Im circled the magic furnace in the forging shed, tapping its smooth metal surface with a knuckle. "Is that a graphite crucible inside?" he asked, his voice sharp with curiosity.
The furnace had been hauled up from the valley bottom that morning—three meters long, two meters wide, and easily ten tons heavy. Without magic, Leon would've had no clue how to move it. "Good thing we've got Mage Hand," he muttered to himself, wiping dust off his hands.
Eunice nodded, gesturing to the furnace's interior. "Yes, the crucible and fire-resistant lining are made of graphite. It can withstand extreme temperatures. We used flame crystals as the core—at maximum heat, it can melt almost anything in this world."
Serena leaned against the shed wall, crossing her arms. "I saw you making glass last time I visited. Your old furnace was clunky, and annealing was a hassle. Mother had this custom-made just for you."
She explained the furnace's dual-chamber design: one for high-temperature smelting, the other for annealing or low-temperature work. It had a rune array that absorbed ambient mana (though the amount was negligible) and a flame crystal core from volcanic deposits that amplified the fire runes' power. Temperature control was precise—no more overheating or cooling too fast, like Leon's jury-rigged old furnace.
Leon's original setup was a modified regular stove with a basic fire rune array bolted to the outside. It could get hot, but adjusting the temperature was a guessing game. He'd always called it a "high-temperature furnace," not a magic furnace, since it barely qualified as a proper magical item.
"The dual chambers are smart," Leon said, running a hand over the control runes. "Like the big and small cores in the mobile devices from my old world—use the high-power core for tough tasks, the low-power one for simple stuff to save energy."
The only downside was its massive mana requirement. Charging it fully would take over a week, even with Leon's improved mana pool. His old furnace had taken seven days to charge when he first got it, now just two and a half. This new one needed four or five times more mana. Sustaining maximum heat would drain him in minutes—only a full-fledged mage could power it continuously. High-grade mana crystals would work, but they were prohibitively expensive.
"Looks like I'll be charging it slowly," Leon sighed. "Poor mages always have to take the long way, huh?" He'd never been good with money in either life, but magic made even the most frugal person feel like a spender.
"Was this expensive?" Leon asked, glancing at Eunice.
Serena huffed, her tone a mix of pride and frustration. "Of course—over 1,000 gold coins."
Leon's eyes widened. 1,000 gold? At the rough exchange rate he'd mentally calculated, that was a staggering sum. They'd invested that much before the partnership even started. "You're really confident this will work?" he asked.
He'd been confident during their last meeting, but he hadn't thought the pen was worth a 1,000-gold investment. Rune pens were the high-margin product, but the mage population was only around 100,000 worldwide. Even if every mage bought one, that was just 100,000 units. Regular pens would be limited by transportation—they couldn't sell them everywhere.
Eunice handed Leon a small leather pouch. "Orlando made a rune pen and auctioned it for 800 gold."
Leon blinked, staring at the pouch. "Is this the proceeds from the sale?"
Serena rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly. This is your 10% licensing fee—70 gold. You were supposed to pick it up from the Mage Guild, but we brought it over. Just sign the receipt so we can send it back."
"Right, sorry," Leon said, scratching the back of his neck. He didn't even count the coins—he was too stunned.
Eunice smiled, her voice warm but businesslike. "Serena told me about your analysis last time. You were right, and the auction proved it. We're being upfront because we're serious about this partnership. We underestimated the pen's value before."
"Let's go inside and talk," Leon said, gesturing toward Moonlight Cottage. "We've been standing here long enough." He was feeling overwhelmed—this was more money than he'd ever had in either life, and the partnership felt too good to be true.
Serena opened her mouth to protest, but Eunice squeezed her arm. "Good idea. We're tired—we're just ordinary women, not mages like you."
Leon bit back a playful joke about their elaborate dresses weighing them down. Instead, he led them to the cottage's living room, where they sat around the wooden table.
After a few minutes of small talk about the valley's weather and the herb garden's progress, Leon excused himself to find Im. He found his mentor in the herb garden, pruning moonlit grass stalks with a silver shears.
"Teacher, what do you think about this business deal?" Leon asked, leaning against the wooden fence.
Im shrugged, tossing a pruned stalk into a wicker basket. "That's up to you. I rarely sell my research papers, so I don't know much about business negotiations. If it were a magical item, I could give you a fair valuation, but this is different."
Mages focused almost exclusively on magic study, not commerce. Merchants rarely dared to cheat mages—they might haggle for a slightly better price, but they wouldn't risk angering a spellcaster with connections to the Mage Guild.
Leon thought it over for a minute. The offer was already better than he'd ever expected. He wasn't a businessman—he saw himself as a "magic scientist," someone who combined Earth's scientific knowledge with Etho's magic to create new things. "I think they're sincere. The furnace is exactly what I need for my glass and metal experiments. And once I master more advanced magic, this money will seem like pocket change anyway."
Im nodded, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Good. As a mage, your focus should be on magic, not gold. It's refreshing to see you don't get caught up in wealth."
Leon had grown up with Earth's internet, so he'd heard stories of billionaires and massive business empires. A 1,000-gold furnace was nothing compared to the "small goal" of earning 100 million RMB he'd seen online. He went back to the cottage, feeling more confident about the deal.
"I talked to my teacher," Leon said, sitting down at the table. "We think your offer is sincere, and the furnace is perfect for my work. It's getting late—let me make dinner, and we can finalize the partnership details tomorrow."
He'd stretched the truth a little—Im hadn't given any actual advice—but mentioning his mentor would remind Eunice and Serena that he had a full-fledged mage backing him, with connections to the broader mage community.
