Chapter 95: Tehom, Alchemy, and Sub-Zero

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

"Tehom, literally 'the Deep' or 'Abyss'," read Quinn from another old tome in the Hogwarts library.

After having a scare of a lifetime inside the second trial, Tehom's Delight, Quinn's first course of action was to see who or what Tehom in the title was?

"Refers to the Great Deep of the primordial waters of creation in the Bible," hummed Quinn as he summarized the information he had been able to get on Tehom. "An entity from the Christian pantheon mentioned in the Old Testament Bible, Book of Genesis, Genesis 1:2"

Tapping his finger on the table, Quinn thought about his experience of no sight in the second trial room. The complete darkness had taken him by surprise. Being robbed of the sense that he used the most was something deeply unsettling.

"The entire vault is revolving around water, and then there was the word 'law' in the text. The trials are definitely based on something that can be found in water."

Quinn glanced down at the word 'Tehom' on the parchment of the tome.

"There is no light in the depth of an ocean, and Tehom symbolizes deep or abyss. Having no light must be the reason I wasn't able to see anything but darkness," theorized Quinn. "That meant that my sense of sight was okay, but there was no light. Thus, I couldn't see. Ah, that is just plain annoying~. I respect that."

Another thing that Quinn focused on was the ambiance of the second trial room.

"I was inside a water-filled region with no surface beneath my feet," remembered Quinn, while closing his eyes to relive that moment. "Calm water with no violent, turbulent flow like the first room. The temperature; slightly cold."

Even though he had been only inside the second trial room for less than thirty seconds, Quinn ended up having some questions.

"What's the aim of the second trial? Do I need to find another entrance? How do I navigate there? Is there something in there other than me? What danger there is?"

But spending mere seconds inside the second trial room wasn't enough to answer any of the questions. If Quinn wanted to get answers, then he would need to dive in there and get the lay of the land.

Then his thoughts went further beyond the second trial room.

"How many trials are in the third vault?"

The third vault was still covered in mystery because Quinn couldn't see the end, and that unknown element slightly excited Quinn.

Mystery creates wonder, and wonder was the basis of man's desire to understand the world. And Quinn wanted to understand everything. It was in his nature.

- (Scene Break) -

Alchemy was a branch of magic; an ancient discipline that involved studying the secrets of composition, structure, and magical properties of the four classical elements, as well as the transmutation and transfiguration of substances and, thus, it was connected intimately with potion-brewing, charms and transfiguration.

Of course, Quinn didn't believe in the four classical elements because of the atomic theory. But he did believe in the fifth element, which he considered to be magic itself.

Back to alchemy. The branch of magic was a beautiful conjugation of various magics: transfiguration, transmutation, potions, herbology, metallurgy, charms, and other magics used to supplement it according to its needs.

Alchemy was said to be the ultimate transformation magic. Alchemic counterparts were many times more potent than their potion counterparts. Properties could be permanently added to objects: something that was extremely difficult with charms. It could convert materials into completely different states from their initial forms; something that could only be a work of transfiguration but permanent.

Today, inside the Room of Requirement, Quinn was in the middle of performing alchemy. The young alchemist was in the midst of one of his long-term projects. The project was still in its initial stages, but Quinn was making some progress.

"Project sub-zero. Series one (1), formula number twenty-seven (27)," announced Quinn, reading from a sheet of paper that had 'S-1 F#19' written on it.

「Project Sub-Zero.」

Absolute Zero was the alchemic material that Quinn had found inside the first vault, the Icy vault. It was an alchemic material that was at a perpetual temperature of zero Kelvin (0 K). The paradoxical material contained cold energy capable of dropping the temperature of anything it came in direct contact with to zero Kelvin (0 K).

It was the physical incarnation of infinite cold.

And while Quinn couldn't get it out yet, he wasn't going to miss the chance to research it. So twice or thrice a month, Quinn would go down into the vault and collect samples of the cold energy for research.

There was no information on Absolute Zero except the description. Quinn had scoured the Room of Requirement library to find any information on Absolute Zero but couldn't find a creation methodology or a clue to get started.

It was a magic lost to the world.

Project Sub-Zero was Quinn's attempt to study Absolute Zero. So that one day, he could create the alchemic marvel himself. It was an experimental approach where Quinn began at two hundred and seventy-three Kelvin (273 K) and made his way down to zero Kelvin (0 K).

He had divided the project into six stages.

Stage One (S-1) - 273 K - 224 K

Stage Two (S-2) - 223.99 K - 175 K

Stage Three (S-3) - 174.99 K - 126 K

Stage Four (S-4) - 125.99 K - 77 K

Stage Five (S-5) - 76.99 K - 28K

Stage Six (S-6) - 27.99 K - 0 K

The first five stages had a forty-nine Kelvin (49 K) range, the square of the most magical number; seven.

