CHAPTER 110: LOGIC GATES COMPREHENDED

Rather than using his available Transistors to build simple AND, NOT and OR gates, what if he could rely on a single, superior gate? He had already learned about the NAND and NOR gates, which were ’universal gates’. They were way more versatile compared to dedicated AND, NOT and OR gates. With enough NAND gates alone, he could recreate the function of a NOT gate. With a different arrangement, he could also make an AND gate. The same was true for the NOR gates which could be used to build a NOT gate, and then an OR gate.

The difference might seem so small, and it might look like he was just adding unnecessary complexity to things, but on the grand scale of the fifteen million Transistors he had inbuilt, it would simplify his design massively, and also allow him to pack way more processing capability than anyone else could within the same space.

After he solidified his knowledge and visualization, he immediately went on to assign ten million Transistors from the fifteen million he had in his mana node solely to logic gates. He left the remaining five million transistors for future components like registers and memory states. This was the conclusion he and Aegis had come to.

He previously wanted to make it more, but Aegis recommended against that... at least for now. The registers he was going to build next were very vital.

Of the ten million Transistors he assigned for the logic gates, he allocated only four million to NAND and NOR gates, his universal gates, because while he could build all other gates from these two, having to do it on the fly for every single operation would actually take a bit more time, and it would reflect in the spell he cast on the outside as slight latency. Who knew when the extra milliseconds might come in handy at some vital point. So, for the sake of performance, he also assigned two million transistors to just NOT gates alone, and another two million to AND and OR gates, ensuring that his most common spell operations would be executed with maximum speed.

The NAND and NOR gates would serve as his go-to logic processors, deciphering spells in conjunction with the AND, NOT and OR ’simple’ gates. It would be like he had way more logic gates than he actually did, but when he needed maximum speed, the ’simple’ gates will serve as the main drivers for deciphering the spell.

The remaining two million were left alone. Those were for the XOR gates Aegis had explained to him. But that was for later in the future, when he’d start to build his Arithmetic and Logical Unit to handle spell calculations inherently.

Zephyr started the process, embedding everything into his mana node the exact way he wanted it. And this time there was no interference whatsoever. He was the only party here. Just him, his knowledge, and Origin granting him the rights to embed it onto his mana node.

But even without any fight, and even though it wasn’t as tough on his consciousness as when he embedded individual transistors before, this was still gruelling.

It needed intense, non-stop focus for him to complete the task. This wasn’t like real world lithography where it was handled by precise machines. Yes, Aegis helped him maintain precision from his ’view’ but there were still tiny variations in some places.

But even this was perfect by the standard of any world Zephyr might find himself... even by his home world standard.

He spent nearly two days in his mana core space before his consciousness returned back to his body and he felt his comprehension settle fully into his mana node.

Zephyr breathed out, taken aback by the sensation of having a body again. This time it wasn’t as jarring though, and he was sure he’d keep getting used to it the more he did it.

His body was still in good shape even after he had been comatose, mainly because of the hunger pills he had stuffed down his stomach like a mad man. Those things were not meant to be taken as much as that. In theory, a normal person only needed one to last six days, but considering the fact that every mage required more energy than regular people, and also that comprehension itself drained mages more, most mages took about four or five before going into seclusion.

Zephyr had swallowed almost twenty five.

He was still feeling energetic enough that he could even stand and move about properly.

He steadied himself and got used to the feeling of walking with a body again before pushing the stone door to the seclusion room open.

He squinted his eyes tightly after not seeing any light for basically two days straight. His eyes adapted very quickly and he noticed Komi sitting crosslegged on the ground of the corridor outside the room he had stayed. She stared at him with wide eyes like she had a hard time believing what she was seeing. Her look eventually morphed into confusion and doubt... with a slight tinge of regret?. "You failed." She stated her conclusion.

"...No." Zephyr croaked out, before clearing his throat to speak again. "I did not fail."

Komi stood up immediately, staring at Zephyr intently. She weaved a simple spell model visibly enough for Zephyr to react to it, but not enough that he could cast any of the spells she had seen him cast before.

The spell model immediately executed its intended effect—a soft air attack that was meant to hit Zephyr in the chest with just enough force to push him backwards.

...But even before she weaved the spell model completely, Zephyr had also reacted and materialized his own air attack on the fly, just with his thoughts alone and without raising a single finger to direct the spell.

An ear popping thump resounded through the corridor as Komi’s spell didn’t even have time to move at all before Zephyr’s had already reached hers. The collision of the two spells resulted in a change in air pressure in that small space that caused Zephyr and Komi’s eardrums to ring.

"Arrgghh!" Zephyr opened his mouth wide repeatedly with both hands on his ears, trying to stop the ringing. "Damn! That was a terrible idea!"

At least Zephyr’s body was built different. Komi had it worse since she was just a regular mage, but she also powered through it, treating it as something minor even though one ear was bleeding slightly. She had a massive grin on her face through the whole pain, watching Zephyr tap his ears repeatedly like it was a nuisance before he looked at her.

"What? I told you I didn’t fail." He shrugged.

"Komi, send the news to those grumbling elders." Sage Maximus who appeared out of nowhere suddenly spoke, handing a pre-prepared sealed and specially signed scroll to her.

She only watched his mouth, barely hearing what he was saying.

Sage Maximus laid a hand on her ear with a spell model that seemed to have a healing effect that stemmed the blood within a minute.

"Send this to those old foggies at the Elder Council." Sage Maximus repeated with a grin. "Let me see what they have to say now."

Komi nodded and took off down the corridor and out of view immediately.

"So you did it yet again... And within a few days span too." Sage Maximus turned to Zephyr who had been watching their whole interaction with an amused look.

"Hey, when can I learn that phantom disguise spell thing?" Zephyr asked instead.

"Disguise spell thing...?" Sage Maximus tilted a brow. "Oh, you mean the cloaking spell." He chuckled. "Even for you... Not anytime soon. You can’t handle the calculations it requires on the fly..."