Chapter 93: Banquet Invitation

“Sigh!” Rui Li sighed. She originally wanted to mediate the relationship between the two, so she came up with this idea and deliberately pointed out the wrong way. She wanted to wait for Liao·Chaoqun to return empty-handed, and then smooth things over to let the matter pass vaguely. But she didn’t expect things to become worse, making her a bit stuck. She also had some slight complaints about Little Stephen in her heart.

Facing the Little Princess’s aggrieved eyes, Rui Li’s heart softened again. She then made a decision and said directly, “You, come with me!”

Saying that, Rui Li took the Little Princess to the top floor of the Mage Tower. It was the first time the Little Princess had walked into this mysterious place. The place here was very small, only a few square meters, empty. The only thing was a silver-white magic staff floating in the air.

This magic staff was only about a foot long, with an antique and elegant shape. The head of the staff was a lifelike statue of the Goddess of Ice and Snow. It was crystal clear and transparent, with strands of cold air emitting from its surface, just like it was carved from cold ice. In short, one could tell at a glance that it was not an ordinary item.

Rui Li walked over and gently stroked this magic staff, with a look of affection on her face. At the same time, she couldn’t help but recall the scene of how the Old Mage fought the guardian of this object to help her obtain it. Everything seemed like it was yesterday. It wasn’t until the Little Princess exclaimed that she woke up.

“Heavens, so beautiful, Teacher, what is this?” The Little Princess said in surprise.

“Sub-divine Artifact, the Staff of Ice!” Rui Li said proudly, “My weapon , and in the future, you will need to inherit it!”

“Really?” The Little Princess was so excited that she was almost trembling. A Sub-divine Artifact! Although it was not as good as a proper Divine Artifact, it was much stronger than a legendary weapon. There were fewer than ten in the entire Continent, and even the Royal Family of the Griffin Kingdom did not have a single Sub-divine Artifact.

“Of course it is true. After all, you are my most outstanding disciple!” Rui Li immediately said with a smile. “However, your current strength is not enough to use it. I am afraid it will take many years before you can truly become its master. But there is one prerequisite, that is, you must be hardworking enough. If you cannot enter the Saint Level, then I would rather take it into my coffin than let it gather dust in the hands of a waste. Do you understand?”

“I understand, Teacher!” The Little Princess immediately nodded firmly and said, “I promise I will not disappoint you!”

“Let me tell you.” Then Rui Li whispered to the Little Princess, “Although you cannot use this Magic Staff yet, as long as I leave my aura on it and transfer a little of my Magic Power to you, you can barely use half of its power. In that case, you will almost have the strength of a Level 4 Mage. Forget about a Duel, just go find Little Stephen outside and beat him up hard to vent your anger!”

“Okay, okay, thank you, Teacher!” The Little Princess immediately said excitedly, “Haha! Let’s see if that bastard can still be arrogant this time!”

“However, you must remember not to use too much power of the Magic Staff. You can only use fifty percent. Any more and you will not be able to withstand it!” Rui Li instructed, “I will send a few high-level Mages to protect you secretly. If there is an accident, they can come out to rescue you. Remember not to be willful, and you must listen to them then! Do you understand?”

“Yes, Teacher!” The Little Princess agreed immediately, but whether she could really do it, no one knew.

…

On this day, the Old Mage and Old Xie were working together to teach the Imps how to refine Goblin Mines. The Imps were indeed smart enough. For this kind of relatively high-level Alchemy Product, they were surprisingly able to make them look decent. This made Old Xie and the Old Mage very satisfied.

Several Goblin Mines had already been made by the Old Mage. Old Xie looked at them and found that the yellow powder inside was clearly something he had seen before. Its scientific name was trinitrotoluene, also known as TNT, a yellow explosive. However, in the world of Magic, the thing used to detonate the explosives was no longer mercury fulminate, but a safer and more advanced specially made Magic Crystal Stone.

This kind of Magic Crystal Stone was only the size of a soybean. It was usually very stable. Even if it was smashed, it would not explode. But as long as a Mage stimulated it with specific Mental Power, they would immediately explode and detonate the TNT as well.

The Goblin Mine was flat on the outside, like a plate. The outer shell was cast from pig iron, and inside was loaded with TNT and a detonating Magic Crystal Stone. Under normal circumstances, a single Goblin Mine contained ten pounds of TNT. When it exploded, the power could cover a radius of a hundred meters. The fragments formed after the pig iron shell shattered could even pierce through Armor. It was extremely terrifying.

