Building A Business Empire From Scratch In Another World-Chapter 195 : Frostborne Vault

In the heart of the chamber, silence hung thick like a heavy fog, wrapping around stone walls and pressing down on weary lungs.

It was the kind of quiet that felt almost oppressive, as if it were trying to smother any spark of creativity.

Scattered across a long oak table were ink-stained papers, their edges curled from spilled candle wax,remnants of late nights spent in fervent discussion.

The air was heavy with the scent of singed parchment mingling with the sharp tang of spent mana crystals, leaving an unsettling metallic taste lingering at the back of one's throat.

Dozens of artisans surrounded the table, their shoulders drooping under the weight of fatigue.

Runesmiths rubbed at their wrists, where faint glows from etched glyph dust still clung stubbornly to their fingers.

Blacksmiths sat with soot-streaked arms crossed over chests broad as anvils, while alchemists hunched over notes, eyes glassy from countless sleepless nights.

Just last week, heated debates over the Emberheart Stove had nearly torn this very chamber apart,shouted voices echoing off stone walls.

Chairs overturned in passionate dispute about whether rune-stabilized flames qualified as "cooking by sorcery" or simply "cooking by fire."

Some had left muttering threats to abandon the project altogether.

The survivors carried that exhaustion like battle scars, slumped in seats like soldiers after a hard-fought war.

And then Felix Morningstar stepped forward, a whirlwind of energy unbothered by the somber atmosphere.

With a dramatic flourish, he unfurled a fresh blueprint across the table.

The crackle of parchment echoed through the chamber like thunder breaking a tense silence.

Nixie groaned audibly and dragged her hands down her face. "Oh no. Not again."

Clair sat across from her, gripping her quill like a sword ready for battle; her eyes narrowed as if preparing for war.

Ink smudges stained her fingertips, evidence she hadn't yet recovered from filling three notebooks during Felix's last presentation.

Felix flashed a grin full of sharp edges and reckless confidence. Updates are released by novel•fire.net

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began with flair, "I present to you… *the Frostborne Vault*."

As he rolled out the parchment further, it revealed an intricate design: a tall cabinet made of silver and glass adorned with layered runic arrays that resembled concentric shields.

Crystalline conduits branched through it like veins filled with ice, converging in a central lattice where containment fields nestled together with surgical precision.

For what felt like an eternity, no one moved.

Finally, Master Keldrin leaned closer,the old man's monocle nearly shattering under strain during previous debates,and whispered reverently as if afraid to disturb this vision before him.

"By the Twelve Towers… is this… a preservation chamber?"

**Heresy in Silver and Frost**

Felix tapped the central diagram with two fingers, his grin stretching wider than ever.

"This isn't just any preservation chamber,it's a self-regulating, mana-powered refrigeration unit that can maintain precise internal temperatures indefinitely. No ice needed. No spoilage and definitely no frost mages on retainer!"

Suddenly, the room erupted into chaos.

Goran, the oldest of the blacksmiths, slammed his meaty fist on the table, causing it to groan under the impact.

His arms were thicker than some men's torsos, and his apron was still smeared with soot from a long day's work.

"You're telling me this… box stays cold without ice?" His voice was rough as gravel, laced with disbelief. "That's not invention...that's heresy!"

Felix raised an eyebrow, unfazed by Goran's outburst. "Only if you refuse to understand thermodynamic inversion."

He gestured toward a rune cluster drawn on the Vault's interior wall.

"Look here! Modified Frostbloom runes arranged in a double-layered lattice. They don't create cold; they absorb heat and draw it inward before channeling it out through these dissipation glyphs along the outer shell."

Runesmith Jorvik leaned forward until his nose nearly brushed against the blueprint, eyes wide as he traced the layered curves with trembling fingers.

"It's a closed loop," he muttered in awe. "The heat isn't destroyed,it's redirected... controlled."

"Exactly!" Felix exclaimed, triumph ringing in his voice.

"Mana crystals slotted at the nexus act like capacitors,they store excess thermal energy and release it in stable waves. The hotter it gets inside, the harder those runes work to expel that heat outward! Perfect equilibrium."

Keldrin blinked slowly as his monocle slid down his nose. "You've created… a perpetual cooling system."

Nixie piped up dryly, unimpressed: "So it's just a magical box that eats heat?"

Felix spread his hands wide with enthusiasm. "In layman's terms? Yes!"

Clair scribbled furiously with violent strokes, ink splattering across her notes as she muttered to herself: "Perpetual cooling... energy transfer... Gods help us...I'm going to need another notebook!"

Torvin the

stocky blacksmith whose shoulders could block out lantern light, snorted derisively and jabbed a calloused finger at Felix's elegantly scrawled materials list.

"Frostforged silver? Voidglass? You want half a noble's ransom for one of these Vaults! Do you think we're made of coin?"

Felix's grin was unwavering as he leaned forward, his excitement palpable.

"It's necessary," he declared, his voice steady.

"Regular metals can't withstand the extreme temperature fluctuations we're dealing with. Frostforged silver maintains its ductility even under stress, while Voidglass prevents mana interference and guarantees stability."

