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Keeper of Totality [Time-Travel LitRPG]
Chapter 37 (2 of 2) Elves and public speaking.

Chapter 37 (2 of 2) Elves and public speaking.

[Status: ]

Name: Gil Bramwell (Lvl. 231)

Class: Molten Engineer – Rare (Tier: VIII)

Age: 27y

Race: Human

HP: 5900/5900 {+76.81/1m}

MP: 19850/19850 {+3200/1m}

Stats:

Free Stat Points: 4

STR: 89

CON: 118

AGI: 90

DEX: 642

INT: 397

WIS: 320

[Origin Skill: Smouldering Iron Hammer | Type: Crafting/Realm

Desc: [Collapsed]

Subskills: [Collapsed]

Awakening: 22% ]

She… could see Statuses. She had discovered this before the meeting with the main County members, when she had taken off her mask for a bit and glanced at a Commission staff member who happened to be in the room at the same time, the screen accidentally popping up. She knew that the ‘Shard of Totality’ as it seemed to be called was capable of seeing elements of the System, showing her stuff that was technically not supposed to exist.

But to be able to pierce through to see all of someone’s stats and their Origin Skill laid bare, and if she chose, to see each of their primary, secondary, and tertiary skills as well? She had a feeling, that she could even choose to see someone’s Titles and Aspects if she wanted. And that was not good in the slightest.

It wasn’t like she cared if someone saw her Status as Adrianna unless it was the Hero. People from Earth normally had far fewer hang-ups about discussing stats and skills than people from other realms, on account of their deep culture of gaming and digital entertainment. It wasn’t like the concept of ‘skill levels’ was a thing in the System either, so the actual capabilities of an individual couldn’t be judged just by seeing their stats or skills. However, all of this did not stop it from being extremely, extremely dangerous for other people to know she had this ability.

The five realms had a culture of avoiding discussing things like Statuses. When the User was under a certain Rank, level, and class rarity, it wasn’t so important, but when they had a special bloodline, came from a powerful clan, or were a member of an important noble lineage, everything changed. It meant she would be capable of discovering secrets like the fact the Sanctity Caladrius were close to becoming a Mythical bloodline regularly.

She didn’t want that! She did not want to find out things like that any more frequently than never! She already knew more than enough for every single Supreme Institution to issue a kill-on-sight order for her. Some of her memories and knowledge about things she had even prevented Scytale from being able to see, on his request.

Being able to see Aspects, Origin Skills and primary skills meant she would be able to see the unique secret abilities of powerful forces, and the most private capabilities of incredibly powerful people. The Empire’s royal family, for example. The trouble she would find herself in if they found out she glimpsed even one Origin Skill of their members’…

She might also end up finding out secrets like the bloodline connections of people. What if she found out that a main bloodline member of a Duchy was a fake and wasn’t related to them at all in the slightest? That someone was the illegitimate descendant of a powerful noble? Or that a demon was possessing someone? And these weren’t even the worst possibilities.

Some might say Lucy was overreacting, but she knew exactly what kind of abilities and items existed out there that could detect her knowing the wrong things. Ancient magical artifacts capable of powerful prediction, Wonder magic items that functioned on strange rules and logic that could point the wielder to people who knew their secrets, spiritual treasures that could track down her soul…

High-level cultivators were even capable of soul reading. Well, she had enough soul power to protect herself from that, but it would still be very bad for her to have to reveal she had that capability at her rank. But still, just because she was safe from the Citadel’s Sages, did not mean she was safe from the Heavenly Realm’s diviners, where the entire realm didn’t use mana and only used spiritual energy to function. Just imagining what would happen if a Heavenly Sect discovered she knew one of their Sect Leader’s or successor’s core abilities…

Yeah. She was not happy in the slightest she gained this ‘overpowered’ ability. It was the definition of not worth it. She may have just become the most powerful appraiser of the entire Tower… but was she in the All-Aeon Athenaeum, Inspecting rare and exotic old artifacts? No. She was going to be the new Honorary Count of the Aurelian Commission, where being a noble automatically made her a target for assassinations, she was also the only contractor of the Demon Emperor, and she had to deal with the Hero and his knowledge of the future.

She. Did. Not. Need. This.

Unfortunately, short of removing her eyeball, she doubted she could get rid of it. And considering it had seemingly fused with her body… removing it might not even be a solution in the end. She sighed, and replaced the mask over her right eye, turning away from the balcony. When she was back inside she dropped the invisibility, and turned to walk back to where she had come from before seeing the Viscountess.

