Time travel game, starting from Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Page 14

Just from the aroma of spices wafting into your nose, and the sight of meat served in buckets, no one would doubt that Mojiang is not aristocratic.

Not just nobles, but absolutely the highest nobility.

Mo Jiang has a big appetite; at least half of the food he brought was for himself.

Even so, the remaining half was enough to make the four boys eat until they were round and full.

"Take a break, then start working again."

As he spoke, Mo Jiang tossed a booklet to the four of them, saying, "The fences and stables will be constructed following the instructions in this booklet."

Henry and others clearly lacked experience in building fences and stables; the knowledge barrier in the Middle Ages was second only to reproductive isolation.

What Mo Jiang provided were modern printed instructions for building fences and stables. None of the four boys could read, so the booklet contained no text, only simple and easy-to-understand diagrams.

This is a test of the teenagers' comprehension and learning ability. It doesn't matter if they can't read; they can find someone to teach them.

But they must have sufficient comprehension and learning ability, otherwise they won't be able to do anything else.

Mo Jiang needs more than just four guards; he needs five helpers. If he ever acquires a territory, these four young men will definitely have to assist him in managing it.

……

Mo Jiang carried the alchemy table and equipment to a more remote corner of the village, looking for a suitable location to conduct his alchemy research.

The outskirts of Skaritz were full of abandoned dilapidated houses and half-collapsed sheds. He quickly found a sheltered, relatively dry corner away from the wind and people, put down the sturdy IKEA wooden table, and began to assemble a simple alchemy table.

The air was filled with the fresh scent of grass and the complex smells wafting from the distant livestock shed.

Mo Jiang's movements were swift and focused, as if he were performing a precise surgery.

Beakers, distillation flasks, crucibles, mortars... these industrial-era creations seem out of place in this simple environment.

He doesn't need complicated utensils; the core of alchemy lies in the resonance between spiritual power and materials, and these are merely containers for transmission and carrying.

Mo Jiang plans to refine the following potions: Night Hawk Potion, Stag's Blood Potion, and Archer Potion.

The effects are [Night Vision], [Increased Stamina], and [Improved Archery Skill].

These are the capabilities that Mojiang urgently needs at this time. The nights in the Middle Ages were not like the light pollution of modern times, where you can't even see the stars. You really couldn't see anything at night.

In this environment, having night vision is almost equivalent to having X-ray vision in a gunfight room.

The effect of increasing stamina goes without saying. It's robust and practical, and whether you're fighting head-on or running away, stamina is just as important as your health bar.

If your stamina is depleted, your health bar won't last much longer either.

When your health bar is empty, you die.

Mo Jiang didn't rush to refine it, but first looked at the potion formula he had bought from the owner of the Latai Pharmacy.

In addition to the recipes purchased from the pharmacy in Rattay, there were also potion-making recipes from the Kingdom Come: Deliverance series that Mo Jiang downloaded and printed from a strategy website.

Mo Jiang couldn't understand the text written on the recipe he bought, but his phone had a translation app.

It doesn't matter if Mojiang doesn't understand Bohemian languages; a mobile translation app will do.

The Chinese translated by the phone is not very coherent; in some places, you have to guess, and there are even some translation errors.

But that was enough. Mo Jiang knew that the most important thing in alchemy was the involvement of mental energy in the reaction; everything else was secondary.

Comparing the translated content with the printed content from the strategy website immediately made him frown.

The translated content contains many unfamiliar elements compared to the concise and clear manufacturing methods on the strategy website.

There are incantations, medicinal herbs collected at specific times and places, and even visualization diagrams.

There are even rituals involving visualizing Diana's oak leaves while simmering on a full moon night, and corresponding tongue-twisting incantations.

The same applies to other pharmaceutical formulations.

Mo Jiang squinted, took out his alchemy notes, and wrote down both methods of making the same potion.

As he wrote, he muttered to himself, "The owner of the Rattay Pharmacy is unlikely to have lied to me; the formula he sold me must be genuine."

"The potion-making tips on the strategy website can't be fake, after all, I've already made a marigold potion."

"If neither my boss nor I have any problems, then the problem might be..."

Suddenly, Mo Jiang had an idea and immediately began to write furiously in his notebook.

