Mage? Magic Engineer!

Chapter 412: Chapter 409: Martin’s Troubles

A spring breeze swept across the riverbank where a young man and woman strolled along a tributary of the Duma River in Kempson. A small bird of an unknown breed perched on the man’s shoulder.

"There’s a smell of sulfur here, too..." Martin frowned.

After breakfast, this was supposed to be precious time for him and Hanna, a chance to relax in the spring sunlight before starting their internships for the day.

But an unpleasant smell permeated the air near the river.

"It’s all pollution from the coking plant and the Steel Factory. Andre said they’re going to introduce new technology at the discharge outlets, which should improve things." Hanna didn’t seem to mind much; after all, her internship was inevitably filled with all sorts of smells.

Martin had mixed feelings about listening to Hanna. He both wanted to hear what she had to say and didn’t. Things like "sulfides being burned and discharged into the Air Elemental Plane," and "producing sulfuric acid through oxidation." This all required knowledge of Alchemy, which Martin unfortunately lacked.

His feelings were complicated. He wanted Hanna to tell him more about Magic, but he couldn’t stand hearing her constantly mentioning "Andre" and "William."

Hanna was becoming more and more confident. Sometimes she would excitedly perform little Tricks for Martin. Martin, however, felt deflated, but he still had to feign enthusiasm and praise her.

The whole situation felt strange, and Martin found himself having many thoughts he was ashamed of.

Noticing his silence, Hanna changed the subject. "How’s your long-form report coming along? I think it’s fantastic—way more interesting than anything in the newspapers." ’It’s also much better than your little poems.’ Hanna didn’t have the heart to tell Martin just how terrible the poems he was so proud of actually were.

Martin kicked a small stone, sending it into the river that stank of sulfur and rotten eggs. "Don’t even talk about it. The editor-in-chief accepted my draft but won’t run it. He just told me to ’keep up the good work.’"

"So... that’s still praise, I guess?"

"Who knows. It’s more likely just him being passive-aggressive. That old bastard’s a real creep!"

Hanna played along. "Yeah, yeah, my supervisor is a difficult old hag, too. Good thing our internships end in a month. Only Andre is patient. I heard Rorschach Mage is really easygoing, and he’s from our generation..."

’Andre again, always Andre...’ Martin felt a surge of irritation. His rational mind told him he shouldn’t take it out on her, so he subconsciously reached for the pendant around his neck.

Hanna noticed the movement. Now that she had learned Arcane Vision, she could see a dense Spiritual Light emanating from the pendant on Martin’s neck.

Looking closer, she saw the pendant was an exquisite little metal box. Through its filigree, she could see a small glass vial containing a glob of viscous, dark-red substance. ’That didn’t look good.’

"What is that?" Hanna couldn’t help asking. She didn’t want to control Martin, but she was worried that in his desire to gain a Casting Ability, he might stray down a dark path and start collecting dangerous Magic Items.

Hanna would break out in a cold sweat whenever she thought about first entering the Magic World. All the rituals from her old club had been completely wrong. It was a miracle nothing terrible had happened.

Martin clutched the pendant tighter. He didn’t know how to deflect her question. Rorschach Mage had demanded absolute secrecy, which meant he couldn’t tell Hanna either.

Luckily, Gaisde Ges started chirping right then. It squawked at the empty air for a moment before the two of them saw bubbles gurgling at the river’s edge. Then, a waterlogged Andre climbed out.

Once on shore, Andre shook out his hair and body. Whether by Magic or some other means, he was instantly dry. He had clearly swallowed some water, though. "Cough... ahem, Master Caroline’s Teleportation Gate still isn’t calibrated properly..."

He stopped in front of the young couple with a delighted smile. "Ah, so you two are together."

The awkward comment made Martin and Hanna blush, but its source was completely oblivious. Andre scratched his head, checking that his hair was fully dry, and then instructed the blushing pair, "Both of you, come with me. We’re going to the Mage Tower."

"Me too?" Martin asked, uncertain.

"Including you. Rorschach Mage asked for you by name."

...

The trio entered the sinkhole’s Central Tower and went deep inside until they reached a door that no other staff used. The door’s style was markedly different from the rest of the tower’s interior. It was made of a matte metal and covered in intricate patterns.

Andre placed his hand on the door. A mystical Spiritual Light illuminated the circuits on its surface. The entire matte finish transformed into a mirror, and only then did he push it open. There was another door inside.

"Welcome to the tower within the tower," Andre said, leading the way. He pushed open the second door to reveal a bright, spacious hall. Martin noticed the vaulted ceiling was divided by support beams into six sections, each adorned with a different star pattern. Each section corresponded to two doors on the two floors below.

The hall was far too large to possibly fit inside the Steel Factory’s Central Tower, and the arrangement of the other doors didn’t match the original tower’s layout either.

In other words, space itself had been scrambled and stitched together here.

Another door swung open, and a torrent of murky river water poured out. Master Caroline appeared in the doorway. She was far more graceful than the waterlogged Andre had been; the water kept a fixed distance from her. With a wave of her hand, the gushing water obediently retreated back through the doorway, leaving only its sound echoing in the hall.

SLAM!

"You must not, under any circumstances, open this door to the Third Chamber. The passage hasn’t been properly aligned yet," Caroline warned.

Andre led them all into a pitch-black room. It wasn’t that the room lacked a light source; rather, the walls were made of a black, somewhat translucent stone. Silver threads were embedded in what looked like natural cracks and fissures. On closer inspection, however, these "natural patterns" were revealed to be part of a Magic Array.

Rorschach was waiting for the test subjects in the "Isolation Room."

Five prototypes of the "Forbidden Magic Device" were arranged in the center of the room to form a "Grand Array." Rorschach had also prepared a large basket of Dulled Transmuting Dust to serve as a power source.

"Everyone’s here. Let’s begin." Rorschach offered no further explanation to Hanna and Martin, simply asking Caroline and Hanna to cast a sustainable spell.

Caroline chose Gaze Curtain, and a floating, paper-thin mirror appeared before her. Hanna dutifully cast Light Technique.

"Please step into the center of the apparatus," Rorschach said, luring them into his trap. He then fed the materials into the first prototype and activated it.

A metal sphere began to rotate, spinning faster and faster until it seemed it might fly off its base. A radiant glow started to spill from the sphere’s surface, and the Magic Power in the room grew turbulent.

The mirror Caroline had summoned began to ripple, and Hanna’s sphere of light lost its stable form.

However, activating the machine didn’t interrupt their Casting. Rorschach, Caroline, and even Andre were able to resist the interference and continue channeling Magic Power.

’One machine isn’t enough, so let’s try two.’ Rorschach activated the second machine. The five devices weren’t simply a matter of brute force. Considering the vast differences in scale and internal crystal structure between his machines and those made by the Empire, Rorschach had opted to build five machines with different crystal arrangements. When all five were active, they would interfere with the most common Casting frequencies.

Caroline’s Gaze Curtain shattered first. Hanna’s sphere of light fizzled out when the fourth machine was activated.

Once all five machines were running and rapidly consuming the Transmuting Dust, every Caster in the room looked pale and strained. Even Ges, on Martin’s shoulder, grew agitated. Martin took the small bird in his hands, stroking its feathers to calm it.

Amid the miniature "Magic Tsunami" within the room, only Martin remained perfectly at ease. He couldn’t understand why everyone else looked like they were in agony.

"What’s wrong with you guys?"

The others replied in unison, "What’s wrong with *you*?"