Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1354: College of Magic

---College of Magic---

Their flying ship entered the massive sky harbor through the mouth of Abras Tumblegate, who was apparently the model for the visage at the front of the floating spire. The ship was moored at one of the wharves in the massive hangar.

“Emissary Alton, you have arrived!” Their guide was greeted as they disembarked the flying vessel. The greeter was a man wearing a dark green robe with a black scarf on top. Magicians seemed to have a universal affinity with pointy hats, except that this one wore a crumpled-down version, making it look more like a cap.

“Professor Milton, itʼs nice to meet you again,” Alton greeted him warmly and proceeded to introduce the party from Minas Mar, who came to visit the production facilities of Titans, as this world called their giant, mana-powered mechs.

“Please follow me, I will show you around,” Milton said, turning to Monique and the others. Taking the lead, the mage brought them further into the college, explaining the facilities and rough structure of the floating menhir.

The halls didnʼt scale down once they left the harbor. If anything, they became even bigger. The entrance only made up a small part of the menhirʼs base, leaving it behind, they entered the loading bay where titans were packaged and loaded for shipment.

Clank!

“Careful, you idiots! Do you know how long it took to fit the armor properly?” they heard an angry shout from above. Surprised, the group looked up to find that there was no ceiling.

Above them was no ceiling, but a wide, brightly illuminated shaft, its upper end vanishing in white light. Nobody asked what that was for, as they came at just the right time to watch a fully assembled titan being lowered down from it. The titan had hit the side of the shop as it was lowered down to be placed at one of the docks for packaging.

“Above us is the assembly shaft. Itʼs where titans come to live using parts produced all across the college. That titan was finished yesterday and is now being loaded for testing,” Milton explained, noticing their gazes.

The assembly shaft was also their first proper stop. As they entered a magic elevator, Milton gave them a rough explanation of the tower and its makeup. The assembly shaft was like the heart of the college, taking up most of the lower third of the whole structure.

In this place, professors and students had their ateliers and workshops where they built, researched, and assembled their titans. The rest of the tower was filled with facilities for the creation and research of individual parts, dorms, and teaching facilities.

He assured them that he would show most of it, except the very top, where the best experts of the tower were working on Dungeon Busters. The technology of the power-suit-sized mechs was top secret, and not even the emperorʼs request could allow outsiders to enter.

“I canʼt show you around the ateliers of the professors, but our model students agreed to welcome you into their workshop and show you around. He is in the middle of assembling his first self-engineered titan, so I think he will be able to give you a good overview. However, it will take a while, as the student facilities are at the upper layer of the shaft,” Milton warned them as they entered the elevator.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He didnʼt lie. The elevator rose for quite a while, and Monique started suspecting they were actually skipping the whole assembly section. The moment things started to become awkward, they suddenly heard a loud crash, shaking the floating cabin that ground to a halt.

Before anyone could say anything or give an explanation, the doors opened and gave a view of the mentioned workshop. Monique gasped as they had suddenly changed genre completely. The titans may look like giant medieval knights from the outside, but the workshops they were built in looked like an automated facility or factory from Urth.

The long, rectangular room was filled with all kinds of crafting stations and machines made of complicated parts that looked like a mix of steel, chromium, and crystals. The ceiling was at least 15m high, just enough to fit in a small titan. That explained why the elevator took so long.

“Oh god! Turn off already! Damn it!”

In every way, this looked like a slightly more arcane version of a highly advanced production facility, but something else captured everyoneʼs attention. The giant metal fist lodged into the rock wall at one side of the workshop, still spouting a jet flame and trying to break through,

It was surrounded by the remnants of an undoubtedly very expensive dohickey and a young man, desperately fiddling and hitting it in an attempt to turn it off. For a few seconds, they watched the young man do his dance around the fist, before the flame finally shut off.

When the fist finally fell silent, the young man regained his situational awareness. He instantly froze like a deer in the headlights when he saw the delegation of Minas mar, Emissary Alton, and his Professors massaging the bridge of his nose, standing in the entrance of the elevator.

“Joshua... how often did I tell you to stop working on the Jet Fist? The concept was discarded for good reason. You are wasting your time and potential on this,” he said, doing his best to speak in a calm and controlled manner when it was obvious that he would have loved to shout at the student. It seemed like a conversation that was held one or two too many times.

“I know, professor. Iʼm sorry. I wanted to pack it away in preparation for the visitors, when it suddenly went off,” the student explained, embarrassed. Milton could only sigh at his attitude.

“Itʼs okay. Iʼm sorry you had to see this, but things happen in a working environment. I hope you donʼt hold it against him or the college,” he apologized to them and the emissary. Nobody really minded, so Milton continued the tour.

After the little blunder, the professor left it to Joshua to show the group around the workshop and explain his work and the project he was working on. Monique had to admit, to her who came from a more traditional background, even for Urth, and had little knowledge about magic crafting, this technology seemed quite advanced.

Abras Tumblegate had not only created this floating spire and the technology, but also the tools for the craft. According to the student, most of the machines and stations here could be operated by anyone, allowing them to process special materials and enchant components, despite not being magicians themselves.

This had made the creation of titans and magic equipment a vastly more approachable profession, although it needed a high level of education, just to be able to enter the college and learn how to use these machines. But it was worth it, apparently even a mediocre Titan smith was welcomed by any high noble looking to maintain or produce their own titans.

She shared a look with Jane and realized that they were thinking the same. Although their titans and Dungeon Busters lacked a little behind the power suits and high-level golems, the technology itself was valid and probably comparable to the advancement of Chrona or Spatia.

It could probably help improve their own technology. Maybe Seth had no need for it, because if they were honest, they had little idea what exactly the blacksmith was pulling off to create what he did, but Joannia Taggart and the people of Epsilon might be able to further progress with this knowledge.

They knew that this whole trip was probably a sales pitch for the Titans and a show that the Perrican Empire was not as weak as they may have thought; however, all it did was make them interested in the technology itself, not the Titans.

Maybe there was more to get out of this world than just food to overcome the shortage.