Ultimately, the system Rorschach designed for Bart was purely reactive. A system modeled after the anti-missile defenses of his past life would require far more complex magic for target acquisition, aiming, and active countermeasures.

’It’s not that magic couldn’t do it, but you’d need a Tower Spirit at the very least, right? That’s out of the question for Bart. If someone really had that level of technology plus a ’Magic Artificial Intelligence,’ they might as well just build a Doomsday Mecha and have it camp out by the Mage Tower.’

"Finally, by using the Stone Shaping Skill and ’Mapping,’ the structure will have a degree of self-repair," Rorschach explained. He crushed the demonstration cup with his Mage’s Hand, and as four pairs of eyes watched, the edges of the fragments began to glow faintly blue. The Alchemy Ink on the cup’s base sizzled and evaporated, and the pieces laboriously pulled themselves back together.

"Of course, this repair has its limits. The integrity of the repaired sections is reduced, and it’s not a perfect restoration." He showed them the cup. The signs of repair were obvious; the patterns and the inscribed Magic Array on the ceramic surface were now blurred and jumbled at the seams. He had actually used the simple regression effect from Feuerbach’s Reversing Beam.

Jansen was the most intrigued. "But when the main structure shatters, isn’t the Magic Circuit destroyed along with it? How does it still activate?"

"It’s simple. The Magic Array is on the ceiling of the top floor," Rorschach said, showing them the array drawn on the bottom of the cup, confident that no one present could fully comprehend it.

"Generally speaking, the top of the tower is less susceptible to attack, especially from within the tower itself, where damage tends to be lateral. When the Magic Array on the top floor activates, it will attempt to reshape the tower’s body. External attacks are handled by the two barriers I showed you earlier. To be safer, we should inscribe arrays on both the top and bottom floors, which would also increase the repair speed, but I’m not sure if a bottom-floor array would conflict with the Energy Gathering Array."

"Indeed." Jansen was stroking his beard again. He had been staring at it for a long time but couldn’t make heads or tails of it. When Rorschach was looking at the Energy Gathering Array, Jansen hadn’t let him use pen and paper, so now he was too embarrassed to ask to copy it. "Well, I’ll be. Rorschach Mage, you’ve saved young Bart at least a thousand Gold Coins in design fees with this!"

Bart felt a little embarrassed at this and was about to say something, but Rorschach cut in with a startling statement. "If I return to Bayern in the future, I can continue to upgrade the defenses for Bart’s Town Mage Tower."

’He had no other motive, of course.’ The young mage had already made up his mind. In the future, before applying any buffs to his own Mage Tower, he would test them all on Bart’s tower first. Congratulations to Mr. Bart for unwittingly joining the "Rorschach Pioneer Program"!

After the demonstration with the simple model was complete, it was time to scale the design up for the tower. According to Jansen’s engineering experience, there were several ways to implement it. In the end, they unsurprisingly chose the budget version: installing the same set of Magic Arrays on each floor and linking them in parallel.

As for how to inlay and wire the Magic Circuits, they needed Jansen’s guidance in addition to Rorschach’s design. He was very experienced in matters like embedding metal wires and inlaying gemstones for the nodes. To ensure the construction went without a hitch, the group spent two days drawing up a complete set of wiring diagrams.

Amelia also lent a hand during this time. "Of all my courtly lessons, the only ones I enjoy besides horsemanship are painting." Although it was a gross underutilization of her talents, she at least picked up the drafting tools and mastered the basic drawing conventions right away.

The foreman inspected their finished work, calculated the required materials, and then made a good suggestion. "I recommend you draw up a second copy. If this system runs well, other Town Mages might be interested in this Protective Array."

"In that case, I’ll authorize you, Bart. You can pitch it to our other colleagues. How about we split the profits fifty-fifty?" Rorschach said nonchalantly. The entire system was based on publicly known and widespread Magic constructs anyway. In fact, besides the Blue Light Barrier, it didn’t have any other measures specifically targeting mages.

