Chapter 1593: Althea Meets the Toolmakers
While the Array and Tools area was fraught with excitement, Althea and Hoffen were busy in the Pharmacy department.
It could melt metal, too.
It was quite an interesting structure, and something that’d help Althea increase her attacks. Controlling normal acid might not be as effective because its structure was a bit different. Even aqueous ones were difficult. Like, if she combined it with water, the acid could be left behind as if oil separating from water.
Juni’s acid powers, on the other hand, were a bit different. Juni might still control water as well, albeit with a lot more effort and a lot more mana required for even the basic waterball.
Juni’s specific acid seemed to be the cross that she needed. She couldn’t produce that much though, so they were studying what made her acid different from others.
She was a water elementalist in the end, so what she could control was that structure. Althea couldn’t easily control acid on its own, but Juni’s could be the bridge to that.
Producing her own acid was a long shot (she might not want to either, since that could risk changing the structure of her own element) but she could perhaps create a solution she could mix with her innate ability to create similar lethality just by contact with it.
"The best would be to create something that’d affect the rest of the liquid. The acid would not be easy to make, after all."
"It’s an interesting theory," Hoffen said, habitually rubbing his long beard. "A few drops of a solution that could change an entire gallon’s structure."
It was really mind-bending for him because it wasn’t a concept in this world. After meeting Althea, he found out that such a transformation was actually possible, and it definitely opened up a lot of doors for him.
It was around this time that the telephone rang.
Ring, ring, ring!
The telephone, with signals transferable through wires, was now commonplace in the Research Center, the Hospital, the Barracks, and the government offices. With it, people could easily contact each other, send news of urgent meetings and the like, with a few presses of a button.
To the aborigines, this was already a magical thing. After all, this was so much more convenient than aether letters, which were not only expensive and scarce, but the messages that they could send were short and had some cooldown time in between.
The Terrans also kept mumbling about how great it would be if it were wireless, when the aborigines were still wondering how wires worked at all.
However, it seemed like their wireless thing—called radio or something—would be a bit of a challenge.
This was because the interference the Aether could create wasn’t something they could bypass as of yet. Hence, for messages beyond the wired areas, they still had to depend on aether letters.
Anyway, Hoffen’s eyes stayed on the fascinating telephone. It has been installed for a few weeks now, but he was still amazed.
Althea smiled and shook her head, taking the headpiece to her ears. "Hello?"
"Sir Oslo and the others have returned," the voice on the other side reported. She said her thanks and put it down.
She smiled, looking at the Lord Panel. It was not difficult to find the names of the newcomers. After all, even if they weren’t fighters, the level of anyone with a position in a City was definitely above most people in a small Town like theirs.
With the addition of Kalfene to the team, not only would they have an abundance of the tool, but they could even have innovations and variations in time.
The radio was something that was continuously explored. Hence, due to the role of aether in the transference of waves, there were teams assigned to study the ’science’ and arrays behind the letters.
At the very least, they wanted to find out about how they could either bypass or use the aether in the air to create a radio. With the toolmaker in their midst, the progress for that should be faster!
They met up about an hour later at the meeting room on the top floor. Along with her were Hoffen and Eugene. The toolmakers, after orientation, were also brought up.
They still felt dazed with what they had seen over the past hour. First of all, it was mentioned that toolmaking was under arrays, and so this place was studying it!
The number of resources for arrays was few, and they were only available in noble houses and the Lord’s, but they didn’t seem to be so informative either!
The so-called "Array Masters" were just people who knew a bit about the subject, and they always had certain specializations, limiting their knowledge to a few types only.
But seeing the various arrays and notes pasted all over the walls of the large room, they had a feeling these were a lot more than a ’few types’.
Soon, new people arrived. When they were brought there, they were said to meet important people in their field.
They gaped at the sight of Althea, who entered first. She was extremely beautiful.
Eugene entered next, and they were interested in his movement. He was walking smoothly, but there was something a bit unnatural about it.
Eugene tried to make his artificial legs as natural as he could, but toolmakers had sharper eyes than others, so they could tell there was something amiss.
Finally... It was Hoffen’s turn.
They gasped, unconsciously standing up. "Grandmaster Hoffen?!"
Oslo smiled, amused by their reactions. "So... Master Hoffen doesn’t need introductions. He’s been here for a couple of months.
"This is Sir Eugene, Elder of Innovations, and he is one of the people in charge of creating various devices here."
They determined that toolmaking was more of an array thing than anything else, so it didn’t really go under Eugene’s scope. However, his insight had always been valuable, especially as a Creator, so here he was.
"And this is Miss Althea, Elder of Pharmacy and Plant studies," he said.
"Master Hoffen’s apprentice."
"..."
Hoffen nodded. "First and last."
He looked quite smug about it, too.
"..."
Their hearts couldn’t take this—
"She is also a toolmaker, the most knowledgeable person about arrays, and the primary Elder in Charge of you."