The discovery of hyperparasites has given Todd a lot of new ideas.

If the "dragon bone" parasite is compared to the mechanical skeleton of a set of battle mechs, then the microbiological phenomenon of "hyperparasitism" allows Todd to install various combat modules on this "mechanical skeleton".

For example, the "hive" parasite can be loaded and applied as a communication module. The parent body of the Hive can be buried in the Commander's Dragonbone, and the offspring of the Hive can be buried in the Dragonbone of the Legionnaire. Since the human nervous system is connected to the neural network of the "dragon bone" parasite, during the battle, the commander of the Order will no longer rely on heralds, war drums, or flags to convey combat commands, but directly send the instructions in the brain to the "hive" mother in the "dragon bone", and then send commands to the offspring through the sonic vibrations of the mother.

There are pros and cons to this method of communicating through "hive" parasites.

Merit:

First, the difficulty of operation is low, which saves a lot of learning costs. Whether it is a herald, a war drum or a flag and other means of communication for war, commanders and soldiers need to study and reserve a lot of knowledge. Moreover, it is not uncommon in history to see examples of fighter planes being delayed or even defeated in battle due to erroneous communication instructions on the battlefield.

2. Ignoring the impact of weather, light and other factors on communications. Fighting in the rain and snow and at night was basically a scuffle without any rules in the Middle Ages. Communicating through the "hive" can effectively avoid the adverse effects of external factors.

Shortcoming:

First, the communication distance is limited. The maximum contact distance of the "Hive" sonic vibration is about 50 meters, beyond which the message effect will gradually deteriorate.

Second, the death of the commander could cause chaos. Since the Hive parasite communicates with multiple descendants from one mother, if the commander with the mother is killed, no one else will be able to take its place in the relay of information.

Overall, though, the pros outweigh the cons.

Todd finished his research on the parasite and was relieved when he finished processing the experimental materials.

Outside, he let go of what was on his mind and wanted to take a turn in the town on a whim.

In normal times, he prefers to stay in churches and laboratories. On the one hand, because of the lack of assistants in the laboratory, he needs to do everything himself, and on the other hand, every time he goes outside, he is always "watched" by a bunch of people. Over time, he didn't bother to go out again.

As it was afternoon, and there were few inhabitants in the town, Todd walked along the newly planned street next to the church, and gradually walked into the construction camp of the Knights' headquarters.

Joe took a few monks and a group of craftsmen on the site, and began to measure and divide the blocks before construction according to the drawings.

Todd's arrival made a group of people put down their affairs and come over to salute.

Todd didn't understand this kind of thing, and when he looked at the design drawings in Joe's hand, he found something.

With a bit of a sense of superiority over the time-travelers, Todd asked the monks, "I look at the materials on the drawings, most of them are masonry and wood, why don't you use cement?"

To his bewilderment, Joe actually replied, "That doesn't work." ”

Todd was a little surprised: "Do you know how cement is made?"

Qiao gave him a strange look: "Of course I know, in the library of the monastery, there is the cement making technology of the Ancient Tairo Empire. ”

(In previous lives, the ancient Roman Empire produced not only cement, but also concrete, and the concrete lighthouses they built could even stand for two thousand years.) It's a pity Todd doesn't know. ）

Todd hurriedly asked, "Then why not use it?"

Joe gave the drawings to the other monks, found a nearby piece of wood to use as a stool, and explained the reason to Todd.

The reason why the cement manufacturing technology of the ancient Tairo Empire is not used now is that there is a very important material in the cement material of the ancient Tairo - volcanic ash, and it is a special kind of volcanic ash, only by adding this material, the cement can be hard and durable, and there is no such volcano near Duxi Town.

After explaining this, Joe goes on to say that a few years ago, he had tried to replace the volcanic ash with the slag from the blacksmith's shop. But the hardness and durability of the cement after this replacement material were not up to standard, and it could not be used at all, so he gave up this idea.

After receiving this information, Todd left the construction camp at the Knights' headquarters and began to think as he walked along the road.

Now he has three kinds of cement in his mind.

