Sword of Dawn

The little old man put his hand on his chest and performed nondescript etiquette: "Pittman Lauren is happy to serve you. You can just call me Pittman."

"Very well, Pittman, you can take a rest first, and I will arrange someone to take you to your residence later. You have seen this place, everything is still in its infancy, and the living conditions may not be very good, but as long as you and I As hard as the people of the country, this place will soon be a prosperous and comfortable new home."

Pittman Lauren smiled brightly: "For those shiny cuties, I will do my best."

The miscellaneous druid left the tent with the escort arranged by Gawain, leaving Amber and Gawain looking at each other. After paying attention to the surrounding atmosphere for a while, the half-elf lady smiled awkwardly and was about to flee, but was caught. Gao Wen grabbed it: "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to help patrol the perimeter of the camp!" Amber jumped on her feet and yelled, "Hey, let me go!"

"Let's start by explaining what 'dig up a 700-year-old antique' means—I haven't forgotten that."

"Alas--"

Everything is on track at camp, but not everything will be smooth sailing.

In a courtyard on the west side of the workshop area, Rebecca was staring at the things in front of her in a daze.

In front of her was a strange kiln. The kiln was built with refractory bricks and mud mixed with quartz sand. It looked like a huge bowl turned upside down on the ground. There are simple runes, and at the bottom is a kiln door that has just been opened and was originally sealed with mud.It's shaped a bit like a brick kiln for firing bricks, but the things fired inside are not bricks.

Stones are fired, or limestone powder and clay are mixed together to burn. The ancestors said that the calcined things can be mixed with the slag brought from the blacksmith's shop, and after being ground into powder, they can become a new kind of stone. of building materials.

But no matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like a success.

In the basket in front of the kiln are some finished products. The finished product is a kind of gray-black hardened substance, which looks dirty and ugly. There are many hard and brittle agglomerates mixed with large and small debris. Rui Beka has tried to forcibly grind some of the debris and slag into powder, and then mix it with water according to the instructions of the ancestors. Now the first batch of test mixtures has dried, and they have become shattered, Something like rotten wood.

It is impossible to build a house.

Rebecca rested her chin with her finger and was deep in thought, her face was so dark and dirty that she didn't bother to wash it off.

In the past two days, she was either supervising the installation of Magic Net One and the new furnace in the blacksmith shop (now it has been renamed Cecil Iron Works), or came here to burn stones. It's so dirty, but the knights and soldiers on the territory are not surprised by it - after all, the Viscountess in the past has a similar style of painting all day long, and it is common for her to practice fireball to blacken her face. Sometimes I went to the woods to fight with wolves and came back covered in mud, everyone got used to it...

And as for those commoners who rarely had the opportunity to see the nobles in the territory, now they can often come into contact with Hetty, Rebecca and others, but they have a feeling for this viscountess who is always running around. There is a lot of goodwill and closeness: Gao Wen is a strong pillar and backer, but he is too coercive to the common people, Hetty is smart and kind, but somewhat unsmiling and too strict, only Rebecca, This girl who runs around to help, has no airs at all, and treats everyone with a smile, almost makes everyone subconsciously ignore her aristocratic status.

Another important reason is that Rebecca's big fireball is really good at burning wasteland and blasting stones...

Seeing Rebecca lost in thought, the few civilians who helped beside her didn't dare to disturb her.They also didn't understand what the duke ordered to build such a place to burn stones, but the waterwheel ordered by the duke has shown its magic, and the planning of the camp is quite clever, plus the land reclamation work went smoothly With regard to the development and the existence of the newly recruited druid, everyone is quite convinced of what Gawain arranged. Although they don't see the use of burning stones... But it's always right to do it.

After thinking hard for a while, Rebecca finally raised her head and came to a conclusion:

I'm not fit to think about this.

So she waved her little hand: "Carry these things up and show them to my ancestors!"

After a while, Gao Wen saw the pile of...indescribable objects brought up in front of him.

"This is what you burned...'cement'?" He looked at Rebecca in astonishment. If he hadn't ordered it to go down by himself, he could hardly connect those gray-black lumps with the "cement" in his impression. together.

"Hey? So this thing is called cement?" Rebecca's eyes widened, "What a strange name."

Gao Wen didn't have the time to explain the meaning behind this noun. Although he was psychologically prepared to be frustrated, he still felt a subtle sense of frustration at this time, and when he saw Rebecca taking out a basket that looked like After the "rock" like porous rock, he thoroughly confirmed the failure.

