The castle courtyard was quite lively today. Fanny continued her magic control practice, Mapel was undergoing regular training, and even Lilika was present.
After a long period of interaction, Fanny finally saw Owen's true character, which made her feel at ease bringing her younger sister over. With Lilika present, her practice became even more enthusiastic, as if she wanted to show off her magic to her sister.
However, Lilika was not in the mood to watch her sister's magic practice right now; instead, she was receiving basic literacy education. Since she had been brought over, she needed something meaningful to do, and this task was entrusted to Ryan, the butler, who loved children.
Ryan was particularly invested in this, preparing many small desserts. Lilika could earn a dessert reward for passing the daily literacy test. To get the desserts, Lilika was truly giving her all.
Besides these individuals, Owen was also practicing magic.
Fireball!
With just a thought, Owen could successfully cast it, and an apple-sized ball of flame appeared above his palm, with lively yellow outer flames dancing.
This was the most basic magic. He had mastered it long before entering the Magic Academy, able to almost reflexively channel magic to cast this spell without incantation.
Chanting spells was originally meant to accelerate the magic conversion process. If one was extremely familiar with a simple spell, there was naturally no need for incantation. However, slightly more complex spells still required chanting, otherwise, the casting time would be long and prone to failure.
Of course, Owen wasn't just practicing a magic he was already familiar with. Earlier, he had discussed with Wenster the feasibility of modifying Fireball. If successful, it would greatly aid the next stage of work.
First, he moved the Fireball from above his palm to above his index finger, which was very simple to do.
The next part was the key. Owen focused his attention, enveloping the Fireball with magic, and compressing it towards the center. The originally dancing outer flames retracted, and the flame transformed into an almost perfect sphere.
As its volume gradually shrunk, he could feel the flame resisting, seemingly unwilling to be squeezed into a ball.
When the Fireball was compressed to the size of an egg, Owen's forehead was already dotted with sweat. The internal flames were intensely resisting, and the magic responsible for compression also fluctuated.
This wouldn't do. He steadied his mind, strengthening the stability of his magic, which caused the fluctuations to gradually calm down.
With further compression, the Fireball was quickly compressed to the size of a small cherry. Seeing this, Owen revealed a relieved smile. After so many failures, he had finally found the trick to successful compression.
Although it wasn't the final desired result, compressing the Fireball was the most important and difficult step. As long as the compression was successful, it indicated that this modification of Fireball was feasible.
In the final step, a small opening was created at the top of the compressed Fireball. With a whoosh, a bright, whitish, and very high-temperature flame, about twenty centimeters long, shot out from it.
Moving his hand back slightly, Owen quietly observed the jet of flame. Confirming that the formed jet was very stable, he satisfactorily clenched his other fist. This was the result he wanted.
Slightly increasing the magic output would cause the flame color to turn blue, and the temperature would become even higher.
Such a commotion naturally caught the attention of Fanny and Mapel, and the two gathered around.
"Lord, what are you doing?" Fanny asked.
Fearing the jet of flame would hurt them, Owen retracted the magic, then explained, "I'm modifying Fireball into a high-temperature jet of flame."
"I saw you casting Fireball earlier, but I didn't expect it to turn out like that. It's almost a new magic."
During training, Mapel would occasionally glance at what Owen was doing. This wasn't peeking; rather, a Knight must always be mindful of the Lord's safety, she convinced herself of this mentally.
"But what's the use?" Fanny couldn't understand. "As a means of attack, its attack range is too short. It's not as reliable as simply throwing a Fireball."
"I didn't say this was an attack magic," Owen replied.
"Huh? Then why are you modifying Fireball?" Fanny pressed.
"Welding."
Hearing this unfamiliar term, Fanny and Mapel both looked bewildered and very confused.
It was no wonder to them; currently, people used bolts or riveting to connect objects, and welding technology had not yet appeared. Owen had also heard about and learned of this technique from Wenster.
Seeing their puzzled expressions, Owen couldn't help but smile and said, "I'll take you to the blacksmith's shop later, and I'll personally demonstrate what welding is."
Just then, a prompt window popped up below Owen's field of vision; it was Wenster contacting him. Perfect, he had been about to call Wenster anyway.
Slightly moving away from Mapel, Owen connected with Wenster.
[It's been a while since we last spoke. I've made some progress in my research on magic stones and wanted to tell you about it.]
Right away, Wenster was eager to report his research findings.
[Hold on, the Fireball modification we talked about before is feasible; I've successfully cast a high-temperature jet of flame.] Owen interrupted.
[Oh? How's the work at the blacksmith's shop coming along?] Wenster asked.
[It's been ready for a while, just waiting for my magic.]
When the System upgrade was completed earlier, Wenster had originally wanted to discuss the steam engine with Owen, but then he got the magic stones and immediately immersed himself in research, forgetting about it. He only remembered after Owen asked.
Considering the possibilities brought by magic, he provided specially designed steam engine blueprints, featuring double connecting rods, slide valves, and so on.
He had fully considered the technical level on Owen's side, so the technical content wasn't too high, to avoid the awkward situation of the blacksmith seeing the blueprints but being unable to produce the necessary parts.
That being said, manufacturing such a steam engine would require the power of magic.
The blacksmith's shop produced disassembled small parts, which needed to be pieced together into larger components before the steam engine could be assembled. This piecing together required welding. This was also why Owen needed to modify Fireball.
[Then what are you dawdling for? I want to personally witness the historical moment of your world.] Wenster urged excitedly.
[Don't rush, I'll get ready and be right over.]
After preparing for the trip, Owen took Fanny and Mapel and left the castle, heading to the blacksmith's shop.
In the courtyard, Lilika was undergoing her literacy test. Staring at the characters Ryan had written on the slate, her face was full of worry.
What does this character mean? Ah! No, I can't remember. That's right! I can ask my sister for help.
In previous tests, whenever Lilika encountered a character she didn't know, she would cast a pleading look at her sister. Then, her sister would intentionally walk past Lilika from behind and say a sentence, specifically emphasizing the pronunciation of the character in the test.
With this trick, Lilika consistently passed every test and ultimately got to eat the desserts. And Ryan hadn't discovered it yet; it always worked.
Quietly looking in the direction where her sister usually practiced magic, Lilika was startled. Her sister wasn't there!
Noticing Lilika looking elsewhere, Ryan spoke up to remind her, "What's wrong? The slate is over here. How do you read this character? Have you remembered?"
Discovered, Lilika quickly turned her head back, her expression growing even more distressed.
Ah!! Where did my sister go? I might not get any desserts today! Waaah…
At this, Ryan stroked his beard, sensing something amiss from Lilika's recent actions.