So far, at least, it seemed the ability to see User’s Statuses didn’t activate when the mask was on. That was good. What wasn’t so good was the fact it instantly activated as soon as the mask was off. Until she became Rank-1, she doubted she would be able to tell if her control over the abilities of the shard would improve or not. For the foreseeable future, she would never be taking it off. It wasn’t like having the mask on all the time made things difficult, as it wasn’t uncomfortable.

She made her way along the path to where she knew the dining hall was, as lunch was going to be soon. The competition seemed to be going well. It was unlikely there would be many hiccups, and once it was done, she and Scytale would head to the Forerunner’s Event.

The Event itself wasn’t that important, outside of it being mandatory for all forerunners, and Scytale only wanted to go because he didn’t go last time and it was a rare System Event. She’d also be able to find out more about ‘broken’ Origin Skills while in the Capital. After that, in the next month, would be the Empire’s annual end-of-year banquet. It lasted two weeks, and during that time Vincent would be dealing with most of the politics instead of her.

…except maybe regarding one person. The people at the top of the seven Eternal Duchies likely already knew she wasn’t a real puppet head, and so when she visited Archduke Stolas Eterial, she would do it with the full status of the Aurelian Commission Head.

I should probably send the request to organise a meeting with him within the next few days. He’s known to be hard to meet with outside of Empire events, so if I send an official letter now I can meet him during the banquet. And if I don’t do it now, it will be unlikely I’ll be able to meet him at the banquet because thousands of other nobles probably have the same idea as me.

That was a task for later. For now, she had lunch with the Country representatives.

----------------------------------------

A ponytailed man with dark hair walked through the crowds of people, looking at the different items and objects in the crafter’s section of the competition. Sedric was currently doing as Lucille had suggested, exploring the event to see what other crafters had made.

It had been interesting enough to see what was being made, although some items were too high-rarity for him to Inspect, as he was only Rank-1. None of the items without spells, for example. The fact that he needed to be Rank-3 to craft items without spells for skills was very interesting, and if Lucille needed him to use spiritual energy to craft her item, then she didn’t want an item crafted that only used spells. But she refused to tell him what it was she wanted crafted, which annoyed him beyond belief.

Before the System though, the Mystical Realm only knew how to craft items with spells. He wasn’t sure it was possible to craft non-spell items without the System. He didn’t know much about what it was like before the System because the Mystical Realm had been assimilated for over a hundred chapters, so he wouldn’t really know if it was possible or not, but he guessed after so long had passed it didn’t matter anymore.

Finding interest in something he saw, he walked over to one bench to check out an item.

“-but the main alchemical solution would evaporate if you increased the amplification by that much. The circuit would generate too much heat.”

“And that is why I use a secondary water-element coolant here. The temperature is regulated and kept to a minimum, the properties of the solution itself being retained due to its transmutation recipe.”

“Oh? It doesn’t mix with the main coolant?”

“No. If you look at the Item sheet for the secondary solution, you can see that it is mineral-based, so it doesn’t merge with the other coolant here, which uses several types of mana water mixtures, and-”

Sedric looked up from the item he was viewing to see two people who were surrounded by a small crowd, having quite a loud discussion as they analysed the device on a bench. It seemed they were one of the more popular contestants. Interested, he came closer to see what they were talking about and read the Item Sheet of the object.

[Apparatus – Type: Compounder, Magic Item ]

Name: 3-Element Compounding Engine

Rarity: Rare

MP: 5600/7,000

Desc:

Crafted by an advanced craftsman, this device was designed to compound basic alchemical materials from raw substances so the User has access to simple alchemical substances without needing an Alchemist class to transmute them. As this item is a prototype, it can only be used with materials of the elements of fire, earth, and water. Using one multi-layer intermediate spell and several advanced-level mana circuits, this device requires an input of 50MP to activate, 250MP per second to recharge until full and uses its mana storage based on how rare an alchemical substance you want to synthesise.

Abilities:

Automated Alchemy – Machine-powered transmutation.

* This prototype compounder can synthesise a combination of elemental materials of fire, earth, and water to create alchemical substances at Rare level or under. Synthesising time is dependent on the substance’s mana density.

Internal Pseudo-Recombiner – With the existence of a pseudo-recombiner within, the device will always provide accurate results.

