Free Web NovelChapter 198: Chapter 183: New Magical Energy Source
"Uh, based on my many years of experience as a craftsman, I’d say there’s probably no weapon more powerful than a Legendary Weapon."
Bane said bluntly.
Although his years of experience as a craftsman hadn’t been of much use lately, he still chose to believe in it.
"How narrow-minded. Legendary Weapons are nothing special. Can’t you aim a little higher? When have you ever seen me use a weapon?"
It wasn’t that Zog was bragging, but so-called Legendary Weapons could barely even scratch him.
"You’re a businessman. What would you need a weapon for?" Bane said dismissively.
"Wanna bet? Come at me with your best Legendary Weapon. If you can hurt me, I’ll give you a Hundred Gold Coins. If you can’t, you give me a Hundred Gold Coins."
"No way!" Bane refused immediately.
Having been around Zog for so long, the old Dwarf had grown wise to his tricks. Whenever money was involved, there was definitely a catch.
Zog shook his head in disappointment. ’How did Bane get so sensible?’
’If only someone was willing to keep playing this game with him, why would he even need to run the Zog Group?’
’If you’re my bro, come and get me!’
Zog looked back down at the Oli Crystal Chip in his claw.
He was afraid he had seen it wrong just now.
So he waved it back and forth again like a fan.
Sure enough, he once again saw Magic Power flicker across the crystal’s surface.
As an Ancient Dragon, although he wasn’t exactly an expert in all things Magic, his high Perception made him extremely sensitive to things like Elements and Magic Power.
Even though the flicker of Magic Power on the chip was incredibly brief, he still managed to catch that exact moment.
A faint bit of Magic Power appeared on the chip with a POP, like a spark of electricity, and then vanished.
As long as he kept fanning it, the sparks of Magic Power would continue to CRACKLE and pop nonstop.
’Interesting.’
It felt just like playing with one of those hand-cranked flashlights from his childhood.
The total amount generated was minuscule, to be sure. All that fanning didn’t even produce enough Magic Power for a single Lighting Technique.
But it represented a new possibility for generating Magic Power.
From ancient times to the present day, the consensus among all Mages was that Magic Power could only be produced by living beings with the ability to cast Magic by condensing Elements. After being released, it would revert to its elemental form.
This was why all large-scale Magic Array projects to date required a large group of "human Magic Power wells" to act as a continuous power supply.
The other channel for supplying Magic Power is the Magic Energy Stone.
Magic Energy Stones can be created by Mages. The process is simple, but the efficiency is very low.
Their main source is through mining from nature, and these are also known as gifts from the Magic Goddess.
The currently confirmed reserves of Magic Energy Stone Mines are no longer sufficient, with optimistic estimates predicting they will be depleted within a hundred years.
There was still no solution for what would happen to the Zog Group’s products, like the Magic Vision Device and other game consoles, when that time came.
They couldn’t just have all the Mages in the entire group do nothing but create Magic Energy Stones all day.
Even if every Mage on the Continent did nothing but this one task, they still wouldn’t be able to keep up with consumption.
Therefore, how to efficiently create Magic Energy Stones had always been a key research topic for the group, but unfortunately, there had been no results yet.
’That’s just how research projects are. You can’t just establish a project, assign personnel, and throw money at it to get results. Plenty of investments just end up going down the drain.’
’They say a rich heir can’t go broke just by squandering their fortune; if you really want to return to poverty, you have to get into investing.’
But now, an investment that seemed impossible to lose money on was right in front of Zog.
He had a chance to master a source of Magic Power.
"How did you make this?" Zog asked.
"Simon hammered it out using the Dwarf Forging Secret Technique," Bane said, pointing at Simon, who was still sulking in his own world.
He intentionally put heavy emphasis on the words "Dwarf Forging Secret Technique."
"Actually, I can hammer them out too," Bane added in a low voice. "It’s just hard to get them this thin."
Zog ignored the self-aggrandizing Bane and walked straight toward Simon, who was squatting in the corner.
"How did you think of slicing the Oli Crystal?" he asked.
As a veteran collector of Oli Crystal artifacts, Zog knew very well that other forms of it didn’t possess this property.
Simon then told him a series of short stories about his family’s legacy and the Holy Tree’s prophecy.
Zog was left dumbfounded as he listened.
’Hearing melodies coming from the material?’
’So bizarre.’
’Is this what happens when you study material science? You go from science to metaphysics...’
As for the Holy Tree’s claim about "the key that opens the door to the future," that was even more suspicious.
’Did that Spirit Body in the Holy Tree know all along that this material could generate Magic Power?’
’Then it should have explained how to use it!’
’It even got the guy’s dad killed in the process.’
He was reminded of what the Spirit Body had said before, about the Magic Goddess weakening and the network destroying false gods.
’Who knows what those cryptic ramblings are actually referring to.’
’Riddlers, get out of Feilin!’
Although he was eager to go back and figure out how to get the Oli Crystal Chip to stably produce Magic Power, Zog first needed to get Simon back on his feet.
’A craftsman this creative could be useful someday. Can’t let him give up on himself.’
’He was still counting on him to make it to this season’s blade-forging competition finals and boost the ratings.’
"Your intuition was right. The Oli Crystal is indeed a great material now," Zog said with certainty.
"Impossible. It can’t be made into a weapon at all."
"It’s not meant for weapons. Its significance is far more important than any weapon. It might benefit hundreds of millions of lives," Zog said, making a bold claim.
"How can you prove it?"
"Go and finish the blade-forging competition, and you should be able to see my proof."
’Sounds just like, "Finish this project, and I’ll give you a promotion and a raise."’
