A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 604 Interstellar Banquet

The rope tightened, pulling Snow back to the observation station from the heavens.

All crew members have now been released, but they cannot freely move to other areas. The mages from the Tower of Stars need to adjust the interior space of the expanded observation center.

Although the deployment within the module is automated and taken over by the ship spirit, it does not mean that it is completely reliable. It still requires manual inspection and fine-tuning.

The Kepler was launched on its second day.

"The distortion here is quite severe; it might collapse after multiple entries and exits." Snow also discovered a problem in a section of the cabin he was in.

The layout here is somewhat similar to the dormitory in the Magic Tower. The furniture is made of lightweight, fast-growing wood. There are two sets of bunk beds with desks underneath. The biggest difference is that there are built-in aluminum alloy storage boxes, as well as cable ties and net bags to secure loose items inside the desktops and cabinets. All the furniture is also connected to the room walls with snap-fit ​​fasteners.

Although there will be gravity traps, there will always be times of weightlessness, which must be taken into account during the design phase.

He first shrunk and folded up the wooden frame bed and the cotton-linen blend sheets, and then a temporary assistant peeled off the wallpaper—behind the wood grain was a polymer board and a metal frame, with a coated magic circuit flashing regularly.

This space has now shed its "medieval academic style" and is more like a shielded room and practice room in a magic tower.

Snow then realized that the magical techniques used on this spaceship—no, on the observation station—had existed before, but why hadn't they been manufactured and applied here on such a large scale before?

The ship's spirit's voice interrupted his thoughts: "Room 2β_401 will have its energy supply and space control cut off, are you sure?"

Snow and his assistant left the now-empty room, then glanced at the room number again: "Confirmed."

"Please take precautions. It is recommended to deploy a force field that can isolate matter and radiation, and the field level should be no lower than the third ring."

"30, 29"

Snow did as instructed. Just to be on the safe side, he placed a [Spatial Anchor] in each of the two adjacent cabins. This spell was originally meant to prevent enemies from using teleportation to escape, but it is now often used to repair the cracks infected by the Mother Goddess, as well as in situations where local space needs to be altered.

With 7 seconds left after casting the spell, he didn't have time to cast another spell. He gritted his teeth and crushed an expensive crystal, releasing the shield inside to isolate him, his assistant, and Room 2β_401 from the other main body.

Then the observatory itself activated its shield.

"You should have said you brought your own quarantine!" Snow gritted his teeth. "And your countdown is way too short."

"Actually, you can interrupt the countdown at any time. Since we've detected that you have advanced privileges, in similar situations in the future, we can extend the countdown duration and apply it globally."

"In non-emergency situations, the time limit is extended to 60 seconds. We will also clearly explain to people what level of isolation shield it has and that the countdown can be paused."

"Okay, I am the newly created intelligent assistant, still under improvement. Thank you for your understanding and feedback, Mr. Snow."

Snow wanted to vent his anger but had nowhere to do it. He felt that this ship spirit was not as good as the red dragon.

Overt treachery is easy to provoke, but covert treachery is hard to guard against.

After the loop was cut off, the entire room began to collapse. The part that was rigidly connected to the main body of the spaceship did not change in scale, but the inner part began to twist and deform, and shrunk proportionally, or rather, reverted to its original size.

Finally, it was restored to its original shape when it took off, a cabinet the same size as the door and about half a meter deep. Originally, it was filled with furniture, but Snow has now taken it out.

After confirming that the hardware was working properly, he reactivated the circuit and participated in shaping the space himself. Like inflating a balloon, the structure became soft and slowly extended.

Once it reaches the predetermined size and touches the [space anchors] on both sides, the frame is fixed first. The magic flowing in the loop spreads along the rigid skeleton to the walls, completing the final shaping.

Snow then used auxiliary instruments to measure again to confirm that there were no problems before releasing and installing the furniture and turning on the magic lamp.

The work went on for three days. Some mages, like Snow, were experienced and only needed a temporary partner. Most of the time, they worked in groups of three, usually led by a Star Tower mage who was good at spatial magic, with other spellcasters acting as assistants.

Not all problems can be "resolved by restarting". A total of three dormitories and two functional modules were not properly deployed or had major defects and were sealed up and could not be used, awaiting replacement parts to be launched from the ground.

After the stargate is opened, another major benefit is that the astral plane and the material plane can communicate in real time. Although there will be delays and interference, it is still much better than nothing.

The scheduled rest period was ten days. Four days were spent on docking and repairs. For the remaining time, Johannes, who was appointed as the station chief, waved his hand and said: Let's have a party!

There are two reasons:

The observation station is a combination of four ships, and the crew members need to get to know each other. We'll all be colleagues from now on, so we need to do some team building activities.

Take advantage of the current abundance of resources and splurge now. Later in the mission, when you'll have nothing left and have to be careful with what you have, you'll feel frustrated and definitely won't be able to get started.

The fifth day since the launch of the Kepler.

The bow of the "Kepler" is now the top of the observation center's axis, where all the egg-shaped seats have been removed and the space has been transformed into a banquet hall.

The first one is a country folk tune from Valois with rather "open" lyrics, suggesting that the singing monk learned it from the Moulin Rouge; later there is a dance from Byrne, which was taken from the Würzburg Opera House and elevated to the heavens.

After the humans finished their performances, a few dwarves, emboldened by the alcohol, picked up their drums and metal tools and began to bang and clang, their rough voices sounding like singing and shouting.

The atmosphere reached its climax. Although the young crew members couldn't understand what they were singing, it didn't stop them from dancing wildly as if they were under a spell of madness. The [Illumination] spell floating above their heads emitted dazzling lights of various colors, and harmless little spells were also fired at each other randomly.

Finally, a few elves actually made it to the center of the banquet. Snow didn't know which ship had brought them up, and they weren't as enthusiastic and high-profile as the dwarves.

But they did come eventually, taking out their ocarinas and harmonicas and playing around a pretty girl. The girl in the middle was the singer, her voice melodious, accompanied by soothing music.

This was a style completely opposite to that of the dwarves, and the rhythm of the entire venue slowed down. Some tired attendees began to rest to the music and look for food, while those with more energy danced social dances in pairs.

Snow layered slices of cheese from his hometown with thinly sliced ​​smoked sausages from the Empire, paired with oak barrel-aged wine from Istani. The combination was rather novel, especially since the Istani wine had a kerosene-like aroma.

"Snow the Mage." A young man in formal attire approached, carrying a bottle of sparkling wine. On his chest was not only the mage's insignia of the Magic Guild, but also the star of the Space Guild.

Snow looked up and saw Cavendish: "William! Long time no see. It seems you've been in the sky ever since you left the Tower of Stars?"

"Yes, the squad of Zero ship, I don't know how I became the captain. There were only three people back then, and we had to go through the laminar flow." He looked around the banquet hall: "Now, there are so many people, it's unbelievable."

"I also worked my way up to become the captain of the fifth ship, but there is no fifth ship now. I am now the deputy station chief of the 'Kepler' station."

"Congratulations, to the youngest deputy stationmaster." Snow raised his glass and lightly clinked it with Cavendish's.

"Homage to our ambition, compassion, and unity," Cavendish praised.

(End of this chapter)