A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 341 The Soul Rocket of the Rorschach Takes Flight

With everything prepared, Rorschach entered a meditative and spell-casting state. This was not contradictory, as meditation was one of the steps involved in spellcasting.

The entire process, just as Rorschach had described, was a combination of magic provided by the Tower of the Forest and enlightenment magic. Based on his analysis of the soul, Rorschach had a fundamental grasp of the principles behind both spells. Regardless of whether the hypothesis was correct or not, if the spells derived from it could be implemented, then he'd just do it!

"Let's stand a little further away." Bart's skin felt slightly hot, and he felt a tightness in his chest. This was because the concentration of magic in the environment was continuously rising.

Andrei, whose magical talent was even worse, reacted more severely. His skin was now as red as a boiled shrimp, and blue veins appeared on the whites of his eyes and the surface of his skin.

Bart had to give the recovery scroll to his apprentice for now. The two of them saw snowflake-like crystals once again precipitate in the bathroom space, moving on their own without wind, violently swirling around Rorschach.

Immediately afterwards, crystals not belonging to this world began to obey the spellcaster's commands, falling to the ground in a regular pattern, forming two temporary magic arrays that respectively surrounded Rorschach himself and the universal computing core.

The magic circle lit up, and Rorschach's soul began to leave his body.

"What kind of person do you think Rorschach is?" Bart stood outside the bathroom door, where there were constant sounds and lights, but that didn't stop him and Andrei from drinking tea at the door.

Andrei took a sip of tea; the excessive sugar made him feel a little better from the magical invasion he had just experienced. "Professor Rorschach has changed the lives of our whole family."

"Without him, I would probably need to work at least two jobs in Valuana. My father is still a dockworker, but he has a bad back and can't work for many more years."

Andrei told Bart about the Valois Higher Normal School, and Bart nodded repeatedly: "It seems the Empire is ahead of the curve in this respect."

Can you guys please be quiet?

"Rorschach? Is it over already?" Bart peered inside, but the spellcaster remained seated in the bathtub, eyes closed and motionless. Bart exclaimed in shock, "You've become a ghost?"

{You don't seem to have any good intentions towards me today.} Rorschach wanted to roll his eyes, but he was indeed close to being a ghost right now.

Although spirits cannot interact with matter, they can still interact with magic, so Rorschach is still able to cast spells in his current state. Therefore, Rorschach is using a special [communication spell] to speak with the two of them.

He instructed the two: "The process may take longer and more effort than expected. Please be patient, do not interfere with the ceremony, and do not allow any outside interference."

"I understand, don't worry." Bart yawned and sent his apprentice to refill the teapot.

The reason for extending the time was that Rorschach discovered through introspection that the so-called "impurities" were now evenly mixed into his spiritual body.

Now his spirit body resembles Frankenstein, with patches of impurities of different colors embedded in it. In previous attempts, he could conceal these impurities, but plans can't keep up with changes. In the past few days, as his tolerance for magic suppression has increased, his fusion with the impurities has deepened.

Therefore, expecting it to be excreted naturally seems unrealistic.

How to separate them? "Centrifugal force" probably won't work. In this state, Luo Xia looked up, but his head wasn't the ceiling; instead, it was the vast starry sky and constantly drifting crystal fragments. He thought of his own unique characteristics and decided to take a gamble.

Ascension, ascending rapidly.

This wasn't his first time venturing into the astral plane, but it was the first time he had taken the initiative to ascend.

The first barrier is transmutation dust—as fragments of the divine realm, they have definite physical forms in both the material and symbolic realms, acting like a shield between the world and the astral plane.

If he rushed in rashly, he would definitely be burned by them and cause mutations. However, Rorschach was already an old hand at "dealing" with metamorphic dust. His spirit absorbed more magic power, but instead of expanding as he had tried before, it shrank and turned into blue light, successfully penetrating this layer of fireflies.

The resistance is immense, but we must continue to rise by any means necessary!

