Wizards: Starting with Fairy Crests

073: Experiment

Lynch took a deep breath of the laboratory air, which was unique to the laboratory and contained a mixture of metallic and mineral scents, and activated the localized purification field and energy stabilizing aura that came with the workbench.

A faint humming sound emanated, enveloping the operating area in a nearly absolutely stable energy field.

"Let's begin," he muttered to himself, his voice slightly muffled behind the bird-beak mask.

Step 1: Creating and mentally binding the core rune plate.

Lynch took a palm-sized, half-finger-thick, smooth obsidian slab from the materials shelf and fixed it to the miniature universal clamp on the table.

Next, he picked up a rune etching pen with an extremely fine nib made of a mixture of mithril and stardust and began to carve on the obsidian slab.

This is the beginning of an extremely complex array of miniature runes, representing the most basic logic of "energy reception and conversion".

The mental energy must be even and constant, and the adhesion and penetration of the ink must be just right. Too much ink may cause a short circuit in the energy circuit, while too little ink may cause the rune to fail.

"Sizzle..."

A faint sound, like an electric current passing through liquid, rang out.

Guided by spiritual power, the ink seeped precisely into the microscopic pores of the obsidian slab along the shallow marks etched by the pen tip, forming a shimmering silver line.

At first, everything went smoothly. Lin Qi was completely focused, relying on the perfect theoretical knowledge given to him by the system to precisely control the output of his mental energy and the trajectory of the pen tip.

The first and second basic runes gradually took shape, with smooth lines and stable energy fluctuations.

However, problems arose when he began connecting the third key rune representing the "command receiving port".

On the theoretical blueprints, this rune needs to form a subtle angular offset and energy flow rate difference with the previous "energy receiving" rune in order to achieve clear identification of the command signal.

Lin Qi etched the image strictly according to the parameters he remembered, but at the moment of actual connection, he felt a slight, almost imperceptible tremor in his mental energy output.

Perhaps it's the slight fatigue caused by prolonged periods of intense concentration, or perhaps the newly acquired skills haven't yet formed muscle memory.

It was just this tiny, insignificant tremor!

"Snapped!"

A soft sound, like ice shattering.

At the newly etched joint, the silver lines suddenly twisted and broke, and the spiritual energy condensed in the ink instantly dissipated out of control.

A small, charred mark was left on the obsidian slab, and the two previously successful runes were also tainted, their brilliance quickly dimming.

First attempt, failed.

Lynch frowned slightly, but he was not discouraged. Failure in alchemy is common, especially in the early stages of learning.

He calmly cleaned away the damaged obsidian slab and replaced it with a new one.

Meanwhile, summarizing the lessons learned: "When using mental energy for complex rune connections, extra attention needs to be paid to the stability of the endpoints. Perhaps segmented etching could be tried to reduce the mental load per use."

He adjusted his strategy and started over.

The second time, when etching the fifth rune, due to insufficient practical experience with the interaction between the ink and the stone material, the etching depth was slightly shallow, resulting in insufficient strength of the rune structure, which disintegrated on its own in subsequent energy simulation tests.

failure.

The third time, he was too cautious and etched too slowly, causing a break in the energy continuity between the runes and making it impossible to form a complete loop during the activation test.

failure.

The fourth time, the fifth time...

In one corner of the workbench, several pieces of obsidian slabs bearing different signs of failure gradually piled up.

After each failure, Lynch would carefully observe the phenomenon, analyze the reasons by comparing them with theoretical knowledge, and briefly record them in his experimental log.

Finally, on his seventh attempt, he found his rhythm.

The output of mental energy is as smooth and steady as an arm or finger; the movement of the pen tip and the control of pressure are just right; and the subtle perception of the material properties gradually becomes clear.

Complex runes appeared and connected smoothly under his pen.

Finally, a complete miniature control array consisting of seventeen basic runes and dozens of connecting lines was successfully etched into the center of the obsidian slab.

Lin Qi let out a long sigh of relief, feeling somewhat mentally exhausted, but his eyes sparkled with satisfaction.

