Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 450 - 449: Rebecca’s Ingenuity (For Real)

The thing called the ”Arcane Transcription Cylinder” is quite different from the printing cylinder Gawain imagined.

In fact, except for a somewhat similar outline, its entire working principle and method of use have never appeared in his imagination.

This is another product born from the ”magic technology route” that is rooted in this world.

He quietly watched the blue lines emerging on the surface of the silver-white alloy cylinder in front of him, realizing that these lines should be an internal ”standard layout” specifically used to check if the device is functioning properly, and when he placed his hand near the blue lines, he felt a noticeable warmth.

This heat phenomenon should be the key to its ability to perform printing work.

”Tell me about its working mechanism,” Gawain looked at Rebecca. Although the device was brought by Nicholas Egg, the order was placed by Rebecca, and she was definitely the one who understood all the technical secrets of this device, ”How does it operate?”

Rebecca had a little pride on her face: ”Ancestor, do you remember the ’detection piles’ I first set up in the Magic Web?”

”Detection piles?” Gawain was startled for a moment but quickly recalled, ”Oh, I remember now, it’s the property exploited by mithril to temporarily heat up and darken when infused with arcane energy...”

”That’s right!” Rebecca nodded excitedly, ”I need to mention someone here—it’s a person named Cohen among the mages Santis brought from the royal capital, and he discovered the breakthrough—he thought of mithril’s special property under the influence of arcane energy, and that’s how we finally found the right direction.”

As she spoke, Rebecca pointed to the silver-white surface of the transcription device: ”The outer shell of this device has two layers. The inner layer is a very fine purple copper mesh used to conduct Magic Power and serve as the framework of the entire device. The outer layer is actually a coating. We made an alloy of mithril and other metals, adding other auxiliary materials to make ’paint’, and then evenly covered it on the outside of the purple copper shell, forming the silver-white layer you see here.

”You should know, the surface of the most primitive ’detection pile’ was covered with pure mithril, but pure mithril has many problems. Firstly, its magic-conducting property is too high, basically as soon as one point is affected by arcane energy, the entire piece of mithril changes, making it impossible to create plates, it all turns black.

”Secondly, mithril has a lag in reacting to arcane energy, because it is a very special magic-conducting material, with its ability to maintain and dissipate magic power being perfectly balanced. When continuously infused with magic, its storage and dissipation of magic power reach equilibrium, so it appears unchanged on the surface, only heating up and changing color when the energy stops due to the break in power balance. This ’lag’, if used in plate making, would make the editing process slow and cumbersome, so we had to find a way to make mithril react more sensitively and promptly to arcane energy.

”Additionally, pure mithril also has the problem of turning black when its properties change, which could easily mix with the printing ink, making it hard to spot faults at a glance, so we considered using mithril as the main material and other magic-conducting materials to adjust mithril’s properties and add new characteristics to it.

”We added inert white copper to the alloy to reduce the efficiency of mithril in conducting magic, so it only changes in the parts directly exposed to arcane energy. We also used Blue Crystal Steel to affect mithril’s rate of magic dissipation, so that it immediately changes when exposed to arcane energy. We additionally added purple-crystal dust to the final coating material so that the layer emits blue light instead of turning black when exposed to arcane energy... Nicholas Egg helped with this part of the work.”

The Nicholas Egg floating nearby shifted slightly: ”This part of the work took up the majority of the time—finding a suitable coating formula wasn’t easy. If the coating is too inactive, it wouldn’t change when exposed to arcane energy; if too active, the layout on the coating becomes blurry. Besides, the final coating formula contains far more than just mithril, white copper, Blue Crystal Steel, and purple-crystal dust. Many other auxiliary materials are used to achieve adhesion, curing, and stability. Fortunately, I’m quite proficient in this area. If this task was given to ordinary technical personnel, they might have taken a long time to find out the formula through testing.”

All research work involving ”materials” is always the most difficult, and many times it also depends on luck. The mage named Cohen from the royal capital focused on mithril, which saved the entire project a massive amount of testing time, but Nicholas Egg still spent a lot of effort to develop the final coating formula, which speaks to the hardships of research work.

Gawain breathed out slightly: ”So the basic principle is that arcane energy is used to form images to irradiate this layer of coating so that the irradiated parts of the coating surface heat up to form a ’layout,’ and then this heated ’layout’ is used for printing?”

”Exactly!” Rebecca gestured excitedly with her hands, ”We already found the ink, which is made of carbon ink mixed with giantwood tree gum to make ink plates. The giantwood tree gum is solid at normal times and only slightly melts when heated, and it quickly solidifies again when the heat is gone. We can place the ink plate at the bottom, the paper in the middle, and the Arcane Transcription Cylinder at the top. After the cylinder heats up, a quick ’brush’ on the paper and the text and images are printed!”

”What about the arcane source used to irradiate the coating?” Gawain had no doubt about the ”ink plate” mentioned by Rebecca, as this part of the principle was easy to understand. He was more concerned about where the critical ”arcane source” came from. According to Rebecca’s description, the plate-making method of this Arcane Transcription Cylinder is entirely different from traditional printing; it generates patterns by magic energy irradiation, which means it needs a matching ”irradiation end” capable of casting precise images.

He could not immediately figure out how this irradiation end was achieved, but judging by Rebecca’s look, this function was definitely already realized.

Sure enough, Rebecca giggled: ”Ancestors, have you forgotten about the crystal on the Magic Web Communicator?”

