High Above

"Everything about the etheric weapons is up to you."

Viscount Grant believes in Ian very much in this regard. After all, the armor designed by Ian can win awards in the imperial capital. How can a scumbag like him question its gold content?

Although it did not get the top few for various reasons, this is also because Ian did not conceive it for too long, and it is inferior in versatility.

Now, Ian is quite famous in the circle of armor design, and his popularity is so high that he himself could not have predicted it.

As for the etheric weapons needing to be dismantled... to be honest, it's not a big deal.

Ether weapons need to be dismantled and maintained frequently. Unfortunately, Viscount Grant is somewhat talented in the art of sublimation, but he is completely clueless when it comes to alchemy inscriptions and the construction of ether weapons. This aspect has always been left to Elder Puder. , now it is nothing more than replacing him with the stronger Ian.

"Then I'll start."

Ian would not be polite to Viscount Grant. He directly asked the other party to carry 'Zhenglan' to the warehouse area in the east of the city.

Here, the armor repair equipment that Ian brought from Xiahui Tie has been completed.

Although it is somewhat crude compared to the needs of the etheric weapon, Ian does not really want to rebuild an etheric weapon, but only repairs some of his core equipment.

Not to mention, Ian has a complete set of blueprints for the core equipment that needs repair.

In other words, repairing Zhenglan is just a piece of cake for Ian. His real purpose is to actually observe Zhenglan, or in other words, the design ideas of other people's etheric weapons.

Although he obtained the 'Death River Arms', the most cutting-edge ether-armed prototype, from Archduke Thorin, many of its design ideas and concepts could not be directly used because it was too cutting-edge.

Just like a country that has just learned how to build thermal power stations, there is no obstacle for it to learn wind power and hydropower. Nuclear fission power stations can also be learned after a long time of exploration, but if it is directly given the technology of nuclear fusion power stations... even if It has really learned how to do it, but it doesn’t have the technical strength to create the materials and equipment for a fusion power plant.

Ian's research on Dead River Arms is stuck here: his foundation in Aether Arms is not solid enough, and he only has a partial understanding of many basic aspects, so he needs tutoring.

And Viscount Grant's half-disabled etheric weapon is an excellent learning material.

It is said to be semi-disabled, but in fact, Zhenglan is actually quite intact as a whole.

On the maintenance platform, Ian looked at the full metal armor in front of him intently.

Zhenglan has a smooth outer armor shape, and its layered armor structure is similar to dragon scales. It can not only provide strong defense and force-removing capabilities, but also can eject high-heat steam from the gaps, allowing it to use incredible Accelerate and move at different angles, achieving almost ghostly maneuvers without inertia.

"Is it equivalent to having vector spouts all over the body? Use sublimation skills and science and technology to join forces and abandon weaknesses." The young man thought to himself. This was a very clever idea. He went straight to prostitution and recorded it.

In addition, there are many etching patterns on the surface of Zhenglan's main carapace. These are extremely delicate inscription structures. Its abilities include 'controlling water flow', 'vortex supercharging', 'water vapor atomization' and 'steam explosion unloading'. and 'Ice Armor' and other water-based sublimation skills, and these sublimation skills can be found in the bloodline [Abyss Lizard Whale].

This is not a coincidence. The etheric weapons originally replicated the bloodline abilities of the sublimated nobles, allowing them to mechanically study and optimize the sublimated organs in their bodies.

The original ether weapon was actually a research prop similar to a human model. However, people later discovered that as long as this research tool is slightly modified, it can achieve a combat power of one plus one that is far greater than two with sublimated people of the same bloodline, especially when paired with it. After the Ether Furnace Heart, the combat effectiveness of the sublimated ones who can ignore the source material reserves will soar.

Therefore, the real core of etheric weapons still lies in the etheric furnace heart.

Zhenglan's point of failure lies in the heart of the ether furnace.

"I'm going to start digging into this."

Although Viscount Grant couldn't understand the inscriptions that Ian was studying at all, he could still understand some of the mechanical structures and various modules of his own car. This sublimated nobleman knew very well that all of Ian's processes were quite similar. Norm is even far more skilled than Elder Pude who has been repairing this armor for more than ten years.

So he let Ian continue to disassemble it without any worries.

