Chapter 69: The Quantum Observer

The swift wind died away beside her ears, and a wave of dampness, tinged with the unmistakable scent of decaying wood, wafted from the hotel’s back alley, filling her nostrils.

Lia’s form solidified, emerging from the blur of rapid motion.

Her feet settled firmly on the ground, without so much as disturbing a single mote of dust.

Returning to her room, she closed the door with a swift motion of her hand.

Pressing her back against the cool, unyielding door, she felt the outside world’s clamor utterly sealed away.

The Three-Ring Mage had, as expected, proven to be nothing more than a lure.

Every trace he had left behind, encountered when she first explored the ruins, was a meticulously crafted signpost.

These had steadily guided her, step by deliberate step, towards the supposed treasure hoard.

The underground chamber, it now seemed, was no vault of riches.

Instead, it had been a grave, meticulously prepared for her.

Had she not, in a moment of apparent extravagance, torn open two high-tier scrolls, misleading her adversary into miscalculating her true capabilities, her fate at this very moment would likely have been no better than that ancient, masked corpse.

Lia moved to the spring, settling down to pour herself a cup of water.

The old monster’s range of perception far outstripped her initial estimations.

He could even sense the subtle probes from beyond the valley’s confines.

Yet, Lia remained equally certain that he had not truly pinpointed her presence.

It felt more akin to a primal, bestial intuition.

A nebulous sensation, a ‘feeling of being watched’.

Had he truly locked onto her precise location, that twisted figure would, by now, have undoubtedly burst through her door.

She had retreated the instant that gaze brushed over her.

Her speed had been such that her adversary had no opportunity to mount any effective response.

An old monster, ensnared within the valley, yet possessed of an extraordinarily vast range of perception.

Lia lifted the cup, draining the cool water in a single gulp.

Far from becoming more troublesome, the situation had only grown more intriguing.

Was she afraid?

No.

The scrolls Klein had bestowed upon her were the very foundation of her courage, allowing her to dance on the edge of a blade.

She dared not contemplate the sheer spectacle of all those scrolls being simultaneously activated.

Perhaps, in a truly desperate, life-or-death struggle, unleashing everything at once could utterly erase this entire landmass from any map.

Ultimately, however, that remained a last resort.

A tactic of pure desperation, of ‘flipping the table’.

Unless absolutely cornered, she had no desire to resort to such extremes.

Moreover…

Lia instinctively brushed her fingers over the two small trinkets she wore.

These, she knew, represented her most formidable trump cards.

Her curiosity, however, was piqued: what precisely was this elusive old monster truly plotting?

At that very moment, a subtle ripple disturbed the air within her room.

A soft, luminous halo coalesced and expanded upon the tabletop, ultimately taking the distinct form of a folded letter.

It was Klein’s reply.

Lia extended her hand, and the letter drifted lightly into her palm.

The sharp, distinctive script adorning it was unmistakably Klein’s own.

“Your findings are indeed valuable, and the magical anomalies within Silent Valley warrant thorough investigation.

However, remember that all exploration must be predicated upon your personal safety. Your life is the fundamental priority.”

“Scrolls are mere tools; their true purpose lies in their utility, so do not hesitate to employ them. Should you find yourself lacking, inform me without delay.”

At the letter’s conclusion, a few words of counsel regarding daily living were appended, alongside a somewhat abrupt greeting.

Lia’s gaze settled, lingering for a moment, on the phrase ‘Your life is the fundamental priority’.

Her fingers instinctively traced the delicate edge of the parchment.

A sensation she had never before experienced quietly blossomed within her heart.

It was a warmth, a profound sense of security, as though she were firmly cradled by an unseen force.

It was as if, no matter how far she ventured, how wildly she deviated from the norm, an impenetrable barrier always stood behind her, granting her the freedom to explore to her heart’s content, and even to stumble and fail gracelessly.

This sensation brought a warmth to her heart, yet it also left her with a peculiar, inexplicable sense of bewilderment.

Moments later, with a subtle twitch of her fingertips, the letter dissolved into a myriad of shimmering motes, vanishing into the air.

