The reason why certain words cannot be printed, or those words cannot be engraved, is to understand this, you must first understand what a spell is.
Spells are the language used for conversation in ancient times. And this language contains power and the ability to command everything in the world. In other words, in this era, those incantations that are difficult to pronounce can actually be translated into words that everyone can understand and have clear meaning.
For any magic that has been passed down from ancient times, if the spell content is translated into modern languages, you will know that it is nothing more than a statement in the name of someone to order something and do something. Beyond that, it’s just a bunch of flowery eulogies. Of course, the magic and spell content improved on this basis cannot escape such a structure.
If it is a general statement or a mantra fragment of praise, if it is engraved backwards and then transferred, there will be no big problem. But what about 'whose name'?
With the power of words and language, it is considered an act of blasphemy to pronounce a name backwards, or write it backwards, backwards, or in reverse alphabetical order. If someone really does this, the explosion after the magic goes out of control is the smallest thing; if the person has not died yet, it is not impossible to directly come to the world to beat the person.
In order to make a relief plate for printing, of course, the target text or pattern to be printed must be turned upside down and engraved on the relief plate. It was this process that angered the original owners of those names. Regardless of whether the other party is still in the world, that mysterious power will prevent such a situation from happening.
In addition, there are some special characters. Although they do not represent the name of a certain existence, they cannot be reversed to make an engraving. For example, words that represent "life" and "creation" in mantras will become the opposite meaning if they are reversed.
You must know that even if spells and runes exist alone, they will still have their influence, but they may be stronger or weaker. The research team led by Dean Kabambai risked their lives to find these characters that would cause violent reactions if they were inverted.
In the process of this research, there was actually an episode. Originally, the research team of Dean Kabanbai could only classify printed characters and patterns into three categories: 1. Normal; 2. Printed characters will disappear in a very short time, and the scroll paper will be wasted; 3. Cannot even be engraved. Carve it upside down and it will explode immediately.
Originally, these three types were found. As long as the latter two are avoided, the Manroland printing press can use the segmented printing method to continuously print out semi-finished magic scrolls. It is then completed by a magician or magic apprentice, and a complete magic scroll becomes fresh.
Just as Academy Principal Kabamba's men were rolling up their sleeves and preparing to show off their skills, someone came forward and shouted stop.
If it were anyone else, I am afraid that the dean, who is proud of his achievements, would not listen to any 'advice' decorated with good intentions. Who knows if the person who said those words is really jealous or jealous.
But when Magician Guybrash Tripwood opened his mouth, the weight was completely different. No matter what, he had to listen.
"President, have you ever thought about how long these parts that can be used for printing can last? Even if you want to complete a semi-finished magic scroll, it still requires a magician or an apprentice to devote effort, time and power. To make up for it. Those key points are no different from casting a spell. Even if a person can complete much more finished products in a day than in the past, there is always an upper limit, and what is this upper limit? If there is no planned mass printing, eventually It’s just a waste of materials.”
It was this passage that allowed Dean Kabambai to initiate another stage of research and leave a record of how long each individually printed rune or magic array line could be temporarily stored.
With the assistance of Lin, the research team led by the dean of the college has begun to use numbers to do some records and simple calculations. The modified Manroland printing press can print as many semi-finished magic scrolls in a day, and how many semi-finished products can an apprentice or a magician complete in a day. Once the numbers on both sides were added up, I realized that my previous plan was completely wrong.
If I didn't listen to someone's advice, after I got some results, I started making a lot of magic scrolls in a big way. In the end, most of the materials will be wasted because there are not enough people to complete the half-finished scrolls and there will be no time to complete the magic scroll before the power is exhausted.
Although in the process of doing research, a lot of materials were discarded in order to observe the experimental results, but at least they made a contribution. If the material has to be scrapped because you did not plan well, it is pure waste and loss. Even though during this period, the college's funds were much richer than before thanks to the profits from mathematics journals, such losses would still be unbearable.
With a good suggestion as a starting point, Lin also put forward many opinions one after another.
If the suggestions are not accepted first, these may later be regarded as excessive interference in other people's research projects. After all, Lin took the initiative to distance himself from the group that printed the magic scroll. But with the first successful communication and the group members really benefiting from it, the subsequent opinions will not be so unacceptable.
