Chapter 387: Chapter 386: Five Imidazole Anion Salt! (Popular Science, Research Chapter; Skip if Uninterested)

Many days had passed in the blink of an eye.

During these days, White Stone City had been shrouded in a tense and gloomy atmosphere. Wizard Level battles could erupt at any time and place. Skirmishes, ambushes, and counter-ambushes were rampant, turning the entire White Stone City into a battlefield.

Ordinary people walking on the roads of White Stone City would hardly step forward before potentially witnessing massive explosions erupting from beneath their feet or beside them, blasting bodies to smithereens and leaving no trace of their remains. This caused the multitude of citizens in White Stone City to be in a constant state of panic. Normally, if there was nothing urgent, they dared not step outside, and the streets were chillingly desolate.

Some even started packing their luggage to flee White Stone City with their families, seeking refuge with relatives elsewhere.

Richard, on the other hand, did not have much of a reaction to this but quietly sped up some of his research.

…

Many days later.

Inner Box World, main laboratory.

Several incandescent lights were lit in the laboratory, dispelling all darkness as if it were broad daylight.

At that moment, Richard stood in front of a circular lab table in the middle of the laboratory, carefully reaching out to pick up a beaker from the lab table and looking at a small pile of white crystalline substances at the bottom that resembled chunks of salt, his eyes flickering before he took a long breath out.

“Sigh.”

The fatigue on Richard’s face from long hours of labor eased a bit, a faint gleam shining in the depths of his eyes as he spoke, “It looks like it’s a success, hmm, indeed a success. Not an easy feat.”

Truly not easy.

The reason for this statement was because the crystals in the beaker, while looking like salt, and in a certain sense truly being salt, were not the ordinary table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) used in daily life.

Its name was…

Five Imidazole Anion Salt!

Exactly.

Five Imidazole… Anion… Salt!

A bizarre and tongue-twisting name, signifying one thing–it was not an ordinary substance, not something easily obtained.

Its existence, in a sense, represented the pinnacle of a whole world in a certain field.

And this so-called “certain field,” broadly speaking, was the military field, specifically the field of explosives.

Five Imidazole Anion Salt was a type of explosive, a highly advanced explosive, an explosive containing an extraordinarily high level of scientific technology.

The reason for creating this substance was primarily based on an idea Richard had:

Ever since leaving the Blue Lion Kingdom, through constant research and effort and using scientific methods to explore the Wizard World, he had gained not inconsiderable achievements.

Not to mention the magical knowledge system he had built, just in terms of sheer combat power, he was no less than an ordinary wizard. With some preparation, he could also kill a Second-level Wizard at a certain risk. Suo Men’s second death was an example.

However, facing wizards above Second-level, and even more formidable figures, posed significant difficulties. Still, given enough time to prepare, allowing him to fully utilize home ground advantage, even against a real Third-level Wizard stronger than a Second-level, he was confident in killing them.

After all, human bodies are fragile: bacterial biological agents, viral biological agents, rickettsial biological agents, chlamydial biological agents, toxin-based biological agents, fungal biological agents–there would always be one effective type.

A wizard, even if capable of defending against smallpox, cholera, and anthrax, surely couldn’t defend against all toxic substances like botulinum toxin, Ebola virus, etc.

As long as the essence of wizards, as carbon-based life forms, as mammals, did not change, they had to submit to the laws of science.

If all else failed, creating a massive explosion, generating an extremely high radiation field, or even deploying a nuclear explosion would certainly kill them. Implementing these measures, technically, was not as difficult as imagined; the only limitation was materials.

In Richard’s view, his combat abilities were not a fixed value but rather a range. This range stretched from a First-level Wizard up to beyond Third-level Wizards. The limit was incalculable.

This might make him appear formidable, but from another perspective, his combat capability was highly unstable.

With preparation, he feared no Third-level Wizards, but without preparation, in a rushed situation, facing several ambushing First-level Wizards could be fatal. Previously, due to lack of preparation, at Great Scholar Socrates’s residence, after encountering a powerful disheveled man in blue and releasing a Magic Salvo, he chose to retreat rather than entangle further.

Thus: His ceiling for combat power was very high, virtually non-existent, but his floor was very low.

