Chapter 343: Chapter 340: The Rorschach Soul Rocket Lifts Off

With his preparations complete, Rorschach entered a state of meditation and Casting. The two were not in conflict, as meditation is one of the steps of Casting.

The entire process was just as Rorschach had described: a combination of a Magic from the Tower of Forest and the Enlightenment Skill. Based on his analysis of the Soul, Rorschach had a fundamental grasp of the principles behind both Magics. He didn’t care whether his hypothesis was correct—if the Magic derived from it as a foundational principle could be actualized, then he would just do it!

"Let’s stand back a bit." Bart’s skin felt faintly hot, and a sense of pressure was building in his chest as the concentration of Magic Power in the environment continued to climb.

Andre, whose Magic Talent was poorer, had a more severe reaction. His skin was as red as a boiled shrimp, and blue veins had appeared in the whites of his eyes and just beneath the surface of his skin.

Bart had no choice but to use the Recovery Scroll in his hand on the Apprentice. They both watched as snowflake-like crystals once again precipitated within the bathroom, moving on their own without any wind and swirling violently around Rorschach.

Then, the otherworldly crystals began to obey the Caster’s command, falling to the ground in an orderly pattern to form two temporary Magic Arrays, one surrounding Rorschach himself and the other encircling the Universal Computing Core.

The Magic Arrays lit up, and Rorschach’s Soul began to leave his body.

...

"What kind of person do you think Rorschach is?" Bart stood outside the bathroom. Flashes of light and sound erupted from within, but it didn’t stop him and Andre from standing at the doorway drinking tea.

Andre took a sip of tea. The excessive amount of sugar helped him feel a bit better after the earlier erosion from the Magic Power. "Teacher Rorschach changed my whole family’s life."

"Without him, I would’ve probably had to work at least two jobs in Valuvana... My father would still be a dockworker, and with his bad back, he wouldn’t be able to keep at it for many more years."

Andre told Bart about the Valois Higher Normal School, and Bart nodded repeatedly. "It seems the Empire is one step ahead in this regard..."

’Could you two be a little quieter?’

"Rorschach? Is it over already?" Bart peered inside, but the Caster was still sitting upright in the bathtub, eyes closed and unmoving. Bart exclaimed in alarm, "You’ve become a ghost?"

’You haven’t wished me well once today, have you...’ Rorschach desperately wanted to roll his eyes, but he was indeed in a state very close to that of a ghost.

Although a Spirit Body couldn’t interact with matter, it could, thankfully, still interact with Magic Power. Thus, Rorschach was still able to perform Casting in his current state. He was using a special [Communication Skill] to speak with the two of them.

He instructed the two of them, ’The process might be more time-consuming and strenuous than expected. Please wait patiently. Don’t interfere with the ritual, and don’t let anything from the outside world interrupt it.’

"Got it. Relax, relax." Bart yawned and sent the Apprentice to fetch another pot of tea.

The reason for the delay was that Rorschach had discovered through introspection that the so-called "impurities" were now uniformly mixed into his Spirit Body.

His Spirit Body was now like Frankenstein’s monster, with patches of differently colored impurities embedded in it. In his previous attempts, he had been able to consolidate these impurities, but plans rarely keep up with reality. Over the past few days, as his tolerance for the Magic Power suppression grew, his fusion with the impurities had deepened.

Therefore, hoping for them to be expelled naturally no longer seemed realistic.

’How to separate them? ’Centrifugation’ probably won’t work.’ In this state, when Rorschach looked up, he saw not the ceiling, but a vast, starry sky and endlessly drifting crystal fragments. He thought about his own unique circumstances and decided to take a gamble.

’Ascend... ascend rapidly...’

This wasn’t his first time advancing toward the Star Realm Layer, but it was the first time he had ascended actively.

The first obstacle was the Transmuting Dust. As Divine Kingdom Fragments, they possessed a tangible presence in both the Material Realm and the Symbolic Realm, lying like a shield between the world and the Star Realm.

Rushing in recklessly would certainly lead to being burned and mutated by them, but Rorschach was already a veteran at "handling" Transmuting Dust. His Spirit Body absorbed more Magic Power, but instead of expanding as it had in previous attempts, it contracted. His entire being became a blue light, successfully plunging into this layer of glowing motes.

The resistance was immense, but he had to keep ascending, no matter the cost!

