Chương 94: The Arcane Steam Press, and the Manuscript 4 Project

The underground foundry on Floor 1 of the World Tower was thick with white steam and the smell of hot machine oil. HISS... HISS... HISS... CLACK! A colossal thirty-meter machine of brass and black steel roared through its cycle at a terrifying pace. At its head, an arcane steam reactor, fused with Tartarus ore, continuously vented pressurized bursts that spun hundreds of mechanical gears.

Along its body, rolls of anti-piracy parchment fed through the rollers at a dizzying speed, jets of beast-ink pressing letters onto the page, automatically cutting, folding, and binding each finished book, dropping them — thump, thump — onto the conveyor belt. Tens of thousands of pages printed in under a minute, the machine's mechanical roar shaking the marble floor beneath it.

Evelyn, in a grease-stained grey coverall, a streak of soot smudged across her nose, gave the machine's frame a sharp clang with a half-meter arcane wrench, turning to Lucian.

"The world's first arcane rotary steam press! I fused Earth's pagination, layout, and print-routing logic straight into Titan mechanical architecture. This master press prepares and audits the plates; Vance's regional presses execute the wider print runs." Lucian stood beside her, a magical stopwatch in one hand, his other hand clicking rapidly through the abacus.

"Ten thousand copies an hour. Production cost per book — including anti-piracy parchment, ink, and engine wear — down from five copper to exactly three copper. Retail listing price: fifteen copper." Lucian looked up at Evelyn, mouth curling into a bright smile.

"Gross profit: twelve copper per book. Gross margin: eighty percent; markup on cost: four hundred percent. Evelyn, excellent work — you've earned a special reward: a box of Danish butter cookies, imported straight from my spatial ring!" Evelyn froze mid-swing with the wrench, staring wide-eyed at the ten-year-old boy.

"I just built a machine that's about to transform an entire civilization's industrialization and knowledge access, and you're rewarding me with a box of butter cookies, you exploitative bastard?!" If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"That box has real vanilla flavor," Lucian answered, completely unbothered.

"Back when you were a programmer, did your boss ever reward you with cookies? Don't complain." Evelyn snatched the box out of his hand, popped one in her mouth, and chewed loudly, grumbling.

"Ugh, so annoying... but damn, these are actually good." Ting! Ting! A dim black Unified System v2. 0 notification burst into Lucian's vision, lines of brilliant gold text scrolling past. [CONTINENT'S FIRST INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION DETECTED!] [HIDDEN ACHIEVEMENT: ACCELERATOR OF THE GEARS OF HISTORY!] [SPECIAL REWARD:] Learning Rate: 1, 295, 928 → 2, 591, 856 (×2!) New skill unlocked: 'PRODUCTION LINE OPTIMIZATION' (MASS PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY LV. 1)!

Effect: When Lucian and Evelyn configure and audit a production line, they can target a 15% reduction in material loss and a 30% increase in operating speed, subject to machines, labor, and supply conditions. [SYSTEM PRODUCTION SPEED ASSESSMENT:] The master press's planned output capacity: roughly 400 times that of a single manual press under comparable conditions. Click. The first book off the conveyor belt dropped into a silver tray in front of Lucian.

The cover, wrapped in glossy black synthetic leather, bore a title embossed in brilliant gold thread, catching the light under the fluorescent lamps.

'The Elegy of the Nameless Knight, Volume 4: Fire Beneath the Earth.' Outside the World Tower's ventilation gate. Five industrial spies from the Holy Mountain Empire and the Dwarven Alliance crouched behind a stand of pines, watching the massive columns of white smoke and steam pouring continuously from the depths of the Vance property, punctuated by ground-shaking mechanical roars. One spy, panicking, pulled out a scroll of magical message-paper and wrote with trembling hands.

'Urgent report! House Vance isn't just selling books! They're secretly operating a massive arcane metallurgical machine underground, roaring like thunder! High probability this is a Strategic-Class Weapon capable of leveling entire kingdoms!' Back in the foundry, Lucian picked up Volume 4 and flipped through the pages, still fragrant with fresh ink.

In this volume, he'd cleverly embedded surveying diagrams and Titan Script coordinates pointing to ten of the richest black mana-ore deposits along the Demon Realm's border — laying the groundwork for Vance Commerce's next economic expansion campaign. BOOM! The iron doors of the foundry burst open. Sylvia came sprinting into the room, breathing hard, her silver ears pinned flat against her head. She carried a gold-dust-covered ancient scroll, just decoded from the deepest level of the Tower of Knowledge.

She stopped in front of Lucian, chest heaving, voice trembling.

"Lucian! The hourglass letters... I've just finished cross-referencing the timeline records from the Tower's ancient archives..." Sylvia lifted her sapphire eyes to look straight at Lucian, every word freezing the air in the foundry solid.

"The timeline discrepancy in these records did not begin with your novels." She took a deep breath.

"It's directly connected to... Lady Valeria!"