A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 53 A Peaceful Sleep Without Night

This is... a spell I haven't mastered? Encountering this situation for the first time, Rorschach was both surprised and secretly delighted. Could it be that he could transform into Kakashi through his character panel?

No, it wasn't that easy. Rorschach quickly calmed down. He first used "Magic Control" to carefully sense Ina's spellcasting process, meaning that he had control over the first two steps of [Stone Shaping].

The panel's advantage lies in summarizing the two casting steps and revealing the remaining two steps required to complete the spell.

"Is it enough to simply imbue the earth and rocks with ether?"

"Of course not. Master Rorschach, you should know that simply injecting ether will cause most real matter to emit light and heat. We need to combine the ether with the earth element."

The panel didn't respond. That last sentence must have referred to the "enchanting" process. Rorschach continued to probe, "So now you can control it as you please, right?"

"It's not that simple... Rorschach, are you my student? I feel like I'm in class." Even as she said this, Ina continued to explain while casting her spell:

"To make the earth element active and changeable, you need to imagine them gaining life drive through the ethereal ephemeral nature, and then convey your strong image to them."

As he spoke, another cave dwelling gradually took shape. In Luo Xia's eyes, question mark entries slowly appeared on the panel:

[Stone Shaping (White)] "Magic Control (Orange)" "Enchantment (Blue)" "Matter Activation (White)" "Mapping (White)"

The spell has been successfully unlocked on the panel, but based on experience, a white proficiency level does not guarantee successful casting, and according to the standards of the academy and the magic tower, it cannot be considered as having learned it.

Nevertheless, at least Rorschach has grasped the basics of the theory and can practice it, which is very important.

"You are now truly my teacher. Among every three people in our group, there is one who is a teacher I can learn from."

"Even if it's just three goblins?" Mage Ina had already created three caves, and even though the abundant ether in the secondary plane greatly reduced her spellcasting costs, she still needed to rest. Meanwhile, the first model room of the artificial team had just been completed.

Rorschach was momentarily speechless: "...Goblins are human? Okay, at least their digging ability is no worse than that of dwarves with tools, which is impressive."

"And you just tried to learn how to dig from me. Do you think I'm a goblin?"

Unexpectedly, Mage Ina had a talent for killing conversations. Rorschach changed the subject—no, he should return to what he really wanted to say:

"Mage Ina, I'd like to try out the [Stone Shaping] spell. Since you're resting, could you watch me cast it and then give me some pointers?"

Have you studied sculpting before? For example, have you used a scroll to learn the principles and practice disassembly?

Rorschach shook his head, and Ina put one hand on her hip: "Then let's see how far you can go." In the past, Ina would have stopped Rorschach's attempt. In her opinion, it was impossible to master an intermediate spell by watching her cast it three times. It was a complete waste of magic.

However, Rorschach's performance in creating water left a deep impression on Ina, who no longer judged this student of Master Cano by common sense.

Taking a deep breath and then exhaling, Rorschach followed Ina's steps and placed his hands on the earthen wall. His palms touched the rough, dry, orange-red soil, channeling ether into it and trying to make the ether stay longer and more stable, rather than dissipating into heat and light.

Maintaining this state was a first for Rorschach, and it was somewhat difficult. Fortunately, he had a similar feeling when studying the [Light Spell]. After the ether and soil had been combined for a while, Rorschach could feel that some of the ether was no longer under his control, and the corresponding earth element became active. The macroscopic manifestation was that the soil under and around Rorschach's palm liquefied and began to surge.

"You can do this on your first spell? Mage Rorschach, you're quite talented in Transmutation as well as Evocation."

"You flatter me." Rorschach tried to expand the scope of the earth element activation by increasing the input of ether in an attempt to spread it outwards.

Ina leaned closer to observe the activation process closely: "But don't get too cocky. The hardest part is getting enough soil to 'come alive' and finally getting the active earth elements to move precisely according to the blueprint in your mind."

Rorschach felt that the amount of enchanted ether was about right, so he began to drive the soil to change. At first, it went smoothly, but halfway through, Rorschach felt that the earth element was out of control. The changing parts continued to collapse, and the unchanging soil collapsed downwards, eventually leaving a small, irregularly shaped hole.

"As expected, the plasticization failed." Ina examined the surface of the pit and broke up clods of soil to check their hardness: "The activation of your soil elements is not sufficient or uniform enough, causing you to be sometimes fast and sometimes slow, and sometimes deviating and making mistakes when you make them 'execute commands'."

Overall, though, since this was your first time using this spell, it was still an attempt to push it to the limit for your level. Failure is normal, so you did a decent job.

"Thank you for your guidance." Rorschach nodded, reflecting that his "material activation" step was not good enough, which led to the failure of the final "mapping". He thought for a moment, then raised his hand and placed it on the cave ceiling, narrowing the range of the spell to the part of the soil that needed to be changed, prioritizing the solidification of the arched ceiling.

It was reactivated and deformed, and the arc gradually took shape. The process may not have been as smooth as Ina's, but it was still a barely successful one.

"Congratulations, congratulations. If you changed your target to something smaller like a rock, you could be considered to have mastered this spell, Master Rorschach."

Rorschach used his immature "Stone Shaping Technique" in batches to modify the roof, walls, and floor of the earthen cave, finally making it a proper earthen cave. Even so, while Rorschach was completing his first "work," the "Artificial Team" was still working on their second and third caves.

"Hey, what's all this commotion?" Rorschach looked over and saw several workers gathered around the cave entrance. Two streams of earth and rocks were being thrown out of the "Manufacturing Team's" No. 2 and No. 3 caves respectively. It turned out that one cave was François's, which was blessed by the "Claw of the Pit," while in the other cave, two muscular workers were digging furiously with shovels and spades. The two sides seemed to be having a competition. The workers responsible for building the walls were now shouting excitedly, showing no favoritism towards their own people. François also had people cheering him on.

Looking at François, whose hunting attire was covered in dust but who seemed oblivious and full of fighting spirit, Rorschach smiled slightly.

The bell rang for the fourth time in this world. Unlike the clock towers in the city that chime once an hour, it rang every three hours. The third chime signaled the end of work and the start of "dinner," while the fourth chime meant it was time to rest. Everyone was assigned to cave dwellings or temporary tents to prepare for sleep.

The sky of the secondary plane was a bright, ever-changing pink, without any stars, meaning there was no day or night cycle, and it remained perpetually bright.

Physiologically, it is difficult to have normal sleep without night. Fortunately, the first day of construction was the most tiring day. The felt cloth that served as a temporary door at the cave entrance was thick enough to block out most of the light. Luo Xia lay on the stiff earthen bed and was about to fall asleep.

If one falls asleep on a night without night, will it be a dreamless sleep?

Thank you to reader "大墟烛龙" for the 2 monthly tickets, and to readers 161105124348404 and 150708163026227 for the monthly tickets!

(End of this chapter)