B2 | Chapter 38 - New Projects

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Patch Notes:

Chapter 37 - [Meditation] level increased to 24 instead of 25. Only 1 level increase instead of 2.

B2 | Chapter 38 - New Projects

Theodore had always believed that the most beautiful thing in the world was watching steam rise from a cauldron full of your own liquefied body parts.

This was probably not a normal thought.

Actually, Theodore was reasonably certain this was not a normal thought. Most people didn't have body parts they could liquefy on command. Most people also didn't find the sight aesthetically pleasing in a way that made them want to compose poetry about vapor.

But here he was, mesmerized by the way each wisp curled upward in perfect little spirals, like tiny tornadoes made of his own essence. He'd been timing them with obsessive precision. Three seconds of existence before dissolving into nothing. Every single curl, without fail. Three seconds.

The consistency was oddly comforting.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Roland asked from somewhere behind him.

"Yes. Do you doubt me, Roland?"

"Um."

That was it. That was Roland's entire contribution to the conversation. One syllable of pure, concentrated skepticism.

Theodore heard the telltale scrape of boots against stone that meant Roland was backing toward the door and possibly preparing to run for his life. Smart man. Theodore respected that kind of self-preservation instinct, even as he completely ignored its wisdom.

Because Theodore was cooking.

Not just any cooking either, this was special cooking. Revolutionary cooking. The kind of cooking that would either change the world or require extensive property repairs.

He was cooking himself into a mana potion.

The idea had struck him like divine inspiration while he'd been absentmindedly reforming his left pinky after training. If he could turn into a blue mana slime, and blue mana slimes were essentially concentrated mana in semi-solid form, then logically he should be able to brew himself into a proper potion.

It was brilliant. It was innovative. It was probably going to explode.

Theodore was oddly okay with that last part.

The cauldron gave a threatening bubble, then another bubble.

His [Arcane Awareness] had been active for minutes, feeding him a constant stream of magical information that felt like trying to drink from a waterfall while someone recited tax law directly into his brain. The mana readings coming from his liquefied self were... unprecedented. And possibly illegal to ingest in one potion. So he was trying to create something actually worthwhile.

The problem—and Theodore was just now realizing this might be a problem—was that he'd never actually made a mana potion before even though he'd learned up on the theory thanks to Derrick. He'd been operating under the assumption that potion brewing was like making soup.

Assumptions, as it turned out, were dangerous things when combined with experimental self-cannibalization.

The cauldron made a sound.

"Theodore," Roland said carefully, "maybe you should step away from—"

The explosion wasn't large. More of an enthusiastic SPLORT than a proper detonation. But the spray radius was magnificent. Blue slime erupted from the cauldron in a glorious arc that painted the ceiling, the walls, and most importantly, Theodore himself in a generous coating of his own liquefied slime.

"Eughh."

The slime dripped from his hair.

Roland snickered.

Theodore looked at Roland through his coating of blue goo. Roland looked back at Theodore through his tears of mirth.

The moment stretched between them like a rubber band about to snap.

"You wouldn't," Roland said seriously, his laughter dying.

Theodore reached up and scraped a generous handful of blue slime from his shoulder. He drew his arm back with the precision of a trained soldier and the malicious glee of a child with unlimited ammunition and launched the handful of slime at Roland.

"This is betrayal!" Roland cursed.

The projectile splattered against the wall where Roland's head had been a split second earlier, leaving a glowing blue stain.

"Betrayal?" Theodore called out, scooping more slime. "I prefer to think of it as creative problem-solving. Also, technically, I'm sharing myself with you. That's friendship!"

"There's nothing friendly about flinging your bodily fluids at people!"

"I disagree. This is probably the most literal example of giving someone a piece of your mind. Very generous of me, really."

Roland's horrified groan was music to Theodore's ears.

Theodore rolled his eyes and sat down on the floor to examine his destroyed experiment. The cauldron looked like it had been through a war. The magical readings were still chaotic.

His slime hadn't just failed to become a proper potion. It had actively rejected the transformation and decided to redecorate instead.

The magic was gone, leaving behind only the lingering smell of burnt slime and mana.

"Hmm. Gotta try again."

"Again?" Roland asked.

Theodore considered this very seriously. The first attempt had taught him valuable lessons about pressure buildup, temperature control, etc. All useful data for future experiments.

