Chapter 323: Dawn of a New Generation
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
“The Mage County hasn’t yet made an official response? This seems to be a huge matter.”
The Truth Symposium stayed silent—abnormally silent. When I thought about it, however, I realized that this was likely their way of expressing their extreme rage.
It was similar to my previous world. If there was friction between two countries, the aggrieved side would typically declare their dissatisfaction and organize some protests. This usually meant that the country didn’t intend to take actual action; for the sake of face, the country merely wanted to act—albeit verbally—tough.
If a country announced that they “reserved the right to take action,” it meant that they, in all likelihood, wanted to take action. However, a country that was aggrieved but kept silent would be the most dangerous of them all.
“As long as it’s necessary, these mages are capable of tolerating humiliation. But now there’s no such necessity…”
That left two possibilities. Either the country couldn’t afford to antagonize the other one and would pretend that nothing had happened, or the country was intending on taking revenge in secret.
Judging the current situation, there was a ninety-nine percent chance of it being the latter…
“The two sides are already separated by a deep grudge. The Mage Country’s forbidden curse ruined the Undead Emperor’s invasion plan, while the undead plotted a nefarious scheme to kill off the archmages in one go. And this isn’t even mentioning the fact that it was the undead who caused Amelia’s current unconscious state…”
“There’s you as well. In a way you’re the one who caused everything to sour to such a degree, the main culprit behind it all. You practically caused Aso’s death, and you’re currently in the Mage Country. You’re definitely number one on their hit list.”
“Thank you for reminding and jinxing me. By the way, what did it feel like to soak in a water elemental pool?”
“Shouldn’t you already know? The tea you drank this morning was blessed with the presence of my shower water.”
*Ptui!*
Anyone who’s ever had a pet would know that they loved to show off their captured prey to their owners. And it was even more awkward for them when their pets attempted to share this prey—including all the rats and cockroaches that had been secretly added into the food… Fine then, this silly cat was worse than all of those pets—she did it all intentionally. To curb this unseemly behavior, I would definitely have to give her a good lesson.
“Stop running away! Come, let’s see if I don’t hang you out to dry on top of the mage tower!”
While the perpetual fight between the silly cat and I repeated itself yet again, the wheels of my plan were once again in motion. The next phase had begun.
Mages could be said to be the ones most wasteful of their wealth. Even with such top-level experimental conditions at their disposal, they would typically just research the creation of basic spell models. Or, with the portal to the water elemental plane, they would only summon a few water elemental servants while the portal itself would remain inactive for the great majority of the time. My subordinates, on the other had, were delighted to be able to use the mage tower’s top-level research equipment to perform their own research.
“I’m attempting to install mecha armor and additional weapons on the magic puppets. This can solve the problem of their overly simple attacks.”
“How foolish! Haven’t you noticed that their greatest weakness is their slow speed? I intend to install Iron Horse wheels on them so that they can become far more mobile than before.”
“…Why not just install a ropeller? A flying magic puppet would be so cool—it could even carry people around! We could hire it out and make so much money!”
“Stop being so ridiculous. Ropellers are known to be unreliable, and it’s impossible to adjust their efficiency ratio. They’ll either cause the object to fly too high or not fly at all. And it’s fine if it fails to fly, but if the aerodynamic lift is too much then that’d make the puppet be no different from an execution implement. It’ll simply fly off with the puppet’s head, leaving its body lying on the ground. Did all of you forget about that unfortunate experiment we did with the scarecrow?”
What was with the name ‘ropeller’? Ahh, this was a classic story. When I first arrived in this world, I gave a shot at inventing some engineering technology that would allow flight. However, although I could recall the mechanics of propellers from my previous world, I was only a law major and didn’t understand the scientific principles behind its functioning. However, I did know of a common little toy: those mini propellers from China. [1] 1
I casually created a wooden mini-propeller and gave it over to the dwarves who were skilled at making more intricate mechanisms. I asked them to research and discuss how to make it into a real concept capable of flight. The dwarves naturally asked what it was, as they didn’t yet understand why the mini-propeller had the ability to fly through the air. And so, I just responded with something like this was called a propeller and that was its ability.