To disassemble the etheric weapon, start from the back, open the frame along the 'spine' part, and then inspect it.

The various sublimation module abilities around the Ether Furnace are also familiar. The three abilities of 'calling wind and rain', 'three-state transformation' and 'water system natural source control' are the core, while 'water mist field' and 'deep sea pressure' are the core. 'These two modules unique to the Abyssal Lizard Whale are located near the heart of the ether furnace and enjoy direct energy supply privileges.

Looking at these sublimation modules, Ian couldn't help but sigh.

If a human wanted to condense sublimated organs with these abilities in his body, God knows how long it would take, and how much pressure it would put on his life... No wonder sublimated people don't live particularly long.

Apart from anything else, the Abyssal Lizard Whale bloodline will replace human blood with a pure liquid source. This stuff is essentially the same as rocket fuel. It is used to deliver strong energy to each sublimation organ, even if it is sublimation. The victim's body is extremely strong, but it cannot withstand the abuse of using the human body as a weapon.

Everyone knows that most rockets are disposable items!

And now, Ian finally saw Zheng Lan's ether furnace heart.

The heart of the ether furnace, which occupies the "heart and back" of the ether weapon, looks like a transparent crystal ball wrapped in layers of pentagonal metal lattice. At the core of the crystal is an element that presents a regular pentagon. crystallization.

When it is activated, the element crystal will burn and release pure source matter, and this source matter will attract the natural spiritual energy in the surrounding space and time through the siphon effect, and then condense into the 'primordial ether' in the crystal ball, producing a A chain reaction.

Before the element crystals are consumed, the energy provided by the etheric furnace heart is unlimited. The etheric weapons can squander the source material as much as they want, and perform various wide-area powerful attacks that are difficult for humans to use frequently. In terms of firepower, they can even suppress an entire army.

This is a relatively common Ether furnace core. It has a total of twelve sockets and can supply energy to twelve advanced sublimation modules at the same time, but this does not mean that it can support twelve 'Abyssal Heavy Pressure' at the same time, which is Grant The Viscount activated the sublimation module of Yun Hai Tsunami to launch a city-destroying attack. One of those high-level sublimation modules occupies three power supply sockets.

A more advanced Ether furnace core may only need one socket to allow the Abyssal Heavy Pressure to operate normally, or it may have more sockets.

Ian could tell at a glance that Zhenglan's etheric furnace core was indeed defective: its inscription source material transport channel was damaged, which reduced its operation time and energy transport efficiency by more than one-third.

Even though Elder Pude made some solidification efforts, it only restored its running time to something close to normal. However, Zhenglan still found it difficult to use the mid-to-high-level skills of the third energy level.

As for repairing, it's not difficult. Ian was thinking about whether to use mithril to build a reinforced pipe to replace the damaged transportation channel, or to use Morian steel to directly fill it roughly. The former would make Zhenglan stronger, while the latter would at best keep it as it is.

Seeing that Viscount Grant cooperated very happily and had no doubts about himself, Ian did not ask the other party which one he planned to choose, but directly told him that he would use mithril to repair the pipeline for Zhenglan.

Viscount Grant was indeed unambiguous. He directly asked Lamar to fetch the secret collection of the Viscount Mansion, and personally handed over the high-purity mithril that was probably the only one in Harrison Port to Ian's hands.

"It will certainly live up to our high expectations."

Seeing that the Viscount didn't say anything nonsense, Ian smiled and nodded, and began to pick up his collector's edition inscription repair tool (kindly provided by Isengard) and began to repair the ether furnace core.

There is no need to elaborate on the specific process of maintenance. In essence, it is no different from dusting at the construction site. At most, the precision of the operation is hundreds of millions of points high, but it is nothing to Ian.

When Ian raised the lithography pen, bright light patterns lit up on the heart of the ether furnace, centered on the core crystal ball, and spreading in all directions. Next, the surging source of water began to flow, and the faint blue water light filled the entire maintenance room in an instant. The rich water source of the water turned this place into the deep sea, and the heart of the ether furnace was the sun in the water, illuminating Ian and his face. The face of the ecstatic Viscount Grant.

"Right, that is it!"

The Viscount walked forward quickly, with a look of surprise on his face and even a trace of nostalgia as he stared at the ether hearth shining in front of Ian.

