Volume 6: Helping the World Chapter 164 Austin Ball
Isaac and his companions had been in the tribe for three days and had seen Balk twice.
The first time he saw it was at the entrance of the canteen. Balke was standing in line in front of them with a caracal cub riding on his shoulders to get food. The second time he saw it was when they were harvesting sweet potatoes. Balke came over to take a look at the quality of the sweet potatoes grown in the greenhouse and asked Qingcao for a group of people to help wash the sweet potatoes and remove the mud - mainly to help boil snow water. The two rivers were frozen, and the canals and ponds in the tribe were naturally frozen as well, making it more troublesome to use water in large quantities.
Compared to the Snow Wolf Tribe, Cat Tribe, Gray Dwarf, Goblin, and Centaur in the tribe, the only thing that stands out about Balk in human form is his green hair… He is not as handsome as Dahe, uglier than a Centaur, and cuter than a Cat Tribe. It can be said that there is no one else like him. If it weren’t for Father Austin following Xiao Yun back, the two green dragons would have met on a narrow road with extremely green eyes, showing their true colors and fighting on the spot. The adventurers would have thought that Balk was also a human spellcaster who lived in the Snow Wolf Tribe like Sean and Primo, and got a green head for being conceited…
Two big-bellied dragons of equal size and strength were fighting, swinging their tails and flapping their wings. Apart from their larger size and the amazing snow they stirred up, to be honest, it was really not worth watching... Primo stared at them for a while, gradually becoming impatient, and shouted, "Stop playing, Balk, everyone is busy, hurry up and solve it!"
The adventurers hiding aside: "..."
"Do I need you to tell me that!" Balk shouted in dissatisfaction, and stepped back to distance himself from his father. The huge dragon body disappeared like a phantom, and returned to a human form that was more suitable for using magic. He opened his hands and made casting gestures synchronously, and a huge magic circle halo appeared under his feet.
When Auston saw this, he also regained his human form, pushed his hands forward, and gritted his teeth, "Rebellious son! You have grown wings and dared to compete with your father in magic?!"
Balk suddenly clasped his hands together, and when he opened them again, dozens of whip-like lightning flashes appeared between his hands, and quickly extended to form a dense electric grid: "Wake up, Austin - high magnetic lightning grid!!"
The biggest shortcoming of electrical magic is its low controllability, but its greatest advantage is its extremely fast casting speed and the speed at which spells take effect. In the last second, Balk had just summoned the evolved form of the high-magnetic lightning whip, the high-magnetic lightning net, and in the next second, the net formed by dozens of lightning whips covered Austin, crackling with lightning and electrocuting him so much that he felt numb all over, burnt on the outside and tender on the inside...
Austin: “???” What kind of weird magic is this? When did his stupid son learn this trick? !
"Ahahaha! Look at how powerful I am!" Balk let go of the electric grid. Without the mimicry magic to create a resonant medium as a guide for electric current transmission, the electric grid covering Austin quickly dissipated. However, the paralysis and sluggishness caused by the electric magic attack did not disappear so quickly, and that was enough for Balk. He excitedly made different casting gestures with his hands, and a strange white mist suddenly appeared and covered Austin's head.
Auston felt a gust of cold air even colder than that on the Samar Snow Mountain. His body quickly lost temperature and ice crystals appeared on his eyebrows and eyelashes...
"Ohhahaha! Wahahahaha!" Balk continued to gesture, using magic to create a subspace to capture the air around Austin, rapidly compress it, and then suddenly cancel the subspace.
Austin instinctively sensed danger, but not only was his entire dragon frozen, the paralysis effect of the electric magic was still there, and he was completely unable to move; so he watched helplessly as the air in front of him showed extremely dangerous spatial distortion and suddenly exploded...
“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”
Three air bombs exploded one after another, and the ice on Austin's body was blown into ice chips, flying everywhere. The whole dragon was blown dizzy and fell to the ground limply.
“Oh, oh, oh—?” The Snow Wolf warriors surrounded Austin and poked him with their fingers, but there was no response. So they applauded Balk who fell to the ground in surprise: “Great job, Balk, you won so quickly!”
