Doing a Little Experiment

The clear sky suddenly darkened, and in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, ink seemed to be spilled across the azure parchment.

A strong wind followed, shaking the branches and leaves of a giant oak tree in the center of the village. Ripe acorns rattled as they fell to the ground, like rain.

Children in the village, around Frederick's age, seemed to be celebrating. Laughing, shouting, and excitedly rushing under the tree to pick up the acorns on the ground.

Some children took off their clothes to hold their spoils, while others directly put them inside their shirts through the neckline, pressing one hand against their stomach to keep the acorns from falling out.

Ripe acorns were an important food supplement for the villagers. When eaten raw, they had a bitter taste with a hint of fragrance, so people boiled them in water to remove the bitterness, or roasted them dry and peeled off the shells. The pulp could also be ground into flour and added to dough.

The oak tree in the center of the village was over sixty meters tall, with a crown diameter of nearly eighty meters. Its trunk was so wide that several people were needed to embrace it.

No one knew how old the oak tree was; the elders only remembered that it was already standing there when they were young.

A legend circulated in the village: when their ancestors fled here, they had no food, and everyone was hungry and tired. At that moment, a strong wind blew, and the falling acorns saved everyone's lives. So, they decided to settle here and built the village around the oak tree.

The wind grew stronger, bringing with it a hint of chill.

An orange-red oak leaf swirled in the wind and fell with raindrops in front of a pair of small leather shoes.

Frederick sat on the steps in front of the village hall's main entrance, his right hand resting on his knee, supporting his chin, and glanced at the messenger of autumn.

When he looked up, pea-sized raindrops and dull thunder had taken over the world. The children picking up acorns disappeared in the blink of an eye.

A little rain blew onto Frederick's face, feeling cold.

The village chief wanted to go over and invite the Young Master into the village office to shelter from the rain, but Ah Fu reached out and stopped him, silently shaking his head.

Everyone in the castle knew that the Young Master had a habit since he was young: when it rained, he would often sit there quietly by himself and watch the rain, especially at night.

Whenever a heavy rain fell, Frederick couldn't help but think of that night when he traveled to a certain island nation, the night when heavy rain and a truck appeared together.

He still remembered that when the truck was about to hit someone, another person rushed over and pushed that person away, only to be hit themselves. Then the truck seemed to lose control and crashed towards him. And the last sound he heard before losing consciousness: "Damn, hit the wrong one, and hit an extra one."

Whenever this happened, he would try his best to clear his head and not think about anything.

Recently, Frederick had been thinking about things from all angles, his mind unable to get a moment's rest. Today, he finally had a rare moment to relax his brain.

The rain was getting heavier, lightning appeared in the sky, and water gradually accumulated on the ground.

The sky quickly darkened, and in the storm, a faint smell of cooking smoke could be vaguely detected.

Soon after, the smell of dinner also came from the village office. Pea and vegetable soup was already boiling, and in the steamer on the pot, bread with acorn flour that could be used as armor was being steamed soft. By the fire, blood sausage was being roasted, made by filling intestines with offal, minced meat, and blood. A fist-sized pot of small cheese was melting the cheese.

Ah Fu spread a tablecloth on the table by the fire pit, placed candles and lit them. After dinner was cooked, he brought the pea and vegetable soup, placed the steamed soft bread in a basket, and put the roasted blood sausage on a plate before pouring the melted cheese over it.

After preparing dinner, Ah Fu went to the door to invite the Young Master to eat.

As soon as Frederick sat down, the village chief next to him began strumming an out-of-tune six-stringed instrument and singing.

"In the oak forest,

In the green oak forest,

Stands a forester's house,

Here every morning one can see,

In the fresh, free morning mist,

The forester's little daughter runs out,

The forester's daughter runs out full of life..."

In the past, when Count Weissen dined, like other noble lords, there were singers performing nearby to entertain.

Oak Village had no singers, so the old village chief personally took the stage and sang folk tunes.

Tonight's pea and vegetable soup was quite tasty, the acorn flour bread was also easy enough to swallow, the blood sausage had a very unique taste, the cheese was a bit sour, and the guest singer was a little off-key and used the wrong words.

Frederick quietly finished his dinner and had Ah Fu give the village chief 1 Kreuzer silver coin.

The village night was only for early sleep, with no lights whatsoever, only the sound of the wind, the rain, and the shaking of the oak tree branches and leaves.

Frederick told Ah Fu and the others to rest, while he sat by the fire pit, roasting the acorns the village chief had brought after returning home earlier. With his right hand, he flipped through the canal blueprint on his lap to clear his head, and with his left palm facing up, ten small balls of different magic elements continuously circled above his hand.

After this period of daily exercise before bed, he could now make these elemental balls move simultaneously in different orbits like electrons, but the speed was still very slow when multitasking.

After looking at the blueprint for a while, a thought suddenly popped into Frederick's mind.

Magic elements move according to rules to form magic. What would happen if the movement speed of the magic elements increased?

No sooner said than done, he put the heavy parchment blueprint back and then sat by the fire pit, trying to condense an ice ball.

The Ice Element was quite special; it was actually an intermediate form between the Fire Element and the Water Element. Perhaps the Fire Element should be called the "Heat Element".

The structure of the Ice Ball Spell was very simple, with relatively few magic circuits, making it easy to manipulate.

The ice elements within the ice ball moved faster and faster under the manipulation of Mental Power. In the blink of an eye, a layer of solid ice formed outside the magic circuit in a spherical shape.

Frederick tapped the finger-sized ice ball with fire tongs; it seemed very hard.

He didn't stop, continuously increasing the movement speed of the internal ice elements without increasing the total amount. After a few breaths, all the ice elements had transformed into solid ice.

Then he threw the ice ball into the tea pot above the fire pit. If it were an ordinary ice ball, this pot of slightly boiling tea would turn into an iced drink.

If the Fire Element could have such an effect, it should be able to make the frozen tea re-boil.

The next moment, a wave of cold air swept through the entire hall, making Frederick himself shiver.

Not only was the tea in the pot frozen, but even the charcoal fire in the hearth was extinguished by the cold.

Frederick's mouth twitched in surprise, and then he immediately relit the fire to warm himself up.

He didn't dare try the Fireball Spell again; it might cause a fire.

Flames quickly rose in the hearth, and the cold in the hall soon disappeared.

After warming up, another idea popped into Frederick's mind.

He thought of particle colliders and wondered what would happen if magic elements collided.

This time, he didn't dare use magic elements with great destructive power; Light Element was safer.

Frederick cupped his hands in front of him, and two rings the size of ping pong balls appeared between his hands. The Light Elements in the rings rotated in opposite directions.

After their rotation speed became very fast, the two rings overlapped each other.

With a flash of white light, the colliding Light Elements scattered in all directions, as beautiful as fireworks.

This is quite fun, he thought. I can go show Maria.

So, he decided to try again, increasing the speed of the Light Elements to make the elements that were sent flying look even more brilliant.

The speed of the Light Elements in the two rings increased repeatedly, reaching Frederick's limit.

Next, he once again overlapped the two counter-rotating rings...

After a flash of white light and a deafening roar, the roof of the village office was gone.

When Frederick came to his senses, he found himself in an oak tree, with cold, icy rain hitting his face haphazardly.