"This is the product after mixing the finished product with water according to the method you said." Rebecca blinked her eyes. "It does condense very quickly, and after condensing, it looks like a stone on the outside, but in fact Loose and crunchy..."

Before Rebecca could finish speaking, an amber came out of nowhere: "What's loose and brittle? I'll try it!"

Gao Wen conveniently pushed the other party back into the shadows, turned his head and sighed at those black lumps: "It seems to have failed."

He repeatedly confirmed Rebecca's operation process, confirming that there is no problem from the raw materials to the production process, and he also learned that Rebecca herself specially adjusted the ratio of various raw materials, as well as various parameters such as firepower and calcination time, Several cross-tests were also carried out with four kilns, and even limestone and clay of different textures and origins were changed, but the results were similar.

This world once again showed Gao Wen its peculiarity and maliciousness.

The nature of the substance does not match, how many of the well-known earthen formulas in memory can be used?

Gao Wen decided to test all the things he knew in his mind that could be verified by simple methods if he had the conditions, and when he made this decision, he was mentally prepared to fail all the tests.

At the same time, Rebecca was still looking at him eagerly. This girl who finally managed to help everyone but failed didn't seem to have thought that there was something wrong with the "recipe" provided by Gao Wen, and subconsciously Bring the problem down to yourself: "Master Ancestor...have I let you down?"

"No, any experiment is a long process, especially when looking for a new material," Gao Wen shook his head and sighed, "Go ahead and try using various stones and soils for calcination, and I will give you a few more A possible formula. Just treat this as a long-term job that you can try if you have time, and don’t affect the progress of the steel plant.”

Chapter 0070 When Routines Don't Work...

The plan to let the head iron fireball baby make primitive cement failed, but Gawain did not intend to give up so easily-it may not be useful to apply the experience from the earth mechanically, but the idea from the earth is not necessarily wrong. The formula is different, but this does not mean that this kind of thing is worthless. At the very least, a cheap, large-volume, strong and easy-to-process building material should be useful no matter where it goes.

Even if it is renamed Magic XX in this world.

He sent Rebecca to continue to try new manufacturing techniques, and told the other party the general idea and his expected goals, and this was not a random attempt without direction: Although his own production method failed, Gawain knew that this The world used to have "cement".

In the depths of the mountain ruins, he and the people he led have seen this material. The engineers of the ancient Gondor Empire used man-made materials instead of stone to build the fortress in the deep mountain, and made the fortress stronger than ordinary stones. The fortress is also strong and durable, and it has not shown any signs of collapse after 1000 years.

In the memory of Gawain Cecil, this material was developed as early as the "Steel Age" before the "Spark Age", and has been used for ten centuries. By the end of the Tudor period, it was already one of the most commonly used building materials in the empire.

And this is what makes Gao Wen most regretful: after the collapse of the Gondor Empire, a large number of technologies were lost and inherited, some because the technology itself relied on the dark blue magic well, and some because the groups that mastered the relevant technologies were extinct as a whole and did not Some of the information left is because the raw materials (or environment) required by the technology have been covered by polluted areas, and the "alien cement" of the Gondor Empire is one of the many lost technologies.

Due to the chaos of that era, Gao Wen is not sure which of the three points caused the loss of this technology, but it is not because of the magic well: the production of alien cement is the same as earth cement, and does not require too complicated equipment And too advanced energy, so it is mostly due to the extinction of talents, loss of data or problems with raw materials.Anyway, this technology, which should have been the most basic and one of the cornerstones of civilization, just disappeared.

700 years later, the Ansu people are building houses with stone and wood, and those qualified nobles will extravagantly use various shaping spells and alchemy potions of magicians to make their palaces and castles more refined and strong, but the latter Obviously, it does not meet Gaowen's requirements of "generalization, low cost, and mass production".

But although the technology is broken, it is not impossible. After all, it was one of the most common basic technologies in the Gondor Empire back then. Gawain Cecil had seen it even if he hadn’t tried it himself. There is still a little bit left in his mind. Fragments of related technologies, give these fragments to Rebecca, as for how much the technology can be restored... that depends on the ability of the iron-headed fireball baby.

At this time, Gao Wen couldn't help but want to sigh: It would be great if Gawain Cecil was a keyboard expert 700 years ago... A little bit more force value in various miscellaneous studies, the current situation is much better Well, among other things, at least memorize the cement formula!

In the spirit of "who can be afraid of a satellite that has been refined for tens of thousands of years", Gao Wen brazenly talked about the original owner of his body, and then began to make a list of the various experiments he had to carry out next.

