Chapter 491: Encapsulation, Elemental Foundation

The encapsulation of Magic Items is easy to talk about and not actually difficult to do; it is nothing more than wrapping the exposed, three-dimensional, spherical Mithril structural components and the Energy Core with other materials.

The simplest method is just to stuff it directly into a box, but Mithril is not a metal with extremely high rigidity, especially when one needs to maintain a certain level of purity; Mithril wire is actually quite soft.

It is only because the spherical structures support each other that one can hold them in one's hand without deformation, but if the acceleration changes, deformation becomes inevitable.

When Xia Duo issued the testing task, he emphasized handling with care and avoiding force, precisely to prevent those two Laboratory versions of the Communication Magic Tool from being damaged before they could even finish testing their usage limits.

……

In the General Laboratory.

Xia Duo selected Crystal, a Gemstone with relatively balanced compatibility and relative affordability, as the encapsulation material. However, before the formal encapsulation, there was one very important step: the encryption of the Mithril structural components.

This is actually Spell encryption; through the encrypted transformation of Arcane Geometry patterns, the Magic Net Strings that need to be linked do not change, but the combination of Spell elements they map to does change.

At this time, if an outsider wants to crack it, because the element combination has changed, following such an element combination in sequence cannot produce the Magic Effect from before the encryption.

In layman's terms, after the encrypted transformation, only the form of the Spell elements has changed, but the inner essence remains the same. To successfully cast the Spell, one must follow the original form; the transformed form is invalid.

Of course, no encryption is omnipotent, and the risk of being cracked still exists. Therefore, Netherese Mages are relatively cautious when selling Magic Items to the outside world, and they are basically Magic Items of common Spells.

Unless it is for personal use, they will not turn their own exclusive Spells into Magic Items.

There is actually no need to encrypt a Communication Magic Tool; after all, the Spells have to be released, and other Mages can also make similar Communication Magic Tools. This is just a habit of Xia Duo's.

Program code on Earth also has an encapsulation step used to hide the specific details of the program code, leaving only a public interface. This has the purpose of simplification, but it also carries the meaning of encryption.

Additionally, encryption can also distinguish Xia Duo's version of the Communication Magic Tool from other Mages' products, facilitating the addition of new functions during future updates and iterations.

He remade an optimized and encrypted Mithril structural component; overall, it was much smaller, roughly the size of an adult's two fists pressed together.

The Five-Colored Gem acting as the Energy Core did not change and was still embedded in the entire delicate Mithril structure, only the distance between them was smaller than before.

Encapsulation mainly exists on two levels—the Elemental Energy level and the material level.

The Elemental Energy level is about making the Elemental Energy of the encapsulation material compatible and hidden with the prototype of the Magic Artifact, while the material level is the compatibility and hiding of the materials.

Generally speaking, only using encapsulation materials like Gemstones involves encapsulation at the Elemental Energy level; ordinary materials only involve encapsulation at the material level.

In the Tower of Time, there is a special method regarding the use of Crystal for encapsulation, which is to use an elemental potion called 【Crystal Softener】 to directly turn the Crystal into an encapsulated state, then use 【Mage Hand】 to shape it into a sphere. Once the encapsulated state fades, it becomes normal Crystal.

Xia Duo did not initially understand the existence of 【Crystal Softener】 very well, feeling that one more material meant one more cost, but during the actual encapsulation process, he discovered that the so-called encapsulated state is actually the semi-elemental state of the Crystal.

It can complete encapsulation at both the Elemental Energy level and the material level simultaneously.

And if one followed Xia Duo's own idea of directly melting the Crystal to wrap the Magic Artifact prototype, that could only be encapsulation at the material level. Of course, he had also conducted encapsulation experiments using this method.

As a result, the Crystal used for encapsulation and the Five-Colored Gem used as the Energy Core all exploded.

……

Molten Crystal is no longer normal Crystal; its internal elements have already changed, making it difficult to use as an encapsulation for a Magic Artifact. Even if the wrapping step succeeds, subsequent cooling will cause problems.

Based on this, Xia Duo could be said to have confirmed a reality he had always found difficult to accept—the material foundation of the magic world lies in elements and energy.

This is completely different from the concept on Earth that energy and matter are essentially the same; there is no such thing as pure energy on Earth, and so-called energy is merely the motion of matter.

But in the magic world, although Xia Duo had previously read books about the Inner Plane, the world origin described in the books lies in the Inner Plane, and the Inner Plane is in an energy state, or rather, an elemental state.

Although there had been quite a few experiments or phenomena that verified this point before, the belief Xia Duo had held for a long time—that "energy and matter are one, and the essence is all matter"—was affecting his judgment.

The magic world might also be able to view energy and matter as one, but the essence is energy—pure energy that can exist independently.

Therefore, many things cannot be judged by common sense. For example, the concept that "Crystal and molten Crystal are not the same substance" is very easy to understand in the magic world; the elements are different, so naturally, they are not the same substance.

Even many things that had previously been confusing became very easy to understand.

Take 【Flight】, for example. On Earth, that would be anti-gravity, related to gravity, and essentially spacetime distortion. What immense energy that would require!

But in the magic world, the threshold for 【Flight】 is merely an Intermediate Mage. Not to say they are a dime a dozen, but it is definitely not a small number, and it is for individuals. Such a magical Spell cannot be explained by just calling it a Transmutation Spell.

Its root cause is perhaps that the essence of the world is energy, and all its extended attributes are changes in energy. Then, once the trick is found, achieving anti-gravity flight is not as difficult as imagined.

……

Inside the General Laboratory, Xia Duo put down all his work and fell into deep thought. The explosion that occurred during the encapsulation experiment made him thoroughly face his limitations in cognition and the influence of those twenty-plus years of experience on Earth.

Not to mention so-called "sublation," because for two completely different worlds, there is no need to make comparisons at all, but concepts must keep pace with the times. Of course, this concept only pertains to the cognition of the world.

As for other aspects, Xia Duo felt there was no need to change for the time being.

Because just the adjustment, or rather expansion, of one's worldview actually involves the composition of one's Personality. If one's entire outlook on life and values were overturned, then whether Xia Duo was still Xia Duo would be a big question mark.

Fortunately, this world is not the world of a head-exploding maniac; otherwise, this kind of adjustment to the cognition of the world's essence should be enough to meet the standard for head-exploding.

Also fortunately, the magic here is primarily for "use," more similar to the concept of science, and is not directly connected to cognition. No matter what you think, magic is just there.

After the deep thought, Xia Duo felt that his whole being was much more clear-headed. If enlightenment could be leveled up, he could probably level up two or three times!

Afterward, Xia Duo no longer resisted phenomena that did not conform to his past cognition in his heart. Of course, this did not mean completely casting aside the past—that is impossible to cast aside—but rather actively facing it and delving into its internal Principles.