The Last Alchemist

I don’t know why, but in the past two days, there has been a lot less news about bandits causing trouble, and there are not as many refugees entering Sunderland for refuge as there were in the past few days.

It was as if, overnight, Blackbeard and his bandit men all disappeared.

"I'm afraid this is the last calm before the storm." Anne said lightly, her eyes were also indifferent, as if she had seen through everything.

Rosen chuckled: "That's right. But peace is peace after all. I'll take this opportunity to take a rest."

Although he said he was resting, Rosen never rested. He was playing with an instrument that was nearly as tall as a person in the corridor on the stone wall of the Baron Mansion.

This thing has a similar function to a trebuchet, which is to throw heavy objects. It was precisely because of this that the Baron, who was in awe of the trebuchet, agreed to Rosen erecting it on the stone wall.

The main body of the instrument is like a strange large metal spoon. The spoon of the 'spoon' is round and deep and can well accommodate an iron ball about 20 centimeters in diameter. There is a movable iron buckle at the rear of the 'spoon'. , with a thick hemp rope tied to the button.

The iron handle of the 'spoon' is a long flat iron piece, about 1.3 meters long and 3 centimeters thick. Under the 'spoon' is an iron base for fixation, and on both sides are some wooden shelves covered with iron sheets. , they can stabilize the ejection process of the 'spoon'.

After playing with it for a while, Rosen said to Annie: "Come on, do me a favor and pull this spoon down."

Annie stepped forward, held the hemp rope, and pulled it down hard. The handle of the spoon bent down, and the fixed wooden frames at both ends of the spoon made a "creak" sound, which showed that the metal handle contained huge power. Elasticity.

The spoon was originally at a 90-degree angle to the ground. When Annie bent the spoon handle to a 45-degree angle, a huge elastic force came from the handle. Annie couldn't hold it anymore. She exerted all her strength and used both hands. He pulled hard on the hemp rope, and his jade-like cheeks turned red: "Are you okay? I can't pull it anymore."

"Okay, hold on for a while."

Rosen walked to the iron frame and slightly moved a strange long-handled iron buckle on the wooden frame. It happened to be stuck on the buckle under the 'soup spoon' and locked the spoon.

"Okay, you can let go, and take the rope away as well."

"Huh~" Annie breathed a sigh of relief and took away the hemp rope.

Rosen picked up a hollow stone ball of about 20 centimeters and placed it in the spoon of the 'soup spoon'. Then he quickly squatted down, grabbed a wooden handle under the machine with both hands, and rotated it vigorously.

As he moved, the front side of the base of this simple machine began to rise slowly. Soon, the base of the machine maintained an angle of about 15 degrees with the ground.

After doing it, Rosen immediately stepped aside, held one end of the iron buckle with both hands, and broke it hard.

With a sound of ‘collapse~’, the entire device shook.

The metal 'spoon' quickly bounced back to its original position, and the stone ball placed in the spoon flew out quickly.

The stone ball flew over the town square outside the Baron's Palace, then flew over the entire slope of Sunderland Town, and finally hit the middle of the river outside Sunderland Town, with a 'pop' sound and a large splash of water.

"Flying so far." Anne subconsciously gasped. Although the stone ball was hollow, she had weighed it with her hands before and found it must weigh 20 kilograms. Throwing a 20 kilogram object a full 300 meters away was beyond her strength limit.

Rosen chuckled: "Actually, it can go further, but at this level, testing is enough."

He took out parchment, a quill, a precision scale, and a metal disk. He gestured and calculated while murmuring: "When the shooting angle is 15 degrees, the shooting distance is 537 meters. Parabola. Spring. Steel elastic modulus. Material yield limit"

Anne listened for a while and then couldn't listen anymore. It wasn't that she didn't want to hear it. She was also very interested in this trebuchet-like machine, but she really couldn't understand it.

There were many words Zhang Yuan said that she couldn't even understand what each word meant.

After waiting for a while, she saw that Zhang Yuan was still making gestures, and finally couldn't stand it anymore, so she walked down the stone wall and walked towards the studio.

After many days of contact, the glassmaker Savi became familiar with her and would occasionally talk to her. Compared with Rosen, Savvy was still an ordinary person, at least Anne could basically understand what he said.

In the studio, Savi is also very busy.

He was burning glass while pushing the bellows hard, and from time to time he put his head in to see the melting of the materials in the crucible. After hearing the footsteps behind him, he looked back. When he saw it was Anne, his fat face showed joy: "Quick, quick Do me a favor and add the purple soil over there to the crucible, yes, that’s it. Don’t add too much, just add the amount I weighed, and spread it evenly.”

Anne did as she was told.

