A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 61 Return

Another cave and dense forest.

Several people were leaning against the trees, while others were simply lying down. They were all deathly pale, whether from fear or blood loss, it was hard to tell.

"It's stopped?" Someone noticed that no more pinkish substance was falling, and the cave had stopped trembling.

"I'll take my apprentices to explore the cave entrance. François, you stay here and maintain order. Stop the Blood Magic Circle." The cost of maintaining the magic circle had left everyone somewhat weak. Nemo wearily gave his instructions and set off with his students.

The cave ceiling is riddled with holes, the ground is covered with gravel and sand, and the pink crystals that are visible to the naked eye are weathering and turning brown, turning orange-red.

Once outside the cave, the sky returned to its bright pink hue, while the earth shifted between pink and reddish-orange, constantly changing color. Thankfully, the deadly crystals stopped falling.

Nemo gazed at this world, remaining motionless for a long time.

"teacher?"

Nemo sighed. "Let's go back."

Just then, his expression suddenly changed drastically: "Run! Go back!" The apprentice was startled. They stumbled back to the refuge where everyone had gathered. François hadn't even seen Nemo when he heard his panicked shouts: "Activate the magic circle! Activate the teleportation circle!"

During his refuge, François attempted to draw a magic circle to return to the prime plane, but all his attempts failed.

"Let's go back to the camp and try again. Nemo and Rorschach haven't returned yet." François guessed that the pink crystal rain outside had stopped, and that Rorschach and Rorschach must have succeeded. He didn't understand Nemo's urgency.

Nemo, leading the group, ran up to François, this time lowering his voice and gritting his teeth: "Ether concentration!"

Ether! The concentration of ether in the environment is dropping precipitously!

After carefully sensing his surroundings, François's expression also turned grim. When they arrived, the environmental ether was so dense it had turned into fog, but now it was so thin it was almost indistinguishable from the prime plane. After the high tide comes the low tide, and this same pattern was now playing out in the environmental ether.

He hurriedly activated his magic power, but the magic array remained completely still.

Seeing the other apprentices and workers looking in his direction, Nemo composed himself and announced with a cheerful expression, "Gentlemen, the calamity from the heavens is over! The sorcerers Ina and Rorschach, who dealt with the source of the disaster, have not yet returned. Please rest here for a while, and then we can head back!"

He didn't say whether it was returning to the base or back to the main plane, but either way, the end of the natural disaster was good news. After experiencing the apocalyptic scene in the other world and surviving safely, everyone cheered with excitement.

The leader summoned three apprentices and instructed them: "You all organize everyone and distribute the food you brought equally so that everyone can eat and recover their strength. Remember to leave some for Mage Rorschach and Mage Ina."

Nemo knew that he couldn't let the team wait any longer; idleness would only breed suspicion, fear, and rumors. He needed to keep everyone busy and soothe them with food. Fortunately, Nemo had brought dry rations with him, and the mage Ina had also brought food supplies.

"So what do we do now? Should we wait for Ina and Mage Rorschach to come back and try it together?" François and the team leader whispered to each other as they stood by the teleportation array.

Nemo checked the ether concentration again; it should have reached a low point now, no longer decreasing significantly.

"According to the ten-day plan, we will proactively open the teleportation array on the fifth day to report to and resupply the main plane. If we don't proactively teleport to the main plane after three hours, they will contact us," Nemo calculated. "The problem is that the current environment is clearly insufficient to support the teleportation array. The main plane needs eight archmages to control it for large-scale teleportation, while we currently only have two mid-level and two low-level mages, and apprentices are negligible."

"It's only the second day! What if there's another disaster? Besides, many of our apprentices are unwell, and the workers' morale is unstable." François believed they should go back and report on the situation as soon as possible. Staying here still posed a huge risk and was by no means wise.

"Do you think I don't want to?! My biggest worry is that after the natural disaster, the concentration of ether will stop rising, and our current abilities won't be able to activate it on our own! No, that's a minor issue. What if the way the two dimensions communicate changes or even breaks down after the cataclysm?"

Before they could finish speaking, Nemo and François shut their mouths, staring intently at the teleportation array. The patterns on it were glowing red, and space was twisting and about to tear apart.

"Thirteenth experiment, Epselon II circuit bias, input power same as the previous group. Begin!" After the mage Snow announced, the circuit was reconnected.

Mathematically proficient researchers and Archmage Kano summarized the loop pattern of the magic circle, compared it with other known interdimensional teleportation arrays, divided this magic circle into three loop regions: a core plus inner and outer rings, and drew an important conclusion: the inner ring is the loop that locks the secondary plane.

Instead of continuing to unravel the underlying principles, Carnot made a bold move, instructing the experimental team to continuously try different sets of loops with biased inner loops.

This was the thirteenth experiment, and Carno had a premonition: "It's here!"

The premonition was not some vague, divine revelation, but rather the master's keen perception that the ether in the laboratory had begun to flow continuously and in a direction, and that space had begun to distort.

"This is the set!" Success!

"Report: Power unit number three has malfunctioned!"

The energy fluctuated suddenly, and the researchers were a little nervous. The controllers, who were afraid of burning out other units, had already put their hands on the emergency stop lever.

"What's the panic! I'm right here!" Kano manipulated the ether, replacing the input of Unit 3. The input system was even running more smoothly than before. The red light continued to illuminate, and a stable channel was opened!

Amidst cheers and jubilation, a weary worker was the first to step out of the magic circle.

"Let's get someone skilled in illusion magic. Never mind, this is the alchemy department. Put everyone you send in in a bag."

The man who came out looked panicked. The alchemy department guy patted him on the shoulder: "It's alright, it's alright. It's just cooperating with the confidentiality work." After saying that, he put a "Starry Night Purple Energy Potion" packaging bag over his head.

"Help him out, and take it off once he's outside the gate." The intern instructed the trainee to escort the first lucky man out of the research building.

The others who returned did the same, supposedly to help them up, but with paper bags covering them and their poor condition, they all looked listless, like a major criminal gang being arrested and escorted away.

Outside the research building, Granor and the king's representative he had brought were blocked at the door.

"Is this how you treat us stonemasons!" Granor still harbored resentment. The apprentice, while removing the paper bag, grinned at the master and replied, "It's for maintaining secrecy, after all. Alright, brother, welcome back to this world!"

One by one, the workers and apprentices were sent out. Cano waited a long time, until François, the last to emerge, asked, "Where's Rocha? How are my students?"

"He fought the source of the cataclysm, and I think he won. Leader Nemo is still waiting for him there." François was extremely tired, and his voice grew softer and softer.

"Alright, go see your dad!" Cano beckoned over a paper bag and put it over François as well.

(End of this chapter)