Chapter 449: Rebecca’s Brilliant Ingenuity (For Real)

This thing called the “Arcane Transfer Cylinder” was nothing like the printing press rollers Gawain had imagined.

In fact, aside from a vague similarity in shape, its entire working principle and method of use were completely beyond anything he had envisioned.

It was yet another product born from the “magical technology” path unique to this world.

He quietly watched the silver-white alloy cylinder’s surface, where blue patterns began to shimmer. He realized these patterns were likely a built-in “standard template” designed to detect whether the device was functioning properly. When he brought his hand close to the blue lines, he could distinctly feel heat radiating from them.

This heat generation was probably the key to how it could perform printing.

“Tell me how it works,” Gawain said, turning to Rebecca. Although the device had been brought by Nicholas Egg, Rebecca was the one who placed the order, so she must know all its technical secrets. “How does it operate?”

Rebecca’s face lit up with a small proud smile. “Ancestor, do you remember those ‘detection stakes’ I first set up in the magic network?”

“Detection stakes?” Gawain paused for a moment, then quickly recalled. “Oh, yes—I remember. It’s based on the property of mythril that, when infused with arcane energy, it temporarily heats up and darkens, right?”

“Exactly!” Rebecca nodded enthusiastically. “I have to give credit to someone here—one of the mages named Kohn, who came with Santis from the capital. He was the breakthrough. He realized mythril’s unique reaction to arcane energy, and that’s how we finally found the right approach.”

As she spoke, Rebecca pointed to the silver surface of the transfer cylinder. “The shell of this thing has two layers. Inside is a very fine copper mesh that conducts magic and acts as the device’s framework. The outer layer is actually a coating. We made an alloy of mythril and other metals, then mixed in additional materials to create a ‘paint’ that we evenly applied over the copper shell, forming the silver-white surface you see.”

“You should know, the earliest ‘detection stakes’ were coated with pure mythril, but pure mythril has many problems. First, it’s too conductive to magic—if even one spot is affected by arcane energy, the entire sheet changes. That makes it impossible to create a printing plate; the whole thing just turns black.”

“Second, mythril’s reaction to arcane energy is delayed. It’s a very special magical conductor—its ability to store and dissipate magic is perfectly balanced. When continuously infused with magic, the rate of storage and loss equalizes, so the surface appears unchanged. Only when the energy stops does the balance break, causing heat and color change. This delay makes plate editing slow and cumbersome, so we had to find a way to make mythril respond more sensitively and immediately to arcane energy.”

“Besides, pure mythril darkens when it changes, which easily blends with the ink of the printing press. That makes it hard to spot errors at a glance. So we decided to use mythril as the main material but adjust its properties with other magic-conductive metals and add new features.”

“We added inert white copper to the alloy to reduce mythril’s conductivity, so only the parts directly exposed to arcane energy would change. We also used blue crystal steel to affect mythril’s magic dissipation speed, making it react immediately when exposed to arcane energy. Finally, we added crystal dust to the coating, so instead of turning black, the coating emits a blue glow when hit by arcane energy… Mr. Egg helped a lot with this part.”

Nicholas Egg, floating nearby, shifted slightly. “This part took most of the time—finding the right coating formula wasn’t easy. If the coating’s activity was too low, it wouldn’t change when exposed to arcane energy; too high, and the plate’s image would blur. The final formula wasn’t just mythril, white copper, blue crystal steel, and crystal dust—there were many other additives for adhesion, curing, and stability. Luckily, I’m pretty good at this stuff. If we’d left it to ordinary technicians, it might have taken ages to get the formula right.”

Research involving materials was always the hardest part, often relying on luck. The capital mage Kohn’s insight to focus on mythril saved them a huge amount of testing time, but even so, Nicholas Egg had to put in a lot of effort to develop the final coating. That alone showed how challenging the work was.

Gawain exhaled softly. “So the basic principle is to use arcane energy to project an image onto the coating, heating the exposed parts to form a ‘plate,’ and then use that heated plate to print?”

“Exactly!” Rebecca spread her hands excitedly. “We’ve already found the ink—carbon ink mixed with giantwood resin. Giantwood resin is solid at room temperature but softens slightly when heated, then quickly hardens again once cooled. We can put the ink plate at the bottom, paper in the middle, and the arcane transfer cylinder on top. When the cylinder heats up and ‘brushes’ the paper, the text and images get printed!”

“What about the arcane source that projects onto the coating?” Gawain asked. He had no doubts about the ink plate—that part was straightforward. What intrigued him was the crucial “arcane source.” According to Rebecca’s explanation, this transfer cylinder’s plate-making method was completely different from traditional printing. It used magical energy projection to create the image, meaning it needed a matching “projection end” capable of emitting precise images.

He couldn’t immediately figure out how this projection end worked, but judging by Rebecca’s expression, it was definitely realized.

