Now, only the so-called software challenge remained, and unfortunately, there had not yet been a proper solution to that particular problem. The difficulty was no longer with the physical construction of the device, because the stamp had solved the biggest issue they had been facing there. Instead, the problem lay in the runic sentence that needed to be placed onto the object itself. Unfortunately, understanding exactly how the runes interacted with one another inside that sentence was proving to be far more difficult than Laelia had originally expected.
The device could currently only support five runes. That limitation was already forcing them to be extremely careful about how they designed the system because every single rune had to serve an important purpose. Two of the five runes were reserved for communication itself, with one being responsible for receiving a signal and the other for sending one. That left only three runes for everything else the phone needed to accomplish.
One of those remaining runes needed to be responsible for typing the message. Another needed to store the messages on the device for a brief moment, while the final rune needed to display the received information. On paper, the arrangement sounded relatively simple, but in practice, it was an absolute nightmare. The researchers still did not fully understand how runes worked, meaning that they could not simply arrange them in whatever order seemed logical and expect the result to function correctly.
The real challenge was understanding how the runes needed to be laid out within the sentence.
Runes did not behave like ordinary written instructions. The position of one rune could influence the function of another, and the researchers were still learning the rules governing those interactions. A sentence could contain all the correct runes and still fail because they had been placed in the wrong arrangement. Even worse, a change that seemed insignificant could cause the entire sentence to stop functioning.
The best solution they had managed to think of was finding a way to write multiple runic lines that could still work together without requiring a proper runic array. If they could accomplish that, then the limitations of the five-rune device would become considerably easier to manage. Instead of forcing every function into one enormous and increasingly complicated sentence, they could divide the work between several simpler runic lines that cooperated with one another.
Unfortunately, they had already assigned an entire group of scientists to solving that exact problem, and so far, they had achieved absolutely no luck.
That was particularly frustrating because they could not simply make the runic sentence longer. Even if they were willing to accept a clunky device that resembled a backpack rather than a proper phone, there was still a physical limit to what the material could withstand. Laelia was willing to tolerate something large if it meant people could communicate while traveling through the wild. The ability to communicate over long distances would be extremely valuable, especially in a world where people could easily become separated from one another.
The problem was that a longer runic sentence did not simply make the device larger.
It also made the object carrying the sentence considerably more fragile.
The longer the runic sentence became, the more stress it placed on the material into which it was written. A longer sentence meant more runes had to activate at the same time, and all of that activity placed additional strain on the object. The result was a rather unpleasant trade-off where adding more functions made the device more capable while simultaneously making it more difficult to carry and more likely to break.
Then there was the mana problem.
The amount of mana required to activate the entire phone was enormous. That was one of the major reasons Laelia wanted the quantum computer to handle as much of the complicated processing as possible. If the device could outsource as much of its work as possible, then the amount of mana required from the person using it could potentially be reduced. Mana was still a resource, after all, and wasting enormous quantities of it simply to operate a communication device would make the entire system impractical.
The phones also had another major difference from the rune slabs.
The slabs did not suffer from the same problem because their runic arrays possessed a mana-gathering function. That function allowed the arrays to continuously gather mana from their surroundings, making the system effectively self-perpetuating once it had been established. The phones, however, did not have that luxury. Someone had to actively provide the mana required for them to function.
That meant the phones needed to use as few runes as possible.
If they required too many runes, the amount of mana needed to activate them would become excessive. Alternatively, they would need some external source of mana, such as a mana stone, to power the device without requiring a person to constantly supply it themselves. Unfortunately, mana stones were not exactly cheap.
The mine in Europe had only recently begun operating at a significant scale, and it was now producing thousands of mana stones every day. That sounded impressive until one considered how quickly the demand had grown. The supply was being bought up almost immediately by the various factions that wanted to study the stones and determine what other uses they might have.
As a result, ordinary Europeans had barely gotten their hands on any of them.
