Those substances that glowed slightly in the dark immediately cleared Gawain's drowsiness by 70% to 80%. He didn't care that these gray-black things would stain his whole body, so he directly picked them up in the big basket.
Soon, some fragments that were clearly different from the surrounding substances were turned out.
The light "inlaid" within them is a little brighter, more concentrated, and more stable.
From the appearance, these things are still black and hardened, but within the loose structure, there are many crystals with a diameter of no more than one millimeter, which are like rough crystals. These crystals are the source of light. Gawain crushed a hardened object, carefully picked out a few crystals from it, and found that they were still glowing, and became brighter after losing the influence of surrounding impurities.
Some kind of intuition made him activate his magic power perception ability, and some constant, faintly glowing clusters of mist appeared in his vision: these crystals really contained a certain amount of magic power.
Gawain held a crystal, and slowly exerted force with his fingers. The crystal finally shattered: it was very hard, almost like a stone, but it was weaker than the natural crystals used by magicians to process staffs and store magic power. , and while being crushed, its light also disappeared.
The magic power dissipated completely from it.
So what the hell is this
Gao Wen frowned deeply. He really wanted to bring this thing to Heidi for consultation immediately, but the latter might have already fallen asleep at this time. The unexpected situation tonight must have made her very tired, and she still had to worry about it during the day It's not easy for her to sleep well for the construction of the camp.
So Gawain had no choice but to forcefully suppress his own thoughts, and prepared to go to Heidi early tomorrow morning.
In the second half of the night, there was no more disturbance, and the camp was surrounded by darkness and silence, as if the kingdom of Lady Ye in the legend had come...
Early the next morning, Gawain went to Heidi's tent with those fine crystals that would glow in the dark, and learned that Hedi had already gotten up earlier to go to the laboratory, so he ran to Heidi again. Hetty's Magic Lab.
This "magic laboratory" is located in the southeast corner of the camp, near the Dark Mountains. It is currently the only house in the entire camp that is built with stone and wood as the main material and occupies a large area. It can also be said to be the "mansion" here. It's not that Hetty wants to engage in particularism, but that magic laboratories do have requirements for the environment. Many magic and alchemy experiments require a fairly quiet and stable environment. At the same time, the use of stones as walls is also for the convenience of describing the magic circle. .
A wizard is a rather practical creature.
But in the eyes of laymen, this sturdy and majestic building is full of mystery. Amber suspects that Hetty's job inside is to mix potions and poisons like an old witch, but she just doesn't know. Dare to go in and make sure—for fear of being beaten.
When Gawain arrived here, Hetty was busy among a pile of crystals—she placed her own operating table in the center of the laboratory, and that unusually large round table was divided into three parts, and one part was engraved with The magic circle, and all kinds of magic materials are placed around the magic circle, some bottles and jars and alchemy tools are placed in one part, and the third part has only one set of equipment, which is bought at a high price from Tanzania Town Crystal resonator.
This is a device specially used to study various crystals and engrave magic circles inside the crystals. It is an outstanding creation of magicians in this world. Its precision and beautiful appearance are the same as Gawain's in the civilian society of this era. The rough and primitive tools I saw were very different. It has a pedestal as the core, on which three natural magic crystals of different sizes are fixed with a brass mechanism, and around this core pedestal are several independent circular artificial crystals that can adjust the angle, Behind each crystal, there is also an off-white vertical board for imaging.
This can be said to be the most expensive gadget in the entire laboratory. Hetty was careful when using it, even Rebecca, the eldest niece who was also a mage (although she only knew how to fireball) wouldn't let her touch it.
If Amber dares to sneak in, it seems that she will really be beaten...
Gawain saw that Hetty placed a lavender crystal in the center of the crystal resonator, stimulated by the surrounding three magic crystals, the target crystal resonated accordingly, and this kind of resonance can be found in the ubiquitous magic environment Detectable "ripples" will be produced. Through the artificial crystal sheets around the resonator, this ripple will form a picture that can be observed by the naked eye and projected on those off-white vertical plates.
A relatively clear rune structure can already be seen on two of the vertical plates, and the draft paper at the corner of the table is a sketch drawn by Hetty based on the projected structure.
It looks like she's working on those ancient military crystals brought from the mountain vault.
Hetty seemed a little surprised by Gawain's sudden visit, because Gawain usually goes back to check the progress of the project at this time, or draws a bunch of blueprints in his tent: "Ancestor? Why are you here?"