The first, the cement commonly used in modern industry, commonly known as Portland cement, is mainly composed of calcium silicate (calcium oxide and silicon oxide). When mixed with water, a complex physical and chemical reaction occurs known as hydrate. From the cement mixed with water to become a plastic cement slurry, to the cement slurry gradually thickens and loses plasticity but does not yet have strength, this process is called coagulation. This is followed by a process called hardening, which develops into a pronounced strength and gradually develops into a hard cement stone.

The second, ancient taylor cement from another world, is very similar to the ancient Roman cement of the previous life, and the main components are quicklime and volcanic ash. Quicklime is calcium oxide, and the component of volcanic ash is silica.

In the third type, the monks used slag instead of volcanic ash to make homemade cement.

Why, then, can modern and Roman cement be used in construction, but not for monks?

Todd thought about it for a while, and finally found the reason - temperature.

In the production of modern cement, small and medium-sized factories generally use furnaces, medium-sized cement plants generally use rotary kilns, and small cement plants generally use vertical kilns, and the temperature in the kiln can generally reach about 1450 degrees Celsius, so high temperatures can calcinate cement raw meal into clinker.

As for ancient Roman cement, the volcano next to the city is a natural furnace, and the temperature inside the crater can reach as high as 1800 degrees Celsius, and the volcanic ash calcined by it is naturally the best cement clinker.

Although the main ingredient is silica, the main ingredient is silica, but due to the limitations of the medieval furnace technology level and fuel supply materials, the furnace temperature is generally only about 900 degrees Celsius, and it is naturally impossible to fire qualified cement materials.

So how do you increase the furnace temperature?

In the past, the kiln for firing cement was not as simple as the "farmer's furnace" used to refine silver, it was assembled from a cylinder, a wheel belt, and a silo made of special materials, and it had extremely strict requirements for closure. And the fuel it uses, high-ash pulverized coal, needs to be processed in multiple processes. For those who don't have the expertise and experience to make it, it's a fantasy to make it.

But what if you use an ability to raise the temperature of the furnace?

This method does work, such as the Flame Breath xenomorph - Leslie, who used his ability to work with Richell's "Mind" to create some parts of the printing press. But the creation of just three printing presses had exhausted Leslie to death, and within a few days, she would no longer be able to use the Flame Breath ability.

Therefore, unless the number of xenomorphs reaches a certain scale, it is probably still impractical to rely on the existing 'Yanxi' xenomorphs in Duxi Town to carry out large-scale cement production.

While thinking about these questions, Todd, who was about to return to the church, was passing by the "sister hotel" when he suddenly saw Rachel walking out of the hotel with Karin and carrying a large basket.

Todd stepped forward and, after some excuse from the two, offered to help them carry the basket to the vegetable patch at the back of the hotel.

"What's in here?"

Rachel lifted the cloth, and the basket was full of rotten ingredients, only to hear her say: "The weather has been hot and humid lately, and the ingredients in the cellar have spoiled a lot. ”

Karin stood beside Todd, helped him hold his arm, tilted her head and said, "Some time ago, Uncle Huggins brought us some ice from the north, but it only took a few days before it all melted. ”

Todd sighed when he heard this. He remembered his "library of abilities"—petri dishes filled with xenomorphic bacteria, and he spent an hour every two days transplanting them, which was a meticulous and heavy job. If you have a thermostatic freezer in a past-life laboratory, you can save a lot of time and effort by simply using bacterial cryopreservation.

But how can the constant temperature cold storage be so easy to manufacture equipment?

To make a biological laboratory freezer that meets the minimum requirements, at least a digital temperature control device, a finned evaporator, a foam box, an anti-corrosion spraying process, etc., in the Middle Ages, it is estimated that it can only be achieved in a dream.

Karin pursed her lips and said, "These past nights, the room has been stuffy and hot, and if it weren't for Pamela, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to sleep all night." ”

Todd looked at the black-haired girl and asked, "Pamela?"

"That's right, at night, her body will exude a slight coolness, and it is most comfortable to sleep with her in her arms!"

Todd laughed when he heard this, and the first image in his mind was of two girls hugging each other in rags. Transporting the basket to the vegetable patch at the back of the hotel, he said goodbye to the two nuns and returned to his experimental building.

Sitting in his chair, Todd began to organize his thoughts for the day in his head and put them down on paper.