Viscount Grant carefully looked at the ether weapon passed down from his ancestors. Although it had been repaired and replaced with many parts, including the ether furnace core, it was still a symbol of the Grant family's highest glory in the past. It is the most boastful heritage and martial arts in this land.

However, this huge wealth was covered in dust in his hands. Damage to the Ether furnace core was not a big deal. It was not surprising that the family did not have the technology to repair the Ether furnace heart. There were too many noble families who did not have relevant talents and could only entrust outsiders to repair it. That's why the alchemist master is so respected.

What is really shameful is that the Grant family has been away from the center of the empire for so long that they cannot even hire relevant technicians who can repair the heart of the ether furnace.

But now... it's different.

The Viscount turned his head and looked at Ian, who was also smiling and looking at his repair work.

——He trained a future master of alchemy... no, he is the master of alchemy now.

It only took less than half an afternoon to repair the damage to the heart of the ether furnace so easily. It was impossible for even Master Gosei to do such an operation. He had to at least go through it in his mind. You need to think about the operation process for about a day before you can start repairing it.

But Ian went straight to work and repaired it in one go... This could only mean one thing.

(This brat, as well as that old guy Pude, are hiding something.)

Viscount Grant laughed and cursed in his heart. He finally understood that these white people like to hide their strength, inheritance, and now their alchemy technology.

But soon, the Viscount realized something was wrong - if Ian was really just hiding something, why would he reveal it now?

Is it possible...

"Ian."

The Viscount asked tentatively: "Do you know that the repair of the ether furnace core will take at least a day or so?"

"ah?"

Hearing these words, Ian raised his head blankly. He and the Viscount looked at each other. The confusion from the heart could not be faked - Viscount Grant immediately understood: Good guy, this kid is not hiding at all. His pure talent is so incredible that he doesn't think repairing the Aether Furnace's mental arithmetic is a problem at all!

"Oops."

Ian secretly made a mistake at this moment. He really didn't expect that it would take a day to repair an ether furnace core. The principle of this thing is indeed complicated, but the technical content required for repair is not high. An elite alchemist can learn it with a little proficiency in inscriptions. ah.

Just like there are requirements for industrial capabilities to build a car, repairing a car is not that complicated.

Fortunately, Viscount Grant did not say much, but patted Ian on the shoulder and said with a smile: "It seems that my future child's teacher may not just be a master... but a great craftsman."

As he and Ian are almost allies on the same boat, he certainly won't worry about how talented Ian is - the more talented Ian is, the better, and Zhenglan's future upgrades may all depend on him.

"The rest of the mithril will be handed over to you. Just treat it as the tuition for your future children."

With a generous wave of his hand, the Viscount gave Ian the remaining mithril from the repair. There is really no purpose at this time, it is just pure early investment.

High-purity mithril is not a cheap commodity. It is a raw material that can be used in any field, especially in the field of high-precision alchemy. The most important thing is that it is difficult to buy even if you have money.

It is precisely because the dwarf country of Guntregum is sitting on Terra's largest mithril mine that it is able to develop a fully armored army in the form of a legion, and used the power of one country to fight against the two great kingdoms of Yanjiang and Cangtian Royal Court. invasion without falling behind.

"Then I won't give in."

Ian accepted the small bag of mithril without any politeness and carefully put it into his arms - mithril was not a complete metal. In Ian's view today, it was a kind of primitive ether and material perfection. The combined finished product has the ability to superconduct, just like Moraine Steel, but it goes one step further.

Under natural circumstances, it is theoretically impossible to form a normal source superconducting substance like mithril. An extreme cosmic phenomenon such as the explosion of a source source sun and the formation of an ether supernova can only be born, which is similar to the principle of the emergence of heavy metals.

But in this way, it can only prove one thing: in this universe, at least before the birth of the second generation of stars, the differentiation of the original ether and even the source matter and spiritual energy has been completed.

However, if it was a pre-era civilization, it might be possible to artificially create mithril through extreme experiments...the same goes for fine gold.

"The technology of artificial mithril must be mastered."

Thinking of this, Ian bid farewell to Viscount Grant, who was also eager to reorganize the etheric weapons as soon as possible, and to personally experience whether the repaired Zhenglan returned to perfect condition, he did not hold back.

