Chapter 377: Chapter 374: A Crisis, but an Opportunity for Profit
’It would be best if I could get a complete Spell Table.’
’The Guild, especially the Aurora Elder Council, probably has a grasp on most known Magic. Otherwise, how could they even establish the Ring Tiers?’
However, Rorschach had a feeling it wasn’t that simple. The ’Ring Tiers’ probably weren’t just something a group of top Mages came up with on a whim. He had already seen the inverted Tree of Law twice, and its nodes were also arranged in concentric circles—sixteen Tiers in total!
Yet, the publicly known Magic only went up to the Ninth Ring, which coincidentally matched the Caster Levels established by later generations. As for the Ancient Mage—an entity far more powerful than any modern Great Mage—the peak-era Magic he had shown Rorschach was what he called ’Super Magic,’ which had to be beyond the Ninth Ring.
The closer one climbed to the tree’s main trunk, the nearer one got to the source, and the rarer it was to find an illuminated node. Rorschach recalled that the faintly flickering nodes he had seen went as high as the Eleventh Ring.
He evaluated the Tower Spirit’s current performance and decided to implement Level Descriptors up to the Sixth Ring, designing variants for each Spell System.
This might seem like a way to vex Casters, but it was also a method to optimize response speed. As the Tower Spirit read the Level Descriptor, it could simultaneously identify which system of Magic the Caster was invoking. This allowed the Tower Spirit to narrow down the range of possible terms and predict which ones would be used next.
This drastically compressed the Casting process. Still, in Rorschach’s opinion, the entire system felt a bit crude. He had personally gone from being someone who could only read but not speak English to someone who could only think but not ’speak’ Magic. He wasn’t entirely against incantations, material components, or gestures; in fact, he was fond of using gestures to aid his own Casting.
These methods either helped a Caster focus their Spirit or acted as miniature rituals to better draw upon the ambient Magic Power or establish a stronger connection with the Original Layer.
Therefore, the future ’Spell Cloud’ should also incorporate this system, or at least be compatible with traditional aids, allowing Casters to draw upon Magic Power through other means. This would become especially important as more spells with higher energy levels were loaded into the system, perhaps even to the point where simple ’symbols’ were no longer sufficient to represent them.
’What a long road ahead...’ Rorschach was exhausted after the debugging session and slumped in his chair.
"You shouldn’t be designing this all by yourself. A single person has limitations. For example..."
"For example?" Rorschach noted that the Tower Spirit was being rather bold today.
"You should find more collaborators to compensate for your weaknesses, or to bring in new ideas and improve the system’s compatibility..."
At that, Rorschach suddenly thought of someone—Teacher Caroline! If she joined the project, she could contribute her knowledge of spatial Magic. He had received a reply to his previous letter; Caroline had no plans to come to Bayern for the time being. It seemed she was still holding her post and processing the astronomical data she had collected at sea.
His energy returned, and he sat up straight in his chair. "You’re right. I can contact my teacher again and invite her to join the project."
"That’s right, that’s right." The Tower Spirit’s tone grew cheerful, as if encouraging him.
Then Rorschach pulled out another sheet of paper. "And there’s Lady Elizabeth. She’s skilled in time-related Magic, as well as Curses and Transformation..."
The Tower Spirit hadn’t expected Rorschach to be unsatisfied with just one and immediately look for two. "...That could work, too."
Finally, Rorschach grew excited. "Would the Tower of Forest be willing to teach me Mid-Low Tier Natural Magic? And it would be perfect if I could get the public Spell Table from the Magic Guild! Master Feuerbach... he has an odd temper, and the Magic he’s mastered is probably too profound. I won’t consider him for now."
"..." The Tower Spirit said, giving up entirely. "Why don’t you just make your system open source? Let everyone upload their own Magic."
"That would be amazing! Who needs the Magic Guild then, publishing papers that can’t even pass a plagiarism check..." Rorschach was lost in his wonderful vision, as if he had already become the ’God of Open Source,’ ready to declare, ’Source God, activate!’ at any moment.
