Chapter 178 - 178 – Modules

Year 5, Fall, First Month, First Week

“That’s more like it.”

Karl put the designs away and took a sip from the strong black tea. He tried to control the reaction, but a deep frown appeared over his face once the drink hit the right taste buds. Or should it be the wrong ones? Even though he fought against the open display of immature taste, the bitterness of the tea bested him, as it happened every other day.

The Alchemist refused to admit that he didn’t like the black tea because it was too bitter and to add insult to injure, he wouldn’t get the same boost without it. He even tried to stop drinking it a few days ago, but that just proved to be a waste of morning potential. In the end, he could only accept the result and conserve his anger to fight another day. Even so, to avoid embarrassing himself further, Karl asked his assistant to go to the counter and order another stuffed bread for takeout. Then, he used the brief solitude to swallow down the rest of the tea.

By now, most establishments were serving tea, and though it wasn’t as good as the tea garden, most customers didn’t have the sensibility to actually notice it. Of course, the whole idea of providing a relaxing garden still guaranteed a thriving business. However, both Johan and the shop manager had tasted the sweetness of being a sensation, so how could they be satisfied by anything less?

Soon, the assistant was back, and Karl resumed their previous conversation:

“The thing is, I just finished designing a new communicator, which should facilitate the operator’s work and reduce errors… But not too long ago, we changed the communicators to include the keyboard. A lot of people complained about wasting resources. I’m not dumb. Most complained because they had to spend money to get a new communicator, mostly the hunters, but they have a point. Every time we upgrade a design, we ended up wasting resources. It wasn’t so evident before because we only had simple designs on either stone or wood plates… Now I’m just wondering if I should hold off this upgrade and let them use the current communicator longer. What do you think?”

The boy lowered his head to think about it and hide his complicated expression. Having his opinion valued by his boss was flattering, especially considering Karl’s position. However, he didn’t want the weight of this kind of decision on himself. So, he decided to answer with the first thing that came into his mind, not bothering with making sense.

“Boss, can’t you just upgrade their communicator instead of throwing them away?”

After speaking, the assistant waited to be laughed at for such a simple-minded idea, but surprisingly, Karl had an enlightenment expression.

“That’s it!”

“Really?”

“Not quite, but close enough… I should have thought about it sooner. To avoid wasting materials, I should start making the tools in modules. So, every time we develop an improvement, we would try to exchange or add a module instead of throwing everything away. In fact, this could also help with maintenance since some parts are often worn or damaged before others…”

Karl’s assistant took two sentences to realize that his boss was talking to himself and not actually answering him. If this were the first time or even a rare occurrence, he would surely be disappointed or angry, but he was already used to it.

“I have to make some changes in the design, but with a small repair, we can add this to the current communicator, while the new ones should have the complete upgraded design. With this, our progress wouldn’t be slowed, nor would our tools be wasted… Go call Oliver. His imagination can be put to good use in this project.”

“Yes, boss.”

While the assistant ran off to get the apprentice, Karl continued to draw the modifications in the designs. Separating the arrays in different modules could be achieved through two different methods, and in some cases, they would even use both of them. The first method didn’t even require redrawing. They could separate the arrays physically and add them to the complete design through removable parts. In fact, many tools already used this method.

Creating removable parts for every array would increase the crafting difficulty and cost, but only on the production side. The Alchemy costs would remain the same, and they might even lower when upgrading the tools. At this point, Karl realized he also needed to talk to the crafters and the blacksmith about improving the tools’ design because the upgradable designs would increase the lifespan of the tools.

Even though the removable parts’ method was the easiest and didn’t increase the Alchemy cost, which was their limiting resource, it might not be enough to make a magic tool upgradable. Sometimes, the change in the design would be too big, requiring the modification of the overall design. The communicator was an excellent example. The inclusion of the keyboard just by replacing removable parts in the previous version would be impossible.

So, the second method would need to account for future significant changes in the design. Although Karl had a good idea for it, he would, of course, pick Oliver’s brain about it. After all, the apprentice had the most innovative and crazy ideas. But for now, his solution was to create a central part, which would cover the fundamental processes of the tool and independent parts connected to the main design. So, in the event of a significant change in the tool, they would only need to exchange the independent arrays preserving the central array.

Returning to the communicator example. The central array would only connect with the tower through lighting signals. In contrast, the independent arrays would provide the powering, the magic keyboard, and any other future improvements. Fortunately, the connection between the independent and central arrays could be easily made by an Alchemy mark. Though it would increase the Alchemy cost, any Alchemist could draw it.

The design and re-design to cover this new standard, on the other hand, would difficult the work of the Alchemists in the short term. However, once they got used to it, upgrading the tools would become much easier. Though the specific numbers were uncertain, the time to improve the designs could even be reduced by half.

When Karl finished organizing the two methods in his mind, Oliver had already arrived. Then, the master and disciple engaged in a two-hour discussion to decide on details and fine-tune the methods.

“Now, we have to discuss the design that gave origin to this whole discussion, the communicator. Before we go into the new design, can you sum up our current design?”

Although he wasn’t involved in the second version of the communicator, Oliver had studied it previously, so he proudly nodded and started to explain.

“The basic difference between the previous and new version of the communicator is the keyboard addition. The keyboard is a group of letters that the operator can press to form a word. Behind every wooden key, there’s an activator array (square) to sense the touch, an Alchemy mark to represent the letter’s concept, and a signature absorption array (six-pointed star) to receive an incoming message. If a key is pressed, the letter’s concept is sent to the tower through the communicator array. When the tool receives a message, the incoming signal comes in the form of letters’ concepts too. Every signal represents a letter, so only the key with the matching concept will react to the signal through the signature absorption array. The letter will briefly shine, and the operator can put the letters together to form a word. The key array uses the same concept mark of the letter for both sending and matching the receiving signal. That’s why it has an addition array, to combine the two independent effects.”

“The keyboard has a key to represent every letter. The keys have the same array behind them, with only the concept mark to differentiate each letter. When the key is touched, the activator inside the direction array (triangle) sends the concept through the other alchemy mark connected to the keyboard. This second mark is also inside of a direction array, which points to another array in the communicator. The receive message function of the keyboard is simpler. It only transmits the incoming lightning signal, which is absorbed by the matching letter mark/signature absorption array.”

“The concept-to-signal array receives the concept sent from the keyboard through the mark. This array combines the concept signature with the concentration rune to form a unique signal for each letter.”

“The last part is done by the communicator array, which sends the signal to the tower. It works similarly to the previous version, using the manifestation rune to create lightning combined with the previous array to give the lightning the specific concentration that represents the letter. ”

Karl's calm smile indicated that Oliver’s explanation was enough and clear. After four years of study, the disciple was capable of comprehending and explaining all non-spiritual tools.

“Now we can talk about the upgrade in the communicator. Because of the speed of the messages, sometimes the operators mistake or don’t see the words correctly. So, I was thinking about adding a module to display the message instead of using the keyboard for both operations…”

“…”