Chapter 730: The Investigator

“What exactly was wrong that caused the series of explosions in the fission reactor?” Fernando paid absolutely no heed to Lucien’s reminder. As long as no other top legends or third-rank sorcerers were behind it, even if he did not have the time to take any reaction, the trigger and passive magic effects on him would’ve been enough to ensure that he survived the fission explosions without being affected by the curses.

His hair was so messy that a huge wind seemed to have just blown it. His red magic robe was also full of wrinkles, which was an indication of the catastrophe just now, but he noticed none of it. All his attention was devoted to the possible problems of the fission reactor, and he sounded agitated and extremely puzzled. According to his studies on fission and his reverse engineering on “Atomic Fission”, the legendary spell, there shouldn’t be a problem at all. However, it was indeed a fission reactor that was going on when the uncontrollable explosion took place!

“How many times has it exploded?” Lucien gasped hard. Judging from his teacher’s tone, it was not the second meltdown, but the third, the fourth, the fifth, or even the sixth. No wonder he ran into the explosion by “accident”; it was no accident at all.

It was not until then that Lucien finally realized why his teacher hardly let him and the other students do experiments. The only experiments that they did were the simple ones, such as black-body radiation. As it turned out, it was very dangerous to be involved in his teacher’s experiments, and any researchers who were not legendary could be obliterated any time!

Fernando frowned. “It doesn’t matter how many times it has exploded; what matters is why. It has no contradictions whatsoever with the model and mechanism of fission.”

Thinking for a moment, Lucien said, “‘Atomic Fission’ is an uncontrollable, massively-destructive spell, and the reactor demands steadiness and controllability. That’s probably the source of the problem.”

“Do you think I am a fool who simply made arrangements according to the model of ‘Atomic Fission’?” Fernando said. It was apparent that he wasn’t in a good mood. “You saw our reactor model and the detailed arrangements yourself. You should know that we added a lot of magic circles to facilitate the utilization and control of energy.”

“However, it doesn’t mean real steadiness and controllability. I think we have to study fission better in order to solve the problem. We have to figure out the role that neutrons and the other particles play and their possible reactions under different circumstances.” Lucien had considered the reactor accidents himself and suspected that it was because the current research was too crude. The design of the reactor mostly depended on “reverse engineering”. The different roles of slow neutrons and fast neutrons hadn’t been discovered, not to mention their different effects in different fission reactions.

Fernando never ignored the helpful advice, but he never gave in verbally either. “Do you think I never considered those problems? But it will take a long time to experiment on neutrons by hitting different elements with them. Well, Hathaway and I are already on it.”

Neutrons couldn’t be accelerated by a magnetic field, so the experiments were much more complicated.

“I’ll also try to work on those experiments.” Lucien smiled. “The sooner we develop portable fission devices, the more useful our artificial planets will be. It will be impossible for the Church and the other enemies to imitate us.”

The mechanisms of the artificial planets, such as their orbits and their relay of electromagnetic waves, were not complicated and could be mimicked. But when it came to fission reactors, if they did not have a profound study on fission, the enemies would only encounter the explosion accidents that were happening to his teacher recently if they tried to duplicate the devices. If they did not understand which magic pattern functioned and how, it would be impossible for them to combine or abandon the patterns when they transformed the patterns into symbols of divine power. Any error in the procedure could lead to a serious accident.

That was exactly the difference between the cutting edge and the bleeding edge of arcana. After all, “launch” was too simple in this world.

Fernando nodded. “As long as a steady fission reactor is developed, minimization shouldn’t be a problem.”

In this magic world, many technical problems on Earth were no longer problems. For example, the fission reactor that Fernando and Hathaway built directly used magic circles to transform the released energy into electricity. No external components were needed at all. But of course, the cost of minimization would still be very high. Unless the Congress paid to install them on the artificial planets, only the archmages and the legendary sorcerers would be able to afford them.

Also, the Highest Council did not have a consensus on the promotion of minimized fission devices, because it might be a safety hazard. It could cause huge casualties and pollution that would take forever to be cleaned.

Seeing the confidence in his teacher, Lucien smiled. “Fission reactors and minimization is just our first step. Controllable fusion is our real goal. When the goal is achieved, we will be able to proudly declare that we are the Sun Kings.”