Bart didn’t want to take advantage of his friend. "What nonsense are you talking about? Seventy-thirty, with you getting the seventy, sounds more like it."

The main structure of the building was completed in just three days. Firstly, the single-tower structure was simple, and many identical buildings existed throughout the Kingdom, so the Dwarves were already very familiar with the process. Secondly, they recycled a lot of the building materials, and Rorschach even reshaped unusable rubble, saving a lot of time. Finally, with two mages on site, they were as effective as a crane, stacking up the layers with incredible speed.

Installing the Magic Arrays, on the other hand, took a bit more time. Fortunately, they had cut out all the extras, like the "Arcane Garden" with its mini-ecosystem, the "Observatory" for playing pretend astrologer, and the "Binding Room" for imprisoning dangerous entities. Plus, no rooms required permanently solidified Magic.

"Mr. Jansen, I’d like to have a word with you." Aside from the Dwarves slacking off on the first day of construction, Rorschach was very satisfied with the speed and progress, so he figured he could be a potential client for Jansen.

Jansen, who hadn’t called the young man "kid" since the second day, saw how serious he was and straightened up himself. "Rorschach Mage, what can I do for ya?"

Rorschach inquired about the construction team’s rates and mentioned that he might need a "true Mage Tower" built in the near future.

"A true Mage Tower!" the Dwarf engineer exclaimed, repeating it as he rubbed his hands together. "Do you know what a true Mage Tower entails? It’s a whole different beast from this little blockhouse we’re buildin’ now."

"Of course. And I have many special requirements." If the old hands from the Alchemy Department couldn’t come to Bayern, then Rorschach would need to find a builder for his new Transmutation Dust Collector.

He didn’t want to entrust the task to a secretive organization like the "Mason Brotherhood," so hiring Dwarves (though not necessarily Jansen) to construct the facility was a better choice.

"How far in the future are we talkin’?"

"Maybe six months, maybe a year." Rorschach couldn’t say for sure. His investments in Bayern had yet to mature. Of course, looking at it from another angle, his assets weren’t limited to just money; the manpower and resources he could mobilize were also considerable.

Jansen immediately pulled out a black-covered notebook and quickly wrote down his contact address. "Rorschach Mage, you’ve got real skill. I’m willing to take this job. When the day comes that you need me, you can send a letter to this address."

He tore out the page with the address. Rorschach quickly bowed to accept it. Unsurprisingly, it was in the Empire’s Northern Lands. Just to be safe, Rorschach asked one last question: "Can it be delivered via the Guild’s teleportation service?"

"Of course, no problem!" Instead of a handshake, Jansen extended his left fist and bumped it against Rorschach’s.

The Mage Tower’s facade was complete and its roof sealed. In a sense, this type of building, found throughout the Empire, was a symbol of the Imperial Capital’s might. The one in Wertzburg had temporarily fallen, but now it stood tall once more—newer and grander than before, continuing its watch over the entire city.

The next step was the interior decoration. Rorschach had no interest in it, nor was his help needed any longer. It was time to set off for the Holy Kingdom.

"When will we see you again?"

"It could be soon, or it could be a while." Rorschach wasn’t sure how much longer he would need at the Tower of Stars. Once he finished the project at hand, he could at best make it back in time for Valuva High Master’s final exams. But now he had new problems to solve. The Reversing Beam, Small Decomposition Skill, and Divine Exorcism Technique were not yet truly complete, and it would be more beneficial to research them at the Tower of Stars and consult with the Great Mages he knew there.

Amelia chided Bart while blaming herself. "We’ve kept you so busy, we never even invited you to enjoy the mountains and lakes of Bayern. Besides hunting and fishing, you should have at least seen one of the Kingdom’s operas."

"I did have a lot to take care of upon arriving in Bayern, but thankfully, the trip was not in vain. It was a great honor just to attend the wedding of my friend and a Princess. Farewell."

Rorschach first took a carriage to the provincial capital, then boarded an Airship bound for the Holy Kingdom.