Then, in the next few days, Amber saw that Gao Wen sent people to toss a lot of things into the camp, including strange ore powders, metal containers spliced ​​together, and large and small crystal lenses. , as well as the magnets and wires commonly used by magicians and fortune-tellers. These messy things piled up on the table, a small half of which were urgently purchased from Tanzan Town, and the rest were processed by Gawain instructing Hetty and the craftsmen. from.

Looking at the things on the table, the half-elf lady was stunned: "What are you doing?"

Gawain answered without raising his head while fiddling with the lens group in front of him: "Experiment."

"Nobles are so hard to understand," Amber blinked, and then her eyes lit up as if she had finally caught Gawain's little tail, "Oh! I finally found out! You really can't pretend and start playing around Lah! Let me just say, how could a nobleman with a normal mind have endured so much hardship for so long, and you finally started wasting people and money... Oh, it hurts!!"

Gao Wen twisted Amber's ears twice and let go, looking at this guy who was not pumping every day very curiously: "I don't understand, you don't remember hitting or something, you can't make your temper a little cute Is it?"

"You nonsense! I am a big thief who is tied here by you as a bodyguard. I usually guard your pile of ghost symbols or go all over the mountains and plains to help you patrol and collect information. Occasionally, you let me learn to study ghost symbols with you for a long time. , Do you respect my profession or not!"

The half-elf lady spoke eloquently, and the central idea can be summed up in three words: I'm free.

"You might as well be as motivated as Betty," Gawain held his forehead helplessly, "She comes to me to learn how to read after she's busy every day. Is it so difficult for you to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?"

"Oh? So that little maid is really learning to write?" Amber blinked, excited, "No wonder some people said that when they saw her alone in the past two days, they would mutter, and as long as they had time, they would hold a tree branch in front of her." Those who write and draw on the ground..."

"All right, all right, anyway, I don't care about you, if you are really bored, go out and play by yourself," Gao Wen waved to Amber, "Anyway, three things are not allowed: you are not allowed to steal anything, and you are not allowed to go to the police station. Make trouble at work, no fighting with people—of course you can fight with geese."

Amber got Gawain's permission, and immediately rolled back into the shadows happily, while her body faded away while muttering: "You are really strange, why do you always emphasize the goose in front of me..."

After Amber left, Gao Wen finally had a chance to focus on the pile of things.

Some of them he has tested, others are in the process of verification.

Before sitting back on the chair, he first glanced at the big basket next to him, and then sighed slightly.

In the big basket were the indescribable polymers produced by Rebecca when she fired the cement before. Originally, Rebecca was going to throw them away, but Gawain kept them, and deliberately kept them by her side at any time. place to be seen.

He regards them as a kind of vigilance, a kind of sign, a kind of sign reminding himself that "this world" is "this world" all the time.

Withdrawing his gaze from those things, he glanced at a certain container on the table, lowered his head and wrote a new record in Chinese on the paper:

"In the 735th year of the Ansu calendar, on the 46th of the Frost Moon, on the 23rd day of camp development, gunpowder manufacturing failed. The classic formula based on the experience of the earth and the various formulas of the magic revision were ineffective. None of the finished products could produce rapid combustion and release in a short period of time. Produce a lot of heat or similar effects, the finished product of the classic formula is not flammable at all, the finished product of the magic modification No. [-] formula can burn quietly in the air, but the flame is dim and weak, it is better than burning straw; the finished product of the No. Burning, but with a bright and steady flame, meant to be used for lighting, but it gave off a pungent smell...

"Continue to test, and maybe we will find an alien version of the gunpowder formula, but I have vaguely realized that this route may not be the best choice. It is getting farther and farther away from the 'magic' of this world, and its power is not impressive. Looking forward, researching a burst rune that can be mass-produced in an industrialized manner is probably more reliable than gunpowder."

Besides this new record, there are more records on the paper, and Gawain's eyes are scanning them:

"Ansu 735, Frost Moon 45th, the 22nd day of camp development, it was confirmed that electromagnetic induction is invalid, at least the process of 'magnetism generates electricity' is invalid, and no current is generated in the coil. It has been confirmed that the magnetite has north and south poles, the nature and the earth's magnetite Consistently, the wind elemental rune provided by Hetty can also sense even the weakest electrical stimulation. Although the coil is rough, it meets the requirements, so the problem can only be the electromagnetic induction itself. It is still impossible to verify the 'electric magnetism' Is the process also ineffective, because Hetty's lightning bolt magic can't provide a continuous and stable safe current, and a thunder in her palm almost split Amber's hair...

"It seems that the plan to use a generator to charge the wind array can only be put on hold temporarily, or we can master the means of temperature difference power generation."

