I looked at Tatton undoubtedly with a skeptical expression.
“You want us to go to your lab? But the battle preparation phase just started- we really don’t have ti for that.”
It was my first ti seeing the robed figure since our awkward exchange just before class. I couldn’t help but glance over to Julia, who looked equally uncomfortable.
“I am well aware. That is why I will explain everything once we arrive at my laboratory. You won’t be missing too much since it operates at mortal ti.”
“…”
I really wasn’t expecting this.
As awkward as it was seeing Tatton again so soon, it wasn’t as though I was nervous of him or anything.
Should we really go with him?
This battle phase had the potential to be extrely difficult for my humans, assuming the siren Seedling followed through with her invasion threats. Sure, I could be lenient against that lumpy toad dude, but this matchup would require a bit more effort on my end.
My eyes wandered back to the elf girl next to .
.. But then again, maybe staying in the Academy a bit longer wouldn’t be so bad. Besides, I do have a new head-related thing I might need to ask him about.
His laboratory was also only a few minutes' walk, so it wasn’t as though I’d be losing too much ti.
Julia soon turned, eting my eyes. Although her’s wavered a bit in uncertainty for a mont, they soon settled with a reluctant resolve.
I patted Mr. Flippers’ head, who was tucked into my right arm, “It looks like we’ll have a bit more ti before we go back to our domain. Let’s hurry to your lab then, Tatton.”
The hood of the purple-robed bent in a nod.
“Thank you. Let us hurry.”
.
..
…
“I never thought we’d be back here so soon,” I muttered, placing Mr. Flippers down onto the laboratory floor.
“Squawk!”
“Well at least you’re happy to be back,” I smiled at the penguin who imdiately began waddling toward the shelves packed with various pieces of equipnt.
“… Tatton, why did you call us here?”
I glanced at the elf girl who was gripping her bow at my side.
You’re really cutting to the chase, aren’t you? Well, it’s not like I can bla her.
Unlike , who had my priest to communicate with, Julia could only speak with her realm through her rarely present Oracle. Despite there still usually being about 80 years in mortal ti between class and when she could select one, it was no surprise that she didn’t want to risk even missing a second of it.
“Yeah, I’d like to know that too,” I concurred, watching the robed figure walk to his desk.
“To put it simply, I’d like you to help with my research.”
“… Really?”
“Squawk!?”
A wry smile plopped on my face from the two voices behind ; though their words were the sa, one was full of boredom and skepticism, while the other was a confused excitent.
But research again?
A sigh escaped my lips.
“As much as I want to help you, I pretty much taught you everything I know about machines when I built that engine last ti. I really don’t know how to make any of the electronic stuff you’re after.”
“I’m well aware of that. I would just like your help while I learn; I think it would be mutually beneficial.”
“If we don’t know how it works, how could it possibly be mutually beneficial? We can’t explain things we don’t know.”Julia questioned.
I’m also not exactly sure how we benefit from it in the first place.
“She has a point,” I agreed, “The engine was one thing, since I had a general understanding of how they work, but electronics are a whole other degree of complicated. I don’t even have any idea how they function, let alone where to start with making one.”
“That’s fine. I already got a hold of the starting point we need.”
“… Huh?”
With that line, Tatton began grabbing so boxes from under his desk and working on displaying them.
No way… those are-!
“I stayed in my laboratory at mortal ti for the past couple hundred years while you were all wandering around the Academy and staying in class and I started trying to piece together everything you’ve taught about science up until now,” the robed figure began explaining, “Since the electronics deal with electricity, I began looking over the notes I took while we were working to create that telephone for you and Julia.”
“Oh, high heavens, not that again…”
I couldn’t help but smile at Julia’s quiet mutter behind .
She really didn’t enjoy that lesson.
“Right.. so the stuff in those two glasses-“
Tatton cut off with a nod, “That was my first attempt at demonstrating this electricity myself. Since I knew the general principles behind the phenonon, I spent quite so ti going over that periodic table you copied for back when I was working on your calling device to search for elents that may allow to make so myself. Eventually, I ca up with this.”
I stepped closer to the desk to get a better look.
Yes- it's exactly what I thought it is!
Placed on the table were two glasses filled with so type of solution: the first was a clear solution with a gray rod, while the second was a blue solution with an orangish rod. Both solution-filled glasses were connected by what appeared to be a band covered in a white substance, though this was intentionally raised above the solution level for the ti being.