He no longer just shielded himself from the crystals, but instead attempted to use Purification on them and absorb the resulting energy as fuel for his ascent.

"Rorschach’s Spiritual Body Rocket" was accomplishing a magnificent feat. It broke through the Transmuting Dust and successfully reached the Star Realm, but that wasn’t enough. He needed to push through to the Original Layer.

’Just as I expected!’

Rorschach felt his entire being burn, like a scab being ripped off. He himself had been allowed to enter the Original Layer. A vista of scattered "trees" spread out before him, while at his feet, a pure and untainted Soul slowly rotated, melting like ice under a scorching sun.

The Artificial Soul had not been permitted to enter the Original Layer. A mysterious will stood guard, but it always showed leniency toward Rorschach.

Rorschach wanted to gaze a while longer at the magnificent "Tree of Law." He now had a more profound understanding of it; if he were to spend more time analyzing one of its branches, he could even obtain a "perfect Magic."

He could also see that countless Magics were being cast throughout the world.

Unfortunately, the Artificial Soul was deteriorating, and Rorschach hadn’t forgotten Deryats’s warning that great beings resided here. In any case, he couldn’t linger any longer.

’That’s far enough!’ He gathered up the Artificial Soul. Insulated by the Blue Light Barrier, the colorless, odorless, and massless fluid was contained. It stopped evaporating and shrinking, and it could no longer merge with Rorschach’s own Spirit Body.

"Going back," he thought. Cradling it like a ball, he plunged headfirst back into the world he came from. He passed through the clouds, through the spire of the Mage Tower and several of its floors, and plummeted back into the bathroom.

Rorschach didn’t notice that the endless "Tree of Law" had sent out a wisp of light to connect with his Soul. It faded from sight almost instantly, yet the connection remained.

In the bathroom, under the [Arcane Vision] automatically activated by his Spirit Body, the two Magic Arrays had built a bridge between Rorschach and the core. The arrays were not the original version, but instead incorporated the circuit structure of the [Enlightenment Skill].

When Rorschach released his grip, the "soul ball" rolled naturally along the bridge built by the Magic Arrays, moving toward the computing core and gradually merging with the "metal ball."

It seemed he didn’t need to "brute force a miracle" like the Ninth Ring’s [Mechanical Body Enlightenment Skill] and forcibly cram the Soul into the Inorganic Material. Light paths illuminated the metal ball’s surface as the sound of mechanical parts furiously reconfiguring and interlocking came from within.

"It’s done. Come on in." This time, Rorschach’s voice wasn’t produced by Magic, but spoken from his own lips.

The cliché story Bart had imagined—of an Evil God’s scion descending to destroy the entire city, of his own tragic loss of a beloved wife, and of traveling the world to become stronger before taking revenge on his former friend, the fallen Demon King—did not come to pass.

Rorschach was just standing there with a relaxed expression, holding a ball. Although the ball shimmered with the light of Magic and the glow of wisdom, it was still just a ball.

"So, can it talk?"

"I think it needs to be linked to a [Communication Skill] Magic Array to be able to."

While the original inventor could only have the core interact with other physical components mechanically, Rorschach was a Mage. He modified the interfaces in the original design so they could link directly with Magic Circuits to realize their functions.

However, he had no intention of handing Bart a Soul that contained his own memories and had once resided within his own body. He had originally commissioned artisans to manufacture three sets of parts and had assembled two functioning machines from them. Now, it was time to use the second one.

The core was the computing unit, a "container" for the Artificial Soul, with interfaces on its outermost layer for inputting raw signals and outputting results. Rorschach had designed a spherical shell with gems that had an affinity for Magic Power embedded on its outer wall. These served as interfaces to connect with Magic Circuits, while the inner wall was preset with the circuit structures of several basic Magics.

This was Rorschach’s own proprietary design, which he had commissioned a jewelry merchant to craft. Of course, he had completed the internal circuitry with his own hands.

The spherical shell was coated with a paste mixed with Alchemy Ink and an emulsifier, which could act as both a lubricant and a medium for conducting Magic Power. Then, the metal ball was placed inside, and the shell was closed.

Both computing cores were treated this way. The Magic Array preset on the inner wall—a modification of the [Descent Summoning Technique]—bridged the two spheres. The one Rorschach had first held became the host unit, while the second sphere became the client unit, which would be installed in Bart’s Mage Tower.