Shameless, Absolutely Shameless

Zhao Si breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Sellen was willing to budge, this would be much easier.

Sellen asked first, "Thops, tell me what he helped you with."

Thops frowned, thinking hard. "Well... he gave me ideas, like making a magical protective film and making glintstone usable by anyone. He even thought of abandoning the shield as a medium, so it could respond to magic automatically, quickly, and conveniently. But that last one was too difficult. I couldn't do it at all. He also suggested modifying staves."

While they talked, the two masters, Azur and Lusat, were leafing through Zhao Si and Thops's notes. They happened to reach the section on the Glintstone Firearm: a streamlined staff that compressed spells into glintstone bullets for rapid firing. Switching ammunition would switch spells, eliminating the burden on the brain and the intelligence requirement.

Had any other sorcerers seen this, they would certainly have branded it heresy. Such an outrageous design practically knocked every sorcerer in the academy off their pedestal. They spent enormous amounts of time and effort learning magic, committing the spells they learned firmly to memory. Naturally, all that hard work gave them a sense of superiority.

Magic required imagination. Why did it require intelligence? Because intelligent people understood magic more quickly and could construct a model of a spell in their minds in less time.

In other words, learning magic involved three steps: first, reading the spell recorded on a scroll; second, imagining and constructing a model of it in the mind; third, projecting that model through glintstone as a medium.

Take the simplest spell, Glintstone Pebble, for example. First, one had to imagine a stone streaking across the night sky like a shooting star, then channel that mental image into glintstone, and finally release it. That was how the spell worked.

This method of learning was incredibly abstract, much like advanced mathematics. If you couldn't grasp it, you simply couldn't. Thops was completely at a loss. He couldn't picture it.

Sorcerers couldn't learn very many spells in their lifetimes, mainly because their memories weren't good enough to retain them all. That was why someone like the Full Moon Queen, practically a magical bomber, had swept through the academy and risen to the top.

This also explained why they had to witness astronomical phenomena involving stars and the moon before they could create and use related spells-people couldn't imagine things they had never seen.

In other words, if they could imagine it, they could create it.

Lusat continued leafing through the notes. When he reached the Glintstone Computer, he understood what Zhao Si had meant earlier. The Glintstone Computer was essentially an extension of the brain, an additional external brain that offered convenient calculation and storage. One could connect as many as one liked, far more conveniently than laboriously seeking out other sorcerers.

The Glintstone Telescope, meanwhile, was an extension of human eyes. Pairing a telescope with a computer was like the cooperation between the eyes and the brain: use the telescope to observe astronomical phenomena, record them with the computer, then let people study those records to make further advances.

What Zhao Si meant was this: even if the sky was full of Astel, the White King, the Black King, and Outer Gods, that didn't stop people from shoving telescopes in their faces. Radahn was there, after all. If they didn't like it, let them come down.

Why put themselves through all that trouble? If things went well and they wanted to become stars, they would need satellite engineering and a crewed space program. Zhao Si didn't possess the relevant knowledge, but again, they had magic!

If the Greater Will could airdrop Astel as a giant meteor, along with Erdtree seeds and the Elden Beast, what was wrong with them tossing satellites up in return?

If the Greater Will didn't like it, it could come down too.

I'm from another world! I crossed over here just fine. What else is there to be afraid of?

Zhao Si had all but written that thought onto his blueprints.

If all he could do was sit around waiting for the Night of the Black Knives and the Shattering, unable to deal with any of those gods or their representatives and forced to follow the game's old path, what was the point of crossing over? Was he just playing a real-life version of Sword Art Online, waiting to see when he would die and it would all end?

As the two masters read through the notes, Zhao Si and Sellen got ready.

Zhao Si equipped a shield Thops had made-there was more than one prototype.

Sellen readied her staff.

Thops explained, "Senior sister, please only use Glintstone Pebble. Don't use anything else. We haven't tested those yet."

"Understood." Sellen nodded, then turned to Zhao Si. "You're ready, right?"

Zhao Si shook his head. "No problems."

Before he had even finished speaking, the glintstone at the tip of Sellen's staff flashed. The academy's crest flickered into view, and a Glintstone Pebble shot toward Zhao Si as fast as lightning.

