Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 71 Idea
Australian iron ore contains more than 60% iron, which is almost a lump of iron - rust only contains 70% iron.

Is this kind of iron ore considered a stone? Can it be made into mud?

Or, taking a step back, if turning fossils into mud doesn't work on metals, can we use fossils into mud to turn the stone impurities in the ore into mud, leaving the ore behind?
"Try turning the fossils into mud again."

This time, Zeus didn't watch from a distance. He and Ash came to a rock together.

This stone should be basalt, which has dense tiny holes on it, which is very common near volcanoes.

Ash put his hand on it, and the solid rock seemed to melt, gradually turning into a flowable viscous liquid, and really turned into "mud".

Zeus found a wooden stick and tried to pick up some of the mud. Some of the mud was picked up and felt similar to dough, with quite some resistance.

As Ash finished casting the spell, after a while, the "mud" slowly solidified into stone.

"In other words, it didn't actually turn into 'mud' permanently."

"Yes, I just need to interrupt the flow of mana, and it will gradually turn back into stone."

"Back to stone?"

Xius smiled and handed the stick to Ash: "Take a closer look."

Ash picked up the stick and looked closely at the stone that had solidified on it, then looked back at the original stone.

Her eyes slowly widened.

"The hole on it disappeared?"

Basalt is often porous, meaning it contains small bubbles, or vesicles, that became trapped during the solidification of the lava. These vesicles can give the basalt its porous appearance and affect its physical properties.

The basalt that Ash had released into mud and then solidified again did not have these holes.

Hughes stroked the surface of the stone.

"These holes almost all come from bubbles, which gives me a guess."

"Turning the stone into mud doesn't really turn the stone into mud. The stone is still stone. It's just a spell."

"Lowers its melting point."

"Melting point?"

"Well, actually, this statement is very imprecise. The stone in our hands isn't made of a single substance, nor has it turned into liquid, so the term 'melting point' shouldn't be used to describe it. But I can't think of a better equivalent. Perhaps you can understand it as turning into magma at room temperature."

Ash took a deep breath.

She looked at the black stone in disbelief, then looked at her hands.

Is this the true principle of my magic?
"It's worth mentioning that the temperature of magma is actually not as high as that of molten iron. Magma is generally around 1,000 degrees Celsius, while steel can reach over 1,500 degrees Celsius."

Zeus looked up at Ash, "You said before that you could increase the power of magic through a lot of practice, right?"

Ash's eyes lit up, "Yes, my lord. Nini is the best spellcaster among us. All her spells are more powerful. I'll let her try!"

Nini was quickly called over. After hearing Xius' explanation, her beautiful eyes widened. "Is this the principle behind turning fossils into mud?!"

"This is just a guess, so I asked you to come and test it."

"Okay! I'll try it right now!!"

She excitedly picked up the iron plate on the ground.

"Wait!!" Hughes stopped her, "Don't try here. Go somewhere farther away, at least ten kilometers away from Castel. I remember there are a lot of uninhabited islands to the east, right?"

"Are you worried that this will cause cognitive interference?" "Yes, fossilization into mud is just our speculation. We haven't fully tested the specific causes of cognitive interference yet, so it's better to be cautious."

"I'm going right now!"

Nini held the iron plate, and her snake tail bent like a spring, then suddenly straightened out - she drew an arc in the air and jumped into the sea below the cave.

".Why is she so anxious?"

"Nini is always like this when she encounters something related to magic." Ash also sighed.

"Find a few more people to follow her. Regardless of whether they succeed or not, come back after a day. This is the outbreak period of the last cognitive interference. Then you can come with me to the grotto."

Ash nodded, connected the mind link, and opened the work group.

Not long after, in the cave on the east side of Castel.

"Ash, I know you're not afraid of pollution right now, but you still need to activate your flesh magic."

Ash nodded, his mind moved, and then looked at Zeus: "It's already opened."

Zeus looked at the pit not far away. All the physical pollution caused by the previous cognitive interference was drawn here and piled up here.

These pollutants are like living things and have weak activity, but only a little bit.

In other words, they're kind of silly.

The Banshees didn't have to spend much effort to attract these physical pollutions and let them gather in this big hole in the ground.

Unfortunately, the cave walls here are not that smooth, and the pollution will try to move out after entering.

It was Monica who came up with an idea. The banshees did not let her participate in the night operation, but instead gave her the job of guarding against pollution, which had little risk.

".So this idea was yours?"

Hughes's eye twitched as he looked at the wolf tied up above the pollution.

Monica nodded. "These physical contaminants will subconsciously chase living things. I asked Sister Ash to catch a wolf and then tie it up with a rope and hang it in the air. This way, the contaminants will try their best to reach the wolf."

"But they can't reach it, so they just stay here."

Monica shrugged.

The wolf in the air didn't move, with only emptiness and numbness in its eyes.

"The wolf was very frightened at first and kept howling, but it calmed down after a day and is now very well behaved and not moving around at all."

Monica gave the wolf an encouraging look, but the wolf didn't react at all.

"I don't know why it doesn't want to eat. Even if I put something in its mouth, it will spit it out. I only succeeded after changing the direction."

"Alright, alright, forget about that poor wolf. Ash, maintain your flesh and blood magic and try to catch some pollution. Be careful!"

Ash nodded, wrapped his snake tail around the protrusion on the stone wall, hung upside down in the air, and carefully reached out to grab the physical pollution in the cave.

The amount of these pollutants has not increased or decreased, and is the same as when they were put in yesterday. Now they are wriggling slowly like worms, which looks very disgusting.

Ash took a deep breath, reached out and quickly scooped up a handful, then used his tail to exert force and easily pulled her up.

"Lord Lord."

Xius looked at the pollution squirming in her hand, suppressed his strange feeling and stepped forward to observe.

(End of this chapter)