"Of course, I'm very strong, hahaha!" Balke put his hands on his hips and laughed, and shook his head in a showy manner to straighten his bangs that were messed up by the explosion.
The adventurers who were watching quietly stepped back, looking at Balk with fear in their eyes... How could this seemingly stupid guy be so powerful? Is this the power of the dragon clan? !
"Using electrical magic in this way is indeed very effective. As long as the mental power is sufficient and the mimicry magic can be used to create a resonant medium with sufficient ductility, even the most sensitive dark elves cannot avoid being captured by the high-magnetic lightning net." Sean praised, "But the last air bomb does not seem to be fully operational. I remember that this magic can explode in a directional manner, right? Balk, did you forget to focus the explosive power in the same direction?"
"Uncle Balke just likes to explode like this, what's it to you?" Balke was unhappy.
Sean chuckled and didn't bother with Balk. He looked at Austin who was pretending to be unconscious. It was impossible to pretend to be unconscious within the range of the magician's mental field. He rolled his eyes and raised his chin to Primo. "Primo, take Lord Austin to the mobile home. After Ayun has rested, we can discuss how to settle this new guest."
"Wait, you want to keep Auston here?!" Balk was shocked.
"Balke, Lord Austin is your father, but he is also a guest of the Snow Wolf Tribe." Mr. Sean smiled, "The Snow Wolf Tribe has always been hospitable. How could they be so rude as to send a guest away while he was unconscious?"
Balke: "(ΩДΩ)?!" He immediately looked for help at Hongye who had brought Austin back with Ayun.
Hongye pursed her lips and looked away silently.
"I don't believe it. The Snow Wolf Tribe already has me, so why do they need Auston?" Balk was angry and pointed at Sean, "Did you, a cunning human, say something to Ayun? Were you bribed by Auston?!"
"Please calm down, Balk." Mr. Sean said calmly, "Lord Austin is a dragon clan member as noble as you. How many hosts would not treat a dragon clan guest wholeheartedly? If you offend a dragon clan guest, how many hosts can afford the revenge of the dragon clan member?"
"What's more..." Mr. Sean paused deliberately, and said meaningfully, "The Snow Wolf Tribe is a peace-loving race. They would never be hostile to or attack guests from the Dragon Tribe."
Primo understood what he meant, and this legendary walker deliberately cast his gaze towards the fallen Lord Austin, staring at his neck with an eager expression, and his hand touched his waist.
The snow werewolf warriors around looked pure and innocent.
Not far away, the adventurers were retreating stealthily in cold sweat...
Balk: “…”
Balk looks stupid, but his IQ is actually still online. Sean has hinted so clearly that how can he not understand? He immediately looks like he is struggling...
"—— Bastards, you really want to slay the dragon!!" Auston hurriedly got up, pointed at Sean and his unfilial son and yelled, "Sean, you bastard, I knew there are not many good people in the human race! Rebellious son! You actually want to murder your father with outsiders!"
Sean pretended to be surprised and said, "So Lord Austin, you are okay? Oh, this is a huge misunderstanding. Lord Austin, how could I possibly suggest something as outrageous as a son killing his father? I just wanted to suggest that Lord Balk cooperate with me to seal you for dozens or hundreds of years to prevent the peace of the Snow Wolf Tribe from being disturbed... How could we do something like slaying a dragon!"
Balk: “Uh…”
"Isn't this too much?!" Austin was so angry that smoke came out of his head. "Rebellious son, you are a dragon, how dare you associate with such an evil human magician?"
Balk had such a bad temper that Austin pointed at him and scolded him. The guilt he had just felt in his heart disappeared instantly: "Did you go too far? Have you forgotten what you did to me?"
"I just took away all your jewelry and goddess statues. I also left some gold and silver bars for you. How could that be excessive?" Austin said confidently.
"..." Balk turned to look at Sean, "I promise you, let's seal this bastard away."
Sean smiled and nodded, then took out his staff.
