Chapter 549 Quantitative Potion Science (Part 1)
The originally scrawled "diary-style questions" stopped in the summer, and were replaced by a line of charcoal writing that penetrated the back of the paper.
It was like Erwin finally caught the "glimmer of truth" after countless nights of struggle:
"The nature of all things can be analyzed; the changes in potions can be followed."< br/>
Just fourteen words, this is the most fundamental world view laid by Erwin for this potion system. Immediately afterwards, he proposed the hypothesis of magic element for the first time, using the concept of magic element to refer to the basic unit of the potion material.
Erwin believes that the burning of the flame grass is due to the "fire magic element", and the freezing of the ice crystal flowers is due to the "ice magic element".
This is the first time that someone has visualized potion materials into basic units that can be analyzed.
In order to test this hypothesis, Erwin conducted the most "rough" but most direct experiment he could think of.
The experimental process was recorded in detail in his notes: He mixed flame grass powder with ice crystal flower petals, and observed that both lost their magic power at the same time.
He drew two crossed arrows next to this record, one marked "Fire" and the other "Ice".
Write the word "中和" at the intersection of the arrows.
Another possibility is added below: "If there is more fire and less ice, there will be residual warmth; if there is more ice and less inflammation, there will be residual cold.
There are traces of the intersection of magic elements, or neutralization, or annihilation, or combination, all of which can be found."
This verification is very rough, but it opens a new door.
Finally, Erwin proposed a key theory, which is also an important follow-up research direction:
As long as you find a way to measure the "amount" of magic contained in each potion material, you can prepare the potion as accurately as cooking. Perhaps these conclusions seem to have little content, very rough and full of loopholes:
There is no precise definition, no rigorous derivation, and even the experimental data are subjective.
But no one can ignore the fact that no one had ever proposed this before Erwin.
What he accomplished was not the perfection "from 1 to 100", but the breakthrough "from 0 to 1".
It’s like lighting the first torch in the darkness. The fire may be weak, but it illuminates the way forward.
Irwin's contribution to this system is undoubted.
No one knows how much time and energy Erwin has spent, and what he has experienced, starting from scratch, starting from scratch, and researching to this point.
He is like a lonely pioneer, walking hard on a road that no one understands.
Unfortunately, Erwin’s research ended up at a critical point.
His handwriting on the notes stopped in the summer.
Looking back at Erwin's research now, it is not difficult to find that there are still fundamental limitations in it. It is extremely rough and cannot be applied to actual content. It can only be regarded as a conjecture.
First of all, Erwin lacked precise measurement tools and concepts.
He knows that there are "how many" magic elements, but he cannot define the specific unit of "how much".
His notes are full of vague words such as "a little", "a lot", and "strong reaction".
This is completely unqualified for a rigorous system.
Secondly, he was unable to separate the mixed magic elements, so he could not prepare a "standard reagent".
For example, when Erwin faced a snake plant that contained both [poison] and [bio] magic elements, he could not measure the content of either one separately.
In the end, he still believed that "demonization" was a necessary step. His idea was to use other methods to replace the mage's personal demonization, but he repeatedly failed.
Irvine drew a grand blueprint, pointed out the way forward, and proved the existence and feasibility of the road, but he himself did not get very far.
As far as this part is concerned, the summary of this volume of notes can be: it is a notebook full of genius ideas, chaotic experimental data and failure records.
In short, after Erwin passed away most likely depressed, this volume of notes that carried his life's work was, like its owner, forgotten in an uninhabited corner and among the years.
Fortunately, books in this world are extremely valuable.
This volume of notes recording Erwin's conjecture was not understood because of its "advanced" content, but it has survived the years due to the properties of "parchment material" and "text carrier".
It is like an extremely delicate packaging box. You don’t know what to do with it, but you just keep it subconsciously instead of throwing it into the trash.
No one knows how many hands this notebook has passed through after Erwin passed away.
In the end, it fell into the hands of a fairly prominent mage family.
The mage in charge of reviewing ancient books in the family casually opened the notes.
