A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 109 Invitation

The group meeting proceeded as scheduled. First, Pascal reported on what he had done during this period, followed by Rorschach and Paulina.

"So it's made with gentian violet! No wonder it felt so familiar." Kano suddenly realized after Rorschach mentioned the drink.

During the few days that Rorschach was away on fieldwork, the subsequent experiments were not carried out due to the relocation of the laboratory. Paulina shared several newly published papers from the Magic Guild.

Rorschach also learned that there were many other mages who shared Kano's ideas and were trying to explore the astral plane. The authors of these papers were mainly from the Storm Tower and the Tower of Time. Come to think of it, both are magic towers located in Istani.

"A cluster of comets will be in the sky in late February this year. The Storm Tower has sent an invitation to our Star Tower, as the best observation point is in the Atlas Sea. Should we send someone there?" Paulina took out an official letter forwarded by the Magic Guild.

"Our group is short-handed. Let's ask the other professors for their ideas."

"OK."

He'd missed a chance to study on a government-funded trip to Istani! Upon hearing "Comet Cluster," "Storm Tower," and "Atlas Sea," Rorschach immediately thought that Professor Caroline should be there right now. Unfortunately, Rorschach couldn't tell Kano he was going—as a graduate of the Imperial Royal Magic Academy, reading star charts was his limit; his stargazing skills couldn't compare to those of other mages in the Tower of Stars.

On the second day of the group meeting, the last day before the ten-day break, Luo Xia was able to enjoy a rare moment of leisure.

The blueprints have been handed over to General Manager Newsingen, and the relocation of the laboratory has been coordinated by Cano himself with the Alchemy Department and the construction team. In short, Rorschach has nothing to do.

He lay on his dorm bed, turned off the still-running control panel, and got up to organize his notes on "Standard Magic Circle Geometry Analysis" and "Elf Totemism." The former was less of a textbook and more of a quick reference book for understanding concepts, while his notes on Elf Totemism were rather disorganized, requiring considerable effort to unravel the author's logic.

Luo Xia suddenly had an idea: "Tower Spirit, are there any classes related to magic circles today?"

"Hello, Master Luo Xia. There is an advanced class on 'Spells and Magic Arrays' from 3:15 PM to 6:00 PM, located on the 12th Palace on the third floor."

"May I sit in on the proceedings?"

"As a teacher, you are free to observe the class, but please do not disrupt the class."

Luo Xia thought for a moment and decided to consult the instructor: "Who is the instructor for this afternoon's class? Could you please pass on my application to audit the class?"

"Okay, Venerable Rorschach sent a request to Venerable Poincaré to listen in. There has been no response, Venerable Rorschach. I will notify you as soon as Venerable Poincaré replies."

Thank you.

However, after a whole morning and noon without receiving a reply, Luo Xia simply went to the classroom early to wait, planning to communicate with the teacher directly when he arrived.

"You can't just kick me out now that I'm here, can you?" Luo Xia thought carefully. If he didn't wear a mage's robe but borrowed an apprentice's robe from his senior brother, he should be able to blend in easily. After all, some of the guys in the audience looked older than Luo Xia.

As class was about to start, the classroom was already full of students. Rorschach even spotted Pascal, but the senior student was yawning and didn't see his junior student lurking in the back row.

Finally, the person who entered as the bell rang was an old acquaintance of Rorschach's: "Professor Poincaré has something to attend to, so I will be teaching this class in his place." The senior students had all taken his classes before, so there was no need for self-introductions.

Rorschach, who was auditing the class, didn't need the substitute professor to introduce himself. "Why is it Professor Cano?" he thought. "So the Poincaré mage is out. No wonder the Tower Spirit hasn't replied. Does the Tower Spirit not know who the substitute teacher is?" Rorschach had a new experience with the sheer stupidity of this magical intelligence.

Kano also saw Luo Xia sitting in the back row, raised an eyebrow, and began to lecture without saying anything.

Kano spoke animatedly on stage, with the teleportation array disassembled and labeled on the demonstration board.

"So, returning to the name of our course, the ability to establish a connection between spells and magic circles is a fundamental skill that every spellcaster should master. But don't think that this connection is simple, like the simple connection between words and language."

Of course, Kano wouldn't simply follow someone else's lesson plan. He too was a master in the field of magic circles, his research based on magic circles. Today, he would expand on the topic, hoping to offer some inspiration to the apprentices and an intermediate mage:

"This art, which combines magic, geometry and alchemy, has developed to the point where there are three important issues: First, how to break through the limitations of existing magic circle forms and no longer be confined to planes and simple geometric shapes on the overall outline;

Second, since some magic circles are known to have magical effects that surpass those of spells, can they be converted into spells that do not rely on drawing magic circuits?

Third, the effects of a spell may vary depending on the person casting it, or even the same caster casting it multiple times. Can a magic circle accurately record the variations in a spell's characteristics? In other words, can any effect of a spell be perfectly reproduced by a magic circle?

The last two questions can be summarized as the "Spell-Circle Complete Manifestation Hypothesis," which is a hypothesis that cannot yet be fully verified, indicating that there is still much room for improvement in the design technology of magic circles. Hopefully, one day one of you here will become a master capable of solving these problems. Alright, get out of class dismissed.

Upon hearing this, a student sitting in the front row blurted out, "Teacher, it's not time for get out of class to end yet." As soon as he said this, this studious student was mentally torn apart and tortured countless times by everyone else.

"Wasn't it better to let you go to the cafeteria earlier? Seriously... get out of here!"

Cano dismissed all his apprentices, except for Rorschach and Pascal, who had just woken up.

"You're so interested in magic circles?"

"I saw a topological array on the airship, it was quite interesting. I've been brushing up on my knowledge of arrays lately."

"That's right, that's the breakthrough on the first major proposition I mentioned. However, I think if you're interested, you should delve deeper into the second and third questions, as they are closer to the essence of magic. You have the potential to become an archmage, so you need to develop a thorough understanding of these aspects."

Luo Xia chatted with Cano for a few more minutes before leaving the classroom.

Pascal was fully awake. He pulled a letter from his robe, inside which was a beautifully printed invitation: "Professor, your mailbox received a letter this morning. Paulina asked me to bring it to you."

"Tickets?" Inside, besides the invitation, were three theater tickets. After looking at them, Kano said, "There's a charity performance at the Royal Theater tomorrow night. Call Paulina and come with me."

"Me? How could a mere apprentice like me show my face in public? You should send Luo Xia instead."

"Didn't you want to work for a trading company? Now you need to deal with these hypocrites to see their true colors!" Cano tapped Pascal on the back of the head.

There's another reason: the tickets were from one of the event's sponsors, the Saliana Mining Company, so Kano wouldn't allow Rorschach to attend. Kano has always been skeptical of the so-called gold mine, and Rorschach, as someone involved in the journey to the sub-plane, can no longer be associated with that company.

Meanwhile, Rorschach retrieved a letter from the mailroom. A charity opera performance was being held at the Royal Theatre, and Hercules Beverages was one of the sponsors. The letter extended a sincere invitation to Rorschach, the major shareholder and intermediate mage, to attend.

It also included a beautifully printed admission ticket.

(End of this chapter)