Chapter 120: The Wonderful Uses of Soft Water (13)

As the head of the Arts Department, Weige actually rarely personally handles alchemy now.

She usually sets up a project, points out a research direction, and then has her underling alchemy apprentices carry it out.

By this method she has trained at least 200 apprentices with basic alchemy ability, among whom are many outstanding alchemy talents.

"This Frost Dust was discovered by accident by an apprentice named Alena."

She said this, a hint of satisfaction showing on her face.

"This Alena is a genius potion master with great growth potential; my lord, you should cultivate her further."

Luosen also felt pleased: "I will naturally do so."

He carefully examined the deep blue powder in his hand and had already guessed its use.

"Using water as a base hardening material is indeed an excellent idea."

"If it could be realized, it would indeed be very wonderful, but I feel it's not easy just hearing about it."

Turning soft water into hard ice, if this ice is usable enough, would greatly solve the island's resource shortage problem.

After all, an island might lack anything, but it could never lack water!

As he watched, Luosen again felt a bad premonition.

"This powder must be expensive, right?"

Weige's face showed a hint of embarrassment: "It's indeed not cheap; hardening one ton of water costs over 300 ogres."

It is indeed quite expensive, but after large-scale production the cost should drop considerably.

"What about the strength of hardened water?"

"Um~ This is a bit complicated to explain. Depending on the auxiliary materials added, it has multiple completely different hardening methods, but mainly there are two directions."

Luosen's interest greatly increased: "Please demonstrate."

Weige immediately complied.

She brought a large cup of clear water, about a liter, poured a small amount of deep blue Frost Dust into it, a large amount of black powder, and then a small amount of a white viscous substance resembling oil.

She began stirring vigorously: "The black is charcoal powder, the white is saponified sheep oil, both are auxiliaries, together weighing less than one-tenth of the water."

After stirring for about a minute and a half, the clear water in the cup turned black and became very viscous.

"Pa—pa~~"

Weige poured the viscous substance out of the cup, lightly kneaded and pinched it with her hand into a black ball, then lightly tossed it onto the table, where it bounced up with a "plunk—plunk" sound.

"This is the first hardening direction; as long as you add charcoal powder, yellow powder, lime powder—basically any soft base element—it will become this soft and elastic thing."

"The effect lasts quite a while, usually able to persist for three hours or more."

"If we also apply the Lightning Stabilization Technique, then even without charging it, it could easily last twenty years or more."

"Of course there are drawbacks: it is not heat-resistant, melting when exposed to fire."

Luosen took the black ball and examined it closely, finding its properties extremely similar to rubber.

He was instantly very pleased; everyone on Earth knows rubber is a great treasure.

He loudly praised: "Good stuff, really good stuff. This hardening direction is excellent!"

"What about the other direction?"

Weige continued the demonstration: "The other direction is to use a hard base element, preferably a metallic element, as the auxiliary."

This time she chose iron powder as the base element and obtained a hard, steel-gray 'Ice Iron'.

"My lord, you see, the weight ratio of iron powder to water is 1:100; the iron powder amount is almost negligible, yet the final product's properties are very like iron."

After Luosen examined it carefully, he found it to be so: "Its strength is comparable to wrought iron, somewhat soft, with very low density—less than one-fifth that of iron."

"If it could be made a bit stronger, it could completely serve as various building materials, even as good material for shipbuilding."

"Even if it cannot be used as a primary load-bearing structural component, it should be usable for coverings and unimportant auxiliary structural parts."

"And this could greatly save precious material quantities, thereby greatly alleviating the island's resource shortage."

Weige, however, gave a wry smile: "At first glance it's indeed not bad."

"But this direction's stability is poor; the hardening effect lasts only half an hour, with terrible thermal and light stability."

"Even after Lightning Stabilization, its stability is far inferior to that of hardened clay, even less than one-tenth."

Luosen lightly tapped his head: "Um~~ This drawback really gives a headache."

"Do you have any suggestions for improvement?"

Weige nodded: "We need to deepen our understanding of various base elements, especially pure water."

Speaking of this, her face showed an obsessed expression.

"Pure water as an element possesses extremely complex properties; it is also the bridge linking life and non-life. The more we study it, the more wonderful we find it, and the more powerful we feel it to be."

Her face immediately showed a hint of regret: "Unfortunately, my understanding of pure water is very superficial, so in the field of hardening pure water I can for now only achieve this level."

Luosen listened, thoughtful.

As for understanding water's physicochemical properties, he naturally is very knowledgeable.

But in this world, pure water also possesses unique arcane properties, which are extremely complex, even said to be unfathomable.

In this regard, however, there is still an expert more skilled than Luosen.

Without a doubt, "hardening pure water" could open up an entirely new field of material science; if developed well, various wonderful new materials would spring forth abundantly.

Therefore, this is a new field worth investing great effort to cultivate deeply.

After some consideration, he said: "Wait here, I'll go fetch a pure water expert."

Having said that, he rushed to the Siren Harbor in the East Sea, took a speedboat, all the way to Hank Island, brought along the Siren Queen Lartelis, and without a word brought her back to Weige's alchemy lab.

At this moment, the Siren Queen naturally had already put on her clothes; she most likes to wear a dark blue silk long dress, plus a fine fur shawl and a lace flower hat, looking like a noble young lady just leaving her chambers.