Scanning through those diary-like words and delusional thoughts, one can only think of them as the fantasy words written by an unknown mage apprentice because he was unwilling to accept his mediocre talent.
He threw the notes into the depths of the library and sealed them with other "useless ancient books".
Until Leo appears.
Leo is an inconspicuous side clan member of this family, not even a real "clan member".
His grandfather was a servant of a direct lineage of the family. He was allowed to bear the family name because of his accidental meritorious service.
In this family that values bloodline and talent, Leo has been doomed to a marginal fate since his birth.
After the family mage tested that his "mage talent was extremely mediocre", he only taught him some basic magic plant identification and potion knowledge, and then arranged for him to work in the family's potion industry.
Him intends to wait until he becomes proficient and then be sent to manage a magic store in a remote town, or to guard the family's magic garden.
Leo's life seems to have been drawn to its end from that moment:
Under the arrangement of the family, be a middle-level manager who follows the rules until you grow old and pass away. Even your name will not be left in the family history.
No one knows that this seemingly mediocre young man has amazing hidden talents in the fields of "research" and "logic".
He can quickly find patterns in messy potion recipes, and can judge the quality of materials through subtle differences in reactions.
It's just that no one sees these talents and has no use for them. Even Leo himself has not realized this potential.
Until Leo accidentally opened Erwin's notes.
Erwin's words, "Without the talent of a mage, can't one become a great potion master?" He was touched and started to read.
Looking through the entire volume of notes carefully, Leo was almost obsessed with the contents of the notes, unlike the family mage back then.
Erwin's seemingly chaotic conjectures and rough experimental records were full of shining points in his eyes.
He can understand the "magic element splitting" that Erwin wants to express, he can understand the importance of "accurate measurement", and he believes in the future possibilities of the new system proposed by Erwin.
From that day on, Leo became the second owner of this volume of notes and the heir to Erwin's unfinished journey.
Leo devoted almost all his spare time and energy to the follow-up research of this volume of notes.
It is a pity that all the efforts he made failed to bring about any changes in the trajectory of his life.
He is still an unknown mage apprentice who has served as a middle-level manager in the family's potion shop for nearly fifty years. During this time, he has not made any major mistakes or made any amazing achievements.
But for this volume of notes and this system, his achievements are commendable.
He stood on Erwin's shoulders and used his buried talent to lay a solid foundation for this system.
Leo's first breakthrough was to establish the concept of "reference object" based on the concept of Erwin's magic element.
He used some materials with extremely single and pure properties to define the original magic element.
For example, except for the "heat magic element" that brings scorching heat, the blazing pepper, which contains almost no other interfering medicinal properties, is defined as the reference object of [heat magic element], and the dust of the dead, which only contains the power of withering and decay, is defined as the reference object of [death magic element]...:::
Even the most common "pure water" is defined by him as the reference object of [water magic element].
Subsequently, he designed the magic reaction and established the magic strength unit.
This is the most genius move.
Leo discovered that the contact between [Heat Magic Element] and [Ice Magic Element] will produce inert water without magic power and release a fixed amount of heat.
And no matter how many times he repeats the experiment, as long as the amounts of the two are the same, the heat released will be exactly the same.
He defined this process as the "standard neutralization reaction" and realized that this was the "key" to measuring magic.
Then, Leo defined the amount of [ice magic element] required to completely neutralize 1 gram of hot pepper powder under standard conditions (specific temperature, humidity, light) as 1 gram of "heat element".
Since then, Leo has developed the "titration method", which is to accurately measure the total amount of [Heat Magic Element] contained in any unknown sample by adding dropwise a known concentration of [Ice Magic Element] standard solution and observing the end point of the reaction (no longer generating heat).
Through this step, Leo can systematically analyze every common material in this way, and officially begin to systematically map the "Magic Element Map".
Take Ophiopogon japonicus as an example.
First, take a sample, that is, take 1 gram of standard dry Heliconia powder.