"Obviously," Theodore said, wiping blue goo from his eyebrows with the casual air of someone discussing the weather. "Science is iterative, Roland. You can't expect to achieve perfection on the first try. That would be unrealistic and frankly boring."

"Science? This isn't science! This is... this is madness!"

"Madness would be giving up after one little explosion. Besides, I think I know what went wrong this time. I let the pressure build too much. And I didn't account for the natural resistance my slime would have to being transmuted. It's like trying to convince water to become ice while it's actively boiling. The slime was probably offended by the suggestion."

"Tell me you're not actually planning to—"

"I need a bigger cauldron," Theodore stood up. Blue slime dripped from his clothes. "And definitely some protective barriers. Maybe a helmet. Possibly full body armor. Actually, I could've just used [Mana Shield]."

Theodore grinned. This was going to be the best day ever.

***

Theodore, unfortunately, didn't succeed in making a mana potion just yet. So he settled in his workshop that night and decided to work on his other ideas a bit.

A half eaten apple was on a plate on the table as Theodore stared at the ceiling leaning back in his chair, pondering. Food spoilage was one of those problems that everyone just accepted as part of life in this world.

The slime experiments had taught him something important about mana regulation and mana control, and now his brain kept circling back to applications he hadn't considered before. If he could use runic inscription to regulate the mana inside a slime's body, why couldn't he use similar principles to regulate the temperature inside a container designed specifically for food storage? The concept wasn't exactly revolutionary but the execution could be completely different.

Theodore started sketching rough diagrams on a sheet of parchment. The basic idea was simple enough: create a container that could maintain a consistent cold temperature regardless of the ambient conditions outside. Cold enough to slow down the natural processes that made food rot, but not so cold that it would freeze everything solid and ruin the texture. Unless freezing was the intention.

It was basically a refrigerator, but given that Theodore knew nothing about how those worked, he was working with what he knew best at the moment: magic and runes.

The trick would be in the runic array design, because temperature regulation was significantly more complex than the simple mana overflow system he'd developed for the slimes. He'd need runes that could both absorb and dissipate heat in controlled amounts.

Theodore sketched out a rectangular container, roughly the size of a large chest, with thick walls that could accommodate the runic inscriptions he had in mind. The exterior would need to be sturdy enough to handle the thermal stress of constant temperature changes, while the interior would need to be sealed well enough to prevent warm air from getting in and cold air from escaping.

The more he thought about it, the more excited he got about the possibilities. This wasn't just about preserving food for a few extra days—this could completely revolutionize how people stored and prepared meals. Fresh vegetables in the middle of winter, meat that stayed good for weeks instead of days, dairy products that didn't turn sour the moment the weather got warm. The applications were endless, and the potential market was basically everyone who ate food, which was pretty much the entire population.

But first he needed to figure out the technical details, starting with the runic array that would actually make the whole thing work. Theodore had learned from his slime experiments that successful runic inscription required careful attention to power sources, regulation mechanisms, and fail-safe systems that would prevent catastrophic failures. A temperature control system would need all of those things, plus additional complexity to handle the active manipulation of thermal energy.

The power source was probably the most straightforward part of the problem, because he'd already worked out mana battery systems that could store and regulate magical energy for extended periods. The challenge would be calculating how much mana the system would need to maintain a cold temperature over time, and designing the battery to handle that load without requiring constant recharging.

Theodore estimated that a properly designed system should be able to run for at least a month on a single charge, assuming reasonable usage and decent insulation.

The regulation mechanism would be more complex than anything he'd attempted before, requiring multiple interconnected runes that could monitor temperature, adjust thermal energy flow, and maintain consistent conditions inside the container. Theodore sketched out a preliminary design that included temperature sensing runes positioned throughout the interior, thermal manipulation runes embedded in the walls, and a central control system that could coordinate all the different components. The whole array would need to work together seamlessly, because even small inconsistencies in temperature could affect food quality.

Fail-safe systems were crucial because nobody wanted their food storage device to malfunction and either freeze everything solid or let everything spoil. Or worse hurt the consumer.

The last thing he needed was for one of these devices to explode in someone's kitchen because of a runic inscription error.

