[Book 1 Completed] Industrial Mage: Modernizing a Magical World [Kingdom Building LitRPG]
B2 | Chapter 55 – Getting A Rank 6’s Attention

Julius POV

Julius had never run so fast in his life. Well, maybe that one time when he'd accidentally set Master Aldric's favorite book on fire, but this was different. Despite being a Rank 4 apprentice enchanter, he'd gotten his ass kicked. Regardless, this was good news.

As he rounded the corner, his feet slipped on the smooth marble, almost colliding with an ornate suit of armor. The enchanter's tower was way too fancy for its own good. All these useless decorations everywhere, just waiting to trip up apprentices who were trying to deliver world-changing information.

When he arrived at Master Aldric's workshop, he stopped, took a deep breath, then one more. For the past three days, his master had been working on a breakthrough in private. Unless the tower was actually on fire, Julius was not allowed to bother him.

He knocked. "Master Aldric? I know you said no interruptions, but—"

"Go away, Julius. Whatever it is can wait."

"Master, it really can't! This is about enchantments! Affinity mana conversion! It's unprecedented!"

Silence from the other side of the door. Julius could feel the massive amounts of mana radiating through the door. It made his skin prickle and his teeth ache. In that room, just how much power was his master channeling?

"Master?"

"Enter."

Julius froze as soon as he pushed the door open. Raw magical energy of a Rank 6 was exploding in the workshop. His eyes watered as he watched mana crackle and shift in a visible storm hanging in the air. Master Aldric sat cross-legged on a cushion in the middle of it all, his mana gushing forth in waves.

It was like trying to breathe underwater. There was a great deal of pressure. Julius was unable to move, think, or even stand up straight. This was far more powerful than the mana control he had as an apprentice, in fact it was insulting to even compare himself.

Then the pressure pulled back. Only the dim afterglow of so much mana remained in the air as the storm of mana dispersed like smoke. With the grimace that typically preceded extremely unpleasant teachings about appropriate protocol, Master Aldric opened his eyes and gazed at him.

"Brat, you better have a good excuse for coming here."

"I—I do master! Just look at this! This—this is unprecedented! These enchantments!"

Master Aldric raised an eyebrow. The man had the kind of sharp features that made people reconsider lying to him.

"What? Calm down. Explain slowly. Start from the beginning."

Julius nodded frantically and pulled out the documents he'd been clutching. "Yes. So a new patent came in through the Inventor's Guild, and I was curious 'cause there was a lot of speculation and doubt about its validity."

He laid the papers out on Master Aldric's desk.

"They want to send high-ranking appraisers to test this out and see if the patent holder is lying or not. While every branch tests things thoroughly in such cases, they don't want to leave such a patent to some branch, so they'll be going. If it's true, this is unprecedented! If we can learn from this, we can push enchantments decades ahead! Master, we must meet the person behind this!"

Master Aldric glanced down at the papers with a vague curiosity.

"Hm? Show me."

Julius pointed to the first diagram. "Look at this mana conversion matrix. Our best enchanters only understand portions of it, it's almost like runes! It is completely wrong according to everything we know, but the test results say it works. Very good efficiency, too! Fire mana to ice mana with almost no loss, that's in one of the tests, but this patent claims to also convert any other mana."

His master studied the "runic arrangements", leaning closer. Julius knew him well enough to notice the stiffness around his eyes, but his demeanor remained mostly unchanged. But he was shocked, surely! He could tell, he'd lived with the old man long enough!

"And this preservation enchantment," Julius continued, flipping to the next page. "It's sustaining ice mana for days. Days, Master! Without any mana input after the initial activation. That should be impossible. And yet this isn't even the full capacity of what this patent holder calls the mana battery."

Master Aldric reviewed it in silence for a long time. Julius could almost hear the gears working. For forty years, the man had been researching enchantments. He was aware of what was and wasn't in the realm of possibility.

"This...!" At last, Master Aldric spoke, and Julius had never heard his voice sound quite like that before. His master was stunned. His master went through the papers once more. "Who submitted this patent?"

"Someone named Theodore. Lord Theodore, apparently. From some backwater domain. The Inventor's Guild people think he's a fraud, but we also uncovered that he's a Lockheart. He's royalty, and his reputation isn't really good, or wasn't, to be more specific. He's apparently been improving, and he's also been making waves in the kingdom with his soap business."

"A fraud?" Master Aldric snorted. "They're idiots. Julius, do you know what this represents?"

"Revolutionary advancement in enchantment theory?"

"No." His master looked up from the papers. "This represents either the greatest breakthrough in magical theory in centuries, or the most elaborate hoax ever attempted."

"But Master, what if it's real?"

Master Aldric set the papers down carefully. "If it's real, then everything we think we know about enchantments is incomplete. This Theodore has either stumbled onto something that's eluded every master enchanter in the kingdom, or he's developed entirely new principles we're completely unaware of."

Julius's enthusiasm began to grow once more.