However, the dwarves didn’t clearly hear me and thought that it was called the ‘ropeller,’ instead. And that was how ‘ropeller’ became its official name, a name that spread far and wide before I discovered what was going on. When I finally learned of the mistake, the name had spread far too much for me to do anything about it. Ropeller was now the officially recognized name of this mechanism I brought from my previous world. I was no longer able to change the name even if I wanted to.
It could be expected that if magic puppets were equipped with all these devices and accessories that my engineers were thinking about, they would become much more powerful. With all sorts of dangerous weapons and heavy armor, they would be quite fearsome… But for some unknown reason, I suddenly thought of a certain strong naked man who shouted, “I’ll be back!”
The locals in this world were equally intelligent with the geniuses from my previous world. The most I could do in many cases was provide them with inspiration and tell them that this was possible. Often times, the end result would far exceed my expectations.
Magical engineering was such an unexpected miracle product. The combination of science and magic gave birth to explosive transformations in existing technologies. Nobody could predict what might come about as a result of magical engineering. However, it was easily predictable that the discipline would change the very fabric of this fantasy world’s society.
At the very least, under my supervision, magical engineering’s development had far exceeded its extent in the game’s “history.”
Beastmen warriors were equipped with mobile mechas, elven rangers rode motorcycles, while dwarves and gnomes who weren’t as physically strong wore mecha armors. “History” had already reached a divergent point.
“How’s the analysis on the Salo’s Crystal going? I think it’s one of the top-level inventions of the ‘Age of Scholarly Inventions,’ the Haletdam generation. Oh, what’s Timlad doing?”
“Timlad says that it’s way too difficult to analyze its workings, but it isn’t impossible. No matter what, the current environment is different to that of the immemorial generation. It’s definitely impossible to recreate a Salo’s Crystal with the same power as the original, but still it should be possible to create a weaker version with less than one percent of its power.”
“That’s sufficient… tell him that it’s not a rush—it’s only medium priority. After all, Salo’s Crystals are far too dangerous. I don’t want to wake up one day to find out I’m flying through the sky because my mage tower has exploded.”
Little Timlad was becoming more and more amazing. As my lead engineer, he was a bottomless pit when it came to anything involving engineering. He would always give me happy surprises.
Two days ago, I handed Timlad another research idea of mine—developing new Colossi. The immemorial Haletdam generation was also nicknamed the Colossi generation after their excellent Colossi technology. It just remained to see how much of it Timlad was able to develop.
With more and more people joining under me, there were now plenty of specialists in all areas and fields. I didn’t think that the loose contractual relationships between domain lords and their hired personal mages were appropriate to use. Instead, the company, department, and project team structuring from my previous world worked much better for me.
By the way, I should mention that the current leader of my alchemy department was Yingou Beyar. However, the one who really ran things in the alchemy department was his second-in-command, Olivia, who was growing more talented with each day. Not only was she fully developing her natural talent in alchemy that was displayed in the game’s “history,” but she had also established good relationships with the alchemists, engineers, smiths, and enchanters. More importantly she and was always able to mediate between them. Even though Olivia wasn’t even twenty years old, she was becoming more and more like an overall general manager of the departments.
Right now, Olivia was in charge of all my important projects, such as the improvements to mobile mechas and Olivia’s Magic Box. With her around, I could be comforted of the fact that the alchemist teams and engineer teams wouldn’t start fighting outright.
Of course, she did complain about it. Working on improving her Magic Box or enchanted mechas helped greatly improve her engineering and enchanting knowledge—she was now at the level where she could subclass in both engineering and enchanting. However, it was pushing her farther and farther away from her dream of becoming a grand alchemist.