* This compounder will recycle the alchemical output if not a stable alchemical material, reconstituting the alchemical material until it is stable enough to be a substance for use.

[ ]

The object that sat on the bench was a rounded pot-like device cast out of brass, covered in dials and switches. He watched it vibrate and tremble as steam escaped from valves, making lots of noise as it created whatever alchemical substance it had been tasked to make. He was surprised to see how practical the item was. He could definitely see the uses for it, if not for him personally.

As the Commission Head’s crafter, he had free access to many resources, alchemical solutions and substances that could be bought whenever he wanted. But for a normal crafter, this device would make crafting items much cheaper due to being able to transmute raw materials into alchemical substances directly, instead of asking an alchemist to do so for an expensive price.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

For an organisation like the Commission, he could see how being able to mass produce alchemical substances would be useful. Especially for producing many elixirs, which could be made up of several alchemical solutions, synthesised using other alchemical solutions, which were in turn synthesised from more alchemical solutions. Crafting elixirs was a very expensive profession.

The internal pseudo-recombiner was also interesting. He had a recombiner on his bench in his workbench, which he couldn’t use yet due to the mana cost being too high at Rank-1, so he was a bit curious to see how the creator of the item managed to reduce the mana cost for his item.

He was going to walk forward to get a closer look when one of the members of the crowd looked back and stopped to stare at him for a second. Sedric blinked when he realised he recognised the person.

“Hey, you’re that person from… back then,” the blonde-haired man in his early twenties began hesitantly. He was the junior head crafter Sedric and Lucy had met in the craftsmen zone, Sameul. “You were… uh…”

“It’s Sedric,” he replied as the man moved away from the crowd to come to talk to him.

“Right.” The man nodded. And then with an awkward look on his face, he continued, “And the person you were with at the time… she’s…”

“Yes, she’s the person you’re thinking of, no, she’s not really like how she acted earlier, and no, she’s not as useless to the Commission as she’s pretending,” Sedric said, well aware of what Sameul’s issue was.

“So I really did unknowingly meet the Commission Head and talked about joining her event right in front of the person herself,” he muttered. Sameul shook his head and sighed. “Yeah, that was a shock I was not prepared to receive today. So she’s intentionally acting like that?”

“I… don’t know much about what she’s trying to do. I’m not part of the Commission, technically,” Sedric explained. How was he supposed to know what was inside that woman’s head?

“Huh. I figured you must’ve been if she took you to the craftsmen zone,” Sameul replied, surprised. “Then what’s your relationship with her? Are you a participant in the competition like me?”

The day had finally come when Sedric could brag about his status. He smirked and crossed his arms. “Don’t need to be. I’m her personal crafter.”

The blonde-haired man’s eyes widened. “Really? Her personal crafter? You must be pretty skilled then. What kind of crafter?” he asked curiously.

“Accessory. She said the adaptability of my class is useful,” Sedric replied with a shrug.

“Accessory crafting is a pretty rare profession to go into, from what I know.” Sameul gestured to himself. “As for me, I’m just a boring magic engineer. Haven’t felt the need to branch out just yet.”

All right. Sedric felt like that was enough small talk to be considered a functioning member of society. Now he needed to find some way to politely exit the conversation…

“I saw you looking at that compounder earlier. Do you have an interest in the Coalition’s magitech?” Sameul asked.

……crap. He was asked another question. He was still stuck.

Sedric prevented himself from sighing as he came up with a reasonable-sounding answer that wasn’t ‘my highest known rarity class has magic engineering as its third primary skill and I know absolutely nothing about it’.

“Uh… kinda. I’m interested in magic engineering, which is why I’m in this section of the competition. I’ve been wondering if I should take it as my third main skill.”

The man in front of him blinked and looked between him and the object on the bench. “That’s… surprising. Not that I’m saying it’s surprising that you specifically are interested,” he added. “But just that someone not from the Coalition is interested at all. The profession of ‘magic engineer’ was only fully formed two thousand years ago, after all, and the All-Aeon Athenaeum doesn’t have the most favourable attitude to us, which makes most people prefer to use other alternatives to our stuff,” Sameul explained. “Can I ask how much you know?”

“I just know you need to align single-layer spells with engraved spell lines on cogs, and the input of mana then helps your machines move. Not much besides that,” Sedric replied.

And Lucille’s knowledge comes to my rescue- no, wait. That doesn’t make me happy at all. I don’t want her to be my saviour.

