Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!-Chapter 277: The Difference Between Nodes (3)

*Hey guys, longer chapter today since it's only gonna be one, sorry everyone with ocd about chapter numbers, COUGH COUGH Asmo, FUFU!*

Lounging on one of the three parlor couches, Charlotte held a book in one hand, while her other hand rhythmically petted a snoring Glacia that had fallen asleep on her legs.

Sprawled out on the floor beside them was Blixt, in fact, all the wolves, minus Kuro, who was out hunting, were lazily napping while Charlotte continued her search for the answers plaguing Aoni for the last five days.

Diaries, Tomes, history texts, economic encyclopedias, war books, you name it, and the pair of siblings had read it cover to cover, leaving not only Aoni short on progress points from all the translation, but still clueless about what separated the Node the Wolf Pack came from, and any other normal Node.

"Hahhh," Closing the book she'd spent the last hour combing through, Char carefully placed it on the table beside the couch and looked up at the ceiling.

However, before she ever got a chance to think, there was a loud bang from somewhere upstairs, followed by a flurry of stomping footsteps that ran the course of the second floor, down a hall, to the stairs. With a commotion as he tripped over the coffee table, Aoni bumbled into the room, looking like a chaotic storm of sleeplessness and anxiety.

"YIPPP YIPP YIPPP!" In the process, not only had he woken up all the sleeping summons, but accidentally scared the hell out of poor little Blixt, who was the one closest to the coffee table.

"Sorry, Buddy. Here, have a snack. " Feeling bad that he'd freaked out the overgrown puppy, Aoni tossed him a piece of jerky, which stirred Glacia.

"I DID IT CHAR, I FREAKING DID IT!"

"Did what? Lost your sanity? Ew, you reek, when was the last time you took a bath…no slept, Ao, you look like a feral raccoon…" Commenting on the state of her brother, Charlotte appeased the floof using her as a bed with a snack before looking back at Aoni.

Hair a mess, extreme dark circles under his eyes, which by the way looked massive thanks to a pair of magnifying glasses adorning his face, Aoni cut a sorry image not unlike a mad scientist who'd made an enormous breakthrough after a week-long bender.

"No, stupid sister, I FOUND THE DIFFERENCE!"

"Uh-huh…"

"What? Don't believe me, COME ON!" Racing over and catching Char by the arm, Aoni dragged her across the Manor, upstairs, and into his office, which was in such a sorry state due to a scattering of books, notes, and all sorts of random equipment she recognized as tools Aoni used when working on his models.

And that was just the room; his desk was in just as poor a state as the rest of the office. However, a large space had been cleared away, and multiple dinner plate-sized magnifying glasses were attached to the piece of furniture, hovering above two Node stones.

"Okay, okay, okay, look!" Wearing a shit eating grin, Aoni sat his sister into his desk-chair and pushed her forward so that Charlotte could look at the two node stones up close with the aid of the 50x mounted magnifying glasses.

"Sigh…and what exactly am I supposed to be looking at here?"

"THE COLORS! LOOK AT THE COLORS OF THE RUNES!" Aoni shouted in a borderline frantic tone, causing Charlotte to give him a concerned glance.

"Um…they're red…"

"No, NO, You see, this one…" Pointing at the Node on the right, Aoni used a toothpick to point at the center of a thicker line on the quadruped Summoning Node.

"The line, the line isn't completly filled in, there's a veryyyyyyy thin hollowed space as if it's been carved out by hand with some kind of tool, but that isn't the point, there's similar things with the other node, ANY WAY the color, its #900603."

"Whereas this one, same spot, no indentation, same rune, but its #900D09." Stepping back and crossing his arms triumphantly, Aoni waited for the realization to set in…only to receive dead fish eyes instead.

*Blink…blink*

*Blink-blink*

"Ao…" pushing the chair slightly back, Charlotte examined her brother for a moment, before placing the back of her hand against his forehead to take his temperature.

