At Venti's call, the party rose without hesitation, falling into step behind him as he led the way forward.
Ryen shook his head, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. "To think we finally tracked down a library ruin not through Ganyu's usual good fortune, but because Venti was wandering around aimlessly."
Venti rolled his eyes, shooting him an offended glare. "What is that supposed to mean? Is my luck really that terrible?"
"Depends on who you compare yourself to," Ryen replied, spreading his hands. "Put next to Ganyu or Klee, you might as well be cursed."
Venti's face darkened, but before he could muster a retort, Ryen picked up his pace and stepped past him.
Just ahead, nestled beneath a dense canopy of ancient trees, stood a weathered stone structure. Its perimeter was framed by neat tiers of cobblestone and stone brick steps, while the interior was lined with decayed wooden bookshelves and display cases.
The library ruin was modest in size, spanning barely a hundred square meters. It bore all the hallmarks of an ancient, forgotten relic. Cobwebs hung in loose veils across corners of mossy stone, and many of the wooden shelves had long since collapsed into splintered piles.
In the very center of the floor rested a square stone altar carved with intricate, glowing runic grooves. Fastened upon its corners were two gleaming golden cups.
"Ryen, is that..." Ningguang reached out, lightly tugging at the edge of his sleeve.
Ryen gave a firm nod. "That is the primary reason we went hunting for a library ruin in the first place."
"The Imbuement Altar."
"A shame it is incomplete," he added, shaking his head. Sensing the questioning looks from the rest of the group, he waved a hand dismissively. "Do not worry about the altar just yet. A library ruin earns its name because these shelves are packed with magical literature."
"Spellbooks, Arcane Tomes, upgrade scrolls..."
"Let us scour the shelves and secure those first."
Bright smiles spread across the party. Although they had spent substantial time traversing the New Continent, their collection of spellbooks was far from complete. With the Wizardry mod boasting nearly two hundred distinct spells, collecting every single one would stretch their inventory space to its absolute limit.
The Arcane Tomes were even more precious, serving as the core catalyst for wand upgrades. Even if they did not turn up Tier Three tomes for Master wands, lower-tier tomes could be stockpiled for the thousand-man mage corps planned for the future.
As for the upgrade scrolls, while they had uncovered a fair share over the past several days, the total was nowhere near enough to service everyone's wands. Many of their companions were still waiting to apply specialized enhancements to their gear.
As the others dispersed to sift through the dilapidated shelves, Ryen stepped up to the center of the structure, running his fingers gently over the cool stone surface of the Imbuement Altar.
Finding this piece had cost them a great deal of effort. Now that they had located the altar, and with an obelisk standing not far off in the wilderness, their path forward was clear.
The development roadmap for the Wizardry mod was finally entering its golden phase. Not only wands, but full sets of wizard robes could now be mass-produced. Both the personal weapons of their inner circle and the grand blueprint for their standing mage units were about to accelerate dramatically.
Ryen walked a slow circle around the platform, clicking his tongue. The altar was vital, but to awaken its magical matrix, it required four receptacles. With only two attached, there was still work to be done.
After a moment of thought, he pulled up the crafting interface for the missing components.
"Ryen."
While he was reviewing the recipe, Ganyu walked over, having already cleared out the remaining shelves.
She held several Arcane Tomes, a stack of scrolls, and an armful of assorted spellbooks. It was a respectable haul, though after days of exploring rich ruins, the party had grown accustomed to lavish rewards and took it in stride.
"Shall we activate the altar now?" Ganyu asked softly.
Ryen nodded. "We are missing two receptacles. We need three gold ingots and a flower pot for each."
Before his sentence had fully settled, Ei quietly stepped forward and placed a wooden crafting table beside him without a word.
Ryen paused, then smiled warmly as he reached out to pat her head.
Being treated with such open affection right in front of Makoto brought a soft flush of color to Ei's cheeks, her gaze dropping downward. Ryen paid little mind to her shyness, swiftly assembling the two golden receptacles at the bench before stepping back to slot them securely into the vacant corners of the stone altar.
The moment the four receptacles settled into place, every eye in the room fixed upon the stone.
The once dull, weathered block suddenly flared with brilliant, pulsing light. Even under the midday sun filtering through the canopy, the radiance was unmistakable. Veins of violet, crimson, and radiant gold surged through the carved grooves in a fluid gradient, bathing the entire altar in an otherworldly aura.
A fine mist of glittering stardust drifted lazily from the platform, radiating a strange and captivating hum of power.
"Is it ready to use now?" Hu Tao leaned in close, tilting her head with wide eyes. "Can we craft the wizard gear and start upgrading the robes?"
Ryen spread his hands, letting out a wry chuckle. "We are still quite a ways off."
"To put it simply..." He paused, gathering his thoughts before continuing in a measured tone. "The Imbuement Altar operates much like a grand forge. Its core function is to infuse base items with specific elemental attributes."
"Take Ganyu's Master-tier wand, the Wand of Absolute Frost, for example. Crafting one from scratch is an extensive process."
"First, you locate the Imbuement Altar and complete its receptacles. Next, you set a Grand Magic Crystal in the center and fill the four receptacles with Frost Dust."
"That converts the core into a Frost Crystal. Combining that Frost Crystal with wooden sticks and gold nuggets yields an Apprentice-tier Ice Wand."
"From there, it follows the standard progression into Advanced and Master tiers."
"The Imbuement Altar merely gives us the foundation to begin."
