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Volume 1 Chapter 21 – The Scholar Gentleman
For the departments of Blacksmithing, Medicine, and Mechanical Engineering, due to the professional nature of the subject, they often required frequent experimentation and consumed resources. As a result, members of these three departments could obtain funds every month to purchase their resources and experiment. If they had not used up all of their funds, it could be rolled over to the next month.
Ouyang Tao applied for twenty kilograms of crudely refined magic stones and two hundred kilograms of general alloys. After his lunch at the canteen, he went to the warehouse to redeem it. Someone would deliver the materials to his dormitory.
However, moving the materials from the outside of the dormitory to inside the laboratory was done by himself, and the boxes of materials took up a lot of effort.
The thing Ouyang Tao was unsatisfied with, was that the four fellows following him did not help him at all. They said their only job was to ensure his safety. Sigh…… What’s the point of having you guys around……
The dormitory was private property and the personal guards only guarded the area. A total of twelve guards split into two shifts to work.
When he finally transported the first batch of materials in, Ouyang Tao realised that the laboratory doors and the bedrooms doors were open, and there were visible signs of being searched.
Obviously, when the siblings were being questioned at the security station, someone must have searched their dormitories……
If you want to search just search, it doesn’t matter. However, Ouyang Tao was slightly pissed off by the fact that they did it behind his back.
Forget it, time to work. Ouyang Tao quickly moved all the materials in. He then closed the door and started working.
A Mechanical Engineering Magician was able to quickly create a machine, but during their first time, they had to do it slowly, while modifying key parts and testing them. This was done to ensure they would do it as fast as possible next time.
First, he had to refine the elements he need. Creating spare parts was a speciality of Ouyang Tao’s, but refining magic stones was a first for him.
Magic stones were a type of unstable mineral. The purer they were, the harder they were to control. However, they would become more and more effective. An experienced Mechanical Engineering Magician could purify magic stones to a purity of more than ninety percent. Although the process was not hard at all, Ouyang Tao did not dare to mess around with it too much and only purified it to about eighty percent —— it was only an experiment anyway.
After wearing his protective eyewear, Ouyang Tao took the spare parts and manually polished them one by one —— There were more than ten parts that needed to be manually polished, but due to Ouyang Tao’s experience and also because he succeeded the very first time, he used a mere four hours to complete the job.
The last part was assembly. This was the easiest process. Ouyang Tao, who had already remembered the blueprints by heart, assembled his first weapon quickly, thereby completing his first creation.
“Hehe, I’m done.” Holding the weapon that weighed over ten kilograms, Ouyang Tao grinned from ear to ear.
All that was left was to test its power.
Without pause, Ouyang Tao inspected, checked, and carried the weapon in a box, to then leave —— Of course, the four guards followed him.
Augustus Academy had a dedicated weapon testing ground, and was opened until 10 pm every night. However, Ouyang Tao was too excited and couldn’t wait to see the result. He didn’t care that it was dinnertime and just sprinted towards the testing ground while carrying the box packed with the electric rifle.
At this point, the sun had already started to set. As the phrase goes, “there is no end to the magnificence of sunset”, the sunset’s glow caused the scenery to turn amber. The setting sun made Augustus Academy have a different feel to it. However, Ouyang Tao was not in the mood to slow down and enjoy the scenery.
But there was one thing, or one person, that could.
“Oh! Which means to say, that for an established magician, there is no such thing as elemental weakness.”
“Yes, just like what I showed you just now, wood can actually deal with fire, and so can fire work against water. Water can also beat earth. The key point is the magic power’s foundation and how one applies the skill.”
“But all this is just theory. If not for your demonstration just now, I would have found it hard to believe.”
“Actually, all you need to do is forget the conventional way of thinking, and then you can probably discover something new. *Cough cough*……”
“Are you okay? You’re coughing again.”
“No problem, it’s just an old ailment.”
Even though it was a hundred metres away, Ouyang Tao could clearly hear his sister’s voice. He immediately stopped and looked around.
His sister was sitting with someone at the corner of the open air training area, and discussing Elements Magic related stuff. Due to his back facing Tao, Tao couldn’t figure out who he was, but was certain it was a guy —— Hence, Ouyang Tao made it a point to find out who he was.
