Chapter 181

Investigating international affairs is the responsibility of the Overseas Affairs Bureau of the Sea Island, and moreover this is a huge market of nearly five hundred million people in the Alliance, which cannot be figured out in a day or two.

So, after assigning a task to Stonard, Luosen could only patiently wait for the result.

Naturally, he wasn't just idly waiting.

Weilan currently has a lot on her plate.

The various foundations laid earlier are now formally getting on track.

Build a new capital city to set a new urban standard.

Establish advanced and basic magic institutes to cultivate magic talent.

Build a magic industrial zone to provide new jobs and earn foreign currency.

Build shipyards to construct warships, and build aircraft factories to produce various aircraft to boost military strength.

Finally, allocate massive funds for magic research to all kinds of magic laboratories.

And so on, and so forth.

The compensation that had just been received immediately flowed away like a flood.

Of course, what flowed out was not gold and silver, but paper money.

In the midst of busyness, time flew by.

Early the next morning, Luosen first went to find Mediana.

He wanted to see exactly how the traveling mage crossed planes.

Mediana had already gotten up, changed into a tight-fitting combat leather armor, prepared a series of packed luggage, and looked ready to set out.

Upon seeing Luosen, she smiled and said, "Lord, your timing is perfect; we've been waiting for your soul gem."

Luosen had naturally prepared it.

What he gave was not a synthetic gem, because synthetic ones are too high in quality and too uniform; a large quantity would give it away.

He also pointed to the synthetic rare materials, intending to make money by going to various worlds; for now he didn't want the knowledge of the basic elemental table to spread across the major planes.

So, he gave various natural gems he had searched out from noble households, about thirty of them.

"This batch is of somewhat lower quality, but fortunately the quantity is sufficient."

Mediana examined them one by one, nodded in satisfaction: "This is already quite good."

After saying that, she walked to the middle of the basement, where a highly intricate magic circle had already appeared on the floor.

She placed each soul gem on the hub of the circle, using a total of eight, while she herself stood in the middle of the circle with her pack on her back.

"Duke, I am about to activate a plane-transfer magic circle."

"This magic circle requires a force called phase power to drive it. I know you must be curious about phase power, so I've written it down for you and placed it on your desk."

Luosen had already seen the booklet, a full forty or fifty pages, with a title written on it: 'The Power of the Traveling Mage.'

Mediana's voice continued: "Duke, you should study it well; if I ever run into trouble, I'll still be hoping you'll come to my rescue."

Luosen nodded: "I will study it well."

The more skills one has, the more paths; if he meant 'just in case,' if he can't get by in this plane, he can still use this new knowledge to pack up and flee.

Mediana continued: "Just having the circle isn't enough; we also need to set up a conversion beacon at the destination to guide the transfer."

"Otherwise, the destination after transfer would be completely random, possibly even appearing in a deadly environment."

Luosen nodded in understanding: "Then for the first transfer, do we rely on luck?"

"Adventurous traveling mages rely on luck, but such mages generally don't live long, dying from various strange causes."

"Another method is to find some naturally existing beacons; I've already written the relevant search methods in the booklet, and you can practice them yourself, Duke."

"After the first successful transfer, you need to manually set up transfer beacons; this is also basic training for a traveling mage. The specific method is likewise written in the booklet."

Luosen thought it was not bad: "Where do you plan to go?"

"I originally planned to go to the Atumen Realm, but my lord surely now needs to break through to legendary knowledge of the eleventh magic ring."

"So, I will head to the Mortal Realm guarded by the legendary mage Naya, to seek that knowledge from this legendary mage."

As they spoke, the crimson-red soul gems in the circle gradually lit up, the light inside the circle began to twist gradually, and Mediana's voice continued to come out.

"Naya is a truly great legendary mage; she has thrice thwarted the invasion plots of great demons, and the last time even seriously wounded a great demon."

"She is also extremely benevolent, exceptionally wise and open-minded as a mage; I believe that upon hearing of your situation, she will be very willing to teach you the relevant knowledge."

"But her status is also extremely lofty; seeing her is not easy, so I'm not sure how long it will take me to succeed—maybe three or four months, maybe even several years."

"In short, it comes down to luck."

With those words, the distortion of the light inside the circle suddenly intensified, followed by a fierce flash; when the light faded, Mediana vanished along with it.

Luosen looked at the ground again and saw that the soul gems had turned into a pile of white powder.

He stepped forward to examine the powder's composition closely.

He found that the elements hadn't changed; it was still titanium oxide, but the wonderful magical property that interacted with the magic ring had disappeared.

It was somewhat like a magnet being demagnetized.

To use it again, one would have to resynthesize it entirely, which is equivalent to remagnetizing a magnet.

After observing the traveling mage's operation up close, he also roughly understood it.

This plane-transfer magic circle is a means of crossing planes with the aid of the magic ring.

For now, Luosen is not clear whether other planes are in the same universe as his own, but one thing is certain: all planes definitely share the same magic ring.

The magic ring is like a ribbon, and the planes are like pearls strung on that ribbon.

Therefore, the flow of time in each plane world should be the same.

He carefully gathered the titanium oxide from the ground, preparing to reuse it.

"When synthesizing, I'll introduce some flaws, then claim I've found a new batch of soul gems, hehe."

Leaving the basement, Luosen hurried straight to Beier's laboratory.