He no longer simply isolated the crystals, but attempted to purify them and then absorb that energy as fuel for the leap.

The Rorschach Spirit Rocket is accomplishing a feat, breaking through the transmutation dust and successfully arriving in the astral plane, but it's not enough; it needs to break into the Primal Layer.

Just as I expected!

Luo Xia felt his whole body burning up, as if a scar had been peeled off. He was allowed to enter the Primal Layer. Dotted "trees" spread out before his eyes, and beneath his feet, a pure and immaculate soul slowly rotated and melted like ice under the blazing sun.

Artificial souls are not allowed to enter the Primal Layer. A mysterious will guards it, and has always given Rorschach an exception.

Rorschach wanted to admire the magnificent "Tree of Law" a little longer. He now had a deeper understanding of it, and if he spent more time analyzing one of its branches, he could even obtain a "perfect spell".

He can also see that countless spells are being cast in the world today.

Unfortunately, the artificial soul is being depleted, and Rorschach hasn't forgotten Dryaz's warning that great beings exist here. In short, no further lingering is permitted.

That's enough! He gathered the artificial soul together. With the blue light barrier separating them, this colorless, odorless, and massless fluid was gathered together, no longer evaporating or shrinking, and unable to merge with Rorschach's own spirit.

"Back." He felt like he was holding a ball, and plunged back into his original world. He passed through the clouds, through the spires of the mage tower and several floors, and fell back into the bathroom.

Rorschach didn't notice that a ray of light split off from the endless "Tree of Law" and connected with his soul. It quickly disappeared, but it was indeed there.

Inside the bathroom, under the automatically activated Arcane Vision of the spirit, two magic circles bridged the gap between Rorschach and the core. These circles were not the originals, but rather circuit structures incorporating the Enlightenment spell.

When Rorschach released his grip, the "Soul Sphere" rolled naturally along the bridge formed by the magic circle toward the computing core, gradually merging with the "Metal Sphere".

It seems he doesn't need to use the same "powerful miracle" as the Nine Rings' [Construct Enlightenment Technique], forcibly stuffing his soul into inorganic matter, as light paths lit up on the surface of the metal sphere and the sound of mechanical parts violently reconstructing and meshing came from inside.

"It's done, come in." This time, Rorschach's voice wasn't uttered through magic, but spoken directly.

The clichéd story that Barthes conjectured—"an evil god descends and his offspring destroy the entire city, he loses his beloved wife, travels the world and grows stronger before seeking revenge on his former friend, the fallen demon king"—did not unfold.

Rorschach simply held the ball with a relaxed expression. Although the ball shimmered with magical and intelligent light, it was still just a ball.

"So, will it talk?"

"I think it needs to be connected to a [Communication] array."

Unlike the original inventor, who could only make the core interact with other physical components mechanically, Rorschach was a mage. He modified the interface in the original design, allowing it to directly interact with magical circuits to achieve its functions.

However, he did not intend to hand over the memory containing his own and the soul that had once resided within him to Bart. He had commissioned craftsmen to create three sets of parts and assemble two usable machines; now it was time to utilize the second one.

At its core is the computing unit, the "container" that holds the artificial soul. The outermost part has an interface for inputting raw signals and outputting results. Rorschach designed the spherical shell, with magic-affinity gems inlaid on the outer wall as an interface for connecting with the magic circuit. The inner wall has pre-set circuit structures for several basic spells.

This was commissioned by Rorschach and made by a jeweler, with Rorschach holding the intellectual property rights. Of course, he personally completed the internal routing.

The sphere is coated with a paste mixed with alchemical ink and emulsifier, which serves as both a lubricant and a medium for transmitting magic, before being placed inside a metal sphere.

Both computing cores were operated accordingly. The magic circle, modified from the [Descent Summoning Spell], was pre-installed on the inner wall and connected the two spheres. The one that Rorschach first held became the main unit, while the second sphere was the passenger plane, which would be loaded into Bart's mage tower.

(End of this chapter)