The mages’ exchange was next. Ouyeni had her own matters to attend to, so she excused herself, leaving Rorschach to converse with the other mages.

Rorschach personally cast the [Blue Light Barrier] for them and also took out a small sample of Dulled Transmuting Dust.

"Such pure Magic Power!" "The outer protective layer is similar in form to the Magic you just cast..." "It’s comparable to the highest purity Energy Crystals." "Are there any more samples?"

This was a product Rorschach planned to introduce to the Bayern Mages. The Transmuting Dust, once assimilated by Deryats Divine Power, was truly good stuff. Not only could it serve as a Casting Material providing high-purity, high-concentration Ether, but it could also be dissolved into Alchemy Ink to improve the quality of concoctions.

"Sorry, this is all I have. Perhaps you’ll be able to buy it in the future when there’s a stable supply."

Rorschach also got to see some interesting things in the Tower of Secret Techniques, such as the marvelous "Sealing Demon Disc." It could seal a Middle Tier or lower Magic spell inside, keeping it in a ready-to-cast state. The moment the disc was broken, the sealed Magic would be instantly unleashed.

"To be honest, we haven’t figured out a good use for it yet. It’s too fragile for easy transport, so its only advantage over a Scroll is instant casting. But if we reinforce it to the point where it’s too hard to break, that defeats the purpose..."

’This could be made into something like a safety valve or a rupture disc,’ Rorschach thought. ’If the pressure inside a container exceeds a set limit, the disc shatters to release the pressure. Following that inspiration, if I use the disc to seal a Teleportation Technique leading to the Air Elemental Plane... no, not that, but to a temporary storage tank, then safety could be greatly improved.’

It was similar to how a pressure cooker releases steam when over-pressurized. But in industrial production, you couldn’t just vent toxic or flammable gases into the open air. That would be fatal.

"Rorschach Mage?" His daydreaming caused the others to notice the young man staring blankly at the disc.

"What’s the current cost?" Rorschach noticed the disc’s material was like an eggshell, and it had a beautiful rose color.

"Imagine an equal weight of gold made to the thickness of an eggshell. The material and labor costs for the one in your hand come to about 200 Golden Eagle Coins."

’So expensive!’ Rorschach was so startled he almost crushed the precious disc. "What’s sealed inside?"

The creator of the disc answered, "[Fireball Skill]."

"You lunatic, are you trying to kill everyone in this room?" "Has your brain been pickled in beer?!" "Why would you bring that in here!" If he were caught off-guard by an explosive Fireball at point-blank range, even Rorschach would have been in serious trouble. Before he could say anything, the creator was already getting a harsh beating from his colleagues at the Tower of Secret Techniques.

...

Rorschach requested to visit and use the Tower of Secret Techniques’ library and Alchemy Workshop. Regarding the former, they hemmed and hawed, unwilling to grant access. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"The situation at the Tower of Secret Techniques is a bit special. What the continent calls forbidden books, we generally don’t consider forbidden. However, for the books that *are* forbidden in our library... if you read one and wish to leave the Tower, your memory must be erased..."

’Never mind then,’ he thought. ’I’ll come back to borrow books after you’ve established a proper classification system. I’m not eighteen yet, anyway.’ Fortunately, Rorschach successfully borrowed the Alchemy Workshop.

It was called a workshop, but since the people of the Tower of Secret Techniques didn’t value Alchemy Devices, it was now more like a storage area for Casting Materials. The flasks, jars, and crucibles were only used when they needed to create materials they couldn’t buy.

Since the Tower of Secret Techniques was unwilling to intervene in his conflict with the Glass Guild, Rorschach had no choice but to use other methods.

"Do you have any local metal ores?"

"We do. I’ll take you to them." Rorschach got straight to the point. He had the warehouse manager of the Tower of Secret Techniques lead him to a row of old cabinets containing both refined and unrefined metals, labeled with strange names.

"This is from the iron veins near Wertzburg. We also have imported copper ore, but it has many impurities. The Mining and Metallurgy Association commissioned us to develop a new refining process, but we gave up on it due to cost issues."

’Impurities are good. The associated minerals are exactly what I want.’

After thanking the manager and getting permission, Rorschach took all the raw ore specimens. He continuously used his [Decomposition Skill], centrifugation, and other methods to separate them, heating them directly with [Molten Beam]. He processed an entire box of discarded ore samples, obtaining small piles of associated minerals sorted by color and crystal form.

"This Magic is really convenient." He then fished out some dusty glass containers from the storeroom—flasks, swan-neck flasks, and the like, originally used for Alchemy. Rorschach smashed them and used [Molten Beam] to reduce them to a syrupy molten glass.

