Chương 177: Chapter 172 - Breakthrough

Alric headed to the thumper in the cellar the next morning. The beer in the still would keep fermenting for weeks, and even though bubbles still rose through the thumper now and then, Alric was tired of waiting. He crouched by the pipe and saw a crust had formed around the part sitting in the lye. Alric leaned in and let out a small, happy sound. Crystals. These weren't the clean white crystals you'd see in salt. They were much coarser, smooth grey, and more crystalline.

Alric carefully took the pipe from the still pot, grabbed a cloth from his item box, and moved to the table. He spread the cloth under the pipe and used a wooden scraper to gently scrape off the crystals. The bigger pieces of crust were flaky and broke apart easily. Some pieces stuck and needed more effort to remove. Alric kept one hand under the scraper so he wouldn't lose any valuable crust to the cellar floor.

Once he had gathered all he could, he folded the cloth around the crystals and carried it to the worktable. Dirt was mixed in with everything. Some black marks might have come from the copper or the thumper, but he couldn't be sure. Before doing anything else, he put the pipe back on the still. Alric poured distilled water into a small cup and grabbed another clean cloth. He wished he had tweezers, but he carefully moved the crystals onto the new cloth, trying to keep out any dirt.

The crystals should dissolve in water since that's how they formed. Cleaning them was hard because he knew he'd lose some as they dissolved. He put the second cloth over a cup, moved the crystals to the center, and poured a little water over them. The darker color washed out first. He used his fingers to push the crystals toward the dry edge, trying to save as much as he could. Most of them remained. He grinned, looking down at the cleaner pile. He spread the cloth flat beside the vent.

He looked down at the amount; there was less than he had scraped from the pipe, but not by much. Enough for several small tests. He cleared the worktable while he waited. Alric moved three empty cups into a row, then paused and added a fourth. He retrieved the dried Wickleaf, oil, and salt before choosing a small pot. By then the crystals looked dry enough. Alric rubbed one between the wooden scraper and the cloth. It broke apart. Good enough.

He poured distilled water into the pot and placed it over a heating stone. Once the water was warm, he moved the pot onto the table. Alric scraped some crystals from the cloth and stirred them into the water. They disappeared quickly. He poured a little into the first cup. More crystals went into the remaining water. Alric stirred again, waited until he could no longer see them and poured the second cup.

He added everything left to the pot for the third sample, tapping the cloth several times to get the powder caught in the fold. It was not much of a measure, but it was what he had. He poured distilled water into the fourth cup and moved it slightly apart from the others. Alric took some of the left over crushed Wickleaf and began trying to separate it into more or less equal piles, then looked between them. One pile was clearly larger. Alric took some from it and added it to the smallest.

That made the smallest larger than the others, so he took some back.

"Whatever," he muttered, tipping one pile into each cup. The water began taking on the same green-brown colour as the earlier tests. Alric added oil, trying to judge the amount by the size of the drops, followed by salt. He used a different stick for each cup and stirred them one after another. The oil broke into smaller patches before gathering again near the surface. Some Wickleaf floated, while the rest began sinking. Alric pushed slips of paper beneath the samples. Water. A little. Middle. Strong.

He returned later in the day and opened the cellar vents before approaching the worktable. The Wickleaf smell wafted in the air. It wasn't as strong as the lye sample had been, but it left a mild scent everywhere. The four cups had settled. Oil floated on top, with the crushed leaves forming dark layers beneath. Alric started with the distilled-water sample. He rested two fingers against the cup and gathered a bit of amount of mana. It moved into the liquid without much resistance.

Alric stopped pushing and watched. He could sense the mana begin to fade quickly. A tiny amount remained around one of the larger pieces of leaf, then that faded too. Same as before. He moved the control away and pulled the weakest alkaline sample closer. Alric pushed mana into it. The mana went in and remained there. He waited, his fingers against the cup. Nothing faded. Alric added more, watching as a pale light spread under the oil. The cup accepted some, then began resisting. Reading on this site?

This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. He pushed a little harder. The resistance increased without anything useful happening. Alric pulled his hand away and began counting; by one hundred, he felt barely any escape. The mana inside was stable, but there was not much of it. He could feel it inside the liquid, a small amount spread through the Wickleaf.

"Well, it holds," he said, rubbing his thumb against his fingers. That was already better than the water sample. He moved to the middle cup. The first mana went in easily. Alric pushed more and still felt very little resistance. Pale lines appeared inside the liquid. He bent closer, resting his other hand against the worktable. The lines moved through the cup like narrow ribbons, bending between the crushed leaves. They looked faint through the green-brown water, but they did not fade when he stopped pushing.

Alric waited. The light ribbons continued moving slowly. He added more mana. The cup accepted far more than the first alkaline sample before the resistance began. Alric pushed against it once, enough to confirm the limit, then stopped. The light remained. He looked toward the strongest sample. It would have been easy to decide he had found the answer and ignore it, but that would make preparing three samples pointless. Alric pushed mana into the final cup. It held significantly more mana than the other two.

Alric rubbed at his jaw while looking down the row.

"There must be a limit somewhere, but I don't have enough bicarb," he said, rubbing his thumb against his fingers. He looked at the label beneath it. Strong was not a recipe. That was a problem for when he needed to make more. For now, the pale ribbons continued moving through the liquid and had shown no sign of fading. Alric picked the cup up and turned it slightly. Oil shifted over the surface. The dark layer of Wickleaf moved against the bottom. It looked terrible.

