Chapter 159: The Product from the Experiment
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
The whole hall was silent. No one spoke a word, since they were all waiting for the outcome of the experiment.
A while later, when people started to whisper to each other again, Lucien said, “Mr. Felipe, you can open the reactor now.”
Strictly following the procedures of doing a magic experiment, Felipe turned on a series of magic circles for safety protection one by one.
When the reactor was opened, and when the temperature was back to normal, Felipe collected the small amount of white particles lying at the bottom of the container and then turned to Lucien, “What’s the next step, Professor?”
“You don’t want to check these particles, Mr. Felipe?” Lucien answered with a mysterious smile underneath his hood.
“What do you mean… These particles are…?” Felipe was confused for a second, and so were the rest of the people.
“Yes, Mr. Felipe.” Lucien nodded calmly, “This is the end of the experiment. These particles are things contained within a human body.”
“What?!” The crowd was shocked, “These white particles are… an ingredient for life?!”
A great stir started to gather its momentum in the hall. The necromancers and apprentices could not believe what they saw.
Felipe stared at Professor with his great, mixed feelings. He could not accept the fact that an experiment synthesizing an ingredient for life would be this simple.
“You’d better not be kidding me, Professor.” After quite a while, Felipe finally responded.
Lucien was also nervous. He knew that Felipe might lose his temper at anytime. However, he still answered in a calm tone, “You can check it yourself, Mr. Felipe. Those particles is carbamide… the organic matter you were talking about.”
As soon as Lucien uttered the word, people in the hall stopped whispering and talking and went back to silence.
“Mr… Mr. Felipe, please check the particles,” asked the necromancers on the stage. They were afraid, excited and thrilled. They were staring at the particles with great concern, as if it was not something ordinary that could be simply produced by human body, but something so powerful like a taboo that could destroy their world.
Felipe looked rather gloomy and serious. Slowly, he walked back to the reactor again and opened it. Then, he used the first circle magic, Identification, to check the particles.
As the white light flashed past, Felipe stood there, staring at these particles without saying anything, like a statue.
After more than a minute, Cessy could not wait anymore. Carefully, he asked, “Mr. Felipe, is it… carbamide?”
The rest of the necromancers and apprentices were also looking at Felipe, waiting for his confirmation.
As if Felipe was in a different world, he did not answer Cessy’s question. After another minute again, finally, he slowly answered, “Yes, it is carbamide.”
No one made a sound after Felipe responded. All of a sudden, they felt that all the experiments that they had done and all the theories that they had learned were just like a dream. The experiment showed that their effort was worth nothing.
Felipe suddenly turned around and said to Lucien in a higher pitch, “Mr. Professor, Identification is not accurate from time to time. I need to use other experiments to make sure what is these particles.”
Felipe was not finding excuses. Indeed, Identification was a spell built on the caster’s own knowledge level. So if the caster did not have a profound knowledge in the corresponding field, the magic would go wrong sometimes.
Hearing Felipe’s words, Cessy and the other necromancers and apprentices regained their hope again. They could not admit that their belief was wrong, and no one would easily admit that something he or she had been pursuing for the whole life was fundamentally not correct.
People often tended to make all kinds of excuses to deceive themselves.
“Go ahead.” Lucien did not care how many times Felipe needed to verify the outcome of the experiment.
The bottles, glass tubes and weights were making low sounds on the stage when Felipe was doing the verification experiment with his trembling hands.
One experiment after another, Felipe looked more and more frustrated.
“Bang!” A metal container was thrown into the sink. Felipe lowered his head, with his back toward Lucien, and said with depression, “Yes, it is carbamide.”
“It’s not possible!”
Some necromancers burst out bitter cries.
Their world collapsed.
Sidney slowly raised up his hands, which were covered with stitches and scars. He could not believe what he just witnessed: if the theory of Life Force was not correct, how came he could use this body?
Comparatively speaking, the apprentices felt the outcome less shocking, and some of them were right now blaming the origin of necromancy for making them fail at becoming a real sorcerer, instead of their own lack of intelligence.
When Lucien was about to lead the topic into another direction, in case Felipe would completely lose his temper on him, Felipe turned around. “Mr. Professor, this is not your victory,” said Felipe stubbornly. “I don’t think carbamide is an ingredient for life, instead, carbamide is just some filthy excreta from the human body. It exists between life ingredients and non-life ingredients. In fact, your experiment cannot explain anything.”
Like a beast guarding its territory, Felipe sought for any possible reason to dispute. If it were not for the fact that he had no idea how powerful Professor was, he might have already resolved this academic dispute with violence.
“Yes, carbamide is not an ingredient for life!” A couple of necromancers started to follow Felipe’s viewpoint.
Although Lucien was quite happy to see what was going on here right now, he still pretended that he was angry, “Mr. Felipe, you’re not playing fair!”
There was a reason why Lucien chose carbamide to be the organic compound produced by this experiment. Although Lucien wanted to win, he needed to make sure that, after the experiment, Felipe would have some space to do his sophistry. Because, again, Lucien could not destroy Felipe’s belief completely, otherwise, he would probably go completely mad.
There was a cunning smile on Felipe’s face, and he said to the viscount, “We don’t regard carbamide as an ingredient for life, but something existing in human body. I believe that the viscount and the rest of the necromancers and apprentices would definitely agree with me.”
Viscount Carendia nodded, “Mr. Professor, your experiment is so simple that it is out of the expectation of all of us. And I admit that no one ever did this—producing carbamide by using non-life ingredients only. Your experiment is surely a milestone, and I believe that the experiment is meaningful enough to put your name on the candidate list for Holm Crown prize and to win you lots of arcana points. However, I also agree with Mr. Felipe that carbamide can’t be regarded as a life ingredient. After all, it’s very hard to imagine that something filthy like human body excreta could contain any life ingredient. If you want to win, you gotta show us more.”
“Yes, a life ingredient from urine? That’s a humiliation to life!” someone in the crowd cried.
And more and more people joined the voice of opposition, with their joy from the fact that the theory of Life Force had not been completely overthrown.
“Exactly, Mr. Professor.” Felipe shrugged his shoulders with a smile, “Most of us don’t see carbamide as a life ingredient. You gotta show us more if you want to persuade us…”
“I said an ingredient contained in the human body,” answered Lucien in a sounded angry voice, “And I’m still working on other further experiments. They’re not ready yet.”
“I remember what you said…” Felipe was about to say something aggressive, but he stopped himself.
Felipe also did not want to piss off Professor completely. The way he viewed Professor was exactly the same as the way Lucien viewed him.
“Your sophistry made you lose your manner, and their ignorance made them miss the greatest chance to witness the revolution in both the school of element and necromancy.” Lucien still pretended that he was angry, “I don’t have anything more solid than this to prove that you people are wrong right now, but I will in the future.”
“Then how do you want to end our bet, Mr. Professor?” asked Felipe.
“It’s a draw. I’m leaving right now. I’ll not interfere you with what you’re doing here. And I’ll not affect the choices made by the necromancers and apprentices.” Lucien turned to Felipe, “And you, Mr. Felipe, you need to tell them who’s the liaison from the congress in Sturk. At least you should give some hope to the apprentices who cannot go to the congress right now, before they can really become sorcerers.”