"There are some things I want you to see," Gawain said while pouring out the hardened material inlaid with fine crystal particles from the lambskin bag he carried, while looking at Hetty's "workbench". Study the magic circles inside those ancient crystals?"
"Yes," Hetty nodded, with a little apology on her face, "It's a pity that the progress is not good."
While speaking, she looked at the unattractive pieces in Gao Wen's hand: "These are..."
"The 'waste' that Rebecca tossed out last time, but I found something interesting in it," Gawain said while rubbing the broken crystals embedded in the waste, "These things have magical reactions. "
"Magic reaction?" Hetty frowned, and after carefully sensing it, she was suddenly surprised, "There is really it?! What is it?"
"So I'll let you take a look." Gawain picked out one of the fallen crystals, "Can your crystal resonator see its structure?"
Hetty couldn't have imagined that Rebecca's random operation would produce such a strange thing—she thought that Rebecca's burning stones in the shed all day was a random operation, even if it was arranged by Gawain After all, Rebecca had a lot of mind-blowing ideas during this process, such as throwing grasshoppers into the kiln. She carefully picked up the crystal that Gawain handed over, and put it in front of her eyes for a closer look.
"Isn't there a bigger one?" Hetty frowned a bit troubled, "It's so small, it's hard to observe."
Gao Wen couldn't help it either: "This is already the biggest piece, at least as big as a grain of rice."
"Okay, I'll try." Hetty took down the ancient crystal in the center of the crystal resonator while talking: its rune arrangement has been recorded, and there is no need to continue testing.
Then Hetty carefully held the "crystal" that was only the size of a grain of rice with a pair of tweezers, placed it in the center of the pedestal of the resonator, and activated the three magic crystals on the pedestal.
After a short wait, some fuzzy lines appeared on the several "screens" around the resonator: not only were they very blurry, but they were as thin as if they were transparent. If Hetty hadn't extinguished the nearby magic crystals in advance Stone lamps, I'm afraid Gao Wen couldn't see them at all.
After all, the crystal as the object of observation is too small.
"This structure...is indeed a kind of man-made crystal, and it is very regular," Hetty carefully distinguished the shape of those lines, and carefully injected the lowest level of magic power into the pedestal, and with the injection of magic power, the projected Those lines gradually brightened, and were dyed with a halo like a rainbow, "It can absorb external magic power and transform them into a form that exists stably inside the crystal..."
Hetty withdrew her magic power and observed the subsequent changes in those projections.
A few minutes passed, and the projection presented on the vertical board did not change at all, and the mechanism of the resonator itself, which has the ability to accurately sense magic power, did not move at all.
"The magic power is stored stably?!" Heidi showed a more surprised expression at this time, "The dissipation rate... is so low?!"
Gao Wen stared straight at the pedestal in the center of the crystal resonator. On that pedestal, the "artificial crystal" the size of a grain of rice was emitting a white light visible to the naked eye: it seems that as the magic power is filled, its brightness also increases. .
He immediately realized why he didn't find these things mixed in the waste when it was dark in the tent before: these "artificial crystals" were empty when they were first refined, and of course they wouldn't emit light without magic power, and then As the storage time prolongs, they begin to absorb the free magical energy in the atmosphere spontaneously. This is a slow self-recharging process. After two days of recharging, they can finally glow slightly at night, and they are finally discovered by Gawain.
Hetty was also attracted by the strange properties of this crystal, and she continued to pour energy into the crystal with uncontrollable excitement—and a crystal only the size of a grain of rice certainly couldn't hold much magic power, so she soon discovered this thing Into the "saturation" state.
The tiny crystals began to emit a steady milky shimmer that showed no sign of self-disintegration from saturation.
"So this is an artificial crystal that can store magic power?!" Gawain looked at Heidi with surprise, as if he had picked up a treasure, "Then how does its maximum capacity compare with natural crystals? What about its stability? I Seeing that it has been shining, what is its self-depletion rate?"
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, I still... I still have to test and test seriously," Hetty's excitement was no less than that of Gao Wen, but she still maintained the calmness that a mage should have. I picked up the crystal and went to the analytical magic circle next to it, and said casually, "The problem of self-depletion should not be big. Although it is emitting light, it is mainly because the free magic power in the air is affected by the crystal and resonates. There isn't much loss of stored mana, so it should be able to hold mana for a long time... "
While saying this, she put the crystal in a "vessel" made of ruby with grooves, and placed the vessel in the center of the magic circle, preparing to try to redirect the magic power stored in the crystal come out.
The magic circle started.
The crystal particles in the ruby vessel made a soft "snap" sound, and then turned into a piece of slag.