Chapter 18 - Leiden Bottle

```As the afternoon approached evening, the sky above the Palace quickly darkened, casting the entire world in a strange amber light, heralding the imminent arrival of a heavy rain.

On the plaza in front of Richard's palace, a Personal Guard Soldier held a peculiar kite crafted by a craftsman, staring nervously at the sky overhead.

With a "boom," a muffled thunder resounded between the clouds, and a gust of cool wind suddenly swept across the plaza.

The Personal Guard Soldier turned to look to the side and saw Richard nodded. He swallowed hard with a "gulp," gathered his courage, and launched the kite.

The kite was no ordinary kite; it was a lightning-attracting kite. A small chain of gold hung from it, and its string was woven with fine silver threads, with a strangely shaped bottle attached at the end.

This was a method Richard had thought of after failing in three consecutive experiments—to capture lightning with a kite.

In fact, many had such an idea, and some had even put it into practice. In the modern history of Earth, in June 1752, American scientist Benjamin Franklin, together with his son, sent a kite with a copper key into the air. When the kite was struck by lightning, the electric current successfully traveled down the kite's wire, proving that lightning was also a form of electricity. From then on, Franklin's name became famous.

This is considered knowledge from modern Earth primary school textbooks, with no difficulty in execution. The only thing to consider was how to store the lightning captured. Richard's choice was the Leiden bottle, the bottle hanging at the end of the kite's rope.

The Leiden bottle was developed by Dutch scientist Masonbrock in 1745 in modern Earth's history.

The earliest Leiden bottle was just a glass or ceramic bottle with the inside and outside walls coated with tinfoil. The tinfoil inside the bottle connected to a metal rod inserted inside through a metal chain, with a metallic ball about one centimeter in diameter on top. This structure, based on the principle of capacitors, could store a certain amount of charge and release it when needed.

Despite its simple structure, the current released was strong enough that during a 1748 experiment in Paris, the current from a Leiden bottle made over two hundred monks holding hands jump at once.

So this method was definitely up to the task.

Richard thought so, looking towards the Personal Guard Soldier.

The wind on the plaza gradually picked up, and the kite in the soldier's hand soared higher and higher, reaching the sky.

A flash of lightning streaked across with a "whoosh," abruptly illuminating the gloomy land, and a massive blurry black shadow swept through the electric light, followed by the sound of thunder.

The Personal Guard Soldier was startled but gritted his teeth, held his breath, and controlled the kite to continue ascending.

The wind howled vigorously, and flashes of lightning crossed frequently between the clouds.

Suddenly, with a "boom," explosive thunder roared, and a bolt of lightning struck the kite in the sky.

With a "bang," the entire kite caught fire, turning into a fireball, with flames swiftly spreading down the kite line.

The Personal Guard Soldier's face turned white in an instant, eyes widening. Watching the flames, his hand released involuntarily, and the Leiden bottle, dangling at the end of the string, plummeted to the ground.

Edward, standing nearby, saw this and cursed, rushing forward. He kicked the Personal Guard Soldier hard and pounced to catch the falling Leiden bottle in both hands.

The next moment, Edward's eyes widened too, witnessing a blue electrical flash travel down the kite string and enter the bottle in his hands. A weak numbness enveloped his body, and simultaneously, all his hair stood on end involuntarily, filling him with immense fear—fear of the unknown that paralyzed him momentarily.

After a long while, as the numbness dissipated from his body and his hair returned to normal, Edward took a deep breath and finally moved. He glared sharply at the nearby Personal Guard Soldier, then swiftly carried the Leiden bottle towards the palace where Richard was.

As soon as he entered the palace, a torrential downpour followed immediately behind, instantly turning the entire world into a white blur, with nothing but the sound of rain pounding in his ears.

Edward was slightly surprised, feeling a hint of relief, then turned to Richard and carefully handed over the Leiden bottle. "Your Highness, it is all done."

"Mm," Richard took the Leiden bottle, nodded lightly, and without saying more, turned around and left.

Edward quickly added from behind: "Your Highness, you didn't have lunch, so for dinner you..."

Before he could finish, Richard's figure was already ascending the stairs to the second floor, disappearing from sight.

Edward watched, chuckled helplessly, and muttered to himself: "Sigh, is he going to skip meals again for a whole day? If he doesn't eat again tomorrow morning, it will truly be another full day. Being the Personal Guard Captain is really hard..."

The next morning, before dawn had fully broken.

Yawning, Edward walked past the palace dining hall, glancing casually, suddenly widened his eyes as he saw Richard inside, eating breakfast.

This!

Edward rubbed his eyes vigorously, realizing he hadn't seen wrong, and with some disbelief, he walked into the dining hall, greeted him: "Your Highness, you... you got up so early today?"

"Mm, just couldn't sleep," Richard responded faintly, slicing white bread with a butter knife, spreading sour jam on it and putting it into his mouth.

As Richard ate, he frowned, as if contemplating something.

The test with natural lightning and the Leiden bottle failed, as expected. Otherwise, he wouldn't be sitting in the dining room eating breakfast so early.

Last night, according to the "Monroe Chapter," Richard attempted a second scientific decryption of the Life Remolding. After entering the Star Body Projection state, he worked hard to awaken his Consciousness, which then released the electric current from the Leiden bottle into his body, hoping to enhance the bioelectric currents to enter a "Highly Activated State" and subsequently "Opening Magic Source."

The strength of the current from the Leiden bottle was indeed sufficient, as Richard clearly felt a miraculous change in his body within a very short time. But... it was only for a very short time.

Because the nature of the Leiden bottle is that of a capacitor, the current is released in one go, depleted, and no more. So when the stored charge was fully exhausted, the "High Energy Activation State" dissipated instantly, and his body returned to normal, making it impossible to "Opening Magic Source."

"Indeed, to truly decrypt this second Life Remolding, shortcuts won't work; genuine effort is necessary," Richard said to himself inside.

Swallowing another slice of white bread covered in sour jam, leaving a cardboard taste in his mouth, Richard's mind was already made up.

Obtaining a stable high current wasn't actually difficult, even in this medieval world; it could be achieved with simple materials. The main issue was the tedious process, which he had been reluctant to bother with too much, thus testing fruit batteries and the like. Since those hadn't worked, he could only resort to the most tedious, troublesome, and direct method now.

He reached out for his cup, drank the water inside, and wiped his mouth with a napkin. Richard looked up at Edward and instructed, "Bring the craftsman from the Palace here?"

"Now, here?" Edward was slightly startled.

Richard nodded to confirm, "Yes."

"Uh, yes, Your Highness," Edward quickly walked out.