"...Get ready to give up the steam engine. The results of the experiment are simply dizzying: the process of boiling water in this world looks the same as on the earth, but the driving force generated by the steam is pitifully small. Perhaps it is the water that is turning into steam. During the process, the expansion coefficient is far smaller than that of the earth. I suspect that the 'water' here is not water at all, or it may be caused by the ubiquitous 'water element' in this world. Specific manifestations in state transformation...

"...Although I usually drink it, wash my hands and face with it, and use it to water the ground and flowers, this proves nothing: my body is already composed of the elements of this world, and my senses are also according to this The rules of the world operate, except for the consciousness from the earth in my head, no part of me can jump out of this world's "world view" to observe... Is the blue sky I see really a "blue" sky? ?

"... Anyway, the route had to be adjusted, and the most proud part of Earth's human civilization was hit hard: I can't 'boil water' here, lost the boiler, how to get the most basic machines up ?”

"Ansu 735...Hetty had never heard of "coal", nor had the druid named Pittman. In fact, even Gawain Cecil had no similar thing in his memory. ...the good news is that the charcoal still burns out.

"...The Typhon Empire produces a kind of 'burning stone', but it is not coal, but a white 'burning stone', which seems to be a kind of seawater sediment. It is more resistant to burning than wood, but it is not easy to ignite. And I heard that the combustion is very unstable, and the smell produced is not good. Only the poor will use it to keep warm, so pay attention.

"...Oh my god, gold is actually a semiconductor, but pure silver is non-conductive... What the hell?!

"I think I need a whole cutting-edge team to give me the entire periodic table...or at least sort out the properties of all common substances.

"However, no.

"Wash up and go to bed."

Chapter 0071 The Change of the Ball

Those experimental records are the proof that Gao Wen's "earth experience" and "this world" were in a bloody test. He bound them into a book and encrypted them in Chinese, treating them as his secrets.

Almost [-]% of all experiments recorded were failures.

This means that although this world looks very livable, and the natural environment even looks somewhat similar to the earth on the surface, it is completely different from the earth in terms of deep rules. Order, in this strange order, all kinds of supernatural forces including magic occupy a very important weight.

No, maybe they shouldn't be called supernatural power anymore. In this world, the natural power is to rub big fireballs with hands, chant spells and call gods.

But Gao Wen didn't really choose to wash and sleep. On the contrary, this incredible world made him full of fighting spirit.

He believes that all laws have a way to be interpreted, and that all things should have deep laws. People should be in awe of nature, but they should not stop at nature because of their awe of nature. The extraordinary power should be studied as a real thing, just like the wind, rain, thunder and lightning in the home world, and universal gravitation. The so-called magic power here is just a part of the natural cycle. Although his "earth experience" is useless, But his way of thinking—the way of thinking tempered in the era of information explosion, is it not as good as those old-fashioned nobles and pedantic scholars who were bound by medieval life?

What's more, not all experience is useless.

Gao Wen picked up the two transparent lenses placed in the corner of the table. They were cheap man-made crystals (this kind of cheapness is only compared to natural magic crystals). The most skilled craftsmen in Tanzania Town polished them for two days before putting them They were polished into a convex lens and a concave lens according to Gawain's requirements.Gao Wen held the two lenses in front of his eyes one after the other, and kept adjusting the positions until a clear image appeared in his eyes.

Although the speed of light cannot be measured yet, at least light still obeys the laws he is familiar with in the process of propagation.

At least telescopes can be made - a cheap "hawk-eye technique" that can be extended to civilians.

As long as the cost of artificial crystal is further reduced and the problem of low efficiency of manual polishing is solved.

In addition to optical phenomena, the waterwheel's ability to operate also proves one thing: in this world, although the basic laws of the microscopic field may be different from those of the earth, some intuitive and macroscopic physical laws should be similar to those of the earth. Big difference.

So many things can still be done.

After writing down the entry about the telescope in his memo, Gawain yawned long, only to notice that the outside was completely quiet: night had already fallen, and it was time to sleep.

Gawain's ears were very good, he could hear the sound of snoring and sleep talking from nearby, it was Betty and Amber sleeping next door.He couldn't help shaking his head and smiling when he heard Hu Po, who never forgot to talk about getting rich in his sleep.

At this time, I should really wash up and go to bed.

As the night deepened, the last light in the tent was extinguished, and the quiet darkness shrouded it, just like the veil of Lady Ye in the legend that sheltered dreamers. Gawain tried his best to clear his mind and slowly fell asleep.