Beier laboratory's mage devotedly studies Transmutation Alchemy and Lightning Alchemy, and has a very deep understanding of basic elements, currently having filled two-thirds of the gaps in the periodic table.

Currently Weilan Giant Island is short of food; in the long run, the entire White Continent will also be short of food.

For the former, shortage can be remedied by buying from the White Continent; for the latter, shortage means we must find ways to boost food production.

Increasing yield can be done with traditional agricultural methods, such as selecting superior seeds and improving planting techniques. But Luosen, as a mage lord, has just acquired something new; not only must traditional methods be used, but we also need to devise a magical solution.

First find Beier, who looks dull but is extraordinarily talented.

"How does the new conversion array feel?"

Beier is researching; although time is short, because his knowledge is thorough, he already has a preliminary conclusion.

"It can indeed convert light power into arcane power; the efficiency is indeed low, but there is noticeable potential for improvement."

"I estimate that by optimizing the performance of the array's materials and then optimizing the array's own structure, we can raise the conversion efficiency to over 10%."

"Sounds great; the elemental composition of the various basic food elements I had you research earlier—any results?"

Food elements, a name coined by Luosen; precisely speaking, they are starch, protein, and fat.

"We already have them."

Beier gave a dull smile: "For example, the structure of the most important flour is very simple."

"It is composed of three basic elements: phlogiston-free water, phlogiston, and charcoal; or, put another way, it is the fusion of charcoal and water."

Luosen listened and smiled: "Then, combining the conversion array with the food creation technique would enable large-scale flour production, right?"

Beier nodded excitedly: "Exactly."

But his face immediately showed hesitation.

"This matter has two directions."

"One is to fuse charcoal with water; two is to pyrolyze various wood or grass stalks."

"With the former, it's hard to control, and the final product will always contain some inexplicable, hard-to-overcome toxicity."

Luosen immediately understood the source of the toxicity upon hearing it; it is likely due to molecular chirality.

Given the chemical capabilities of this era, it's difficult to distinguish chirality; one must deeply study molecular structure.

"The product of the latter method is non-toxic and edible, but its texture is very coarse, hard to swallow."

Luosen laughed: "This is mainly due to the low level of the food creation technique; it can be completely overcome."

After a moment's thought, he said: "Since the latter is already usable, you should organize the relevant magical method data, set up a dedicated team to improve texture, and quickly produce a usable product."

Finally, he reminded: "This matter is very important; hurry up."

"Yes, my lord."

As for improving the array's conversion efficiency, that's naturally Cavendish's responsibility.

After he found Cavendish, the other party directly gave a conclusion.

"This array is not yet mature; after incorporating our latest research findings, the conversion efficiency could at most reach 30%."

This is much better than Beier's estimate of 10%.

"How long until it can be realized?"

"At most one month, after all it's just an improvement, not creation from nothing."

"Very good."

Then, the arcane power conversion array is ready, and the corresponding food creation technique is ready; although still crude with much room for improvement, we can now set up a magical-method factory for large-scale flour production.

The flour factory is not creation from nothing, but a transformation of matter and energy.

Therefore, the ideal of endless, emotionless food is impossible, since both energy and matter will limit output.

However, it can convert the cellulose that most animals cannot utilize into edible starch.

And cellulose, of which nature has an abundance.

Without further ado, this greatly boosts farmland output.

Previously, when planting wheat, only the grains were edible; now the straw can also be turned into flour, and the weight of grains and straw is roughly one-to-one.

That means the wheat yield per mu directly doubles.

Furthermore, not only straw can be converted, but weeds, leaves, firewood, etc., can also be turned into flour.

If the taste is really poor, it can be made into livestock feed to fatten animals for meat, and then the taste improves.

Moreover, the technology is continually developing; once it is fully mature, perhaps artificial food could completely replace farmland output, so food production would no longer depend on the weather.

After leaving Cavendish's laboratory, Luosen felt much relieved and then sought out Klub.

"The Magic Method Center has broken through a new technique that can mass-produce flour from wood; we need the cabinet to approve an appropriation to build the first Weilan flour processing plant."

Klub listened, stunned: "My lord, is this really true?"

Using wood to make flour, a large tree cut down could feed a family for a long time.

"It's true, but the specific magical method details are temporarily confidential; only you know."

"Externally, just say it's a new large-scale flour processing plant that can boost flour production efficiency, but absolutely do not mention the detail of turning wood into flour."

Large-scale food creation technique has always been a hot topic in the Natural Alliance; if it gets out, it will definitely cause a huge shock.

Luosen's political sensitivity tells him this matter can be used as a card to make a big fuss.

So he decided to keep it low-key for now, and when needed, make a high-profile announcement.

Klub is also extremely shrewd; he immediately grasped Luosen's deep intention.

"My lord, how much money is needed?"

Approximately 1,000 Ogre investment.

Klub continued asking: "What is the annual output?"

"Currently estimated to reach 100,000 tons; once fully mature, we can scale up output, increasing it a hundredfold is not difficult."

Klub nodded repeatedly, turned and went to the cabinet to get the money.

Because it concerns grain, everyone knows its importance, so the money arrived quickly.

Luosen took the money, personally oversaw the work, and launched the Natural Alliance's first spellcraft flour processing factory.

Amid the busy hustle, a month passed swiftly.

Stonard's investigation results finally arrived.

(End of chapter)