Chapter 1129: "The Mysterious Stone"


    Trantor: Transn Editor: Transn


    "Her Highness’ ability... isn’t flying, right?" Nightingale muttered.


    "No, but she can fly with a Stone of Flight. However, when she’s carrying heavy objects, even a Stone of Flight won’t help much," Rnd answered as he looked at the "Unicorn" hovering in midair. "What’s the matter?"


    "Although you talked about nes many times and also showed me the drawing and the internalbustion engine, I still feel it incredible... Men can fly like a bird with just a little bit of extra help," Nightingale remarked impressively. "The ne, to be honest, is none other than a bunch of metals and wood."


    "Yes, it’s made of metals and wood, but it’s us who pieced them together," Rnd said with a faint smile," We used our hands, magic power, and knowledge. So, we don’t, technically,pletely rely on external forces."


    "Everyone can fly like her, right?" Nightingale asked quietly. "Including me — "


    "Yes, everyone, including you," Rnd said positively. Nightingale was familiar with the sky. She had ridden on a hot air balloon and traveled with Maggie before, but these past experience was nothing next to a flight where you could have full control over where you were heading. Even Nightingale, a witch with magic power was awed by the ne. Rnd could imagine how the mass would react to this new invention. Men’s ambition to be free from the pull of gravity had started the moment they had stared up at the canopy of the sky.


    The member of the Society of Wondrous Crafts killed in a testing flight was the best example.


    The "Unicorn"nded magnificently on the tracks 30 minutester.


    "How did it go?" Rnd asked Tilly who trotted to him in excitement.


    "This ne is awesome!" she said breathlessly, her eyes sparkling. "It’s way more flexible than the ’Seagull’. Wendy’s wind control isn’t bad, to be honest, but she can’t always manipte the aircraft into the way I want. This is different. I can control everything, including its speed, diving angle and turn, like it’spletely fused with me!


    "Fused with you?" Rnd was mildly taken aback. Although the "Unicorn" was inspired by various bine models, it was essentially a very crude testing ne. The pilot had to use her instinct to adjust its flying speed and control the aircraft manually. Rnd was actually worried whether this ne could sessfully take off. However, in Tilly’s opinion, this rudimentary ne was as advanced and high-tech as a modern fighter equipped with a fly-by-wire control system and a flight controlputer.


    That was probably the difference between a genius and a person of mediocrity.


    "So... are you satisfied now?" Rnd asked as he waved at the hangar manager. "That’s it for today — "


    "What are you talking about, brother?" Tilly interjected. "How could 30 minutes be enough?"


    "Then why did yound?"


    "To let you know that I’m going to be here for a while. You have a lot of work on your te, don’t you?" Waving airily, she said, "Off you go. You don’t have to wait for me. I still want to try some other flying methods."


    Watching Tilly scurry off, Rnd shook his head in amusement.


    The ne had passed the test, and he was sure Tilly would learn everything about the "Unicorn" in no time. Since Tilly could leave the ne anytime, there was no need for him to monitor the subsequent testing flight anymore.


    "It seems you were dismissed," Nightingale gloated.


    "Shut up," Rnd said gruffly while rolling his eyes. "Let’s get out of here."


    Nightingale disappeared into the Mist.


    ...


    As soon as Rnd returned to the castle hall, the guard trotted up to him and said, "Your Majesty, a message from the Third Border City. They’vepleted your task."


    "Really?" Rnd said, his brows going up a fraction of an inch. "Where’s the report?"


    "They hope you could see it in person."


    It appeared that the discovery at the Festive Harbor was moreplicated than he had thought. After a moment of reflection, Rnd said, "I see. Let’s go now."


    Celine had been waiting for him at the underground hall.


    "Your Majesty, you were right. There are materials used to make the Magic Cube at the Endless Cape," Celine said as she stretched out her auxiliary tentacle. "The magic power in that grayish yellow stone on the left are pretty simr to that in the Magic Ceremony Cube, though notpletely the same. If we have a sufficient amount of the materials, I can start to create the replicate now."


    "How much do you think you’ll need?"


    "A few thousand, I think."


    Rnd thought this was actually quite a lot. A couple of thousand stones could possibly fill a room. It seemed that he had to extravacate the Endless Cape as soon as possible. "I’ll arrange it. So what about the other one?"


    "The other type of stone is absolutely extraordinary. First, I can assure you that its radiation won’t cause any harm to animals. From what I see, it’s just some regr light, not the type you are worried about..."


    "Radioactive rays."


    "That’s right. Of course, there is a chance that the radiation is too weak to be detected. However, if that is the case, I won’t be too worried about its lethality." Celine picked out a chipped stone from the bottle on the right and handed to Rnd. She said, "I asked Miss Lucia to break down one of the stones. Its ingredients are very simr to sand’s."


    "Sand’s?" Rnd echoed in surprise.


    "Very strange, right? But it looks like a stone — or rather some bigger gravel. It’s flexible and will glow when beingpressed. I’ve never seen anything stranger than this in my entire life."


    "Hmm..." Rnd fumbled the sample thoughtfully and said, "That’s not quite urate."


    "You know what this thing is?"


    "Not really, but it does remind me of something else..." Rnd replied slowly. "Substance isprised of elements. Apart from elements, its structure also ys a big part in determining its properties. You don’t understand it because you haven’t seen many materials yet."


    Take carbon for example. When carbon atoms had a tetrahedral molecr geometry, they would be hard diamonds. However, when they had ayered, nar structure, they became crispy, fragile graphite. Oneyer of graphite was called graphene, which had really great conductivity. When twoyers of graphene formed a certain angle, however, they would be a perfect instor. When they were cooled down to a certain temperature and were injected electrons, they would transform into a superconductor.


    These three materials were all made of carbon.


    That was the beauty of physics.


    In fact, the exploration to the microscopic world was just a tip of an iceberg even by modern standards. In this unknown realm where men could only rely on theories, they were doing exactly the same thing that ancient people had done thousands of years ago. They reorganized and restructured elements to create new materials and inventions.


    They found the "glowing tablets" and Soraya’s coatings mysterious probably not because they contained magic power.


    But because human beings just knew too little about the world they were living in.