Preparations Before Departure

"Mage Rorschach, the Oscillating Quartz you ordered has arrived." The tower spirit's voice rang out in Rorschach's dormitory.

Oscillating Quartz, an alchemical material, could be ordered through the trading companies under the Mage Guild. As a courtesy, the Tower of Stars received the guild's delivery service.

After retrieving it from the mailroom, Rorschach headed straight to the alchemy classroom. What exactly is going on? For some reason, no one at the Tower of Stars seemed to take any alchemy-related classes. The classroom had always been left unused, and last time, he had needed to wipe away a thick layer of dust before using the equipment.

The alchemy classroom had additional protective measures, making it suitable for verifying the information Rorschach had obtained from the leather armor.

Oscillating Quartz was grayish white throughout, formed into hexagonal columnar crystals. From a box filled with crystals of various sizes, Rorschach picked out one thick enough to fit comfortably in his hand and began channeling mana into it.

The crystal in his hand gradually changed from grayish white to clear, but nothing else happened.

Channeling mana into objects was something Rorschach had done often before. Normally, mana would seep smoothly into an object until it reached a limit, at which point the object would begin to glow. The crystal in his hand was different. Rorschach felt his mana entering it with extreme difficulty and slowness, nowhere near the limit of what the crystal could absorb. It was like a bottomless pit.

This would not do. He needed a different method.

Rorschach selected a small crystal column that could fit entirely within his palm. Using Mana Drive, he guided the ambient aether to condense into the quartz. At last, the crystal not only became slightly translucent, but also began to tremble.

Still not enough. Rorschach still felt as though the Oscillating Quartz were sucking in mana like a bottomless pit. When he stopped channeling mana, the quartz immediately released it violently, and then nothing happened.

Following this line of thought, Rorschach noticed quartz powder produced by chips and impacts inside the box, like grayish-white sand. He tipped one corner of the box and poured out a palmful of powder, then channeled mana into it again.

At last, it seemed to reach a critical point. The sand in his palm trembled and churned as if boiling.

This would not do! Rorschach hurriedly cut off the aether. He found a piece of silk cloth in the classroom's cleaning cabinet and covered his mouth and nose with it, then used Mage Hand to lift that handful of quartz grains and began the experiment again. Maintaining Mana Drive at the same time was extremely difficult, but fortunately, Rorschach's proficiency was high enough that he could manage it while fully focused.

Channeling, twitching, "boiling," then exploding.

In one corner of the classroom, tiny grains of sand erupted and scattered in all directions, accompanied by a powerful mana shockwave. To Rorschach, it felt like being struck by a silent yet brief, piercing roar. Both Mage Hand and Mana Drive were interrupted by the "silent shriek."

Dizziness and stinging pain swept over him, but Rorschach was still thrilled. His attempt had succeeded! He patted the quartz fragments from his body, looked at the box of crystals, separated out the small broken pieces, and used Decomposition Technique to produce sand in bulk.

He still needed to test the range. Ideally, it would not affect himself.

Afterward, he found a Light Spell scroll with a mana storage circuit and ensured that it remained continuously activated. He operated it again, and as the Oscillating Quartz Sand exploded, the scroll indeed went dark.

After repeated experiments, Rorschach roughly determined that the explosion and mana-suppression range formed a spherical area five meters in diameter, centered on the blast.

At that moment, Rorschach felt something and opened his panel. Sure enough, there was now a spell called Rorschach's Mana-Sealing Shriek (White).

However, this spell's entries were somewhat different. It consisted of "Mana Condensation" and "Oscillating Quartz Sand." The latter entry was gray and could not be copied or moved.

The panel also gave him a long-unseen comment: Casting spells with external objects is the behavior of the weak, but it is very effective. A spell that can disgust its own caster if they fail to watch their distance, but it is very effective.

Say whatever you want. As long as it worked, that was enough. During cleanup, Rorschach repeatedly used Air Cannon to sweep the floor, gathering the scattered quartz powder into one place before disposing of it.

Oh, one more thing.

Rorschach calculated that the time was about right, took out some stationery, and wrote letters to his parents and Teacher Caroline, telling them about his recent circumstances.

In his letter to his parents, Rorschach described conditions in Valuana, the royal capital of the Holy Kingdom. He complained about the steep rise in bread prices and mentioned that he would soon be traveling far away on business. He also told them that His Majesty the King intended to confer titles upon Great Mages, and that his business destination was located in the future fiefs of these newly elevated nobles. In his letter to Teacher Caroline, he discussed the progress he had made in "alchemy" and his questions regarding mana.

When he went out, Rorschach found it increasingly difficult to catch a hired carriage.

When he finally got into one and asked the driver about it, the driver replied, "Young master, fewer and fewer people are taking carriages, so naturally fewer and fewer people are driving them. Times are hard now. Customers who used to ride with us would rather walk, while the wealthy gentlemen who remain have carriages of their own."

The driver was dressed rather thinly. Halfway through speaking, he blew his nose. "My fellow drivers have all gone to other provinces to haul freight wagons. I can't bear to leave my young daughter, so I'm scraping by here in the royal capital. Sooner or later, I'll have to find something else to do."

At the Mage Guild, Rorschach was already well practiced at sending letters. As expected of a guild hub in the royal capital, even the formation tables for transmitting letters were divided into eight units according to direction.

After leaving the guild, Rorschach did not return to the Magic Tower. Instead, he made his way to a commercial street, found an outdoor seat at a teahouse, and sat down. Diagonally across from him was a building bearing the sign of the Pachalucca Trading Company.

He waited for a while until an employee emerged from the building across the street.

"Mage Rorschach? Did you bring the goods we agreed on?"

Rorschach tossed over a rolled parchment tube. "Three Light Spells." At market price, each scroll was worth around ten silver coins. But Rorschach was here to collect his "wages."

The other party nodded and accepted them, then passed over a small bag of gold coins.

One, two... there were only four gold coins, and they were kingdom currency at that. "That's short. My asking price was eight."

"That is the price."

Rorschach secretly used Mage Hand to clamp down on the employee. "Eight. That was the price I agreed on with your boss." In theory, another twelve Gold Eagle Coins were to be sent to his parents' home. Now, Rorschach was beginning to worry about that as well.

Faced with the spell's threat, the employee's expression did not change. "My lord, that was indeed the price you discussed with our boss, but we employees need to support our families, and our manager needs to keep the trading company running. Please show some consideration for the hardships of us people below."

Rorschach felt sick at the sight of this finely dressed, slick-haired "person below." "Then the deal is canceled. Once I return to the Empire, I'll discuss it directly with your bald boss."

The man who had openly skimmed his payment finally changed expression. "My lord, if you do this, you'll only put the trading company over the fire! We are all colleagues, so why make things difficult? Look, I truly don't have any money on hand. If you still want gold coins, you can only speak to our manager!"

Rorschach stopped wasting words. Without taking the coins, he used Mage Hand to pull back the scrolls and prepared to leave.

"Six! No more than that!" The man gritted his teeth and managed to keep the mage from leaving.

Rorschach sat back down and opened the money bag, making the other man take out two more gold coins and add them in. "I understand your company's position, and I understand that you have your rules. But cutting it in half is too much, isn't it?"

"My young master, you don't understand the market. Sigh, the manager is going to scold me."

Rorschach remained unmoved by the trading company employee's performance. He drank his tea and silently watched the man return to the trading company.

The previous two chapters were a little padded, so there will be an extra chapter this weekend.