Austin quickly used wind magic to take off. Primo, who had been squatting beside him for a long time, kicked Austin with a flying kick, causing him to stagger forward a few steps and collide head-on with the high-magnetic lightning net thrown by Balk.
Six phantoms of Sean appeared in the six corners around Austin without anyone noticing, and they made the same sealing gestures as Sean himself. Trapped in the high-magnetic lightning net, Austin was shocked and terrified to find six colorful rainbow lights emerging from his feet, interweaving two by two and spreading upwards, weaving layer by layer into a circular barrier to surround him.
"Are you kidding me? I'm a guest!" Austin was so angry that he almost cried. He shouted towards the house where the Snow Wolf Cub had entered, "Hey, Ayun! Snow Wolf Ayun! Is this how you treat your guests?!"
"Uh..." Some of the snow werewolf warriors felt sorry and looked at Hongye in embarrassment.
Hongye gave everyone a reassuring look: "Ayun told us to listen to Mr. Sean."
"Oh oh!" The Snow Wolf Warriors immediately calmed down, and looked at Sean curiously to see how he was going to seal up the big living dragon, Austin.
Sealing magic is a forbidden magic, and even a legendary magician like Sean finds it difficult to perform it. In addition, there are problems such as slow startup, slow formation, and time-consuming closing of the formation. If it weren't for Balk's high-magnetic lightning net that trapped Austin firmly in place, it would be quite difficult for him to deal with this troublesome dragon father... Well, this can be considered as asking for trouble. If Austin hadn't offended Balk to death, it would not have been so easy to convince his son to help seal his own father.
Ten seconds later, the sealing magic was released. The five-colored rainbow light capped the top and formed a sphere. The surface of the sphere emitted a fierce and strong light, and it shrank rapidly amid Austin's unwilling howl. In the translucent light wall, Lord Austin could hardly maintain his human body and turned into a dragon. However, the space inside the sphere was self-contained, and the dragon form could not break through the sealing barrier at all. It was forcibly squeezed into the size of a bat by the shrinking barrier...
The bright light faded away, leaving only a translucent crystal ball the size of a head. In the ball, a green dragon the size of a bat lay on its back with its legs up in the air, gasping weakly...
"Huh..." Sean dismissed the phantom clone, stuffed the staff into the space ring, walked forward, picked up the crystal ball, and handed it to Balk with a complicated expression. "Since it is your father, I will naturally give it to you for safekeeping, Balk. When you reconcile with your father, tell Ayun, and I will remove the seal on Lord Austin."
"I won't reconcile with him." Balk rolled his eyes, but his hands were very honest... and he took his father over.
Sean laughed and didn't mind this guy's attitude. Ah Yun said it very clearly, when necessary, it would be effective to stroke the young green dragon in the opposite direction, and it would be best to stroke it in the same direction... Although Sean didn't quite agree with Ah Yun's wording, he had to say that Ah Yun's summary was very accurate.
Primo bent down to pick up the clothes that Balke had taken off earlier and walked over. He said solemnly, "Actually, I envy you for being able to fight your father equally, Balke. I'm different. When I grew up to be as strong as my old man, the old man was too old to stand steadily. All the hatred in the past had to be put aside."
"Isn't your father reliable too?" Balke seemed to have found a soulmate.
"Of course, that old bastard sold me to an even more bastard drunkard shoemaker as an apprentice for ten silver coins..." Primo helped Balke hold the Austin ball, and after Balke put on his clothes, he and Long left arm in arm, and gave Sean a thumbs up with his hands behind his back.
Sean smiled knowingly and waved to the others: "Okay, the troublesome person has been dealt with, everyone can do what they need to do."
Sean and Hongye went back to their respective residences to catch up on some sleep. After watching the lively show, the Snow Wolf warriors returned to their respective posts, and the square was soon cleared out... Only the adventurers who had no sense of existence were left.
"...Should I say that we are lucky to be guests of the Snow Wolf Tribe..." Hannah said with a twitch of her mouth.
No one spoke, everyone was silent... they hadn't recovered from the shock yet.
"Uh... Come to think of it, Qingcao seemed to have said today that the flour mill is in need of help... Are we still going?" Hannah licked her lips.