The situation was especially frustrating because, so far, there had not even been that many confirmed uses for mana stones. Their primary proven application was cultivation, which Laelia personally considered a rather wasteful use for such a valuable resource when so many other possibilities remained unexplored. Nevertheless, cultivation alone was enough to create an enormous demand for the stones.
"All right," Laelia thought as she looked at the enormous tome sitting in front of her. "Let's read that tome one more time and see if I can find a solution."
She sighed with resignation before diving back into the book on runes.
Meanwhile, Arin woke up the following morning feeling sore from all the experiments they had conducted the previous day. They took the idea they had come up with and presented it to everyone else, asking the family members for their input. They wanted to determine what worked, what did not work, and what could potentially be improved. As they had planned, the entire experiment had turned into an absolute shit show.
By the end of the day, there had not been a single person involved who was not covered in dirt or soaking wet.
Nobody had properly understood how to control the speed at which they launched themselves forward. The basic principle was easy enough to understand, but actually controlling the resulting movement was another matter entirely. Some people traveled too far, others failed to generate enough momentum, and others simply lost their balance and tumbled across the ground.
The family currently had only around thirty adults who were capable of participating in these experiments. The rest either had difficulties with their professions or had not yet reached the limit of their breathing method. That was perfectly fine because there was no need to rush everyone into becoming an adult. The family was still learning how the process worked, and forcing people to advance before they were ready would only create unnecessary problems.
The thirty adults who had participated in the experiments, however, had already made a decision.
Every single member of the family needed to undergo the test.
Fortunately, Grandma Annemiek had also been among the people who had embarrassed themselves the previous day. That meant nobody could escape by claiming that the experiment was too embarrassing or dangerous for them to participate in. They had already started with Grandma Annemiek, which naturally meant that Karl would eventually have to undergo the exact same experience.
Nobody could embarrass the patriarch and then expect to escape embarrassment themselves.
The family had therefore spent the next several hours testing all the new ideas they had developed. The experiments had been particularly amusing because Grandma Annemiek had actually started off rather gracefully. Unlike some of the younger family members, she managed to glide smoothly across the ground after activating the movement technique. For a brief moment, it seemed as though she had already mastered the technique.
Then she needed to put her foot down.
Her foot landed directly inside a molehill.
Annemiek immediately lost her balance and went face-first into the ground before tumbling several times and finally coming to a stop. The sight had been hilarious enough to set the tone for the rest of the evening. Nobody was allowed to take themselves too seriously after watching their grandmother perform such an impressive movement technique only to be defeated by a molehill.
Fortunately, they had chosen an open field for the experiments.
It was the same area where the archery range had previously been located, meaning there were no trees nearby for anyone to crash into. That removed one of the biggest dangers from the experiments, although it did not prevent people from crashing into the ground. Nobody had yet figured out how to stop normally after using the movement technique, so almost every attempt ended with someone tumbling across the grass.
That outcome was hardly surprising.
None of them were accustomed to moving at that speed.
Their bodies had become stronger, and their new physiques gave them the physical capability to react much faster than before. However, having the physical ability to react quickly was not the same thing as actually being accustomed to moving that quickly. Their minds had spent their entire lives operating within a particular range of movement, and suddenly their bodies were capable of reaching speeds that they had never experienced under their own power.
That created a strange disconnect between their bodies and their minds.
Even when they technically possessed the reaction speed necessary to respond to something moving at their new speed, their minds had not yet adapted to processing the information quickly enough. Their bodies could move, but their instincts were still calibrated to their old limits. The result was a great deal of stumbling, falling, and generally embarrassing behavior.
Arin found the entire process exhausting, but he could not deny that the results were promising.
The family had not yet mastered the technique, and they were still nowhere near being able to use it reliably in combat. However, they had proven that the basic principle worked. Mana could be used to accelerate their bodies in ways that were previously impossible, and with enough experimentation, they might eventually be able to develop proper movement techniques.
Most importantly, the feedback from the family was overwhelmingly positive.
Everyone agreed that the idea had potential, even if the process of figuring it out was going to involve a considerable amount of falling, crashing, and embarrassing themselves. For Arin, that was enough to make the entire experiment worthwhile.