Theodore paused in his sketching to consider the practical aspects of actually building and distributing these devices. He could probably make this available for the general populace if he worked out everything. He could just start with the luxury market first.

That was fine for a starting point regardless, because luxury markets were often the best place to test new technologies before scaling them down for broader appeal. Theodore had seen the same pattern with his soap production—start with premium products for wealthy customers, refine the process, then gradually develop more affordable versions for the general population. The refrigeration devices could follow the same trajectory, assuming he could solve the technical challenges and prove that the concept actually worked.

Actually, Theodore realized as he continued sketching, there was no reason to limit himself to just cold storage. The same runic principles that could remove heat from a container could also add heat, which opened up possibilities for cooking applications as well. A magical oven that could maintain precise temperatures for extended periods would be incredibly useful for baking and roasting, especially for recipes that required consistent heat over long periods of time.

Theodore started a new sketch, this time designing a cooking device that used heat runes to generate and maintain specific temperatures. The design was similar to the cooling container, but with the runic array configured to add heat instead of removing it. The power requirements would probably be higher for heating applications, because generating heat required more active energy input than simply removing it, but the basic principles were the same, and the difference was quite negligible.

Theodore set aside his sketches of heating devices and focused on refining the cooling container design, because that seemed like the most practical starting point for his experiments.

The insulation system would be critical to the overall efficiency of the device, because poor insulation would require the runic array to work much harder to maintain the desired temperature. Yellow slime insulation would work just fine.

Theodore sketched out a double-wall construction that would create an insulated cavity between the inner and outer surfaces of the container. The cavity could be filled with insulation, while the walls themselves could be inscribed with thermal manipulation runes that would actively maintain the temperature differential. The combination of passive insulation and active temperature control should provide excellent efficiency while minimizing the power requirements.

The interior design would need careful consideration as well, because different types of food had different storage requirements. Vegetables needed different humidity levels than meat, dairy products required different temperatures than dried goods, and some items needed to be kept separate to prevent cross-contamination of flavors or spoilage. Theodore sketched out a modular interior system with adjustable compartments that could be configured for different storage needs.

Actually, now that he thought about it, humidity control would be just as important as temperature control for optimal food preservation. Too much moisture could promote mold growth and bacterial contamination, while too little moisture could cause foods to dry out and lose their texture. Theodore added humidity regulation—water—runes to his design, creating a more complex but also more effective storage system.

The control interface would need to be simple enough for ordinary people to use, because there was no point in creating a device so complicated that nobody could figure out how to operate it. Theodore designed a simple runic panel that would allow users to adjust temperature and humidity settings without needing to understand the underlying magical principles. The controls would be intuitive, probably using symbols or simple words that anyone could recognize.

Though the people would need to actually learn how to use it.

Power management would be crucial for practical deployment, because nobody wanted to deal with a food storage device that required constant attention or frequent recharging. Theodore calculated that a well-designed mana battery system should be able to power the device for at least a month under normal usage conditions, with the option to extend that timeframe by adding additional battery units for users who needed longer operation periods.

This wasn't just a convenience item for wealthy households—this could genuinely improve food security for entire communities. Reduced spoilage meant less waste, which meant more food available for consumption. Better preservation methods could enable more efficient food distribution, allowing communities to take advantage of seasonal abundance and regional specialties. The economic impact could be substantial, especially in areas where food scarcity was a regular concern.

But the immediate challenge was still the technical one of actually building a working prototype and proving that the concept was viable. Theodore was starting to think he was going too ambitious with the first prototype, as well, so maybe he'd just make a base version that cooled things. Theodore had learned from his previous experiments that theoretical designs often encountered unexpected problems when translated into physical reality. So starting small would probable be great.

He couldn’t really set this free in the market without some solid political backing anyway. Actually, he could throw it in the local market, but large scale was the problem. So the tournment was becoming even more important in his eyes.

The workshop was quiet except for the scratching against parchment as Theodore continued refining his designs. He'd learned to appreciate these moments of focused concentration, when complex problems gradually resolved themselves into manageable components that he could address one at a time. The refrigeration project was ambitious, but it was also exactly the kind of challenge that made his work interesting.

He'd need to work more on this and he could probably start working on a base prototype by the end of the week. Either way, it would be an interesting experiment, and Theodore was looking forward to finding out what he could accomplish.

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