Although I couldn't rember when I dealt with such a setup, I still felt a wave of nostalgia wash over as I looked at the classic chemistry experint.
"Wow!" I glanced back toward Julia and waved her closer, "Co check this out!"
"O-okay," almost reluctantly, the elf girl walked over and stood by my side.
"So, do you rember any of the electricity conversation we had back then?" I asked her.
"... Not very much of it. I just rember you talking a lot about tiny invisible things that flow through wires."
"That's good enough!"
I pointed at the solutions in the glasses, "Okay, so this is a Daniell Cell- it's a classic setup to show the principles of electricity! There's these two solutions- the blue one is definitely sothing copper... probably copper sulfate. If the copper rod sticking in it wasn't obvious enough, the blue color is pretty much a dead giveaway for most copper solutions. And the clear solution with the gray rod- that's zinc, right?"
“Correct,” Tatton nodded at my question, "Though, you seem very familiar with this..."
"Well, judging by my notes, I did study a bit of chemistry. Ah-"
A sudden realization dawned on that I never really went into much chemistry detail during my ti with Tatton.
"H-how long did it take you to co up with this," I hesitantly questioned.
"... I discovered this around half a century into my experints, if I rember correctly."
"..."
That's a lot of ti...
A sweat dripped from my forehead.
"W-well you did a great job! Anyway, Julia," I turned my attention back to the elf girl while swallowing my guilt, "Just like the copper, the zinc rod is taking a bath in a zinc sulfate solution. Since no more of the tal is dissolving into the solution, that ans they're at a sort of equilibrium."
"... Right," Julia nodded but she still seed a bit confused.
"Squawk!"
"Oh, you ca to check this out, Mr. Flippers? Here, I'll show you."
I lifted up the penguin, who apparently was curious enough to stop his rummaging to waddle up to the table.
"Squawk?"
"Oh, an equilibrium is where both sides of a reaction happen at the sa rate. So, the forward and backwards reactions happen at an equal speed, so nothing changes."
"Squawk."
Yeah, I guess it makes sense he doesn't get that.
"Hmm... okay I'm not sure how well you'd relate to this, but you can kind of picture it like if you keep adding salt to a glass of water. Eventually, there cos a point where not all of the salt can dissolve into it, so the extra salt just piles up. That point where the reaction of salt dissolving can't go forward is kind of an equilibrium. Does that make sense?"
"Squawk."
"Dangit. Well, that was the best one I had."
"No, I think I get it."
I looked at Julia, who chid in after my explanation, "You do!?"
"I think so," she pointed at the zinc rod, "So the rod is like the salt, and this liquid is like the water... and the liquid already has too much zinc to take in anymore, the rest stays as a rod?"
"Yes, that's exactly right!"
"H-hey! What are you doing!?"
I imdiately plopped the penguin on the desk and pulled Julia in for a hug, to which she reflexively attempted to wiggle out of.
"Sorry, but I'm just so happy you're following it!"
She quickly gave up on her escape attempts and accepted her fate in my arms, though she turned her head away to hide her reddened face.
"It was just pretty easy to follow after how you explained it..."
Ah, she's adorable~
Having rcy, I finally freed the elf girl from my grasp and instead picked up the band that was laying on the edge of the glasses.
"This next part might be a bit more confusing, though," I smiled, "This thing should be a salt bridge."
"Okay..."
"This whole reaction is really a battle of charges. Both zinc and copper have a neutral charge when they're in their solid form, but when they dissolve in the sulfuric acid, their molecules lose two negative electrons in the process, and they kind of just float in the mixture. Now, because the copper and zinc lost two negative charges, the dissolved copper and zinc floating in the solution are each stuck with a plus two positive charge. Does that make sense?"
Although a bit more hesitant than before, Julia still nodded, "I think so..."
"Perfect! I'll explain more later, don't worry. It's a basic redox reaction; the zinc is more reactive than the copper, so it wants to lose the electrons more than the copper does. The electrons from the zinc move through the wire and plop onto the copper rod, which makes the rod negatively charged. This kind of reverses the reaction on the copper side, so it pulls the positively charged copper back out of the solution and redeposits it onto the rod to even it out.
This salt bridge is made up of a bunch of positively and negatively charged inert ions. Since they're inert, they don't react with either solution and just kinda exist in the system with a certain charge. Basically, when the electrons from the zinc solution make their way into the copper solution, it makes that area negatively charged, which causes the whole electron exchange to stop since the negatively charged electrons would resist going into a negatively charged area. This salt bridge will plop the positively charged ions into the copper solution to balance out the charges, while putting negatively charged ions into the zinc solution to balance out the positive charge in that area. That lets the whole reaction keep going until one side runs out of reactants or the salt bridge is used up."
