A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 432 Gas Summoning Technique

The end of the civil war met the expectations of the vast majority of "Smurfs" for peace and stability, laying a stable foundation for the further development of the tribe in the future. The jets of water and the flesh and blood picked up by the little people will soon become "delicacies" at the celebration feast.

The elder invited the two to a banquet, but Rorschach decisively declined.

"We still have some time before we head back. Could you come with me to take a look upstairs?" he invited Caroline.

"certainly."

The two used the [Levitation] spell again. Rorschach used the [Air Cannon] to propel the air beneath him upwards into the thinner atmosphere. After sprinting at high speed for about fifteen minutes, Rorschach could feel his body gradually getting colder, and the effect of the [Underwater Breathing] spell was fading.

The thinner the oxygen in the atmosphere, the less the spell can enrich enough for breathing, and it does not allow other gases to enter, making it increasingly difficult for Rorschach and Caroline to breathe.

When he was nearing his limit and the figures below looked like ants, Rorschach stopped sprinting. He no longer spoke, but instead used [Communication] to communicate with Caroline: "Could you please create a space where the air doesn't circulate?"

This was not difficult for Caroline, especially in a sufficiently spacious space containing only gas, without the interference of condensed matter. Soon, a small, transparent rectangular space appeared between the two, isolating the gas from the inside and outside.

Rorschach took a compressed, gray, cylindrical object, like a candle, from his ring and handed it to Caroline, asking her to place it in the isolated space and light it. Caroline did so, and the "candle" emitted a bright light and billowed smoke, which, upon closer inspection, had a yellowish-green tinge.

"Be careful, there might be a risk of explosion."

The candle burned for a while, and as soon as Rorschach finished speaking, a sudden burst of flames erupted, instantly shattering the ether membrane that isolated the space, and Caroline almost lost her balance.

"What is that?" Caroline mistook it for Rorschach's candle exploding.

"Generate a candle that requires phlogiston." In reality, it was an oxygen candle that Rorschach had hastily concocted. Although his entry into the air elemental plane was impulsive, it was not a rash intrusion without preparation. In preparation for the situation where the [Underwater Breathing] spell would not work, he prepared the oxygen candle in advance.

The hastily made oxygen candle, when the raw material burns, not only releases oxygen but also produces chlorine, a deadly byproduct, which is the source of the yellow-green color. Although Rorschach doesn't have barium oxide to absorb chlorine and can mix it in, the wizard has an "air filter bubble" to block harmful gases!

Of course, the mage's [underwater breathing] also works, so this time the oxygen candle was used to verify one of Rorschach's conjectures. He noticed that when the pterosaur herd fled, they would fall after reaching a certain extreme altitude, and he guessed that the oxygen was thinner in the upper layers.

Unlike the situation where the altitude of the main plane increases and the atmospheric concentration decreases, the stratification effect of various gases in the gas element plane is more obvious. They are currently in an environment where light gases are predominant.

If another gasbag is placed in, its volume increases, indicating that the gas in the ether membrane space has decreased. Rorschach deduced from the short burning time and rapid explosion that part of the atmosphere is now hydrogen with low explosive limits. So, regardless of whether the remaining gas is helium or a gas specific to this plane, it must have superior properties:

It is non-flammable and much lighter than air in the prime material plane.

Rorschach finally explained to Caroline what the series of "alchemy experiments" had been about, and Caroline suddenly understood: "So the gas here can be used on airships."

"Yes, it can greatly improve the safety of airships." Rorschach then remembered that his teacher, Caroline, was born in Valois. He wasn't sure if Caroline knew how much the Empire relied on airships, so he added, "Of course, their main use is still in production."

There is a clear boundary between the oxygen-scarce top layer and the shallow layer where the "Smurfs" live—the hydrogen in the top layer and the oxygen in the shallow layer merge here. When the charge generated by the friction of the gas clouds is released and ignites the mixture, a large amount of water vapor is generated. So, from below, you can see the white clouds in the boundary layer, while the top layer leads straight to the starry sky.

The lack of oxygen was unpleasant, so after completing their verification, the two immediately submerged and returned to the vicinity of the sewage outlet. Regarding the transportation method, Rorschach had an idea: "Teacher, you taught me the principles of [Water Creation], right?"

The other party immediately understood Rorschach's intention: "You want to draw a parallel between summoning water from the water elemental plane and extracting light air from here?"

"That's right." The pressure in the gas element plane is already lower than that in the main plane. Moreover, light gas is at an even lower pressure level. If we were to extract gas from the gas element plane in the opposite direction of the sewage outlet, it would be a very uneconomical and laborious activity. Compared to sewage discharge, extracting gas to meet the needs of industry and airships would require a much larger transport volume, causing the material and energy costs for maintaining the portal to skyrocket.

The most economical way, and one that is also safe from intrusion by creatures from the air elemental plane, is to construct a spell that extracts gas, analogous to the [Water Creation] spell.

"It's a challenge, but I can give it a try." This is exactly what Caroline's domain is related to. After the mage tower was completed, she needed a new project, and Rorschach's idea was very much in line with her direction and interests.

When they returned to the tribe, the feast had already begun. There weren't many facilities to light a campfire; it was simply a matter of everyone having a "good" meal. However, the elder brought a "surprise."

"My lord, to express our gratitude, we offer you the most beautiful gift from our tribe."

"Stop!" What the hell? You're using this to test a mage? Rorschach is face-blind; he can't even really tell the gender of the little figure the elder offered, only that it's definitely more handsome than that old man.

Caroline looked at her student with amusement. After Rorschach finished his righteous criticism of the elder, the time he had agreed to meet with Hannah had arrived. Caroline opened a temporary portal, and Rorschach fled in panic.

"My lord, didn't you say that all monks love beautiful women? Why did you refuse our gifts? Is the monk angry?"

The elder, with a stern face, repeated Luo Xia's words, reprimanding the heads of the two families, even though he himself had initially come up with the terrible idea. The two family heads nodded repeatedly in agreement, but their gazes towards the elder had changed.

Years later, the "Devouring" clan, which had grown and prospered, secretly circulated ten of the wildest anecdotes, the first of which was that "the Mage Lord did not like beautiful women, and the tribe's first leader, the Great Sage King, started his career by selling his genitals to two Mage Lords."

Rorschach was unaware that his refusal to offer a gift had unjustly damaged the elder's reputation. Caroline, who had just emerged from the portal, was still teasing, "That little thing is quite pretty, why didn't she accept the gift? Being a servant would be nice too."

"Why do you sound so strange?" Luo Xia explained seriously, "The creatures of the Air Elemental Plane are all rather fragile, especially those little blue people. They'd probably have all sorts of health problems coming to the Prime Material Plane. Besides, what kind of servants do I need?"

The initial exploration of the air elemental plane concluded, and Caroline went to rest, intending to research the [Air Creation Technique]. She might need to travel back and forth between the two planes again later. Hannah returned to her internship post.

Rorschach, however, could not rest. He packed his bags and prepared to meet with the long-awaiting Chancellor Otto.

"I wonder if Andrei and Bat were adequately received."

(End of this chapter)