The Nine Tails of Alchemy

Chapter 78: V2 Two


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Walking through the spacious laboratory, I double-checked the workstations I’d set up for the first alchemy and transmutation lesson. Five workbenches were set up for my alchemy students, and on each was a basket filled to the brim with glowing pink mushrooms. Aside from the alchemy work stations, I’d placed three barrels filled with sand next to the long work bench in the center of the room, ready for the transmutation students to use for their own lesson. 

Despite my initial reluctance, the idea of holding ‘classes’ had grown on me over the past few days. My mother and every researcher I knew of kept their labs full of students, who they delegated work to under the guise of teaching. If I was going to do things properly, then of course I needed student labor to ease the burden of menial tasks, thus freeing me for more important research. 

I was confident that I would be able to balance things properly. I knew about how the distribution of labor worked in real laboratories, having spent my last two summers interning under Dr. Carlson, who was the head of research and development at Greene Pharmaceutical. Though, considering the lowered skill level of students,  I’d need to start with simple tasks to make sure everyone knew how to perform basics, before I started setting up proper research projects. 

I wonder what Dr. Carlson has been doing since everything happened? Markion said he was going to sell his shares to him… Perhaps I should do the same. I thought with a sigh as I straightened up the knives at one of the work stations.  

The time I spent in the lab with Dr. Carlson were some of my most treasured memories. Carlson had previously worked in my mothers lab as a grad student, before working his way up to his current position, and I’d looked forward to one day working with and learning from him.

 Greene Pharmaceutical, the company my father founded, a company my mother worked so hard to build. The company I once longed to take my place in, was now little more than a bitter memory. 

 

The sound of voices and footsteps echoing down the hallway pulled me from my drifting thoughts. As I turned to face the door, the first of the students, no, the disciples, entered the room. Sadie was the first to enter, the waifish blond elf bounding through the doorway with a bright smile. At only sixteen, Sadie was one of the youngest members of the guild, and the one I held the most hope for when it came to learning alchemy. 

“Good afternoon, Miss Kadia.” The blond elf chimed, sending pangs of familiarity shooting through me as I recalled not too long ago I was greeting my own teachers much the same way. 

I’m only two years older than her. I reminded myself as I returned the girl's smile with a nod. Corvus was the last to enter the room, and I mentally scoffed as I saw him leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. This is feeling a little too much like I’ve gone back to high school. All Corvus is missing is a letterman jacket.

“Alchemy novices pick a workstation over there. Begin by following the instructions on the recipe, while I instruct the transmuters on their task.” I said, not wasting any time with pleasantries.

The group of five disciples were quick to move to a workstation, and I watched them silently as each read over the recipe. Three of the five immediately set to work prepping the mushrooms, whilst Sadie and Helvara both appeared to be reading the recipe for a second time. 

As both finished reading, I noted that out of the five novices, only they used the proper cutting technique. Which I’d written at the very bottom of the recipe. The others clearly only read the first lines of instructions, and jumped into the prep work without ensuring a full understanding of the recipe. 

Fortunately, the cutting technique would not affect the potion in this case, it was merely a cleaner way to go about preparing the mushrooms. As the Luminous mushroom caps were covered in a powdery substance, wetting the mushroom before cutting was key to not getting bright pink dust all over the workstation. While some powder would come off in the water, it did not matter, as they would be using the same water in the retort when distilling. 

“You don’t look happy,” Kip commented. 

I sighed, turning my attention away from the budding alchemists, most of whom would likely never earn the title. 

“Two out of five isn’t that bad, I guess.” I muttered, eyeing the three transmuters. Let's hope I get three out of three with this lot. 

“Have you each gathered the components needed for your amulets?” I queried, getting a nod from each. 

“Got the last of it this morning.” Corvus drawled, pushing off the door frame and walking over to where Roswyn stood, peering into the barrels of sand with interest. 

The red haired gnome had approached me only the day before, expressing her interest in learning transmutation. As it turned out, Roswyn previously sought to train as an earth mage. However, she wasn’t able to properly attune her mana core to the element, so left the mages' academy after only a month. As transmutation used an amulet to align the transmuter's mana to the correct type, she wouldn’t have to worry about needing to attune her mana core to any alignment. 

“Good, each of you stand at one of the workstations. Place your transmutation circle and components on the table.” I instructed, moving around to the opposite side of the table so I faced them. 

Once they’d each set out their circles, and the needed catalysts, I pulled out another copy of the amulet forging circle. Holding it up for them to see as I pointed to the symbols around the outside of the circle. 

“Using the scalpel I’ve provided, you are going to create a small cut at the tip of each finger on your left or right hand, depending on which hand is your dominant hand. I don’t recommend cutting with your offhand, it will only end up messy and painful. Once all five fingers have been cut, place them directly down onto each of the five symbols simultaneously while pushing as much mana into the circle as you can in a steady stream. You will need to keep up the flow of mana until the circle is full, and no longer absorbs the power.” I lectured, spreading the fingers of my left hand, and pressing them to the symbols to demonstrate how to touch each of them at the same time. 