But in the last stage, S-6 had the remaining twenty-two Kelvin (28 K), which was in a seven times four (7 x 4) range. It had the power of seven and a stable foundation of four. The sixth stage signified that, after six stages, Quinn would reach the perfect seventh stage and obtain the paradoxical yet stable Absolute Zero.

Quinn chose the above stages as each would be a milestone in his quest to create Absolute Zero.

Seeing that Quinn was operating on [S-1 F#19] meant that he was still in the initial leg of the project.

"F#18 showed the temperature of 209 K / -63.15°C. Five degrees lower than F#17," recited Quinn as he took notes under [S-1 F#19] paper. "But, F#18 was unstable and broke down in under ten minutes (10 mins). F#19 is the attempt to solve the instability of F#18 and create a stable formula with the temperature of 209 K / -63.15°C or below."

Quinn lit up a fire and placed a potion cauldron on it. Alchemy, or at least the alchemy Quinn knew, closely resembled potion brewing as it required a cauldron.

Slowly Quinn added the ingredients into the cauldrons according to the formula. There were a lot of processed ingredients, like liquid essence extracted from plants, magically treated plant roots, frozen animal organs, transfigured filings of metal, and other ingredients that Quinn had chosen for [S-1 F#19].

After adjusting the heat and stirring at predefined times to activate the ingredients, came some steps that set apart alchemy from potion brewing.

When the mixture inside the cauldron was at the optimal state for the next step, Quinn took a deep breath and raised his hands over the cauldron, and magic flowed.

Potion brewing didn't have a place for spells because they could incite instability in the in-flux mixtures brewing inside the cauldron. But alchemy did precisely that and introduced external magic into the mix.

Quinn, with the utmost caution, injected his magic through alchemic transformation spells. His eyes observed the mixture for any signs of deviation. Any signs of trouble could cause the mixture to deteriorate into instability. The worst outcome would result in the cauldron exploding, which would heavily harm Quinn in the process.

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This was the reason such a small number of people pursued alchemy. There was a risk in every alchemic brew; a mistimed decision due to a lapse in concentration could cause injuries.

That is why, even among those who did pursue alchemy, many didn't proceed further because their spell work wasn't good enough to safely perform alchemy.

Of course, not all failed attempts exploded and caused drastic injuries. If one didn't make any major mistakes, the outcome would be a failed cauldron full of sludge. But why tempt fate and attempt a magic that had such high standards?

With an observant gaze and a tight hold on his magic, Quinn injected property-adding charms, state-changing transmutations, and stabilizing flashes of transfiguration.

The initially yellow mixture turned brown, which indicated it was time for the next step. He immediately picked up a bronze metal disc from the ground and carefully covered the cauldron. He used the disc as a lid cover. The second the disc covered the cauldron, Quinn dimmed the heat to a simmer.

Quinn relaxed his body as he exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding. He walked to the desk at a distance from the cauldron and took the inactive downtime to note his observation. Quinn picked up a pen and started writing.

"[S-1 F#19] has passed both the ingredient activation stage and active magic injection stage. There were no noted anomalies, though the magically treated cold-resistant aluminum gave the initial mixture a yellow color. The cured brown color shows that there was a resonance between the elements, showing signs of binding and stability."

Quinn raised his head and looked at the cauldron before looking back at the table and continuing, "Estimated binding time is fifteen minutes with an error margin of three minutes. The required temperature is 300 °C."

After writing down the notes, Quinn didn't sit down and relax for the next fifteen minutes but got up and moved to another table with a white cloth covering the tabletop. On the tabletop, there was a cloth-covered cage and a small potion vial.

Quinn removed the cloth from the cage and, immediately, three rats squeaked from the sudden exposure to light. Quinn looked at the rats and magically held two rats down as the third rat floated outside the now opened gate.

The three rats were provided to him by Poppy for healing practice. The one he took out was a perfectly healthy rat in which Quinn would perform wound healing.

The other two rats were sick rats with diseases that Quinn practiced cure healing magic on. He had no idea what the diseases were, and needed to first identify the illness from their symptoms and, then, cure them with healing spells or healing potions.

"You two will come later," said Quin to the two sick-looking rats. "So sit tight because the doctor will see you in a bit."

Quinn again covered the cage with a cloth and floated off the table to the floor.

He looked at the squealing rat pinned to the white table. With a twitch of his magic, all the hair from the rat disappeared and turned into an ugly hairless rat.

Quinn picked up the potion vial and, after uncapping the lid, a drop of potion flew out of the vial and entered the rat's mouth. The squealing rat slowly turned quiet and fell unconscious. The potion was a magic anesthetic with a sleeping component attached to it.

"Don't worry, buddy, this won't hurt at all," muttered Quinn as he looked at the unconscious rat. A small cut appeared on the rat's hairless skin with trace amounts of blood leaking from the wound.

