Chapter 217

Chapter 217

Followers and those followed thus reached equilibrium. Starting from the second day, Mr. Aurora Worton, a three-ring arcane scholar and a level-five mage, began his blissful life of not sleeping during the day and not being able to sleep at night... Sorry, conducting experiments during the day and writing papers at night.

Mr. Worton was so absorbed in his work that he lost track of time.

Most of the time, Garrett didn’t bother him, just doing his own thing. Only when assigning tasks would he give a few reminders:

"The gas that emits blue flames, measure its weight!" Weight, weight... It’s so light that it’s almost impossible to measure T_T, but the boss’s demands are very strict...

"Be careful with the yellow-green gas, don’t leak it!" How dare I, I’ve been poisoned once before!

"Take note of everything electrolyzed that emits yellow-green gas and summarize it!" I’ve already tried 20 materials, but apparently, the boss doesn’t think it’s enough...

However, Garrett occasionally allowed Worton to conduct his own experiments, giving him enough freedom and not feeling that he was delaying progress. For example:

"This gas can ignite and emit blue flames? Can I use it instead of sulfur as a spell material to try Fireball Spell?"

"Sure, go ahead. But not here, find a larger space, take precautions - if possible, get a skilled person to help you set up a barrier..."

Our Mr. Worton then found a senior brother. Using the senior brother’s badge and permissions, they booked a room for testing fifth-order magic spells, raised a magic barrier, and the senior brother equipped him with armor. Then, hiding behind the barrier, he mentally outlined the spell model of Fireball Spell and triggered the gas in the test tube...

"Boom!!!"

The layers of the spell barrier shattered one after another on the wall, at the center of the room. The senior brother slowly widened his eyes: "You... you did Fireball Spell... right?!"

"Yeah..." Aurora Worton was dumbfounded. He looked at the crystal on the wall of the test room, then at the test tube in his hand, and then at the spell barrier.

"Senior brother, fortunately I brought you here..."

If he hadn’t come to the high-level testing room, if the spell barrier hadn’t shattered layer by layer, if the Fireball Spell had burst, the shockwave might have hit his face! The senior brother glanced at the test tube in his hand, feeling embarrassed to ask. Aurora Worton gave him a wry smile and rushed to the 375th floor. When he arrived in front of Garrett, he was already panting heavily, gasping for breath, and said while clutching his knees:

"That... that Fireball Spell..."

"It went boom, right?"

Without lifting his head, Garrett asked. This term had never been used before, but it was vivid, and Worton understood its meaning without thinking. He gasped for breath, nodded vigorously, and said:

"Yes, yes! It’s a good thing I listened to you... How did you know it would go boom? Can I teach it to others?"

"You go write your paper."

"Okay! I’ll mention your name as the author!"

"You’re the second author."

"Okay! Thanks a lot!"

Worton rushed off to do experiments, collect data, and write papers. Testing the intensity of spells, the range of spell explosions, whether the range had changed, whether the number of gases carried would affect the spell’s intensity, all of these tests were extremely exhausting. Alas, it seemed that today’s leisure time had disappeared again...

This idea was just a passing thought. To complete all these data supplements and write a good enough paper, and to obtain sufficient rewards from the council as a complete improvement in magic, was crucial.

However, both Mage Worton and Garrett knew, as did every mage in the Magic Council, that in this improvement, using a new material was not the key. Discovering an unknown new material, trying out a stable and reliable method of production, and testing its properties, that was the key to everything.

So Garrett could rightfully claim first authorship, and indeed, letting Worton sign as the second author was already quite generous. Just a tool for collecting data and writing papers, where couldn’t you find one?

So Mage Worton gratefully went to work. Just as he piled up a heap of data and was about to organize it, he was called out again:

"Aurora, come help... set up a force field barrier, good, suck out the air, fill it with the breath of fire, ignite it!"

BOOM!

It exploded again...

"Is this force field not strong enough... Let’s strengthen the force field barrier and try again!"

BOOM!

"Strengthen it a bit more, to your limit! Come on again, Aurora, please!"

This time it burned safely. The charcoal inside the force field barrier emitted white flames and soon burned clean. Mage Worton breathed a sigh of relief, but then heard Garrett commanding:

"Inject steam again! Inject as much as possible! Increase the temperature! Higher!"

"What meeting?"

