Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Chapter 281: The winter is here II

"Ken, how's your little side project coming?"

After sending away the last batch who finished their cultivation using the Apex, Benedict heaved a sigh of relief and came to Ken's table in the huge hall. The hall had been separated into three sections. Each of them belonged to Reghys, Ken, and Benedict where they pursued their own experiments and inventions.

Reghys's section had huge racks and each of her work was perfectly lined up on the rack while Benedict's and Ken's workplace was unorganized and things like metal pipes, bolts, and energy stones laid on their workplace chaotically.

Reghys's work mainly focused on improving the Apex's efficiency and power while Benedict focused on creating Energy Armaments. Ken, however, assigned the role of inventing new futuristic weapons of his time, intricate devices, and helpful machines like a self-sustaining engine for ships.

Obviously, the first and the last category wasn't easy to do considering the required parts were either nonexistent in this time period or still not invented. Yet, this didn't stop Ken from reverse-engineering the cannon they bought from the auction and he was near the point of sending his plans to mass-produce the cannons.

"You mean the light bulbs?"

Benedict nodded and came to his table to check out the blueprints lying on Ken's table.

"I can't wait to see how this tiny thing will produce a light brighter than a torch or chandeliers powered by life stones?"

Benedict pointed at the spiral-shaped prototype made of paper and said.

The Nebula Project, that's what Ken called this which included a water supply, more affordable and cheap energy supply, and glass production. According to Ken's blueprint, Benedict could see various tubes were embedded in underground tunnels, reaching every residential and industrial building. It was easy to modify each building because they had been designed with reserve openings for the tubes by dwarves as per Ken's orders. 

"If we can use the dam water's kinetic energy to rotate these wheels, we can generate Life energy. It won't be as powerful as the Life Energy inside the Life stones, but it would be more than enough to make create light through the bulbs "

"So that is why we are building huge wheels at the dam? Clever idea, Ken"

To generate as much Kinetic energy as possible and reduce energy loss during transportation, Ken altered the plans a bit. Instead of drawing water from Agoria's various rivers, they would use the dam to generate energy. Given that Agoria didn't lack a water supply and they had been already building a dam to supply water for Sigalla and avoid floods in Agoria, Ken chose the Dam for his purpose of generating energy.

With the help of Stodemar and his men, he quickly picked out a suitable place at the dam to build rotating wheels. The dam was designed as such as they could not only transport water to Sigalla but also purvey water for daily uses such as drinking and cleansing and also for converting Kinetic energy into cheap and less powerful Life Energy.

Based on the construction plan, Ken set up a workroom with all the equipment to build a small prototype of the Nebula Project.

The complete set of equipment included smaller size rotating wheels, a makeshift water turbine generator, the spiral-shaped bulb made of glass in Benedict's hand, and a water tank at a higher place to stimulate the water flow of the dam. Together they formed the workings of the Nebula project.

The prototypes had already been successfully tested. Ken was confident that their construction would go smoothly. His current focus was on the power supply to their kingdoms considering they couldn't use precious and expensive Life stones to provide light for commoners.

In this era of time, chandeliers used by the rich required Life stones as a power source. So this whole converting Kinetic energy of water to less powerful Life Energy was a new thing to everyone.

Neither Benedict nor Reghys had any idea of this process. Given that he did not know much about this process of creating a light bulb himself either, and that all his knowledge of bulbs came from helping his granddaughter with her homework, he decided to build a model in the castle first. If he succeeded, he would explain it to Benedict and Gaya and start the production of light bulbs.

Once they fitted the kingdom with light bulbs, Everlight's beauty would enter a new level.

"Moment of truth, Benedict pull the lever down"

Ken sighed and asked as Benedict placed his hand on the lever that had the connection to the water tank. If everything went according to Ken's plan, the force of the water would rotate the blades on the rotor shaft of a generator. The generator, in turn, would be able to convert the kinetic energy of the rotor to Life Energy.