However, Yingou, her alchemist teacher, secretly told me that Olivia’s alchemy potions were becoming even stronger—and their effects, too, were getting stranger. For example, there had been an underwear thief with ridiculously long body hair who had kept stealing underwear all over the Cloud Tower. When he was finally captured, it was discovered that he was only a wild monkey who had been fed an “extra hair growth” potion from Olivia. It was just that not only did the potion help the monkey lengthen its body hair, it also massively increased the monkey’s lust, height, strength, intelligence, and many other areas. The ordinary monkey became a long-haired gorilla that went around sexually harassing the mages.
“For the sake of world peace, we should make Olivia use her talent in safer fields. I’d prefer to live a few extra years.”—Yingou Beyar.
Yes, those were Yingou’s exact words—the Yingou who continually created explosives. This troublemaking gnome actually truly believed that his own disciple was an even bigger troublemaker. Cold sweat was dripping down his face and back as he said this. It seemed that his genius disciple was giving him quite some trouble as of late.
“Oh, right, since her potions are so incredible, how about giving one to Beifeng? Perhaps it’ll have the effect of calming him down. After all, no medicine in the world is capable of saving him. He couldn’t possibly get any worse.”
“…Aren’t you afraid that it’s actually possible he’ll get worse, and he’ll evolve into a Mega Beifeng? Perhaps he’ll even awaken some new hobbies, just like that experimental monkey.”
When I thought about how that long-haired male monkey awakened to the strange hobby of going around and stealing old men’s underwear, and imagined Beifeng becoming like this as well, I, too, broke out into a cold sweat. Just imagining this scene filled me with despair.
“…Let’s talk about this topic later. Should this ever happen, we can be certain that Armageddon has arrived.”
Suddenly, Yingou seemed to think of something frightening. He revealed a terrified expression, one devoid of hope and filled with despair.
“Recently, Beifeng has been inviting Olivia for lunch and paying for her meals! I think he wants her to create a potion for him!”
“Impossible! Does he think he’s still salvageable?”
“Nobody knows if he’s still salvageable, but I think he’s intending on getting a potion for one of his little companions!”
Just as we were exchanging worried glances with each other, we heard a cry for help from outside.
“Ahhh! Monster!”
A classic monster movie seemed to be playing outside. People were fleeing helter-skelter as shrieks of terror flooded the streets. A gigantic black beast was battling the police mages.
For some reason, that gigantic black beast appeared somewhat familiar. When I changed my position and looked at it from a different angle, I realized that it was a gorilla as tall as this seventeen-floor mage tower. Currently, this gorilla was delightedly playing around with a “doll” in its hands. This doll, however, seemed strangely familiar, as it had dragon horns and black scales…
“Is that Beifeng? And isn’t that the experimental monkey? It evolved yet again?”
“…Who’s Beifeng? I don’t know who he is.”
“…That’s right, I don’t know who he is, either!”
Cough, both of us decided to ignore that “struggling damsel in distress” in “King Kong’s” hands when we thought about the trouble waiting for us later.
Let’s just ignore the commotion outside and change the topic of conversation. Since we now had a main headquarters, an excellent place to perform our research as well as a large number of researchers, a store, warehouses, and the recognition from other mage organizations, the Great Industrial Party could be finally said to have matured.
“Tell the gnomes and dwarves to not fly too far on their personal flight machines. There are far too many powerful aerial troops in this world—the gargoyles, griffins, and falcon knights are good examples. Since they just recently succeeded in achieving flight, it’ll still be difficult to face off against these veteran aerial troops. Let’s first focus on improving our airships and cannons.”
Yep, the most I could do was to use my status as a “transmigrator” to point them in the right direction. This would help them avoid wasting so much time and money on useless projects like a “perpetual motion machine.” In fact, just two days ago, I rejected a research plan called “Perpetual Olivia’s Magic Box Development Plan.” It would seem that, in any world, researchers would be eternally interested in and ambitious about developing a self-sustaining perpetual energy source.