"Of course." Isaac was startled and said quickly, "Let's go, everyone else has gone, we've been delayed long enough."
"Yes, let's go." The others responded one after another, and the six of them immediately trotted towards the flour mill.
The adventurers intuitively thought that it would be safer to blend in (and work) with the Snow Wolf Tribe rather than being their guests...
Xiao Yun slept for a few hours and then got up to check the situation with Sean.
Xiao Yun was not surprised to learn that they had successfully dealt with the troublesome figure Austin. Compared to the embarrassing situation when they were startled by the stupid dragon, the tribe today is no longer the same as it used to be - not counting the two foreign aids, Sean and Primo, the tribe now has hundreds of warriors in the reserve (not yet organized into the warrior team), and they can also mobilize dozens of elite warriors who are rushing to the eastern part of the grassland to perform tasks. Add to that the cat warriors who are practicing both magic and martial arts (although their magic is only at the apprentice level), it won't be easy to deal with an old dragon!
Not to mention that Balk hated his father to the core...
What annoyed Xiao Yun was the possible casualties after the fight. He hated the most that it would disrupt the progress of the tribe's work plan! Sean's success in convincing Balk to help seal Auston was obviously the safest solution. It would be best if he could do it with zero casualties.
"Thank you, Sean. Without you, this matter would not have been resolved so easily." Xiao Yun said sincerely, "I am extremely fortunate to have met you and Primo."
"Ahem!" Sean was a little embarrassed. "Don't say that. We are just old men with only a few years left to live. We are lucky to have met you in our last boring time."
Xiao Yun said happily: "Come on, let's stop flattering each other. It's embarrassing. Now that the big issue has been resolved, do you think you can do the same as Balk and Evelyn and study the feasibility of my scientific magic theory?"
"This is exactly what I expected." Sean's eyes sparkled.
Xiao Yunding didn't waste any time. He immediately took Sean to the cafeteria to get some potatoes, and then took him to Balk's laboratory, where he took out a set of experimental equipment specially prepared for Sean - four zinc sheets, four copper sheets, a small light bulb, and eight wires.
With the tribe's current technological level, it is not difficult to make this set of experimental equipment... Tungsten ore, the material of the light bulb's filament, is a by-product of granite. Local alchemists discovered the characteristics of tungsten ore, such as its high melting point and high hardness, very early on, and have developed and utilized it in a relatively detailed manner.
Tungsten ore is forged into strips and drawn into wires to produce filament material; Balke extracts the air from the fired lampshade and injects nitrogen (inert gas) into it to form an enclosed space, and the technological point of the light bulb is thus achieved.
As for the wires... Since Evelyn's applied magic research team hasn't had time to find natural rubber materials, the insulation layer of the wires is replaced with cotton cloth impregnated with resin and vegetable oil... Well, since it's for laboratory use anyway, there's no need to consider durability issues for now.
With this set of equipment, the next step is very simple - the wires are fixed on the copper and zinc sheets respectively, and the copper and zinc sheets are embedded in the potatoes. The wires are connected in sequence to form a pattern of four potatoes walking hand in hand, and then the last two wires are connected to the small light bulb, and the light will light up.
Sean: “???”
Xiao Yun was not giving Sean a physics lesson, and there was no need to explain to Sean how the potato battery worked (in fact, he had almost forgotten it). Instead, he replaced the concept with the fact that the electricity released by magicians could be created and used by non-magical means; the effect of lighting a light bulb through electric current was explained by the heat energy obtained from burning matter, and then how to use the energies that could be generated by magicians or by non-magical means for the benefit of humans - in a nutshell, Xiao Yun intended to lead Sean into the field of kinetic energy research.
Magic steam and other things, it’s very cool!
After letting Sean, the legendary magician, accept that non-magical means can create energy that only magicians can use , Xiao Yun took Sean to the cafeteria and pointed to the big pot on the stove where bone soup was being cooked, saying, "The steam generated when water is boiled by heat energy also has power. Look, this pot lid, which weighs at least half a pound, is shaking because of the steam. Let's assume that if water is heated in a closed space, the expanding steam pushes the piston to perform mechanical movement, and the mechanical kinetic energy is transmitted to the outside of the closed space to rotate the gears. Then, can the kinetic energy of the gears be used elsewhere?"
