Mage? Magic Engineer!-Chapter 106 - 103: Aren’t There Too Many Mothers of Success?

Chapter 106: Chapter 103: Aren’t There Too Many Mothers of Success?

The core area of this laboratory was the Magic Array, which was protected by a huge, hemispherical Crystal Cover. Its base was connected to a series of circuits. The circuits weren’t fed with electricity, but with a massive amount of Ether.

Before Rorschach solved the problem with the Steam Engine, Kano had served as the input source for the Ether, and it was extremely unstable.

"Such a huge Crystal Cover? You’re truly incredible, Master." The whole cover was white with a faint lavender hue, indicating the presence of trace amounts of iron and manganese.

"Of course. I found a massive, raw crystal of the highest transparency and then fashioned this using the [Stone Shaping Skill]."

’Right, my brain didn’t make the connection for a moment. Crystal is a type of stone, after all. If sand from a Sub-plane could be shaped, then of course a crystal could be too.’

"But what’s this cover for?" Rorschach focused his gaze. The inactive Magic Array was unremarkable on its own, but a patterned Magic Aura flowed across the surface of the crystal shell. It had clearly been enchanted with Magic, or had another Magic Array etched into it.

"You’ll find out in a moment. Paulina, is the power plant downstairs at full capacity?"

Paulina checked the instrument in front of her. "It is. All systems normal."

Kano nodded. "Good. Rorschach, step back a bit. Engage."

BOOM!

The instant Ether flowed into the Secret Silver Alloy Wires and activated the Magic Array, the Crystal Cover erupted with a violent, dazzling Spiritual Light in Rorschach’s Detect Magic vision.

GAH! Caught off guard by the eruption of Spiritual Light, Rorschach felt as if his "Secret Silver Alloy" eyes had just been flash-banged. Tears streamed down his face involuntarily, and his vision only slowly returned.

Kano hadn’t expected Rorschach’s reckless move and had forgotten to warn him in time. "Kid, are you that sensitive to bursts of Ether? Don’t use [Arcane Vision] on the equipment."

"Okay, I’ll remember that. And I’ll *never* forget it." Chastened by the "flashbang," Rorschach learned his lesson. Still, he hadn’t understood what the explosion inside the crystal shell was. "What happened in there?"

The Crystal Cover’s circuits were still active, and a grayish-white powder was slowly drifting down inside.

"Transmuting Dust. In most cases, it erupts when a Teleportation Array is activated. If this dangerous crystalline powder were to touch us, we’d be done for. If it touched anything in here, the lab would be toast."

"Anyone who touches the nasty stuff will undergo an uncontrollable, irreversible transformation, or even die instantly."

"That’s why we made a protective cover and constructed a series of Magic Arrays. When the Transmuting Dust gets close, they force it to rapidly release as much of its contained mass-energy as possible. Once all the Ether is expelled from the crystals, they decay into the ash you see now."

"So the experiment failed?" Rorschach remembered what Deryats had said when he’d led him on a tour of the Symbolic Realm: the Main Plane and the Star Realm were separated by Transmuting Dust. The fact that Transmuting Dust had erupted from the Magic Array clearly meant the other end of the teleportation channel was in the wrong place.

"Yes. This research has been nothing but failure, failure, failure..." Paulina was still in a funk. It made one wonder if, on top of the PTSD from arguing with Pascal, she was also being affected by the gravitational pull of the Main Plane’s moon. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Paulina recorded the results of the test, including the Magic Array’s Ethereal Flux, the spatial distortion rate measured by the adjacent instruments, and the experimental phenomena. "Accompanied by a brilliant, brief, concentrated flash of Magic Aura, which nearly blinded the junior apprentice."

’You’re not actually going to record it like that, are you, Senior Sister?’ Rorschach turned to look at Kano, only to find him already lost in sketching and scribbling.

After she finished her notes, Paulina walked over to the core device. "Lend a hand. This Crystal Pot has suppression circuits and other protections; you can’t use the [Floating Skill] on it."

