199 - Re-Education

Lynn's words surprised Phillip and the others. They had... electricity in them?

"Do I have it too?" Lydia raised her hand, curiosity evident in her voice.

"Of course, that's why we can move and jump. To be precise, lightning exists in all elements," Lynn nodded, effortlessly tearing a thin sheet of paper into countless pieces and scattering them across the table. He then grabbed a glass sphere, vigorously rubbed it against his palm a dozen times, and brought it close to the shredded paper.

Amidst the amazed gazes of everyone, the tiny pieces of paper trembled slightly, then lifted into the air, drawn to the glass sphere.

Witnessing this spectacle, Lydia, especially, was astonished. She even doubted if this was an effect of magic.

Shaking his head, Lynn chuckled. "This is friction generating electricity. You can try it too, glass works well."

At his words, Lydia immediately grabbed a glass rod, mimicking Lynn's actions, rubbing her palm against it vigorously. Sure enough, all the paper bits stuck to it.

"Uncle Darren, I've learned magic." Lydia exclaimed, holding the glass rod high with uncontainable excitement, shouting at the halflings controlling the airship in the distance.

Upon seeing Lydia's accomplishment, Darren and the others were equally astounded. Rubbing an object with your palm and temporarily gaining the power to control lightning, attracting things—this seemed no different from magic to them.

Seeing this, Lynn couldn't help but smile wryly, recalling a famous saying: "Magic is everywhere, not just in the sciences..."

Jenny, Elok, and others tried experiments out of curiosity.

"Professor Lynn, what's going on? Why does this attraction happen on these objects? Is it the power of lightning?" Phillip couldn't contain his astonishment. He understood the difficulty of controlling lightning far more than those apprentices.

After Lynn's explanation, it seemed like this phenomenon was everywhere. Even ordinary people like Lydia could utilize its power.

"The principle is simple. When two objects rub against each other, due to differing abilities to bind electrons to atomic nuclei, one object loses some electrons, enabling the other to gain surplus electrons... in essence, friction generates electricity," Lynn explained succinctly.

However, everyone present was utterly perplexed.

"What are atomic nuclei? Outer electrons?" Phillip was lost. He probably shouldn't have asked.

"Sir Lynn, can everyone harness this power? Even halflings?" Darren eagerly asked.

He had just heard Lynn say "everyone has electricity," misunderstanding it as everyone being able to learn lightning magic.

That couldn't be possible, could it?

Elok and others chuckled, believing it to be a natural law, akin to how a person automatically falls to the ground when they jump.

According to Professor Lynn's theory, this was the influence of planetary gravity. In some sense, the land beneath their feet manifested a powerful magical force field.

Friction generating electricity probably operated on the same principle. Did this planet possess powerful electrical wizardry?

"Real magic probably won't work. If you mean utilizing the power of electricity with some knowledge and tools, then, of course, it's possible," Lynn said jokingly, also painting a bright picture for them. "With enough knowledge, who knows, using some instruments, you might replicate my electromagnetic railgun to its fullest potential, rivalling legendary magic."

The people present looked at Lynn strangely. This sounded way too exaggerated.

Lydia even wondered if the professor was teasing them.

Legendary magic... she didn't even dare to think about it.

Lynn didn't offer more explanations but instead flipped the glass sphere in his hand, trying to sense magic but couldn't detect any charges.

On second thought, this was normal. Those things were much smaller than atoms, belonging to microscopic particles. If it were that easy, wizards would have already developed electromagnetic magic.

But electricity as a technology could be introduced first and then slowly researched for its magical applications.

Lynn pondered silently. The current "Lost Mist" over the sea had lost its original effect, indicating that they would face threats from the church at any moment.

The exact timeframe wasn't certain—perhaps two to three months, maybe even half a year. It depended on how long the deterrence power of the Mist Sea would last.

If the church sent people to investigate or worse, if merchant ships accidentally entered the Mist Sea, their cover would be blown immediately.

Iyeta Harbor, as an important port and gateway for wizards, would undoubtedly be a primary target.

Preparation had to be made early.

Compared to training more wizards, technological power was evidently the key to enhancing immediate defenses and coping with large-scale warfare—a must.

Magic was indeed miraculous, but a formal wizard needed layers of selection and several years, even a decade, of training. Even with protective magic, they might not withstand several rounds of cannon fire. Sending them to the battlefield as cannon fodder was too much of a loss; they were better suited as researchers.

Only grand wizards, archbishops, at that level, could ignore the threat of cannons and to some extent influence the outcome of a war. Perhaps these human-shaped missiles would need electromagnetic cannons to deal with them.

Gunpowder, internal combustion engines, electromagnetic technology... Lynn realized that the key technologies were too many.

As for those more advanced technologies?

Lynn didn't even consider them because they required establishing a complete industrial system first.

Rubber... this was crucial, but the Wizarding Land lacked it. He could only consider whether magic could solve materials science problems, maybe using alchemy to replace some complex work.

The most crucial aspect was education. Workers familiar with and mastering certain knowledge formed the foundation for building an industrial system. But his time was clearly insufficient; teaching from scratch took too long.

He had to recall all those graduated wizard apprentices, even formal wizards, for reeducation.

TL/n -

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_cloud