Perrin

## [source]

he was cursed to age much faster

a genius in planar geometry

employed by Richard to produce special arrays, in return for an extended life through the Eternal Dragon.

Seeing Perrin, Richard couldn’t help but grow a little nostalgic once more. His current status had been built off the back of countless close battles back then, and the Direwolf Duke Bevry was still one of his most cherished memories of that time.

On the other hand, Perrin was feeling myriad emotions as well. The man in front of him would one day rule the entirety of Faelor, but had given him a new lease of life. Richard had also granted him information on Norland’s planar geometry, also acting as one of the best mentors during their limited interactions. To him, Richard was basically a god.

## History

After a leisurely tour of the city, Richard eventually arrived in front of a rustic old house and knocked on the door. It took a minute, but the wood eventually creaked open to reveal a wrinkled old man on the verge of death, unfocused eyes straining hard to make out who the visitor was, “Is it… Richard?”

“Yes, Perrin. It’s been a while.”

The old man shook his head and his eyes regained some clarity, “You actually look the same after all these years! Come, I never thought I’d see you again before my life came to an end.”

As he followed Perrin in, Richard noticed rows of flower pots and wine jars within an inner courtyard. It seemed like Perrin had been tidying up. He smiled and pointed at the meticulous indoor garden, “Looks like you’re living well, here I was thinking you were still trying to work on planar geometry.”

Perrin sighed, “Whose fault is that? If not for you, I would have spent my entire life performing research that had already been completed somewhere else. Now, what’s the point? I feel myself growing older again, and I’d rather spend the rest of my life doing things I never got a chance to. Drinking tea, eating good food, tidying my garden… I’ve even learnt to take afternoon naps!” 6;30

## Plot

You might love this plane, but it does not love you. It’s just a world built on a base of laws, and any creature living upon it is dispensable. In fact, it considers extremely powerful creatures a tumour to be removed. Regardless, if you want to do something good for this place, you have to live first.”

“And Norland will conquer us?”

“Without a doubt. If it isn’t me, it’ll be someone else. And I’m not boasting here, but you don’t want it to be someone else.”

### **Volume 7**

Perrin looked the same as ever, a withered old man with the passionate eyes of youth. He had firmly grasped the fundamentals of Norland’s mathematics in the past decade, regularly creating new designs and improving on existing magic arrays. His knowledge of planar geometry, spatial constructs, and magic arrays had already reached the level of a grandmaster, proving his immense talent even in the context of Norland.

Just like with laws, specialisation was never an issue. It was comprehending the most basic formations and improving them that posed great difficulty; one needed to climb beyond the accumulated research of hundreds of previous geniuses over millennia. In terms of mathematics alone, this youth’s achievements even brushed against the realm of laws, allowing him to create new functional units for array design.

He and Rosie had been working together seamlessly in the past few years, each one improving by the day. Rosie’s understanding of mathematics didn’t come close to his, but she had the ability to bring his designs to life even with near-perfection, allowing him to test and validate theories. In exchange, she gained a number of new functional units in her own repertoire that allowed her to make improvements to her own designs.

A great example of their improvements came through the Savage rune series. Ignoring the standard runes, even Richard’s custom designs had very high standards and little room for improvements; to improve the sets while keeping the runes elementary or grade 2 was practically an impossible task.

### **Genius**

The idea was quite simple, but at the same time it was not. It was near-impossible to form portals directly between two secondary planes for a number of reasons, but the primary one was that the coordinates from the Eternal Dragon wouldn’t work. One had to recalculate a spatial surface that both planes occupied in common, and then find coordinates using that new system. This would take months on end if he wanted to do it himself.

The Bridge of Hope turned out to be a surprise Perrin had already been planning for a while now. He would have revealed it once the Boulder Highlands and Resting Orchid Plane were mapped out as well, but even now it would be a huge boost to get the magic crystal reserves of Goldflow Valley and the troops from the Forest Plane. The man truly was a genius, his talent at mathematics far exceeding Richard’s own.

He had already spent two days hesitating over this proposal, mainly with the fact that it would need four top-tier offerings and wasn’t completely guaranteed to succeed. He would need to cross-check Perrin’s calculations himself once, and even if things were right it would take a whole month to finish construction in the best case. It definitely made sense now that he had decided to take the reapers on, but believing in best-case scenarios wasn’t sustainable.

### **Aftermath of the Reaper War**

In Bluewater Oasis, Perrin was standing on the plaza before the rune workshop and directing a group of apprentices as they carried equipment onto a wasp. He loudly berated them for their carelessness, but at the same time was complaining about how slow they were being.

“You seem excited,” a warm hand patted his shoulder.

“How couldn’t I be when there’s a reaper base bigger than this city waiting for me to study it? Oh…” the aged-looking mage suddenly seemed to realise something, turning around and yelping in surprise, “Your Majesty!”

Richard smiled, “No need to be so anxious, the base isn’t going anywhere. But you might want to take a look at this first, it should help with your research.”

Perrin took the scroll he was handed and opened it, his eyes going wide even as his breathing grew more rushed. His hands were trembling by the time he had unfurled the entirety, “Is this… a warplane?”
Perrin took the spatial bracelet on offer, probing it with his mind and going mute as he saw hundreds of scrolls within. A look of slight depression spread across his face.
Richard smiled understandingly, “This is all of my research on the reapers, I hope it’ll be of help. Your strengths aren’t in analysis, they lie in your ability to apply your genius to a problem. I feel like you’ll have something surprising for me the next time I return.”

Perrin stood rooted in place for a long while, countless thoughts flowing through his mind. He was someone with extensive knowledge of magic theory, but the idea that a portal could be formed so soundlessly flew in the face of everything he knew about teleportation, destroying the fundamentals he had built up over so many years.

## Inventions

### **Quickthink**

* Grade 2 rune design that even inticed the Eternal Dragon.

### **Bridge of Hope**

* It was two portals connecting in different planes. First ever portal between two secondary planes, one created without relying on the Eternal Dragon
* Its a way for my citizens to retreat to safer planes.
* wo enormous portals that seemed like they led to other planes. He was surprised to find that it was commoners entering these portals, not troops; with hundreds walking through every minute, a quick estimate told him that Richard was spending hundreds of thousands of gold every hour to teleport them out.

### **Battleships**

When it was time to depart, magic steam whistled resounded through Floe Bay as seven modified battleships left the port and snd sailed towards the distant Lithgalen. Perrin had changed them greatly in this time, leaving them looking nothing like the originals. Constructs that oozed reaper style were all over these ships, and the exteriors had faint barriers of different colours. As a touch of style, these ships represented the seven moons of Norland, with the flagship being the blue moon of Annihilation. These ships could actually make use of moonforce to power their functions.

## **Reference**

1. ↑ 6;31
2. ↑ Book 7, Chapter 186
3. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 34
4. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 82
5. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 53
6. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 87