Garrett lifted his head from the microscope. The time spent inspecting microorganisms was too long, the orbit of his right eye was outlined by the eyepiece, making him look like a one-eyed panda. He instinctively rubbed his eyes, his binocular focus hadn’t recovered yet, for a while, everyone looked like bacteria. Above were cells, below were flagella~~~

Seeing this foolish, out-of-character appearance, Aurora Worton really wanted to take a pen and draw black circles around his eyes for him. One on each side, that would balance it out.

He held the invitation in front of Garrett:

"The annual meeting of ’Philosopher’s Stone’. ’Philosopher’s Stone’ is a monthly magazine sponsored by the Transmutation School. Every year, it invites a group of mages to hold an academic conference, where many interesting gadgets are sold — if you want to find something unique that you can’t buy outside, or freshly made items that haven’t been priced yet, this is the place to go.

The invitation was for my senior brother, but I snatched it from him, and I can bring two people in. Boss, do you want to go together?"

Garrett hesitated for a moment. Mage Worton had already taken out the invitation, waving it in front of him:

"Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! There are so many interesting things at the meeting, singing dolls, metal birds that deliver letters, portable houses! You can also meet many alchemist mages, boss, whatever you want, you can get it custom-made!"

Garrett was tempted. Networking was indeed his weak point, knowing more mages would make everything easier — organizing tweezers, vascular clamps, attractors, and even precise analytical balances... Maybe he could find someone to make them at the annual meeting?

Anyway, whether the culture dishes were left alone or not, the bacteria inside would continue to grow...

The next morning at 8:30, Garrett followed Mage Worton into the venue. The annual meeting of ’Philosopher’s Stone’ was not held at the Tower of Heaven but on the thirteenth floor of the subsidiary tower of the Transmutation School. According to the schedule on the invitation, the academic conference would start at ten o’clock. Before ten o’clock, the entire venue was chaotic, with countless mages hawking their wares:

"Household magic puppets, capable of cooking, laundry, and cleaning, with 100 recipes, the best choice for single mages traveling, only for 199 contribution points!"

"Come on, your 100 recipes, aren’t 99 of them sandwiches?"

"Selling cliff eagle eggs! Can sign a contract to become a magical pet! Another pair of eyes for mages!"

"Why does your egg look a bit smaller? Is it really a cliff eagle? Isn’t it an owl?"

"Purple scale stones! Purple scale stones! Limited quantity, high price!"

"Let me take a look!"

"I want to see!"

"Wow, I really saw it! So big!"

"Wow!!! Who put bugs on it! It scared the hell out of me!!!"

Garrett looked around as he walked. Sure enough, he saw dancing and somersaulting puppets, a pair of small drums that could resonate, and bundles of silver rods enchanted with ’Eternal Bright Flame’ placed on the side. Garrett was quite interested, standing in front of a stall, bargaining with the alchemist:

"I don’t need it that long... Half the length of a finger is enough! Just keep the light directional! If you can do it, I want 60 of them, evenly embedded on a disc for me..."

"Uh... The silver rod is this long to engrave the magic array... We can only cut it to half a foot at most! If it’s shorter, a master’s hand is needed, and the price will at least double. Do you still want it?"

Garrett fled in confusion. Even if the price doubled, he couldn’t afford it! A silver rod with an Eternal Bright Flame enchantment started at 100 gold coins, and 60 of them would cost 6,000 gold coins, which would bankrupt him... If not for this, why would he want to buy shorter ones?

Mage Worton was dragged away by him. After passing seventeen or eighteen stalls in a row, they suddenly ran into a crowd, with many mages crowded around a table:

"Let me see!"

"Let me take a look!"

"Wow, really saw it! So big!"

"Wow!!! Which jerk put bugs on it! It scared the hell out of me!!!"

Garrett’s curiosity was piqued, and he pulled Worton along, squeezing into the crowd. In the middle, he saw a twenty-seven or twenty-eight-year-old mage boasting to his friends with gusto, saliva flying:

"How about it, interesting right! I bought it when I was traveling in the south! This thing is much better than a magnifying glass, it can magnify things 100 times, opening the door to a new world! Since we’re all friends, I invited you to see it first. When the meeting starts later, this will be the content of my speech! By then, it’ll be too late to join the queue!"

Aurora Worton: "..."

He looked at Garrett, blinked, pointed to the tabletop, then blinked again:

...I remember you’ve been looking at this thing in the laboratory every day, right?

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