Zog wasn’t actually confident he could prove it. For all he knew, the Oli Crystal’s limit might just be spitting out sparks of Magic Power.
’But that didn’t stop him from dangling the carrot.’
Simon was a young Elf, after all, and had no resistance to this kind of talk.
He pushed himself up against the wall, his eyes refocusing. "It’s a deal!" he said in a firm voice.
"It’s a deal!" Zog said, feigning conviction. "But if you’re not busy, why don’t you hammer out a couple more pieces for testing?"
A few minutes later, Zog arrived at the R&D department, carrying a stack of Oli Crystal Chips.
He didn’t take the whole crystal, since he had plenty of those already.
Furin was with him. When it came to Magic, she was definitely more of an expert than Zog.
Furin had recently been leading the development team for Xiaomo’s smart Inscription System.
It was said to be going quite smoothly, and the first version would be ready before long.
The two dragons arrived at Professor Moore’s laboratory.
He was the one in charge of the project to simplify the manufacturing process for Magic Energy Stones.
This beast of a professor, who had built a Difference Engine with his bare hands, was also at a loss with this project.
However, judging by the fact that he had quietly spent decades building a Difference Engine, it wasn’t hard to see that the professor was the type of person who thrived on challenges.
Due to his overwhelming work enthusiasm, he had already driven several Mages in charge of providing Magic support to request a transfer.
Not everyone could tolerate a work intensity where problems could arise at any moment, 24 hours a day.
When Zog walked into the laboratory, Professor Moore was sleeping on a cot.
He probably wasn’t slacking off. He hadn’t even taken off his shoes. His biological clock was most likely a mess, causing him to sleep and wake at random.
The other members of the lab also looked lifeless, so focused on their work that they didn’t even notice Zog’s arrival.
"Ahem." Zog coughed twice.
Someone finally noticed the visitor and hurriedly shook Professor Moore awake. "Professor, the boss is here."
Moore was a light sleeper and woke up instantly.
"Who’s here? Has our new Magic consultant arrived?"
"No, it’s me," Zog said. "How long were you asleep?"
"Mr. Zog?" Professor Moore rubbed his eyes before he could finally make out the visitor. "I never sleep for more than half an hour. Otherwise, my mind gets foggy."
’Damn,’ Zog thought, deeply shocked. ’At his age, with a sleep schedule like that, I wouldn’t be surprised if he dropped dead in the lab one day.’
"I’m not a Magic consultant. I’ve brought a potential way to generate Magic Power," Zog said, taking out an Oli Crystal Chip.
Professor Moore recognized it at a glance.
"Oli Crystal? We’ve tested this material. We haven’t found any way for it to generate Magic Power or be made into a Magic Energy Stone," he said.
"However, we’ve never tested a chip this thin. The ones we tested were much thicker. What method was used to create such a thin chip without it shattering? Theoretically, though, its thickness shouldn’t change its properties."
The professor took the Crystal Chip and said after a moment of observation.
"Like this," Zog decided to demonstrate directly. "But do you have a way to observe minute amounts of Magic Power?"
The Magic Power generated on the chip would probably be very difficult for a normal person to observe.
"We do." Professor Moore took out a Magic Detection Device and aimed it at the chip in Zog’s claw.
"We’re getting a reading!" an intern, perhaps the only one who still had any energy, noticed the reading on the detection device.
"We can’t rule out Mr. Zog’s own influence. After all, you’re different species," the professor said, ever so rigorous. "Reid, you repeat the experiment."
The intern called Reid mimicked Zog’s action, fanning the chip, but the detection device showed no reaction.
"Hmm..."
Professor Moore pondered for a moment.
"Let’s hurry. We have a whole bunch of experiments to do now, but at least we have a direction."
He planned to control the variables to figure out exactly what difference was causing the different results.
Obviously, there were quite a few variables to control. The differences between a human and a Dragon were so vast it was hard to find any similarities.
Everyone in the lab immediately sprang into action.
"Wait!" Furin suddenly said. "Let’s first try a high-Element-concentration environment. I don’t think it’s an issue with humans versus Dragons, but an issue with the Elements."
Although there was no evidence that Elements were conscious, they did have a tendency to "shun the poor and cozy up to the rich."
The more powerful a creature was, the higher the concentration of Elements that would gather around it. Zog, of course, was in the highest tier.
Professor Moore was stunned for a moment after hearing this, then nodded.
"We have a high-Element-concentration environment ready."
The simple experiment was prepared. Reid once again held the Crystal Chip and fanned it in the new environment.
The experiment proved that Furin was right.
The detection device pointed at Reid showed a reading once again.
Professor Moore didn’t show much surprise, instead continuing with several more rounds of different experiments.
A few hours later, they reached some simple conclusions.
Fanning wasn’t necessary; all that was needed was to move the chip so that Elements could pass through it.
The amount of Magic Power generated increased with the Element concentration, the chip’s movement speed, and the chip’s surface area.
In other words, generating Magic Power with an Oli Crystal Chip was feasible. They just didn’t know why it had to be so thin.
To manufacture the chips stably, they would still need to rely on the Dwarves’ Forging Secret Technique.
Zog looked at the conclusions with very complicated feelings.
’The hint from the Holy Tree, the Secret Technique the Dwarves inherited from the God of Craftsmanship... why this specific combination?’
’It feels like I’m being set up.’
Nevertheless, Zog decided to use this method to create a Magic Generator.
The potential profits were simply too enticing.
The initial plan was to convert thermal energy into mechanical energy, and then into Magic Energy.
In other words, a time-tested method of energy utilization.
Boiling water.
Then using steam power to move the Crystal Chips.
Zog even personally named the principle himself.
He called it "Magic Element Sensing."
