Because Rorschach had to engrave the Runes on the alloy staff head himself, Fulcanelli also taught him some principles of Magic Staffs after taking his money.

"Normally, I wouldn’t tell this to an outsider, but you’re different, Rorschach Mage. I love your publications, so..." And so, after hearing Fulcanelli’s introduction to the staff head, Rorschach found himself listening to another long explanation about the Staff Core.

But it wasn’t a waste of time. Rorschach was in high spirits. He left the workshop, grabbed a quick meal, and then headed straight for his laboratory.

Voluntarily heading to the lab on a day off is the mark of a seasoned researcher.

’I can apply this to my Collector—no, it should be called a Refining Tower.’

As the first-stage result, the Mark I prototype could indeed be called a Collector—the final product was blue Dulled Transmuting Dust, a fine Casting Material. After Rorschach’s subsequent optimizations, it could achieve a sixty percent collection rate.

But now, his goal was to obtain a stable Ethereum Source. The current Magic Array still relied on a power unit to supply Ether for intermittent operation.

What, you ask why the research building didn’t have a giant smokestack like a coal-fired power plant? The answer was that Master Kano had permanently established a Teleportation Array. All flue gases, after heat recovery, were vented directly into the Air Elemental Plane.

Rorschach mentally condemned this direct discharge of pollutants. If the Elemental Spirits ever discovered the outlet, he wondered if they would find the Great Mage and demand, "How dare you!"

The fuel for the Steam Engine was a similar story. They were currently siphoning heat from the Fire Elemental Plane, saving on coal. However, the connection to this plane was highly unstable, requiring constant maintenance from Kano and the guys in the Alchemy Department. There was also the risk of magma bubbling out or flames suddenly erupting.

Besides, the natives of the Fire Elemental Plane weren’t as easygoing as the inhabitants of the Air Elemental Plane. Both their tempers and their abilities were, fittingly, explosive.

In contrast, if Ether could be extracted from Transmuting Dust, it would be a truly clean source of magical energy.

Rorschach had consulted numerous documents to figure out how to convert and capture Ether, inhaling who knows how much dust and musty air in the archives, but he had made little progress until now.

To collect Ether, he would need to guide the decay of the Transmuting Dust and absorb the resulting Ether after exiling its Divinity. However, the Blue Light Barrier lining the inner wall had no absorption capability. On the contrary, it neutralized the Ether and diffused Deryats’s Divinity throughout the chamber to complete the assimilation.

Removing the barrier was absolutely out of the question. But now, Rorschach could try a different approach. He didn’t need to maintain the barrier constantly. Instead, like the core of a Magic Staff, he could keep it in a ready state, able to activate instantly.

Rorschach had considered this line of thinking before, but at the time, he only understood the crafting process for Scrolls, whose response time was too slow to protect the entire apparatus.

But thanks to the chatty master’s friendly explanation, Rorschach now had a basic understanding of how a Magic Staff could cast instantly. A magic spell has many steps, but some are naturally universal and can be kept in a semi-activated state, charged by a Magic Storage Crystal.

The crystal on the staff head records the spells engraved by the Caster. The crystal’s base contains an extremely complex structure that can, based on the spell information stored in the crystal, call upon specific circuits in the Staff Core in the proper casting sequence. The remaining steps not handled by the Staff Core are completed jointly by the crystal and its base.

Therefore, any casting steps pre-set in the Staff Core could be completed in an instant, achieving instantaneous casting. Furthermore, the denser and more compact the circuits within the core, the more steps of a spell could be pre-set and pre-charged, resulting in a shorter casting response time.

Rorschach’s new idea was to insert a new cylindrical wall between the inner and outer walls, engraving it with the Blue Light Barrier Array. This would be divided into two layers. The inner layer would be equivalent to the staff head, with Deryats’s symbol at its core. If the inner lining were ever destroyed by out-of-control Transmuting Dust, this "staff head layer" would activate. The outer layer, meanwhile, would remain in a pre-charged state, ready for an instantaneous response.

That was the theory, but the response time had to be shortened as much as possible.

