an eye for detail. There were also many different patterns that overlapped each other, in which case he had to refer to the “contexts” that surrounded them and pick out the individual strokes one by one.
...
A night had passed.
It was still snowing outside. Angor dropped his pen and rubbed his sore arms while looking at the big pile of papers on his desk.
After taking several minutes to fully clear his mind, he began the final calculation.
“There were multiple intact runes, which meant the entire drawing is a working magic array, but I only recognized about 70% of the pieces I can find...
“This here is the main body of a Covenant Rune, this is one of the corners on a Stealth Rune, this is a small fraction of the Tunnel Rune that controls the angle of the tunnel... And this is the last one, the trigger part of a Blood Link Rune.”
By combining the results, he reached a rather shocking conclusion.
“Using the blood of a descendant to reach somewhere?”
There were still parts of the magic array that he didn’t perceive, but he was pretty sure the general effect of the magic array was to send someone to a place since he saw many runes that suggested distance and dimension coordinates.
“The ‘using soul to find stuff’ must have been left by Lucas. So the ‘descendant’ should be Lucas’ heirs?”
Considering this, the magic array was used for transporting Lucas’ heirs, or whoever got their hands on the blood of Lucas’ offspring, to a secret spot.
Angor didn’t know where this secret spot was, but he was almost sure that people from Summerdew Ridge and Song of the Deep were looking for it.
Suppose Lucas left the magic array under the well, how did he get back to his ship along with his logbook? Didn’t he commit suicide?
Or... was the magic array intended for taking him back to the ghost ship? Did he go there by himself?
It wasn’t difficult to find the answer—he just had to check the magic array again.
When working on its result, he knew that the teleportation was two-way. He could always return if the other end of the tunnel was dangerous.
After completely burning his drafts up and scattering the ash to the winter wind, he went to Ross Mansion again.
First, he was going to talk to Count Ross about the relationship between his son and Sonata. Of course, he wasn’t going to directly tell Ross to accept that relation. Mentioning something like “virtue and kindness over social class” should be enough for Ross to understand the situation.
The second job was to find Lucas’ descendants. According to Moyah, her child was the only one who survived among all of Lucas’ children, and this child was one of the ancestors of the Ross Family.
While talking to Count Ross, Angor used a small trick to get a vial of the gentleman’s blood. He then headed to Sherry Patio. There was no one else here in the snow, which saved him the effort of keeping innocent onlookers away.
He jumped into the dry well and reached the magic array, or where the magic array was supposed to be since he couldn’t see it in his normal state. The “Stealth Rune” used in the magic array made sure it was only visible to soul forms.
He ejected his soul and quickly located the “trigger” of the magic array, which appeared like an eyeball enclosed in a triangle, located at the upper-right corner of the array.
A little excited, he applied the blood of Count Ross onto the spot.
The red liquid was slowly absorbed by the wall, and the magic array began glowing brighter. The storage he was in slowly melted away and replaced by starry darkness, while the shining magic array remained as the most dazzling star.
The eyeball suddenly blinked, and a vortex appeared at the center of the magic array.
But it was too small for him to go in.
He returned to his body and noticed that he could still see the vortex just fine. He tried tossing a magic crystal in it and successfully enlarged it just a little bit.
“Ugh. Need more energy, I see.”
He kept “feeding” the portal with more magic crystals, while the stars around the area also began to shine brighter.
The portal was finally big enough for his size after he threw about 20 crystals in there.
While still tossing more crystals to get the tunnel bigger just in case, he reached a spirit feeler inside and saw the exit just after a short distance.
“The tunnel feels like a plane passageway... It should be no problem to go inside since I only need to move only a little.”
He took a deep breath and dived into the vortex. Thankfully, he didn’t meet any obstacles in the brief tunnel.
Upon reaching the exit, he immediately smelled something salty. And he knew this smell, it was seawater.
The smell of corroded wood, the poor wooden footing, and the distant sound of tides all reminded him of his days on The Limpet.
He took out a Luminous Stone lamp and was both surprised and glad to realize that his theory was correct.
He was standing right inside the captain room of the “ghost ship”, and the headless skeleton of Lucas was not far from him. Even the dusty desk had a square-shaped spot where Lucas’ logbook used to be.
On the squeaking floor, Angor walked to the window behind Lucas to see whether the ship was still in the strange mist at Devil’s Water.
The lamp couldn’t help him see very far, but the broken deck on the front of the ship looked exactly like what he saw several months ago.
The window was too far from the ship’s figurehead. Although the shadowy shape of a peacock’s feather was enough to tell him that this ship was The Feather Fan.
He didn’t see any mist outside.
While traveling through the misty area, the weather was always clear and even the moon was bright at night. But now, Angor saw completely no light outside the window. It would be totally dark without his lamp.
The tides under the ship also sounded different compared to ordinary sea tides. It was as if the seawater was moving slower, and it smelled worse.
Before heading out to check the outside, he wanted to make sure he could return here at any moment. After looking around without seeing the magic array that sent him here, he ejected his soul.
... Without finding the magic array.
He knew the magic array could send people both ways, so he didn’t feel anxious yet. The entrance on this side might be somewhere else nearby, and he just had to look for it.
When searching the ship using a scout puppet, he didn’t have the time to check thoroughly. Now, he wanted to see if there was something he overlooked last time, such as the content inside Lucas’ drawer.
He walked to the desk where he found the logbook and pulled the drawer open.
Apart from the smell of rotten wood, there was a piece of parchment inside the drawer, which seemed to be the same material used in the logbook.