Once the Life Energy had been generated, the light bulb in Benedict's hand could produce light by sending the energy through the wire mesh inside the bulb. The wire mesh was forged by the dwarves using a metal called Lastalt which could be founded in the mines of Emir. The mineral was considered as waste by minors since none had found a way to use it except Ken.

The resistance of the Lastalt wire would heat the bulb and eventually, the wire mesh gets so hot that it glows, producing light.

To make it a stable light, there were two more steps which were considered to be the most difficult part in making these bulbs. The first one was to evacuate the bulb, preventing the wire mesh from reacting with the outside air. The second was sealing it to ensure that the air could not enter the bulb. 

Without a doubt, only highly trained blacksmiths like Thirbig could make something like the transparent glass bulb in Benedict's hand. Since the wire would become extremely hot, it would eventually meltdown. That was why the bulb needed a vacuum inside, but Ken knew that filling the bulb with inactive air particles to absorb the heat and produce colorful lights.

After a long discussion with Ukita, Ken found out a simple spell that could create pure nitrogen and nitrogen was an excellent choice for this.

As nitrogen was lighter than the air, using a simple downward exhaust method, the bulb could be easily filled with nitrogen. It was much simpler than the vacuuming process. When the other end of the exhaust was also pure nitrogen, the bulb was quickly sealed with another simple spell. 

And just after a few seconds Benedict pulled the lever down, he felt a mild heat on his palm as the bulb slowly became brighter and brighter.

Looking at the white light coming from the bulb in Benedict's hand, Ken felt all sorts of emotions welling up in his mind. It was something outdated in his time but now this bulb represented the most advanced technological step.

"Wow, you did it!"

Benedict was utterly shocked looking at the bright light. In his experience, only the chandeliers powered by life stones could produce brighter light as this bulb, yet Ken achieved this without using a single life stone.

"Now, people don't need torches to light their homes"

Ken finally smiled and caressed the bulb like a baby.

"Go, show this to his majesty!"

Benedict felt very happy about Ken's success and urged him to go meet Don as Ken nodded and ran towards the teleportation array.

*********************

"Ken, are you going to tell me why you ask me to come here?"

Don was flying above Ishikara when Ken suddenly appeared in his castle and asked him to come back to Everlight. But no matter how many times he asked, Ken didn't tell him why as he said it's a surprise. And since he didn't want to spoil Ken's mood by ordering him to reveal his surprise, he and Arrora followed him back to Everlight.

When he reached the backyard of the castle, he saw Knight was already waiting for him with Benedict.

"Did he tell you why he summoned us?"

Knight asked Don when he saw him as Don shook his head.

"He said it's a surprise" 

"It's better be a good one, I was training when he brought me here"

Knight looked at Benedict and said.

"You'll be surprised, General Knight, believe me"

Don could see the anticipation and the excitement in Ken's eyes as he ran towards a lever.

"Put out the torches!"

Ken ordered the guards to put out all the torches in the backyard before he placed his hand on the lever.

On this dark night, Ken finally pulled down the lever.

All of a sudden, at the center of the backyard, a bright white light lit up. It would not sway and extinguish in the wind like the light of a candle and it never flickered like fire. Though it could merely light up within a radius of a few meters, a stable light in the wind was something that the people had never seen before.

"I've never seen such a small chandelier"

Knight's mouth opened slightly in surprise as he reached out his hand to touch the bulb above his head.

"Well General Knight, it's not a chandelier, and it's not using a life stone to produce light"

At this moment, even Don was stunned to hear Ken. Even in the divine continent, they used Battle stones to light up chandeliers and only the rich had chandeliers as the commoners used torches, just like in this world.

The fixed look on their faces and the silence of the scene told everything.

He had brought light bulbs that use cheap and affordable Life Energy to this world.

"What does it use then?"

"One of the many types of Life Energy, General Knight, the Electric energy"