Chapter 225

Chapter 225

The news of increased mithril production spread from the forging area to the Alchemy Guild, then to the upper echelons of the Transmutation School. Through another route, the partially completed research... or at least part of it, had been completed by the polymorphic mages, and the news reached the hands of the legendary masters at Thunder Horn.

Thus, during the weekly review meeting, Garrett’s affairs inevitably came up.

"The magic smelting of mithril... No, has electrolytic smelting been completed?"

"Yes, we can now smoothly produce mithril."

"It’s said that production of semi-finished products is also not a problem now?"

"Yes, the dwarves are working day and night, and it’s said that the output of semi-finished products alone has increased fivefold compared to before."

"So, is Garrett Nordmark’s project finished? Shouldn’t we discuss rewards?"

"Um, well..."

"What’s wrong? You were generous when proposing the project, but now you’re hesitant about rewards? In my opinion, even if we allocate a portion of the increased mithril production to him in proportion, that’s only fair! Hmm, would one percent be enough?"

"...... It’s not that... Mainly, Garrett Nordmark hasn’t submitted the final report yet..."

"Why is he procrastinating? Can’t he write a report? Find someone to help him write it!"

Garrett was almost driven to despair.

Since electrolytic smelting was completed, the workload for the dwarves had suddenly increased, and their working hours had also drastically lengthened. As a result, from working for two hours, taking a break and having a drink, it had become working for four hours, coming out for lunch, taking a break, and then continuing to forge...

"Why is another one fainting! I said this wouldn’t work! —Wait! Don’t give him beer! Stop!"

Another dwarf, red-faced and dizzy, stumbled out, swaying to the bar and grabbing a glass of ice-cold beer, gulp, gulp, gulp...

"Ah! Another one! Bernard! Help me drag him away! Take him to the back and give him sugar water! Aurora, cast a cooling breeze!"

The dwarves were indeed robust, but no matter how strong they were, they couldn’t withstand this. Garrett glanced at his notebook... In three days, the number of people suffering from heatstroke had soared from two cases a day to twenty cases a day!

What about another day? ... And two more days?

As a doctor... even a clinical doctor, not a labor protection officer in an industrial enterprise, Garrett expressed that he could not tolerate such terrible working conditions and the environment where workers were falling down in droves!

More importantly, he had the authority to speak now!

With a serious face, Garrett found Master Talanto. Freed from the grueling work of producing mithril with all his might, Master Talanto’s complexion had improved significantly. Although his hair and beard were still snowy white, there was more color on his face, and the skin on his arms was no longer dry and wrinkled, looking more like tightly wrapped bones.

When Garrett approached, Master Talanto had just finished a healing spell. The dwarf being treated climbed up, dripping wet, poured a bucket of creek water on his head, and then rushed back to the forging area. Master Talanto hesitated to speak, and in the end, he just sighed softly, watching the dwarf walk away.

Garrett sat down beside him. Together, they watched the doors of the forging area until the heat-stricken dwarf disappeared behind them. Then Garrett cleared his throat and spoke softly:

"Master, this can’t go on. —The number of people suffering from heatstroke is increasing. If this continues, everyone will fall ill in droves!"

"Do you think I don’t know? But we’re running out of money!"

The salt soda water business simply didn’t make money. The tavern owner supplied salt soda water at cost, without making any profit...

From beginning to end, Garrett paid for the research and development expenses, not even earning a penny.

Oh, if you could barely say there was a gain, it was the thick golden stroke added to his title as "Friend of the Dwarves." If friendship could be quantified, his reputation had probably jumped from "friendly" to "respectful"...

But Garrett didn’t care about making money. With the heatstroke problem solved, he turned back to his laboratory and resumed his research. The next goal was to produce penicillin—oh, tuberculosis bacteria weren’t particularly sensitive to penicillin, so he might also need to produce streptomycin...

"Ah—why does bacterial culture take so long—"

Garrett stood in the middle of his full laboratory of culture dishes, holding his head and wailing.

At this moment, he missed his teacher immensely: during the epidemic of dysentery back then, Elder Elwin had released divine magic to selectively cultivate various bacteria. If Elder Elwin had been by his side, this divine magic would have been enough to speed up the experimental process by 100 times!

Unfortunately, Garrett couldn’t do it. Not only could he not do it, even Matthew, who had advanced to the fifth level, couldn’t. As for Elder Wood, he was far away in Oak Ridge, dozens of miles away, and Garrett didn’t want to bring him over just for his own experiment...

"Cultivate, cultivate, cultivate..."

Garrett muttered weakly with his oak staff in hand.

Half a year had passed, and the two green leaves on the top of the oak staff had become identical, deep green in color and hard in texture. Judging from the shape of the green leaves alone, Garrett had accumulated to the peak of the second level priest, and he could think of ways to upgrade.

But upgrading might not necessarily be useful. Garrett pointed his finger, and a faint green light fell, and several small mushrooms grew in the culture dish. Seven or eight pale yellow clean little umbrellas covered the entire culture dish, looking particularly pleasing.

However, Garrett’s face darkened. It was like this again, just like this!

Ever since he learned to use vine to cultivate a straw, there was no threshold for him to cultivate plants. As long as he held the seeds in his hand, he could always produce a piece of straw or a piece of wood. As for plants that didn’t grow into complete plants, Garrett said it was not a problem, anyway, he didn’t care.

But it didn’t work for cultivating bacteria. With a divine spell, the entire culture dish could be filled to the brim, and if luck wasn’t good, it might even affect the neighboring dish. How could he separate and purify them?

They were all squeezed together!

With such a rapid growth rate, if there was penicillin... Wouldn’t they be squeezed to death too...

Garrett began to tug at his hair in frustration. He hadn’t cut his hair for half a year, and his originally close-cropped hair had grown past his ears, feeling quite different when pulled. Garrett pulled out a strand and twirled it around his fingertip, his gaze unfocused, passing through the gaps between his fingers.

This caliber of shooting is a bit too big... If only it could be smaller... If only the impact point could be controlled to the size of a needle, the size of a hair...

"Hey!"

Garrett suddenly jumped up. He rummaged through his spatial bag in a panic, found the silver bell given to him by the polymorph master, shook it twice, and uttered an incantation:

"Time is money, my friend!"

"Wow, it’s not easy, you finally remembered me?"

The quirky voice of inquiry, along with blue smoke, emerged from the bell.

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