Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
A few days later. On the 18th floor of the headquarter of the Congress.
The No. 7 lab was spacious and bright. Divided into different sections, the lab was provided with all kinds of alchemical operation desks and mysterious magic circles, and their light turned the lab into a dream-like place.
However, in the lab, there were only four sorcerers, Lucien, Lazar, Rock, Jerome, and the several apprentices. There were no guests here for a celebration. After all, for the sorcerers in the Congress, they did not see a newly-started research project without any solid findings as something worthy of celebration, and Lucien’s unique-named institution was also not an exception. Meanwhile, Lucien was also happy with it because right now he did not want too much attention at all.
As the leading arcanist, Lucien cleared his throat a bit and said to the project members seriously, “Our research hasn’t started yet; we have very few companies so far, and our findings haven’t revealed themselves. In front of us are things that have been discovered, a new world that has never been touched. It’s waiting for us. I believe that we’ll see more and find more on our way marching forward. Today, we see the Congress as our honor; Tomorrow, the Congress will see us as its honor!”
In the end, Lucien spoke to his friends and students in a half-joking way.
His listeners were pretty surprised. They did not expect that Lucien was such a dreamer.
Lucien nodded to them and continued, “I need to attend the regular monthly meeting later. So Lazar will be responsible for managing the institution. Jerome, you take half of the apprentices with you and set about studying the changing properties of materials under low temperature. Let’s start with the common materials such as coal, iron, Mythril and Adamantine… I need you to take down all the records every time when you change the temperature by one degree. It’s an experiment requiring a lot of patience. Jerome, you’re the ideal person for it. Do be careful when working in the extreme low-temperature environment though.”
So far, the Congress’s research on ultralow temperature still remained on studying liquid hydrogen, which meant that the Congress was still about ten degrees away from the temperature required for achieving superconductivity. In the world that Lucien came from, the problem had not been solved until helium was discovered. So Lucien was not planning on making them find the phenomenon of superconductivity.
What Lucien was trying to push them toward was to find the fact that charcoal would be able to absorb air very easily at lower than minus 180 Celsius degree, which could be used as a very handy tool for creating a vacuum environment. In the future, it would be very useful for Lucien’s upcoming experiments.
Jerome nodded and accepted the task.
Lucien turned to Rock and said, “Rock, you take the other half of the apprentices to study gas discharge under different pressure conditions. Larry and K have basically fully developed the theory of ionization, and they have proved that it is the ions carrying positron and electron that enables electricity to conduct in a solution. So we’re now switching to the other question — how and why gas discharges?”
Ions… That was the name from Larry and K.
Rock also nodded and took the job.
In the end, Lucien said to Lazar, “You’re the coordinator. Whoever needs help, you go there. In your free time, you can do your own thing.”
“I’ll keep a close watch on them.” Lazar grinned, “I wonder how many things are there in your mind. You can always connect seemingly-unrelated things together.”
Only Lucien himself knew why he could do so, but, of course, he would not speak to anyone.
…
After making all the arrangements, Lucien left the lab.
“Evans?”
“Mr. Evans?”
In the corner of the corridor, Lucien ran into Isabella and Rachel again.
After greeting each other, Isabella seized the chance and hurriedly asked, “Evans, I’ve read your formula and the papers from the five grand arcanists. Neither of them can explain the meaning of the formula. There’s only one possibility, right? You know what I’m talking about.”
This was the question that had been bothering every arcanist who understood the papers published in this month’s Arcana.
“In fact, I’ve got some clues. And I’m working on it, although it’s tough.” Following Fernando and Douglas’ words, Lucien gradually revealed the truth.
“Really?!” Both Isabella and Rachel asked very surprisedly, as they never expected that Lucien could really offer them the answer.
But as soon as they asked, the two ladies hurriedly apologized, saying that they did not mean to pry into Lucien’s research.
Lucien did not mind it at all, “My tough job is almost done, and Mr. Fernando also knows what it is about. So it’s totally fine to share.”
“Then please, Mr. Evans.” Rachel smiled. She knew that her teacher, Isabella, would feel shy and restrained from asking, so she, as the student, should be the one to take the initiative.
“Follow the perspective of molecular movement put forward by my fellow, Cole, and introduce probability into the analysis of the formula.” Lucien basically opened the gate for them.
