Volume 2 Wandering Chapter 8 How the Atomic Bomb was Made
"The world is made up of elements!" Edgwell coughed lightly and began his lecture. "The origin of all things in the world is various elements. There are a total of 109 elements that we know of."
"Elements are not just a concept, but some tiny particles, so tiny that you can't see them. We call these particles 'atoms'. Atoms are made up of protons and electrons. Protons are..." I knew that alchemy was a profound and wonderful subject, but I never thought it would be so profound. As time went by, the old man Edgwell's lectures showed no signs of stopping, but continued to an amazing and mysterious realm.
The reason why I call it "mysterious" is that what he said was the simplest common language. I know every word in it, but when they are strung together in such an arrangement and combination, I can't understand it at all:
"... two atoms form a charge conservation, produce a chemical reaction... positive and negative charges need to be balanced... the discovery of catalysts is... the formation of isotopes... mass spectrum behavior... decay... radioactive transformation... fusion and fission... critical mass... chain reaction... examples... isotope uranium 235... protons and neutrons after the explosion... matter is indestructible... energy conservation..."
I guess I was the first person who was willing to listen to him talk so much. It was not that I didn't want to interrupt him, but I didn't have the chance to do so. When he talked about the greatness and subtlety of alchemy, this academic madman danced and spit, and was completely out of control. When I was deeply regretting that I had spent a lot of money and time to buy his endless crazy talk, he finally ended his speech with a question that made me cry:
"... Do you understand all of this?"
I can only understand two things from his words: first, he is a lunatic. Only a lunatic would regard these profound nonsense like the Book of Heaven as the truth known to everyone, and think that others are as crazy as him and can fully understand it just by listening to it once; second, I am an idiot who actually spent such a large sum of money to fall into this trap and receive this kind of frustration education...
"Can I...can I..." What I originally wanted to say was, "Can I drop out of school?" I suddenly felt that learning cooking or fishing might not be a bad idea, and maybe I still have untapped potential in those areas - at least what is certain is that I have not discovered this potential in alchemy.
"It's good to understand. The door of truth and science is always open to you..." The Supreme God testified. Before I finished speaking, Edgwell unreasonably and arbitrarily acquiesced to my love for "truth and science". As he finished speaking, a purple halo rose around me. Looking at my personal attributes, there was already a "level one" after my name.
At this moment, I was overwhelmed with emotions and felt like crying but I couldn't. Countless thoughts were swirling in my mind, and the clearest and strongest one was:
"I'm afraid he won't refund my tuition..."
After using all sorts of evil means, such as kidnapping, blackmail, and fraud, to lure me into the ranks of alchemists, Edgware finally did not abandon me. He took out a few pieces of tattered waste paper from his pocket and threw them in front of me:
"I have some recipes here that you can try to complete. When your skills improve, you can come to me again and I will give you some useful things. You can buy some of the ingredients in the recipes from me, or you can use my equipment to experiment..."
I trembled and asked him about the prices of various experimental materials, but the answer I got was a dizzying one. We used to sell charcoal, ore, spider webs, bat eyes and other things in bundles to grocery stores at the price of dozens of copper coins, but here it takes several or even dozens of silver coins to buy one. Even "rat feces" is marked with a price of three silver coins - it is said that this is a necessary "catalyst" for some alchemy.
I originally thought that the sky-high tuition fee of nearly two gold coins was enough to satisfy the alchemy teacher's greed for money. Now it seems that I have just taken the first step to burn money. There is still a long time to go, and I am afraid that even if I have a mountain of gold, it will not be enough to make up for the additional investment in this life skill.
Those involved in the air traffic control are absolutely right: education is definitely a highly profitable industry!
I searched through the recipes in my hand one by one, looking at their ingredient lists and comparing them with the remaining money I had. At this time, you will find that money is never enough. I looked through all the recipes and found that I could only afford all the ingredients for one of them.
One part sulfur, two parts saltpeter, and three parts charcoal, all of which cost me thirty silver coins, which immediately put me in a nearly penniless situation. According to the instructions on the recipe, I crushed these things into powder and mixed them together, sifted out the impurities in the middle, and then put them in a large container and heated them on the strange magic oven in Edgwell.
I was looking forward to my first alchemical achievement with great anticipation - I hoped that the high tuition fee would be worth it. It was not until this time that I suddenly remembered: I was only concerned about the price of the ingredients and the thickness of my wallet, and seemed to have ignored what I was refining.
I took out the recipe again and found the following line of words written in beautiful handwriting at the top of the recipe:
"Gunpowder, which burns rapidly and regularly under high temperature, produces violent explosions, and is an essential component of firearms and ammunition..."
Hmm? Wait! I seem to have forgotten something...
High temperature? Explosion! ?
On the stove...
gunpowder!!??
"Boom!" A shocking roar erupted from the container in front of me, and dazzling red light and blazing flames rose up in front of my eyes, instantly drowning me in a noisy light. I felt as if I was suddenly wrapped up by something, unable to see or hear, and even my breathing felt suffocated.
When I was in such a state of embarrassment that I had no time to escape, my magic diary delivered a message to me in time:
"Gunpowder was successfully refined, skill proficiency +10."
At the same time, another familiar heat flowed through my body from the inside out. Because of the "accidental success" of this alchemy, I gained another 200 experience points, which immediately allowed me to level up to ten.
This is really an unexpected gain that makes people laugh and cry.