Then, he continuously added the separated powders to test them, flash-cooling the mixture with [Frozen Ray].

As the temperature dropped, the glass itself appeared, revealing different colors after the addition of mineral colorants.

Because the flux was a sodium salt and lead was commonly included for reinforcement, the original glass material would show a yellow tint if made thicker. But that didn’t matter. Rorschach now had green, blue, and beautiful rose-colored glass. They still had impurities, and because they were flash-cooled, their shapes were somewhat ugly, and the internal stress hadn’t been eliminated.

He thanked his past life’s craft class for giving him some memory of various colorants. Inorganic colorants for glass were often metal oxides. Green came from cadmium oxide, blue from cobalt oxide—the famous "cobalt blue." Rose could be produced with red; iron oxide worked, but selenium was needed for a beautiful finish.

Of course, Rorschach didn’t actually separate them so meticulously. They were all associated minerals from copper and iron ores. His work was simply to crudely refine them and then add them to the glass to test, one by one.

Their ugly shapes didn’t matter for now; Rorschach was focused on the color. He took out the shards of Forest Glass and Blue Glass he had picked up in Glass Town and compared them with his reprocessed products.

’Still not good enough. The color saturation and purity are still a notch below their products.’

Whether the flux was sodium-based or potassium-based also had an effect. Rorschach remembered that glass with high sodium and lead content tended to be yellowish, which was consistent with sodium’s flame test.

In that case, adding potassium and magnesium salts could improve it, essentially shifting the color toward the cooler end of the spectrum. Fortunately, the metal salts of sodium, potassium, and magnesium were much easier to obtain than those associated mineral oxides. The Alchemy Workshop had them readily available.

With the help of Magic and his knowledge from a past life, Rorschach had preliminary results by that evening.

"Not a bad color." Rorschach whistled. He held a pitted, opaque, and shapeless "Glass Egg." With normal techniques, further shaping would require melting the glass again. But for a Mage, it wasn’t so troublesome.

As everyone knew, stone was mainly composed of silicates, while glass was mainly silicon oxides. They were essentially similar. The [Stone Shaping Skill] would naturally work, but for some unknown reason that Rorschach hadn’t yet figured out, the "Activation" process took a bit longer.

Under Rorschach’s Casting, a small colt slowly took shape within the "Glass Egg," breaking free from the softened, rose-colored, inorganic, non-metallic, amorphous material.

"What? Rorschach Mage has been in the Alchemy Workshop this whole time and hasn’t come out?" Ouyeni was surprised to hear the Gargoyle’s report and hurried to the door. "Rorschach Mage? Rorschach?" The people of the Tower of Secret Techniques had never valued Alchemy. The room was in disrepair and rarely visited. It would be bad if a guest from the Tower of Stars had an accident inside.

The door was opened by Rorschach’s [Mage’s Hand]. "Elizabeth Mage?"

"Rorschach Mage, you didn’t even eat dinner... Oh my, it’s so cute!"

Rorschach held out the colorful little glass colt to the lady. "Thank you for letting me borrow the workshop of the Tower of Secret Techniques. I remember you said yesterday that you enjoy riding horses. Please accept this little trinket, Elizabeth Mage."

"Then I’ll accept it." She took it, admiring Rorschach’s masterpiece, and added, "Call me Ouyeni."

...

The President of the Glass Guild was fiddling with a wine glass. The quality of this batch was unstable, and its flaws made him frown.

"Come in." He didn’t expect the ones who entered after the knock to be the Valois man he had driven away earlier and that Mage.

The young man first took out a transparent glass pony.

"Oh, a product from the Jenfni Family. Very beautiful."

"As expected of the Guild President, you know every family’s products like the back of your hand. In that case, please take a look at this."

Rorschach took out an emerald-green pony, even more exquisite and lifelike, as if it could spring to life at any moment.

"And look at this."

A cobalt blue Knight. The palm-sized figurine was strikingly gallant.

"There’s also this, and our beverages."

Finally, there was a rose-colored glass he had never seen before, shaped exactly like a rose. And with it, the goods Mr. Hasse had brought.

The Guild President picked up the glass rose in disbelief, his hands trembling. He examined it again and again. "Magic! This is Magic!"

"What if I told you they can be mass-produced? I came to you first, you know. And surely you don’t want to see every workshop capable of producing Forest Glass and cobalt Blue Glass, do you?" Rorschach pushed the drink toward him. "I’m here to discuss terms... no, I’m here to make demands!"