And only when everything is plunged into darkness, some gleams that would have been ignored by everyone have a chance to show up: beside Gao Wen's desk, some extremely subtle lights slowly emerged, the gleams From the big basket by the desk, the pile of scum that Rebecca made when she fired "cement".

……

In the camp after nightfall, some people were still awake—not the "workers" of the "Cecil Iron Works", although Gawain changed the name of the blacksmith shop and gave the old blacksmith some information about the new production system. However, at the current stage when all the infrastructure is not perfect, and even electricity and lighting are not available, any work shed in the camp does not need three shifts - the people who are awake are those loyal soldiers who are on duty at night.

In the middle of the night after the shift, the militiamen walked through the path with burning braziers in armor and helmets, and handed over at various sentry posts. A small group of militiamen passed through the stacking area on the south side of the camp and came to an independent of all facilities and located on the outskirts of the camp. In front of the tent, the leader of the team was a middle-aged soldier with a beard. He confirmed the password and identification token with his comrades who were changing shifts, and then looked at the tent with a playful expression: "Where is that thing sleeping?"

"Nonsense, what else can a stone do except sleep?" The squad leader who was about to rest shrugged, "I really don't know what is the use of us guarding here, it's just a stone ball, it hasn't moved for so many days, Hetty Madam also used various spells to stimulate it every day, but there was no effect..."

"Don't say a few words," the squad leader who took over shift reminded, "This is the Duke's decision. He ordered to guard this thing. Do you have any objections?"

"Of course I have no objection, of course I have no objection," the person on the other side quickly replied, and then looked down at the exquisite and magical equipment on his body, "I have to thank Lord Duke, I never thought that I would Being able to use such a good thing, I have the illusion of becoming a master knight..."

"Don't expect this thing to come in handy." The squad leader who came to change shifts patted him on the shoulder, "Go back and rest."

The yawning comrades left, and the bearded squad leader led his four soldiers to take over the guard here.Leaving two soldiers standing at the door, he lifted the curtain of the tent and stepped into the tent.

The "stone ball" with a diameter of about 1.5 meters is quietly staying in the center of the tent: a pit is dug in the ground below it to ensure that the stone ball can stay in it firmly, and around it, there are still standing Several thick wooden stakes, the original thick hemp ropes between the stakes are now replaced by ropes mixed with magic threads. The magic threads in those ropes glow slightly fluorescent in the night, but the main function is to provide psychological comfort.

In addition, there are several wooden shelves and a desk in the tent. Some magic crystals and alchemy potions are displayed on the shelves, and some scribbled manuscripts are pressed with paperweights on the desk.Ordinary soldiers would not dare to touch these things: they are all research notes left by Hetty.

It's a pity that there is no progress in those research notes.

"This thing really hasn't changed at all," a soldier walked around the stone ball. He resisted the urge to hit the stone ball twice with his spear, and muttered, "I heard It is a relic of the ancient Gondor Empire, and I thought it was so powerful."

The squad leader patted the soldier on the head: "Don't talk nonsense, carefully check whether there is any crack on the surface, and whether there is any shifting position. After the inspection, you go out first, and come in half an hour to change shifts with me."

The soldiers began to check with murmurs, while the team leader casually looked at the furnishings in the tent, but the moment his eyes shifted away from the stone ball, a vague feeling, as if contacting static electricity, came over him. It spread across his skin and made some of his hairs stand on end.

Those who survived the cataclysm of Cecil that day were not idlers. Even a militia captain would start as an apprentice knight in other noble territories. This middle-aged soldier with a beard immediately became alert. Pressing on the long sword at his waist with one hand and pulling out half of it: "There is a situation!"

However, in the next second, the "shock sensation" with hairs standing on end disappeared, and the two soldiers looked at each other after holding their spears tightly for a long time. One of them glanced at his captain: "Boss...you are too Are you nervous?"

"No, I really felt just now..." The captain himself was also confused, he explained, but just halfway through his words, he noticed that the original faint magic halo on the enchanted breastplate of one of the soldiers did not know why. The hour has gone out, "Locke! Your breastplate!"

The soldier named Locke glanced down, and suddenly exclaimed in a low voice: "Ah!"

But just as he exclaimed, the already dim enchanted breastplate returned to normal, and a layer of extremely dim magic halo covered the armor, as if nothing had happened.

Immediately afterwards, the same change happened to another soldier's breastplate: it was extinguished first, and then restored again, and the squad leader saw that the long sword in his hand also lost the brilliance of enchantment in a short time.

He immediately drew out the half-drawn long sword: "Calm down! Back out slowly, this place..."