A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 139 Explosive Reply

This was the second time Kano had brought it up. To be honest, Roscia's project hadn't made much progress yet, and the guild and other mages were all focused on his own Blue Light Shield. His teacher's frequent mentions of what would happen after the project ended were reminiscent of discussing year-end bonuses at the beginning of the year.

Luo Xia put down his teacup, somewhat suspiciously: "Dear teacher, you seem to be in a hurry to send me away?"

"How could that be? I'm just concerned about my student. Don't you dare try to freeload like your senior brother."

"No, when we first brought it up, we even discussed the possibility of a war between the Holy Kingdom and the Empire." Rorschach stood up, pacing back and forth in his office as he pondered. "Yet you said the guild was willing to support me in building a magic tower in the south of the Empire. There's a problem, a very serious problem."

"Don't overthink it. Since you want to return to the Empire, I support my student. But if it's located in the south of the Empire, the Holy Kingdom's branch can communicate with you more easily, and the distance for transporting supplies will be shorter." Kano unconsciously rubbed his nose.

Rorschach observed Cano's expression for a moment. The archmage didn't show anything particularly unusual, so Rorschach finally replied, "Alright, I still need to think about it. I'll finish my own task first. Assuming I really want to build a magic tower, I'll have to do some on-site research first."

If the cooperation between "Hercules" and the Baldorom Merchant Guild goes smoothly, the Kingdom of Bain will build a beverage factory, and Rorschach will consider whether the location of his magic tower can complement the business in which his old classmate has a stake.

After the conversation, Rorschach left Cano's office but didn't return to the Tower of Stars. Since he was already at the research building, Rorschach decided to continue his project.

In the lab, the brass casing gleamed like new, but the ceramic inner liner hadn't been installed yet. Rorschach needed to design a new plan to study the transformation process, but he had no clue what to do in the short term.

The most intuitive idea is to increase the number of blue light barrier arrays, but this is obviously limited. First, the brass shell has a height limit, and second, after increasing to a certain value, the proportion of blue crystals in the decay products does not increase proportionally.

In Rorschach's experiment, when the device was activated after adding the fifth blue light barrier, the blue fireflies were extremely dense, as if they were piled up inside the tower and about to overflow. However, when the transmutation dust was ejected, the mass of the blue crystals was actually less than when the fourth barrier was added.

In the original design, the inner lining had two blue light barrier magic circles at each end. After adjustments, when activated, the glowing lights perfectly covered the entire inner wall, forming a protective layer. With the addition of more magic circles, the glowing layer thickened and fused together, making it look like a glowing deep well when viewed from the top opening of the tower, obscuring the magical circuits and structure of the inner wall.

Luo Xia stared at the data, comparing multiple experiments, and discovered that as the number of tower segments of the barrier array increased, the time it took for the transmutation dust to reach the bottom after eruption was decreasing. In the initial test and subsequent attempts using the original design, the product of the transmutation dust decaying took seventeen seconds to pass through the entire tower; now, with the addition of more blue light barriers, it only takes twelve seconds.

Does this mean that more protective arrays interfere with the delaying arrays? The weakening of the delaying effect reduces the residence time of transmutation dust. Therefore, increasing the protective arrays has both a direct promoting effect on the transformation process and a negative effect on the transformation process due to the reduced residence time.

It seems that without changing the delay array, Delyuez's blue light barrier has both positive and negative effects on the conversion. When it is installed on five plates, the negative effects take the lead, making the conversion efficiency even worse than the previous group.

If the delay effect weakens, add more tower sections of the delay array. This "add more flour if there's too much water, add more water if there's too much flour" approach is definitely not feasible. First of all, the height of the prototype itself is limited, and even at near full load, the conversion rate is only around 10%. Ideally, if we just brute-force build it higher, we'd probably be building a second Starlight Torch Tower.

