Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 452 - 451: The Crystallization of Wisdom

To be honest, Gawain occasionally reflects on whether there is something wrong with his way of recruiting people and building his territory, leading to people (balls/fish/light bulbs, etc.) gathering around him with such distinct characteristics. These distinct individuals undoubtedly have impressive abilities, but their prominent traits sometimes make things awkward—Nicholas Egg is undoubtedly a master in this regard.

This ball can even become square, where will you find reason in that?

After the new arcane printing machine comes out, even writing an achievement record is challenging—other project leaders, you can say they’re diligent and devoted, even suffering from overwork, coughing up blood, or refusing to leave the frontlines despite minor injuries. But when writing about the mechanical research station, you have to say the director was so exhausted he developed twelve sides—without seven or eight illustrations and two pages of explanatory text, you’d suspect the writer’s brain was caught in the door...

”You... have worked hard...” Gawain’s eye twitched as he looked at the metal-ball alien, ”After this project ends, take a couple of days off...”

”Oh, don’t worry, it’s just a minor issue, I’ll recover soon,” Nicholas Egg seemed utterly unaware of how his current appearance frightened so many people, ”Let’s first see how this device works—you’ll definitely be pleased.”

Gawain worked hard to shift his focus away from the twelve new edges of Nicholas Egg, starting to concentrate on what was truly important here.

The arcane printing machine, which was distinct from any printing machine he knew in terms of working principle, structure, and appearance, was ready.

”Let’s start,” Gawain nodded, ”Begin with the initial editing. Rebecca, you operate it personally.”

Rebecca, who had come along with Gawain to witness the results, had long been waiting for this moment. She immediately responded happily, then quickly stepped to the small cabinet beside the arcane printing machine.

She pulled a lever on the side of the small cabinet, and a very slight hum came from inside the equipment, and a faint light appeared on the surface of the projection crystal embedded at the top of the cabinet. Subsequently, a light-blue halo appeared at the top of the entire device.

It was very similar to the hologram of a Magic Web Communicator in standby mode without a signal, except this picture had a circle of bright square lines at the edges, which should be the boundary of the layout.

Meanwhile, when the small ”cabinet” was activated, a crystal embedded above a metal platform at the connecting part between the cabinet and the main body of the printing machine also lit up—Gawain then realized that this structure used to connect the two devices was actually the ”scanning device” of the arcane printing machine.

An assistant waiting nearby stepped forward and placed a piece of paper with pre-written text on the metal platform.

In the holographic projection above the ”small cabinet,” the image of the white paper immediately appeared—up to this point, every step was something the mages of this world were all too familiar with in terms of scenes and phenomena; it was just the most common technology in the realm of illusion magic and crystal craftsmanship.

But as Rebecca pressed the first key on the ”keyboard” at the cabinet’s top, Gawain saw something not found in ordinary illusion magic:

Below the image of the white paper in the cabinet’s holographic projection, the characters Rebecca input appeared.

A series of characters quickly appeared as Rebecca typed, forming a sentence: ”The above is the physical scan function; this sentence is the text editing function.”

Then Rebecca pulled a lever beside the keyboard, and a slight sound of mechanical operation emerged from inside the small cabinet. She continued to input characters, with new characters appearing below the previous sentence.

”By the way, how do you input text into an illusion projection?” Gawain asked a question he had previously overlooked, a question that left him extremely puzzled: given the current progress in Cecil Clan’s rune logic, computer technology is still far in the future; technicians still can’t create arrays capable of data processing, and Jenni has no leads on this either, so how did Rebecca manage text processing on such a device?

Is this simply a mechanical process? Then how does the simple mechanical process transform into symbols on the holographic projection?

”Oh, this, actually the principle isn’t complex, just the structure is complex. There are only 28 letters, and with common punctuation, there are just over thirty. We made thirty-seven pieces of tiny white crystals with pre-engraved characters inside this cabinet. These thirty-seven small crystals are arranged in a sector dial with connecting rods. At the front end of the sector dial, there is a small window, and on the other side of the window is a sheet of movable thin card, and behind the card, there is another crystal moving with it used for scanning. When you press a Rune Trigger on this ’keyboard,’ the corresponding white crystal pops to the sector dial’s front window and activates, engraving a black character on the card. Then the crystal behind the card reflects the pattern down. Moreover, by adjusting the distance between the white crystal and the card, the size of the characters can also be adjusted...”

As Rebecca spoke, she opened the small cabinet’s side panel, and Gawain saw the intricate and awe-inspiring mechanical structure inside, which surprisingly somewhat resembled the mechanical typewriter from his memory.

Rebecca continued saying: ”But it has its obvious drawbacks. First, each time it consumes a sheet of cardboard. Of course, this consumption isn’t significant and is acceptable. Secondly, you need to be careful while typing. If you make a mistake, it leaves a mark on the cardboard. If there are few mistakes, you can feed it back and use the black block key to cover it up. If there are many mistakes, it affects reading and becomes wasted effort...”