“Ah Xue.” He was still more than ten metres away, but Ouyang Tao had already shouted out loud.
“Mn? Ah! It’s my brother!” Ouyang Xue turned to look and then hopped off her seat as she happily waved back at her brother: “You’re just in time. I found out that Edward’s really good in elemental magic.”
The boy also stood up and greeted Ouyang Tao: “Hello, Ouyang sir, I’m Edward. About yesterday’s incident, thanks a lot.”
“Oh, hello.” Ouyang Tao held the other party’s hand in a friendly manner. He didn’t see him clearly last night, but he now saw how the son of the Archduke’s family looked like.
Edward had a medium-sized head but was rather skinny and weak looking. It could even be said that he was frail looking. He wore a pair of thick rimmed glasses. Overall, he gave off a weak looking scholar impression.
Realistically speaking, Edward didn’t possess any arrogance or self confidence that a young master from a high ranking noble family should have. Instead, even the boyishness of being a normal guy was lacking from him. He looked soft and coughed frequently. It was no wonder he was bullied by others.
“Ah Xue, have you eaten yet?”
“Umm, not yet. Why don’t we go eat together.”
Ouyang Tao’s original intention was to ask her sister go eat alone so he could talk to Edward alone, but it looked like it wasn’t working.
Edward also passionately invited him: “Why don’t you let me treat you all to dinner as thanks for yesterday? *Cough cough*……”
“Err……” Ouyang Tao had initially wanted to reject them and say that he had something else to do. However, his sister was now tugging at his elbow.
“C’mon, c’mon. Edward’s kindly treating us.”
“Well…… Okay then.”
Since his sister had already said so, he could only delay the weapon testing until tomorrow.
Even though he was a member of a high ranking noble family, not many knew his identity. This was to ensure Edward’s safety in school. Edward also did not tell anyone about it.
They went to Edward’s dormitory to have dinner. Similar to Ouyang Tao, he lived in a special zone. However, what was different was that he stayed alone and had several people taking care of him. This was not spoiling him, but instead because he had a chronic illness since birth.
The dinner was not Edward’s usual western food. Instead the whole table was filled with chinese cuisine like prawn dumpling, tuna egg roll and barbecued lamb which was Ouyang Xue’s favourite. Obviously, this meal was specially prepared.
Although the food was delicious, Edward didn’t eat much due to his small appetite.
Overall, Ouyang Tao did not have a bad impression of Edward. At the very least, he was not snobbish. He didn’t know what Edward wanted and hence, still acted cautiously around him
However, this did not affect the interaction between them during the meal: “I know, Ouyang sir does not eat western so I asked my chef to prepare chinese cuisine. *Cough cough*…… Not sure if it suits your taste.”
“Yeah, it’s nice~” Ouyang Xue expressed it simply.
“You know that I don’t eat western food?” That was weird, Ouyang Tao clearly remembered that he didn’t see Edward during the welcome dinner.
“Yup, news of the welcome dinner had spread throughout the entire department. Therefore…… *Cough cough*…… I also heard some of it.”
Hearing this, Ouyang Tao felt embarrassed. It looks like he had lost a lot of face back then.
“However, during the guidance match, your battle against Tia was very exciting. It made me have a different opinion of you.”
Hearing Edward’s praise, Ouyang Tao felt that he couldn’t live up to to it. He merely waved it off and humbly replied: “Oh, it was pure luck. My actual abilities are still far from Tia. At the moment, I’m starting from the basics.”
Even though there was a table full of food, it couldn’t stop Ouyang Xue’s mouth. She curiously interrupted them: “Oh yeah, Bro, I was wondering, what did you bring that big box for?”
“Oh, this.” Ouyang Tao patted the weapon box behind him “This is a weapon I just created. I was preparing to test its effects at the testing ground.”
Hearing about the weapon, Edward’s eyes flashed: “Would you mind showing it to me?”
“Sure.” Since this was a standard weapon, Ouyang Tao had nothing much to hide and agreed readily.
But after that, Ouyang Tao quickly noticed that he should not underestimate this scholar’s ability.
In a world without China, they make food which they specifically call Chinese food. Truly astounding, first-time-author-sensei.
Um the author never said it was a different world, he said due to upheaval after the war with gods the old countries are gone. So while china and france no longer exist apparently the style of cooking from those countries still does.