The Way Ahead

A bit of testing found that the illusion dust- Obscuring False Cloud Powder, according to Common Knowledge but that was far too much of a mouthful- reflected light remarkably well, even when dispersed. If he enclosed it in an apparatite ball and gave it a bit of a shake, the entire sphere turned semi-reflective white for the better part of an hour before the dust finally settled enough for anything to start to be visible. If it were a snowglobe, it would either be the absolute best or the absolute worst, depending on what you felt the point of the decoration was.

For Edwin, it was exactly what he needed. A few tests showed that the dust wasn’t flammable, making it just what he needed.

Perhaps he could have made an adequate smoke bomb with just that. He probably could, in all honesty. But… why stop there? This wasn’t an experiment, after all. He was just trying to make the best darn smoke bomb that he could. Later on, he’d start experimenting with different variables. This was just the prototype.

The phosphorus Essence he chose to use for this had been optimized for smoke production when it burned at the expense of all else save its flammability and was appropriately named ‘elemental smoke.’ While he could try adding other types of Essence based on the element to it, Alchemy (and a bit of testing) informed him it would dilute the end result. Instead, he needed to find other ingredients and Refine them into ingredients which would enhance, not dilute, the effects of his potions. Thus, his current project.

Why that was the case, Edwin wasn’t entirely sure. Well, beyond the magical explanation of them ‘polluting’ each other. But that wasn’t how it worked!

…Well, actually.

If he thought of his Essences as a sort of… magical allotrope of the elements he was using- and the elements were the same, he confirmed as much using Alchemical Analysis- then he knew that properties could change depending on the crystal structure of a molecule.

Was there something similar that happened with magical structures? Then, like how… well, that was where the analogy broke down some. Edwin didn’t know of any allotropes which interfered with the properties of nearby substances, but perhaps it was like pH? Or maybe colors would be the better analogy. Shining green light and red light on the same spot didn’t make ‘red-green,’ it made yellow. Whereas using a different substance might be more like changing the material the light was shone on, changing the color in that way?

“Further testing required,” he promised himself. There was literally more stuff than he could focus on in a lifetime, which meant he either needed to figure out immortality, or not exhaustively delve into every topic he came across.

…Probably both, in all honesty. And he’d still have deep dives into different substances. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself. But… maybe he shouldn’t spend two months figuring out all the properties of a single element?

But that was how you figured out the coolest stuff! …and also where most research time was wasted, to be fair. And there was no way to predict what would be useful ahead of time. It wouldn’t be research otherwise.

So what? Was he supposed to just… leave potentially revolutionary ideas out to dry because he didn’t have the time to explore them?

Yes, a traitorous part of him whispered, and Edwin had to admit he couldn’t quite disagree. He just needed to get a team of alchemists also working on all of this stuff, focus on the lowest-hanging fruit, and become immortal so he could reap the benefits of his apprentices’ lifetimes of work as well.

So much to do, such few short decades to do it all in. Even though he could realistically expect to live into his triple digits. According to Lefi, having the Health attribute tended to add at least a year to your lifespan per point you had in it, and that wasn’t counting the massive benefits he got from Sleeping, First Aid, Purify, Breathing…

But that was a long, long time away. For the moment, he needed to cast aside everything that wasn’t immediately useful to him. He had been picky with his Skills, he could be picky about this. He had to be, if he wanted to make any kind of headway on the massive project that was turning alchemy into magical chemistry.

…Did he really, though?

Edwin carefully heated his potion base, the Infused water to be kept warm but definitely not boiling. Yes, the extreme flammability of the phosphorus had been strongly tempered down, but he didn’t want to take any risks. Well, not yet anyway. The end of the potion would definitely be risky, but there was no point in bringing that risk to bear already.

He measured out the phosphorus which would serve as the potion’s primary ingredient, gently stirring in the theoretically-not-volatile element into his beaker until Alchemy nudged at him to stop adding any more. Fortunately, Numeracy was able to record exactly how much powder that was, and so he was able to make a note for his future self fairly easily. It wasn’t much, as he was only making a small batch, but he’d still need to know for when he upscaled production

Next was just a pinch of the illusion dust, acting as more of a dye than anything. He held his breath as he added the magical powder, watching as the two powders swirled around in the concoction. If he stopped stirring, the potion would settle and that wasn’t something he wanted quite yet.

First, he needed to make sure it would actually burn. Normally, phosphorus not burning wasn’t much of a concern, but he’d Refined room temperature flammability away from the element. He was still somewhat nervous about arycal’s existence, sure. But firsthand experience had taught him that magical stabilizations should work adequately, so… maybe it wasn’t as bad as he had first thought?

In any case, he needed to ensure his smoke bomb would ignite at the right time and not too soon or too late.

He hadn’t managed to Refine molai yet- the mana-absorbing plant just gobbled up all the Refined mana he could bring to bear and cut off his connection from the magic. However, the plant’s base properties should still be enough for him. Alchemy directed him in just the right way to cut and crush the flower’s petals such that its mana capacity would be ‘fragile.’ In other words, the solution would accept a certain amount of mana, but once it reached capacity, the molai would release everything it had stored in one fell swoop.