[It is known that alchemy is essentially a combination of mental power and herbalism, with mental power playing a dominant role.]

The pharmacy owner couldn't guarantee the success rate of his alchemical potions; the potions sold in the pharmacy were his long-term inventory.

My potion-making success rate is extremely high; I can produce up to 80 bottles of potent calendula potion in one night.

In terms of mental strength, Mo Jiang believes his level of mental strength and quantification is roughly on par with the pharmacy owner, and even if he surpasses him, it won't be by much.

This was a vague feeling he had when he first gained spiritual power.

But Mo Jiang trusted his instincts.

24. As everyone knows, don't touch code that can run.

"The difference between me and the pharmacy owner should be the success rate of finished products."

"My high success rate is due to my mental energy providing microscopic vision, precise sensitivity to medicinal materials, and my knowledge of physics and chemistry."

"Assuming that the microscopic vision of mental power and the ability to sense medicinal herbs are interconnected..."

Mo Jiang pondered for a moment, then wrote down a guess in his notebook:

Leeuwenhoek improved the microscope and established microbiology in the 17th century, thus opening up humanity's exploration of the microscopic world.

Is it possible that, in the 15th century or even earlier, alchemists, although they observed the microscopic world through their spiritual powers, were unable to develop a coherent theory or disseminate it, thus necessitating the use of myths and stories as metaphors?

[Perhaps the Church also played a part. With the alchemists researching the microscopic world eliminated, those remaining naturally had to hide, and the only way to spread knowledge was through storytelling and metaphors.]

Ultimately, under this tacit instruction, accompanied by various metaphors, alchemy became a kind of mystical ritual, with a success rate that remained extremely low.

This is just a guess, but it is the most reasonable guess that Mo Jiang can think of.

Only in this way can we explain why the pharmacy owner's success rate is so low, and why the purchased formulas are more like strange rituals from stories.

For Mojiang, these strange rituals were even reducing his success rate.

It's like adding the line, "Don't think like a monkey when you're scrambling the spatula," while you're frying eggs.

Then, the author listed many tips on "not thinking about monkeys when frying eggs".

To some extent, the process of refining the medicine had already gone astray, which is why the yield rate was low.

However, this is still just a guess and it's hard to verify unless he can find the evolutionary record of the alchemist tradition from its inception to the present.

Considering the medieval environment, Mo Jiang wisely abandoned this idea.

Mo Jiang wrote down two large red labels on his guess: "[Questionable]" and "[Unverified]".

He hadn't tried the formula sold by the pharmacy owner, nor had he conducted a detailed investigation into it; he could make bold guesses about its mysteries.

However, without evidence to confirm it, this speculation cannot be considered an absolutely correct answer.

A skill that can be passed down for a long time may have some deviations, but it is impossible for it to be completely wrong. There must be something in it that one has not noticed or that one's knowledge cannot cover.

Of course, this guess may not be correct; it is just an explanation that aligns with Mo Jiang's knowledge. He is also well aware that there is something else here that cannot be explained by existing knowledge.

His spiritual power is the greatest mystery in alchemy.

For Mo Jiang right now, speculation is not important, nor is the nature of spiritual power. What matters is which method can produce the highest yield of the potion.

As we all know, code that can run should not be touched. Code that not only runs but also runs exceptionally smoothly without producing bugs should be offered up with three sticks of incense every day.

Then Mo Jiang wrote some more text in his notebook.

[Through the vague perception of my mental energy, my physical stats have improved significantly, but my mental energy is still not strong enough to obtain clear data.]

[If we take my physical constitution before gaining the ability to travel as the standard, setting it to a value of 1, then during this period, with the help of Henry-level Marigold potions, my physical constitution would be around 1.4.]

I need to find a way to raise more money, then set up a medical lab and get some testing equipment. I suspect that everything that comes up in the hospital now has to be reported.

[There's also the calendula potion. The shopkeeper's recipe didn't describe the effects as terrifying as they seemed to me. I suspect it's related to my mutated appetite.]

[Once Henry and his men join the force, they can be used as a control group. Their weak stamina and strength mean that even with their own training, they wouldn't be able to fight in armor against the Cumans.]

These past few days, their meals have consisted entirely of meat, eggs, and dairy. Except for Henry, the other three little ones are malnourished for their age in terms of height and weight. Henry is a bit better, but not by much; his physical development is also lagging.