He had wanted something safe enough to drink, but safe enough and something he wanted to put in his mouth were different standards. An oily, salty, chewy, herby mess drifted down his list of meals he was looking forward to. Alric set the cup down again. The small container holding the pale residue from yesterday's distillation sat beside the still. He had scraped it out of the boiler after the run, then labeled it and moved on to the potash. He retrieved it now. There was not much inside.

Pale residue covered the bottom and one side, enough to scrape loose with the spoon. Alric added it to the heavy sample. The first portion floated briefly before sinking. He stirred, scraping the spoon around the bottom until the residue broke apart and disappeared into the cloudy liquid. The pale ribbons shifted with it. Alric placed two fingers against the cup and pushed more mana. It went in. He frowned and increased the amount. The sample continued accepting it.

The light grew brighter, spreading through the cup until the pale ribbons became difficult to separate from one another. Alric kept pushing, expecting the liquid to begin resisting. He opened the flow further. More mana moved into the cup, the glow strengthening as it took it.

"That is a lot," Alric said, leaning his weight against the table. He pushed again. There was resistance now, but not enough to stop him. The small sample held more mana than anything he had tested before, enough that Alric eventually stopped because he wanted some mana left rather than because the cup seemed full. He withdrew his hand and looked down at it. The light remained strong. The residue had made a difference. He did not know whether it contained the mana holder itself or helped what was already there.

It had come from the same Wickleaf, stayed behind during distillation, and now the sample held far more mana after he added it. There was only one more part. The alchemist recipe had involved distilling; Alric couldn't tell why, but heat must have been involved. It was time to test for dawn. Alric retrieved a shallow spoon and began skimming the oil from the surface. He lost some liquid with it, but there was no avoiding that.

Once most of the oil was gone, he spread clean cloth over a small pot and poured the sample through. The crushed Wickleaf gathered in the cloth, it still shone. Alric lifted the corners and let the last of the liquid drip into the pot. He pressed once, saw oil begin to gather around his fingers and stopped. He moved the cloth aside. The liquid in the pot remained cloudy, but the dim blue light showed clearly now without the leaves in the way. Alric placed the pot over a heating stone. There was not much liquid.

This would not take long. He pulled a stool closer and sat beside it, leaning forward with his hands resting between his kneesThe pot warmed slowly. Small bubbles formed around the bottom, followed by a faint line of steam. Alric opened his mana senses. The mana was spread through the liquid. It appeared thicker in some places, though the water's movement kept shifting everything around. As more steam rose, light became easier to see. Several parts of the mana were gathering near the bottom.

They moved apart when bubbles passed through them, then drifted back together. He watched one small clump move toward another. They touched, shifted around each other and stayed together. The combined patch moved more slowly after that. Alric rubbed at his jaw. The mana seemed to be holding the material together. Whatever the Wickleaf had released into the water was gathering as the water left, and the mana was gathering with it. Or the material was holding the mana together.

He had no idea how to tell which one was doing what. The result looked the same either way. The water level dropped further. More of the small clumps joined near the centre of the pot. Alric could feel them clearly now, a collection of dense patches moving through what remained. He moved the heating stone when the liquid began boiling harder. A small drop struck the side of the pot but remained inside.

"Not losing you now," Alric said, moving the pot slightly. Steam continued rising. The liquid reduced until Alric could see most of the bottom. What remained had gathered near the centre, glowing pale blue. Through his mana senses, the separate clumps had become something closer to a ball. Alric removed the heating stone. The final bubbles broke through the liquid before it settled. He waited, watching the light remain exactly where it was. He lifted the pot and tilted it.

The glowing liquid moved slowly across the bottom. The ball of mana moved with it, not stuck to the metal and not left behind where the water had boiled away. Alric smiled. He had concentrated it. He removed a green bottle from inside his item box. It had been an ink bottle before he got it cleaned. Thick green glass, a narrow neck and a stopper that still fitted properly. He had kept it because glass was useful and he had already developed the habit of keeping useful things without knowing why.

He removed the stopper and adjusted the bottle closer. The amount in the pot was small enough that pouring it into the narrow opening was going to be annoying. Alric held the bottle in one hand and tipped the pot carefully with the other. The glowing liquid ran down the inside of the green glass. Light blue light appeared through the bottle immediately. Alric slowed, watching the level rise. There was only enough to cover the bottom of the bottle by a few fingers, but the light shone through it all.

He poured in the last drops and returned the pot to the table. The green bottle shined brightly in his hand. Alric pressed the stopper into place and wiped the outside with a clean cloth. He turned it slowly, watching the concentrated liquid move inside. The light moved with it. Pale blue through green glass, bright enough to shine across his fingers and leave a faint colour over the worktable.

He had no idea how much mana a proper alchemist's potion held, and the alchemists probably wouldn't let him borrow one either. But Alric doubted it held this much. He placed the bottle into his item box. The light disappeared. Alric remained beside the table with his empty hand still raised. The pale crystals had worked. One strength had let the Wickleaf hold mana without needing him to force his way through it.

The residue made it hold far more, and boiling the water away had concentrated everything into the bottle. He looked over the labelled cups, the wet cloth and the small pot. He had done it. Alric lowered his hand.

"Now what?" Alric said to the cellar.