"Finished showing the guest around?" Archmage Camilla asked without looking up when she heard Xu Yi's footsteps.
"Yes, just finished," Xu Yi replied. Seeing Archmage Camilla holding a slender metal tool with a faint blue glow of mana at its tip, concentrating as she brought it toward two steel plates on the table, he wisely fell silent.
As the mana glow at the tip approached the two steel plates, their surfaces near the gap suddenly seemed to melt, then fused seamlessly together.
A moment later, Archmage Camilla lifted the tool away. The two steel plates had joined perfectly. Apart from a faint line visible on the surface, they looked as though they had always been a single plate.
Xu Yi said in surprise, "Grandma, it looks like your welding skills have improved again."
Archmage Camilla tossed down the tool and picked up the joined steel plates. She first examined them closely under the room's magic lamp, then tapped them with her hand before nodding in satisfaction. Setting the plate back on the table, she snorted. "Obviously. After all the time I've spent researching this, it would be ridiculous if I hadn't made any progress."
Xu Yi chuckled and picked up the steel plate to inspect it himself. He found that the welding had not merely joined the surfaces; the interiors had fused perfectly as well, leaving no gaps.
This was truly useful welding, precisely the advanced welding technology the Xinfei Merchant Guild most needed for manufacturing large magic machinery.
"Grandma, this is the new magic welding torch you developed, right? Are there any special requirements for learning to use it?" Xu Yi asked, picking up the slender metal tool Archmage Camilla had been holding.
"What special requirements could there be?" Archmage Camilla rolled her eyes at him. "I developed this