"So we should meet with him! Learn from him! This could change everything!"

"Call off the appraisers, we mustn't let anyone else get their hands on him," Master Aldric said suddenly. "I will be going myself. If this is a trick, royal or not, this Theodore is in a lot of trouble!"

Although Julius nodded in agreement with his master, he secretly wished it was true. This had never happened before! There were countless uses. Food preservation, medical storage, climate control... They'd have the power to completely transform society.

"When do we leave?" Julius asked.

"We?" Master Aldric looked at him with amusement. "This is a master-level investigation, apprentice. You'll be staying here to mind the workshop."

"But Master—"

"No buts. If this Theodore is legitimate, I need to approach him as an equal. If he's a fraud, I need to be able to act without worrying about an apprentice getting caught in the crossfire."

Julius deflated a little. He had hoped to witness firsthand the revolutionary enchantments. Perhaps even get to meet this Theodore, who seems to have found solutions to issues that had baffled great enchanters for years.

"However," Master Aldric continued, gathering up the patent documents, "if this proves to be genuine, you'll be among the first to study the new techniques. I'll need assistants who understand the implications."

That perked Julius up again.

"Pack my travel gear," Master Aldric instructed. "I leave at dawn. And Julius?"

"Yes, Master?"

"If anyone asks where I've gone, tell them I'm investigating a potential advancement in enchantment theory. Nothing more. We don't need rumors spreading until we know what we're dealing with."

With a nod, Julius made his way to the door. His master called out once more as he went for the handle.

"Also, good work bringing this to my attention. If this Theodore is legitimate, you may have just helped advance magical theory by decades."

Julius grinned and hurried out to prepare for his master's journey.

***

Theodore POV

Overlapping projects and training sessions had taken over Theodore's life recently.

Every morning for the entire month, he had to check on the construction of the bathhouse, solve any issues that Einar's crew ran into, and ensure that the groundbreaking plumbing systems were functioning as intended. Then there were the production issues with the refrigerator. He had been trying for weeks to come up with a runic device that could repeat his inscriptions without his having to stand there and perform them one by one, as three hours per unit was just not sustainable.

Regardless, the bathhouse opening was coming closer and closer.

None of that mattered now, though. Right now, he was getting his ass handed to him by Freya's willpower training.

Three weeks had passed since she had first introduced him to the idea, and Theodore was beginning to suspect that he was somehow broken, in some fundamental way. Willpower wasn't truly a system skill in the conventional sense, according to Freya. It was more akin to... unadulterated will made manifest; reality conforming to the sheer force of your willpower.

She had mentioned that this came more naturally the higher your Rank. However, not everyone was able to do it intentionally. Without ever realizing it, the majority of individuals simply lived with their subconscious influencing small things in their environment. It took certain training to actually weaponize it, to transform it into something that could be used in battle or as a magic tool.

And apparently, Theodore sucked at it.

According to Freya, his [Severing Aura] was so strong that it could rip through nearly anything. However, a foe could withstand the severing if they had a strong enough will. Instead of being solely a question of magical might, it turned into a conflict between wills. For his fancy new skill to be effective against an experienced foe, he'd need adequate willpower training.

Of course, this only mattered for [Severing Aura] and not [Sever] itself. [Sever] itself was far too broken and strong, he was not keen on using it much, for he hadn't done so a lot, and he had only recently learned how to use it properly.

For three weeks, he'd failed spectacularly.

He could feel what she was doing. He could sense the weight of her will pressing down on him like some invisible force. However, each time he attempted to reply in kind, nothing occurred. He would try to project his own will outward while focusing and straining, but to no avail. It was like attempting to flex an imaginary muscle.

Freya had been patient about it. She kept insisting that he'd get it eventually, that everyone learned at their own pace, that willpower was particularly tricky for people who were used to relying purely on system skills and magical theory.

But Theodore was getting tired of being patient with himself.

Right now, Freya's aura was pressing down on him with what felt like the weight of an entire mountain range. Not her mana—he'd learned to distinguish between the two—but something more fundamental.

Theodore tried to push back, gritting his teeth. He thought for a second that he felt something, a slight spark of resistance, but it vanished, overwhelmed by Freya's will.

This was absurd. He could use runic inscriptions to control reality. He could design plumbing systems and refrigerators that shouldn't be in this world. His [Severing Aura] could rip through magical shielding. However, he was unable to find a way to make his own willpower work.

As the pressure mounted, Theodore's knees began to give way.

That's when something inside him snapped.

Freya's crushing aura didn't simply vanish when he had an inexplicable enlightenment; rather, it was ripped to pieces in an instant, like tissue paper in a blender. It was there for a moment, overbearing and oppressive, and then it was gone, reduced to scattered fragments that vanished into thin air.

Freya's grin was immediate and genuinely pleased.

"That's more like it!" Her eyes lit up with the kind of excitement she usually reserved for particularly brutal sparring sessions. "Now, let's turn up the heat, shall we?"

***

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