Euphyllia followed Belene to the guard team.
Although the guard team was a subordinate organization of the student council, it was managed by professors specially appointed by the academy.
The core of the academy’s Great Barrier was located deep within the guard team’s headquarters, a heavily guarded area.
The Great Barrier was directly tied to the safety of the entire academy, and no related materials were allowed to be taken outside. If Euphyllia wanted to understand the specifics, she had no choice but to come in person.
At the same time, she could also directly inquire about the investigation from the guard team, so it wasn’t too troublesome.
Naturally, her arrival was met with an enthusiastic welcome.
Some guard team members had attended her classes, and many in the Great Barrier maintenance group were professors from the Department of Magic.
After exchanging a few brief greetings, Euphyllia immediately turned her attention to understanding the Great Barrier.
This barrier was said to have been established when the academy was first founded. It had undergone several major revisions and expansions over time, and its functions were now relatively well-developed.
The last major overhaul was a hundred years ago.
Given how long its stability had been proven, there was certainly no issue with it.
Occasional minor problems were continuously being fixed, which was the primary job of the large group of professors here.
They worked in shifts, sometimes maintaining the barrier and other times returning to research or teach.
Belene was the exception, acting as the supervisor and only occasionally returning to the Department of Magic.
As Euphyllia observed the setup, a term surfaced in her mind—programmers.
It’s exactly the same!
Well, there was one difference. This is a fantasy world, so these people had much fuller heads of hair.
Beyond that, even the conversations she overheard sounded like programmers debugging code.
“Idiot! This won’t work! If you add these runes, it’ll break on my side! Try adding it and I’ll fight you!”
“Damn it! Who wrote this?! There’s not even a single line of documentation—how is anyone supposed to understand this?!”
“I don’t get the logic, but it actually works after changing these runes. Amazing!”
The principle is unclear, but it works.
Belene coughed heavily, looking slightly embarrassed.
“Ahem!! Dean Euphyllia is here to inspect our work. Everyone, welcome her!”
Hearing this, everyone turned their heads or looked up, and the room instantly fell silent.
Then, a round of applause broke out.
Euphyllia smiled and gestured for them to settle down. “I’m just here to observe and understand the situation. Please, carry on.”
Soon, everyone returned to their previous states, but the tone of their discussions shifted subtly.
“Brother, just tell us how to fix it. We’ll work it out together.”
“Oh, if you cross-reference the structure, it’s actually quite easy to understand. The logic is clear.”
“What an interesting discovery. I think I’ve found a new shortcut.”
Euphyllia simply smiled.
No need to make things harder for the workers.
She questioned key personnel about important aspects of the barrier, gaining a general understanding of its operations.
From her previous observations from the outside, she had already gleaned some insights. Now that she saw it from the inside, everything became much clearer.
She also had some experience with barriers herself.
In the end, she reached a conclusion.
“I think your barrier isn’t barrier enough.”
Everyone froze at first, then they inwardly panicked.
Holy crap! The classic line appeared!
But this was the Great Barrier. Could there really be some revolutionary idea for it?!
Actually… yes, there could!
Currently, the academy’s Great Barrier had two main functions: defense and perception.
Defense was self-explanatory. Its external resistance was extremely high. Take the massive explosion from Yulia’s final battle in the Kingdom of Rumsey for example—it could withstand several hits without issue.
The person who created this barrier when the academy was founded must’ve been extraordinarily powerful.
However, even if it could endure such attacks, the damage would still be significant, and repairs would be a nightmare.
That said, nobody would normally attempt something like that.
The internal perception system, however, was much cruder.
As mentioned before, it detected mana fluctuations above certain thresholds in different zones and triggered alarms accordingly.
For example, dormitories only permitted the lowest everyday-level mana, classrooms allowed beginner-level mana, and outdoor training grounds permitted advanced-level mana.
Exceeding these limits would trigger the alarm.
But the alarm itself was simplistic, just a generic alert sound.
This was one of the issues they were currently facing. They knew that the dormitory alarm had gone off, but they had no idea why, nor was the detection range precise enough.
From Euphyllia’s perspective, this barrier was like a turtle shell. It was tough on the outside but practically useless on the inside.
Some might argue, “It can sound an alarm. Isn’t that enough?”
To that, she’d say that they simply lacked vision.
Euphyllia had seen the strongest barrier—Golden Origin, the one and only ‘Sis System’!
That one could withstand gods, perceive everything internally, and even had an AI to boot. It was just missing an “It’s a pleasure to serve you, Master.”
She casually listed a few functions she believed the barrier should have, like data logging and remote communication, leaving everyone dumbfounded.
Barriers can do that?!
Indeed, this barrier was still lacking. It needed changes.
But when Euphyllia took a closer look at the Great Barrier’s current structure…
Seeing the endless patches, she was stunned.
Then again, it made sense. On Bluestar, a few years of coding could turn into spaghetti code. Meanwhile, this Great Barrier had a history of over a thousand years.
It had been like this since the academy’s founding, modified over time, generation after generation.
Trying to make major changes to something like this? Who knew what bizarre issues might pop up inexplicably.
And the modifications Yulia wanted to make involved over half of the entire barrier.
Euphyllia sighed. Now she understood the frustration of the maintenance staff when she first walked in.
No wonder they all turned into angry nerds. It was completely justified.
At this point, trying to modify it was harder than creating a new folder with a 2.0 version.
“Let’s just redesign the whole thing.”
Hearing this, everyone’s jaws dropped.
“This…”
“Dean, are you serious?”
“Isn’t this a bit…”
They might as well have said, ‘The ways of our ancestors mustn’t be altered’.
But Euphyllia had a counterargument. If they wanted her to solve the problem without rebuilding it, the effort required would be greater than starting from scratch.
“I’ll discuss it with Mythina later. Don’t worry about it.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
If the Headmaster made the decision, then it was fine. After all, the entire academy was hers.
But this wasn’t something that could be done overnight. Even if they decided to rebuild, it would require extensive preparation and would likely be implemented during the students’ vacation.
For now, they still needed to address the immediate issue.
“Let’s go. We’ll ask the guard team for details.”