[We'll have to go back to the modern world and get some medicine. These four kids have quite a few minor health problems—vitamin deficiency, night blindness, and possibly parasites. They all need treatment.]

The Kowloon Coffin Project is temporarily shelved. Without advanced modern medical equipment, I'd deserve the Darwin Prize if I dared to attempt this. My current mental strength is insufficient to support the project.

【besides……】

In the Hussite Wars, there was basically no need to consider which side to take. The Church's anthropomorphism needed improvement; if I were to associate with them, my humanity would plummet to the point of being excommunicated.

Jan Hus's theories, from a contemporary perspective, are controversial and inadequate, but in the 15th century, his ideas and actions aligned with the progressive needs of society. It's a pity that neither he nor Jerome came to Skarlitz; perhaps there would be an opportunity to contact them.

Capitalism is always better than slavery; the methods those beasts learned in the church would be things they'd still need to learn under slavery.

However, they cannot directly express their stance. The drunken king needs to be controlled through wholesale supplies. After dealing with the Cumans, they need to find a way to get Radji to send supplies over.

[If the Cumans attack and war breaks out, the people whose homes have been destroyed will be my base of support; they will be my army of beggars.]

Therefore, the first battle against the Cumans must be fought brilliantly to establish sufficient prestige.

As for the church...

I am not yet strong; when I am strong, things will change!

Mo Jiang closed the notebook, put the materials away, and began to concoct the potion.

The Hussite Wars were a long time away, but the Cuman invasion was imminent. He needed to increase his strength as much as possible before the Cumans attacked.

Unlike the Calendula Potion, Mo Jiang could clearly feel that the difficulty of refining the Nighthawk Potion and the Stag's Blood Potion had increased significantly.

If Marigold is like addition and subtraction within a hundred, then Nighthawk Potion and Stag Blood Potion are like the difficulty of basic arithmetic.

The sudden increase in difficulty meant that none of the first thirty bottles from Mojiang reached the [Potential] level, let alone the extraordinary [Henry] level with its unique abilities.

As for the Archer's Potion, it raises the difficulty to the level of a linear equation in two variables.

All twenty finished products produced were of the "weak" level.

"Just as I expected..."

Looking at the pile of medicines in front of him, Mo Jiang didn't feel much surprise.

He knew that his chemistry knowledge was no longer at its peak level during the college entrance examination. Since there were no subsequent exams and his major did not involve chemistry, he had forgotten a lot of what he had learned from his teachers.

But the most important thing is the reaction between mental strength and herbs. These potions require a strong enough mental strength. According to the pharmacy owner's recipe, the calendula potion is only an apprentice-level potion.

The Archer's Potion can only be created by a true alchemist.

The difference between an alchemist and an apprentice lies in the precision and intensity of their mental power.

If we consider Mo Jiang as the coordinate system, the value is set to 1 when he first activates his mental power.

After refining potions multiple times, my mental strength value is now between 1.5 and 1.6.

To refine a [Common] level archer's potion, one's mental strength needs to be at least 1.8. As for the [Henry] level...

According to estimates, it might be possible only with a mental strength level of 2.0.

If we consider alchemy as a craft, then mental power is undoubtedly the machine tool of that craft, and the strength of mental power is the precision of that machine tool.

His machine tools lacked precision, so naturally they couldn't produce parts that met the standards.

"It seems there's no way to skip this trip to Rattay. I need to consult the pharmacy owner about how to improve my mental strength."

Although the pharmacy owner's success rate was always low due to the ritualistic nature of the potion-making process, the other party had studied alchemy for many years and was certainly more experienced in this area than he was.

The author says:

Author's note: Thank you to [Enjoy Life While You Can] for the donation.

25. Question: How to recruit assassins in the Middle Ages? Answer: The first step is to provide them with enough meat.

In the evening, Mo Jiang inspected the boys' work.

The room was cleaned well, and my belongings were moved back to their original places. There were no signs that the boxes had been opened.

Even the two boxes that Mo Jiang had deliberately left unlocked didn't have any strands of hair fall out.

Seeing this, Mo Jiang nodded silently. As for the task of cleaning, he didn't care that much.