A Hospital in Another World? Chapter 745 Garrett: Did You Spend Half a Month Just Cutting Dirt?

Under the Lord of Thunder, regardless of size, everyone counts.

Except for the Lord of Thunder himself, his two highest-ranking disciples, and Garrett, who enjoyed special privileges, everyone else was dragged to the wilderness. Each person was responsible for a plot of land, and the air was filled with a faint, peculiar stench.

Aurora, dejected, squatted beside the plot he was responsible for. After half a month, his robe was wrinkled, and his boots were covered in mud. His underwear and outer garments reeked, and the friction of the fabric against his skin made him itch all over.

Over the past half-month, he had gone from casting a cleaning spell on his boots with every step (and getting scolded by his teacher) to sneaking a cleaning spell on his boots whenever his teacher wasn't looking, to casting the spell on his hands, clothes, and boots before meals, and finally to cleaning himself up only when he returned to the campsite at the end of the day.

Indeed, people fall quickly into depravity. Even so, he was mocked by his senior brothers and sisters:

"Aurora, you're so pampered; you can't even endure a little hardship. When we're out adventuring, who would waste precious magic on cleaning spells?"

I want to go back to Nevis, I want to return to the Mage Tower... Following Garrett, I only need to do experiments in the lab, meditate in the meditation room, and stay clean and comfortable every day.

In all these years, when had he ever suffered such hardship in the wilderness?

"Aurora! It's time to start!"

"Yes!" He responded loudly, closing his eyes, meditating, chanting incantations, and channeling magic...

"Crack!"

A blue-white arc of electricity shot from his hand, striking two long poles arranged in a straight line, 20 meters apart. The tops of the poles, equipped with metal connectors, directed the electricity into the ground through iron wires. The arc lit up the tops of the poles simultaneously.

Third-level Evocation spell, Lightning Bolt, complete!

Immediately, skeletons ran into the field, randomly taking samples from three distances near, mid, and far from the iron wires. They dug, packaged, and delivered the samples to the field's edge.

In the nearby shed, alchemists laid out instruments, beginning the rapid drying, weighing, boiling with reagents, cooling, filtering, and final measurement...

"Record! Third Lightning Bolt! Released by a sixth-level mage! Normal output!"

"Nitrogen content in soil at the center: 1.70 grams per kilogram of soil!"

"Mid-distance nitrogen content: 1.47 grams per kilogram of soil!"

"Far distance nitrogen content: 1.33 grams per kilogram of soil!"

"Lightning Bolt's range of effect: 40x20 meters!"

"Total nitrogen increase within the range..."

Aurora, gasping heavily, staggered to another plot and cast the spell again.

He wouldn't be let off until he'd exhausted all his spells for the day...

One by one, the Evocation mages and mages capable of lightning spells took turns testing various methods. Some released lightning into the air, some cast spells on poles, and some cast spells directly on the ground.

There were those who directly struck, those who summoned storm clouds to create lightning and thunder, and those who controlled water flow through a bottle with discharge rods on both sides, discharging electricity into the air above the water and adding litmus reagent to watch the water turn red.

Under the intense experimentation of the Magic Council and the disciples of the Lord of Thunder, the council quickly reached a conclusion:

The current Evocation mages—excluding the Lord of Thunder himself—could, by exhausting all their spells daily, manage to provide nitrogen fertilizer for about one-twentieth of the nation's fields?

And it was impossible for all of them to focus solely on summoning lightning. Evocation mages were among the council's most powerful and destructive, constantly fighting on the front lines. If they were all busy summoning lightning, the front lines would suffer a significant loss in combat power.

"Feeding the council and related personnel is enough... Thinking we can feed the entire nation might be too ambitious?"

Old Sam bit his quill in distress. Mages, by nature, love scholarship and freedom. The council issuing a mandatory task to have Evocation mages test lightning's ability to add nitrogen to soil was one thing, but having them spend months at a time in the fields, striking them daily, rain or shine, would deplete not only contribution points but also the council's authority.

—Evocation mages are powerful in battle and highly troublesome when agitated. Sending them to do experiments was only possible because the Lord of Thunder had left instructions before leaving.

"How about we gather a little less grain? After all, the kingdom has so many nobles, the War God's temple, and the Spring Goddess's temple; we can't be the only ones responsible..."

