The Final Piece Fell into Place

At that thought, Roger immediately took out the Magic Web. But before he could open it, the mana around him began to distort again, and Betty, who had just vanished, reappeared. "I almost forgot to mention something. The Goddess asked me to remind you that since you already have fanatics, you should consider whether to establish a faith system or a church system. It will be crucial to your development."

"A faith system? I understand."

Roger nodded slightly, his mind racing, but he soon shook his head. "There's no need. Take this incident, for example. Once the Mana Bomb was used, plenty of people naturally began believing in me. As magitech devices become more widespread in the future, everything will fall into place naturally. A church system, on the other hand, would restrict our progress..."

After muttering that, he stopped thinking about it and simply proceeded according to the original plan.

Having made his decision, he immediately took out the Magic Web and prepared to search for the information he had seen before.

As he kept browsing, Roger soon found a user named 'Wild Mage Adrift' in Magic Space.

He had once posted this: "Mana is almost everywhere. If so, why can magic arrays only be infused with mana by mages instead of charging themselves automatically? After a long period of research, I discovered that certain rune combinations can actually achieve self-charging mana. However, aside from Magic Anomaly Zones, ambient mana elsewhere is extremely sparse. A Self-Charging Rune Array either absorbs very little mana or requires an enormous area..."

Unfortunately, despite his lengthy explanation and even some of the underlying principles, all he received was ridicule. Even in Magic Space, few could accept what he said. And even those who could mostly mocked him for wishful thinking, or claimed that such an array had no value at all.

A Self-Charging Magic Array that occupied ninety percent of a magic array's area just to barely power a low-order magic array was, in practical effect, inferior even to a stray trickle overflowing from a Magic Anomaly Zone. In any mage's eyes, it was worthless.

Yet Roger could not help raising an eyebrow. "Hiss... So I remembered correctly. I knew someone online had said they possessed this kind of technology. I just didn't know whether it was real..."

Low efficiency was not a problem. He could simply expand the scale. If quality was lacking, quantity could make up for it. As long as it could inject mana into an Energy-Storage Rune, it was a success. No matter what, it was better than making Apprentices or low-order mages spend days filling a single one, wasn't it?

Besides, this was only the beginning.

Even Betty did not know about it, which meant this was completely new technology. It was understandable for technology to be somewhat lacking when it had only just been invented.

Thinking of that, Roger immediately called into the air, "Betty, come here! This is important!"

"What? What is it?! Lord Roger, is there anything you need my help with? Not everything has to involve Betty..."

At some point, Betty had released Book. The moment it heard Roger's call, it instantly appeared beside him.

"You came at the right time. Help me investigate a user named 'Wild Mage Adrift,' then look into everything he has said about Self-Charging Magic Arrays. Organize any useful information for me." After a brief moment of thought, Roger gave Book its orders.

"Self-Charging Magic Arrays?!"

Betty had seemed unwilling to pay Roger any attention at first, but upon hearing those words, she instantly appeared in the room, her eyes filled with confusion and astonishment. "A mortal mage has developed an array capable of charging itself automatically?!"

"Let's wait until Book organizes the information. It looks fairly reliable to me, but the other party apparently hasn't perfected the technology yet. There are still quite a few problems." Roger nodded slightly and handed the Magic Web to Betty, letting her read the information he had just found.

"Wild Mage Adrift and Mage's Apprentice discussed a great deal of related information in Private Chat. It should be possible to piece together the complete technical result."

As expected of something serving as a "server," Book quickly consolidated all the information and displayed a technical proposal before the two of them.

"It appears to consist entirely of basic runes, and the arrangement is basic as well. Hiss, what an incredible creation... I can say with certainty that this magic array can automatically absorb ambient mana. It can even... be amplified!"

"Amplified?" Roger was somewhat confused.

"Yes, amplified. More accurately, it can use the mana it gathers to strengthen the magic array, allowing it to draw in even more mana. While it is far inferior to a Magic Anomaly Zone, it really can gather ambient mana. It can absolutely charge our Energy-Storage Runes."

The more Betty examined it, the more shocked she became. "The key is that this is only a prototype. If I enhance it, I could create a magic array with a mana-gathering effect hundreds of times stronger in no time at all. At that point, it could fully rival an ordinary Magic Anomaly Zone."

"More importantly, this magic array can directly transmit mana to a designated location without requiring a mage as an intermediary. It seems... to truly fit the charging needs of magitech devices!"

The Ray Gun had already given her an entirely new perspective on magitech devices. But just as Roger had thought, charging was the greatest obstacle preventing their rapid development, because they required large numbers of mages to charge them.

Everyone's energy was limited.

No matter how cheap magitech devices became, the charging step would make them expensive.

But with a magic array like this to assist, the difficulty of charging would be greatly reduced. One could simply leave it there and wait...

"You can enhance it?" Roger asked in surprise.

"Of course. This Wild Mage's level does not seem very high, and the runes he has mastered are relatively basic. Replacing and strengthening them according to his line of thought will naturally make it stronger." Betty nodded confidently. "However, his design has flaws. Major flaws."

"What?"

"His Mana-Conducting Rune arrangement is unreasonable. He gathers mana at the center of the magic array, but cannot use it effectively. A considerable amount of mana will even dissipate. I can tell that he wants to improve all this, but if he follows his own proposed approach, there will be only one result..."

"What result? Stop keeping me in suspense."

When Betty suddenly fell silent, Roger could not help glaring at her.

"An explosion! A very serious explosion. If the mages nearby are below high order, even if they do not die, they will be severely injured." Betty's expression turned solemn. "Kenuosencha, is this person a believer of the Goddess? We should warn him. It is truly unimaginable that a mortal could achieve something like this."

"People are forced into things, aren't they?" Roger smiled and shook his head. "Based on the information we have, this guy is not living very well. He needs a great deal of mana, so he has no choice but to make this choice. Any powerful and influential mage probably would never consider such a problem even in old age."

"In any case, I believe his existence has supplied the final piece of the puzzle for our magitech devices!"