Upon seeing Weige, she narrowed her eyes and said: "Luosen, pure water told me you have conquered this young lady many times."

Weige instantly blushed deeply, barely maintaining composure: "My lord, who is this?"

Lily, the siren queen of Hank Island, is possibly the strongest pure water mage within the Natural Alliance.

Laerte Lis shook her head: "Saying I'm the strongest is an overstatement; when it comes to fine control of pure water, I can't compare to my mother."

After saying that, she explained: "My mother is in the Flying Fish Islands outside the Eastern Golden Cape; her situation is not great."

Luosen immediately said: "Perhaps we could have your mother bring her sisters to the Triangular Sea."

"I thought the same, and I've already sent the invitation. I just don't know if she'll agree, after all she's a very proud and strong-willed woman."

After a pause, she lightly clapped her hands and said to Weige: "Please demonstrate your Frost Dust."

Weige immediately demonstrated it once.

Laerte Lis didn't speak; she carefully felt the whole process of change.

After observing for several hours, once the solution had softened back into water, she said: "I don't know much about the tempering process, but I can feel that your use of pure water power is very crude, with great room for improvement."

"I can sense many directions for improvement, but I don't know how to describe them. Because the way I know magical knowledge is described differs from the current magical system."

Luosen immediately said: "This is a minor issue; we'll just communicate slowly."

After saying that, worried about delaying Laerte Lis's sleep plan: "Lily~ are you still going to hibernate this year?"

She spread her hands: "Of course not. Such a wonderful world, I'm going to sleep—what a pity."

She also said: "Staying on Hank Island is boring; I might as well stay here, which is perfect for learning the new magic method knowledge."

Rosen Ziran was naturally delighted, but worried that the siren queen might not adapt to the new environment right away; he immediately said he would also join in researching this hardened pure water topic, and would try to spare as much time as possible to come over.

In the following time, he indeed kept his promise.

No matter how busy, he would come over and stay for at least two hours every day.

He wasn't just idling; as a Ten Rings mage, he had an extremely deep understanding of the tempering knowledge needed for hardened pure water.

Thus, a genius alchemist, a Seven Rings pure water mage, plus a Ten Rings steel-iron mage, jointly developed this entirely new material field.

Most of the time, the three focused on researching hardened water; occasionally, when they had no ideas or felt inspired, they would engage in a big battle.

After researching like this for about a month, the three each gave their all, basically perfecting the basic theory of hardened pure water, and they explored a large number of usable new material formulas.

One of these formulas is called "Colorful Steel-Iron Crystal".

"Whooo~~~"

Luosen looked at the sample of Colorful Steel-Iron Crystal in his hand, wearing a satisfied smile.

"Lily, thanks to your help, otherwise we really couldn't have made this."

This piece of Colorful Steel-Iron Crystal, all its materials can be found on the island; the estimated cost per ton can be reduced to 20 Ogres.

Its density is one-quarter that of steel, its strength reaches ninety percent of high-carbon steel, and its stability and workability are both very good.

It can replace most steel applications, far surpassing tempered black clay.

Laerte Lis also wore a look of deep feeling.

"I never expected that such a tiny cup of water would actually contain so many mysteries I didn't know about."

"In the past, many of my doubts about pure water have been answered in the last month with explanations very close to the essence."

Her remark refers to the basic element theory proposed by Luosen.

Weige smiled and said: "This is worth celebrating properly."

Laerte Lis asked: "How should we celebrate?"

Weige lightly bit her lip, looked at Luosen, and said: "Then it's up to the lord's decision."

Luosen certainly understood what that meant; so let's celebrate properly.

After the celebrations, he asked Laerte Lis: "Should we return to Hank Island, or continue at the Magic Method Center?"

"Of course here; I want to start seriously studying all kinds of new knowledge."

Rosen Ziran naturally supported: "I'll arrange it right away."

After carefully arranging for the siren queen, Luosen boarded the third-version electric carriage, and under the escort of Ailiya and the guards, he returned all the way to Crescent Castle.

On the way back to the city, he suddenly noticed that Crescent City now had many tempered clay buildings; the streets were much cleaner than before, the pedestrians were far more numerous, and even somewhat crowded.

At the same time, on the plains outside Crescent City, large residential areas had appeared; the new buildings were mostly made of tempered yellow clay, with a simple and practical architectural style.

This actually gave Luosen a faint feeling of the cities from his previous life.

He felt relieved in his heart: "At least I have already changed this small island."

As he was feeling this, the telegraph machine in the carriage suddenly rang; the information-assistant mage in the front passenger seat quickly translated the Morse code.

After the translation was finished, he turned and reported: "Lord, the Sturgeon Fish Port reports that three mages of unknown intent, suspected to be Kao spies, have arrived."

Luosen's heart stirred; at the port he had set up multiple Detect Guard seals, constantly updated, ensuring 24-hour blind-spot-free monitoring of incoming personnel.

At once he had Laifu pull up the image for close examination.

As he watched, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly: "Heh~~ playing spy games with me here?"

"Send a reply back, and have them all 'invited' to the Sturgeon Fish Manor."

After saying that, he inwardly sighed: "I have now begun to gradually enter the sight of the world's major players."

As his scale keeps increasing, his influence on the world will naturally also gradually increase, and soon he won't be able to stay hidden.

This is inevitable, and he has already made full preparations.

(End of chapter)