A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 410 Martin's Troubles

A spring breeze was blowing along the riverbank when a young couple strolled along the Duma River, a tributary of the Kempson River, with a small bird of unknown species perched on the man's shoulder.

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

After breakfast, it should have been precious time for him and Hannah to spend together, basking in the spring sunshine and relaxing before starting their internship.

An unpleasant smell permeated the area near the river.

"It's all sewage from coking coal plants and steel mills. Professor Andrei said that new technologies will be introduced at the sewage outlets, and that will improve things." Hannah didn't seem to care much; in fact, the place where she was interning inevitably had all sorts of smells.

Martin wanted to hear what Hannah was saying, but he didn't want to hear it. Things like "sulfides are released into the gaseous plane after combustion" and "sulfuric acid is produced after oxidation" required knowledge of alchemy, which Martin unfortunately didn't have.

He was feeling conflicted. He wanted to hear more about magic from Hannah, but he didn't want to hear her calling him "Teacher Andre" or "Student William" all the time.

Hannah became increasingly confident, and sometimes she would excitedly perform little magic tricks for Martin, who would seem deflated but still force himself to offer praise.

The feelings were subtle, and Martin found himself having many thoughts that made him ashamed.

Noticing her companion's silence, Hannah changed the subject: "How's your long report? I think it's fantastic, more interesting than anything in the newspaper. And much better than your little poems." Hannah couldn't bear to tell Martin how awful his prized poetry was.

Martin kicked a small stone and shoved it into the sulfurous, rotten-egg-smelling river: "Don't even mention it. The editor-in-chief accepted the manuscript but didn't publish it. He just told me to keep working hard."

"Is that considered praise?"

"Who knows? More likely it's just sarcastic remarks. That old guy's a psychopath!"

Hannah echoed Martin's words, "Yes, yes, my boss is also a difficult old shrew. Fortunately, our internship ends in a month. Only Professor Andre is patient. I heard that Master Rorschach is also very easygoing and is our peer."

Still Andrei, still Andrei Martin was a little irritated. Reason told him that he shouldn't take out his irritation on the other person, so he unconsciously touched his pendant.

Hannah noticed Martin's movements; now that she had learned Arcane Vision, she discovered that the pendant around Martin's neck emitted a strong aura.

Upon closer inspection, the pendant is actually a delicate little metal box. Through the openwork, you can see that inside is a small glass bottle containing a clump of dark red, viscous substance. This doesn't look good.

"What is this?" Hannah couldn't help but ask. She wasn't trying to control Martin, but she was worried that he might go astray in order to gain the ability to cast spells and collect some dangerous magical items.

Upon entering the magical world, Hannah breaks out in a cold sweat, realizing that all the rituals she had learned in the club before were wrong—thankfully.

Martin gripped the pendant tighter, unsure how to explain himself. Rorschach demanded absolute secrecy, and telling Hannah was out of the question.

Fortunately, at this moment, Gested Gez began to chirp. After it made a racket at the air for a while, the two witnessed bubbles rising from the riverbank, and then a water creature named Andrei crawled out.

After getting ashore, Andrei shook his hair and body; whether it was the magic or not, he was instantly dry. However, he had clearly choked on water: "Cough cough cough, Mage Caroline's portal isn't ready yet."

He stood in front of the young man and woman, a delighted smile on his face: "Ha, you two are together."

The subtle remark made Martin and Hannah blush, but the instigator was completely unaware. Andrei scratched his head to make sure his hair was completely dry, then ordered the two ambiguous individuals, "Come with me to the Mage Tower."

"Including me?" Martin asked, somewhat uncertainly.

"Including, Master Rorschach specifically asked for you."

The three entered through the central tower of the sinkhole and went deep into a door that no other employees used. The door's decoration style was distinctly different from the rest of the tower, with a matte metallic finish and intricate patterns.

Andrei placed his hand on the door, and a mysterious light illuminated the path. Only after the frosted surface turned completely mirrored did he push it open, revealing another door inside.

"Welcome to the Tower within a Tower." Andrei led the way, and after pushing open the second door, they entered a bright and spacious hall. Martin noticed that the hall's vaulted ceiling was divided into six sections by supporting beams, with different stars distributed on them, each corresponding to two doors on the two floors below.

The size of the entire hall was definitely too large for the central tower of the steel plant to contain, and the distribution of the other doors did not conform to the original tower layout.

In other words, all the spaces have been disrupted and pieced together here.

Another door opened, letting in murky river water. Mage Caroline appeared inside, but she was much more elegant than Andrei, who had climbed ashore. The water kept a certain distance from her, and with a wave of her hand, all the backflowing water obediently returned behind the door, leaving only the sound of water echoing in the hall.

boom!

"You absolutely, absolutely must not open this door to the Third Palace. The passageway isn't ready yet," Caroline warned.

Led by Andrei, everyone entered a pitch-black room. It wasn't that there was no light source, but rather that the walls were made of black, somewhat translucent stone. Silver threads were embedded between what appeared to be naturally formed cracks and gaps. However, looking at the whole thing, one could see that these "natural patterns" were part of a magic array.

Rorschach waits for the test subjects in the "isolation room".

Five prototypes of the "magic-suppressing device" were placed in the center of the room, forming a "large array" as an energy source. Rorschach also prepared a large basket of passivation and transmutation dust.

"Everyone's here, let's begin." Rorschach didn't explain much to Hannah and Martin, but first asked Caroline and Hannah to cast a spell that could be sustained.

Caroline chose [Gaze Through the Veil], and a floating mirror appeared before her, without any thickness. Hannah obediently selected [Light].

"Please come to the center of the equipment." Rorschach "lured you into the trap," then fed the materials and started the first prototype simulator.

The metal sphere began to spin, faster and faster, raising concerns that it might detach from its base. Furthermore, its surface began to glow, and the magic within the space stirred restlessly.

The mirror summoned by Caroline rippled, and Hannah's sphere of light lost its stable shape.

However, turning on the machine did not interrupt the spellcasting. Rorschach, Caroline, and even Andrei could resist interference and continue to mobilize magic in this state.

One wasn't enough, so he used two. Rorschach activated the second machine. These five machines weren't simply stacked together; Rorschach considered the vast differences in size and internal crystal arrangement between his machines and those manufactured by the Empire, and chose to create five machines with different crystal arrangements. When all the machines were activated, they would interfere with common spellcasting frequencies.

Caroline's [Gaze Veil] shattered first, while Hannah's orb of light failed when the fourth machine was activated.

When all five machines were running and the transmutation dust was being consumed rapidly, all the spellcasters looked grim. Even Ghez on Martin's shoulder began to stir. He held the little bird in his hand and tried to soothe it by stroking its feathers.

Within the small "magic tsunami" in the room, only Martin remained calm, completely unable to understand why everyone else looked so pained.

"What's going on with you guys?"

The others asked in unison, "What's wrong with you?"

(End of this chapter)