Then there was the step of collecting the Ether, which Rorschach had already thought through. He set up an Air Cannon Magic Array in the last section of the tower, which would act as a fan. It would blow all the Divinity-purged Transmuting Dust together. Although this matter no longer contained the chaotic Divine Power, it was still in a high-energy, metastable state. By forcing the particles to collide with each other, he could stimulate them to release Ether.

This was another idea inspired by the Magic Staff. A Secret Silver Rod would be installed at the bottom of the tower, engraved with a "Magic Concentration" circuit. When Ether was released, it would activate these "antennas." The Ether would then be focused onto the rod by the Magic Concentration and conducted away due to Mithril’s properties.

When it was time to start up the newly modified machine, Rorschach didn’t ask an Apprentice for help. This was because it was now effectively operating without a barrier, and an apprentice would have no way to protect themselves if something went wrong. Snow once again personally supervised the installation and then accompanied Rorschach to start up the Mark II.

"Are you sure this will work?"

"Let’s find out."

The new device started up. Rorschach felt something was wrong... Suddenly, the outer wall began to distort, its metallic color shifting to an iridescent sheen like blued steel. The change happened in an instant. The next moment, shards of metal, propelled by Transmuting Dust, burst outward.

It was like a Claymore mine strike, enhanced by both physics and magic.

"F—" Snow swore, a curse popular in the suburbs. At that moment, everyone in the lab was protected by two layers of defense: a Blue Light Barrier cast directly by Rorschach, and Snow’s Force Wall Technique.

"You call this ’working’? It’s so dangerous!" After dispelling the barriers, Snow picked up a piece of the broken outer wall. Disordered crystal spikes had grown on it, and it was still coated with decayed dust.

"Without the Blue Light Barrier for Dulling, I need to reduce the eruption volume. The effect of the Slow Array also needs to be boosted." Rorschach rubbed his eyes, which were streaming with tears. To see what was happening inside, he had activated his [Arcane Vision], and the burst of Transmuting Dust had stung his eyes.

Luckily, the Mithril collector rod hadn’t been installed for this test. If that super-precious metal had also undergone Transformation, Rorschach would have had another reason to be crying his eyes out.

"Let’s salvage the scrap. I’ll have to trouble you again tomorrow, Master Snow." From the very beginning of his experiments, Rorschach had ordered the rough frames for three sets of the device. The experiments for the first technical route had gone so smoothly that he never needed them, but what was bound to happen had finally happened.

’It wouldn’t count as a dangerous experiment if something didn’t explode,’ Rorschach mused.

"Tell Kano to give me a raise!" Snow slapped his Mage Robe, which was covered in dust and flakes of wall plaster.

...

Deciding on the exact engineering parameters was a matter of metaphysics. With too many interacting factors, theory could only provide directional guidance. This world had no computers for simulations, so the specific parameters could only be found by Rorschach (dragging along the guys from the Alchemy Department) through life-threatening trial and error.

Okay, perhaps "life-threatening" was an exaggeration, since Rorschach’s own magic served as a safety net. But a few more explosions, and he’d burn through his entire budget.

Fortunately, he finally settled on a stable design. Exactly thirty days after the Mark II’s explosion, Rorschach leaned on a heavy-looking Ebony Staff and gave the command, "Proto...type, activate!"

Simon tremblingly pulled the first lever. The device began to run. After confirming the Barrier Array was fully pre-charged, the Star Realm Teleportation Array was also activated.

On the surface, nothing happened, which was the best possible outcome. It meant the device was operating stably. In Rorschach’s own [Arcane Vision], the Secret Silver Wires leading from the base of the tower gradually lit up as a massive amount of Ether surged out. A portion of the Ether was used to replenish the energy stored in the Alchemy Liquid. From now on, the Magic Array no longer required an external power source and could even periodically output a surplus.

The second technical route was a success!

Snow, who had been watching from the sidelines, quickly grabbed Rorschach’s hand. "Can we mass-produce this immediately? The other night, a magma monster escaped from the power room and nearly burned an Alchemy Department member who was working overtime to death!"

’Then you guys should just shut the portal to the Fire Elemental Plane and go back to burning coal...’ Rorschach couldn’t stop smiling. "As long as the Alchemy Department foots the bill. This thing isn’t cheap to build."