---Perrerian, Magic College---
"And?" Joannia asked, who didn't know what exactly being a scholarship student entailed. Adelaide looked in shock, then there was a small spark of understanding in her eyes, and she seemed to rearrange her thoughts.
"I'm a commoner. Although the college preaches equality, if I, a commoner with a scholarship, need too much help in a subject, some of the more... conservative school inspectors might use it as an excuse to take away my scholarship and give it to someone with a more...fitting bloodline," she explained, taking into consideration that Joannia was someone with a completely different common sense.
"Oh..." Joannia said understandingly. This was a completely different scenario from what she imagined. She gave it a serious thought. It would take time away from her studies. On the other hand, teaching someone else was also a great method to learn and internalize knowledge. However, there was one last question.
"I guess I could help you, but what do I gain from helping you?" she asked directly.
"Ah! Um..." Adelaide couldn't get out a word. It seemed like I had not thought of this, and only realized now that there was no actual reason why Joannia would help her. She could practically see the gears turning in her head as she thought of something she could give.
"Don't worry, I'm just joking. I don't expect you to give me anything. Let's just get along," Joannia said with a laugh.
"A-Actually-" the girls started hesitatingly, but the door of the elevator opening interrupted her. There were a couple of students waiting to go up, and she fell silent. Joannia took the lead, leaving the elevator, before the group of students entered it.
"You wanted to say something?" she asked, once it was just the two of them, walking down the corridor. Adelaide stared awkwardly for a moment.
"Yes, let's get along from here on," she said with a smile. Joannia knew that that wasn't what she wanted to say, but she let it slide. She would talk when she was ready, or not at all. Either was okay with her.
"That's our workshop up ahead," Adelaide called out and pointed at the massive blast doors, as if to change the subject. Although the doors were not big enough to fit a full titan, they were massive enough to allow the transport of parts. At the same time, they were extremely thick and enchanted to withstand potential hazards from inside the workshop.
The gates reminded Joannia of the bunker she used to stay in during the war at Epsilon. In massive underground hangars similar to this, they had cobbled together the fleet of Epsilon. it wasn't a good time, but also not the worst.
The workshop doors stood wide open, and the two could simply mosey inside, joining a couple of students from the earlier class who had been faster. The interior immediately distracted Joannia from her earlier conversation.
She instantly felt an eerie familiarity. The place didn't look like some arcane laboratory or an archmage's study, as she would have imagined. The place simply screamed industrial manufacturing! A clean, even cement floor, rails across the ceiling with crane hooks hanging from them.
The sides were clean working stations, made up of stainless steel tables and tool boxes. The only thing that stood out as decidedly not modern were various crafting stations that actually looked futuristic, compared to lathes, drill stations, CNC machines, and other tools for machining.
One was especially striking, as it looked like a massive metal block with a work surface covered in arcane symbols. Reaching up from the side, directed at the wall, were several arms and mounts for a tool. Some of them looked robotic, like they could move automatically
Another simply looked like a giant pressure or vacuum chamber. She couldn't even begin to imagine what it was used for, or how it worked. There was also one that looked like simply a metal ring, reminding her of an old science-fiction show she used to watch as a child.
Describing them like this may summon a picture of a mad scientist's inventions, but it was quite the opposite. These crafting stations exuded an aura of high-tech design, one that one would not associate with the arcane.
The tech genius's eyes started to sparkle brightly. There was no way to deduce how these functioned from just looking at the outside; it was a complete black box to her. That was exactly what made it so interesting to her.
"Miss Taggart, you are joining us a little late in the semester. Although you have all the qualifications, it might be a little hard to operate the machines without instructions. Maybe Miss Tid would be willing to help you get used to the operating guidelines?" The Professor suddenly approached them from behind and immediately involved the girl standing right beside her.
"I would love to help you, Joannia." Adelaide jumped at the chance to be helpful. Joannia had tried looking up user manuals for the workshop, but there were none in the library. She didn't know whether there even were any, so...
"I would be thankful for some help," she answered with a benign smile. She spent the next 30 minutes with Adelaide, who explained to her the basics of the various crafting stations and tools. When the theoretical knowledge was a revelation, then seeing and hearing what these devices were meant to do overthrew much of what she knew.
She barely understood what they did, and the best she could do was liken them to scientific machines. The striking workstation with the robotic arms was used to apply fine magic circuits to small and medium-sized parts. It was meant for precision work.
The pressure chamber was something like a spray booth? Adelaide called it a Thaumatic Enricher, which was used to give titan parts special coatings that enhanced performance. What coating to use depended on the part, the internal circuits, and the intended purpose.
As for the ring she had noticed, it was something like an engraving laser, if she understood it correctly. The user was able to use it to burn rough, internal magic circuits, tubes, and connectors into bigger titan parts.
For example, the ring could be used to engrave a lightning enchantment into armor plates, without disturbing the surface coating or revealing the magic. This way, the titan became lighter and faster, without revealing this strength to potential enemies. This was just a rough explanation of one of many use cases.
Joannia's heart started fluttering when she tried to grasp the possibilities the new knowledge and this new technology opened up for her. She couldn't quite grasp it at the moment, but she was looking forward to great things.
"Well, and that's it for a rough briefing. The current project we are working on is a control unit for a titan arm. See how it uses the circuits we learned in class..." Adelaide continued talking about the class, allowing Joannia to ease into the current task and put her visions of the future on the back burner.
For now, the lesson had priority. But once it was over, and she got some alone time in this place...
"By the way, Adelaide? Do you know where the closest smithy is in this place?" she interrupted her young friend.