"How's the research on 'Galadra's Eye' going, any progress?"
Taking advantage of the meal, I casually inquired out of idle curiosity.
"Galadra's Eye?" Judith paused eating when she heard those words, looking over at us puzzled. "I remember Galadra was one of the four elemental archangels, the angel of earth, and an ancestor of you angels. What's the connection?"
"Indeed, it's that very Galadra, but as for the connection..." Mia's gaze couldn't help turning towards us. After all, we were the ones who originally obtained that celestial weapon, so as Reed's assistant she knew its origins. But she couldn't bring herself to admit it was seized from monsters.
It was hard to imagine their own ancestor being involved with monsters, though that wasn't the only possible explanation.
From my perspective, I highly suspected the "Galadra's Eye" was likely a product of an ancient civilization. In the central city of the trial space, Adrian and I saw many items that seemed technology-related, though most were damaged and unusable. But there were some exceptions, like that "VR headset" using light elements for connectivity.
"I couldn't make much sense of the technological aspects of those machines..."
Reed, who had been silently eating, finally spoke up.
"Not even you could figure it out?" Cyra was stunned, hardly believing the ever capable Reed could be stumped.
It wasn't that strange really. No matter how intelligent Reed was, her knowledge only contained existing earthly theories. If the subject surpassed earthly knowledge, it would be odder if she could fully analyze it.
"Galadra's Eye doesn't just have a teleportation function - it combines abilities like communication, positioning, surveillance and other military applications. Since the spatial exchange mainly uses earth elements, that part involving elements or magic is a bit easier to understand."
Pausing, Reed suddenly produced a scroll and some black buttons, presenting them before us.
"So while the other functions are unrepairable due to material issues, I've managed to isolate and replicate the spatial transfer portion, though not perfectly."
Everyone curiously leaned in to look. I recognized those black buttons as devices to aid in positioning targets for Galadra's Eye transfers.
"These...these are components from the celestial weapon! You secretly took them out! If the High Council found out, that's a punishable offense!" Mia was aghast, pointing at the black buttons.
"There were so many location buttons on Galadra's Eye, a few missing won't matter. Elara definitely won't pursue it," Reed remained perfectly calm, not concerned at all until Mia had vented enough.
"If you kick up a fuss to the Council, you'll be implicated too!"
Well, Mia was already in the same boat, probably regretting taking on this assistant role where unorthodox research kept cropping up with no progress on the Angel Descent Formation.
"So the transferred portal you isolated still needs those black buttons?"
Galadra's Eye was already damaged when we acquired it, so Reed repairing it wasn't too surprising to me. But replicating and isolating that function likely relied on the celestial weapon itself, right?
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"So now we can teleport away from danger like those monsters did?"
To be honest, I was quite excited - it was like directly utilizing the celestial weapon's power. The spatial exchange was Galadra's Eye's most useful ability. If not for it, the angels may not have been forced back to their Edenmere stronghold. Considering the legendary life-saving feature, it was incredibly convenient.
"Not exactly! Those buttons are just spares I brought in case of emergency..."
But Reed shook her head, denying my guess as she unrolled the scroll to reveal an incredibly complex magic array.
"This is the actual transfer array I created myself! Of course, it's different from Galadra's Eye's spatial exchange, only having basic transfer capabilities..."
"What? A transfer array!"
Despite Reed's many caveats, everyone still expressed disbelief.
"Hahaha, mere delusions. Do you know how difficult spatial transfer is?"
Cysper, who had been avoiding Reed, finally couldn't sit still and rebuked her sternly.
"First, you need to know the target's precise spatial location, requiring many mages to scout and calculate in advance. Then you need rare materials to set up the array, only then led by an advanced earth mage can you hope to open a spatial gateway for transfer."
Transfer magic was indeed extremely complex, classified under earth magic at the divine level, equivalent to high-level angelic magic. Humans could never directly teleport with their mana reserves, so relied on boosting with magic arrays.
As for angels lacking any earth affinity, it was even more impossible. So for Reed to claim teleporting with just a small scroll, no wonder Cysper didn't believe her.
"Locating the target's spatial position isn't that difficult for us angels..."
But Reed remained unfazed, already anticipating his reaction as she calmly countered.
"Have you heard of 'Spiritual Convergence', the angelic mind network?"
"Could it be..." Cysper's expression changed, of course he knew about that! As someone so versed in light magic, the usage threshold for 'Spiritual Convergence' wasn't that high, just lacking conditions to apply it normally.
To use a simple example, Edenmere's outbound transfer array was based on locating the exit position through the spiritual network. Logically, other angels would need to relay their location to Elara first, allowing her to shift Edenmere's exit there.
We currently had four angels present, including the eight-winged Mia who could establish a small spiritual network, already sufficient. Failing that, there were still those black buttons from the celestial weapon for positioning, just with a different principle that Reed couldn't yet perfectly replicate.
"Uh...okay, you win on that! But the array materials, you can't skip those right?"
Cysper switched to another point once he realized that.
"Who says I can't? Array materials just increase elemental efficiency and reduce conversion losses. There are many substitutes, like..."
But Reed shattered his assumptions again, exchanging a look with Mia before rolling out the scroll for a live demonstration.
"Like reducing unnecessary side-branches to cut waste, and prestoring enough earth elements!"
As she spoke, two small spatial gateways opened between Reed and Mia, allowing them to directly bridge the distance - teleportation.
"Wow, it really works?" Cyra and I had never witnessed this, totally different from the spatial exchange as we played catch through the portals.
Unfortunately, the spatial opening didn't last long, maybe half a minute before disappearing completely.
"Heh, that's about all it can do - such a short distance, short duration, tiny gateway only passable by one person. Child's play!" Cysper immediately mocked, though with a hint of sourness.
Directly using an array to cast magic was quite rare - usually for high-level large-scale spells, arrays boosted the caster's abilities. Direct magic from arrays was typically only for low-level spell scrolls - the elemental losses were too high!
But Reed had done it, even casting the divine-level transfer magic, with such a compact array fitting on a portable scroll! If looks could kill, Cysper's face would be swollen by now.
"Well, the earth elements I stored were converted from light, so the efficiency is quite low. I've only stored about 5% so far."
For Cysper's final jeer, Reed had to admit the limitation, explaining her earlier "not perfect" caveat.
"Hehehe!"
Suddenly, Judith's trademark laugh rang out as she pushed up her glasses, sauntering over to feed earth mana into the array.
"Don't forget, I'm an earth mage. If your array can utilize even a low-rank mage's power..."
"Of course it can!" Reed glanced at the array, but shook her head.
"But your skill is still too low. Factoring in rest breaks, it would likely take two to three days to meet the minimum activation requirement."