However, this thing was indeed hard to make. The outer shell was easy to talk about, but the TNT was frustrating. Old Xie was considered a top student. Since he was assassinated with a nuclear bomb once, he began to pay special attention to modern technology. He had used the Soul Departure Technique to copy the memories of many top scientists. In terms of knowledge, he could be a professor in at least dozens of subjects.

So he was also very clear about the manufacturing process of TNT. On Earth, using pure chemical methods required concentrated nitric acid and toluene, and the manufacturing process was very dangerous. Obviously, there were no such conditions here, but the Magic world naturally had its own wonders.

People here made TNT using only a thing called Corrosive Water produced by the Dwarves, plus a rare plant spice. Then they mixed them and placed them in a special Magic Array, stirring continuously. There was no need for heating at all. It seemed the secret lay in that Magic Array which needed to consume Magic Stones.

Old Xie guessed that the Corrosive Water likely contained nitric acid and sulfuric acid, or perhaps a bit of hydrochloric acid. In short, it was an acidic solution. As for the spice plant, it definitely contained things like toluene, organic matter with benzene rings. Because this kind of organic matter generally gave off a scent, they were also called aromatic hydrocarbon compounds.

Anyway, through that magical Magic Array, the Old Mage and Old Xie finally obtained some crude TNT safely and effectively.

However, the cost of this thing was really too expensive. Whether it was the spices or the Magic Stones consumed by the Magic Array, they were both very expensive. Even the cheapest Corrosive Water cost one Gold Coin per pound. Moreover, it was transported from thousands of miles away from the distant Kingdom of Dwarves, and the quantity was very scarce.

A preliminary estimate showed that the material cost of a single Goblin Mine was more than one hundred Gold Coins. If labor, venue, and such were added, the cost would be at least two hundred Gold Coins. Obviously, this thing had enough power, but the price determined that this kind of disposable item could not be purchased in large quantities by the army, because no country could afford it.

But Old Xie and the Old Mage did not care about this. Anyway, they had plenty of money, and there were free laborers, the Imps, to use, so they still insisted on letting the Imps learn to manufacture Goblin Mines.

It was at this time that an invitation from the Hercules Family arrived. On it was nothing but some polite nonsense. The main point was to invite the Old Mage and Old Xie to attend a banquet held by their family. The final signatures, besides the Clan Head of Hercules, also had the name Constantine.

After receiving the invitation, the Old Mage directly wiped his hands soiled from experiments with the gold-rimmed card, and then threw it away casually. He was too lazy to go to these damn banquets. For him, with this time, he might as well do a few experiments.

But Old Xie put the card away. Seeing this, the Old Mage immediately said, “Kid, you don’t intend to attend the banquet, do you?”

“Why not?” Old Xie asked with a smile.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea!” the Old Mage said solemnly, “We Mages should focus on cultivation. We should have less to do with the kind of hypocritical tricks among Nobles! I don’t want you to throw a lot of time on boring dances.”

“Haha!” Old Xie immediately said with a laugh, “You, the guy who was known as the Stud of the Imperial Capital back then, actually have the nerve to tell me this? Didn’t you ever go to a dance?”

“Nonsense!” The Old Mage immediately said proudly, “If I want a woman, why would I go to a low-class place like a dance? Those places are full of trash like socialites, worn-out shoes that have long been played with by those disgusting Nobles. I wouldn’t even look at them if they were given to me for free. I have always only liked the beauties in the Academy. They are the elites of various families. Each of them not only has a wonderful body but also a smart head. Only this kind of first-class goods with both wisdom and beauty can catch my eye!”

“Indeed worthy of being the Empire Stud of the Mage world?” Old Xie immediately stretched out a finger and praised, “You really have taste!”

“That’s right!” The Old Mage said, not ashamed but proud, “The family teaching of our Stephen Family is, a Mage who cannot be a stud will never be a good Mage! Kid, you have to remember, if you dare to ruin the stud tradition of our Stephen Family, I will not let it go!”

“Haha!” Old Xie immediately laughed loudly, “Don’t worry, I’m good at this!”

“Good at it?” The Old Mage immediately asked curiously, “You’ve only been out for a few days? And you’re already good at it? This, is this because you have the talent of a stud?”

Old Xie knew he had slipped his tongue, so he quickly changed the subject, “Never mind that. I just want to tell you, I have no interest in the crappy things between Nobles, and I look down on those socialites even more. But, Constantine is a great beauty! I want to woo her!”

“Constantine?” The Old Mage’s expression immediately changed, and he said urgently, “No, absolutely not. I warn you, you can woo Nobles, woo nuns, woo widows, even woo a Princess, but you cannot have designs on her!”