Furthermore, the concentration of ether that alchemical ink can hold is still limited. As the number of magic arrays increases, the output power of a single array will decrease. Whether it is still worthwhile after reducing energy consumption and efficiency is a question.

"Then we need to improve the delay array, design a circuit specifically for the passivation of transmutation dust based on the idea of ​​the blue light barrier array, and change the structural design of the device to increase the residence time of the transmutation dust." Rorschach thought of many ideas, but in the end, he still needed to start with the design of the array.

This was also the original intention behind the segmented, ceramic inner liner design, making it very convenient to modify magical circuits. Quantitative calculations are still required. However, Rorschach finds mathematics extremely difficult; any increase in the amount of calculation would make it impossible for him to complete it alone. The control panel lacks calculation functions, and constructing the magic circle still consumes his own mental energy.

Mechanical calculators and apprentices—Rorschach's lab definitely needs these two things now. Without them, Rorschach would waste a lot of time and sacrifice his hairline.

He decided to improve the delaying spell first. He opened the panel and stared at [Rorschach's Delaying Spell].

"Energy Deprivation" is a promising term, but currently it's limited to physical quantities, and given Rorschach's current spellcasting level and ability to construct magic arrays, its power is not high. Furthermore, can it directly absorb ether? Can the deprived energy be directed towards a specific target?

If this could be achieved, it would be an incredibly powerful spell, like the transfer of heat between heat engines and cold engines. Furthermore, if ether could be absorbed, not only would the utilization of transmutation dust reveal the first technological route—directly obtaining ether energy without passivation—but it would also be extremely useful in actual combat.

"Magic Control" is already a term that gives ether a direction, but it's not enough. Now, with Rorschach's Minor Disintegration spell as a foundation, combined with "Energy Deprivation," Rorschach's thoughts are wandering. He feels he needs to study and refer to other spell research. Tomorrow he'll go to the archives and library.

Knock, knock, knock. There was a knock on the laboratory door: "Master Rorschach, according to safety regulations, the door cannot be completely closed."

"Excuse me." Luo Xia opened the door. It was his colleague from the Alchemy Department, who was probably on duty in the research building.

This guy looked familiar; he probably helped install the lab. He glanced inside and said, "Do you need to continue the experiment? The steam engine in the power room needs to be shut down for maintenance."

"Okay, thanks for reminding me." It's already this late? Rorschach took out his pocket watch. After finishing class, talking with Archmage Cano, doing two sets of experiments, and thinking about ideas, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening.

I haven't eaten yet, and at this hour, the only places that still serve food are either taverns or the Star Tower's cafeteria: "I'll pack my things and head back now."

"Okay." The alchemy department guy trotted off to the next lab. Rorschach tidied up the data and drafts and turned off the magic lamp.

Even at night, the Tower of Stars is bustling with students; they've taken over the dining hall and library, and classrooms are open for study. As soon as Rorschach passed through the portal between the Garden and the Magic Tower, the tower spirit sent a notification:

"Master Luo Xia, there is a letter for you."

Barth's reply? He retrieved it from the mailroom; it was a very ornate letter, the envelope addressed to "Master Rorschach" in flowing script, with the gilded emblem of the Kingdom of Bain in the upper right corner. Rorschach wasn't of noble birth and lacked extensive knowledge of heraldry, only vaguely recognizing that the crowned lion and the interlocking diamond pattern were related to Bain. The sealing wax also bore the initials of "Bardorom."

Rorschach bought "Rorschach Bread" and brought it back to his dorm, planning to eat it while watching TV.

Upon opening, a strong scent of alcohol and floral fragrance wafted out: "Wow, she even wore perfume." Although Bart was a bit flamboyant back in his student days, it shouldn't have reached this level, right?

The content was even more explosive, almost choking Rorschach, who was watching while eating—

To my dearest friend Rorschach:

The most important news must be written first: I'm getting married, and the wedding will be held on the first day of May this year.

(End of this chapter)