Soon afterward, Roland arrived on the ninth floor.
It was as elegant and exquisite as ever. The magnificent halls brimmed with exotic charm, and the beauties of various races were a feast for the eyes.
This time, however, he had no attention to spare for marveling, nor any inclination to admire the artistic furnishings or the maids coming and going. He headed straight inside.
Ovesto had already learned of his arrival through the Tower Spirit and was waiting for him in the same study as before.
The two succubus maids were absent. In their place stood a petite beastfolk girl with long rabbit ears atop her head, dressed in a revealing outfit beside the desk.
Ovesto rose and walked over to the nearby sofa, looking somewhat puzzled. "What's so urgent that you came to see me?"
"Teacher, here's the situation. We discovered some interesting phenomena while adapting Oracle for magical use."
Roland sat down, collected himself, and explained everything from beginning to end.
This was the decision he had ultimately reached.
On Blue Star in his previous life, a country nicknamed Little Japan had once led the way in hydrogen energy technology. Although its eventual failure had much to do with the technology's inherent flaws, its understanding of the broader landscape and its market position had also played a considerable role.
Sure, you had a good hand, superior technology, and a firm hold on the dealer's seat. You were impressive.
But with such a small frame, you wanted to dominate the whole world? Dream on.
At that moment, Roland already harbored ambitions of founding his own school.
Only with enough disciples and their disciples, along with interest groups backing him, could he ascend to a divine throne.
In that case, he certainly could not cling to everything. He had to decide what to keep and what to give up.
Of course, he also had to safeguard his own interests.
First came the accumulated heritage of Blue Star's civilization from his previous life. That was a core interest, and he would keep it strictly secret.
As for localization and magical adaptation, which required the help of others, he ought to collaborate openly and share the profits.
Some peripheral offshoots could even be made freely available, throwing the doors wide open to everyone.
If all he had were one or a few lumps of gold, then naturally, the sensible choice would be to hide them away, spend his lifetime slowly making use of them, and keep every last bit for himself.
But if he owned an entire gold mine, he needed to spend some money, buy machinery, and hire workers to mine it together.
Otherwise, a lifetime of digging would yield no more than a few extra nuggets.
"Something like that actually happened?"
After hearing about their experimental findings, even Ovesto was momentarily taken aback.
"Do you know what this means?"
"I do. It means a new Spell Scroll industry!"
"It goes far beyond that."
Ovesto gave a soft sigh and spoke with a trace of emotion.
"It also means an entirely new kind of magic runes, the foundation of an archmage's career, perhaps even a new school of magic!"
"Then... Teacher, is my current line of research still on the right track?"
"Transcribing Oracle onto scrolls as magical script, replacing some of the original incantations...
Other magical scripts developed the same way. In theory, it's certainly feasible.
But transcribing a scroll involves the application of magical script. Many high-level Spell Scrolls are even composed using several magical languages together. It isn't as simple as using just one."
Roland nodded slightly.
He was, of course, aware of that.
In fact, both the incantations and runes used in spells belonged to the category of magical languages.
They were based on natural language, yet went beyond it.
It was much like a large software project, where using several programming languages together was perfectly common.
"Light itself isn't a complicated spell. If you put in the effort, you have a chance of transcribing it entirely in Oracle.
But if you want to take this further and convince people, this one spell alone probably won't suffice. Your discovery might be a property unique to this spell, or a property shared by spells associated with light and illumination. That would only prove Oracle helps transcribe those spells, not anything else.
The prospects are still somewhat unclear."
"Then what should we do to make those prospects clearer?"
"The immediate priority is to use a mana microscope to measure Oracle's overall resonance efficiency as a magical script, then improve all the other level-zero spells and spells of other levels that can be modified."
"A mana microscope? I operated one during practical classes at Flandre. I heard it costs over ten thousand gold coins per second to run!
Although you can control it with a magic array, sampling at microsecond intervals and running it for a few microseconds at a time, switching it on and off...
Many calculations require millions of sampling points. Once you turn it on, the cost still starts at ten thousand gold coins."
Roland suddenly realized that the parts he could not handle on his own had begun to emerge.
In their earlier experiments, they had burned through a thousand gold coins over quite a few days, and he had thought that was extravagant enough. Compared with this, it was nothing but child's play.
Ovesto said, "Operating an instrument like that and repeatedly checking the calculations will probably cost ten to thirty thousand gold coins.
The entire project will involve improving at least a hundred low-level spells. At a market price of fifteen to twenty-five gold coins per scroll, with ten sets of controlled experiments for each spell and two scrolls per set, that comes to around forty thousand gold coins.
This isn't something the few of you can accomplish alone. You'll also need assistance from the tower's mages.
The cost of hiring spellcasters is already included in the scroll costs, and there won't be any additional expenses for food, lodging, or transport within the tower. Still, they'll need an allowance.
Even if everything goes smoothly and you finish in around a hundred days, you'll need ten people at ten gold coins per person per day. That comes to ten thousand gold coins. If you need to hurry, you'll have to increase either the staff or the number of spells cast each day, which will cost another few tens of thousands.
Beyond that, there may be unexpected expenses during the experiments, or attempts involving higher-level Spell Scrolls. You may need to set aside another twenty or thirty thousand for those.
All told, a budget of around a hundred thousand gold coins, ten people, and three months should more or less do it.
If you apply to the Arcane Committee, never mind how long approval might take, you'll also have to give them a share of the proceeds. I have a little money to spare lately, so I'll fund you privately.
Beyond that, I have great confidence in this project. If it successfully enters production, I'll invest another two hundred thousand, bringing the total to three hundred thousand. Consider it my stake in the venture. Until my cumulative returns reach three hundred thousand gold coins, I'll take fifty percent of the net profits from the associated intellectual property. Between three hundred thousand and nine hundred thousand in returns, my share will drop to twenty-five percent. Once it exceeds nine hundred thousand, I'll withdraw completely."
Sure enough, archmages all had the superpower of money. The ancients had not lied.
Three hundred thousand gold coins was equivalent to three hundred million copper coins, and he had invested it as casually as making conversation!
All Roland had done was listen as Ovesto worked through some middle-school arithmetic. When the final result came out, he could not help letting out a long, heartfelt sigh.
"A wise decision, Teacher!"
What he really wanted to say was, If you would have me, my lord, I would gladly call you my adoptive father.
Before you continue