IMTDIK 45

A Commoner’s Sample

“I’m thinking about confiscating all the rings.”

The morning in the Royal Domain of Gongwang began with Ruri’s grumbling.

She approached with a displeased expression, making her complaint known.

For Ferda, who was in the middle of breakfast, it was an unexpected statement.

“I see.”

So, Ferda responded absentmindedly.

“The workshops you brought in aren’t listening to me at all. Is it really that difficult to follow a simple rule—‘Don’t spill a single drop of blood in this castle’?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Fine, let’s say some blood gets spilled. But they don’t even bother cleaning up after themselves.”

“Is that so?”

“If they knew how terrifying a dragon could be, they’d fix their habits in no time. What do you think?”

“Do as you wish.”

Ruri’s grumbling stopped.

She glanced up at Ferda with an annoying expression.

“You’re the worst, Ferda.”

“Am I?”

“Even now, you’re just giving me half-hearted answers.”

“That’s true.”

“Is this because I scrubbed you once?”

Ruri whispered under her breath , but Ferda still heard her.

He wouldn’t deny that there was some lingering resentment from that day. Now that he’d already taken his revenge, he decided to respond more sincerely this time.

“Refining magic stones is a time-consuming process. Research doesn’t yield results overnight.”

“But you reached the 3rd Circle so quickly. Can you really understand that?”

“I’ve practiced looking at things from a commoner’s perspective.”

The old Ferda wouldn’t have understood.

But the present Ferda, who remembered his past self and rapidly advanced his Circles, had gained some insight into how ordinary people saw things.

“I see.”

This time, it was Ruri who answered half-heartedly.

“So, let’s delay the punishment a bit. I’ll have good news soo—”

Before Ferda could finish his sentence—

“Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!”

A madman’s laughter echoed through Valdrova Castle.

The sound grew closer.

“Hahaha! I did it! I finally did it! I don’t have to bake these damn magic stones anymore! Hahaha!!”

The lunatic was none other than Vernell Marquis.

His hair was a tangled mess, and his robe was half off.

As he ran past, Ferda and Ruri’s eyes followed his movement.

Ferda took a sip of his tea and commented,

“They say if you talk about a tiger, it will appear. It seems we’ve achieved results,”

At last, The moment had finally come to prove why he had brought Vernell into the castle.

—

Vernell’s Breakthrough

After running around like a madman, Vernell slept for days.

He had been sacrificing sleep and working himself to the bone in his research on magic stone refinement.

But when he finally appeared before Ferda again, he was neatly dressed.

“I thought it might work today, but I didn’t expect it to actually succeed! Hahaha!”

“Now, explain it to me.”

“Ah, yes! Of course. So, how this works is…”

Vernell began explaining in great detail.

For a full hour, he rambled on about his research, covering every inch of the blackboard with calculations and diagrams.

“Do you understand now?”

After listening to the entire explanation, Ferda calmly replied,

“Did you?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked if you understood it.”

“W-Well, of course! I’ve already sorted through everything, and I tried to simplify it as much as possible—”

Ferda pondered.

‘I guess I’m not that smart after all.’

He had reached the rank of Archmage purely through effort, not natural talent.

By the 30-minute mark, Vernell’s explanation had turned into an incomprehensible mess.

At some point, Ferda had started seeing the universe, and his mind drifted away.

He only came back when the final punctuation was placed on the board.

Ferda glanced at the assistant researchers.

Their eyes were wide with confusion.

‘No one understood a thing,’ Ferda realized.

Stephan Pascal had sent his best men, but even they were lost.

‘At least there’s no risk of technology leakage for now,’ Ferda thought optimistically.

As long as Vernell could demonstrate the results, that was enough

Ferda took a positive view of the situation.

After all, it didn’t matter if he didn’t understand—what mattered was whether Vernell could demonstrate it.

“Show me.”

“Yes, sir!”

Vernell retrieved a device.

It was a Magic Stabilizer, a tool that fixed a specific area’s mana with a 5th-tier magic formula when infused with energy.

“If we place a monster’s corpse in here and apply a bit of electric magic…”

Mana burst from the dead body.

It wasn’t smooth or usable, just raw, impure junk mana that polluted the air.

“Then, we give heat this at a specific temperature, compress it, and cool it down…”

The process was complicated—burning, compressing, and cooling—but finally, a crystal appeared, emitting white vapor.

A blue, faintly glowing stone.

“This is a magic stone!”

Vernell proudly displayed the result.

Though it was a remarkable moment, Ferda felt little excitement.

‘It’s crude.’

He had seen this before in the future.

But compared to then, the color was duller, and the quality was rough.

Just to be sure, he asked Vernell,

“What’s the efficiency?”

“Uh… well…”

The man who had been rattling off knowledge suddenly hesitated.

“Vernell Marquis.”

“Y-Yes!”

“I asked you a question. How efficient is it?”

“Well… you see…”

Verrnell wiped his sweat and finally admitted,

“If we use the mana from seven magic stones, we can create one refined stone.”

“That means an efficiency of 14.2%.”

“If you round up, 14.3%. And then, on top of that…”

There was more.

And from the way he hesitated, it wasn’t good news.

“There’s mana leakage when stabilizing the stone’s capacity, so… we lose about half of that efficiency.”

“In other words, 7% efficiency.”

“If you count the first decimal place, 7.1%… Ah, sorry.”

Vernell could already see the future—his research was doomed.

‘Who would use something with only 7.1% efficiency?’

Just as he was resigning himself to failure, Ferda spoke.

“What about improving the efficiency?”

“…What?”

“Can you make it better?”

Vernell hesitated but nodded firmly.

“Y-Yes! It’s possible! I’ll make it happen!”

“Good.”

Ferda stood up.

“Then keep researching.”

Vernell blinked up at him.

Was that… it?

Just as he was about to panic, Ferda added,

“Gather the people who need to hear this. Organize your research and prepare another demonstration. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

Vernell straightened up and saluted.

Ferda left the room with a confident thought.

‘This will be useful.’

He already knew—Magitech would advance no matter what.

At first, people would mock it, saying it was inefficient and lacked dignity.

But later?

“Even mages will use Magitech.”

Because it provided a level of convenience that no magic circle could match.

The age of mages monopolizing the mysteries of magic… was coming to an end.

And that was exactly why Ferda believed in Vernell’s research.