A Hospital in Another World? C.211

Garrett finished speaking in one breath, then leaned back in his chair with a sigh. Grand Magister Kairel looked at his calm demeanor with a throbbing headache, feeling the tension building from his eyebrows to his temples.

When other junior mages came to him to apply for projects or seek assistance in applying to the council, they all wore expressions of anxious sincerity. But Garrett? His face seemed to say, "I did my best, take it or leave it."

This was precisely why Garrett hadn’t found the sealed materials or the blood pressure gauge. Otherwise, if he had picked up the gauge to measure, the Grand Magister’s diastolic and systolic pressure would have probably shot up by at least 30 millimeters of mercury...

The Grand Magister rubbed his temples. Leaning back, he interlocked his hands, thumbs twiddling back and forth. After a moment, he raised his chin, pointing at the papers in front of him.

"You want to apply for a project? Then let me ask you, how many mages of what level does your project require?"

"I don’t know. But, at least, several above level five." Wrestling with electricity, vacuum, or magic arrays, he couldn’t handle any of it. In the Thunder Horn Hall, where mages constrained lightning’s force, there were no mages below level five. It was likely the same for this project.

"What facilities and materials does your project need from the Mage Tower?"

"I don’t know." I don’t even know what facilities the Mage Tower has! I only caught a glimpse of the Thunder Horn Hall!

"How long will the project last, and how much funding does it need?"

"I...don’t...know," Garrett shrugged. If it were a grant from the National Science Foundation or the like, he could slowly calculate what instruments, materials, and funding were needed. But here, he didn’t even know how much compensation level five mages received for a day’s work!

How can you be so nonchalant about not knowing anything? The Grand Magister suppressed his urge to vent, swallowing back his myriad complaints. This situation wasn’t Garrett’s fault. In fact, to prevent such occurrences, the teacher had arranged to directly interface with Garrett, guiding and supporting him anytime, anywhere.

Typically, mages in the council, if they could bring level five mages on missions, were at least level seven, even level nine or above. These were all challenges they would experience throughout their growth. Those few they hadn’t encountered, they could consult their networks; there would never be a situation where they lacked something or didn’t know something.

But Garrett was an exception. His ideas didn’t match his rate of advancement... But was it really Garrett’s fault?

Not to mention the unfinished paper in his hand, even the heap Garrett had tossed out before, with hundreds of mages, was now being tirelessly verified in the alchemy room...

The Grand Magister took a breath, then another, trying to calm himself. He looked seriously at Garrett.

"If you don’t know any of these, and still want to continue this project, you have two options. First, estimate the required manpower, facilities, materials, invite mages; I can assist you with that. But you must submit the application report yourself and lead the entire project. Of course, the project’s results will be entirely yours, and you’ll be responsible for distributing all rewards..."

Garrett vigorously shook his head! Are you kidding me? Ordering a group of mages above level five and directing them? Besides, even if they listened to him, when they started fiddling with force fields and such, he wouldn’t even understand!

Seeing Garrett’s wide eyes and head shaking like a fan, the Grand Magister finally felt a bit relieved. He smiled faintly.

"The second option is to collaborate with the Thunder Horn Hall. You propose the project and the ideas," he pointed at the papers in front of him. "The Thunder Horn Hall provides manpower and everything else. But in that case, you won’t be able to claim all the project’s results—"

"That’s it!" Garrett interrupted eagerly. The Grand Magister was taken aback. "As for the split...!"

"Whatever! Just count me out when it’s done! Oh, and leave me a small set of equipment that I can operate myself, let me try electrolysis!"

The Grand Magister: "..."

Please, I wanted to talk about the distribution ratio! At most, I could give you 40%. Well, if you insist, we could negotiate for 50%...

After all, so many people can’t work for free...

Garrett was already overjoyed. He didn’t want to get involved in this project at all. Anode materials ratios, reaction temperatures, voltages, and current intensities... He wasn’t a metallurgy major! Nor was he a materials expert!

With so many dwarves waiting for him to play in the forging yard, no, waiting for him to figure out one by one, he had to struggle with electrolysis and metallurgy?

This troublesome experimental project was decisively being dumped on the Magic Council!

The Grand Magister shook his head with a wry smile. He sent Garrett away, carrying the papers, and personally went to the Tower of Heaven to find the legendary mage:

"Teacher, that Garrett has come up with something strange again..."

"Hmm, let me see..."

Master Decar took the papers, flipping through them while stroking his chin. It was unavoidable for him to pay attention: for the Magic Council, the importance of metals like mithril could never be overstated...

This metal, which was half the weight of steel yet even harder, with excellent malleability and magical conductivity, was one of the best materials for crafting magical equipment and sketching magic arrays. If possible, the Magic Council would love to mix adamantium and mithril to make more airships; the high-level mages would like to have a mithril vest each...

Just a dream.