The speed and ferocity of her casting were nothing Thops could match. A spell on the level of Glintstone Pebble was practically instantaneous with a wave of her hand.

Fortunately, Zhao Si's reactions weren't slow either. He raised his shield to block as usual, but secretly employed the Flowing Sword's footwork and force-deflecting technique. The instant the Glintstone Pebble touched the shield's surface, he swung the shield, activated the protective film, and deflected the projectile.

Even so, a crack appeared across the shield's surface, showing that it was already ruined.

The deflected Glintstone Pebble struck a Crystal Pillar in the room. The pillar shuddered, and the projectile vanished.

Zhao Si shook out his arm. It hurt a little, but it was nothing serious. Whether Sellen had used her full strength or not, the result at least showed that Thops's prototype had successfully blocked Glintstone Pebble.

Thops's eyes lit up. "Senior sister, what do you think? It has potential, doesn't it?"

Sellen asked Thops, "You made this?"

Thops nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes! I made it with his help. A film, a protective film-that's something I can imagine!"

"Magic that counters magic." Sellen pondered for a moment. "Interesting, but there's considerable room for improvement. Its strength, for example, would need to increase significantly before it could be used in actual combat."

She looked toward the two masters.

After finishing the notes, Azur and Lusat's glintstone heads flashed repeatedly as they communicated. Zhao Si had no idea how they actually "saw" things, but at least they had understood the notes. That was good.

After a long wait, Lusat's voice reached Zhao Si's mind. It was a gentle, resonant male voice. "Your ideas are interesting, and we are indeed interested. However, there are too many unknowns. Whether we can create finished products that achieve the expected results remains to be seen. We have discussed it. Any successful prototypes will belong to us, with no claim on your part, though you will have the right to use them."

Zhao Si was dumbfounded. He truly hadn't expected the academy's people to be so shameless. They wanted to take his "ideas" entirely for themselves.

"No. Absolutely not. I came up with the ideas. Whether it's patent rights or any other rights, I deserve a share!" Zhao Si argued his case. "If I don't

conduct the tests, you won't know whether the prototypes actually work. In other words, I'm still the one who decides whether they're successful."

"Whether your ideas can be realized depends entirely on us," Lusat said, refusing to yield. "If we do not make them, your ideas will remain nothing more than fantasies forever. So it is perfectly reasonable for the things we create to belong to us. After all, we are the ones putting in the work and effort. The materials alone for equipment of this scale will require considerable investment."

Clearly, the two masters were tempted, but they refused to let Zhao Si get something for nothing.

Zhao Si was stumped. He really hadn't expected this to be so difficult. What happened to the protagonist's aura that made everyone else stupid? Why did it feel as though everyone had been smarter than him ever since he crossed over?

How strange. Why can other protagonists whip out any old thing and get people to work for free while keeping all the benefits themselves?

Zhao Si unconsciously bit his finger, frowning as he considered what to do. He had no other cards to play. As for providing funding, neither of these two was poor; at the very least, they had plenty of glintstone. As for providing technical expertise, he knew nothing about glintstone craftsmanship or magic.

After turning it over in his mind, he clapped his hands. "I don't mind giving you a share of the rights, but Thops has to be included! He'll contribute technical expertise, and I'll contribute ideas. The two of us and the two of you will split ownership of these new technologies equally. Research, manufacturing, production, and everything else must be discussed by all four of us. Nobody gets left out."

Azur asked, "What about Sellen?"

Sellen looked at the four of them and considered it. "I think he has a point. After all, the blueprints and ideas are his. It wouldn't be right for us to claim everything. How about this? I'll remain neutral and join neither side, helping maintain your relationship. If disputes arise, I can help you resolve them."

Zhao Si felt that this was the only option left. Otherwise, if negotiations broke down, he would rather fight his way out of the academy than let his ideas fall into the two masters' hands for nothing. He had certainly grown full of himself.

And that swelling arrogance triggered another hidden danger. Zhao Si had never considered that traces of the Frenzied Flame still lingered in his mind, stirred by his emotions and preparing to strike back.