After adding the purple soil, Savi immediately said: "Quick, help me stir it."

Anne was speechless. She felt that she had become a free labor force again. Although she was reluctant to do so, she continued to help because Savi was so busy and sweating profusely.

After stirring for a few minutes, Savi glanced at the crucible, with deep joy in his eyes: "It's done! It's done! The glass is finally no longer green. There are far fewer bubbles, haha~ The method the master said really works!"

He danced with joy, and then he carefully poured the glass onto a clay mold.

Anne looked at it and found that the glass on the mold was very light yellow with traces of bubbles in it. Just looking at the texture of the glass, it is indeed much better than Savi’s previous works.

"Hmm~ It's pretty good." Annie nodded in agreement.

Savi was so excited that his lips trembled slightly: "That's not all. Let me tell you, this glass can also be used to grind the lenses of the magic mirror. Look at the big iron ball, that is the tool for grinding the lenses. . Oh, the wisdom of the master is endless, I have never thought of using this method before!"

Annie looked up and saw a wooden platform half a person's height placed in the workshop. In the middle of the wooden platform was an iron ball about 20 centimeters in diameter. Under the wooden platform were two pedals.

Of course she had seen this thing before, because she was right next to it when Rosen was making it.

She even knew how to use this thing. As long as people sit in front of the wooden platform and step on the pedals with both feet, the big iron ball will rotate at high speed. She just needs to add sand powder mixed with water on the iron ball, and then put the glass close to the iron ball. The surface of the ball can be ground into an arc surface on the glass. If you replace it with a very fine powder, which Rosen calls a 'precipitated abrasive', you can grind a very smooth mirror surface!

"Hmm~ That boy Rosen has a lot of things in his head. Maybe I should stop calling him boy and call him master." Anne thought to herself.

No longer paying attention to the almost crazy Savi, Anne walked out of the workroom alone.

There was no one in the yard. The baron and his men were all outside the town, preparing to deal with the werewolf attack.

Anne was bored alone, so she took out her fish scale sword and started practicing her sword skills. After practicing for a while, she suddenly heard a noise at the door. She turned around and saw Sister Mary walking in from outside the gate of the Baron's Mansion.

Sister Mary was wearing a brand-new gray cotton robe, with a small wooden box on her waist. She held her head high when walking, which was completely different from the stooped and humble appearance in the past.

'Oh, the Baron must have just received a shot, poor Baron. ' Anne thought gloatingly.

Mary also saw Anne. She waved to Anne with a smile and said, "Good morning."

Annie smiled and nodded in response.

Mary asked again: "Where is your lord?"

Anne pointed to the stone wall of the Baron's Mansion: "Look there, he is experimenting with his new toy there."

Mary turned her head and looked at it, then said: "Hmm~ It seems that the master is very busy. I will put the things away and let him help."

After saying that, she quickened her pace and entered the wooden building. After a while, she changed into a neat and simple cotton robe and trotted out, quickly walking up the stone wall.

Anne followed her eyes and saw Rosen saying hello to Mary, and then talking about a few tasks, and Mary immediately started to get busy.

"Hmm~ Sister Mary is such a good assistant, much more patient than me." Anne thought happily, then she thought: "Looking at Rosen's seriousness, that 'spoon' should be of great use. Baron It seems like I’m the only one in the house who has the strength to pull that thing, so I’ll go over and help.”

So, after Anne walked around the Baron's Mansion, she returned to Rosen.

After shooting the hollow stone balls several times, Annie couldn't help but ask: "Rosen, are you going to use the toy to throw stones?"

Rosen shook his head: "Of course not. It's just a test now. I'm determining its range."

"Oh, what then?"

"Then I'll give Blackbeard a big surprise."

The peaceful day passed quickly, the sun set in the west, sinking reluctantly into the horizon, and the sky quickly darkened.

Behind the grass by the river south of Sunderland Town, more than 10 black figures suddenly appeared, and the leader was clearly Blackbeard Cummins.

He glanced at the lights of Sunderland in the distance, his eyes shining with dark green light.

"Guys, follow me."

He plunged into the water, and then dived forward in the river. Behind him, black figures kept jumping into the river.

It only took Blackbeard less than half a minute to dive to the other side of the river that was tens of meters wide. He was not in a hurry to get ashore, but kept swimming around the river bank for more than 100 meters. The river bank turned into a towering stone wall. , above the stone wall is the Baron's Mansion, and under a stone wall, there is a rock slightly recessed.

Blackbeard took a deep breath and dived into the water again, groping carefully on the stone wall with his hands.

After a few minutes, he surfaced, his face filled with joy: "Haha, the rumors are indeed true! Guys, come with me, let's give the Baron a big surprise!"