Dinner was simple but filling: scrambled egg with pork and daylily (Leon explained that daylilies were wild lily buds, toxic when fresh but safe to eat after blanching and drying), pan-fried tofu with ground meat, and crusty steamed bread. Serena wrinkled her nose at the daylily dish, but Eunice tried it politely and nodded in approval.
While cooking, Leon briefly thought about building a magic stove that could start fires automatically, like Earth's gas stoves. But he was still too inexperienced with complex rune arrays, and he didn't want to put Flower out of a job—Flower usually helped tend to the cooking fire while Leon prepared the food. "Frugality is a good virtue," he muttered to himself, abandoning the idea for now.
Eunice and Serena left after dinner—there wasn't enough space in the valley for their three guards and two servants, so they stayed at a small inn in Sarneth Town. They returned early the next morning, before Leon, Dahlia, Flower, and Im had finished their breakfast of oatmeal and wild berry jam.
Their eagerness was obvious. Leon almost wanted to haggle for a better deal, but he decided against it—Valoka Guild was a good partner. They specialized in magical luxury goods, so they had experience selling to nobles, and they were eager to break into the exclusive mage market, which meant they wouldn't skimp on quality.
"Mr. Leon, can we start discussing the partnership now?" Eunice asked, using a formal title with a hint of teasing. She'd already shown how much she wanted the deal, so she didn't bother hiding her urgency.
"Teacher said I can make this decision on my own," Leon said, trying to sound calm and confident. "My idea is still the same: let's start a small joint venture focused solely on pen production. I'll contribute the pen design and manufacturing technology as my investment."
Eunice frowned, tapping her fingers on the table. "Why not just license the technology to us? It would be much simpler. Starting a new guild requires registering with the Merchant Guild, hiring workers, and setting up distribution channels—it's a lot of work."
Serena nodded, leaning forward slightly. "We won't cheat you. We'll give you a fair licensing fee for both regular pens and rune pens."
"No," Leon said, shaking his head firmly. "Regular pens and rune pens have very different profit margins. A single licensing agreement won't work for both. And if I invent something new later—like a better ink or a different type of magic tool—we can sell it through the same joint venture. It's better for everyone in the long run."
Serena stared at him, surprised. "You're very confident in your ability to invent new things. Inventing isn't that easy—most mages spend years working on a single new spell or magical item."
"Not for me," Leon said, a small, confident smile on his face.
They argued for hours, hammering out the details of the joint venture. By noon, they had a rough framework: they'd create an independent guild called "Etho Pen Works" focused solely on pen production and sales. Leon would get 20% of the profits for his technology and design, Valoka Guild would invest 40% of the startup capital and handle distribution, and the remaining 40% would be used to hire skilled rune mages to create the high-end rune pens. Orlando had already agreed to help find rune mages—he was a teacher at Dragon Root Academy, so he knew plenty of talented apprentices who specialized in rune engraving.
By evening, the deal was finalized. Eunice signed the formal contract with Leon (witnessed by Im) and promised to start setting up the guild's workshop in Sarneth Town, source high-quality materials for the pens, and build distribution channels to nobles and mages across the Aurestian Empire. Leon was glad he didn't have to handle all the logistics—he'd never been good at paperwork and supply chain management.
After Eunice and Serena left with their entourage, Leon stared at the new magic furnace in the forging shed, thinking about building a greenhouse. He wanted to grow mushrooms and fresh vegetables even in winter, when fresh produce was impossible to find in Etho. Last year, he'd grown small batches of mushrooms on old tree stumps in the herb garden. This time, he'd make a proper mushroom medium using sawdust, wheat bran, and ash, and try to mass-produce common edible mushrooms like button mushrooms and oyster mushrooms. A greenhouse would also let him start seedlings for vegetables and magic herbs earlier in the spring.
In winter, fresh vegetables were a luxury only nobles could afford, and even then, they were limited to preserved roots and imported fruits. Back in Acorn Village, Leon had suffered from gum disease and vitamin C deficiency until he'd traded a batch of his camshaft crossbow bolts to Lord Sainsbury for a crate of oranges. On Earth, he'd taken year-round produce for granted—he'd never even thought about which vegetables were in season. Now, he knew how rare and valuable fresh greens were in winter—and how much profit he could make selling them to Sarneth's nobles.
He couldn't build the greenhouse alone. He asked Im to help with the magic reinforcement, and he had Flower ask his father for a team of carpenters and laborers. He used the money he'd made from selling glass mirrors to pay for the wooden frames, glass panels, and heating rune materials.
The carpenters worked quickly, building three connected wooden structures each ten meters long and five meters wide. Im wove a reinforcement rune array into the wood, making it sturdy enough to withstand winter's heavy snowfall. Leon and the apprentices spent the next week making glass panels with the new magic furnace. The flame crystals made the glass clearer and more uniform than his old batches, and the precise temperature control made annealing much easier.
Working with the new furnace's hotter, mana-rich flames made Leon's Mage Hand tentacles grow stronger. He'd always used four tentacles in rotation to handle hot glass, and his old furnace had a loose, inefficient rune array, so the flames had less concentrated mana. Over time, his tentacles had become tougher, but he hadn't noticed the change until now.
His tentacles were now the strongest among the four apprentices—even Im couldn't match their durability. Im had more raw mana, so he could offset the flame's mana erosion by channeling extra magic, but his tentacles weren't as physically tough as Leon's. It was like Leon's tentacles had been forged in the furnace's fire, purged of impurities and made stronger.