Unlocking the School
The first choice that appeared was, in effect, no different from being told to pick a magic school to major in.
Once you founded a school, you could freely create whatever spells you needed or drastically reshape existing ones. The process barely even had system constraints like "enlightenment" to wrestle with. The only catch was that any magic you used that way had to stay inside the framework of the school you chose.
Obviously Magitech.
Over on the Free Archive, Magitech still took a constant beating as the black sheep of magic schools. But honestly, without my golems I would have accomplished nothing.
The mountains of food stacked in the warehouse, the subordinates—no, disciples, whatever—helping me with my work, the Mana Cores and Ether Crystals… all of it only existed because of golems that never feared zombies, never got tired, and never slept.
And overall, people seemed to respect my choice.
"Magitech."
The moment I said it, an unusual loading effect flickered for a beat—something that almost never happened—before a message appeared.
You have selected Magitech as your core school.
2. Please select auxiliary magic schools to integrate. You may choose up to two.
This one…
I'd been told that grafting an auxiliary school into your Magic Creation work earned you a pretty significant bonus. You could pick two, but if you did, the bonus for each shrank a little.
What should I go with?
I mulled it over as Alchemy, White Magic, Multi-Element Magic, and all the other schools I already knew flickered through my mind one after another.
People like me who only ever studied one school they loved don't even have to think about it. That friend of ours, though, had to scramble just to stay alive, so he ended up learning a bit of everything. Still, if Magitech is the main, whatever he picks should land around average, no?
The general consensus was that it didn't matter much what you chose.
Alchemy? Or Transference? That's what my master used to say, at least.
And then, while reading that, something clicked.
The moment I saw the username HeavenlyDemonAspirant2, a post I'd spotted on the Free Archive not long ago suddenly rose to the surface.
Something about how to build a school with Alchemy slotted in… yeah, that was it.
The writer of that one had been HeavenlyDemonAspirant, if I remembered right. The "master" this guy kept mentioning was almost certainly the same person—or at least closely connected.
Might as well just ask. There didn't seem to be a private message function, so I went ahead and dropped a comment in the open.
Whatever. Everyone's already buddy-buddy around here.
The reply came a little later. First he laid down a whole foundation of "I'm not supposed to talk about this" and "it's a pretty ugly story," and only then did he get to the point.
If you dig through the old posts you'll probably find the username.
And then:
Botched his own black magic research, burned half his lifespan on it, then tried to kill me and body-snatch me.
It was a hell of a story. A master who had scoured the entire world for the few remaining humans, taken them all as disciples—and then murdered them with his own hands, or tried to.
So the fact that this guy is still alive means…
That shouldn't have been possible, but I had a pretty special artifact.
Anyway, so I've still got all his research materials sitting with me.
Black mages really are terrifying.
HeavenlyDemonAspirant. I'd taken him for a decent guy who posted useful guides. Turns out he was completely unhinged.
The restored post went up almost immediately.
The introduction read as follows:
— Whether you're in black magic or Magitech, if you're considering Alchemy, you are almost certainly in a situation that demands materials.
— To take Alchemy as an auxiliary school, you need either an existing, extremely solid technical foundation—Magitech or otherwise—or an environment where magical materials can be procured with relative ease.
I need materials too. For golem parts, for Magic Tower upgrades, all of it.
— If neither applies, take Transference or another school instead, and keep Alchemy as a pure support skill.
Unfortunately, it looked like the guide didn't fit my situation all that well. Magical material supply was close to the worst it could be, and while I did have some outstanding preexisting technology, almost none of it was usable anymore.
Whether the writer had taken the post down himself or it had vanished because he died, maybe I'd gotten my hopes up too high over a Free Archive thread I couldn't even read properly.
Thinking that, I scrolled further down—and the content underneath was anything but ordinary.
— That said, we need to focus a little more on technology than magic. You could raise factory-style altars for black magic. And if Alchemy is developed far enough, there may come a day when black magic no longer requires sacrifice of any kind.
Funny hearing that from a guy who tried to steal his disciple's body.
Apparently he never managed to push Alchemy that far.
Should I even trust this?
— Beyond that, Alchemy itself can be practiced by adapting preexisting technology. You can also fold the principles of Transference into such systems. Magic is more than capable of blending with human technology.
I still had my doubts about whether the post was safe to take as a guide overall. But this part snagged my attention. The writer had clearly come from a dimension with a fairly advanced industrial base, and a lot of what he said resonated with me.
In a normal world, you could train White Magic healers better than any doctor, mass-produce healing cores better than any medicine, and become a conglomerate overnight.
So what does any of this have to do with Alchemy?
— Ordinarily, Alchemy cannot create something from nothing. But a method that makes it possible does exist.
— Magic Creation. In the end, what we need is materials. Create an Alchemy that takes utterly common materials and, through a reasonably complex process, transforms them into magical materials.
— Whether you research Magitech or simply use existing technology, as long as you can support the process, you can literally turn lead into gold.
In other words…
You could take iron, wood, stone—the most ordinary, dirt-common materials in the world—and turn them into top-grade magical materials? And handle the necessary process with Magitech or modern technology?
Simple stuff like mana-infused iron was one thing. But for advanced materials, the recipes always seemed to demand obscure minerals and medicinal herbs with names I could barely pronounce. And he was saying you didn't need any of that?
Not bad.
Honestly, Alchemy was already hard enough, so this would be brutal. But I had excellent disciples. The real question was how far I could push modern technology and equipment. Maybe I'd need to go hunting for research labs or factories.
Mana-infused iron and magic stones aren't that high-grade to begin with.
I'd already been wondering whether I should swap out the golems' chassis and start looking for better materials I could actually produce. The timing made the idea pretty appealing.
The rest of the post, though, wasn't all that useful. It recommended Transference if you were going to pick one more school—but I hadn't learned a single Transference spell, and more importantly…
It just doesn't sound that attractive?
The Transference magic I pictured—teleport, blink, summoning distant objects—was all already possible with basic spells.
Transference doesn't get any papal bloodline free rides. Just level the tower.
"Yeah, better to just raise the Magic Tower level and learn teleport that way."
I finished the post and closed the screen.
Honestly, I still wanted to pick one more. Multi-Element Magic left me wanting for firepower. White Magic was a hassle, and frankly a little embarrassing.
So what did I need most?
When the golems are out fighting, I want to support them remotely.
Mana detection, however wide the range, still centered on me. There were spells like telepathy, sure, but right now direct support was hard. Looking through the Magic Archive, range limitations like that usually meant the mage had to go out and solve them in person.
Can't I just make something myself?
Just posted
"Alchemy. Pure Mana."
You have selected Alchemy and Pure Mana as auxiliary schools.
> Calculating…
> 3. Analyzing Tower Master's values…
> 4. Analyzing magical research tendencies…
> (……)
> 11. Analyzing disciples…
The moment I chose, countless windows rose and fell for a long while as all kinds of data tangled and computed.
Complete school founding?
Yes / No
The process finished itself on its own terms. Since the system was automatically analyzing and reflecting things like my disposition, starting over wouldn't change anything.
"Yes."
I confirmed without hesitation.