"Now, I have mastered the idea of ​​manufacturing etheric weapons."

Back home, Elan was receiving meditation training at Huaiguang Church. He happened to be thinking alone: ​​"I have the materials and equipment. I can make a prototype when I return to the territory, and then continue to optimize it based on the advanced technology of the Dead River Arms."

"We need to understand all technologies, not just the most advanced ones, but also the old technologies from the past. Only then can we be considered sound."

Ian not only had Zhenglan's design in mind, but also through the process of disassembly and restoration, he completely mastered the technology of how to make ether weapons: "The only difficulty in ether weapons is the ether furnace heart."

"I also know its principle, which is to create a vacuum of source matter through pure source matter, attract spiritual energy to converge into primitive ether, form an ether bubble, siphon the surrounding natural spiritual energy, and obtain quasi-infinite energy."

"The only problem is that the 'channel' that collapses in the space bubble and is used to siphon the surrounding space-time source material - the nature of this channel is very similar to a 'wormhole'."

"For people on earth, the Ether Furnace Heart is a 'tidal engine' that creates a wormhole, intercepts the natural spiritual energy that wants to flow into the other side of the wormhole, and converts it into energy... This is its real purpose Nature."

"But here's the question - where does this passage lead to?" Ian murmured in his heart. This was the only thing he couldn't figure out.

At this moment, the young man thought of the scene he had seen through the 'Guiding Star' before.

The 'original ether sea' that runs through infinite parallel time and space, the past and the future, and fills the infinite...

"Could it be that..." Clenching his fists, Ian opened his eyes wide: "The heart of the ether furnace is a semi-infinite tidal engine that relies on the nature of the original ether to penetrate time and space?"

"What it connects to are other parallel universes, and it obtains energy through the different 'ether pressure' between the two universes..."

"Yes, that's it - no wonder every civilization in this universe seems to make an ether furnace core, and even regards it as a standard feature of the 'Spark Ship'... It's that simple!"

After thinking about this, Ian suddenly had an enlightenment. Originally, he had never quite understood why the ether bubble in space would create such a powerful siphon effect, but now that he thought about it, it was much simpler - the ether in the universe next door was stronger than theirs. In other words, there is less ether in the world than around the star field of Terra, so it will naturally guide the ether to flow towards the next universe.

Of course, this is not absolute. If the parallel universes connected by each ether furnace heart are different (which is very likely to be the case), then when the universe next door has more ether than the one on Terra, the principle of the ether furnace heart must be reversed. , not a siphon, but a collection of ether pouring out of a white hole-like channel!

This may also be the reason why the pre-era civilization was unable to stably create the etheric furnace core... They were not sure what the conditions of the universe behind each etheric furnace core were, so of course they could only produce semi-finished products!

However, after the joy, there was a burst of nervousness.

Ian raised his head and looked out the window at the sun in the sky.

The young man quietly stared at the scorching sun in the sky, and he slowly exhaled: "According to my guess... things like inscriptions are probably 'origin instructions' created by a powerful civilization."

"And the control of psychic energy is also a complex program that is extremely suitable for the thinking of intelligent life."

"If nothing else happens, the source matter, spiritual energy, and even the original ether are probably not natural creations..."

Ian was silent for a while, then sighed: "It seems that the truth behind the Star Prison may not be as simple as I thought."

"The universe where Terra is... the water is very deep."

Feeling can't change anything.

Even if you guess part of the truth about this universe, until it is confirmed, the guess is just a guess, not to mention that even if it is true, it cannot help Ian develop his territory and strengthen his own strength.

Therefore, after writing a few logs with a silver chip, Ian gave up any speculation in this regard and directly dialed the communication device.

He wanted to find Master Gosei to talk about the breeding ground of the giant city of Atlan, Andor and the clone of the small crystal dragon.

Please vote for me at the end of the month!

I’m done writing, go to sleep!

This routine has completely collapsed. The only solution now is to get through it slowly (calm down)

For the principle of the etheric furnace heart, you can read Asimov's "The Gods Themselves". It has been hinted at in the previous article, but I am still afraid that some readers may not understand it well, so I can make an analogy.

Of course, not exactly the same!