Rebecca giggled. “Ancestor, have you forgotten the crystal on the magic network communicator?”

Gawain was taken aback, then suddenly realized something: the “holographic projection” produced by the existing magic network communicator was essentially a traditional illusion spell. The images it created were, in essence, arcane magic effects.

“The projection source is inside the cylinder,” Rebecca pointed to a glowing rune at one end of the device. “See, this is actually the rune base used to connect the crystal on the magic network communicator’s stand…”

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

How on earth did this girl think to take a component from a magic network communicator and stuff it into a printing cylinder? Were these two technologies really compatible in this magical world?

Rebecca continued explaining the technical details inside the cylinder. She clearly noticed the surprise on Gawain’s face. Making this usually forward-thinking ancestor so astonished gave her a huge sense of accomplishment. She spoke animatedly: “…I didn’t just shove the communicator’s projection crystal in there—I carefully adjusted it. To ensure the arcane illusion projected by the crystal accurately hits the cylinder’s inner wall without distortion, I installed a set of lenses around the crystal, like the lens group on a ‘crystal resonator’…”

“I also redesigned an input device to work with the arcane transfer cylinder, to transmit images and text to the projection crystal inside. The basic principle is similar to how the magic network communicator receives images, but I added some features: I made a giant ‘palette’ with all 28 letters and several common symbols, so the plate maker can edit text directly on the machine. Of course, if you don’t want to use the palette, you can also ‘scan’ handwritten content on paper into the input device, which converts it into an image projected inside the cylinder. But these things are still tricky to operate—ordinary people can’t control the projection spell with magic like mages do. They have to use a bunch of rune triggers to adjust the images. I tried it myself, and even literate people need a lot of practice to master the input device…”

Rebecca babbled on, and Gawain listened, stunned. It wasn’t that he couldn’t follow her ideas—it was that he never imagined this girl had independently come up with the concept of a “keyboard.” This silly girl might just be the founding ancestor of future keyboard warriors…

Of course, his amazement at the “keyboard” was secondary. What truly impressed Gawain was the entire workflow of the device—directly “scanning” real-world objects or paper, transmitting the image to the projection crystal, using the crystal to create an arcane illusion, projecting that illusion onto the back of the mythril alloy coating to form a “heat plate,” and then transferring that plate’s image onto paper.

The process was so intricate, so interconnected, so far beyond what he had expected.

And he had barely been involved.

He had only drawn a rough, practically useless sketch for Rebecca at the start and explained the features and requirements of a new-style printing press. How to actually build it… he had never figured that out himself.

But Rebecca succeeded. No—she and her team succeeded.

This project was a triumph of the entire Arcane Technology Research Institute.

Including, of course, the capital’s traditional mage-turned-arcane specialist, Mr. Kohn.

Rebecca was still enthusiastically describing her wild technical ideas, but soon noticed Gawain’s expression had turned a bit strange, so she stopped. “Ancestor, what are you thinking about?”

Gawain snapped out of his thoughts and didn’t answer directly. Instead, he affectionately ruffled Rebecca’s hair. “Nothing. You did an amazing job. And that Kohn fellow did well, too.”

As he had realized before, this world’s technological foundation was already mature. The locals’ wisdom and creativity were never lacking. Even the so-called “stubborn, backward” traditional mages weren’t slow because of a lack of intelligence.

Gawain, a soul from Earth, couldn’t be an inventor or a prophet in this magic-driven world. But he could find those with talent, give them the right environment and conditions, and help them grow.

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

Rebecca blinked, unsure what her ancestor was silently marveling at, but that didn’t stop her from happily rubbing her head against his palm. Growing up, her head and the elder’s hand rarely got along this well.

After a couple of rubs, she suddenly stopped, her face thoughtful.

Gawain grew curious. “What’s on your mind now?”

“Ancestor, I just thought of something… You said the transfer cylinder and input device use technology from the magic network communicator. So… could this whole system be connected directly to the magic network?”

Gawain stared dumbfounded at the young woman before him. Even Nicholas, who had been silent the whole time, emitted a strange buzzing sound from within his body—clearly, this ironball alien was also moved by Rebecca’s idea.

Rebecca pressed on, “We could connect the printing press to the magic network. After all, its core component is a magic network communication projection crystal. With some adjustments, the crystal and the signals inside the magic network communicator could be—what did you call it again? Oh, fully compatible. That way, people on both ends of the magic network communicator could not only talk but also print documents directly in important situations. The administrative offices all across the southern territories would definitely find this feature useful!”

Gawain remained speechless, eyes wide.

Seeing his reaction, Rebecca couldn’t help but worry, “Ancestor… please say something. Is my idea… too unrealistic?”

Gawain blinked, looking at Rebecca as if she were some kind of time traveler. How on earth did her mind leap so fast?

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

(End of chapter)