”Incredible...” Gawain looked almost astonished at the complex mechanical structure. Those cleverly designed linkages, springs, gears, and slides seemed to carry a strange charm. They are the culmination of human wisdom in the age before digital technology, a pinnacle of mechanical craftsmanship. He widened his eyes at Rebecca, ”You came up with this?”

”I worked with my assistants on it,” Rebecca scratched her head, ”Strictly speaking, I just proposed the idea. The design was completely figured out by the assistants - there are two clockmakers among the new mage technicians who came from the royal capital. They are very good at designing intricately mechanical mechanisms - but they never had the chance to design such peculiar things when they were in the royal capital.”

Next to her, Nicholas Egg immediately made a muffled sound: ”I was actually planning to bring those two clockmakers to the mechanical research station here - but they are more interested in Mage guide technology.”

Clockmakers...

Gawain looked at the complex mechanical structure inside the small cabinet and nodded slightly with admiration: ”Very good, very good - the two of them are talents, just like Cohen, they should be focused on and cultivated. Now, you may continue.”

”Hey,” Rebecca nodded happily, ”Next, it’s just a matter of transferring these edited pieces to the Arcane Transcription Cylinder and then printing them out!”

As she spoke, she pulled another lever next to the cabinet. Accompanied by the instant sound of dense mechanical parts turning inside, Gawain saw the surface of the core device in the center of the printing machine - the Arcane Transcription Cylinder - glow with orderly blue light.

That was the printing pattern Rebecca had finished editing.

After two seconds of preheating and solidifying, the pattern on the transcription cylinder surface stabilized. Then, the other parts of the printing machine began working. Smooth white paper was sent to the center of the printing machine, covered over the black ”ink plate,” while the transcription cylinder was pressed onto the paper surface by the mechanical frame, quickly brushing from left to right.

The printed paper was swiftly rolled away by the roller, followed immediately by the next sheet...

In the sound of the printing machine in operation, Rebecca explained to Gawain the subsequent working process: ”Each continuous operation can print three hundred sheets, then rest for about a minute. This allows the roller to recharge, heat up, solidify, and simultaneously change the ink plate below, starting a new round of printing. During this process, the replaced ink plate is sent to the heating platform for sufficient heating to restore the ink surface to smoothness, ready to be replaced after cooling.”

At this moment, Gawain had been completely captivated by the machine in operation. The rapidly printed sheets of paper, the continuously repeating, efficient, and orderly mechanical structure, and the sound of gears and linkages working from inside the machine reminded him of the scene when the first magic-powered engine was activated. An exhilarating emotion filled his thoughts, and he couldn’t help but exclaim: ”Good... Very good, better than I imagined!”

”Actually, I think there’s room for improvement here,” Rebecca’s face was full of pride as ”the ancestor praised me,” but she still tried very hard to keep a calm expression and said, head held high, ”I think the one-minute rest period in the middle is the most wasteful - if the coating formula on the transcription cylinder surface or the projection crystal inside could be improved, it should be able to work continuously for a longer time. Also, the ink plate becomes uneven as the ink gets consumed, and it must be reheated and leveled before it can be used again. I think this also needs improvement...”

Gawain heard Rebecca’s words but had not yet spoken when Aunt Heidi broke the silence: ”I’m not sure about the first improvement direction, but I do have an idea for the second one - why not make the ink plate into a ’ribbon’ that can cycle under the printing table? Then set up a device for heating the ink ribbon and leveling the ink surface on the side of the machine, such as a hot roller. This should solve the problem. As for the base of the ink ribbon, you could try Blue Pattern Moonlight Fabric, which is now being mass-produced in the factories, is low-cost, resilient, and resistant to deformation.”

”Oh right!” Rebecca clapped her hands immediately, eyes shining as she looked at Aunt Heidi, ”Aunt, you’re amazing! As expected, older people are wise...”

Aunt Heidi: ”...”

Gawain: ”...”

”It’s a great day, a great day,” Gawain hastily stopped his great-granddaughter before she raised the magic wand with the studded head and steel edges, then turned to Rebecca, ”In any case, improvements are certainly needed. New machines and equipment inevitably have imperfections. Your thoughts alone are limited, work with a team, or you could even listen to the opinions of the workers using the printing machine in the future. Mister Godwin, what do you think of this machine?”

The scholar from the royal capital, now the head of the news publishing department, Godwin Orlando, had been wide-eyed, staring in amazement at the complex and unbelievably exquisite machine since it started. At this moment, he finally came to his senses, and upon hearing Gawain’s words, the old scholar couldn’t help but exclaim: ”What an incredible creation... If only I were younger, I would certainly try to understand its principles. But now... what I most want to do is write an article, making every effort to introduce this thing to everyone. Even if many cannot understand the machine’s principles, I hope they can know that a group of brilliant geniuses in the territory created such a great machine!”

”Then go write it,” Gawain smiled and nodded, ”After the war news of Rocky Ridges Fortress, it’s time to release something that relaxes people and arouses curiosity among the public.”

(There is a book called ”I Am the Behind-the-Scenes Boss.” I wonder if anyone has read it. The beginning might seem a bit cliché and bland, but the creativity is great, and you can look forward to the latter parts. Those in a book famine period can take a look.)