According to the bucket theory, what determines how much water a bucket can hold isn’t the highest plank, but the lowest plank. What determines a person’s overall strength isn’t their strongest aspect, but their unavoidable weaknesses.

Now he was in a secure dark place. But once Suo Men, Mu Konni, and the attention of the Mysterious Organization behind them were focused on him, targeting him, then perhaps a few First-level Wizards might kill him. He would not forget that Giant Dragon Gregory, despite his strong power, was squarely targeted and killed by Suo Men–a wizard whom he had killed twice.

To bring down a person, you don’t need to be stronger than them in every aspect–just stronger in one aspect and then make good use of the specific environment.

To avoid being defeated in such a way, he had to raise his combat power floor.

So, he planned to summarize the research results he had obtained in the Wizard World during this time, performing a conversion of knowledge to application.

Turning theoretical knowledge into real combat power.

So, how should he proceed?

Disregarding irreplicable artifacts, his current strongest magical offensive means were two: using an intricately complex Magic Rune, engraved on an enlarged crystal plate to release a First Circle Magic–Meteor Flame Burst Skill; requiring a long “charge” time for preparation, consuming extensive brain computation power, spiritual power, and Free Energy Elements, unleashing a real, potent Magic Salvo.

And these two spells had one thing in common–they exploded–explosions!

This was because explosions were the most efficient way of energy release, able to cause maximum destruction in the shortest time.

Therefore, under the condition of expending equal mana, Fire Magic was often more powerful than other types of Shape Energy Magic.

Richard pondered–could he enhance the degree of explosions, could he make the explosions more powerful?

To achieve this, to enhance explosions scientifically, one must understand one thing–the nature of explosives–explosives.

Without explosives, there would be no powerful explosion–at least in terms of chemical explosions.

So, what exactly are explosives?

Generally speaking, explosives are substances that can burn or decompose at extremely high speeds. Explosives are highly adaptable to the environment and can detonate outwardly, releasing large amounts of thermal energy and generating high-temperature, high-pressure gases, causing significant destructive power, regardless of whether they are sealed, the amount of explosive used, or even in zero oxygen conditions, as long as there is sufficient energy to trigger them.

The power of explosives varies, with the weakest being black gunpowder, first invented in ancient China, and the most powerful explosives continue to evolve and improve with technological advancements.

To assess the power of explosives, there are two key indicators: explosive heat and blast speed.

Explosive heat refers to the amount of energy released during detonation, the higher the number, the greater the power.

Blast speed can be seen as the speed of explosion propagation; the higher the blast speed, the more explosive material detonates in a unit time, resulting in stronger destructive power.

Generally, black gunpowder–a primary explosive made from sulfur, potassium nitrate, and charcoal–does not possess strong power, nor does it support widespread use due to its limited explosive speed of 500 meters per second.

For instance, mercury fulminate, invented by Edward Charles Howard using mercury and nitric acid, has an explosive heat of 1486 kilojoules per kilogram and a blast speed of 5400 meters per second, qualifying it within the modern range of explosives and making it widely applicable, mostly in detonating agents.

For example, gun cotton or nitrocellulose, made simply from acid and cotton, has an explosive heat of 4053 kilojoules per kilogram and a blast speed of 6300 meters per second, making its power several times greater than black gunpowder.

For instance, TNT, or “2,4,6-trinitrotoluene,” invented by J. Wilbrand, is famous because it does not react chemically with metals or absorb moisture, allowing for many years of storage. It is also less susceptible to friction and vibration, hardly exploding unless detonated by a detonator, even if shot by a gun.

TNT is very stable, making it the most widely used explosive on modern Earth. When calculating large-scale explosions, it is converted into TNT mass.

TNT has an explosive heat of 4200 kilojoules per kilogram and a blast speed of 6900 meters per second; its data is excellent, and it’s cheap to produce, making it the best overall explosive on modern Earth.

However, TNT, while the best overall, is not the most powerful explosive.

There are many explosives more powerful than TNT, such as liquid oxygen explosives, bitter acid, C4, nitroglycerin, Dana explosives, and so on – each stronger than the last.

Among these numerous explosives, there stands an even stronger one, named… Hexogen.