Sean imagined it for a moment and said uncertainly: "You mean... like a waterwheel driven by water flow?"
"Right!" Xiao Yun clenched his right fist and hit the palm of his left hand. "When the river water flows, we use the kinetic energy generated by the water flow to turn the waterwheel and provide kinetic energy for the mill, but the river water cannot move. When the river freezes in winter, there is no water power available. If we can create a mobile power source that can provide mechanical kinetic energy anytime and anywhere, then the mill can be operated automatically at any time, which can save a lot of manpower."
"...Wait!" Sean showed a look of doubt, "A power-driven tool that can be used without a spellcaster... Isn't it the same as an airship that can cross the continent? Could it be that airships also use such a power tool?"
Xiao Yun spread his hands and said, "I have never seen an airship, but since it is monopolized by several major associations and cannot be dismantled by anyone, I think someone must have developed similar magical technology and kept it secret for their own benefit. Before our Snow Wolf Clan, only the Tauren were willing to honestly spread their knowledge to the outside world, so this is not difficult to understand."
Sean's expression suddenly became awkward... He had never thought about why the airship could be controlled by non-casters, nor had he ever thought about how much change this kind of "magic technology" would have on the world if it were made public - but at least he knew the influence of the Tauren on all races, and it was foreseeable how great and far-reaching the impact that the knowledge spread by Ayun through his travel notes on the mainland would have on the world.
After leaving the cafeteria, the two happened to meet a construction team pushing and pulling a huge mixer towards the original industrial area, which is now being gradually converted into the No. 2 greenhouse area.
Although the tribe has not yet opened the mechanical power technology tree, it is impossible to engage in production and construction without mechanical assistance, so the current incomplete "manpower mechanization model" has emerged - all machines must be driven by manpower, including the cement mixer of the engineering team. The huge machine weighing 13 tons requires more than four adult snow wolves to turn the winch every time it is operated, and it can only be moved by a group of people pulling and pushing...
"If we can make the kind of power machinery used for airships, and install two on both sides of that heavy thing, even if we don't expect it to be able to start itself, at least it won't be so laborious to transfer it." Xiao Yun said with emotion, pointing at the tribesmen who were shouting slogans and pushing and pulling the mixer.
Sean watched the engineering team walk away in the wind and snow, and something in his heart was suddenly touched.
As a human, it is not realistic for Sean to say that he has a strong sense of identification with the Snow Wolf Tribe and regards the Snow Wolf Tribe as his relatives... He appeared in the Snow Wolf Tribe and was willing to follow Xiao Yun. To put it bluntly, it was because he had not much time left, and since he had nothing to do, he might as well find something interesting to do.
Except for those who are naturally antisocial, few people are kindhearted. After more than half a year of contact, the friendliness of the Snow Wolf tribe to other tribes, their eagerness to improve their own lives and help other tribes develop together, and their determination to grit their teeth and do the hardest and most tiring work, all touched Sean bit by bit - he had seen too many people who would do anything for themselves or their families, and such a simple and pure Snow Wolf tribe was indeed as rare and precious as pearls among gravel.
"If others can do it, then we can do it too." Sean smiled and looked at Xiao Yun, his eyes more sincere and frank than ever before, "Especially with a wise man like you guiding the way. As long as the direction is right, all that's needed next is hard work."
Xiao Yun laughed and accepted Sean's flattery. "That's right. Nothing is easier than working hard to see the hope of success. Now is a precious period of peaceful development. Without those annoying things, we can finally focus on production and construction. If we don't work hard, we will be punished by God."
"..." Sean stopped complaining about Xiao Yun's definition of effort and said teasingly, "If I remember correctly, it seems that you, Ayun, promised Carlisle that you would go to St. Bridges for the winter?"
Xiao Yun: "... Snap, forget about it!"