The warm, reassuring sensation, however, remained, settling deep within her.

Bolstered by this newfound assurance, Lia’s mind instantly quickened, her thoughts racing.

A direct assault would be suicidal.

Remote observation would inevitably lead to discovery.

Therefore, she needed to intervene from an entirely novel dimension.

She immersed her consciousness into her spatial ring, beginning to sift through the formidable collection of scrolls Klein had gifted her.

Offensive, defensive, binding, teleportation…

Most of the scrolls pulsed with a terrifying magical aura, their effects stark and direct.

Lia’s perception swept rapidly across them.

Suddenly, her movements stilled.

From amidst the dark, formidable scrolls, she extracted a piece of parchment that, at first glance, appeared utterly unremarkable.

It boasted no lavish materials.

The magical array etched upon it was far less intricate than those on the other scrolls, and the magical fluctuations it emitted were so faint as to be almost imperceptible.

The scroll bore no name, only a simple, elegant symbol, reminiscent of a hand meticulously sketching a landscape.

Lia extended her mental energy into it.

This was a utility spell.

Its purpose was to precisely replicate any static object within the user’s line of sight, projecting it, one-to-one, using solidified light elements.

A spell designed to assist artists or artisans in their creations, essentially a magical photocopier, possessing virtually no combat utility whatsoever.

As Lia held the scroll, a brilliant light began to ignite in her eyes.

A wild, audacious thought detonated within her mind.

‘Replicate projection…’

This spell, she realized, replicated whatever fell within one’s ‘line of sight’.

And was her mark not, in essence, merely another sense she had extended?

She could absolutely… ‘magically modify’ this spell!

Lia’s breath hitched, quickening imperceptibly.

She could sever the scroll’s inherent visual input model, and then, graft her mark directly into it as an entirely new signal input!

If successful, the magical projection would no longer display what lay directly before her eyes… but rather, the real-time, 360-degree environment surrounding her mark!

What would this become?

It would be a remote surveillance device, utterly undetectable by any means currently known to this world!

The underlying theory, she realized, was quantum mechanics—a field currently beyond the comprehension of anyone in this world!

The magical fluctuations generated upon its activation would be so infinitesimally weak that they could be perfectly masked by the ambient magical disturbance caused by a single falling leaf!

Lia felt her very blood begin to course with heat.

This idea, in theory… was entirely plausible!

The structural model of this utility spell was remarkably simple, rendering the difficulty of learning and modifying it practically negligible for her.

All that remained was to magically re-engineer it and seamlessly integrate it into her own unique magical construct!

With a decisive resolve, she began!

Lia unrolled the unassuming parchment across the table, her mental energy cautiously probing the intricate magical structure within the scroll.

Closing her eyes, the entire world instantly faded from her perception, leaving only a three-dimensional, intricate network of countless magical lines before her inner vision.

Following a meticulous study, Lia swiftly grasped the simple spell, and effortlessly located the input model responsible for visual perception.

Using the tracking mark’s model as her blueprint, she began to reconstruct a portion of the input model, to enable it to seamlessly integrate and link with the tracking mark’s own magical construct.

The entire process demanded an exceedingly refined precision in mental energy control.

The slightest tremor could instantly destabilize the entire magical structure, causing it to collapse.

Fine beads of sweat, unnoticed by Lia herself, began to pearl upon her brow.

Time flowed onward.

As the final strand of magical energy, thinner than a single hair, was meticulously grafted onto its new temporal node, the construct within her mental landscape flickered abruptly, then settled into perfect stability.

It was done.

Lia opened her eyes, letting out a long, measured breath, though an excited glint still sparkled deep within them.

Now, it was time to uncover what earth-shattering secrets lay hidden within that old monster’s lair.

She once again immersed herself in her mental landscape, examining the two shimmering points of light.

The light corresponding to the Three-Ring Mage remained stationary, deep within the valley.

And the light of the captured young mage rested in the very same location.

Lia calculated the time.

It was almost time for the Three-Ring Mage’s usual procurement trip.