Hexogen, with the scientific name cyclotrimethylene trinitramine and codename RDX, was originally intended for use in medicine but later used for explosives. It has an explosive heat of 5400 kilojoules per kilogram and a blast speed of 8750 meters per second.

Above Hexogen, we have Taian.

Taian, PETN, with the scientific name pentaerythritol tetranitrate, also used initially in medicine, later in explosives. It has an explosive heat of 5895 kilojoules per kilogram and a blast speed of 8300 meters per second.

Above Taian, there is Octogen.

Octogen, with the scientific name octogen and codename HMX, has an explosive heat of 5673 kilojoules per kilogram and a blast speed of 9110 meters per second.

Hexogen, Taian, and Octogen are considered the three kings of the explosive world. These surpass common explosives dramatically and due to their high cost, are generally not used in ordinary ammunition–an immense waste. Instead, they find greater use in high-power missile warheads, detonators for nuclear weapons, or as components in solid rocket propellants.

Even so, these three great kings were not the most powerful in the world of explosives.

Technology is endless, and after them came monsters like CL-20 (Hexanitrohexanitrazine) and DNAF (4,4′-Dinitro-3,3′-azoxyfurazan), with blast speeds reaching 10,000 meters per second.

Above these monsters lay even more terrifying beasts.

The beast was named… Five Imidazole Anion Salt!

Five Imidazole Anion Salt marked a return to the pinnacle in the explosives field for modern Earth, China–before this, advanced explosives like Hexogen, Taian, and Octogen were invented by other countries on Earth, with China following suit. However, Five Imidazole Anion Salt was a breakthrough initially achieved by China, inventing it successfully–after more than a thousand years, China returned to the peak position it had held when it first invented black gunpowder.

Five Imidazole Anion Salt is a high-energy azide substance, and explosives made from high-energy azide substances are generally referred to as Salt Grain Explosives.

The reason for this name is that just a tiny particle of this substance, no more than 0.1 grams, is sufficient to destroy a laboratory fume hood.

According to theory, Five Imidazole Anion Salt is considered the highest level of high-energy azide substances achievable due to technical limitations, known as N10, which is the strongest explosive that can be made, far surpassing any known energetic material on Earth in the field of chemical explosions.

Explosive heat… The explosive heat of Five Imidazole Anion Salt is no longer of much significance, because just its explosive force can reach 14,000 m/s–over 40 times the speed of sound, and the blast pressure produced will reach 60-90 GPa, nearly a million times atmospheric pressure. Anything as hard as it is under its power will become as fragile as paper, then vanish in a puff of smoke.

This is Five Imidazole Anion Salt!

“Click!”

Richard gently picked up a particle of “Five Imidazole Anion Salt” with tweezers, squinting at it.

The stability of “Five Imidazole Anion Salt” is not weak, and it is not as dangerous as substances like Nitroglycerin. Though not as excellent as TNT, it has a decomposition temperature as high as 116.8 degC, making it quite stable at room temperature.

The reason Richard was so cautious was that what he had made was not exactly “Five Imidazole Anion Salt” but a similar substance to it.

This mainly stemmed from the limited technological level of the laboratory; he had used many alternative methods and relied on some magic runes and spells to laboriously construct the product. It might be very similar to “Five Imidazole Anion Salt,” having almost identical functions and properties, but there were still some differences.

He decided to call this similar substance… Magic Salt.

Yes, Magic Salt.

And before he fully understood all the properties of Magic Salt, he thought it wise to handle it with care.

After observing the Magic Salt carefully for a while, Richard already had a complete idea in mind: to combine this Magic Salt with some of the spells he knew to maximize the dual power of the spell and Magic Salt.

This way, he could ensure that he had a significant advantage when facing ordinary wizards, achieving the goals he wanted to realize.

Of course, to see how much of the goal could be achieved, actual testing was necessary.

“Whew–”

Richard gently exhaled, carefully placing the Magic Salt particle he had picked up with tweezers back into a beaker, waved his hand, and stored all the Magic Salt in the Space Iron Ring. He then stepped forward, pushed open the door of the main laboratory, and headed towards the Magic Test Field.

…