"IM NOT SICK, THE COLORS, THE COLORS AND THE RUNES ARE DIFFERENT, I TELL YOU, LOOK, SEE HERE!" Dashing away from the table, Aoni sifted through a pile of papers and slammed them down onto the desk.

"Grade-1 Node Stones of summoning are inscribed with a Scarlet colored Rune in the shape of what the most likely summon it will spawn is."

"SCARLET, #900D09!"

"Oh…the weird number string was a color code…"

"YES! AND THAT ONE…" Pointing at the first Node he'd directed Charlotte's attention to, he explained.

"IS #900603 RUBY! THEY ARE DIFFERENT SHADES OF RED!"

"And how does that explain anything, Ao? I mean, don't get me wrong, there's a lot to unpack when it comes to the fact that you can notice such a faint shade difference between them, but I can't see how it gets us the answers we are trying to find out."

"That's just it, Char, THIS ISN'T A NORMAL NODE OF SUMMONING!"

"We already know that…"

"No, you aren't seeing the big picture here, Char, THESE AREN'T NORMAL NODES OF SUMMONING!"

"Saying it more than once won't get your point across, be clearer."

"UGH! Okay okay, *inhale*…*exhale* What I am trying to say is these nodes are specifically meant to be used by NATIVES!"

"…"

"…holy shit, they don't need a FLUME!" mulling over Aoni's words for a second, Charlotte's eyes shot wide open as she finally got what her idiot, autistic brother was trying to explain.

"EXACTLY! Because of that, there is a distinct difference between not only the color of the rune, but the rune ITSELF!" Dashing away from the desk again, Aoni grabbed three books, rushed back to his desk, and used his forearm to clear everything off before placing them down and rapidly flipping to a certain page in the first book.

"Okay, so this book specifically details battle configurations, and in it, they talk about using a resource to bring forth what is loosely translated as battle pets."

"And in this one," giving Charlotte a second to read over the paragraph in question, Aoni shifted to the second book, one detailing population density in specific areas, more specifically, the civilization's means of rebuilding the city after times of crisis.

"They talk about how if something were to happen, an Ark Stone can be used to refill the population! These nodes aren't meant specifically for summoning like how a Traveler would utilize them, no, they have a far more important purpose than that."

"Instead, they are a tool which can be utilized in the event of war, or recovering from Genocide!"

| A forgotten piece of lost knowledge has been obtained |

| 100,000 pp Earned |

"HOLY SHIT 100K POINTS!" Aoni screamed right next to Charlotte's ear, causing her to flinch before smacking him in the back of his head.

"Watch where you're yelling, idiot!" She scolded before picking up the third book, which was a diary.

Ignoring her brother, who appeared lost in thought, she flipped through the pages until she found a highlighted passage, one which was more than likely the source of Aoni's entire rant.

The Alglathims have surrounded Maeithvarn on all sides, and I fear that our end has finally been written in the annals of history. My only prayer is that they don't ever find the Codex Chamber, because if that happens, the likelihood of our civilization vanishing, my people's extinction, will no longer be a theory but instead a fact.

My father and my father's father have fought against this menace for thousands of years, and even with all their knowledge and resources passed down to me, I never thought it would be under my watch that our Kingdom would fall…

The only saving grace we have remaining is that each civilian, myself included, has added a portion of our Life Essence to the Codex of Ark's, and through it…maybe one day, we will see a time when those dreaded fiends no longer walk our hallowed mountains.

Placing the book down, Charlotte was concerned to find there was nothing more, just empty pages.

"Not only did they have a means of creating Node stones, but they were able to put a part of themselves into the rune, ensuring what would be summoned from them," Aoni said as he noticed his sister's contemplative gaze.

"Using the term Ark, I was able to cross-reference sources and find that the scale is massively different from what we use, with the main difference being how the color of the rune doesn't necessarily signify the strength of the beings brought out by the stone's activation."

"Instead, it happens to involve the strength of the being's bloodline. While the color of the rune still links up with how we classify things, such as red, orange, and so on, that doesn't mean a 5-Star being won't come out of a Red Ark Stone." Aoni said while calmly picking up the stone closest to him.