Sameul gave him a grin. “That’s more than most people know.” He seemed to think for a moment and then gestured to Sedric. “If you’d like, I can show you a bit about how it works.”

That made Sedric pause in surprise. He… was actually kind of interested in the offer. It was important that he learnt more about the profession, and maybe if he left the event having learnt a bit, he could show Lucille he wasn’t as stupid as she seemed to think he was. He might even end up seeing a look of shock on that inexpressive face of hers. It would beat that irritatingly self-satisfied smirk she got when she did smile.

That thought alone almost made him instantly accept, but as he considered it further…… wasn’t this too nice of someone he had barely even known for longer than ten minutes? What reason could someone with the status of junior head crafter have to do something like that? It couldn’t be the fact he was the Commission Head’s personal crafter, because most crafters never had that much power in their organisations, even if his case was different…

He was suspicious.

“I mean, I’m interested, but why would you do that?” he asked Sameul.

Sameul gave him a dismissive wave and gestured to Sedric to follow him. “I’m just happy enough that someone’s interested in my home plane’s technology. It’s not like I’ll be teaching you some hidden secret of the Coalition or anything, so I may as well let you take a look.”

Even as he followed the man, Sedric was still sceptical. There was no way the man was being helpful… just to be helpful. That was stupid. Nobody ever did anything like that. He bet the man was just trying to get close to Lucille using him. Yeah, that made more sense. This Sameul guy was probably going to try to use the fact he told Sedric about the Coalition’s tech to make him ‘owe him a favour’, using him to meet Lucille again so he could become her new personal crater instead, and take over his position as-

“By the way, if you were looking at that compounder, I can’t say that was the best example of the Coalition’s magic engines, with the multi-layer spell inside and all,” Sameul spoke up as he led Sedric through the crowds of people.

Sedric forgot his original train of thought as he answered, “Ah. That. I was just interested in that pseudo-recombiner trait of the compounder. I wanted to know what changes he made to the spell to reduce the mana cost so much.”

“Oh, that was the same reason I went to look at it,” Sameul replied as they walked. He scoffed. “Yeah, it’s nothing much. The only reason people were crowding around the crafter’s compounder was because the item’s concept was unique. The actual spellcraft was really shoddily done. It was like a patchwork blanket, stitching random frames together to give it some half-baked functionality. I swear half of those runes were redundant.”

“I guess being a magic engineer would give you a better idea of spellcraft than other crafting professions,” Sedric said, stepping to the side to avoid some people.

“Yeah. Understanding basic rune theory is essential for magic engineering.” Sameul nodded. He glanced at Sedric. “That’s one thing I should probably tell you if you want to branch out into magic engineering. While it’s true that most of our machines use single-layer spells, it’s not a rule that we have to only use single-layer spells. Some of our machines use multi-layer spells.”

…could it be? Was Lucille wrong about something? “Really? So your technology isn’t made mostly out of simpler spell types?” Sedric asked, almost expectantly.

Sameul chuckled as he turned a corner. “Oh no, we definitely still use a lot of single-layer spells. What I mean is, that our really, really powerful devices use multi-layer spells and even arrays. But to get to the point you need to be somewhere around advanced to senior ranked in magic engineering,” he explained, “which requires more than just time and effort.”

Well, that was disappointing. Although, now that Sedric recalled, Lucille had said very rarely did magic engineers use multi-layer spells. Not, ‘not at all’.

“Where are you taking me, by the way?” Sedric asked.

“Just to my section of the competition,” Sameul replied. He looked around. “It should be somewhere around-”

The man came to a stop as he stared at something. Sedric followed his gaze to see a crowd of people at one specific display, seemingly discussing the object. He glanced at Sameul. “Is that supposed to be your bench?’

“…it is, but why are there so many people around it?” Sameul said quietly.

Sedric took another glance at the people near the bench, noticed their expensive clothing, and then looked at Sameul with a strange expression. “…aren’t they nobles, too?”

Sameul gave him a wide-eyed look, and then slowly took a step back, preparing to run away. At that moment, one of the members of the crowd looked back and pointed out Sameul to the rest of them. The nobles turned to see him, and then, with one leading in front, they walked towards Sameul.