“Controllable fusion…” Fernando repeated hopefully but frowningly. That was significantly more difficult than fission reactors. He, Douglas, and Hathaway had absolutely no clue where to get started, and Lucien could barely offer any useful suggestions. “Let’s focus on the fission reactor for now…”

He paused and mocked habitually, “All the distinguished arcanists in the microscopic domain are bombarding particles with other particles every day right now, hoping to find the group that contains the enigmas from the infinite experimental data. They are more like hard laborers than arcanists.”

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“It’s not just the distinguished arcanists. Most sorcerers know that hitting the microscopic particles is most likely to lead to new discoveries.” Lucien chuckled. “They are terrified by the uncanny feature of electrons as if it could destroy the world. Also, they know little about quantum mechanics and cannot make any theoretical or experimental contributions. So, they can only walk on the path that cannot be wrong.”

It was the same on Earth. The bombardment and collision experiments of particles were the most viable approach to discover the mysteries of the microscopic domain. The only difference was that the senior-rank sorcerers of the Congress of Magic were already capable of setting up experiment devices of their own, unlike the researchers on Earth who had to wait in line to run the experiments in order to confirm their speculations or deductions from the data.

Of course, when the phase of Large Hadron Collider came, the scenarios would be more and more familiar. For example, the middle-rank sorcerers right now could only walk on several paths if they intended to run similar magic experiments.

Firstly, they could become the students or friends of a certain senior-rank sorcerer. Secondly, they could work in places like the Atom Institution. Thirdly, they could pay for the senior-rank sorcerers to make the arrangements for them.

Fourthly, they could file an application to the Magic Research Board and join a queue while they waited for the chance to use the open massive laboratory of the Allyn magic tower for free. That was an idea that Lucien proposed in a session of the Highest Council so that the lesser sorcerers could do their research without paying.

Fernando glared at him. “Their fear and panic come exactly from the observer effect that you raised.”

Lucien hurried to change the subject. “Master, you didn’t work on the field theory today? Is Mr. Brook not here?”

“Why on earth would I work on that? My head is full of infinity, infinity, and infinity! I don’t know the point of my research at all!” Lucien asked the perfect question, which detonated Fernando like a stick of dynamite that had been ignited.

Lucien meant to comfort his teacher. Every person who worked on the field theory had millions of infinities in their room. That was unavoidable when the studies in the microscopic domain were pressed on.

For example, Mr. Dirac, who proposed the Dirac equation, as one of the founders of the quantum field theory, was one of the top ten if not the top five physicists in Lucien’s eyes. He held different opinions on infinity. He believed that there were an inevitable reason and a deeper meaning behind infinity and that the classical theories were wrong. Therefore, he opposed reorganizing it through mathematical approaches. As a result, he was gradually left behind. Or maybe, his cognitive world was broken and solidified?

After roaring for a while, Fernando also fell quiet. “Brook will come later. However, even if infinite appears in the calculation of higher approximation, the field theory we’ve established has indeed described the interaction of charged particles, which is the essence of the electromagnetic force…”

He was rather satisfied with the joint study of himself, Brook, and Lucien, except for the goddamn infinity.

Based on the field theory they established, Fernando and Brook maintained that the electromagnetic force was realized when charged particles exchanged photons in many different processes. However, the photons were different from the photons that people usually studied. They could not be observed and were only a mathematical conclusion. The two of them had called such photons virtual photons.

After discussing the quantum field theory for a while, Fernando suddenly said, “Stanis told me that the Dark Mountain Range hadn’t been quiet lately. Those gloomy guys seem to have re-recognized us after the battle of Rentato and begin to consider whether they should cooperate with or fight against us.”

“Aren’t they a bit too slow?” Lucien said in amusement.

Fernando snorted. “Those guys are all species with extremely long lives. Our decade might only be ten days in their eyes. Plus, they are no more interested in arcana than the Church is. That is why they’ve reacted so sluggishly. Tell Natasha to pay attention to the safety of Rentato, which will probably be frequented by many dark creatures.”

“Alright.” Lucien nodded solemnly.

…

Inside the Dark Mountain Range, a young man with silver hair and gold eyes said solemnly, “Nasdell, you will sneak into Rentato and Allyn as soon as possible and take a look at the changes that the Congress of Magic has brought forth. Your observation will be the basis on which we make a decision later.”

“Yes, sir.” The werewolf before him retracted his fur and turned into a brawny man with the same silver hair.