Chapter 1536
Chapter 1536: Section 1537 Energy and Matter Chapter 1536: Section 1537 Energy and Matter The crisp sound of a copper bell rang out from the main square of Ashiliye, echoing throughout the entire academy.
With the tolling of the bell, the hands on the wall-mounted clock also ticked, finally pointing at ten o'clock.
Everyone seated in the amphitheater-style classroom, because of the bell that signaled the beginning of the lesson, instantly became more alert and turned their eyes towards Angel in the center.
Angel originally thought he would be nervous, but when the moment actually came, he felt unusually calm.
He cleared his throat and simply delivered an opening.
“Believe that everyone present in this class, chose to listen to my lecture because you already have some understanding of me, so I won't bother with a detailed self-introduction,” Angel paused, “However, before we get into the main topic, let me first talk about some of the rules for my class.”
Setting the rules of the classroom was a suggestion from both Midora and Farina.
There are always foolish individuals and those who are full of themselves, no matter where you are. They will ask all sorts of ridiculous questions at any time and place, and share their thoughts filled with a sense of superiority. To avoid such situations, the best course of action is to establish classroom rules.
Anyone who breaks the rules when not prompted to ask questions or engage, can be expelled from the class or even have the authority to be directly evicted from Ashiliye.
After explaining the rules, Angel clearly saw some people in the audience dampen their previously high spirits somewhat.
Angel glanced at these people, then dived into the main topic.
“For everyone, the pursuit of Alchemy is different. Even if the Research and Development Institute once tried to define Alchemy, I believe everyone here, even if you agree on the surface, have your own thoughts. Otherwise, the feud between factions wouldn't continue to intensify even now.”
“No matter whether Alchemy to you means creation, equivalent exchange, biological modification, or the extraction of properties, particle usurpation, etc., these are all correct, but merely from different perspectives.”
“You can even consider it from a philosophical perspective if you want.”
“And the viewpoint I'll be talking about today, is about Alchemy from the interaction between matter and energy.”
Angel simply transitioned the subject to “energy and matter”, and began to speak eloquently.
Vannerson, probably the highest skilled in Alchemy Technique among all attending the lecture today, because he himself is also an Alchemy Mentor in Ashiliye. In Vannerson's heart, Angel was quite young, and even if he accidentally got hold of a legacy, he probably only touched upon superficial Alchemy knowledge. What he expected from today's class content was nothing more than some Enchantment or disassembling Magical Energy Arrays for explanation.
Vannerson was ready for a lecture about Magic Patterns and Magical Energy Arrays.
But who knew that Angel would actually start from a major topic in Alchemy, and even proceed to dissect it layer by layer? Although Enchantment was also a theme of this class, he didn't just separately talk about Enchantment, but used it as an example to expound on the essence of Alchemy itself.
This surprised Vannerson.
To integrate and thoroughly dissect a major Alchemy topic from every angle, without a broad and far-sighted perspective, and a comprehensive understanding of Alchemy as a whole, is very difficult to achieve.
The difficulty lies in the fact that the instructor must have delved into all knowledge of Alchemy.
That is to say, whether it is Metallography, Potionology, or even the more obscure field of life modification, one must have a comprehensive understanding.
The ones who can talk about such topics, and are willing to talk about them, and whose depth of discussion can be enlightening, are generally the most experienced, knowledgeable, and oldest of the Alchemist, such as Midora, Nail Granny, Gandolf, and others.
For Angel, an Alchemist not yet in his twenties, to start his first class from such a high-angle analysis of a major issue in Alchemy, how could that be possible?
Vannerson's mind was filled with both amazement and ridicule.
He didn't believe Angel could get a grip on the topic.
Although Angel currently seemed to be speaking quite well, Vannerson believed that as soon as people from various Alchemy schools with different Alchemy essences began asking questions, Angel would definitely reveal his true capability.
Vannerson's thoughts were also shared by some of the more experienced Alchemists present.
Now, the only way to prevent Angel from embarrassing himself was if he kept using the “classroom rules” as a high ground to prevent questions, which would allow him to skate through ambiguously.
Just when they thought Angel wouldn't give them the opportunity to challenge him, suddenly, Angel paused: “Next, I will give you five minutes to ask questions. If you have any questions about what I've just spoken about, you can ask them now.”
Vannerson was stunned; he had thought Angel wouldn't allow any questions from start to finish, but just when everyone was most perplexed, he allowed for questions? Although it was only five minutes, Vannerson felt that even one question could be enough to stump Angel.
Was he boldly naive or simply ignorant?
“Let's begin.” After Angel allotted time for questions, surprisingly, no one in the audience took the first opportunity to challenge.