He carefully imprinted the last trace of his spiritual imprint, like a signature, onto the core "Master-Servant Contract" rune of the array.

Suddenly, the entire rune plate glowed slightly, then subsided, establishing a subtle yet stable spiritual connection with him.

Step one, done!

After a short rest and a small dose of energizing potion, Lynch began the more challenging second step: sculpting and infusing energy into the clay body.

He took out a large lump of grayish-brown, moist and elastic activated magic clay from the material container.

The shaping was relatively simple. Referring to the disassembled clay puppet sample next to him, Lynch used his mental power and simple shaping tools to roughly mold the clay into a human-shaped torso and limbs, leaving a cavity for installing the core rune plate and energy core.

Although this step was strenuous, he succeeded on his first attempt thanks to his understanding of the physical structure and his precise control of his mental power.

The challenge lies in the subsequent energy loop infusion.

He needs to embed extremely fine energy-conducting mithril wires into the not-yet-fully-cured clay torso and limbs along specific paths to construct a complex "neural network".

These paths must be absolutely precise, without any intersections, short circuits, or breaks, and must perfectly correspond to the interfaces on the core runeboard created in the first step.

Holding a specially made wire-embedding pen with a miniature guiding magic array, Lynch carefully "buried" a mithril wire, thinner than a hair, into the shoulder joint of the clay torso.

Theory told him that the mithril wire needed to be kept straight and at a constant depth in the clay.

At the same time, a small amount of curing energy is injected to allow the clay to slowly tighten and fix itself after the thread is embedded, but it cannot tighten too quickly to avoid squeezing and deforming the thread.

However, in practice, it is fraught with difficulties.

The first time, he injected a little too much solidification energy, causing the clay to harden too quickly in some areas. This caused the mithril wire that was being embedded to get stuck and break in two when he forcibly pulled it.

failure.

He cleaned it up and started over. The second time, he was too worried about the hardening problem and didn't inject enough energy.

As a result, the mithril wire failed to hold in the clay. As he moved the pen tip to prepare to embed the next one, the previously buried wire was pulled out, and the path became disordered.

failure.

The third time, he adjusted the energy output, and the thread was successfully embedded and fixed in a small section.

However, when turning to connect the elbow joint, the steering force of the inlaid wire pen was not well controlled, and the wire bent unnecessarily inside the clay, causing the preset energy throughput to drop significantly.

failure.

The fourth time, the fifth time...

Every failure means that part of the clay needs to be discarded and reshaped.

Materials were being consumed rapidly, but Lin Qi felt as if he were groping in the fog, unable to find that precise "feel".

Once again, in an attempt to construct an energy trunk circuit from the core of the torso to the thighs, the mithril wire broke quietly due to an underestimation of the subtle differences in the solidification speed of different regions inside the clay, resulting in uneven stress when crossing a certain area.

However, no abnormalities were visible from the outside, and it was only during subsequent testing that the circuit was found to be blocked.

Lynch stopped using his wire-embedding pen and stared at the clay torso prototype on the workbench, another failed attempt with a chaotic internal circuitry, and remained silent for a moment.

Beneath the bird-beak mask, his brows were deeply furrowed.

The repeated failures, which were puzzling and lacked a clear direction for improvement, indicated that he had encountered a real bottleneck.

This is not just a matter of operational proficiency; it may also involve some deeper practical experience regarding the microscopic interaction of materials and the synergy of energy fields.

It is "tacit knowledge" that is not covered in the basic textbook "Introduction to Basic Alchemy" or that requires a lot of trial and error to understand.

Continuing to try blindly will only waste expensive materials and time.

Lynch swept the damaged clay into the waste bin and cleaned the worktable.

He removed his gloves and bird-beak mask, revealing a slightly tired but still calm face.

My gaze drifted out the laboratory window; in the distance, the main tower of the gray building appeared as a hazy silhouette in the twilight. "It seems..."

"I'll have to ask Professor Hossman."