Chapter 107 Harold: Delivered to my door...
"...Okay, that's all for today. Let's try to pollinate the female plant first, so you can digest what we talked about today." Harold tore off a page filled with drawings and handed it to Dixia.
"After today's experiment, if you are interested, you can review your notes. If there is anything you don't understand, write it down and ask me tomorrow."
"Is this the end?" Dixia touched her head. "But I feel like you still have a lot to say. I'm still a little dizzy.
And when you were talking about plant hybridization just now, you kept using the example of Bubble Orange and Something Orange. Aren’t we studying the Deception Flower? Are the two related?"
"I will teach you the parts that I didn't mention in the experiment. Most of them are not useful to us now. I used citrus hybridization as an example because there are successful cases in the archives of Ami Rido College.
But the hybridization of the cheat flower does not have this. This is a topic I pioneered. There is a certain connection between the two, but the hybridization of the cheat flower involves elemental forces, so it is a little more complicated. "Harold replied.
Dixia nodded, not quite understanding.
Then, Harold took Dishia to see another small rectangular device. It had metal surfaces on three and five sides and an iron fence on one side. There were two light tubes on the top layer inside, emitting a strange purple light. There was a culture dish on the bottom layer with some powdery substances inside.
"This is an ultraviolet lamp. The pollen in the petri dish is of the fire attribute. It is theoretically difficult to disguise the lightning attribute pollen as fire attribute pollen by simply attaching elemental force.
So I took some fire pollen and put it under a UV lamp. After 12 hours, it will completely lose its germination ability. At that time, I will mix it with the pollen you treated...
Let me think about how to put it. Um... You can think of this as a stealth mission. Your job is to disguise the pollens, and I will use physical methods to change them into enemy clothes. This will greatly increase the success rate of our stealth mission. "
"Oh, I understand!" Dixia suddenly realized.
"Then let's give it a try. It's unlikely that the experiment will succeed in one go, so don't be too nervous."
Harold used a stainless steel sieve to sift out the pollen of the thunder attribute deception flower from the dried anthers, divided them into several small portions, took out two of them first, and stored the others in an incubator set at 20°C.
Then he used the same method to sift out a portion of fire-attributed pollen from the Poison Flower and put it aside, allowing Dixia to compare the properties of the two.
"I can feel the weak elemental power in these two kinds of pollen." Dixia concentrated and finally felt the difference between the two kinds of pollen.
Just as Harold said, the elemental power contained in both is very weak and the difference is extremely subtle. To complete the task of camouflaging pollen is a test of the experimenter's elemental power operation level.
Dixia then realized that this task was difficult. As a mercenary, all she could do most of the time was to gather elemental power and send it out, the faster and more powerful the better.
She could make the elemental force wrap around her sword and fist as she wished, she could focus the elemental force at one point and strike out, or she could create a wall of fire. But now she had to restrain her elemental force as much as possible, making it almost unnoticeable, and also keep the temperature below 40 degrees Celsius, otherwise the pollen would lose its activity.
It's easier to trim your fingernails with a broadsword.
Dixia held her breath and concentrated, struggling to gather a ball of fire elemental power on her fingernails. She stretched out her hand and let her fingertips approach the small handful of pollen. She moved very slowly, for fear that the fire would go out if she was not careful.
"boom!"
“Dang!”
The pollen exploded!
Even the glass petri dish used as a container was broken into several pieces.
"...I'm sorry for breaking your stuff...I'll take it from my salary."
Looking at the broken container, Dixia said apologetically.
"It's okay. This situation is expected. It's part of the experimental expenses. You don't need to bear the cost."
As Haroldt spoke, he leaned over and opened several cabinets at his feet. They were filled with glass petri dishes, roughly estimated to be around five hundred.
After seeing what was inside, Dixia's pupils shrank slightly.
...Is this a preparation for me to fail hundreds of times?!
"I have disinfected and cleaned these utensils in advance, so they can be used directly without worrying about insufficient experimental equipment.
Okay, let's start the next experiment - do you need a break to adjust your state? " Harold took out a new petri dish and put in the pollen.
"No, it's just a small thing, it doesn't take any effort at all." Dixia immediately concentrated on condensing the fire elemental power.
"boom!"
"boom!"
"boom!"
"Boom!"
...
Two hours later, Dixia was holding the table with one hand, breathing heavily, while Harold was picking up the thirty-seven broken petri dishes for recycling.
Dixia raised her head and wiped the sweat off her forehead. Damn, this is harder than I thought!
"Don't be in a hurry. Take a rest for twenty minutes first. Your condition also affects the success rate of the experiment, so the rest time is counted in the three-hour daily working time." Harold said.
"...Thank you, but it's not that I have made no progress at all. The last few explosions were obviously delayed by a few tenths of a second. Did you notice that?!" Although Dixia was tired, there was joy in her tone when she said this, as if she had already won.
Harold nodded and said, "Indeed, this shows that you have already mastered the trick of making the two elements coexist harmoniously."
Dishia nodded, happily accepting the suggestion to take a break.
"Okay, go ahead, maybe I can complete your commission today!" Twenty minutes later, Dixia was full of energy.
Harold smiled and shook his head. "That should be impossible, Ms. Dixia. Preventing the pollen from exploding is only the most basic requirement. It does not mean that these pollens can successfully pollinate the mother plant."
“…I see.”
Dixia felt a little disappointed, but then she entered a state of concentration again and attached the elemental power to the pollen.
...
"That's all for today's work. Thank you for your hard work, Miss Dishia." Harold nodded to Dishia.
"Tomorrow is still 1pm? I will try my best, and I will study the information you gave me carefully..."
Dixia coughed lightly to hide her embarrassment. This was the first time in her mercenary career that she gained nothing from a day's work and caused her employer to lose more than forty petri dishes in vain.
"Don't worry," Harold said again, "It's normal for scholars to fail in experiments, especially without the experience left by their predecessors. Other mercenaries won't be able to do better than you."
"Can I ask a few more questions?" Dixia said anxiously.
"Excuse me."
"What are bisexual flowers? What is asexual reproduction?" asked Dixia.
Harold looked up in surprise. These were all terms that had nothing to do with the current study. He thought Dixia would ask questions about the Pianpian Flower.
Dixia: "Uh... Should I not ask this? I just heard you mention something... something different from the Liar Flower? But you didn't write down their meanings to me, so I am a little curious."
"No, I'm happy to answer these questions for you." Haroldt raised the corners of his mouth.
Dixia loves to study? That's a good thing. Judging from what happened today, she has a strong learning ability. And looking at her muscles, it's good. It meets all his fantasies about future students.
Although he has not graduated yet, he has already selected four student candidates and plans to get in touch with them first.
Four black... ahem, student reserves, three men and one woman, three unlucky guys, and one Xumi's favorite. Dixia is not among them, but he doesn't mind having more.
Harold took out his notebook and drew a diagram while smiling kindly, "A hermaphrodite is..."
Dixia suddenly felt that the smile of the young scholar in front of her was a bit weird, which made her feel a chill on her back, but as soon as Harold opened his mouth to explain her doubts, she was immediately immersed in the ocean of knowledge.