[Book 1 Completed] Industrial Mage: Modernizing a Magical World [Kingdom Building LitRPG]
B2 | Chapter 33 – Loose Ends

Theodore POV

Theodore thought the runework was rather simple, but Baron Ashton's eyes were fixed on the slime container, his mouth agape as though he had just witnessed a divine miracle.

The man had been circling the damned thing for nearly ten minutes, jabbing it with one stubby finger as if he was afraid it would bite back or explode in his face.

Which, considering some of the devices that passed for innovation in this world, Theodore supposed wasn't totally irrational.

"Extraordinary," said Ashton, with that tone of wonder in his voice that Theodore had grown accustomed to hearing from people who didn't know what they were seeing.

Which wasn't quite wrong here, to be fair. Ashton didn't know the first thing about what he was looking it, because if he knew, he would either be screaming for a priest or begging for the blueprints, maybe both at once, and Theodore wasn't entirely sure which would be more entertaining.

Runes weren't supposed to work this way. That was the prevailing wisdom of this silly, stubborn little world, repeated with the same certainty people declared the sun would rise.

Not only did they not comprehend it, but they were unable to do so. The Royal Library had whole works dedicated to the theoretical impossibility of rune inscription, complete with obscure boundaries and pompous pictures and long-winded theses about metaphysical rejection.

But gods, it made hiding the truth so much easier.

If Ashton had any idea what he was really looking at, he'd be flipping tables. Or praying. Or possibly flipping tables whiile praying.

Theodore watched him with the patience of a man who knew he was playing with fire and had long since decided to see how close he could get to the flame without catching. It was a fun little game—show off just enough to tantalize, never enough to damn.

Because gods help him, if the smarter nobles ever got wind of it—the really smart ones—they wouldn't waste time being horrified. They'd see coin, power, control. And then they'd smile and he'd be dragged into a world he wanted no part of but knew he was slowly edging closer to.

After the tournament, he'd be officially in the game.

"How did you do it?" Ashton demanded, finally tearing his gaze away from the container to fix Theodore with an expression of desperate curiosity. "I mean, what's the secret? The mechanism? Surely there must be some kind of... some sort of..."

He pointed helplessly at the container, obviously without the words to even begin to explain what he believed might be going on.

"It is simply extraordinary, Lord Theodore. The slimes... they're actually stable. Calm as lambs in there, when yesterday they were practically tearing each other apart."

The man wasn't wrong, of course. The slimes were indeed behaving themselves. However, it was starting to get on his nerves hearing Ashton rave about it as if Theodore had just reinvented the wheel.

Baron Ashton wouldn't stop talking. He was one of those men who thought praise was currency and gushing enthusiasm a form of payment. For the third time in a minute, Ashton gave him a shoulder clap while laughing with that horsey bray that sounded like a file on soft wood.

"It is just brilliant! Absolutely genius, Lord Theodore! This—it solves everything! You've addressed it all!"

He should be thankful for the baron's excitement, though, he thought. When the opposing party was virtually giddy with anticipation over your work, it made negotiations much simpler.

"Again, how did you do it?" he asked, trying for casual but failing miserably. "I must know!"

Theodore felt his lips curve into a cold smile. He raised one finger to his lips in a gesture that was both intentionally theatrical and unmistakably threatening, watching with mild amusement as Ashton's face went through several interesting color changes.

Since the Baron had closed his mouth to think, there was silence.

Sometimes, Theodore had discovered that the best course of action in these circumstances was to say nothing at all and let the other person's imagination do the rest.

People were remarkably good at scaring themselves when given the opportunity.

Ashton gulped loudly, blinked, and then, to his credit, had the good sense to nod and laugh nervously, like a man who'd just asked something obscene at a dinner party.

"Trade secret it is!" he raised his hands up in surrender and said with forced joviality, though Theodore could hear the nervous quiver beneath. "Of course, of course. A man of your obvious talents must guard his methods carefully."