Gawain was taken aback and suddenly realized something: the already realized Magic Web Communicator, the ”holographic projection” it generates is essentially a traditional illusory spell, and the images produced by this spell... are the effects of arcane magic.

”The irradiation source is inside the cylinder,” Rebecca pointed to the magic symbol shining on one end of the device, ”Look, this is actually the rune trigger on the base of a Magic Web Communicator used to connect to a crystal...”

To be honest, Gawain hadn’t recognized it—but once he did, he couldn’t help but marvel at Rebecca’s unbridled creativity.

How did this girl think of pulling apart a Magic Web Communicator component and stuffing it into a printing cylinder? Were these two things on such magical technological pathways actually capable of being intertwined in such a fantastical world?!

Rebecca was still explaining the technical details inside the cylinder, and she clearly noticed the look of surprise on Gawain’s face. It was evident that surprising this ancestor, whose thinking was always more advanced than anyone else’s, brought her immense satisfaction. She spoke animatedly: ”...I didn’t directly put the Projection Crystal of the Magic Web Communicator inside. Instead, I carefully adjusted it. To ensure the arcane illusion projected by the crystal accurately falls on the inner wall of the cylinder without distortion, I installed a set of lenses around the crystal, like those lens groups on the ’crystal resonator’...

”Additionally, I redesigned an input device compatible with the Arcane Transcription Cylinder to transmit images and text to the Projection Crystal inside. The basic principle is similar to the process of the Magic Web Communicator receiving images, except I added some things: I made a super-sized ’palette’ of all 28 letters and several common symbols, allowing the person creating the plate to directly edit text on the machine. Of course, without using the ’palette,’ you can also directly have the hand-written content on paper scanned by the input device, and it can be converted into the image projected by the Projection Crystal onto the inner wall of the cylinder. However, using these requires considerable effort, because unlike Mages, ordinary people cannot directly use Magic Power to control projection techniques. They have to use a lot of Rune Triggers to adjust those images. I tried it myself privately, and even literate people have to practice a lot to master how to use that input device...”

Rebecca babbled on, and Gawain listened, looking bewildered—not because he couldn’t keep up with the girl’s thinking, but because he never expected this girl to instinctively figure out a concept like ”keyboard” on her own. This silly girl might just become the founding ancestor of future keyboard warriors...

Of course, marveling at the ”keyboard” is secondary. What truly amazed Gawain was the entire workflow of this device—directly ”scanning” real-world objects or paper, then transmitting the image to the Projection Crystal, which then uses the Projection Crystal to create an arcane illusion, projecting the illusion onto the back of the Mithril alloy coating to create a ”hot plate,” and finally having the ”hot plate” transfer these images onto paper...

The process is so intricate, so interconnected, and so... beyond his expectations.

And in all of this, he hardly played a part.

He had merely sketched a rough and impractical blueprint for Rebecca at the beginning and explained the characteristics and requirements of the new printing press to her. As for how this printer should be realized... he never even figured it out himself.

Yet Rebecca succeeded... No, she didn’t succeed alone, but she and her team succeeded.

This project should be credited to the entire Magic Guide Technology Research Institute.

Including, of course, Mr. Cohen, the Arcanist from the royal capital who originally belonged to the traditional Mage class.

Rebecca was still vividly describing her whimsical technical ideas, but she soon noticed Gawain’s expression turning a bit strange, causing her to pause: ”...Ancestor, what are you thinking about?”

Gawain woke from his thoughts, not answering, but instead gently ruffling Rebecca’s hair with affection: ”It’s nothing, you’ve done an excellent job. And that Arcanist, Cohen, he’s done well too.”

As he had realized before, the technology in this world was already mature, and the local people’s wisdom and creativity were never lacking. Even those traditional Mages, deemed ”stubborn, conservative, and backward,” weren’t backward due to a lack of intelligence.

Gawain, a soul from planet Earth, could neither be an inventor nor a sage in this world driven by Magic Power technology, but he could identify those with such abilities, provide them with the right environment and conditions, and let these talented individuals grow.

The ”Cecil R&D-Production System” he painstakingly established was beginning to show its value and strength.

Rebecca blinked, utterly unaware of her old ancestor’s inner reflections, but it didn’t stop her from contentedly rubbing her head under Gawain’s palm—with her head and the elder’s hand rarely being on such amicable terms since childhood.

After two rubs, the girl suddenly stopped, with a deeply thoughtful expression on her face.

Gawain grew curious: ”What did you think of now?”

”Ancestor, I just thought of something... You mentioned that both the Transfer Cylinder and the input device use technology from the Magic Web Communicator. So, can this entire set of equipment be connected directly to the Magic Web communication network?”

Gawain looked dumbfounded at the girl in front of him, and even Nicholas Egg, who had been silent beside him, emitted a peculiar buzzing sound, clearly stirred by Rebecca’s idea.

Rebecca continued: ”We can connect the printer to the Magic Web. After all, its core component is a Magic Web Communicator’s projection crystal. With some adjustments, its crystal can be completely... what’s the word you mentioned... oh, it can be completely compatible. This way, the people on both ends of the Magic Web Communicator can not only communicate but also directly print documents for important occasions... The Administrative Office in various places across the southern borders would definitely find this feature useful!”

Gawain continued to be speechless: ”...”

Seeing Gawain’s reaction, Rebecca couldn’t help but worry: ”Ancestor... Is my idea too unrealistic?”

Gawain blinked and gazed at Rebecca as if looking at a time-traveler: How does her mind leap around like that?

After a long pause, he finally broke the silence: ”Let me introduce you to two things... one is called a fax machine, and the other is called remote printing...”