Chapter 206: "The Swarm"
The mirror problem was eventually solved by Zoroya.
Referring to mercury taken from the laboratory, she applied a bright coating directly behind the glass, similar to the effect of a mercury mirror, and avoided the risk of mercury vapor poisoning.
Compared with the mirror with silver sheets, the overall mirror surface is more reflective, and Roland simply freed up a batch of crystal glassware to make a small mirror for each witch to carry around. This small gift of being able to see his face clearly made all the witches very happy, and even the usually peaceful scroll showed a smile, which made him have to sigh that although witches can't have children, they are still women in essence.
Unfortunately, this convenient daily necessities cannot be sold to the public at a low price for the time being, the price of crystal glass as a substrate is high, and the laboratory also needs to consume a large amount of glass to make colorless and transparent containers. Kemo Stower knew how to make colorless glass, but the laboratory was too heavy to be staffed - most of the apprentices were busy refining the two acids and soaking the cotton wool, while the chief alchemist and his two or three disciples were working hard to overcome the mercury rays. Until the industrial acid production method was developed, they didn't want to make anything else for the time being.
In addition to the mirror, the way the object distance moves has also changed from a finger to a knob to control the movement of the barrel, and Roland only needs to mention a few words for Anna to understand. Under the black fire processing, the new fixed bracket was quickly processed, and two sets of lens barrels with the highest magnification were selected, and the first batch of complete optical microscopes were obtained.
Taking advantage of the sunny afternoon, Roland gathered all the members of the Witch League to the backyard of the castle, and the first natural biology class officially began.
......
When Lily walked into the backyard, she noticed that the plants were more luxuriant.
The grapes on the shelves had turned a vivid fuchsia, and she remembered that it had been less than a week since they had last ripened. From time to time, lightning flew up, picking a bunch of ripe grapes and throwing them to everyone. And the big stupid bird that had just joined the border town simply stood directly on the shelf, pecked at the grapes in one mouthful, and swallowed them with his head up.
In the shade of the greenery in the middle of the backyard, His Royal Highness the Prince was chatting with Anna, looking like an intimate couple, but Lily knew that they were definitely not talking about love. If you listen closely, you will definitely hear a bunch of inexplicable terms and puzzling debates...... For example, what does the ball look like, a dead and alive cat, matter turning into waves, etc., and this is probably the reason why the nightingale keeps a distance of more than five meters from the two of them - it will definitely make people drowsy after listening to it for a long time!
Wendy is always with the scroll, smiling and gentle at all times. Sometimes she even feels like the other person is looking at her as if she is looking at a child. Lily sighed helplessly, glanced at Wendy's chest, and then looked down at herself, there was indeed a world of difference.
When will it become like that, it will not be considered a child.
Once all the witches had arrived, His Highness Roland placed two gray-black metal utensils on the table, which were supposed to be the microscopes he claimed could see the subtle world. Lily thought that maybe things would be different when they were enlarged, but everything in the world was made up of small balls, and she couldn't believe that it was possible for a round sphere to form a solid rock.
His Highness asked the guards to bring a bucket of water, and took out a few drops and placed them under the microscope - unlike what Lily had expected, the bucket was neither muddy nor dirty, and was so clear in the light that it seemed to be nothing. Don't...... Can you really see flowing balls under a microscope?
"There's something moving in the water!" to her surprise, the sisters' exclamations rang out one after another, "Ah, it's gone!"
"More than one, there seem to be many. ”
"Oh my God, are these bugs? They don't all look the same!"
"This one looks like a transparent crab......"
Lily's heart was suddenly lifted, it was not a ball or a bug, His Highness was really deceiving people......! It's also strange that there are insects, just now seeing that there is nothing in the water! When it was her turn, the little girl could no longer pretend not to care, and could not wait to squint her eyes and put her head close to the microscope.
Then she saw the unbelievable.
In the narrow aperture, I saw many strangely shaped objects swimming freely, some of them were square in shape, with soft hair all over them, some resembling a mixture of beetles and crabs, and some resembling wheat grains with long legs. No matter how peculiar their appearance, most of them are transparent, as if they have no shell or skin, and you can clearly see the inside of the body - of course, the stomach of these bugs is almost empty.
"Your Highness, are these really worms?" the scroll asked.
"You're probably looking at some protists or unicellular algae, it's not appropriate to say it's bugs, they should be classified as microorganisms. The prince explained.
"Microbes?"
"Yes, they're also independent living beings, but much smaller, and in addition to the two you see, there are smaller bacteria and viruses. The current microscopic magnification is not enough to observe these two microorganisms, which are also responsible for food spoilage and various diseases. The more His Royal Highness Luo Lan explained, the more interested he became, "These tiny lives are everywhere, there are many of them, and fortunately, most of them are not resistant to high temperatures, so why should the water be boiled and drunk, the fish should be cooked and eaten, and the bath water should not be reused, it is for this reason." ”
It's hard to imagine anything smaller than this, but the thought of swallowing a bunch of bugs into her stomach when she drank water before gave Lily goosebumps.
And His Highness said that these inconspicuous little things are the culprits of food spoilage?
If bread and porridge can be kept fresh, then the water ...... I guess that's okay too.
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but release her magic power, covering the water droplets under the microscope.
Unexpected changes have taken place.
I saw that some of the "bugs" trembled, and then quickly changed their appearance, their skin was no longer transparent, as if they were wearing purple armor, and tentacles grew around them, and began to devour the insects that had not changed around them. Wrong...... Not devouring, Lily saw, they were assimilating each other at an alarming rate. The tentacles are like sharp thin knives that can be used to transform other microorganisms into their own form when they pierce into their bodies.
I don't know if it's an illusion, she thinks that these mutant insect swarms are still changing those invisible lifeforms, and soon, a little purple light spot appeared in the water. After a few breaths, more and more spots of light gradually joined together, as if a lilac carpet was laid in the field of vision. The tentacle insects are lined up one by one on the stalls, neatly like an army. As if sensing their own attention, their tentacles were all raised upwards as if in salute.
For the first time, she saw what her abilities really were. (To be continued.) )