Isabella nodded thoughtfully and said, “It’s been more than ten years since Cole first put forward the theory. Since the theory was first developed, arguments and criticism were always around it, until the theory’s explanation for the second law won Cole the Ice & Snow Medal. However, many arcanists are still holding a negative attitude toward it. So, even if they’re trying to explain your formula, not many would consider Cole’s theory as a possible path.”
Feeling excited, Isabella wanted to try it out as soon as possible. This was not for publishing any papers or winning any honor, but for the sake of her passion for arcana and curiosity. Furthermore, Rachel felt the same way.
At the same time, Lucien’s casual tone and relaxed manner made Isabella and Rachel believe that he had figured out how to explain the formula, and he was going to submit the paper very soon.
…
In Fernando’s study.
When Lucien arrived, the rest of his classmates were all there, except the crystal dragon, Alferris.
“Where’s our little crystal, Thompson?” Ashikana liked to call its nickname.
Thompson slightly lifted his gold-edged glasses and said, “I haven’t seen it for a month. Maybe Alferris sold itself again because of money…”
Thompson sounded quite uncertain, but he was not worrying for Alferris. The little crystal dragon should be safe as long as it was still within the five hundred miles range from Allyn. As a dragon, Alferris could protect itself properly.
“Alferris is safe. No worries,” said Fernando directly. “Let’s start the discussion, from Cole.”
Cole was pondering over something when Fernando called his name. He first looked at his teacher and then Lucien, and then he started the sharing, “I went to an underground magma cave last month…”
Finishing his sharing of his findings in the cave, Cole looked at Fernando and Lucien again, “After reading this month’s Arcana, I have developed a great interest in your formula. I tried several different methods but all failed, and then I tried to use my molecular movement theory. It seems to be working, but it’s going to take a few more weeks to be proved. I’d like to share with you, Evans, so hopefully you can get some useful ideas from it.”
Although Cole had won Ice & Snow Medal and was a member of the Review Board, his personality was still very cautious and even a bit coward. Cole was more like a poet than a sorcerer. Although he was totally entitled to say that this was his own finding, he was worried that Lucien might see him as an enemy who was trying to steal the research outcome, therefore, he tried his best to tell Lucien that he was just trying to help.
“Using molecular movement theory… You’re not stupid.” Fernando, as usual, was quite cheap on giving his students praise, “But Lucien has already figured this out using this method. Let’s see how he did it.”
The rest of the students were all very surprised. If Lucien already had some clues before Arcana was released, the journal would have for sure postponed the publication to wait for his findings. It meant that Lucien had found the correct direction and finished all the challenging work only within the few days after this month’s Arcana was published. That was incredible!
“Thank you a lot, Cole, for your theory has inspired me so much.” Lucien nodded and briefly shared with them how the work was done. But when making the presupposition for the formula, Lucien purposefully skipped the most fundamental assumption. Because the rest of the students were still busy with taking down all the details from Lucien’s words for their own analysis later, neither of them noticed the problem.
Later, the rest of the students also shared their researches. In the end, Fernando said something about his several major pieces of research and discussed some of the problems that he encountered with his students.
After the meeting, when the students were leaving, Lacie Carter said to Lucien half-jokingly, “Evans, I see another winner of Ice & Snow Medal.”
At this time, the door of the study was pushed open fiercely and Alferris came in. In its child-like voice, it asked in surprise, “The meeting is already over?”
“Yes, it’s over,” answered Ashikana, feeling a bit amused. “Where did you go?”
Covering its eyes with its claws, Alferris peeked at Fernando from the gap, “I overslept…”
“So what kind of research made you so tired?” Thompson tried not to laugh.
“I’m studying dreams,” said Alferris in a serious way that sounded very funny.
“I see. So you’ve slept for almost a month? Haha…” Thompson laughed hard.
Lucien also grinned. It seemed to be true that dragons indeed loved sleeping.
…
In the quiet night, everything was immersed in silence.
Sitting in his study, Cole wrote down the experiment details shared by Lucien earlier today. He read every single word very carefully and from time to time wrote down his own thinking.
Akashina, Thompson and the rest of the students were doing the same thing. However, they still had their own focuses, so they did not have much time for this, especially when the answer was already available. They were not in a hurry.
Isabella and Rachel started to work on studying the law behind the formula following Lucien’s words.
In his study, Lucien stood behind the desk. It took him quite a while to write down the title of the paper: The Energy Distribution of Black-Body Radiation.