Smart man, though not smart enough to realize that the real secret wasn't the method but the fact that Theodore could inscribe runes at all. If Ashton knew that particular detail, this entire arrangement would become considerably more complicated. The baron would either try to exploit him directly or, more likely, sell information about Theodore's capabilities to someone with deeper pockets.

All's fair in love and war—and money.

Not that Theodore was particularly worried about either scenario. He'd dealt with ambitious provincial nobles before, and they all tended to make the same fundamental mistake of assuming that raw ambition could substitute for actual competence.

Nevertheless, it was preferable to steer clear of needless complications whenever feasible.

"Now then," Theodore said, "shall we finalize our agreement?"

What followed was the usual dance of negotiation, though Theodore had to admit that Ashton was more agreeable than most. The baron nodded enthusiastically at every proposal, signed every document with barely a glance at the terms—though it was another matter entirely they'd went through this multiple times by now—and generally conducted himself like a man who'd just been handed the keys to his own personal goldmine.

Which, Theodore supposed, wasn't entirely inaccurate.

The specifics of their arrangement were straightforward enough. The profit split was generous enough to keep the baron happy while still ensuring that Theodore would see a substantial return on his investment.

"And the fervidite shipments?" Theodore asked.

"Set and ready to go, Lord Theodore! Just say the word and we can have the first batch on its way to you within the week. Premium quality, I assure you. The miners have been working double shifts to meet your specifications. Of course, they chose willingly and have been paid accordingly."

"I'll handle the containers. And I'll create a… device for the new slimes you bring in. Something to keep them from dying off."

Ashton looked momentarily alarmed. "They'd die?"

"I solved the issue for the slimes currently on the farm, not every slime in the world. But, no, they will not die with my device," Theodore replied.

"Excellent. I'll manage everything else according to the terms we've outlined. This partnership will be the making of both our fortunes, I'm certain of it."

Theodore made appropriate noises of agreement while his thoughts turned to more practical matters.

The current slime solution was effective but hardly scalable—he couldn't be expected to manually inscribe runes into every single slime for the rest of his life, could he?

The work was tedious enough when dealing with a handful of specimens; trying to do it for an entire commercial operation would drive him to madness.

No, of course he wasn't going to hand-inscribe runes into every single goddamn slime they sent his way. That was insanity. He had other things to do, entire projects back home in Holden that needed reworking now that rune inscriptions were in play.

What he needed was some kind of device that could handle the inscriptions automatically. His initial thought was to design a gun that could shoot runic inscriptions straight at targets, but that plan was clearly flawed. The whole point of concealing his powers was undermined by the possibility that any idiot with such a gun might inscribe runes. Even worse, if the technology ended up in the wrong hands, it may cause a host of unpleasant issues.

Though, he supposed, once SoapNet was operational across the kingdom, he could install a kill-switch of sorts. Remote shut-off. Control the guns through the network. But not yet. He'd need to wait until the SoapNet was fully operational before attempting anything that sophisticated.

Once he had remote monitoring and control capabilities in place, he could theoretically create a lot of different things utilizing the SoapNet.

It would be wiser to make something different that was less volatile for the time being. Perhaps a rope. Something portable, easy to deploy, lightweight but good enough. It could be placed around a specific area to create a containment field with the necessary runic inscriptions already built in. It would create a dome, really. Lay the rope in a ring, and within that ring—an atmosphere stable enough for the slimes to live.

Actually, that could work quite well. A rope that could create a dome-shaped field when properly arranged, with built-in mana regulation that would keep the slimes stable without requiring individual attention. The only real challenge would be transportation—how do you move slimes from the containment area to their final destination without losing the stabilizing effect?

Large containers for each trip? No, that wasn't scalable. Not for him alone. But what if he just created more rope, enough to circle the entire carriage? Enclose the whole transport in a dome of controlled mana? Yes. That sounded better.

