The boy's voice was too loud, which attracted the attention of various apprentices.
"Boy, watch your tone," an apprentice sneered. "You have zero qualifications to look down on Adam. He isn't someone you can ever hope to insult."
The boy looked back, unleashing his mental power to find who just defended Adam angrily.
However, Korver held his shoulder and said sternly, "Li, he is right. You should learn to keep your opinions to yourself, especially on things you don't understand."
"Brother Korver..." the boy named Li said, flustered. "Why are you..."
Korver shook his head, shushing Li. He accepted the task on the board and left the Task Hall.
According to mages, unstable and inconsistent elements like electricity are not worth studying. Although it is strong in its early stages, it pales in comparison to other more consistent magic later on. However, Korver was sure that Adam, the creator of psychic power, wouldn't be so stupid.
Besides, getting close to Adam benefits him a lot.
After getting questioned by several alchemy puppets, he came to the 3rd floor of the Elemental Laboratory Building and knocked outside Adam's lab.
It was Frank who opened the door. After Korver expressed his intentions, Frank took him to Adam's room.
"We meet again, Mr. Adam," Korver greeted with a smile.
Adam instantly remembered who he was, but he didn't know his name.
"Korver Butler, here to apply as an assistant."
Adam glanced at him. If Korver was able to enter the apprentice bar, it means that he already knows his path. Why would he ever work as an assistant, then?
However, Adam decided to not pry. After verifying that Korver had mastered his psychic powers, he directly took out a contract and handed it to him. No matter what his intentions were, it doesn't matter under the perfect contract without loopholes.
Korver didn't explain either. He took the contract and read it carefully, and signed his name.
...
Three days later, a total of thirteen people joined the laboratory to become Adam's assistants. Together with James and Frank, he had a total of fifteen assistants. Since they were all proficient in telekinesis, it would save Adam a lot of time. His aim was to verify whether various electrical formula theorems back on Earth could be recreated in an ether-rich environment.
Except for James and Frank, the thirteen other assistants were full of doubts. It was completely different from the elemental laboratory in their impressions -- there was no elemental atmosphere suffocating the laboratory; no magic; no explosions; just simple devices that even mere mortals can use.
Adam was a good talker in normal times, but he became a total tyrant in the lab. Some expressed their doubts to Adam, but they were all brushed away by Adam. He simply asked them day after day, over and over again to do their empirical work and record every tiny change in the data.
They had absolutely no idea how slight changes in data had anything to do with magic.
They had no absolutely no idea the purpose of making a container that can store electricity; they had absolutely no idea the purpose of making a mithril circulation channel for electricity; they didn't know why they had to observe how a compass reacts when electricity is passed through it.
There were many more puzzling experiments like this, but Adam was obsessed with every single change in data. Five months passed just like this.
The Mage Continent is a high-magic environment, which comes from the joint efforts of countless mages making the inert ether active. However, for Adam, this ether wasn't enough for him to verify his theories. He spent a huge amount of power stones to purchase an Ether Environment Generator, and threw in a few ether crystals without the slightest hesitation in the stunned eyes of everyone.
"Adam, what are you...?" Korver stammered.
For these apprentices, the ether crystals were simply too hard for them to obtain for their capabilities. For some apprentices, this was the first time they saw ether crystals as well. They couldn't imagine that Adam would simply throw away ether crystals as if it was nothing into the generator.
Adam set a timer on the generator and warned, "Now, I want all of you to shield yourself as much as possible using your psychic power. In three minutes, the ether levels in this laboratory will be extremely high. If you feel dizzy, you may exit the laboratory and rest. Next, record all the changes of each value on the instruments. Every. Single. One."
Hearing his warning, everyone hurriedly started to stack psychic barriers on top of one another, feeling a little excited. Maybe, they would finally know the purpose of Adam's experiments over the past few months.
Soon, the generator began to inject invisible ether into the laboratory. Everyone, including Adam, started to have difficulty breathing. Their mental power began to riot uncontrollably, and the magic power poured into their psychic barriers like a mountain.
Under Adam's guidance, they methodically started the experiment. During this period, some apprentices were forced to leave the laboratory as they couldn't handle the etheric pressure. They returned after they recovered, starting the experiment again in a race against time.
For two days, even though Adam's body was corroded by magic, he never left his laboratory. He simply stared at every collected data intently, and made high-speed calculations and conclusions in his mind.
Just as his body was about to collapse, he successfully managed to verify that his data was also valid in an ether-rich environment. As soon as he turned off the generator, an amazing change occurred in Adam...
