Chapter 170. The Magitech Academy Begins Initial Operations
In the north of the city stood what had originally been the estate of so viscount who had been purged.
The place was now called the First Magitech Academy of the Northern Territory. As for its forr owner, Viscount Cavendish, since he had been convicted by Cicero of smuggling contraband and tax evasion, his entire family had been sentenced to work in the coal mines as penance. With a grand wave of Sylvia’s hand, the estate had been reassigned as the site of the Magitech Academy.
Standing in the main hall of the central building, Logaris ground the toe of his shoe against the expensive handmade carpet beneath his feet and thought that it was a bit of a waste to use sothing like this under laboratory benches. Still, those research fanatics probably would not care whether they were stepping on wool or mud.
“Professor, the ventilation ducts over here still aren’t completely finished. Be careful not to get dust all over yourself.”
Aaron followed behind, carrying a stack of docunts in his arms, a plaque hanging from his chest that read “Dean.” He practically walked with a gust of wind around him—though that wind carried quite a bit of resentnt from chronic overti.
“All right, enough of that useless chatter.” Logaris waved him off, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings.
The grand hall that had once hosted balls had now been transford into a public work area. Dozens of long tables had been shoved together, piled high with blueprints, discarded parts, and half-eaten rations. The air was rich with the sll of coffee.
This was exactly the scent Logaris had wanted.
Those graduates from Saint Arcadia Academy were currently clustered around the tables in groups of three or five, arguing at full volu.
“I’m telling you, this rune circuit won’t work! The mana loss rate of a single rune is already over fifteen percent! This is garbage!”
“The hell do you know? This is for compatibility with low-tier magic crystals! If we used high-purity magic crystals across the board, are you going to reimburse the cost?!”
Just listen to that. What a beautiful sound.
Logaris nodded in satisfaction.
“Call everyone over. eting.” He found a table that looked relatively sturdy and sat on it without any airs.
Aaron cleared his throat and picked up a loudhailer from nearby—another little gadget Logaris had invented.
“Everyone! Stop what you’re doing! The professor has sothing to say!”
The chaotic hall fell silent at once. Several hundred eyes all turned in unison toward Logaris.
To these young people, Logaris was not just their employer. He was also the idol who had single-handedly torn open a path through the academic world.
Naturally, Logaris did not waste words. He snapped his fingers, and at once a complicated chanical schematic appeared on the massive blackboard behind him.
Magitech Internal Combustion Engine 2.0.
This was the money-devouring beast he had developed in the laboratory so ti ago.
“Take a good look.” Logaris pointed at the core section of the design. “At present, the cost of this thing is five thousand Golden Lion Coins. If I hear that any of you managed to build one that costs six thousand, I’ll stuff you into a boiler and use you as fuel.”
A wave of low laughter rose from below.
“But I didn’t gather you here today to build this five-thousand-coin luxury item.” Logaris abruptly changed tone, and his voice sank. “I want you to turn it into sothing that costs five hundred Golden Lion Coins—or even fifty.”
The entire hall erupted.
“Five hundred?!” A male student in thick glasses could not stop himself from shouting. “Professor, the liquid mithril used in the core conduits alone already costs more than that at market price! Unless we replace it with silver-plated copper tubing, but then the heat resistance won’t et the standard at all. It’ll blow up ten minutes after startup!”
“Then let it blow up.” Logaris looked at him. “If it explodes once, write down why it exploded. If it explodes a hundred tis, sooner or later you’ll find a formula that is both cheap and stable. Or you can research a heat-resistant barrier for copper tubing—one that costs no more than three silver coins.”
The young man opened his mouth, then said nothing. It was obvious he had already fallen into serious thought.
“Everyone, this is what research really is.” Logaris rose to his feet, his gaze sweeping over every young face before him. “Piling on expensive materials in a laboratory without regard for cost is what nouveau riche fools do. What we need to do is use the cheapest possible materials to create the best possible product.”
He pulled a densely written list from his pocket and slapped it onto the table.
“I’ve already broken this major project down into more than thirty smaller tasks. Alternative materials for the combustion chamber, improvents to the casting process for the piston connecting rods, and so on. Aaron will distribute the assignnts afterward.”
Logaris paused, adjusted his glasses, and bared the fangs of a capitalist.
“Each group will receive funding, though not much. The first group to solve its task will take half of the remaining budget from every other group as a bonus. As for the ones who fail…”
He did not continue. He rely smiled.
That smile sent a chill down the back of everyone’s neck.
Over the next two hours, the entire academy was like a deep-water bomb thrown into a still lake.
Teams were ford, tasks assigned, equipnt distributed.
These students had signed confidentiality contracts. The mont they walked through these doors, they had more or less sold their souls to Logaris.
And they had done so willingly.
After all, where else would they ever get a chance to work hands-on with core technology of this level?
With his hands behind his back, Logaris wandered between the various experintal benches like an old farr inspecting his fields.
“You there, lower your mana output a little! Are you trying to burn straight through that steel plate?”
“And you over there, stop using third-tier mana-gathering runes. They’re too expensive! Change them to second-tier ones. If the output isn’t enough, just wire several in parallel!”
Then he stopped in front of an isolated compartnt marked Top Secret.
Inside, several students specializing in bio-alchemy were huddled around a microscope, scratching their heads at a few tubes of dark red blood samples.
They belonged to Lilith.
Industrialization was not the only thing Logaris had on his mind. He had not forgotten the half-elf’s outrageously overpowered Anti-Magic trait, either.
In order to determine whether that power—the ability to nullify mana itself—could be replicated through alchemical ans, even if only in the form of a one-use Anti-Magic Bracelet, he had deliberately established this special research group.
When it ca ti to draw her blood, that miserly coward had wailed to the heavens and thought Logaris was going to slice her up for dissection. But the mont he slapped a heavy pouch of Golden Lion Coins in front of her as “nutritional compensation,” Lilith had imdiately rolled up her sleeves and declared, “Go ahead and draw as much as you want, boss—just don’t drain dry.”
Logaris pushed open the door and walked in. The researchers inside instantly stood upright in nervous tension.
“Professor!” The lead researcher adjusted his glasses, his face a mixture of excitent and frustration. “Regarding Miss Lilith’s blood samples, we… we’ve run into enormous difficulties.”
“Talk.”
Logaris’s gaze settled on the carefully preserved tubes of blood.
“Its Anti-Magic properties are… too unusual!” The researcher pointed at a magitech microscope nearby whose lenses were covered in cracks and said with visible heartache, “Any probe that relies on mana simply fails to function. The mont an analytical spell makes contact with the blood, it collapses. Even the rune circuits on the instrunt go dead because the surrounding mana environnt is disrupted. It’s like trying to asure the temperature of fire with ice—every tool becos useless the instant it touches the target.”
Another researcher added, “We’ve tried more than a hundred tis. The only thing we can confirm is that Miss Lilith’s blood can degrade nearby stable mana structures, reducing them to their most primitive and chaotic Aether state. But we have absolutely no way to observe the process itself, much less understand its underlying principle.”
“A bunch of idiots,” Logaris said rcilessly. “If you already know the magical route is a dead end, then why keep charging down the sa path? Who told you that the only way to study magical substances is with magical thods?”
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