Since Techprints are now part of the game, how about making Magic prints for advanced magic techs? Portals, Forge, Cultivation, Magic circles, maybe expert techs could all take magic prints to research, obtainable through quests and possibly some magic interactions:
Magic circle recipe to spawn a random print
Some sort of printing class (Alchemist, Rune mage?)
Scribing table recipe for some common prints
In addition, some of the techs could have hugely inflated research costs; since adding additional prints to already unlocked researches gives you half the remaining research, it would be worthwhile to acquire some extra prints before starting the research, to finish in a reasonable time.