When combined and primed to fire mana in the form of ‘alchemical fire catalyst’- Refined firevine- and assuming Alchemy was leading him properly, he would add just enough to fill the molai buffer to capacity, meaning that even a slight bit of flame or fire-based mana would ignite the entire canister.

If he did this in the future, he needed to figure out some way to keep the fire/molai mix separated from the actual smoke-making portion of his bomb until he was ready to use it. A secondary arming mechanism, basically. If only it weren’t made complicated by the fact that if he didn’t add the mixture prior to the concoction concluding its reaction, it wouldn’t be part of the substance. Or maybe he could bypass the need for an ignition component if he used Firestarting? Something to try in future iterations.

He carefully dribbled in the alchemical fire, the bright red liquid shining with some internal light. He took no chances, and each drop was taken by an apparatite stirring rod dipped into the warmed vial he kept the catalyst in, then carefully allowed to drip in. All the while, he made sure to regularly stir his beaker. If he stopped, the powders would begin to precipitate and finalize their composition, and it was much too early for that.

If he hadn’t been so religiously ensuring the solution was continuously stirred, Edwin might have noticed when the concoction reached saturation. Then again, he might not have. His Ritual Intuition wasn’t exactly the most precise sense after all, and the point of the molai was to absorb all the fire mana it came across. Maybe if he’d had the potion on a slightly lower temperature, he wouldn’t have had the solution overload so quickly. Then again, perhaps not. By the time Edwin felt so much as a flicker of heat mana from the solution itself, it was undoubtedly too late.

Less than a heartbeat later, the overloaded molai released all the fire essence it had stored simultaneously. The infused water held it back for a second, but he could already feel the reaction kicking in. He didn’t think it should be harmful, but he also didn’t want to have to deal with any potentially burning smoke that resulted from excess fire being added to the mix.

So, he grabbed the beaker and quickly poured it all into a freshly-made waste container off to the side. As smoke began to billow out of the container, he realized his error and grabbed its lid to help seal in the concoction’s byproduct, slamming it down onto the flask.

That turned out to be a mistake, and Edwin’s eyes widened as he saw another Skill step into the mix. Bomb Throwing was bringing its strength to bear, suffusing the sealed box with its effects as it prepared to blow.

“Oh-”

It had been a while since he’d caused a lab explosion, Edwin reminisced. At least this time there was no fireball involved, and he was completely unharmed. He… really should have seen that coming, in all honesty, and only had his eagerness to blame.

Still! At least he now had a decent idea as to how effective his smoke bombs would be. If such a small amount of that blend would produce so much smoke, what sorts of smokescreens would he be making once he really mastered the process and scaled up the payload? Now that was an image Edwin loved visualizing.

The container had blown its lid off the top almost immediately and instead of a puff of smoke and perhaps obscured vision for a few minutes before it all settled down, Edwin had found himself enveloped in a thick bank of fog that refused to vanish. Next time… he’d try using just Firestarting for ignition.

Once he realized nothing was going to come of trying to outwait the smoke while inside a poorly-ventilated space, he felt his way out the door in an attempt to get some proper fresh air.

Unfortunately, the exterior wasn’t much better. He had enveloped their entire caravan in white smoke, and while it blew away relatively quickly, wisps of smoke continued to almost cling to every surface, giving them all a ghostly quality.

Huh. Neat. How could he use that…

“You know Edwin, you’ve been spending a lot of time in that carriage making potions. You haven’t been dodging your training, have you?” Inion asked with a grin that suggested she already knew the answer.

“Would I be able to get away with it?”

“No.”

“Well there’s your answer, I suppose.”

“Well! Time for you to get out and get working, isn’t it. We’re three days out from Sheraith, and you still haven’t figured out Overcharge.”

“But what I’m doing is important,” Edwin protested, “I’m an alchemist first and foremost. Making potions and new weapons are at the heart of what I do. I don’t need to practice my Overcharge if I work instead on my primary stuff first. I’m almost done with my smoke bomb, I can feel it.”

“Come on, Edwin. You’ve had that stamina potion of yours for how long now?”

“Like two weeks? And it’s not a Stamina potion, it’s a catalyst.”

“Precisely! In such time you might have reached a perfectly adequate level with your Skill, and possibly even wholesale mastery of its limited-area use had you been diligently practicing!”

“But I need my mana for Refining! If I use Overcharge, that knocks me down for at least the day when it comes to mana usage. All my struggling and pain is way worse when I actually try to purify my mana into its Refined form.”

“Before you go to bed, then! Perfect. I’ll get it ready for you, ya?”

“You possess such magnificent power! I insist that you strengthen it.”

Edwin glared at his trainers, “Both of you have no respect for pain, do you?”

“Pain is the body’s way of letting you know you’re doing something right!”

“That’s… literally the opposite of what it does,” Edwin sighed, but knew there was no winning this discussion. “Fine, fine. I’ll get to it soon. I just want to make a couple of potions to help me prepare first. It’s not like I have a bunch of time for more trial and error, after all.”

It looked like he wasn't done quite yet after all.