He could even pre-inscribe them. Inscribe the runes onto the rope back at his workshop, and then the handlers could use them without needing to know what they were doing.

The more he considered it, the more feasible it became. It would require some careful calibration to ensure the fields remained stable during movement, but the basic principle was sound. And it would certainly be more practical than trying to inscribe individual containers for every shipment.

He would need to take a new look at a few of his existing projects once he got back to Holden. His inability to directly inscribe runes had limited many of his earlier ideas; now that this specific restriction was lifted, there were a number of improvements and modifications that suddenly became possible.

It was going to mean a lot of additional work, but Theodore found himself looking forward to the challenge. There was something deeply satisfying about taking a flawed system and rebuilding it properly. It was like finally being able to scratch an itch that had been bothering you for months.

"Lord Theodore?" Theodore was brought back to the present by Ashton's voice. "Is there anything else you need to finalize before we conclude our business?"

Theodore blinked, noticing that he had been quiet for a few seconds while his mind raced with ideas. The baron was too courteous—or too scared—to inquire directly, but it was obvious from Ashton's look that he was wondering whether something was amiss.

"No. I believe we've covered everything necessary for now. I will be creating something for containment and then I will be leaving for Holden."

***

[Rune Inscription] has leveled up! – Lvl 3 > Lvl 4!

[Meditation] has leveled up! – Lvl 22 > Lvl 23!

[Mana Control] has leveled up! – Lvl 6 > Lvl 7!

[Basic Rune Creation] has leveled up! – Lvl 19 > Lvl 20!

[Basic Magic Script] has leveled up! – Lvl 10 > Lvl 11!

The rope worked.

Standing at the edge of the slime containment area, Theodore watched with delight as his brainchild performed as intended. The breeding pens were surrounded by a perfect circle of carefully inscribed cord, which created an unseen dome of controlled mana that maintained the slimes' health. The slimes, for once, weren't decomposing or writhing in distress. They were just… there, sloshing around in that nauseatingly excited manner, plopping and wiggling around.

It was, Theodore had to admit, rather elegant in its simplicity.

He also has a backup rope. Although it was simple, the method worked. Embedded in the runes was a ping directive that interfaced with SoapNet—well, the parts of SoapNet he'd been able to seed across the kingdom so far. If the containment failed, they would ping Holden's central nexus.

Now that this was done, the rest followed logically.

Once the full SoapNet was up and running, he would be able to monitor and operate runic devices over great distances with previously unheard-of precision. This implied that his prior concept of making runic inscription weapons was now completely doable; all he would have to do was incorporate appropriate identifying systems and remote shutdown features into each one. He could make sure they weren't misused by integrating ping systems and IDs into every unit. Each rune-gun would transmit its position, ID, and record of inscription logs. The SoapNet would know. And through the SoapNet, he would know.

Not that he was planning to mass-produce such things anytime soon. The political ramifications of widespread runic inscription technology would be... complicated. So he needed solid backing before that.

Which meant that the coming tournament became far more important in his mind.

I think it's time to let Jack in on the secret.

Since Jack would be mostly responsible for developing such things. Although he had created the ping system, it was quite basic, and he had little faith in it. And it had taken him more than a day!

However, that was for a later time. Too much work right now. Something he could assign or plan for when he was back in Holden, away from Ashton's constant yapping, with his tools and notes, and in the peace of his workshop. But for the time being, he had more pressing issues to deal with.

The dome rope was stable. Everything was holding. The fervidite shipments were secured, and Baron Ashton was so grateful that he'd probably agree to Theodore's terms even if they were written in crayon on the back of a tavern napkin.

Which meant it was time to return home and begin the real work.

The journey back to Holden would give him plenty of time to plan out the modifications and improvements that were now possible thanks to his expanded capabilities. So many projects to redesign, so many systems to enhance, so many possibilities to explore.

It was going to be an interesting few months.

***

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