"Beyond weapons, it also handles the elemental attunement and tier upgrades for the wizard robes."
"In short, the altar is the forge, and magical dust is the fuel."
"The difference from a standard furnace is that varying dust types produce entirely different elemental affinities."
"That said, combining magic crystals with elemental dust to create pure elemental cores will likely yield immense utility back in Teyvat as well."
Silence settled over the ruin as everyone processed the explanation.
After a long pause, Guizhong let out a soft, helpless sigh. "So you are saying... finding the altar was just the first step, and now we have to go hunting for obelisks?"
Ryen nodded.
Guizhong crossed her arms, a pout forming on her lips. "Good grief, why does this mod have to be so tedious? Besides, we can find finished wands out in the wild anyway. Is it really worth going through all the trouble to craft them by hand?"
Ryen laughed softly, reaching over to playfully pinch her cheek. "Look at the bigger picture. If it were just the few of us, crafting would not matter. Wands drop frequently enough that we could easily trade or fight for what we need."
"But we have an entire army of mages to equip. A thousand wands is merely the starting quota, and our forces will only expand from there."
"We cannot possibly rely on scouring the Twilight Forest or bartering with wild wizards to supply thousands of frontline soldiers. Even if there were enough wands in existence, the time and logistical waste would be staggering."
"For an individual, the altar is a convenience. For a nation, this baseline crafting infrastructure is an absolute necessity."
Ningguang and Jean nodded in firm agreement.
Guizhong puffed out her cheeks, wrapping both hands around Ryen's arm and leaning her head against his shoulder. "Which means it has practically zero value to me, right? Whenever I need a new wand or spell, you will just hand it to me anyway."
Ryen smiled fondly, brushing his fingers through her hair. "You are my precious treasure. Of course I will take care of whatever you need."
Guizhong beamed instantly, her face lighting up with a radiant smile. "Then I refuse to worry about this altar at all! I will treat this entire expedition as our private date!"
Ryen said nothing, understanding her sentiment. To the independent wanderers among them, like Lumine, the altar offered little immediate appeal. But to leaders like Ningguang who shouldered the destiny of nations, the Imbuement Altar was the foundational pillar required to unlock large scale magical warfare.
Without it, standardizing wizardry across the allied armies was an impossible dream. They could hardly afford to send thousands of troops blindly raiding the Twilight Forest for months on end just to secure basic gear.
"So, does that mean this altar is completely unusable for the moment?" Yae Miko asked with an amused tilt of her head, spreading her hands gracefully.
"Not necessarily," Ryen chuckled. "Venti already mentioned there is an obelisk standing nearby. Where there is an obelisk, there are wraiths, and where there are wraiths, there is magical dust."
"It simply comes down to which element it holds. Finding the altar was the hardest part; the rest is just locating the various elemental obelisks scattered across the continent."
Ryen paused, turning his gaze toward Ningguang. "Have you received word from the harbor construction teams? How is their progress along the coast?"
Ningguang inclined her head gracefully. "I checked their status this morning. The primary docks are fully functional and can already berth over ten thousand transport vessels."
"However, the surrounding settlement infrastructure still requires time. Our objective is to develop that harbor into a comprehensive transit hub to link the Main Continent with this landmass."
"At bare minimum, it must function as a full-scale city."
"Based on their current operational speed, it will take at least ten days to finish the first phase."
Ryen rubbed the bridge of his nose, exhaling slowly. "Ten days... Can we spare any additional workforce from the Main Continent?"
Ningguang offered a wry, helpless smile. "Not a single soul. Main Continent urban expansion is in full swing, and the Redstone Tech City is entering its final construction phase."
"Exploration and resource extraction across every sector are running at maximum capacity."
"The two thousand workers stationed here represent our absolute final reserve. Even the survivors of Khaenri'ah have committed their full numbers toward building their new sovereign territory on the New Continent."
Ryen let out a quiet sigh. "Then we have a bottleneck. We must establish a forward operating base around this Imbuement Altar to secure our wizardry pipeline and process magical dust immediately."
"Yet we cannot afford to stall harbor construction either..."
Hearing his words, the Tsaritsa and the Snezhnayan contingent visibly stiffened.
Rosalyne pressed her lips together, her voice laced with quiet tension. "So... we are facing another labor crisis?"
Ryen nodded. "I knew developing the New Continent would demand immense manpower, but I did not anticipate hitting a staffing wall quite so quickly. This is rather troublesome."
The group fell into an uneasy silence. Even Ningguang remained quiet, her eyes lowered in thought. The various nations had already mobilized vast numbers of citizens into this world. Pulling more civilians from Teyvat right now would leave their homeworld defenses dangerously thin, at least until the fresh batch of Millelith recruits completed their training a month from now.
Ryen remained quiet for a brief moment, then turned his eyes toward Aether.
"Without disrupting our broader strategic deployment across Teyvat, how many additional personnel can Khaenri'ah bring through the gate?"
Aether and the Khaenri'ah officers standing behind him felt a sudden surge of excitement.
Ryen was finally offering to open the gates for another massive wave of their people.
With their national restoration underway, building a grand capital on the New Continent with a mere thousand workers had felt agonizingly slow. If they could bring in a massive workforce, construction would surge forward, potentially allowing them to finish the city within the month and formally proclaim the rebirth of their kingdom.
Aether stepped forward without a second of hesitation, his voice ringing with decisive energy.
"Khaenri'ah may lack many things, but we will never lack people! We can deploy ten thousand able-bodied workers at a moment's notice!"