A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 366 seems too urbanized.

Rorschach figured out the general structure of the device.

The front of the airship was where the Chancellor and the Chief Mage had confronted each other, while the heavy equipment was naturally fixed in the middle to balance the weight. When the clone rushed into the crashed airship, the core metal sphere had lost its near-perfect spherical shape. Joseph Rorschach used disintegration magic to cut open the outer shell to investigate.

What he saw were large pieces of oscillating crystal embedded between the onion-like spherical shells. They were arranged in a staggered pattern, and at the very center was a clear crystal lens. It had been "upgraded" to a battle-damaged version and was in pieces, but it was still clear that it had a high-quality configuration when it came out of the factory.

Then came the dense aura of death, forcing Rorschach to head to the scene of the confrontation between the priest and the sorcerer. Seeing Richard was a pleasant surprise, but unfortunately, they couldn't recognize each other at that moment.

"I never expected that the chief mage accompanying the army would be such a necromancy expert. I wonder how much Rick has learned." However, Rorschach quickly thought of the matter of his clones possessing the remains and was speechless for a moment—he was almost the same.

Rorschach, the main body of the Kingdom of Bain, opened a window. He was on the edge of a massive crater, the entire tower clinging to the cliff face. This crater was an abandoned coal and quarry. In this era, the first wave of environmentally conscious people had all died out, and new ones had not yet emerged, so the abandoned open mines were all exposed, like scars on the earth.

However, Jason found it particularly familiar, as similar landscapes were common in the dwarves' territory. He suggested that they could emulate the dwarves and build a new steel mill on the site of the large pit.

Therefore, one can now see blast furnaces built along the repaired cliff face. Supported by the strata, the furnaces can be easily heightened without magical reinforcement, meeting the requirements of the new technology. Rorschach was very satisfied with this.

Not far away, coal mines that were no longer shallow and could be mined from the ground up were now equipped with new steam engines and even magic lamps that would not cause explosions, continuously extracting the "black food" for subsequent industries.

An exhausted little bird flew in, and when it came to face-to-face, Rorschach could sense that his clone had returned. He extended a finger, and magic flowed into the bird's body, restoring the little creature's intelligent eyes. Then, it produced a sticky mess on Rorschach's desk.

Were they living microorganisms? They looked dead. Rorschach disgustedly gathered up the remains of these microorganisms and burned them. The little bird flapped its wings again, exhaling its grayish-white soul, which then burrowed into its body.

So, he's vomiting and having diarrhea! Rorschach brings water and grain to this unfortunate "deliveryman," but the bird, who has been so harmed by humans, is ungrateful and hurriedly flies into the sky.

The mage quickly gathered his memories and calmed his newly merged soul, sketching out the blueprints for the anti-magic device. He didn't need a true replica, since he already possessed [Great Disintegration] and [Reverse Ray]. What he needed was technology to counter "counter-magic." Perhaps he could build a small prototype, solely for verifying countermeasures.

Of course, they are now on the side of the Empire, so it's more important to finish what they have to do first.

"Teacher, you've arrived." Andrei was at the bottom of the pit. After the drainage system was completed at the bottom of this circular pit, he was preparing to build a central tower-shaped building. Andrei hoped to set up a super-large transmutation dust conversion device in the center of the pit.

"Is the relocation going smoothly?"

"The basic cooperation is as follows: there were a total of 26 blast furnaces in the original town, and 7 of them were unwilling to move. Of the 26 furnaces that were willing to cooperate, 5 of them did not reach the average production capacity or were in disrepair. We believed that they were not worth renovating, so we simply assigned the personnel to the new plant and made other arrangements."

Rorschach didn't care much about the seven uncooperative factories. Firstly, there were always small factories in the market that needed to fill in the gaps in their work. Secondly, once economies of scale were achieved, the prices of finished products would be driven down, and these small workshops would collapse in the price war. Apart from Valuana, Rorschach had never seen a consumer market mature and wealthy enough to boast about "small XX, made by a master".