Perhaps they didn't want to be that bad guy? That was Vannerson's initial thought.
After a moment of silence, a slightly chubby girl with a babyface stood up and respectfully said to Angel: “Respected Wizard Pat, my name is Boli, and I am curious about some of the content you mentioned earlier…”
Boli's question was about the several scenarios of energy and matter interaction that Angel had mentioned, inquiring about some of the approaches when connecting Magic Patterns.
Angel provided a succinct answer to Boli's question.
Next, Boli asked several similar questions, from complex to simple, as well as some key difficulties, all of which were addressed.
Angel did not pause at all, providing clear and concise answers that Boli sought.
To Vannerson, many of the questions raised by Boli were absolutely foreign to him. It wasn't until Angel's responses that not only did it enlighten Boli, but Vannerson himself surprisingly understood too. This showed that Angel's answers were straight to the crucial elements and also illustrated Angel's unimaginable familiarity with Magic Patterns and Magical Energy Arrays.
Regarding Enchantment, Vannerson had to admit that Angel probably reached the pinnacle of modern Enchantment Studies.
However, Boli was, after all, learning about Enchantment, which happened to align with Angel's own faction. What if someone else asked a question?
For instance, what about someone from the blending faction? Angel doesn't seem to have any Alchemy Works from the blending faction, right?
As Vannerson thought this, an Alchemist from the blending faction, whom he knew, questioned Angel: “What kind of existence would there be during the interaction of matter and energy in blending?”
This question caused a stir in the classroom.
Even Vannerson frowned.
The question wasn't sincerely inquiring about something the asker didn't understand, but rather imposing what they knew onto someone else.
This was putting the cart before the horse.
In this class, Angel was the Mentor, merely a student, and now he tested others with the tone of a Mentor. Even Vannerson found this inappropriate.
Everyone was waiting for Angel's reaction, some even speculated that Angel, being hot-headed due to his youth, would likely lose his temper, making it hard to settle afterwards.
Surprisingly, Angel seemed not to catch the provoking intention and calmly replied:
“This is a fundamental question. Generally speaking, during the blending process, there are four types of scenarios in the interaction between energy and matter.”
Blending, in essence, is about Guiding the uniqueness of materials. Through the combination of materials, the peculiarities of a certain material are fully manifested.
In processes involving energy interaction, there generally are three stages: before, during, and after the Guiding of peculiar traits.
Angel simply explained the situations in each stage, still focusing on the essentials. The fourth situation, the most special case of energy interaction, is when the material itself contains unique energy. During the Guiding, this special energy interacts with both the material itself and external substances.
Although not everyone present specialized in blending, they still understood Angel's explanation, which indicated that the question did not pose a problem for Angel.
However, after Angel finished speaking, the questioning Alchemist could not wait to ask: “Then what energy transformation would occur with the Demon Bloodstone in the fourth situation?”
The crowd frowned; although continuous questioning was normal, he was evidently trying to lead Angel into a trap. Demon Bloodstone is an extremely special entity; any ore that has been contaminated with demon blood energy can be called Demon Bloodstone, from the inconsequential animal demon blood to that of top-tier Demons.
Specifically for this reason, although demon blood energy is a collective term, its complexity is so high that it is extremely difficult to generalize.
“This is clearly looking for a fight,” Vannerson frowned and looked at Dufan.
Dufan, just like Vannerson, was an Alchemy Mentor from Archiliye, teaching blending. His Alchemy Technique itself was not bad, but Dufan was somewhat arrogant.
In Vannerson's view, Dufan probably envied Angel for being parachuted into the Institute, intentionally finding faults at this time.
Although Vannerson also had some doubts about Angel's Alchemy abilities, he would never resort to such methods to set traps.
The matter of demonic blood energy was too complex, even the strongest blending faction Alchemy Master 'Matthew' from the Institute would probably have to undertake a project to systematically answer this question.
Let alone that Angel belonged to the Enchantment faction.
After Dufan raised the question, everyone felt the atmosphere in the circular classroom grow tense.
While watching Angel fall into silence, Dufan stroked his wavy Blackbeard, looking quite smug.
After half a minute, Angel raised his head to look at Dufan: “This question, I pondered a bit too long, as I was contemplating whether or not to respond.”
The audience looked at Angel skeptically. It seemed from Angel's tone that he actually knew the answer?
Angel continued: “Because the question time is only five minutes, I don't want to disrupt the rhythm of my class. If I were to answer this question…”
Angel paused for a few seconds: “Then only about half a minute would be left, by then I reckon I could only answer one more question from someone else.”
The audience: “…”