Quinn stared at the cut wound as he funneled magic onto the cut wound. Like magic, the blood stopped leaking, the cut knitted back, joining the two sides of the cut together, healing the rat's body like the cut never existed.

"Success," smiled Quinn and shot a diagnostic charm at the rat to see the overall condition. The results came back positive as the rat was at full health, albeit with a slight blood loss. Nothing dangerous.

"Let's try the bones," said Quinn to himself and broke the rat's leg bone with magic. By now, Quinn was used to harming unconscious rats, and breaking bones or detaching limbs elicited nothing out of Quinn.

Once again, Quinn molded his magic as he knitted back the broken bones and healed the muscles, blood vessels, nerves back to normal. The heal was performed phenomenally, and when the rat eventually woke up, he won't notice a difference.

"Snip-snip," clicked Quinn with his tongue as the rat's tail came off from its body. "Operation tail reattachment. Beginning now."

Without moving his hand or arms, Quinn's magic held the detached tail of the rat's body and used healing magic to reattach it. The muscle and skin from both wriggled as they knitted back together. When the outer layer was reattached, the thin bones set themselves together and clicked back together with magic.

After that, Quinn continued to perform the list of activities on the unconscious rats given to him by Poppy.

When ten minutes passed, Quinn stopped harming and healing the rat and moved back to the cauldron before the time was up. He used a spell to check the internal temperature, and the result showed that it was about to get to the desired level. Quinn wore his protective gloves and safety goggles and removed the bronze metal lid from the top after the temperature reached the optimal level.

"Excellent!" grinned Quinn when he saw the change in the downtime.

The brown boiling mixture had turned into transparent bubbling viscous liquid. The brown had a heavy sour smell, but the transparent liquid was scent-free.

"Time to remove it from heat," said Quinn as he cut the heat at the bottom of the cauldron, and then Quinn's eyes shined with focus because it was now time for the last stretch of the process.

Quinn's magic flowed out of his body and assaulted every drop of the transparent liquid with chilling cold. Ice magic came in contact and bled inside the potion, and reached everywhere inside the thick viscous liquid.

The ice magic thrummed with activity as an icy blue light started to taint the transparent liquid. Quinn kept on dropping the internal temperature and the icy blue color deepened. After a minute of channeling magic, the liquid lit up with a brilliant light.

The ethereal light reflected inside Quinn's eyes as he cut the supply of ice magic and stepped back a couple of steps. A smile lengthened on his lips as he saw the condensation appear on the cauldron's outside and froze into a white cover of ice.

Quinn waited till the blue light dimmed to a level that it was faintly present before raising his hand and, with his rising hand, the contents inside the cauldron were levitated outside.

The faintly shining liquid floated in the air as Quinn did a temperature and pumped his hands up and celebrated, "207 K, two Kelvin less than expected!"

Quinn danced around the floating [S-1 F#19] in celebration.

But after celebrating the initial celebration, Quinn conjured an iron rod in his hand.

"Flame on," grinned Quinn and bombarded the conjured rod with powerful heat magic. Focusing his magic so that it would be concentrated on the other end. "Come on, get nice and hot, so papa can hear some sizzling goodness."

The moment the quarter of the rod was red hot, Quinn gestured with his fingers, and half of the liquid broke from the floating blob and flew towards Quinn.

Quinn brought it so that it was floating at his knee level. He held the iron rod in a reverse grip before stabbing it inside the viscous liquid.

Immediately, there was intense sizzling as the iron rod cooled down rapidly, and within seconds, the iron rod had lost all the heat. Quinn removed the rod and threw it away; the rod vanished mid-flight.

Wasting no time, Quinn checked the temperature of the cold liquid in front of him, and the spell showed him the temperature 210 K. The temperature had risen three Kelvin.

"Wait, wait, wait," Quinn raised his hand as if quieting a crowd around him.

He watched as, within seconds, the temperature went back to 207 K.

Quinn threw his arms up and announced, "We've done it, people! It has enough energy to recover. It is stable, it is beautiful, and finally, it is cold. It is Quinn-made!"

Not really thinking that the only ones who could hear his celebration announcements were two rats with hair and one hairless rat who had woken up from the potion's effects.

The two halves merged back together, and they floated to a container that Quinn had prepared for it. The containers were also a progressive project because these containers also got stronger as Quinn continued to improve on project Sub-Zero. Plus, as Quinn had been working on containment longer than Project Sub-Zero, he was way ahead in containment technology.

Quinn hummed in pleasure and joy to the table to make notes, and after that, his day continued to get better because that day, none of his three rats died. This only happened maybe thrice a week because Quinn usually ended up killing the healthy rat after failing to heal a critical injury quick enough.

Quinn West - MC - Alchemist in making

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