When the smoke cleared, I found that I was actually unharmed - no, that's not accurate enough - just like my alchemy teacher who always liked to create explosions, my face was charred, my hair was standing up in disarray, and I looked as miserable as if I had just survived a disaster.
At this moment old Edgware turned round and said to me in his usual nonchalant tone, almost as if in a mocking tone:
"Don't worry, it was just a little accident."
I don’t think this was a “little” accident at all!
…
Risking my life greatly, I took the first step towards becoming an alchemist - but it was only the first step, as the money I had was not enough to support me to complete the second alchemical experiment.
Fortunately, I know that many alchemical raw materials can be collected in the wild, which means that I don't have to be exploited by unscrupulous alchemy teachers all the time. Many times I can even find some alchemical consumables on wild animals - I never understood why a goat would carry a lump of ointment with it, or why a hare would carry a handful of charcoal ash wherever he went. After carefully reviewing the alchemical formulas in my hand, I realized that these clean-loving herbivores probably wanted to try to make two bars of soap by themselves...
I remembered the abandoned mine in the west of the city that was full of large bats. Those bats seemed to have a habit of collecting ores, many of which were useful for alchemy. And I remembered that the last time I went to collect quartzite jade alone, I didn't explore the cave completely. I thought I could go deeper now.
It is not a wise decision to go deep into the dangerous underground cave alone. I think it is necessary to find a travel companion. I opened my magic adventure diary and found that my minotaur friend, the horrifying name Niu Baiwan, had come to this world - his name took up almost a whole page of my paper. I thought about it and sent him a magic message:
"Do you have time? I know there's an underground mine. Do you want to go check it out?"
Soon, I received his reply:
"Wait for me at the city gate, I'll be there soon!"
Standing at the city gate, I saw my minotaur friend from afar. His exceptionally tall stature made him very conspicuous even among the crowded crowd outside Campnavia. I originally thought he was alone, until he walked less than ten steps away from me, I realized that there was a companion beside him.
He was a small man. Perhaps you still cannot get a precise idea of his height just by saying this, so I will make a simple comparison and you will have a perceptual understanding: if we compare Niu Baiwan's height to a long sword, then that man's height is roughly equivalent to a small dagger. He was not even as tall as Niu Baiwan's knees. If it weren't for his name with a bright green soul mark floating above his head, I would not have noticed him until they came up to him. Walking with Niu Baiwan, who seriously lacked a sense of balance, it was hard not to worry that he would be accidentally stepped on by the burly minotaur next to him.
I think you should have understood that this short guy with a cute baby face is a dwarf. Compared with their distant relatives, the dwarves, the dwarves are even shorter. Most of them live in underground caves in the highlands and mountains. Generally speaking, they are mostly gentle and kind people with amazing dexterity. They can create exquisite machines that ordinary people can hardly imagine. But if you despise them and think they are weak and can be bullied, you are wrong.
Smart gnomes have a natural affinity for magic, and can quickly master the profound magic that ordinary people usually need to study for many years. And their short stature and agile athletic ability can make them easily dodge your full-strength attack. A gnome wanderer who holds a dagger, is good at hiding, and likes sneak attacks is definitely one of the most difficult opponents you have ever seen.
However, this dwarf was neither a magician nor a wanderer. He wore a set of tight khaki-colored clothes that didn't fit him very well, a gray cloak that was obviously too long wrapped around his back, a pointed hat that was almost taller than his whole body, and a short sword that was not much bigger than a dagger hung on his waist.
The most obvious feature of him was the small and exquisite three-stringed harp carried on his back. This instrument revealed his identity to me: he was a bard.
Even without looking at his attire, you can clearly understand from his name that he is a wanderer who loves music and art. He has a name full of romanticism and artistic flavor - "Nocturne in B flat minor".
"Hey, man, I thought I wouldn't see you today." Niu Baiwan opened his mouth and shouted as soon as he saw me. He pointed at the dwarf friend next to him and said to me, "This is a friend I just met. We were leveling up in the mountains just now. When you called me, I brought him here too."
"Hello." The bard greeted me warmly. He seemed to be very interested in my name. After looking at me for a few more times, he couldn't help but say to me:
"Jeffreys Kidd. Your name is weird. I didn't expect someone to have such a name."
"My name? What's wrong?" I was a little confused by his words. In fact, although he was the first person to comment on my name in this way, I think there are many people who feel the same way as him. People I know, including the Niu Baiwan around us, don't seem to be used to calling me by my name, and more often choose to use "brother", "buddy", "old man" and other names, as if my name is difficult to pronounce.
I was actually a little confused about this. In the past few days, I have seen all kinds of strange names. The names of those who are involved in space are completely different from the names I am familiar with, but no one seems to find it strange. Even a name like Niu Baiwan that sounds like a ghost crying and howling will only attract a moment of sidelong glances. However, with such a name on my head, I am extremely conspicuous among these time and space travelers who love adventure and wandering. Why is this so?
"Nothing, probably because it's too much like a person's name, so it makes people feel it's very abnormal." The dwarf bard replied playfully, and while speaking, he winked at Niu Baiwan, which drew a knowing smile. Although their appearances were very different, their smiles looked so similar, with a hint of tacit understanding that I couldn't understand. This made me feel a little embarrassed.
"It's just a joke, don't mind it..." As if noticing my embarrassment, the bard patted my butt in a friendly manner - I guess he originally wanted to pat my shoulder, but it was a bit difficult to do so - he looked at the crowded crowd around him and suggested to me: "...Where is the mine? Let's set off now..."