The second suggestion Lin gave was to re-examine the difficulty of making magic scrolls based on the semi-finished printing method currently mastered.
Basically, the difficulty of making a magic scroll is on par with the difficulty of casting a spell, or even more difficult. Because casting spells requires the ability to construct spell models and chant spells. Only after you understand it thoroughly enough can you cast magic without chanting.
But when part of the magic scroll can be printed using machines, the difficulty of production should be judged by how many parts of it must be completed by human hands, and this part cannot be done by machines.
The third suggestion was originally to ask Dean Kabambai to use his contacts and human resources to study what kind of magic scrolls would be more popular in the market. To put it simply, we need to conduct a sample survey first. The target group is active adventurers to see what type of magic scroll they want to have as an aid in their adventure journey.
But considering the market mechanism, in an era of low productivity, supply determines demand; in an era of strong productivity, demand determines supply.
Although with the support of the Manroland printing press, the team led by Dean Kabambai can produce magic scrolls quickly and in large quantities, there is only one machine, and it is not yet a new era. To meet market demand, current productivity is far from sufficient. So Lin gave up using the survey results to create magic scrolls with high market demand.
Basically, this is still an era where you can sell as much as you can make.
Of course, with the great magicians like Kabamba and Bijan sitting in charge, they would never produce a large number of magic scrolls that are useless for adventure, combat, life-saving, etc.
But even without someone’s reminder, I have had the experience of almost printing a large amount of materials before, but the follow-up manpower could not keep up, and a large amount of materials were almost scrapped. After getting more results, Principal Kabamba did not just keep his head down and just find some magic scrolls to make.
Instead, he found the president of the Chamber of Commerce, who had been working with him for a long time, and asked what types of magic scrolls were more popular, or to put it bluntly, easier to sell. Simply put, consider sales before production.
However, just like Lin's conjecture, the current demand for magic scrolls in the lost land is still in a state where the demand far exceeds the supply. Even if there are many magicians in the holy city of Estali and relatively few adventurers, the magic scrolls cannot be sold for much; but looking at the entire Gwana Empire, the magic scrolls are a sound strategic resource for the nobles and the army. Basically, Just charge as much as you have.
Since there is no need to worry about sales, Principal Kabanbai is of course not polite. For the first time of official production, he did not choose to make multiple magic scrolls at the same time, but conservatively made only one kind. The target is chosen as an apprentice-level first-level magic, an upgraded version of the summoned golem—summoning a high-level golem.
This magic is difficult to make in scrolls. Of course, it cannot be compared with strategic-level magic, but it is not something that a magic apprentice or someone who has just been promoted to a magician can do. Even a one-ring magic scroll for summoning a golem is not simple to make.
After all, it is necessary to communicate with the elemental plane, deal with and negotiate with any consciousness inside, and then pay a price to make the other party willing to come to the main material world to work hard, so the complexity of the magic circle is on the high side. Many magicians make magic scrolls for 'summoning high-level golems'. The reason why the success rate is not high is precisely because the magic formations are not drawn well enough, which leads to the failure of the production.
But whether it is 'summoning a golem' or 'summoning a high-level golem', it is a very popular magic for adventurers. In addition to having an extra fighting power in the battle, the golem can be used as a shield, a pathfinding tool, and even triggers to destroy traps during the adventure journey.
For the consciousness residing in the golem, their destruction in the main material world is just a return to the elemental plane for rebirth. So I don't care about the harm at all, or even the end of the body that is inhabited by the lost land.
However, using the Manroland printing press, the difficulty of making the magic scroll of 'Summoning Advanced Golem' immediately fell to the bottom. Because in the entire complex magic scroll made using ancient methods, there are less than five parts that need to be made by hand, and the semi-finished product is still three days away from being scrapped.
More importantly, because most of the magic circle lines are completed by the printing press, the success rate of the 'Summoning Advanced Golem' magic scroll increases like a rocket.
As the success rate increases, the cost also decreases. In addition, originally magic apprentices and even new magicians might not be able to make magic scrolls well, but now they can mass produce hundreds of them a day. With such an astonishing success rate and production speed, it is no surprise that it has become a sensation!
