Chapter 196: The Experiment Begins |
“Mage Philip, may I go out and buy some materials?” Fulan asked Philip, the person overseeing the project.
By rights, people like them who had come to “help” should have remained here for the entire day, since they were here to “help.”
But there were absolutely no materials here that Fulan could use to modify the device, so she had to go out and buy them.
Philip agreed immediately and without the slightest hesitation.
“Sure, go ahead.”
Seeing how excited Fulan was, he knew at once that she was completely absorbed in researching this device.
He did not stop her. Inwardly, he thought that as long as these mages did not interfere with his own research, they could fool around however they pleased.
He knew perfectly well what these mages had really come here for. They were here to learn how a researcher ought to conduct research.
For today, he would let them do as they liked. Once everything was over, he could simply teach them a few things.
Only one of these mages belonged to the Alchemy School. As for the rest, none of them even knew how to operate this kind of device properly.
In his view, aside from that one mage from the Alchemy School, who could extract about two grams of White Star Sand from three hundred grams of raw material—
if the other mages could refine roughly one gram of White Star Sand out of those same three hundred grams of raw material, he would already consider them impressive.
Without proper alchemical training, these people would never understand how a true alchemical device was meant to be used.
It was not just a matter of following the steps in the manual with absolute precision. It also required a certain intuitive feel for alchemy itself, an understanding of what sort of Mental Power drive method suited oneself best.
Only then could one fully utilize an alchemical device and bring out its true performance.
Fulan went downstairs, then came hurrying back less than ten minutes later with a dark metal ingot in her hand.
Standing beside her, Nora watched as Fulan took out the metal, utterly unable to understand what she was trying to do.
In Nora’s view, if Fulan had gone to buy materials, she had probably intended to repair the cracks in the device and see whether fixing them might increase the final output.
But even then, she should have bought a metal similar to the shell of the device. Why had she bought a completely unrelated metal instead?
Nora looked at the pale gray device, then at the dark metal block Fulan had brought back. Even with Mental Power alone, she could tell that the structures of the two metals were completely different.
She looked at Fulan, wanting to speak but holding herself back in the end. This was someone else’s idea, after all. Better to wait until the experiment was over before discussing it.
So Nora’s expression returned to calm as she watched what Fulan would do next.
Fulan made no attempt to hide anything. Right in front of all the mages, she used Telekinetic Hand to lift the black metal into the air, and then flames sprang up.
Drawn by the commotion, Leo looked over and saw the metal suspended in midair by Telekinetic Hand gradually beginning to give off a silvery sheen. For a moment, he found himself completely speechless.
At that instant, there was only one thought in his mind:
What in the world is she doing?
Watching the metal gradually turn silver under the intense heat, Fulan recognized it for what it was: Spirit-Repelling Copper, a very cheap material used specifically against spirit forms.
So long as this metal was applied to a weapon, it could harm spirit forms. It was extremely useful.
And now, Fulan intended to use this metal to verify her theory. She ignored the astonished looks of everyone around her and increased the heat of the flames even further.
Meanwhile, Nora, standing nearby, had begun to see what was really going on.
When Fulan summoned the fire element, Nora had not reacted much.
After all, even before coming to the Northern Society, she had already known that practically everyone here could cast Fireball. Using fire to heat metal was nothing unusual.
But she could clearly sense that the fire element Fulan had summoned was not normal. The flames were burning far too quickly, and the metal was heating up with unnatural efficiency as well.
That immediately made Nora think of a technique used by the Flame School, a branch that had split off from the Elemental School. It was a specialization that enhanced the combustion of the fire element.
Could she be a mage from the Flame School...?
No, absolutely not. Mages from the Flame School would never use fire for something like heating metal. They would consider that a desecration of flame.
Nora instantly dismissed that guess, and at the same time, another, even bolder speculation arose in her mind.
A fire dragon?
That’s right—dragonkind...
Through the flames, Nora could faintly make out a magical fluctuation belonging to dragonkind.
The way she looked at Fulan immediately became burning hot with interest. At that moment, she wanted more than ever to bring Fulan into the Elemental School.
If she joins the Elemental School, then I’ll have a force of my own to gather around me there, she thought.
Even though she was already within the Joberna Society and was all but guaranteed to become part of the school’s core in the future—
within the core, there was still another core. If she did not have other high-ranking mages at her side, she would probably remain only at the margins of that inner core.
And it was not just her. Many other mages of her generation within the Joberna Society were also troubled by the fact that they had no one to recruit to their side.
Most of the existing high-ranking mages were utterly devoted to their research and would not spare people like them even a glance, much less respond to their attempts at recruitment.
That was why so many people, hoping to secure a strong voice for themselves in the future, were also trying to recruit Elemental School mages who had not joined the Joberna Society, in the hope that those mages would one day grow into high-ranking mages.
And now, she had found a mage with tremendous potential. Nora’s gaze locked onto Fulan.
Fulan possessed wind elemental affinity, and on top of that, she had fire-element spells empowered by dragonkind.
A mage like that had an extremely high chance of reaching the Third Tier, and in the future, she could provide Nora with considerable support within the Elemental School.
Fulan had no idea that Nora, standing beside her, was already thinking about how to lure her into the Elemental School. She was still wholly focused on processing the Spirit-Repelling Copper.
After melting the Spirit-Repelling Copper into liquid, she coated the magical device used to refine White Star Sand with it.
She moved quickly, and her hands were deft. The instant the liquid Spirit-Repelling Copper adhered to the magical device, she used the techniques of a Magical Craftsman to shape it, fitting it perfectly over the entire device.
She even deliberately filled in the wide gaps. Now, from the outside, the magical device no longer showed a single opening.
She set the magical device down. Its surface still retained some heat, and touching it would produce a stinging, scorched sensation.
After checking it over once with her Mental Power, Fulan nodded in satisfaction. Her heart itched with anticipation, and she hurriedly took another thirty grams of Gray Nether Iron and put it inside.
After watching Fulan’s skilled handiwork with astonishment, even Leo had to admit that her techniques as a Magical Craftsman were far beyond the ordinary.
But he still could not understand why all she had done was apply a layer of metal over the magical device. He had no idea what the point of that action was.
Only when he recognized that dark layer of metal as Spirit-Repelling Copper—a material he, as a mage of the Necromancy School, often used—did a contemptuous smile appear on his face once more.