A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 57 Guess why there's a hole here?

It got dark.

The secondary plane, which originally had no night, seemed to be approaching dusk, with the pink sky gradually lowering and the flowing light clearly accelerating.

Ina confirmed the information and activated her card: "Immediately notify everyone to assemble and proceed quickly to the leader's location. Do not carry heavy objects."

"Bring food," François added. The apprentice immediately gathered the others to carry out the order.

Rorschach thought for a moment: "Let's follow His instructions in the dream. If we can't reach the cave, we'll have to find other ways."

"Two hours," Ina stared at the translated message, then looked at the sky, which seemed on the verge of collapse. "Okay, you give it a try. François and I will keep an eye on you."

François nodded. Rorschach took a deep breath and began chanting in Jaberian: "Dryaz, Dryaz."

Ina and François nervously sensed the changes in the ether around Rorschach. Based on their experience in the Prime Material Plane, the gods would invoke their will upon the ether surrounding the ritual.

"Nothing happened. Shall we use Guabian?"

"I won't say," Rorschach suddenly felt a lump in his throat, and his stomach churned.

"Ugh." Rorschach couldn't help but bend over to vomit, and saw himself spit out a pebble—the amber from his dream. Then he felt a warm sensation in his throat, and a stream of foul blood gushed out.

"Rorschach!" Ina wanted to help Rorschach sit up so she could give him treatment, but Rorschach waved his hand and refused while vomiting.

François noticed the unusual blood plasma: "Look!" The liquid that Rorschach had spat out on the ground wriggled upon contact with the ground, forming intricate patterns.

"I'm fine." Rorschach felt better after vomiting, and there was no pain anywhere. He was even starting to doubt if it was his own blood. The boy picked up the amber that looked like it came from his dream, and wiped away the bloodstains to reveal a beetle with intricate patterns. The patterns shimmered in the light.

"Quickly, record this pattern!" This is when Rorschach noticed the "bloodstains" evaporating, and Ina and François both began sketching and recording it.

As the pattern evaporated and thinned, the ether within the circle, which had a radius of about ten meters, seemed to calm down. The space within the area seemed to become damp, and all three of them could smell the scent of grass and trees. Moss was even growing on the reddish-orange soil, which was covered with a faint green hue.

"The barrier of the forest god?" It's not a simple barrier magic, but rather like the creation of a vibrant realm, especially striking in contrast to the desolation of the sub-plane.

At this moment, gray divine spells appeared on Rorschach's panel: [Deryaz Forest] "Magic Control (Orange)" "?" "?" "Reflection (Blue)" "Blood (Material)" "?"

Including the casting materials, there are six entries. This divine spell is completely unusable. How did I manage to do it just now? Rorschach pondered for a moment. Perhaps it could be used through the blood array, or perhaps it was due to something special in the sub-plane.

Amber couldn't be stored in the storage ring either, so Rorschach tried it once and then put it in his pocket.

"Report, all personnel have assembled."

"Let's go." François stood on higher ground and shouted to the crowd, "Quiet, quiet! Listen up! We've detected an emergency: corrosive acid rain is falling on the ground. Nemo has found a refuge. Please move quickly; we'll be safe once we reach the refuge!"

Acid rain is a more vivid and easier-to-understand term than crystal storm, although some apprentices and workers still have doubts: "Isn't it said that it doesn't rain in the secondary plane? Why is it raining corrosive acid rain all of a sudden?"

Regardless, they set off, in groups of about ten people each. Those who stayed at the camp were divided into four groups and set off.

François continued shouting at the top of his lungs along the way, yelling slogans in the middle of the procession and urging the workers and apprentices to join him. Moreover, Rorschach could sense him manipulating the ether. With the shouts, the procession moved much faster than usual.

"The effect is caused by the resonance of multiple people's endogenous ether. How to trigger it is a matter of noble technology. François's family was once a military noble family, but they were once stripped of their fiefdoms and titles." Ina walked beside Rorschach and explained when she noticed his actions towards François.

Rorschach had learned about resonance before, and had even experienced it firsthand during the "Harvest Festival Dance" in Antorella. "Thank you for the guidance." This made the Granor family's dedication to expanding their territory in this plane understandable. What is lost inevitably evokes a desire to regain it.

The ether concentration reached a peak, and Rorschach could feel that the plane was like a powder keg, where all the evocation spells could be released faster and with greater power. If he wanted, he could create tons of water and even summon a waterfall.

"【Swift Retreat】." This is a transformation spell that uses ether to stimulate the caster's leg muscles, granting them increased speed. Ina and Rorschach, whose control over intrinsic magic is unaffected by François, are unable to benefit from the group speed boost. Ina not only cast the spell on herself but also on Rorschach.

"Thanks."

Ina walked ahead of Rorschach without turning her head: "I knew you wouldn't. It seems that the mage Rorschach prefers powerful spells."

Unfortunately, the panel didn't react. Rorschach ignored Ina's criticism, only caring about whether he could use the panel to learn more spells.

The sky was not only dark, but a misty fog had also risen. Rorschach and his group reached the bottom of the ravine, where visibility was low. Fortunately, they were able to find their way using cards linked to Nemo's [Arcane Mark].

One of the apprentices couldn't help but curse, "We've encountered a ghost! How can there be fog in a place as dry as a desert?"

Rorschach's ether-element transformation theory was already taking shape: "The concentration of ether in the environment is extremely high, exceeding the carrying capacity of space and spontaneously transforming into water."

Drip, drip. Not only the fog, but also the rain began to fall.

"Calm down! Calm down! The rainwater isn't corrosive yet! Everyone hurry, we're almost there." The rain caused unease and commotion, and François had to stop chanting and use his already hoarse voice to calm people down and maintain order.

Finally, twice as fast as Nemo had reported in two hours, they successfully reached their destination in an hour. Before them stood the chasm walls, hundreds of meters high, and an entrance, tens of meters high and wide enough for two carriages to pass side by side, open to welcome the arriving party.

"Go in."

Under the illumination of the Light spell, the team entered the cave, which became narrower and narrower as they went deeper, but after a while, it opened up into a spacious cavity that Nemo and his exploration team were resting.

"Tell me quickly what's going on." After briefly understanding the contents of Rorschach's dream, Nemo pondered, "The calamity in Rorschach's dream is now showing signs. The question is, is it really as the Forest God said, that we need to destroy the divine corpse to quell this disaster? He emphasized that only Rorschach can defeat it, and I'm worried there's something else going on."

Suddenly, the amber in Rorschach's pocket floated out, and the beetle inside seemed to come alive, fluttering its wings and taking flight. The amber covering it expanded and faded, like bubbles swallowing the beetle.

The beetle flew a distance into the depths of the cave and then returned to Rorschach's side, repeating this process over and over.

"Does it want you to go there?"

Boom! The cave shook.

Rorschach, guided by the beetle pointing at the deer-headed god's remains, swallowed hard. "Tell me," he said, "why is there this hole?"

(End of this chapter)