Back at the castle, Roland still felt a wave of emotions. As the saying goes, one cries tears of joy, but from Hero's weeping, he sensed not only elation but also a release of pent-up grievances, pain, and blame from the past.
In other words, the strength she displayed wasn't about ignoring the pain but suppressing all the negative emotions deep inside. This was a normal reaction for anyone. Before facing such drastic changes, Hero was just a young woman who had barely reached adulthood. It was remarkable that she hadn't been crushed by these torments and still held onto hope.
The treatment was a resounding success. Her restored feet were essentially the same as those of an ordinary person. Although not having walked for so long made it difficult even to wiggle her toes, the fact that she could feel those limbs meant the nerves were connected to the spine. With rehabilitative training, she would regain her freedom of movement sooner or later.
This treatment further confirmed Roland's understanding of Broken Sword's ability: it was to raise a witch's "critical point."
Each witch's ability had its limits. For example, Hummingbird could only reduce the volume of an object, for a certain duration, and to a certain degree. If any of these conditions were exceeded, the required magic power would increase exponentially, like a jumping index. Exceeding it too much would make it impossible. For instance, she couldn't make a mountain as light as a feather, nor could she maintain the weight reduction effect indefinitely. Perhaps this was because the magic power required to do so would be astronomical.
Nana Wawa was the same. Limb regeneration likely far exceeded the critical point of her ability. That's why she could restore blown-off fingers but not entire limbs, even with Leaf's help.
Broken Sword, on the other hand, expanded this limit, making previously impossible things barely achievable. What once required enormous magic power became an ability that could be used multiple times.
He pulled out a stack of reports from a drawer and spread them on the table—Wendy's test records of Broken Sword's fusion with other witches.
It could be seen that the abilities of most witches had been significantly enhanced. While exponential growth was staggering, reversing it also yielded substantial benefits. For example, Mystery Moon's enchanted Dawn One had its duration extended from five days to half a month. Before Neverwinter had large-scale power generation capabilities, this improvement was invaluable. After all, more and more factories were being built, and lighting electricity was gradually becoming a production bottleneck.
There was also Candle's state solidification, which could be maintained for a longer time with Broken Sword's amplification. This greatly benefited the service life and processing level of machine tools. Without her ability, and with so many novices crammed into the factory, it wouldn't be surprising to see a dozen boring bars or two or three machines scrapped in a single day.
In addition, Soroya, Agatha, Lucia, White Paper, and other witches active on the production line all benefited from Broken Sword. Neverwinter's industrial level was climbing too fast, and many supporting systems and personnel were not in place. It was entirely thanks to the witches that things hadn't collapsed. Otherwise, with such crude and simple production methods, stopping work every two days and having an explosion every three days wouldn't be news. Now, with Broken Sword, this aspect was more stable.
Roland wrote his deduction at the end of the report. He foresaw that Broken Sword would become one of the busiest witches in Neverwinter.
By afternoon, his guard, Sean, walked into his office.
"Your Majesty, Chief Chemist Kaimo requests your presence at Laboratory Number Four. He says he has made progress on what you instructed."
"Oh?" Roland's eyes lit up. "Arrange the itinerary. I'll set off immediately."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Accompanied by a squad of guards, Roland arrived at Laboratory Number Four.
With the establishment of the sulfuric acid plant and the nitration plant, the simple bungalows that initially served as small workshops, combining experimentation and production, had become Neverwinter's true research facilities. These buildings, located beside the Redwater River, were not only separated by walls but also equipped with guards and logistics. Even the houses had been redecorated, with the exterior walls painted off-white, giving them a solemn and grand appearance.
Kaimo. Sishui'er wasn't at the courtyard entrance to greet him. Only the Deputy Minister, Charmes, stood alone in front of the door, looking slightly awkward.
Roland knew the Chief Alchemist's temperament well, so he waved his hand and walked straight inside.
He saw Kaimo intently guarding a long table, watching the liquid in the condenser tube drip into a glass—the liquid was as clear as amber. Closer, he could smell a familiar and nostalgic aroma. Around it were several other glasses, the liquids inside ranging from light to dark, seemingly different.
Roland couldn't help but take a deep breath.
It had been a long time since he had smelled the fragrance of gasoline.
Of course, calling this crude product gasoline wasn't quite right. It was far from the automotive fuel used on a large scale in later generations, but it had the same smell. Using it as a stable energy source wasn't something that could be achieved overnight.
"Your Majesty," the Chief Alchemist noticed him then, bowing with his hand on his chest. "You were absolutely right. The black water from the Far Southern Region is indeed composed of multiple liquids. I conducted several experiments according to the 'chemical splitting' method and found that they could be separated one by one through distillation. However..." He pointed to the glass on the table. "When further separated, their components seem almost identical."
"Almost identical is right," Roland said nonchalantly. These things were all hydrocarbons. If Lucia were to decompose them, they would definitely all look the same in the end. "Any other discoveries?"
"They can all burn, and the more fractionated the liquid, the more violent the burning. For example, this one—" He held up the amber-colored glass and shook it. "It burns almost like an explosion! Your Majesty, are you planning to use it to create even more powerful explosives?"
Looking at the enthusiastic old alchemist, Roland couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. The moment he saw something that could burn, he thought of explosives. He already possessed the necessary qualities to become a true chemist.
In fact, this black water was a sample retrieved from the Endless Cape.
From the beginning, he suspected that the eternally burning ground fires were caused by erupting oil wells. Petroleum, after all, was a vast family, the blood of modern industry, and a strategic resource that determined the direction of world wars. Naturally, he had some understanding of it. In fact, the difference between the petroleum collected from the East Continent and the petroleum collected from the West Continent was far greater than skin color. It wouldn't be wrong to say they were completely different liquids. Their colors ranged from golden yellow and dark green to pitch black, brownish-red, and even transparent, a dazzling array.
In terms of composition, as long as they were hydrocarbons composed of hydrogen and carbon, they could all be lumped into the category of petroleum.
Therefore, it wasn't unusual for black water to belong to the petroleum family.
In other words, even if it was different from any kind of petroleum in his previous life, it didn't matter, as long as combustible oil could be separated. After all, even in the world before he transmigrated, people hadn't completely figured out the source of petroleum or identified all its types. He had heard as a child that it would be used up in fifty years, but later he discovered that the rate at which new oil fields were discovered was far faster than the rate at which it was used. And all the reserves combined already far exceeded the amount suggested by the biogenic theory.