“oh- dearth-mother no, they’ve spotted me,” Sameul muttered. “What do they want? Go away, go away, blight-blight-blight-blight-”

“Are you Sameul O’Dearvy?” the front noble abruptly asked, looking at Sameul. He had brown hair, looked to be in his mid-30s, and was dressed in a black and red suit. The noble watched Sameul with narrowed eyes.

“Uh… yes. And… may I know… who exactly you are, sir?” Sameul replied hesitantly.

“Erastus Aldithley,” the man replied shortly. He gestured to Sameul’s bench behind him. “I am here because I have a proposition for you. Sell me the rights to your device here, and I will give you a position as a crafter under the main business of Alichanteu.”

There was silence as Sedric and Sameul registered the words of the noble. It seemed noble drama had come to the junior head craftsman next to Sedric.

“I’m… already a junior head craftsman though….” Sameul responded.

Aldithley scoffed. “Yes, I’ve heard. You work as a junior head craftsman for one of the vassal businesses in the crafter’s zone. But I am promising a position in a main business of the Blue County itself, rather than just one of their subordinate businesses.”

That was all very good and well, but…

“I wouldn’t be a junior head craftsman if I took your offer though, right?” Sameul asked.

The noble marginally raised an eyebrow, as if the idea itself was absurd. “Obviously not. You may have created an interesting device, but you do not have the status or have demonstrated enough potential to be given such a position.”

“So… if I wouldn’t have my current status… and I wouldn’t have the wage and access to resources of a junior head craftsman… why exactly should I accept your offer, sir?” Sameul said.

“Why, to become a part of a prestigious noble-owned business, of course,” Aldithley announced haughtily. “And if you show talent, then perhaps one of our crafters will be willing to take you as a student.”

Sedric and Sameul traded glances before Sameul turned back to him. “But I’m a magic engineer? All the best teachers for my profession are at the Coalition, so if I wanted a teacher, I would’ve stayed there,” Sameul told him. “And sir, I came to Gilded Seat to make connections with other crafters, which,” he gestured to their surroundings, “Is what I’m doing right now, by joining this event.”

Sameul crossed his arms and shook his head. “I’m sorry, but your offer doesn’t interest me.”

The noble, and the nobles behind him, just stared at him, like they couldn’t believe someone had refused an offer from a noble. The surrounding watchers winced, aware of what was going to happen next. Erastus Aldithley slowly turned red and then opened his mouth to release his fury.

“You dare to refuse my offer? A mere commoner like you refuses the offer of a Viscount from the 23rd Major Kingdom-”

This is getting stupid. I just came here to know about magic engineering, but he’s not stopping.

Should I… reveal my status as the Commission Head’s personal crafter? I could probably resolve this… and I heard something about how nobles aren’t supposed to be in the commoner section of the competition too.

Sedric glanced at Sameul, who was looking more than just a little bit tired of the tirade being directed his way.

If the Commission staff got involved then they’d probably be on my side. I… don’t want to stand out, but if there’s going to be no end to this…

He took a step forward and waved a hand between Sameul and the Aldithley guy, getting their attention.

“Uh, hey, Erastus or whatever. Could you quit it?” Sedric said.

The noble glared at him. “That is Lord Aldithley, to you, commoner.”

Sedric sighed. “Yeah, fine, Lord Diddly-something. Look, this guy’s not interested,” he pointed to Sameul, “And I have a feeling you guys aren’t even supposed to be in this section,” he gestured vaguely to the nobility behind the man, who seemed to be nobles of similar rank, and who flinched at his statement, “So unless you think shouting at someone is going to change their mind, maybe we could all just leave?”

Aldithley narrowed his eyes at Sedric. “And who might you be, to say this?”

Sedric reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his black access card for the fortieth floor of Headquarters. “The personal crafter of the Aurelian Commission Head.”

Sameul, the crowd, and the nobles all turned to stare at the black card with the Commission’s symbol of three gold coins in his hand. There was silence for a while before people began muttering to each other. The nobles started looking worried until Erastus Aldithley scoffed. “You think you can fool me with that fake?”

“Excuse me?” Sedric asked incredulously. “Fake? Do I look stupid enough to pretend to be the Commission Head’s personal crafter right in the middle of a literal Commission event? Where even the lowest-ranked staff member can verify my card whenever they want?”

“-then you stole it,” Aldithley stubbornly replied.

“I stole it?” Sedric put a hand to his temples. “From who exactly? Who do you know has this card that I can just randomly walk up to them and take this from their pockets?” He looked around until he spotted someone he had met once before the competition at Headquarters. “You know what, let’s get another opinion. SIR ALICHANTEU!” he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.