’Hey, wait a minute. If I really did that, wouldn’t the old geezers from the Aurora Elder Council have my head? The situation isn’t chaotic enough yet. I can’t be too conspicuous.’ Rorschach shook his head. ’I’ll just test it on a small scale for now. Better to find Teacher Caroline first.’
He took the letter and ran to the Magic Guild’s local office. Yes, that was right—the Guild had actually opened an office here. This was due to Lansite’s growing population and industrial scale, the increasing number of Apprentices who failed their promotions and came to work in the factories, and the rumor that Rorschach himself was a permanent resident.
It was currently housed in a villa at the junction of the old and new city districts. Of course, it lacked full facilities and authority. Its Teleportation Array simply pointed to the nearest Munich Hub, allowing it to connect to the wider Communication System.
Following the Empire’s victory and pressure from the Guild’s upper echelons, communication restrictions within the Empire had been lifted. Rorschach could quickly send his letter to Caroline. However, communications with the Holy Kingdom were still bogged down in squabbling; the Guild was unwilling to submit to the Empire’s censorship, and the Empire refused to open that channel.
Now that the Empire’s Forbidden Magic Device had been revealed, the Empire was threatening to deploy it to the Guild’s border cities to block cross-border communications. The Guild, in turn, threatened that if the Empire did so, it would be considered an act of hostility.
Unfortunately for the Guild, the Empire had Mages of its own. Those Casters in the military-industrial sector, who had become minor nobles with manors in the north, were the Empire’s staunchest supporters. Besides, even if the Empire couldn’t threaten the Mages, was every Guild employee an Advanced Caster? Did they not have vulnerabilities?
The two sides continued to bicker.
’As far as Rorschach was concerned, it was all just a war of words. If things really got ugly, the Empire could activate its Forbidden Magic Devices in every major city and use its cannons to level every Guild hall and Mage Tower. That would be a devastating blow. On the other hand, the Mages could just send in their top assassins to have the Speaker, the Prime Minister, and the Emperor ’commit suicide’ by taking six Magic Missiles to the back, thus ending their sinful lives.’
’In any case, that Chief Military Mage didn’t seem all that powerful to him.’
What Rorschach didn’t know was that the Empire was allowing the Guild to continue its cross-border trade, requiring only that all goods entering or leaving the Empire undergo a thorough inspection. While the Guild didn’t want the Empire to apply the same standard to its communications, the massive profits were simply too sweet to pass up.
What was even better than smuggling was that while others had to do it illegally, the Guild could monopolize the official channels. So, while their underlings were constantly arguing, the upper echelons of both sides were happily making money together, putting on a hypocritical performance for the benefit of the Empire’s citizens, most of whom already despised the Holy Kingdom.
The public’s boycott of enemy goods didn’t stop the pillars of the Empire from savoring fine wines from Valois, nor did it stop their wives from competing over the latest Valuva court-style clothing and jewelry.
Just as Rorschach’s imagination was running wild, the staff member’s voice interrupted his dark thoughts. "Sir, your letter has been sent." She then sighed. "Have you heard? The Empire has developed a device that can block Magic."
"I have," Rorschach said with a confident smile. "I also heard it doesn’t last very long."
"Be that as it may, it would be disastrous if it interfered with our Defense Arrays and Communication System," the staff member said, tidying up some documents and muttering to herself. "The Holy Kingdom has a communication device that doesn’t rely on Magic. Our branch there has already run trials with it. At first, we thought it was completely unnecessary, but now it’s clear they must have gotten wind of this."
"Right, right." As a Caster, Rorschach was supposed to empathize with the Guild’s current predicament and stand with them through thick and thin. But for some reason, he just couldn’t suppress a smile.
The staff member didn’t notice. She continued talking as she guided Rorschach out of the Guild hall. "We want that technology, too. We’ve already obtained the blueprints from our Valois branch, but there are still many parts we can’t figure out. If only we had a technician who understood this stuff."
"Ma’am, you’re going the wrong way," Rorschach said. "I’m the man you’re looking for. What you’re talking about is a ’telegraph system.’ Now, take me to your person in charge."