At his senior sister’s command, Rorschach immediately helped her carefully move the Crystal Cover. It was indeed a bit heavy.

The Magic Array was etched onto a Metal Disc that could be detached from the base. Paulina carefully removed the Magic Array Disc, along with the decayed powder of the Transmuting Dust, and collected all of the powder.

"We’ve already measured the net weight of the disc. Now weigh the disc and the powder together. You know how to use a balance, right?"

"Of course I do, Senior Sister." ’Are you kidding me? While it’s true I only used electronic scales in high school, I still learned how to use the classic, retro models.’

Rorschach picked up the tweezers to handle the weights, earning a series of nods from his senior sister. "Back in the day, that scatterbrained senior brother of yours just grabbed them with his bare hands."

’Why does that sound so weird, Senior Sister?’ Rorschach grumbled internally. After weighing it, he reported the data. Paulina subtracted the weight of the small collection dish to get the net weight of the powder.

Combining this with the previous data, Rorschach roughly estimated that they could fit it to an exponential curve.

"We’ve been constantly adjusting the altitude of the Magic Array’s target location. The mass of the Transmuting Dust that teleports over generally increases rapidly, then hits a plateau. Logically, that should mean we’re close to the Star Realm, but the teleportation altitude and energy required to break through that plateau always ends up approaching infinity."

The next step was Master Kano’s turn. He first used cleaning magic on the Metal Disc where the Magic Array was etched to ensure all impurities were removed. Then he directly reshaped one side, molding the next Magic Array to be tested.

Rorschach noticed that the lab notebook in his senior sister Paulina’s hands contained hundreds of Magic Array diagrams.

"Has the team tested all of these?" ’This... Is this just brute-forcing? Blind luck? Am I studying Magic or materials science?’

"Initially, our research was just about reproducing and verifying, one by one, every Magic Array from the Old Empire Era and before that was recorded as being able to create a channel to the Star Realm. We’ve tested records from the Magic Guild’s archives, discoveries from the Dwarf Underground Palaces in the Northern Continent, and even array formations from the system of the Shanshi people."

Kano explained as he worked, the new circuits on the verge of completion. "But without exception, all the old Magic Arrays failed. So, our research shifted to comparing and analyzing them."

"We summarized the various ways these series of arrays depicted circuits for space, positioning, and channel maintenance. From that, we built our own system and have been experimenting continuously. Our current achievement is that we can summon Transmuting Dust from the edge of our sky."

They installed it, tested the circuit pathways, checked for any shorts or breaks, and then closed the cover again.

"Rorschach, try not to get blinded again," Kano reminded him before engaging the switch.

Rorschach didn’t try to focus his gaze this time, merely resting his eyes normally on the shell.

This time, he saw it clearly. In a fraction of a second, a brilliant, colorful powder burst forth. At the same instant, the Crystal Shield’s protective circuits activated, and all the radiance of the Transmuting Dust was released and neutralized, leaving only pale ash behind.

This time, it wasn’t grayish-white, but white with a faint hint of pink—a color that felt very familiar to Rorschach.

The remaining steps were the same as the last round. A simple "steps as above" in the logbook followed by a new set of data signified more back-breaking, mind-numbing, repetitive labor.

As dusk fell, the lights in the lab came on. The three of them had been busy all afternoon, testing a total of six Magic Arrays. Their forms were all largely similar, with only minor adjustments to the positioning circuits.

Rorschach sighed as he flipped through the records, which likely spanned several years. "Failure is the mother of success!" ’The problem,’ he thought, ’is that success has way too many mothers. Enough to form an entire army of them.’

"Well said!" Master Kano was famished. He suggested they go have a meal at the Starlight Torch Tower’s restaurant, his treat.

"My treat." These two simple, powerful, and inspiring words, coming from the mouth of the Great Mage, seemed to have a Magic Power of their own, summoning a travel-worn Pascal from out of nowhere.

However, the words "we’ll have a wrap-up meeting after dinner," combined with a furious glare from Paulina, made Rorschach’s senior brother magically disappear before he could even get a bite to eat.