"That won't work." Archmage Grom turned his head darkly. Necromancers were still mages, living beings, not liches, and they needed to eat. Seeing the kingdom filled with starving people was unbearable, especially since...

"We're cooperating with the Nature Church! Can those old guys from the Nature Church tolerate seeing widespread famine?—Ultimately, we need their help to enhance crop growth!"

"Uh... Let's think of another solution..."

Thinking of solutions is easier said than done. While many mages were involved in the experiments, Aurora and the other Evocation mages were granted a short break.

"We're back, we're back! MOSS! Heat the water! Fill the bathtub! Get me some clothes! I need a proper wash! And two invisible servants to scrub my back!"

Garrett was shocked to see Aurora. After half a month, Aurora was completely transformed, looking like he had been pulled out of a vat of pickles—

His golden hair was tangled and messy, his clothes were wrinkled, and his boots were unrecognizable. Covered in a layer of grime, he left a footprint with every step he took—followed closely by invisible servants cleaning up after him.

Not to mention the sour and rancid smell all over him, it was no wonder he looked like he had been fished out of a pit of sour pickles.

"What happened to you?"

"Don't ask! We were dragged out to the fields! Cutting dirt!"

An hour and a half later, Aurora, his skin white and wrinkled from soaking, sat in silk pajamas in front of the hotpot Garrett had prepared. He dropped a plate of lamb into the pot, and after a quick dip, he hurriedly fished it out:

"Hiss... Ah, I'm paralyzed. So delicious." He panted from the heat, breathing heavily with his mouth open while shoving lamb slices into his mouth like a starving ghost. Chewing with juices splashing everywhere, he mumbled:

"Cutting the fields dozens of times a day, using Lightning Bolt, then Thunder Ring, after Thunder Ring, summoning Thunder Claw and storm clouds... Every day, exhausting all my spells! All of them!" He complained bitterly:

"I could only sneak in a few cleaning spells to clean my clothes and shoes..."

"You didn't have servants to attend to you?" Garrett was surprised:

"Impossible! The council sent you to work; they should have arranged for servants!"

"Of course, there were... but the servants and laundry workers did their job as best as they could. Clothes weren't washed clean, nor dried properly, especially on rainy days. It was better for me to use cleaning spells!"

...Judging by your appearance when you arrived, your cleaning spells weren't all that effective...

Garrett silently moved the jars of peanut sauce, sesame oil, and various condiments to Aurora. He leisurely added radish slices, cabbage leaves, mushrooms, and various vegetables to the hotpot...

No choice, eating too much lamb was indeed a bit excessive; he needed something light to balance it out.

Aurora wolfed down ten plates of lamb before finally collapsing in satisfaction. He half-lay on a nearby sofa, letting an invisible servant massage his legs, weakly moaning:

"They say we still have to... rest for two days, then go back... and do this for three months or six months... they say, increasing soil fertility depends on us..."

Depend on you?

Depend on you to artificially summon lightning to fix nitrogen in the soil?

Garrett imagined the scene and found it rather unsightly. Speaking of which, in his previous life, which country developed fertilizer without relying on large-scale industrial production? Depending on setting up lightning rods everywhere to add nitrogen to the soil...

Half the world's population would starve to death.

"By the way... has anyone tried other methods of producing nitrogen fertilizer?"

"You have a method?"

Aurora immediately sprang up from the sofa, his eyes sparkling, staring straight at Garrett. Fresh from the bathtub and a big meal, his flushed cheeks deepened in color, almost as if he were about to catch fire:

"By the secrets above, you must have a method! I'd rather die than spend another three months striking fields!"

Dying was unlikely, but suffering was real. Honestly, having these Evocation mages summon lightning to fix nitrogen was less practical than getting them to develop the fertilizer industry—

But how exactly was industrial nitrogen fixation done?

From what he remembered, the earliest method was the Haber process, developed by Germany before World War I out of desperation. But what were the details?

He hadn't learned it from textbooks, but perhaps from extra reading, casual mentions by teachers, conversations with classmates, or patients' offhand comments—there had to be some clue?

Garrett searched his memory. It seemed like mixing nitrogen and hydrogen at 600 degrees Celsius and 200 atmospheres produced ammonia.

As for how to obtain large amounts of pure hydrogen and

 nitrogen, and remove oxygen from the air, he was a bit clueless. Apparently, hydrogen and nitrogen reactions also required some catalyst?

What was it again?