The first thing to write down is "cement" and a long list of logical formulas: cement - silicon oxide - furnace temperature - kiln or "flame breath"

Todd wrote this, saying to himself, "If you want to burn cement, you have to increase the furnace temperature, and there are two ways to increase the furnace temperature, one is to make a kiln, and the other is to use the 'Flame Breath' ability, and I don't know how to make a kiln, so I ......"

Todd punches a cross in the word "kiln."

Looking at the rest of the word "Flame Breath", Todd frowned tightly and clasped his hands on his chest.

"Although the 'Flame Breath' ability can increase the furnace temperature and obtain silica suitable for cement production, Leslie is the only 'Flame Breath' xeno, and he has to rest for a period of time every time he uses the ability, and it is completely impossible to mass-produce it......" Todd thought of this, put a question mark behind 'Flame Breath', and said, "Maybe I can inject the ability bacteria into other people's bodies to create a batch of 'Flame Breath' xenos?"

After a little thought, Todd immediately dismissed the idea.

If large-scale xenomorphism is carried out, there will not only be social unrest, but also unnecessary trouble. This is not an option, at least not yet.

After thinking about it, Todd had no choice but to give up thinking about cement for a while and began to write the second word, "ice storage".

Pamela's ability is "Freeze," which is divided into two ways: active release and passive release. When a girl actively casts her abilities, she can quickly lower the temperature around her skin for a short period of time, and when she falls asleep, her skin slowly releases cold air and maintains a relatively smooth cold environment around her.

If Pamela could be kept asleep, the cold around her could theoretically transform the room into a thermostat. However, it is impossible for a girl to stay asleep all the time, and in that case, within a few days, her brain and body will have hypothermic shock.

Therefore, it seems that the method of using "frozen" xenomorphs to create a constant temperature cold storage does not work.

Todd stood up, walked around the room a few times with his hands behind his back, and finally let out a long sigh and muttered, "If only I had been the kind of all-rounder who had more than fifty PhDs and knew everything from all walks of life, or let me bring an encyclopedia......

Pacing to the back of the lab, Todd found a clean ground and sat down, his eyes unconsciously looking at the mice wearing "dragon bones" in the iron cage. After watching it for about five minutes, he suddenly remembered something.

For the time being, it is not possible to transform humans into xenomorphs in large quantities......

What if it was just the transformation of animals into xenomorphs?

What if animals were allowed to carry xenobacteria that were "inflammatory" and "frozen"?

Thinking of this, Todd took out two kinds of abnormal bacteria from the "Ability Library" and began to study them.

First of all, the "Inflammation" bacterium is a methanogens, which is a strictly anaerobic bacteria. Under the microscope, it can be observed that it is a variant of the bacterium Methanosarcina. It is found in the digestive cells of humans and animals, and can decompose and polymerize substances such as H2/CO2, methanol, and trimethylamine to produce large amounts of methane. Compared to the methanogens in previous lives, the methane production and speed of this abnormal bacterium are astonishing.

Todd prepares a glass jar (or tin can), fills it with culture medium and injects it with "inflamed" bacteria, and then buries an animal called a "tube worm". When the "inflammatory" bacteria enter the digestive cells of the tubeworm, and the tubeworm eats the medium, a large amount of methane will gradually be produced in the tank, which can be collected and purified and used for high-temperature calcining cement. (The theoretical combustion temperature of purified methane can reach up to 2860 degrees Celsius, and the actual temperature is about 1700 degrees Celsius)

Regarding the "frozen" bacteria, Todd approached the merchants in the town and bought a batch of "dormice" (Dryomysnitedula) from him. A small dose of "frozen" bacteria was injected into the dormice's bodies, turning them into a group of mini-"frozen" xenos. The dormice were then divided into two batches, one of which was fed continuously to ensure nutrients in the body, and the other batch was induced to hibernate at low temperatures. The dormant dormice, because of the cold emitted by bacteria, can turn a closed room into a constant temperature cold storage. After some time, two batches of dormice, in rotation.

In this way, Todd adopted a microbiological approach to create two very special industrial infrastructure "equipment" for the future development of Twilight Town, the "Bacterial Fuel Warehouse" and the "Microbial Ice Storage".