"Okay. The workers in the workshop must be scattered and assigned to various workshops and sections, unless they are master and apprentice. In addition, recruitment should be carried out simultaneously, and each master needs to train new people. We need to conduct research on how many new apprentices to add and fully solicit and take into account the opinions of the experienced masters."

"Okay." Andrei was becoming more and more like a professional secretary. As for whether Luo Xia was a professional street light fixture, that remained to be seen.

At least he's acting with a conscience now. Mr. Hassell negotiated with Kempson's city hall, using the guise of "industrial land" and "royal sponsorship" to buy a large piece of land. Former farmers and cowherds found that their fields, forests, and pastures had been turned upside down by a group of terrifying earth giants, who then built simple prefab houses on the ground.

The former lord, dressed in a top hat and monocle, proudly announced that everyone was now a city dweller!

Both the Empire and Byrne had remnants of serfdom, but with the arrival of the Great Sage Rorschach, Kempson made tremendous progress and immediately abolished serfdom. Their masters joined forces to start a new contraption called the "Human Resources Company," catering to the serfs:

You are free from today! However, my ancestors and I paid money to buy you and your ancestors, so we need to pay back that money.

The old farmer, of course, cried and wailed, "Sir, we have no money! Please pull out my teeth and sell them for money!"

"Why would I ask you to repay me like this? I'm not some kind of demon! Recently, I learned the latest business model from Mr. Hassa from the city." Then, the benevolent man, who had evolved from a lord to the CEO of a human resources company, took out stacks of contracts that the old farmer couldn't understand. It didn't matter if he couldn't write; he just stuck out his thumb, dipped it in ink, and stamped it on the lower right corner.

What? You're a free man? No problem, now the land isn't for you to cultivate anymore. It doesn't grow crops or pasture anymore, but houses! If you want a big, beautiful house and to become a noble city dweller, sign this contract. Just go work at the newly opened steel mill next door for a few decades and the house will be yours.

After the labor contract, which is up to 50 years, is signed, it becomes a purchase contract, which includes a line in small print: "The buyer will obtain the right to reside in this property for 60 years."

It wasn't that Rorschach and the trading company were stingy; to rush the construction, aside from the timber and steel structural supports, the walls were all mass-produced using the [Clay Shaping] magic array. Don't ask about sturdiness; surpassing the mud houses built by farmers is a victory in itself.

Therefore, 60 years is the warranty period. If a problem occurs, as long as the homeowner survives, they are entitled to after-sales service.

In short, the underlying reason is that the temperature in Byrne rose by more than 1 degree Celsius in winter.

The new residents marveled at the spacious house, touching the pristine whitewashed walls, and the gas stove that burned gas instead of firewood, and the readily available water. They said everything was great, except for the lack of a cowshed, making it inconvenient to raise livestock.

The despicable former lord, now the boss, thought to himself: Isn't it enough to house a family of livestock?

Watching the urbanized residents happily move in and go to work, Luo Xia pressed his pounding heart to his left chest and sighed: "It's still a tiny bit more advanced than sheep eating people." What? Besides the original workshop employees, all the other new employees are temporary workers? Don't worry about the details.

Even if the laws of the Kingdom of Bain are imperfect, Rorschach can guarantee that if there is a conflict between everyone and the person in charge of paying wages, the owner of the brokerage firm will be arrested, sacrificed to appease public anger.

In the afternoon, the inauguration ceremony of "Kempson New" was held in a low-key manner. In addition to old acquaintances Andre and Mr. Hassai, there were also the heads of the three factories. Among them, the head of the new steel plant was the former vice president of the Mining and Metallurgy Association. As for the president, he had recently felt that he was getting old and his energy was not enough, so he happily retired at the age of 42.

Rorschach's first words were: "Reliable sources say that the Imperial army has utterly defeated the Church army in Andorella, and all the paladins in the northern part of the kingdom have been wiped out."

(End of this chapter)