The last example is pouring a cup of concentrated sulfuric acid together with a cup of dilute sulfuric acid, both formed from pure sulfuric acid and water. Therefore, their fusion won't cause any abnormal changes; it's just that the portion originally belonging to the dilute sulfuric acid will see an increase in sulfuric acid concentration because some of the water will transfer to the concentrated sulfuric acid.
In cases like combining concentrated with dilute sulfuric acid, what Zhang Yanhang was actually referring to was initially the fusion of that chopper, enhancing an outdated greatsword with a high-strength kitchen knife, and then once balanced, the attack power of the old greatsword would naturally increase.
Of course, since alchemy is magic, you could certainly work wonders with great strength by increasing the Energy Value input, forcibly fusing oil and water together, but that leads to another usage guideline.
The gist of that guideline is not to forcibly fuse materials with ultra-high strength with those of lower strength, nor to fuse too many things of differing natures, as the cost-performance ratio is too low. It's easier to set those materials aside for other applications, where the return on investment is bound to be much higher.
An example of this is adding a drop of ink to a cup of water; the whole cup turns from transparent to grey, and can never be made transparent again. Therefore, forcibly fusing materials of low strength with those of ultra-high strength, other than causing pollution to the high-strength material, generally achieves no particularly good effects.
Then there's the fusion of elements with differing natures. Water can be used to illustrate this—it's like dropping a drop of red dye into the water, then a drop of green, followed by blue, and then another...
After merging so many colors, you might think you'd end up with something as colorful and splendid as a rainbow, but in reality, you'd just get a cup of black wastewater.
Of course, alchemy is still magic, so if you put in enough effort and time to study the combinations and permutations of these colors, and invest a lot of Energy Value as well as materials to stabilize their form, it's indeed possible to create a state that, though subtly merging and interacting, still somewhat resists each other.
But, as previously stated, the cost-performance ratio and the rate of return are somewhat touching, making one inevitably want to give up such a pointless endeavor.
Besides these two most important usage guidelines, there are several other important ones, such as controlling variables, which is mainly about teaching Zhang Yanhang to control variables.
As he mastered controlling variables, he could consistently create the same item, and organize methods of crafting into medication recipes and manufacturing blueprints to teach other alchemists. Controlling variables also improved the success rate of fusion.
For example, when Zhang Yanhang wanted to fuse the Waist Bags, starting with merging two Waist Bags to make a Waist Bag+1 was best, then using two Waist Bag+1s to continue aiming for a Waist Bag+2. With this method, the fusion would almost always succeed with nearly a 100% success rate in the vast majority of cases.
So, next, Zhang Yanhang fused two more Waist Bags into Waist Bag+1s.
Holding two Waist Bag+1s, he once again started operating the Alchemy Array to stimulate their fusion, "This is my first attempt at a second fusion; I hope it won't fail."
After about two minutes, a brand-new Waist Bag appeared before Zhang Yanhang's eyes. He still hadn't altered the appearance of the Waist Bag, so it looked exactly the same as before. For original chapters go to novel✶fire.net
Why? Because Zhang Yanhang was lazy, and altering the appearance would consume additional Energy Value. Most importantly, he actually thought the original appearance of the Waist Bag was quite nice and didn't really need altering.
If Zhang Yanhang wanted to, he could definitely give the Waist Bag a cool, RGB-colored skin, but he felt there was no need—no matter how attractive the skin was, it couldn't increase the number of compartments or the size of space. Besides, this wasn't some Ashen World fashion game where looks determine fighting capability. Embellishing it that much would have been too low a return on investment.
With the time it would take to adjust the skin, he might as well go out and kill a few more Zombies, gathering more Soul points.
[Raccoon City Police Department Special Tactical Rescue Team Standard Police Waist Bag (Unnamed) +2]
[Origin: Ashen World, Raccoon City, Gun Shop, Main Hall Counter, Zhang Yanhang.]
[Defensive Power: 35]
[Special Attribute: Storage.]
[Storage: You can store any 8 items with a total volume not exceeding 1 cubic meter inside the Waist Bag's internal space.]
[Usage Requirements: None.]
[Score: 28 (Green items score from 11 to 30.)]
[Description: The Raccoon City Police Department Special Tactical Rescue Team Standard Police Waist Bag has only eight compartments, each with a volume of one cubic meter, so it cannot store single items exceeding eight cubic meters in total volume, nor can it store life forms as commonly understood.]
"I have a feeling that one more fusion could enhance the Waist Bag to a higher quality level, but what exactly is the higher quality?" Zhang Yanhang had only ever seen green as the highest quality, so he had no idea what lay beyond it. He could only guess that an item's score above green quality would definitely exceed 30.
But that was normal, after all, until now Zhang Yanhang had been dealing with First Tier Zero Star Zombies and First Tier One Star Zombie Dogs. To expect anything more advanced than a green quality item from such weak Monsters was wishful thinking.
Zhang Yanhang felt that to possibly get higher quality items, he'd have to at least face Monsters like Lickers and Tyrants. Simply battling Zombies and Zombie Dogs would definitely be fruitless.
After reviewing the attribute list of the Waist Bag+2, Zhang Yanhang reattached it to his belt and then again meticulously packed away various foods, mineral water, Red Medicine Herbs, Green Medicine Grass, bullets, firearms, and a host of other items he had previously taken out.
"Although one Waist Bag could have eight compartments after successful fusion, only being able to deposit or retrieve things all at once still feels so inconvenient."
Zhang Yanhang thought that if possible in the future, he should still try to get a normal Storage Item, the kind where you could pack a lot of things at once and each item could be taken out separately.
But for now, the only Storage Item Zhang Yanhang had was the Waist Bag, so he would have to make do.