Runesmith Ulric's eyes widened in awe as he traced the intricate crystalline arrays before him.

"These aren't just ordinary conduits," he breathed, his fingers trembling slightly. "Each crystal is meticulously tuned to resonate at a precise frequency. If even one is misaligned..."

Felix cut him off with a sharp nod. "The containment field destabilizes. In the best-case scenario, the contents turn into solid ice in an instant; in the worst case, the loop collapses and the Vault releases its energy in a catastrophic explosion."

Nixie's face went pale as she stared at the sketch like it might leap off the parchment and explode.

"Wait… are you saying this thing can actually explode?"

"Only if mishandled," Felix replied calmly, tapping a smaller glyph cluster sketched in the margins for emphasis.

"But don't worry! Failsafes are built into the lattice structure. If something goes wrong, excess energy simply vents outward as harmless cold mist."

"Harmless?" Clair's voice sliced through the tension like a blade. She thrust her ink-stained quill toward him, eyes wide with disbelief. "Define 'harmless.'"

Felix shrugged nonchalantly. "The room might frost over a bit,nothing lethal."

Goran grunted from his corner of the table, crossing his arms defiantly. "Better frost than fire."

Master Keldrin sagged into his seat, monocle slipping down his nose as he spoke almost reverently.

"This isn't mere preservation; this is harnessing entropy itself."

An electric silence fell over them,a moment so heavy that it felt like time had stopped altogether,as realization dawned across every face in the chamber.

Goran clenched his fists tightly together. "We wouldn't need those northern ice convoys anymore!"

Jorvik's lips curled into an eager grin as he played with glowing runes beneath his fingertips.

"Merchants could transport perishables across entire empires!"

Keldrin's voice dropped to a hushed intensity that commanded attention.

"Famine-stricken provinces could store their harvests through winter! Cities could stockpile resources against sieges!"

Nixie, who had been doodling an oddly shaped cake on Clair's notes, suddenly perked up with curiosity sparkling in her eyes.

"Wait! Does this mean I could keep cake fresh… forever?"

The room turned to stare at her incredulously.

Felix chuckled softly, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Yes, Nixie. Forever cake."

Clair's head thunked against the table in disbelief. "Gods help us. That is revolutionary!"

But the moment of awe was fleeting, quickly replaced by a storm of counterarguments that erupted like a volcano.

Torvin slammed his fist on the table, frustration etched across his face.

"Only one setting? You think all food stores the same? Some need to be chilled, while others demand a deep freeze!"

With calm precision, Felix unrolled a second parchment, revealing his grand vision.

"Multi-tier controls! Adjustable runic dials linked to Frostbloom clusters. Wine at ten degrees, dairy perfectly chilled, and meat frozen solid as stone,all with just a turn of the dial."

Ulric raised an eyebrow skeptically. "And what stops someone from turning their glass jars into shards of ice?"

"Limiter runes," Felix replied confidently. "These are calibrated against container durability,overcooling isn't possible unless someone actively sabotages the system."

Keldrin leaned back in thought, folding his hands together. "What about mana costs?"

"One mid-grade crystal powers this Vault for half a year," Felix declared firmly.

"The inversion loop recycles energy efficiently; the expenditure is minimal compared to the benefits!"

Jorvik leaned forward eagerly, eyes gleaming with excitement. "Elegant! Economical! Efficient!"

Nixie's hand shot up like an eager student in class. "Hypothetical question: What if,say..someone decided to put a dragon egg inside?"

The room fell silent as all eyes turned to her.

Felix took a deep breath before answering. "Failsafes vent excess energy; worst case scenario, the Vault releases a cold burst...frost across the chamber and nothing more."

Clair raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Nothing more?"

Felix spread his hands wide in mock innocence. "Define harmful."

Goran rumbled from his seat like thunder overhead. "Still better than fire."

The debate raged on for hours,a whirlwind of calculations involving runes and ratios that danced through the air like sparks from an open flame.

Blacksmiths argued over alloy integrity while alchemists theorized about spoiled reagents; engineers clamored for practical testing protocols as every word of Felix's blueprint was dissected and debated.

Finally, Master Keldrin stood up, trembling hands resting on the table as he surveyed the room before locking eyes with Felix.

"Felix," he said slowly but with conviction in his voice, "this… this is no simple appliance you've created; it's nothing short of miraculous."

A wolfish grin spread across Felix's face as he leaned closer to share another secret: "Wait until you see the self-cleaning enchantment!"

The room erupted once more, chairs scraping against the floor and voices clashing like thunder.

Nixie buried her face in her hands, a mix of frustration and despair.

"We're never leaving this chamber, are we?" she lamented, her voice muffled but filled with resignation.

Clair, ink smudging down her wrist from frantic note-taking, muttered under her breath.

"At this rate, we'll invent an entirely new language by dawn!"

Outside the chamber, the stars glimmered coldly in the night sky, silent witnesses to the heated debates of Astheria's brightest minds.

They were grappling with the future of food, wealth, and survival,one rune, one crystal, one impossible dream at a time.