""...""
The silence in the room was almost deafening.
That was a bit too much, wasn't it? l might have to go over more of the background principles for them to get a better grasp of everything."
"The limits of your knowledge..."
"Hm?"
I turned back toward Tatton, who muttered sothing under his breath.
"I was planning to show and explain the next design I ca up with, but it appears you know more than you made it seem." he said as he placed a solid cylinder onto the table, "This is a version I ca up with to avoid all of the liquids; it's a copper rod encased in a zinc shell. I used a paste made out of zinc and chloride to balance the charges, so it's a lot more efficient, and there's less risk of spillage."
"Right..."
It seems familiar... it definitely is a lot closer to a modern battery at least.
"Even then, this does not surprise you," he sighed, straightening his posture, "But this is exactly why I called you here. What I suspected, and just now confird, is that there is a lot more knowledge hidden in that brain of yours that I would love to make use of. Even bits and pieces of knowledge could beco extrely valuable when placed in circumstances that can bring them out. And so, I want to propose a deal. I would like for you to help with my research for fifty years."
"Fifty years...?" I couldn't help but repeat.
"Yes, I feel that is a fair amount of ti. From the ti it took us to get to my laboratory, there should still be about 72 years before your Oracles can be selected. Even after fifty years of research, you two should have ample ti to prepare before making your selection."
Well, he has a point.
"Of course, I will compensate you all for helping," he continued, "During your previous ti in my laboratory, you ntioned your desire for randomly moving targets for Julia's bow training. Ultimately, I ended up getting a bit caught up in my resolve, so I was unable to give my aid. In return for helping with my research, I'll work on developing a rune capable of such a feat and supply a mana stone to power it."
Julia's eyes lit up in response to his offer, "Jacob, I think we should stay!"
"Pfft-"
I struggled to feign composure at her sudden burst of motivation, "Well, I'm not surprised. As long as we're back before it's ti to select an Oracle, you're not really missing out on anything."
"Mhm! We were planning to stay at mortal ti either way, right? It doesn't really make a difference whether we do that in our domains or in Tatton's laboratory. Besides, I think staying here for a bit might be best for you, too. Rember what happened in class?"
"Ah- right."
My head feels pretty much back to normal, so I nearly forgot.
Obviously, Tatton was staring at for clarification, so I gave him a summary before he had to ask.
"Basically, when it was ti for us to get our divinity during class, I got this awful headache out of nowhere. I an, it was really bad."
"He couldn't even lift his head off the desk," Julia added.
"A headache..."
I couldn't help but feel uneasy as the robed figure slipped into thought.
"I guess it isn't a common thing, huh?" I asked.
"No, it is not, but then again, you're not a very common Seedling, Jacob," he replied, "There shouldn't be any sort of pain when acquiring your divinity allocation, though it may take a few monts to get used to your new strength. Has this happened in previous classes?"
I shook my head, "No... I think I beca a bit lightheaded last ti, but I definitely didn't have any pain like that. I'm feeling fine now, though."
"... Feeling lightheaded isn't normal either, though I am glad the discomfort has been resolved for now," he sighed, "I apologize, but I really am not sure; I've never heard of a situation like this before. Since the pain occurred directly when you received the divinity, I can only co to the conclusion that it is sohow related to how your body is responding to it."
"Well, yeah, I think that's pretty obvious, but I just want to know why my body is being weird about it."
"That is not sothing I'm sure of," Tatton mumbled, his gaze shifting toward Mr. Flippers, who was still looking at the acid cups curiously, "Though, maybe it could be caused by how your divinity is linked with this creature?"
"Squawk?"
"You think so?" I looked back at the penguin, who was equally confused, "Wouldn't he have felt pain too then? You didn't feel any pain right, Mr. Flippers?"
"Squawk!"
"Yeah, I didn't think so."
Tatton only shrugged at this interaction, "That is only a hypothesis, after all, though I feel Julia is right in her desire to have you watched for a while."
"It does work out nicely since it sounds like we'll be here a while anyway," I stretched.
Tatton perked up at my words, "So, you'll agree to my proposal?"
"... I'm not sure whether I like that wording, but I'll agree to the deal you offered, yes," I nodded.
"Squawk!"