The blonde and blue-haired Artair Alichanteu, who was going around doing his job as the representative of the Blue County, blinked and looked around when he heard his title. He stopped when he saw Sedric waving to him, before walking over.

“Mr. Ferin? I didn’t know you would be here. What seems to be the-” Artair paused when he saw Erastus Aldithley and his group of nobles, all looking rather pale now that they discovered Sedric knew the first heir of Alichanteu.

Artair frowned at Aldithley. “Sir Aldithley, I tasked you with reading the profiles of participants of the nobility, not taking a walk through the venue of the competition. You are not supposed to be here.” He looked at the other nobles. “None of you are supposed to be here. The nobility and commoner competitions are separated until the next round.” He narrowed his eyes at them. “Leave now, and if I see you here again before the round is over, I will give you more than just a warning.”

They quickly made their way towards the nearest exit, and the crowd dispersed. Artair put his hands behind his back and turned to Sedric. “Now, what did you need me for, Mr. Ferin?”

Sedric pointed a thumb in the direction of the leaving nobles. “You’ve pretty much just dealt with it. That Aldithley guy was trying to get junior head craftsman Sameul here,” he said, gesturing to Sameul, “To hand over the rights of his device to him, in exchange for a place in one of Alichanteu’s main businesses.”

Artair stared at Sedric for a few seconds, before slowly, he gained a grin. “Oh really? Is that true?”

Sedric raised an eyebrow at his reaction. “Uh… yes. Is that… good?”

Artair’s grin widened as he shook his head. “Well, definitely not for them, but certainly for me. You see, it seems my little brother’s tag-a-long by the name of Aldithley has just broken a few rules set by our mutual acquaintance, and this will reflect on his lord. It’s quite a spot of good luck for me.”

……ah. It seems someone might have just annoyed Lucille. Sedric was slightly curious to know how that would end up for them, but… maybe ignorance was the more healthy option for his continued mental well-being.

Then Artair turned to Sameul. “Although, not quite as good luck for you, crafter Sameul. I apologise as the representative of the Blue County that there was such an incident,” he said with a slight dip of the head.

Sameul was quite flustered and quickly shook his hands to refute. “N-No need to apologise to me, Sir Alichanteu. I’m fine now that they’re gone.”

Artair nodded. “Well, if that was all… oh.” He took out a notepad and pen and gestured to Sameul. “Could I please have your full name so I can report his incident? It may come in handy for me,” he said with a smirk.

“Sameul O’Dearvy,” the blonde-haired man replied.

Artair jotted it down and then blinked. “Wait… did you say O’Dearvy?” He put away the notepad and instead pulled out a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of his suit jacket. He riffled through them, until he found what he was looking for, and then pulled it out. He smiled as he put away the other envelopes and handed the last one to Sameul. “Then let me congratulate you, participant O’Dearvy. You’ve progressed to the next round.”

Sameul stared at the envelope with a violet seal in his hand with wide eyes, then glanced between Artair and the envelope. “No way…”

Artair just glanced at his wristwatch and gave them a nod. “Then it’s time I returned to handing out the rest of these envelopes. Farewell.” And with that, the Alichanteu heir left them.

Although Sedric could’ve sworn he heard the man singing a song under his breath with the lyrics of ‘Arwwwwen’s going to get in troooubbble~’ as he walked.

He turned back to the stunned Sameul next to him. “So… congratulations, I guess?”

“I- uh, t-thanks,” Sameul stammered, still staring at the envelope.

“What is your device, if you don’t mind me asking?” Sedric asked.

The man stopped staring at the envelope, blinked, and then put it away. Then he walked towards his bench. “Oh, it’s a type of engine that uses water element solutions and the fire element to create steam. The pressure from the steam then generates mechanical power which is converted to magical power. This method only uses basic elemental reactions to power it, meaning the cost of alchemical substances is minimised.”

That made Sedric interested. “How did you get the mechanical power to produce mana?”

Sameul grinned. “Well, this can be your first lesson in magic engineering. With mana circuitry, just as a spell can generate machine power, machine power can also generate mana…”

Sedric spent the rest of his time that week discussing magic engineering with Sameul, or looking at the rest of the crafter’s section, pondering new ways to use his skills and abilities in a way that might have a chance of surprising Lucy.