BXBX NOVEL Chapter 59 - Beach Day
Alex placed the lens inside of the circular hole of the metal frame, and fortunately, it slid in perfectly and held tightly in there.
To make sure it wouldn't fall, Alex placed the finished product into the furnace.
The corners of the glass would come into contact with the hot metal and the very edges would slightly melt
Right before it would slip out, however, Alex took it out and had it cool down.
Now, the lens was tightly stuck to the frame.
Hermes seemed curious and asked with raised eyebrows, "It looks...weird. What is it?"
"I'll show you later." Alex smiled.
Before he forgot about it, he wanted to try blessing the camera.
This was where Incarnation showed its true use.
As he activated it, Alex's body turned shorter and more stout and muscular.
His eyes became a bright orange color, a characteristic of Hephaestus.
He held the camera in his hand and repeated the same process he went through to bless living beings.
Alex felt Faith Energy leaving his body and seeping into the camera.
There weren't many changes to its appearance but he checked out the information the system gave him.
___________________________________________________
(Recorder of Time Blessed by Hephaestus)
Quality: Divine
State: Great
Additional Information: If you put a light-sensitive screen into the slit of this machine, it will record everything it has seen.
____________________________________________________
'It's even better than I expected...' Alex's eyes brightened as he looked at the information.
For the film, Alex used thin glass sheets that he coated with silver.
This was the time that his high-school chemistry knowledge that he thought was completely useless would help him.
To make the silver and subsequently, the glass sheet light-sensitive, he needed to ionize the silver using nitric acid.
Fortunately, the acid could be found in nature and most prominently, in caves where deposits of it formed from bat excrements that reacted with moist environments. (2)
It was also fortunate that his memorization capabilities were reinforced after Athena's Essence, as this piece of information that he easily overlooked was now paramount to his success.
There were plenty of caves around Olympus, and Alex just made his way to a random one, hoping to find what he was looking for.
It was still dim outside from the rising sun.
He entered the cave and immediately noticed the air felt thicker and more humid.
'That's a good sign...' Alex sighed in relief as this was one of the prerequisites to nitric acid formation.
He went deeper into the cave and found a clearing with sharp stalactites on the ceiling of the cave.
*Drip*
The sound of liquid dripping was regular and Alex perceived that liquid formed into a puddle.
Strangely, the puddle didn't smell like water and instead, had a very strong chemical and mineral smell. The rocks around the puddle had a weird yellow color instead of the brown sediment-like rock around the rest of the cave.
"This is probably what I'm looking for..." Alex filled a flask with the strange liquid and went back home.
He dripped the silver-coated glass sheet into the liquid and it immediately reacted. The silver turned into a yellow-ish smooth coating and Alex took it out.
Hermes seemed perplexed by all that he was doing and was back to binging on chamomile tea in the balcony.
Alex wished to surprise him and inserted his processed film into the camera.
The balcony received quite a bit of light and had the most optimal conditions for taking pictures.
"Hermes, stay still for a minute or so," Alex asked him and pointed the camera at him.
Alex had to keep his hands steady since the long exposure of the camera could easily render an image blurry if he moved while the light was being captured.
After some time, he hinted to Hermes that it was over and took out the film.
Alex was speechless.
It was black-and-white, but there was very well an inverted image of Hermes in the film.
He still needed to do post-processing to the film, or the image would fade away, but that had to wait for later.
Hermes saw it and his jaw opened wide, "It's incredible, Alexei-boy.....!"
"I know!" Alex exclaimed.
Once again, he was able to bring back a loved invention from the modern world.
As they were standing there and revering this new machine, they heard three knocks on the front door.
Alex knew who it was, and advised Hermes, "Can you distract them for a bit? I need to put on the attire."
Alex speedily dressed in a formal toga and went by Hermes.
It was expected at this point, but the monarchs of the Underworld used Crista as an excuse to come every time.
But that wasn't the focus of his attention.
Alex and Crista shared a long stare as he halted down the staircase. She was as beautiful as a blooming flower and glowed even more brightly in the autumn as the rest of the flora went into hibernation.
They approached each other and shared a long hug, without speaking a single word.
"Care to go somewhere with only us two?" She smiled.
Alex knew just the place to go.
He greeted Hades and Persephone and thanked them for last time, "Thank you very much for your help after the divine council."
Hades harrumphed and replied, "Don't mention it, we did it for...
He didn't finish his words but Alex knew the rest.
He left the mansion with Crista and said, "Hold onto me tightly."
Alex incarnated into Hermes and large wings sprouted on his back. Crista seemed numb to this exploit.
He carried her and flapped his wings.
His destination was the Aegean coast, and somewhere far from the rest of civilization, so they can catch up peacefully to everything that happened during these 3 months that they haven't seen each other.
They were flying above Olep, and then it was just the scenery and beautiful landscape of Central Greece.
From their altitude, even the mountains looked small.
Alex was honestly feeling nervous as he held on very tightly to Crista, even though he knew he could catch her with his speed if she ever slipped up.
His speed as enhanced by Hermes' attributes was honestly mind-blowing, and he didn't have to fly very long before an infinite expanse of blue was visible down below.