Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In the morning two days later, Lucien, who had been stabilizing his strength inside Babel, came to the thirty-fifth floor of the Allyn magic tower early and opened the door of the conference room of the Highest Council.
The conference room was no different from any other conference room that Lucien had seen. They were equally spacious, and they all had a common long cherry desk at the center. The only thing special was that the twenty-four chairs were made of precious materials. Their velvet plating was emitting luxury and yet low-profile redness. Different patterns had been engraved on the back of the chairs to indicate the identity of the members. Among them, there were the storm with lightning, the crown of arcana and magic, etc.
“Evans, here.” Klaus, the Alchemy Master who was always wearing a mischievous smile, pointed at the chair on his opposite side.
He was the legendary sorcerer who came earliest, followed by an alchemical puppet in the appearance of a little girl.
Lucien looked over, only to discover that the back of the chair was the pattern of the internal structure of atoms, where electrons surrounded protons and neutrons, like an infinitely reduced version of the celestial bodies motion system.
“The classic model that is soon to be outdated…” Remarked secretly, Lucien nodded at Klaus and sat in his spot.
“Mr. Klaus, you seem to have been here for a while?” Seeing that they were alone in the conference room, Lucien asked in smalltalk.
Klaus smiled casually, “Evans, you are already a grand arcanist. Such courtesies are unnecessary. Just call me Klaus. I’m a person who prefers to arrive early. Every time I wait for other people, I feel that I have additional time, and I can think, idle by and enjoy the luxury of freedom without being disturbed. This is a wondrous feeling, don’t you think? You are an early person, too?”
“Yes. I’ll be anxious when I think that other people are waiting for me, but when I wait for other people, as long as they are not late, my mind is peaceful and my head is full of inspirations after I come early.” Replied Lucien with a smile, not expecting them to share the same feeling in that regard.
Klaus opened his hands. “We understand life and enjoyment better than they do. However, for me, the luxury time is over, because there are so many questions that I would like to discuss with you the moment I see you. The new alchemy is full of intoxicating charm. It is even more addictive than all of my puppets, golems and alchemical lives.”
“If the questions are about the new alchemy, I would be happy to discuss them with you.” Said Lucien with a smile.
Klaus knocked the table. A pair of metal arms suddenly fell from the ceiling with a cup of hot red tea. Then, the creature said respectfully, “Your Excellency Klaus, your favorite ‘Count Red Tea’.”
“Evans, what’s your favorite drink? Ask them to prepare it.” Sipping the red tea, Klaus went on. “As a matter of fact, after reading your deductions based on protons, the periodic table, the relative atomic weight and the equivalent elements, I had absolutely no doubt about the existence of neutrons. Its discovery was only a matter of time. However, I do have a lot of confusion about the tracks, transition and radiation of electrons.”
As I expected… Lucien was not surprised at Klaus’s confusion. After asking for a ‘Sky Blue’, he said, “There are indeed many problems in that regard. We can discuss them together.”
The smile on Klaus’s face was gradually gone. “First of all, the electronic transition you described is a quantum process. That is to say, when it jumps from one orbit to another, there will be no journey in the middle at all. It will simply blink to the destination. Is it some sort of space jump or teleportation? Is it what our space magic is based on?”
Because space jump, teleportation and barrier could never be explained, the space magic had been developing very slowly and had an extremely high demand. Even the South Church and the Congress of Magic did not have the wealth to deploy too many permanent transmission magic circles. They could only manage to connect their headquarters to the capitals of the countries. As for the local provinces, counties and cities, they had to count on the primitive way. Things were only improved after electromagnetism messaging, wired phones and telegrams were developed.
“Perhaps yes, perhaps no. I haven’t really studied it yet. The transition of energy level is just a preliminary explanation. There may be better theories to describe it in the future. We can only approach the truth step by step but cannot claim that we already have the truth.” Lucien did not expect Klaus to ask such a sophisticated question.
Klaus nodded, knowing that the problem wouldn’t be resolved anytime soon. After all, the energy level and transition of electrons was still a theoretical speculation in Lucien’s new alchemy and had never been observed in an experiment yet. They could only be inferred based on the observed phenomena.
“The question is, why do electrons have orbits, and why would they ‘transit’? Gravity makes the artificial planets spin around the world and creates their orbits, but the electromagnetic power will only make the electrons hit the nucleus.” An indifferent voice echoed at the gate. Hathaway, beautiful but strict, had arrived early, too.