I patted Mr. Flippers' head with a smile as he did a little hop in celebration.
Still contrary to his excitent, Julia spoke up from beside .
"Are you sure you want to stay, Jacob? I feel a bit bad... the reward for us staying is really only sothing that benefits , but I'll probably be the least help here."
"Don't worry about that. Like we said, I'll be getting watched over in case sothing goes wrong with my head. Besides," I slowly took Julia's hand into my own, "Having more ti with you is more than enough of a reward."
"... I-If you say so."
Julia once again turned her head away, hiding behind her reddened ears. My smile only grew as she made no effort to remove her hand from mine.
Tatton gave us a few monts before speaking, "Then it is official. We'll work for the next fifty years trying to make one of those chips; I'll assure you that I will have a rune ready for you by the ti the period ends."
Fifty years...
Despite how I was now immortal and had spent hundreds of years in my domain, fifty years was still not sothing that I could simply brush off. But as I lightly squeezed the soft hand in my palm, my mind was filled with relief and excitent, rather than dread.
"Great- I guess we should get started then!"
.
..
...
It was an overwhelming failure.
With a sigh, I looked over the lab one more ti. Sprawled around in what could only be described as organized chaos were countless wires, plates, and various clumps of tal.
Over the last fifty years, I lost track of just how many attempts we made to make a semiconductor. In the end, we couldn't even succeed in making a single stable transistor. The headaches our failed experints caused were rough, but they were nothing compared to what I felt in the classroom. Luckily, there had not been a single sign of that pain returning during our ti in the laboratory.
Still, just thinking about all of the trials is enough to get frustrated.
To be fair, we only spent about half of the fifty years working exclusively on the transistor; I wanted to fully teach the group all of the chemistry I knew beforehand. While Tatton and Mr. Flippers were able to catch onto it pretty well, Julia definitely struggled a bit. Unlike the garbage transistor period, those were years I looked back on pretty fondly.
Unlike Tatton who had a background with research and Mr. Flippers who apparently had so sort of talent for this stuff and practice in my domain, Julia really had no foundation of research to rely on.
I really respected how she was so determined to learn, even though she was having trouble. In the end, she got enough of a grasp of everything after a lot of hands-on experints.
I was so proud of her that I even made a small diploma for her to celebrate.
A grin appeared on my face as I looked at the elf girl standing by my side, who was currently holding that diploma along with a carved plate and a mana stone. I had so similar plates and stones in a bag, as well.
"Even though we couldn't make the transistor, it really all worked out in the end."
"Hm?"
"Ah- I didn't an to say that out loud," I flashed another smile at Julia, who had reacted to my mutter.
This smile quickly faltered as I looked back at the desk near Tatton.
"... You're sure you want to stay here, Mr. Flippers?"
"Squawk!"
"Ugh. I know, but I just wanted to make sure..."
Yes, to my extre dismay, Mr. Flippers wanted to stay behind during this battle phase to continue the research with Tatton.
It wasn't a declaration that ca out of nowhere either; as we got closer to the fifty-year period coming to an end, the penguin definitely started showing signs of resistance whenever I ntioned returning to our domain.
I don't know why that penguin is so obsessed with building things.
I sighed just thinking about it.
While it wasn't necessarily the first ti he stayed behind to do research with Tatton, since he previously skipped a class to do so, it would be the first ti he'd skip a battle phase to do it.
"How the heck am I going to get through this..."
I still had Julia with in the Academy the last ti Mr. Flippers stayed behind... this ti I'll really be on my own.
I was still planning to spend the battle phase at mortal ti. Not only would it be my first ti fully alone since becoming a Seedling, but it would be a 313-year period of near-isolation. I could only hope that the calls with Julia and my conversations with my humans would be enough to keep from going insane.
Haah... I guess there's no choice but to get through it.
Readying my mind, I looked back to the two figures, one penguin and one robbed, standing near the desk.
"You behave yourself, Mr. Flippers. I'll see you two again soon."
"Bye-bye, little one! Bye, Tatton!"
"Squawk!"
"I wish you two success in your battle phases, Jacob and Julia. I am sure I will see you both again shortly."
After one last look back on my penguin friend and one more hug-filled goodbye to the beautiful elf at my side, we left Tatton's laboratory and returned to our domains.
In this familiar dark room, filled with flashing red lights reflecting off a now-empty palace of ice, I took one look at the winged creature plastured on the screen.
"It looks like my opponent will be that siren, after all."
Let's get this battle phase started.
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