Chapter 596 — Daniel's Self-Cultivation

But Daniel rarely responded to these greetings; he merely strode swiftly down the corridor, and at last arrived at the laboratory of a project he was currently overseeing.

In the spacious, brightly lit laboratory, dozens of artisans, mages, and assistants in short robes were busy at their various posts; long tables piled with scrolls, calculating tools, and writing materials lined the room's perimeter, while on the broad experiment platform at the room's center, complex mechanical and magical devices lay spread open, apparently all half-finished.

This was an environment utterly different from a traditional mage's laboratory; it was more like a workshop of some engineering and alchemy than a place for studying the mysteries of magic. In fact, even within this Imperial Artificers' Association, a research site like this was the only one of its kind.

—In other laboratories, one rarely saw the lowest-ranking artisans taking part in the development of magical devices. Though Emperor Luoyan had established such a facility for people of intelligence to work together, the rigid hierarchy, the divide between the transcendent and the ordinary, and the barriers of innate talent were still deeply rooted in every heart; only in projects personally led by Daniel was this estrangement forcibly dissolved, by the old mage's own force of will.

He had modeled this on what he had seen in the Origin Laboratory — on the system of "arcane artificers."

"Master Daniel," a craftsman busy at the workbench noticed the old mage's arrival and rose at once to bow, "you have come."

Daniel nodded and looked at the mechanical parts on the bench. "How goes the progress?"

The craftsman looked nervous, bending low and nodding again and again. "We are trying to make the two rear wheels turn independently. We have no solution yet, but it should be soon, very soon..."

Daniel looked at this craftsman before him — a man of outstanding mechanical talent who, because of his circumstances, had grown accustomed to bowing and scraping — and his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, though he said nothing.

He merely glanced at the half-finished work on the bench and gave a slight nod. "Do not be impatient. Rigor matters more."

Then his gaze swept the surroundings, and he saw on a shelf not far off several sketches pinned to the edges of a wooden frame.

Those drawings depicted something that was still, at present, merely conceptual — at least here:

a vehicle driven by a repulsion mechanism, transmitting power through mechanical devices, able to move without the traction of draft animals.

When Daniel had come to Aldenan at his master's command to demonstrate the arts of the Magic Web to the Empire's ruler, he had also brought certain other technologies with him.

Among them was a simple power engine driven by repulsion runes.

His master hoped to use these foundational technologies to accelerate Typhon's "industrial upheaval," and they had indeed achieved the expected effect; but as they entered the view of Typhon's technical workers, what followed would become inevitable —

the principle of the repulsion mechanism was not complex, and the simplest things — gears, levers, bearings — had long existed. Once the craftsmen and mages of the Imperial Artificers' Association had their minds opened by the wondrous "repulsion mechanism," they would naturally think of applying it to more fields.

Now Typhon's own magic-energy engines were already in use in mining machines, spinning frames, and looms; merchants and nobles lay back counting gold that flowed in like a river, while the cleverer men of greater foresight pondered the further development of machines — one court advisor realized that factory operation would inevitably place greater demands on transport, and at this advisor's suggestion, Rowan Augustus ordered the Artificers' Association to develop a means of transport driven by magic-energy machines.

Daniel gladly took up the task, and as a "genius mage of extraordinary talent" in the field of arcane machinery, he assembled this engineering laboratory.

Then he stalled the project with perfect precision — there were simply too many links in the chain where it could be stalled: differential, transmission, drive, braking, cooling, shock absorption... Daniel had seen the complete documentation for the arcane vehicle in the Origin Laboratory, so he was confident he could stall this project for three to five years without arousing anyone's suspicion.

He was waiting for his master's next command — the command that would let him "invent" or "replicate" the arcane vehicle in the natural course of things.

His master was already preparing to meet with Rowan Augustus, so the next command should be arriving soon.

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