Chapter 1416: New Arcane Fire Scheme, Showcasing Achievements

In the afternoon, because Iolum had official business with the Arcane Union to attend to outside, he temporarily left the Laboratory, leaving Xia Duo alone in the Laboratory.

"As expected, I'm just a workaholic!"

However, Xia Duo was happy to do it. While continuing to Link Magic Web for the automatically produced Daiwei String Components, he also cleared some time to conduct simple tests on the new Arcane Fire Device scheme.

Iolum's Arcane Fire scheme generally involved designing the Daiwei String Components as cross-sections of the device's sphere; combining several such cross-sections would result in a spherical, multi-composite Independent Arcane Fire Device.

Xia Duo's scheme was more extreme, designing the Daiwei String Components as cones with their vertices at the center of the sphere. Of course, it did not actually include the center of the sphere; the center was designed as partially shared support components.

This scheme was simpler than Iolum's; after all, cross-section design had to account for the problem of cross-section intersection, which involved more redundant components and poor space utilization.

Or, there were simply too many shared components, causing some to always have high-flux energy flowing through them, which was a great challenge to the stability of the Daiwei String.

Theoretically, designing every Arcane Fire as a line from the center of the sphere to the surface would be the most efficient and simplest scheme (in multi-composite Arcane Fire design), but that ideal state was impossible to achieve in reality.

When it comes down to it, the Independent Arcane Fire Device is not a theoretical problem, but an engineering problem.

Theoretically, when Xia Duo had just become an Arcanist, he had already deduced the two directions for realizing this device, as well as their respective difficulties.

But it was not until the appearance of the Daiwei String that the Independent Arcane Fire Device truly saw a glimmer of hope. Previously, Iolum's Mithril material scheme kept failing because the engineering conditions were not met.

If he could produce Mithril with purity infinitely close to one hundred percent, perhaps he really could have succeeded!

However, such an Arcane Fire Device would have higher costs, be more difficult to manufacture, and even harder to maintain compared to the current Daiwei String material scheme, basically possessing no practical Application value.

In terms of engineering design, Xia Duo was more experienced than Iolum. The modernization of his hometown was a miracle of engineering, and through constant exposure, he naturally came into contact with many concepts that were, at the very least, not too backward.

And programming is actually an engineering problem; as a Programmer, Xia Duo had more say in this regard.

……

Near evening, Iolum had not yet returned, but Xia Duo had already completed the verification of the energy circuits for the Daiwei String Components corresponding to some of the Spell Elements in the scheme, which fully met expectations.

However, to conduct a complete experiment, Iolum's support was still indispensable, and there was another problem here—

Independent Arcane Fire involves the tenth layer of the Magic Net. If Xia Duo were merely providing some suggestions or even conducting partial experiments, that would be nothing; at most, it would just prove that he had deep attainments in Spell Principles.

But if he were to conduct a complete experiment, it would be almost impossible to continue hiding the fact that he had already become a Great Arcanist.

After all, to Link Magic Web to the tenth layer, even with an alternative Spellcasting scheme, it is very difficult to succeed without a full understanding of the tenth layer of the Magic Net.

Furthermore, being able to perform alternative Spellcasting is, to a certain extent, almost equivalent to being a Great Arcanist.

Rather than continuing to cover things up, it would be better to admit it openly. Xia Duo knew this day would come sooner or later, but he did not expect it to come so quickly!

……

Just as Xia Duo was considering when to confess to Iolum, Iolum finally returned. As soon as he arrived, he noticed the Daiwei String Components Xia Duo was using to verify the new scheme and became interested, asking:

"Is this the new Arcane Fire scheme you designed?"

"Yes, I think using cones might be more reasonable, as it can make the overall structure of the device more compact."

"A good idea; I was just preparing to make such improvements myself!"

Then, Iolum further explained the origin of his current cross-section design: "Initially, to save Mithril, I had to use this scheme with more shared components. Now that we have the Daiwei String, there is no need to save."

That is what he said, but in fact, the cost of the Daiwei String is no lower than that of Mithril. Not to mention manual preparation, it is best done by an Arcanist, or at the very least, an Advanced Rank Mage must perform it.

And even with automatic preparation by Magic equipment, it requires consuming a large amount of Arcane Crystal. (Advanced Rank Mages also need to consume Arcane Crystal.)

It was only because Iolum had been able to collect over a hundred thousand Arcane Crystals during previous experiments as starting capital; otherwise, the cost of a single experiment would not be much lower than before, and it would likely still start in the millions.

Of course, it is also a fact that the further along one goes, the lower the preparation cost of the Daiwei String becomes.

……

The two chatted briefly and then returned to work. During this time, Iolum would occasionally ask about Xia Duo's design ideas, and Xia Duo naturally hid nothing.

As the saying goes, "great minds think alike." Xia Duo was surprised that Iolum had such keen engineering design intuition without having been through the Baptism of various professional engineering creations.

And Iolum also greatly appreciated Xia Duo's various ideas. When the two chatted with enthusiasm, they would even stop their work of Linking Magic Web to discuss things intently on the side.

……

Just like that, time quickly arrived at mid-August.

In the Plane Overlap area in the center of the Laboratory, surrounded by the ring-shaped Daiwei String Component automatic preparation machine, a large sphere that looked to the naked eye as if it were composed entirely of glowing blue filaments was gradually nearing completion.

Without the Daiwei String Component automatic preparation machine, it might have taken another two or three months to reach this stage, but now with this set of equipment, a single Arcane Fire Device experiment could be compressed to within half a month.

Looking at the taking-shape Arcane Fire Device, Xia Duo felt a surge of emotion. Only by constantly liberating and developing productive forces can a true Magic civilization be created.

Netheril is in urgent need of an industrial revolution. While the eyes—and even the hands and feet—of the Northland nations are tied up by the Drow War underground, this is the best opportunity!

However, he was even clearer that if the relations of production could not match the surging productive forces, it might lead to even more serious consequences.

Whether to reform or not requires caution; currently, only that small piece of land in Nan Jing can be completely controlled by him.

But the Mythallar of infinite energy is about to be born, and Xia Duo has to consider the future direction of Netheril, his great base.

"Perhaps it is time to show the Seven Cities Council the development achievements of Nan Jing!"

Of course, before that, Xia Duo also needed to obtain an identity that matched these achievements. Thinking of the constant groundwork laid over these days, Xia Duo decided to confess to Iolum today.

As for when to announce it to the outside world, he still needed to consider it further, but he roughly had a bottom line in his heart: the time point when a New Apprentice at the Tower of Time becomes an Advanced Rank Mage.