The studies on the new alchemy had been in the phase of searching for neutrons or other anomalies previously. Although there were such problems, it was not the mainstream. However, after the discovery of neutrons, the explanation of the orbits and transition of electrons became a top priority for the grand arcanists and the legendary sorcerers. Also, it could be seen from her fluent description that Hathaway had considered the problem for a while.
Rubbing his eyebrow, Lucien said, “The electromagnetic power probably does not apply to the microscopic realm. Some other forces are playing a role. Orbits and transitions are just a hypothesis for now. We can only confirm whether it is true based on experiments.”
Those grand arcanists and legendary sorcerers were truly smart. Their questions precisely hit the flaw of the new alchemy in the description of the atomic structure.
“The electrons, neutrons and protons must have certain built-in qualities that cause the orbits; we cannot add orbits to the electrons and dictate that they move according to that.” Hathaway observed, not satisfied about Lucien’s explanation.
“Also, the new alchemy can only describe the simple structure of a single electron. It cannot explain the complicated structure where more electrons are involved. Your theory to explain the original alchemical reactions with the exchange of external electrons fits the reality well, but it cannot be included in your model.” The Lord of Storm, as impatient as ever, had also arrived early.
Lucien rose to greet his teacher. Then he shook his head with a smile, “Forgive me, that model is still premature and has to be perfected by more arcanists.”
Fernando nodded. He sat down and said, “I often feel that deeper mysteries are hidden behind the problem.”
The four leading persons in the field of elements and alchemy began a comprehensive discussion on the new alchemy. In the meantime, ‘Absolute Defense’ Ataman, ‘Eye of Curse’ Atlant and other legendary sorcerers also came.
By the time Douglas walked in with his staff and the meeting was about to begin, the discussion about the new alchemy finally died down.
Lucien took the opportunity to ask Hathaway. “Granny, when will Mr. Raventi advance into legendary?”
In the past days, Lucien had been trying to reach out to Raventi, only to no avail. Natasha was too busy dealing with the parliament, the cabinet and himself to learn the details, either.
Hearing Lucien calling herself as granny like Natasha, Hathaway spoke as indifferently as before, although her right index finger bounced slightly. “Raventi returned to his magic tower and cut off all communication with the outside world. He is devoted to the reorganization of his previous knowledge, hoping to completely grasp ‘Elements Resolve’ that he parsed earlier as soon as possible.”
‘Elements Resolve’ was Hathaway’s unique spell. It was not submitted to the Congress, but the members of the Will of Elements could learn it with their contribution. Lucien planned to exchange the Will of Elements’ reward for him after he became a grand arcanist and a legendary sorcerer for the spell and improve his ‘Elemental Order’ with its reference, changing the latter into a legendary spell.
As for the legendary class, ‘Atom Controller’, Lucien also planned to submit it to the Congress and the Will of Elements in exchange for more legendary spells. Becoming a grand arcanist would be rewarded by legendary items, and becoming a legendary sorcerer would mean that they could pick a legendary spell from the Congress freely.
“I hope that Mr. Raventi advances successfully.” Lucien prayed for him sincerely.
Both ‘Lord of Elements’ and ‘Atom Controller’ should have a high match rate with Raventi’s cognitive world. For him whose cognitive world had already half-solidified, the higher the match rate was, the more hopeful it would be for him to advance into legendary. As soon as he mastered ‘Elements Resolve’, he would be able to try advancing.
Klaus smiled on the opposite side, “Soon, every meeting of the Highest Council will be the end of the world…”
He was rather ambiguous, but since he was looking at Fernando, Lucien immediately understood what he meant. Before, his master had often kept the meetings of the Highest Council in terrible storms on his own; if Mr. Raventi, who was as much a roarer as his teacher, also joined the meetings, it would definitely be the end of the world.
Fernando glared at Klaus, ‘terrorizing’ him to lower his head and evade the pressure. Then, the man said in a low voice, “Evans, you are very creative in inventing and simplifying alchemical items. Let’s communicate more often.”
At this moment, Douglas stood up and looked around at the other eighteen members of the Highest Council, before he said:
“The meeting today is mainly to welcome Lucien Evans to join us.”
Clap, clap, clap. Everybody applauded. The Lord of the Undead, the Monarch of Fate, the Sun King, Donald and another ninth-circle member, were out on missions and not present in the assembly of the Highest Council.
After Lucien stood up and greeted everyone, Douglas smiled. “Our first motion is, when will the ceremony for Lucien’s advancement into a grand arcanist be held?”
