章 19: Experiments
[[Detected new script, please describe its function.]]
A sudden popup appeared in front of Ivan. Unlike the last time, where both the input and output of his script had been a System item, this time the result wasn't recognized by the System, which should have prompted this popup.
Not very imaginative concerning names, Ivan just named the script 'Goblin Fang Ivory to Buttons'. It was a descriptive but boring name which was something even he had to admit.
[[Detected script using 'Goblin Fang'...
Analyzing result...
Determined to be a unique use of 'Goblin Fang'...
Increasing counter for quest 'Research is the foundation of any crafter'.
]]
"This seems unusual.", Ivan thought when he saw the next prompt. Until now the popups had always been short and to the point, while this seemed to be different. The two lines in the middle seemed to be kind of unnecessary. Maybe it was because this was a quest?
"Whatever. I'm just glad this counts.", he turned his focus back on what he had just created. He carefully took one of the buttons into his hand and let his finger slid over the smooth surface. "It still seems like a waste.", he then lamented. He felt that these buttons could be used for luxurious suits since their texture and pattern looked great.
But he wasn't a designer so maybe his thoughts were completely wrong, who knew.
Carefully putting the buttons aside to be used later, he picked up the leftovers of the fang.
"Hmm, how should I test this?", he thought out loud.
"Let's first test it reacts to knives and at last I can just throw it down.", he formulated his plan.
Since the only knife in his room were the ones he had crafted himself and he didn't want to start his tests with them, he took the piece to the kitchen.
First grabbing a normal dining knife, he tried to cut the surface of the fang. Surprisingly the knife left a mark at the side, but not at the smooth surface, where he had cut off the buttons.
"Huh?", in his mind, this was all the same material, so why was the knife able to cut the sides but not the front?
To make sure that there was truly a difference, he repeated the experiment, and truly, there was a definitive difference in cut resistance between these surfaces. "Did I change something while cutting off the button? Let's check later"
He picked up a sharper kitchen knife and once again tried it out on the two different surfaces, with the same result. The cut in the side was much deeper and had been much easier, while the flat surface was still unmarked.
Seeing this, he decided to once again check out this piece with the NAT. But first, it was necessary to eat. The last usage of the NAT had used up most of the energy he had restored after sleeping and eating. This reminded him, he hadn't checked the clock after waking up.
He pulled out his phone and took a look at the time. He was then surprised to see that it was not only the next day, but it was also nearly evening. He seemed to have slept for quite some time. In fact, he had even missed class. Not that it mattered much since every student was free to attend or not. The only thing that mattered was the homework and the examen at the end of the semester.
Having eaten his fill, he went back to his room and inserted the piece of fang into the NAT. Once again he selected the manual mode and took a closer look at the cuts he had made as well as the smooth surface, trying to find the reason for the huge difference.
To his surprise, the sides of the cuts looked exactly like the smooth end. "Could it be a matter of direction?", he wondered. Thinking about it, the fang had been designed for a certain purpose, which was to pierce into flesh and then rip it to pieces. So it made sense that different directions had different properties. The interesting question was just how the structure of the material created these differences.
"Hm, can I somehow record this structure?", as soon as he voiced out this question a popup appeared before him.
[[ Do you want to save the current scan? ]]
After clicking yes, a new section appeared on his NAT interface, which contained saved scans. Now he would be able to check it out without having to waste energy on scanning or even having the sample placed inside the NAT.
"Now for the last test.", Ivan took out his knife, which had accompanied him for the whole third-floor run, and gently slit it across the smooth surface of the fang. Surprisingly the knife which had never failed to cut anything only left a small white mark on the surface.
"Wow, this stuff is really great, if only it was larger.", he once again moaned the small size of the fang. It would be a great material for cut protection. Sure he could work around the small size, but it still was a problem that he didn't have a lot of material to work with.
Now for the last test which was to check how it reacts to impacts. First Ivan simply dropped the sample on the floor and seeing that it was completely intact, smashed it on the floor. After picking it up from under the bed, he saw that it was still intact.
With that, he had finished his experiments on the ivory and it was time to turn his attention towards the other thing he had extracted from the Goblin Fang.
Picking up the small vial of red powder he looked at it contemplatively. From the description, this should be the crystallized blood of all of the goblin's prey. But he hadn't seen anything but goblins in the dungeon, so who knew what animals or monster's blood this was.
Having no idea where to start, he once again scoured the internet for information. Sadly he couldn't really find any information. Maybe a chemist or biologist would be able to find more information, but he was a math student. But even if he were a chemist or biologist he would need a lab to truly research this substance.
"Guess I can only research this if I have money to create a research team.", he accepted the fact that he alone was unable to research that substance at his current state. This of course also meant that he had to delay finishing the quest.
He then decided to push away anything concerning the dungeons for now. Although he liked how his life had gotten a game-like aspect, this didn't mean that he could just ignore anything else. He had already done so ever since the system had appeared on Monday, neglecting his homework as well as his other work. And with the dungeons currently unable to provide him with food and lodging, it was necessary for him to prioritize the other things.
So he stowed everything away and took out his university homework.
He didn't realize how the time passed and only realized how long he had been working when he finished answering the last question on his sheet.
"Huh?", he looked in surprise at the papers he had filled with formulas. "How did I already finish?", he asked confused. Normally he would need multiple days to finish one of these sheets and today he had managed to do it in one sitting, and judging by the clock it hadn't even taken him five hours.
Five hours of total focus, which wasn't something he had been capable of before. But now he didn't even feel exhausted. Neither his mind nor his body felt as tired as he had felt after just one short usage of the NAT.
"Is that the reason?", he wondered, before answering his own question, "No, it can't. Even if using the NAT trains my concentration and mind, it wouldn't work this fast. It should have something to do with the nanite-suite."
"But even with increased focus and energy, it shouldn't be possible to finish it this fast. Did my thinking and brain improve as well? What else did change?", the possibility scared and intrigued him. If the nanite-suite really had such an effect, then what would happen if you upgraded it?
For now, there was no way for him to truly understand the effect of the nanite-suit. But that didn't mean that he couldn't make use of its effects. In a way, the increased efficiency in solving math problems solved a potential problem for him. If he wanted to continue his dungeon explorations he would need to use quite some time on it. At the same time, he didn't want his studies to suffer, so now that his studies had become easier, it solved the problem.
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