Not even legendary mages could achieve a vest for everyone.

The bounties for smelting and increasing production had been hanging there for years. Mages bravely rushed up and were ruthlessly beaten back:

Some only managed to obtain ore and ended up injuring their fingers while trying to forge it themselves; some succeeded in establishing relationships with dwarves, getting semi-finished products from mithril refining, and went through various trials with acids, alkalis, and heat, but still couldn’t produce anything decent; some high-level mages, with particularly good relations with the dwarves, were able to observe the divine process of smelting and correctly identify it as electric current, but when they tried it themselves with electricity, they ended up with nothing...

Chopping horizontally, vertically, trying various methods, ultimately ending up with nothing.

But Garrett’s paper, Master Decar could tell at a glance, presented unprecedented ideas and approaches.

"How many people can you spare?... Actually, including yourself, allocate enough manpower to come to me. On the 375th floor of the Tower of Heaven, in rooms 3, 4, and 5 under my name, you will have twelve hours."

"Teacher—" Twelve hours? Subtracting eight hours of sleep per day, plus time for meals and personal care, there would be no time left! He might manage, but his apprentices might not!

"What’s wrong?"

"Um...mixing mithril ore powder and making fine rods, people in our energy manipulation department might not be able to handle it..."

Master Decar hesitated, then leaned back, diverting the conversation to another direction. Scratching the stubble on his chin, the legendary mage said:

"That makes sense. Let me go find that old fox from the transmutation department and get his people to help. Oh, you said Garrett wants a small room to work on something himself?"

"That’s right...but is he capable? He’s only level two; he can’t even handle force fields..."

"Give it to him! Room 6. You go set up everything and assign an apprentice to watch over him! Protect him at all times!"

With a legendary mage’s intervention, when Garrett arrived at the Tower of Heaven three days later, he saw that the research facilities, materials, and personnel were all in place. Mages in various colored robes were bustling back and forth in the force field rooms. A tall mage was holding a form, constantly shouting:

"Raise the heating temperature by another 10 degrees, start the third experiment!"

"Hold the heating temperature steady, increase the power output by 1%, start the fifth experiment!"

"Mithril rod number three, start the second experiment!"

Mages from the corresponding groups were responsible for the operations. Adjusting the burning arrays, adjusting the electric fields, changing mithril rods. Electric currents crackled, and the heat waves rolled in the force field rooms, making it impossible to step within ten paces. Garrett stood for three seconds, then slowly stepped back, backing up to the doorway, where he was stopped by Grand Magister Kairel:

"Is this plan consistent with what you designed? Do you think anything needs to be changed?"

"Um..." Sweat dripped from Garrett’s forehead, unsure if it was the heat roasting him or if he was feeling nervous about the grand scene. He struggled to recall any bits of his limited knowledge of physics and chemistry, finally coming up with something:

"The voltage might be too high..."

Though he didn’t remember what the voltage for metallurgy was, he vaguely recalled that the voltage had to be lower than the decomposition voltage of the molten salt, and that number was quite small, only two digits...

The Grand Magister paid close attention to his words. Making a few marks in his notebook, he immediately called out:

"Garrett! Lower the voltage! Lower it more!"

"Hey, it’s not about the current! It’s the voltage! The voltage!"

"Voltage? What’s that? How do we measure it?"

"We have voltmeters..." Garrett quietly swallowed his words back. Involving positive and negative charges, ions in compounds...he couldn’t explain it in just a few words...The technology in this world hadn’t even reached atoms, ions, and electrons yet! How can I explain?

Or can I summon Alessandro Volta? Is that possible?

If not, can I at least get a simple voltmeter for electricians?

Garrett scratched his head, feeling helpless. He could only offer something else:

"I...I only know how to reduce voltage..."

He handed the notebook back to Grand Magister Kairel and drew a few simple current diagrams:

"In series circuits, the current is the same everywhere in the loop, and the sum of the voltages across each load equals the total voltage... In parallel circuits, the voltage across each branch is the same, and the total current flowing through the main branch equals the sum of the branch currents... Or you could consider using a resistor for voltage drop... That’s all I know!"

He tossed the pen and paper aside, happily running off into the laboratory assigned to him. Power supplies, wires, carbon rods, everything was ready. Garrett opened his spatial bag, taking out beakers, flasks, sinks, and test tubes, setting them up, pouring distilled water, adding refined rock salt—

"Bubble, bubble, bubble..."

Anode, cathode, bubbles continuously rose from the ends of the two carbon rods. In one of the glass tubes, yellow-green gas flowed into lime milk, and the milky liquid in the sink gradually clarified, visible to the naked eye.

Garrett took a deep breath, filled with joy. The cold, refreshing, slightly stimulating smell rushed into his nose, spreading throughout his body and limbs, instantly filling him with a sense of security.

Disinfectant! I finally made it!

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