A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 326 The Mastermind Returns

In the central part of the Kingdom of Bain, the once beautiful town of Lanster is immersed in the busy preparations before winter.

It has transformed from a small, primarily agricultural town into a new production center with rows of chimneys. A boy alights from a public carriage that came from the northern city of Würzburg.

The boy, dressed in a magic apprentice's robe, with a satchel and spellcasting materials slung over his shoulder and a large barrel of wine in his arms, walked straight into the "Fonda" food factory. The iron gates opened wide for him, allowing him unimpeded passage.

"Andrei, you're back?" the gatekeeper greeted him, but his eyes were only on the white wine Andrei was holding. Andrei smiled, used [Mage's Hand] to hand the gatekeeper a cigarette, and then lit it for him with a magic trick.

The gatekeeper took a deep drag, seemingly enjoying the magical smoke.

"Yes, I came back to visit during my vacation." He carried the wine barrel to the staff dormitory. His parents weren't home. He put down the Würzburg specialties and walked out. Along the way, he encountered many factory employees who greeted the apprentice warmly.

As outsiders from the Holy Kingdom, Andrei's family not only avoided being ostracized but also quickly established a harmonious relationship with the local long-time employees. There were two reasons for this:

First, Andrei came from the Holy Kingdom, and a letter he carried was enough for Mr. Hassai to arrange jobs for his parents and allocate three full staff dormitories to temporarily settle the family—clearly, he was a person with exceptional connections. When this letter was taken to Würzburg, he became an apprentice of the resident sorcerer, making him even more of a person with extraordinary connections.

Secondly, Andrei's father had no airs of nepotism. He worked diligently as a "warehouse safety management specialist" and was polite to everyone. Sometimes, in the eyes of young Andrei, his father's weak demeanor was even a bit excessive.

"My dear Andrei! We are outsiders. If we offend anyone, anyone can easily sabotage us behind our backs. Now that we've just arrived, it's the time when rumors and gossip are at their peak."

"Andrei, you are now an apprentice, so you can hold your head high in public. But if I don't humble myself, there will always be people who make things difficult for our family. Right now, the only person we can rely on is Lord Rorschach, but he's not here. We have to rely on ourselves and can't cause him any trouble."

His father told him similar things many times, but Andrei didn't want to listen. However, from then on, he always carried a pack of cigarettes in his pocket—a novelty from the other side of the ocean, only available in big cities like Würzburg and Munich.

In any case, the past month in the Kingdom of Bain passed peacefully. Bart was a carefree mage, and because of his other identity, he didn't spend much time studying magic in the tower. Andrei's main job at the garrison mage tower was to maintain the tower's magic array and prepare simple alchemy potions.

Most importantly, Mage Bart insisted on taking two days off every ten days to close the tower, without fail. Andre also got a stable vacation, which made the apprentices of the Arcane Tower green with envy.

A lawyer who lives on the government's paycheck is different.

Andrei is back on vacation, but he won't rest. Instead, he goes to the most central and heavily guarded area of ​​the food factory, a building with thickened walls and multiple layers of defense. Inside, they don't produce human food, but magical fuel—passivated metamorphic dust.

"How's it going?" Upon entering the building, Andre's demeanor changed abruptly. Facing the cylindrical machine, Mr. Andre, who had worked in the Alchemy Department of the Tower of Stars, was an undisputed expert. Unless Rorschach himself came, all other employees should obey his orders.

Andrei took the parameter logbook containing the data from the past ten days, frowned, and asked, "Why was the car stopped the night before last?"

The technician pointed to the subsequent indicators: "The original ejection volume before the shutdown exceeded the safety line. We suspect that the fluctuation at the collection source is the cause." In other words, the teleportation array pointing to the astral layer suddenly ejected an excessive amount of transmutation dust. If this exceeded the processing limit of the subsequent stages, untreated transmutation dust would break through the system, causing great damage to the equipment and even the entire facility.

Andrei made a longitudinal comparison of this data, turning the pages of his notebook one by one, and he found that the original eruption volume was slowly increasing amidst fluctuations.

"Based on the experience of the Tower of Stars, the metamorphic dust fluctuates with the changes of the moon and the seasons. The specific reasons involve the theory of celestial motion in astrology, which I don't understand to be true."

Andrei recalled unpleasant memories. He had once thought that astrology was about divination based on celestial phenomena, but he never imagined that the Tower of Stars was more about modeling and calculating from tens of thousands of data points over decades to predict the movement of stars—the true "astrology."

It's okay if he doesn't understand the underlying principles of the phenomenon for the time being; his first priority is to solve the problems that the phenomenon brings.

"When the original eruption volume exceeds the rated value, no, when it shows an upward trend, we should respond proactively by reducing the magic input of the teleportation array or increasing the input power of the passivation step. Of course, we can also do both at the same time."

"Blindly shutting down the engine won't solve the problem. What if the emission volume far exceeds the rated value when it restarts? Wouldn't it explode immediately? Moreover, we all know that starting and stopping the engine is the step with the greatest energy consumption, and frequent starting and stopping severely drags down efficiency."

"It's not enough to just turn the valve; you also need to think, think!"

Andrei was the youngest present, but his commanding manner easily overwhelmed everyone. The technicians either bowed their heads in agreement or seemed to be pondering after being inspired.

In reality, Andrei had only learned about the Alchemy Department through what he heard and saw, and had managed to recreate the aura of Master Snow. However, this building was the same as the Alchemy Department; technology and strength were what mattered. Therefore, Andrei should rightfully be in charge here, and no one would disagree.

The rules inside and outside the gate are different, and neither Andrei nor his father is wrong.

The machine continued to hum, irregular bursts of transmutation dust causing slight vibrations throughout the system. The machine had already been upgraded twice, the last time under the guidance of Andrei when he first arrived, essentially incorporating advanced experience from the Alchemy Department.

Looking at the collector, he couldn't help but think that a mathematical relationship should be established between the original eruption volume, the input power of the teleportation array, and the input power of the passivation mechanism. This mathematical relationship should be visualized and materialized using magic or other means, so that automatic control could be achieved.

He copied the data onto the paper, drawing diagrams and performing calculations, but after a long time, he sighed and said, "My knowledge is not enough to complete the development. If Professor Luo Xia were here, he could definitely have made it happen."

As the saying goes, "You only realize how little you know when you need to use it." It was only when Andrei was on his own that he felt his studies in the Alchemy Department were extremely inadequate. Not to mention comparing himself to a formal mage like Rorschach who was involved in the research of the Great Magus, he was even lacking compared to a proper apprentice in the Tower of Stars.

"You want to build an automatic control system? That's a huge topic and a massive project."

"Automatic Control Professor Rorschach, the name you chose is very fitting." Andrei's gaze did not leave his manuscript; he simply nodded in agreement with Rorschach's words.

Then he realized that he really heard Rorschach's voice!

Was it a pleasant surprise, or more of a shock? Andrei nearly jumped up, his shout echoing throughout the control room: "Professor Rorschach!"

"Sigh, here you must address me by my title, or call me Master Rorschach." Another young man appeared out of nowhere, but he brought even more horror to the others than Andrei. Everyone knew that Rorschach was the boss of Mr. Hassai and the direct leader of this department.

The most common ghost story experienced by working people is that their boss appears behind them like a ghost to check up on them. What's worse, their boss's boss is a sorcerer who actually used illusion magic to conceal his figure and sneak in.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on the excited Andrei. The door had been closed the whole time; the kid must have brought "dirty stuff" in when he came in!

"I just came to check in. You all continue with your work, I won't disturb you." Luo Xia waved his hand, looking very happy.

(End of this chapter)