“Of course, I’m not going to forbid people from privately working on whatever personal research projects they want. After all, nobody knows what’s really possible with magic engineering in the future. However, I won’t allow such projects to affect the projects I view as A-rank in potential.”
I had far too many research projects going on simultaneously, which meant that I was forced to prioritize some over others. It was I who personally assigned letter ranks to each project’s importance. Back when the Iron Horses were under development, they were only a B-rank project as it was an invention for the masses. Meanwhile, I assigned the highest rank, the S rank, to developing the seven Big Dipper ships that would complement my “Envy” Borealis. Other S-ranked projects of mine included developing the second generation Olivia’s Magic Box as well as improving the mobile mechas. Yep, the projects to which I assigned the highest ranks were ones that would affect practical combat almost immediately. We were, after all, quite short on time.
These generation-changing seeds had already been planted, and there would be no stopping magical engineering from reaching the pinnacle of this world. It could be expected that no matter what happened in the future, as long as the Mage Country wasn’t completely destroyed, the Great Industrial Party was certain to become an important mage organization and member of the Truth Symposium. Magical engineering would also become one of the most important fields of all.
Of course, since this was all unstoppable, there was no need for me to worry about it. It wasn’t necessary to think that far into the future. I needed to first take care of the present.
[Passive racial talent: Unyielding Beast. The greater your injuries, the more your stats will be increased. If you are in a seriously injured state, you shall receive heightened combat senses, greatly heightening your attack and defense. At maximum, this can triple your power level and double your Strength and Dexterity upon reaching a seriously injured state. Your Constitution can be tripled. System Notification: Why don’t you stop being a mage and simply start leveling up as a barbarian, instead?]
This was the ability I gained via my breakthrough when fighting against the two adamantine magic puppets. It was quite a common one as well. Many aggressive species and tribes possessed abilities that allowed them to become stronger and stronger the more they were injured, especially the barbarians and beastmen. An injured beast would only be more dangerous. In fact, some berserkers would intentionally injure themselves before a battle in order to raise their willpower and combat strength.
Although this was a common ability type, that didn’t mean it was useless. Rather, it was the opposite. This was one of the most useful of all “warrior” racial talents. Everyone knew that it was a wonderful feeling to successfully counterattack when being pushed to the brink. However, it was always those who knew how to swim that would drown in larger numbers. Relying on this ability too much meant always dancing on the edge of a cliff. One little misstep would result in death before one could even realize what happened.
“You really did choose the wrong job class. Did you just close your eyes and randomly pick one at the beginning?”
That was Harloys’ comment for me when she learned about this ability I gained. But, from a certain standpoint, her comment about me being a mage wasn’t wrong in the least. After all, my first ever job class was a Holy Knight, indeed a physical job class. In my second reincarnation, I started learning magic in order to make up for my weaknesses as well as to hide my true identity.
Meanwhile, my System spread some salt on my wound by making the barbarian berserker, heavy knight of the cross, dragon knight, and other powerful melee combat advanced job classes available to me in its options. Some of them were really quite attractive. If it wasn’t for the fact that my bloodline required my power over Order and Chaos to be in balance, I really would have been tempted to take on another subclass.
In order to test my new ability, I went and defeated everyone in the arena, unexpectedly finding a few skilled individuals who I convinced to become my subordinates. Of course, something else happened as a result as well.
“Barbarian mage? Me?”
Fine then, I suppose it was rather surprising news to everyone that I defeated a heavy armor boar knight empty-handed. Hey, it wasn’t my fault that he refused to duel against me unless I promised to not use any magic when he saw my Emblems of Endless Truth. That was why I agreed and defeated him with my hands alone.
“That’s your excuse for crushing his iron helmet to pieces with your bare hands? And then tossing his boar steeds into the stands? You really are a barbarian!”
“Cough, that was just an accident.”
After the Great Industrial Party and Thorn Garden solidified their presences, the Truth Symposium made an official decision as well.
It was now time for us to leave.
Note:
[1] TL/N: If you want to know what this toy is, type 竹蜻蜓 in Google Images.