Fortunately, Tris wasn’t so cruel as to leave me handing out blessings that I didn’t know how to use. This would be my first time seeing the circle being used, despite having given it out as a blessing to fourteen of the fifty disciples who’d prayed in my name.

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 I’d given each disciple the task of finding the required components, but so far, none had prayed to say they’d gathered them all. Which wasn’t surprising, as the items weren’t something that could be easily located in a short amount of time unless one had both money and contacts to call upon to aid them. 

As the three followed my instructions, I fought back a grimace as Corvus cut his fingers a little deeper than necessary. Roswyn was the first to place her fingers down on the circle, and I watched closely as the lines forming the circle turned a deep red as the blood was absorbed into the circle. 

After a moment, the gnome pulled back her hand, the cuts on her fingers no longer bleeding, as the circle pulsed with magic. Kip and Corvus mirrored the gnome's actions, though their own circles took a little longer, due to the smaller amount of mana they were able to draw on. 

I’d instructed both to redirect the flow of mana they absorbed, but neither was willing to fully commit all their mana to their cores. As such, even after days of hunting to grow their mana capacity, both were still far behind myself and Roswyn who dedicated all our mana to our core. 

“Next, place the gold bar on the symbol for earth.” I instructed, pointing to the symbol. “Followed by the water, air and fire wisp cores on the corresponding symbols.” 

As I watched the three set the wisp cores on the circle, I held back the urge to snatch the cores away and hoard them away for my own use. The guild had needed to contract the Whisper guild, who could more easily travel between the desert and the nearby city of Valonia to purchase the cores, as I’d only had a limited supply of ice cores. No one else in the encampment kept any cores aside from ice wisp cores, which everyone used for cooling water or other drinks. 

The Whispers, being Vampires, were able to jump through the shadows, and had hundreds of hidden locations across the continent they used as jump points to get around swiftly. The cores had been extremely overpriced, but I couldn’t complain, as it wasn’t my pocket the gold was coming from. 

“The final step is to place your high grade mana crystals on the symbol for magic.” I directed, my heart pounding in anticipation of seeing the circle fully activate for the first time. 

The transmutation circles glowed brightly, and the mana crystal, wisp cores and gold all rose up into the air, spinning around in a colorful vortex. The light emitted from the magical display was blinding, but I didn’t look away as the components merged into a ball of light which dropped back down onto the circle. The ball flowed over the circle in a fluid manner, formed into a replica of the amulet I’d been given by Tris, aside from the gem that appeared in the center. 

The jewel at the center of these amulets was the same blue color as the mana crystals used as the magic catalyst. Whereas my transmutation amulet, which was fused into the palm of my left hand, contained a purple jewel that was the same color as my eyes, or at least it was until Trismegistus made me his high priestess. 

My once purple eyes now contained a ring of gold around the pupil, which on close inspection was a circle of minuscule runic symbols that I’d yet to determine the meaning of. The god had been stubbornly silent when questioned on the subject, merely informing me I should further my knowledge and, thus, answer my own question.

“Congratulations,” I said, reaching into the pouch at my waist and pulling out three gold chains. “String the amulets through these, and take a short break to recover your mana before we continue with the lesson.” 

“Aren’t they meant to go onto our hands?” Roswyn asked, pointing to my glove-covered left hand. 

“Fusing an amulet is not something a novice should attempt,” I informed the gnome, not entirely sure whether that was true, but not wanting to admit I didn’t know how to fuse the amulet without aid from Tris. 

I wasn’t keen on speaking to the god at the moment, not after he filled my first ever loot box with two thousand luminous pink mushrooms. I’d been so excited when the box appeared, knowing it meant I’d accrued another fifty disciples past the initial fifty I’d needed to gain. Only to find the box filled to the brim with pink mushrooms, and the sound of amused laughter filling my head. 

It would take days for the novices to render and distill all those mushrooms, as the retort could only hold up to six mushrooms. The distillation process for the mushrooms would take an hour for each batch, so even with all five of them working on the task, it would be sometime before all the mushrooms were distilled. 

Maybe I should assign Sadie and Helvara the task of researching different methods of processing the mushrooms. Drying, infusion in different liquids, all simple experiments, but not ones I really have time for. I mused, as I walked behind each of the novices, checking their progress. The only method I’d been using to refine the luminous liquid was distillation, though that didn’t necessarily mean it was the only way.

Each of them had a bowl filled with finely diced mushrooms in front of them, and Sadie already had her retort set up distilling her first batch of mushrooms. After my inspection, I gave some verbal instructions to the others to begin distilling whilst they continued working on rendering down the mushrooms, along with a live demonstration on how to fill the retort, when it became clear how clueless some of the novices were. 

Returning to where the transmuters sat, chatting lightly amongst themselves, I pulled out three glass orbs, setting one in front of each novice transmuter. 

“Now that you have your transmutation amulets, it’s time to learn how to use them.” I declared, watching in amusement as Kip’s eyes suddenly went wide, and he looked over at the novice alchemists, before turning his attention back to the orbs. 

“Foxy, you little genius!” he whispered. As it suddenly dawned on him that I’d turned the entire class into a luminous orb production line. 

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