-28- The New Technique

Perhaps it was the many beautiful memories left behind during the journey through the dream world. After confirming that she would never see her two friends, Hans and Mary, again, Rosalind fell into a long period of melancholia upon returning to reality.

She lost all interest in exploring outside. Other than diligently studying runic knowledge each day, the activity she did most was sitting against a chair in the manor, tilting her face upward and staring vacantly at the towering ruins of the black tower beside her, which pierced the sky.

Yvette did not offer much comfort, as this was a normal emotional reaction. Yet sometimes she would accompany Rosalind to spend time in the shattered dome atop the black tower, allowing her to gaze upon the post-apocalyptic cityscape of Ish and feel the unique atmosphere of destruction followed by rebirth.

Thus, four months passed.

As Ish Island transitioned from late summer into early winter, Yvette finally grasped the rudiments of the "Elemental Decay Completion Technique" and began repairing the salvaged elemental capacitors and energy storage panels.

The restoration process was lengthy, mainly because the technique involved many intricate details. A slight mistake during repairs could ruin the batteries. After scrapping four or five large storage panels in succession, she finally succeeded in completing the elemental completion on one panel, restoring it to its original state—salvaged from underneath a magitech locomotive, it held a full 200 mana points, almost a third of Yvette's own mana reserve.

With this achievement, her initial ambition was finally realized.

Yes!

From now on, she could use electric nets to electrocute all those sneaky vegetable thieves!

Rosalind, however, was quite resistant to this idea. She thought it was fine to surround the manor with an electric fence as a defense against aberrations, but electrifying the vegetable garden was too lethal to the small animals, and her heart could not bear it.

But duty is hard to evade. In the following days, whenever charred corpses of squirrels, wild cats, or certain birds appeared near the garden, she could only bury them sorrowfully and plant a wooden stick as a makeshift grave marker. Over time, the manor's corners became dotted with these little memorials, making the place resemble a cemetery, much to Yvette’s dismay.

Of course, from Rosalind’s perspective, there were many advantages once her teacher mastered the elemental completion technique.

The most direct benefit was that the manor no longer experienced frequent power outages. At night, street lamps could be lit both inside and outside the safe zone of the manor, and even in winter, they could use warm air machines instead of wearing thick clothes and relying on mana-heated fires.

Had the dream not ended so abruptly, leaving no time to save money for other professional tomes, Rosalind even suspected that her teacher could singlehandedly repair high-tech magitech soldiers and mechanical golems, effectively recreating the pinnacle technologies of the original civilization.

Indeed, she never doubted for a moment that her teacher was a peerless genius.

...

Another harsh winter dawned. One morning in January or early February, a rare, fierce blizzard struck Ish Island. The howling wind whipped up countless snowflakes, turning the world into a chaotic, leaden white.

But for the teacher and student duo, who could now run their warm air machines for hours without fearing a power cut, this storm no longer held its former lethality.

Yvette sat comfortably by the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room on the first floor, enveloped in the heat from the warm air machine. Steam rose from the red tea in her bone china cup as she leisurely sipped it, her gaze drifting over the tumultuous snowstorm outside.

A while later, when Rosalind came downstairs and began preparing lunch punctually, Yvette suddenly called her over and transmitted three brand-new spells into her magitech terminal.

“Teacher, what are these...?”

“Three new medium-scale spells. They haven’t been optimized yet, but their structures are finalized. Your ring still has plenty of storage space, so record them now and start mastering them early,” Yvette said, taking a sip of tea as her eyes remained fixed on the swirling snow outside.

These were spells Yvette designed after visiting the origin civilization once more, inspired by new ideas and insights found online. Each spell was about 50,000 in scale—truly medium-sized magic.

Of course, she could design spells of even higher scale—100,000 or even challenge the million-level ultra-scale spells.

But there was no point, because they couldn’t be used.

This brings us to another crucial component of the magitech terminal: the “Rune Point Cache.”

This special module connects with the “element chips” inside the terminal, much like a graphics card’s video memory, directly limiting the maximum spell scale the terminal can cast.

Rosalind’s current ring, the fully restored “Sky Ring y2” commissioned from experts in the dream, was a high-end magitech ring with a full capacity of 120,000 points. Yet its rune point cache only allowed for 60,000.

Therefore, spells exceeding 60,000 scale weren’t even worth considering.

Even Yvette’s newly purchased high-end “Black Tower S3” ring, which she bought earlier in the dream for 30,000 credit points, offered only 60,000 rune point cache and 150,000 storage space—30,000 credits being the highest tier in civilian magitech terminals—revealing the strict technological restrictions imposed by the industrial chain.

This was understandable. If compliant magitech terminals on the market could freely cast large spells above 100,000 scale, what would happen to military-grade equipment? How would they differentiate products and justify high prices?

That’s why spell performance ratings were so crucial during trades at the welding torch dealer. Often, gangs lacked the conditions to cast large spells and had to compete by quality within the medium and small scale spells.

...

Putting cooking for her teacher first, Rosalind only sat down by the table with a racing heart after lunch, once she had washed the dishes and dried her hands. She excitedly began studying the three new spells her teacher had given her.

In terms of practical use, the well-honed “Ice, Fire, Wind, and Thunder” four great spells were already near flawless and exceptionally versatile for most combat scenarios.

Yet, even so, these three new medium-scale spells still captivated Rosalind’s gaze and stirred immense excitement.

The first new spell: Regeneration Pump!

Simply put, it was a powerful self-healing spell. Yvette had previously developed a similar “Vitality Spell,” but this was an upgrade. Beyond enhanced self-recovery, it projected a regenerative heart outside the body that absorbed blood flowing from wounds and returned it internally, preventing weakness caused by excessive blood loss.

Next, the second new spell: Crimson Armor!

A protective spell that enhanced physical defense. When activated, the skin’s surface displayed numerous dark red runes, dramatically boosting resistance to both physical damage and extreme temperatures—hot or cold. It effectively prevented being stealthily scratched by aberrations and dying mysteriously.

Finally, the third new spell: Muscle Release!

Like Crimson Armor, it was a self-enhancement spell but leaned toward offense. Upon use, it greatly increased strength, stamina, and even reflexes. When combined with Crimson Armor, one could become a close-combat mage, tearing apart low-level aberrations on the spot.

Its downside was that both Muscle Release and Crimson Armor consumed 20 mana points each per use and lasted only ten minutes. For Rosalind, whose mana had just reached 45 points, choosing this close-combat mage setup meant the traditional Ice, Fire, Wind, and Thunder spells would be nearly unusable.

Thus, she could only hope her teacher would soon optimize the mana efficiency of these three spells and devote more effort to meditation.

Once her mana increased sufficiently, activating Crimson Armor and Muscle Release alongside casting the four elemental spells would allow her to stride confidently across the island. At that time, she and her teacher could explore even more dangerous areas together.