CHAPTER 109: COMPREHENDING LOGIC GATES

Zephyr had learned his lesson after that fight. The experience had taught him never to get on Komi’s nerves... ever.

The spell she had cast was one that bombarded the target with a terrifying amount of mana, turning the one thing all mages used so freely into a weapon itself.

Zephyr had spent another day in bed, recovering from the excessive mana dousing. And that was because Komi had even held back right after the end, else his pathways for channelling mana might have been fried from the mana overload.

’Damn, she had really been angry.’ Zephyr thought back to his words. It wasn’t one of the wisest choices he’d ever made, but at least he now knew how far he was from truly trumping Komi in a one on one fight.

He needed to comprehend more words... And that was what he was doing right now. He had notified Komi of his intention to go into seclusion immediately after his recovery, and she had been all for it. How he performed with the next word he comprehended, how fast and how potent he could do it... would further solidify his title as a Pathfinder, silencing the remaining dissenting voices questioning the validity of his title and pressing for a direct observation.

Zephyr’s every need had been provided for on this attempt. He had been given a small, private room. Very insulated against sound and disturbances and built solely for going into seclusion. With more than enough hunger pills to last however long he’d stay in there.

Both Komi and Sage Maximus had even insisted on him resting for another day just so he could get into the best mental state he possibly could, but he refused, emphasizing that he was fully recovered. He could literally see his physical and mental status just at the edge of his view, and they both displayed numbers in the 90-percent range.

He sat in the enclosed room, alone, and primed himself, going through his last preparations to get his body in the best shape. He didn’t want to spend as much time in his mana core space as he did the last time where his body on the outside was left in a comatose state till it was severely weak and malnourished. So he made sure to eat enough food before coming in here and now he still even shoved as many of the terrible tasting hunger pills down his stomach as he possibly could. He only started the comprehension process and reached his consciousness into his mana core after his stomach couldn’t take any more in.

His consciousness separated from his body and reappeared inside his mana core space. "I’m here again..." Zephyr thought out loud. Enough that Aegis on the outside, who he allowed access to his ’eyes’ here, could hear.

I wish you a very productive embedding process, host. Aegis responded.

Zephyr primed himself, changing his ’view’ to the overhead, omniscient view that encompassed his whole mana core because of the ’master access’ he gained from the moderator.

Logic Gates. This was what he needed to visualize and embed into his mana node to make an inherent component, rather than this current clutch assistance he was using from Origin.

What were Logic Gates? And how could he visualize and embed them to perfection?

Zephyr’s mind sorted through every information about Logic gates that he had Aegis had touched upon, defining it clearly in his mind. He already knew them as the decision makers of his processor, the circuits that interpreted his intention for a spell as a mana input and produced the specific output he required.

For example, the NOT gate. One of the simplest of the logic gates. So simple that most Exalted and Half-Exalted, and even the natives in some of their spell models, had embedded and implemented the logic. It was a single-input, single-output gate that simply inverted a mana type. If a mana type 1 was present at the input, it would output 0. If the input was 0, the output would be 1.

He had felt this process happen vividly in his simple fire spell, where his Origin clutch had to tell the spell to only execute if air mana type and heat mana type were present, and specifically NOT a third mana type– moisture, which would douse the flame. That was the single purpose of the NOT gate in that spell. It was basically a filter that ensured only the right mana types that were needed for a spell were present.

Then he also thought of the AND gate, solidifying his knowledge of it. The second simplest logic gate. It was a dual-input gate that took two mana types at once and would only produce an output if two specific mana types were present at both of those inputs. His fire spell was still the perfect example again. The spell would only execute if both heat mana type AND air

mana type were present, this was after passing through the NOT gate. Then once the two mana types are present, or true or 1, only then can it be passed on to the next step of the spell’s logic. These were the easier ones most talented Pathfinders must have deduced throughout history.

He moved on to the next one. The OR gate. This gates’s only function was just to produce an output if a mana type was present at either of its inputs, or both. The either, or logic. This was for spells that could be triggered by multiple conditions or differences within a specific mana type... like a water spell that could still be executed whether the air around was filled with actual water molecules, OR some other type of liquid molecules. It didn’t matter which one, so long as at least one was there.

Zephyr pondered on each of them, solidifying his understanding and visualizing their structure and diagrams as corporeal as he could. This was one of the most fundamental aspect of casting any type of magic that he ever would visualize. It was basically magic’s syntax. So far Origin had been his clutch for performing all these logics, only using his Transistors for this after he embedded and made it inherent in his mana node. It was the reason why he was so terrible at magic before he was ever able to comprehend words. Back then he had no Transistors of his own, and his logic still also depended on Origin. It was a miracle he was able to cast any spell at all.

But now things had changed. The difference between then and now was so drastic that it was like he was a whole different person...

In theory, he could continue as he was right now and he would still be considered a genius among many. His comprehension of Transistors alone was enough for Origin to work with going forward... But Zephyr wasn’t one to settle. Not when he had this much of an opportunity and advantage over everyone. Not when he had the kind of knowledge Aegis provided in his hands... Not when he knew the efficiency that true, inbuilt processes, directly in his mana core, would provide compared to any stop-gap, Origin compiled version.

He wanted more. Even more than the simple AND, NOT, and OR gates...

Just like his Transistor build that implemented the FinFET design, he wanted something that would put him a cut above the rest by far. He wanted something more efficient. More powerful. More versatile.

He wanted NAND logic gates... He wanted NOR gates... He wanted Universal Gates.