Chapter 2304: Billions of Years of Time

However, Xia Duo speculates that such a thing likely does not exist, because it is unnecessary; the design principles and production processes of the secret device are already quite complete, and there is simply no need to add anything extra.

Even if there were a final "finishing touch" secret technique, Xia Duo would be more inclined to believe it is a form of encryption, and it cannot be counted as part of the normal production process.

Moreover, the problem is that the complexity of the secret device itself is enough to give it a sufficiently strong natural encryption; as long as one cannot crack the secret of the materials, even breaking the secret device down to every element would not be of much significance.

This is very similar to technological creations on Earth, but even more extreme; even if one obtains the product, at most one can only imitate its form but cannot replicate its essence, the most typical example being an engine.

If the materials do not meet the standards, don't ever think about building it.

And the extreme nature of secret devices lies in the fact that almost every design of a secret device is adjusted accordingly based on the materials; although there is a high probability that a more general principle or rule exists, subtle changes are often fatal.

This makes every type of secret device almost an independent system; wanting to crack it is almost as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Even if one could truly crack one, it would be impossible to apply it to other secret devices; one must accumulate enough manufacturing experience with secret devices to obtain further principles.

To describe it in terms from Earth, this is the first-mover advantage of an industrial foundation, which is difficult for latecomers to catch up with.

Having transmigrated from Earth, Xia Duo can better appreciate the profound and insurmountable barriers that may be contained within.

Even if he chose a different path for the Creation Mythallar than Yimaska, the early accumulation for secret device production does not just lie in the manufacturing tools themselves, but also in the vast gaps in principles, experience, craftsmanship, and every other aspect.

It is hard to bridge!

Fortunately, Xia Duo is not primarily developing the Creation Magic System; he only wants to absorb the advantages of the Creation Magic System into the Arcane Magic System.

He does not care how much the Creation Magic System can achieve at its peak; what he truly cares about is how much change Creation Magic can bring to Arcane Magic.

As for the current secret device production, it is actually just an attempt.

Xia Duo will next use the means of Arcane Magic to complete the final step of secret device production; thanks to the large amount of practice over the past few days, he has prepared quite a bit of creation material this time, enough to conduct several experiments.

The first thing he uses is the 【Heat】 Shaping of the Alchemy Array; most materials will soften after being heated to a certain degree without changing their essence, which is the principle behind heat shaping.

Xia Duo has operated the Alchemy Array thousands, if not tens of thousands of times; he is incomparably proficient in this step, and what he is most worried about now is whether the oral tradition is accurate.

Although there are descriptions of specific numbers and the corresponding relationships of diagrams, word-of-mouth transmission itself is extremely prone to deviations, especially since it is unknown how many years ago this part of the tradition originated.

Even if everything else is fine, if only the design blueprint has a slight deviation, then the subsequent experiments actually don't have much significance.

——Shaping!

Two clumps of creation material move without wind under the control of 【Mage Hand】, entering the reaction area of the Alchemy Array; afterwards, Xia Duo controls the materials while adjusting the Alchemy Array.

Soon, these two types of materials approach their respective melting points; seeing this, Xia Duo immediately casts a spell to extract the portion needed to manufacture the fingerprint lock secret device, while the remainder falls back to the standby area of the Alchemy Array—a levitation field located in the corner.

And the portion he extracted, under the precise control of the Alchemy Array, rapidly transforms toward a specific form, and in this process, the two materials gradually fuse into one.

Before long, a fingerprint lock without a casing is completed, and then it successfully falls into the completion area of the Alchemy Array, which is also a levitation field located in the corner.

And while waiting for the first fingerprint lock to cool, Xia Duo again operates the Alchemy Array to perform—【Element】 Shaping; this is relatively high-end.

Although many materials do not change their essence when softened by heat, compared to the infinite total number of materials, even if only a very small portion of materials change their essence when heated, it can show that 【Heat】 Shaping is not universal.

It is just that Netheril uses the Arcane Magic System, and the vast majority of things that generally need shaping are metals that only require 【Heat】 treatment, such as Mithril and Adamantine; a few gemstones used for encapsulation do not require their essence to remain unchanged.

In fact, they even require their essence to change in order to better encapsulate the Mithril Component core of a Magic Item; for this, it is necessary to add special softening agents or something else.

【Element Shaping】 is a method Xia Duo extended from the Mithril Refining method 【Element Extraction】 for material processing, which can shape materials without changing their essence.

Such as biological materials like wood or flower petals that cannot withstand heat treatment, or materials like high-purity Mithril where heat treatment would instead cause the purity to drop due to an Elemental Transmutation reaction, and so on.

Essentially, it is to excite it to the 【Element-Matter】 Critical State; in this state, the material naturally loses the constraints of its form, and afterwards, one just needs to restore it to a material state, having prepared a "mold" in advance.

【Element Shaping】 is theoretically best suited for the processing of a single type of material, but it also has miraculous effects on composite materials with a fixed composition.

The materials for the two fingerprint lock secret devices now were all processed by Xia Duo himself, so there are no blind spots; using 【Element Shaping】 to process them should not have any problems.

It is a pity that to excite matter to a critical state, at least a 9th Circle spell is required; as far as the current situation is concerned, even with a Mythallar, it is very difficult to popularize.

Basically, after one use, the Alchemy Array needs to be re-maintained, which is the main reason why Xia Duo wants to perform 【Element Shaping】 after 【Heat Shaping】.

Compared to heat shaping which still requires cooling, the speed of 【Element Shaping】 is much faster; a pile of quasi-plasma matter is directly blended together under the control of the spell, and then with a flash of light, the shaping is completed.

Xia Duo takes the second fingerprint lock into his hand, and within a few seconds, he feels the secret device begin to synchronize; once synchronization is complete, he places his palm on the protruding surface on one side of the fingerprint lock.

After a few seconds, he hears a "snap," and this thing splits neatly into two pieces from the middle.

When closed, it automatically attracts and fuses into one, and cannot be pulled apart even with force; only by pressing the protruding surface on one side with a palm will the secret device check the synchronization status and the disturbance of the palm to its internal energy flow.

If it is the same as previously recorded, the two parts of the lock body will separate again; if it is installed on a secret door or a treasure chest, it is a fingerprint lock or, in other words, a palmprint lock that belongs exclusively to an individual.

"Element Shaping is feasible! Then what about heat shaping?"

Xia Duo glances at the first lock in the completion area of the Alchemy Array; it has not cooled down yet, and casting a spell to lower the temperature might cause the lock body to be damaged during the rapid cooling process.

But ventilation is still fine; Xia Duo randomly summons a breeze to wrap around the surface of the lock body, and then begins the third shaping method—

Pressure Shaping!