Then the main magic element was measured: Titration was carried out with the standard solution of "guaidesu", and it was found that a large amount of "guaidesu" was needed to neutralize it. From this, it was calculated that it contained 25 grams of "poisonin".
Measurement of paramagnetic acid: Tested with other standard solutions, it was found that it can also undergo a weak precipitation reaction with the [earth magic element] standard solution. It was calculated that it contains 2 grams of "life element" and 1 gram of "earth element".
Hence, the magic element map of the snake tooth grass is accurately as follows: [Poison: 25] [Health: 2] [Soil: 1]
Of course, Leo knows that the snake tooth grass also contains two or three other trace amounts of magic elements.
However, because the reference system at that time was not perfect enough and the corresponding standard liquid could not be found, it could only be left blank temporarily.
Similarly, Leo’s research also has fundamental limitations due to limited conditions.
First of all, the measurement was imprecise. He roughly compared the magic element content by consuming the weight of the reference object, and the result must have a large error.
Secondly, the map is incomplete.
Leo only made rough maps of a dozen of the most common materials, and the measurement of paramagic was very inaccurate.
The most important thing is that although Leo added key components to this system, he failed to integrate them into a concise and self-consistent system, and the recording method was still descriptive.
This makes his research more like an "experimental diary" rather than a generalizable "theoretical system".
Even if others get the notes, they need to spend a lot of time sorting them out to understand the logic.
Originally, Leo thought he was going to die with his unfinished research and regrets.
As a result, in the last five years of his life, he met Leni.
It sounds like fate.
Because he was old and his energy was not as good as before, and he was no longer qualified to manage the potion shop, Leo "retired" from the potion shop as a matter of course.
Leo spent all his time and energy on research, and naturally he did not marry a wife and have children.
After "retiring", he chose to spend his remaining years in the countryside.
The place he went to was Acorn Village where Leni was.
Leo used his savings to buy a small farm near Leni.
In order to take care of the fields, he hired Leni's father to plant crops for him, and thus met Leni, who was only twelve years old at the time.
Leni is smart and diligent. She always takes the initiative to help her father with work. She also helps Leo clean the house and organize books in her free time.
Even if these tasks do not belong to them.
Leo had no children, and gradually regarded this sensible little girl as his granddaughter. He often told her stories in books and taught her some simple words.
What surprised Leo was that Leni learned very quickly. In just six months, she knew thousands of words and could also recognize some simple magic plants.
Luck favored Leo and Leni.
When Leo tried to teach Leni how to practice as a mage, he found that she actually had the talent of a mage.
Although it is very ordinary, this has made Leo ecstatic. Moreover, Leo's own mage talent is only average, so naturally he will not look down on ordinary talents because of this.
He began to systematically teach Leni knowledge.
For Leni, this is the "luck" she never dared to hope for.
As the daughter of a farmer, her original life trajectory was to "help the family work, get married and have children when she grows up", but because of Leo's appearance, she had the opportunity to "read, read and practice spells".
She absorbs knowledge eagerly and often studies late into the night.
Leni's learning ability far exceeded Leo's expectations. What surprised Leo even more was that he found that he and Leni were surprisingly similar in "logic and thinking".
He talked about "magic separation", and Leni could immediately understand "It's like grinding wheat into flour and then making different foods";
He talked about "the principle of titration", and Leni could ask "whether the color change can be used to judge the end point of the reaction."
这种「一点就通」的默契，让里奥看到了比自己更有潜力的继承者。
里奥如获至宝，开始将自己的魔药知识也一并传授给了莱妮。
并在她入门之后，取出了那卷陪伴他半生的笔记，郑重地递给莱妮。
Leo told her Erwin’s story, his research, and his unfinished regrets.
What he didn't expect was that Leni not only didn't think these were fantasies like others, but was instead very interested in the contents of the notes.
Even Leni can point out the "logical loopholes" in his experimental records: such as "why the influence of ambient temperature is not considered when measuring [heat magic element]."
She gained Leo's recognition, and the two formally established a master-disciple relationship.