We could instantly begin with the process of Nigredo, except for that we needed to perform this under the new moon. I told Greg that I could probably do my moon thing and get the new moon to appear but he told me to save that for Rubedo, where we needed the blood moon. We would have a new moon in 3 days so waiting wasn’t a big deal.
The first step would turn all the ingredients to dust. I protested against this at first but Bomba assured me that every component will get reconstructed in Rubedo and that it would seem as if they had never been deconstructed. He was putting all his materials on the line so I decided to do the same.
I did gather more materials than he would ever need so there was a possibility I could perform a Magnum Opus with the left overs at a later date. I apparently only needed to chip a unicorn horn so even a whole horn was more than enough.
This was good news because I’m never gathering these things again, especially fairy dust. Raishin kept asking me about the fairies, if they were beautiful maidens with butterfly wings. All I told them that they were disappointing.
I had decided to have 2 batches undergo the process of the Magnum Opus. One batch to make the spirit vessel for Bywen and another to make spirit vessels that could house almost any spirit.
The main catalyst for Nigredo was lead, the ingredients had to be put in a great flask and stirred with shadow magic under the new moon. They had to be stirred under great heat to the point that the bottom of the flask blackened.
The mixture would turn into a pure black mass. Bomba estimated that the process would take about 3 hours. It so happened that Greg was skilled in shadow magic and I was skilled at heating things up.
We created the setup for Nigredo far from Berfhais. The sand could get into the ingredients so we went to the river to the west where there was no desert.
See! I told you guys! Sand is good for nothing!
Yes yes, now come and help with this setup.
The three of us had made a camp because we would spend our time here. This wasn’t originally the plan but I could move Bomba’s stuff all at once so transportation and logistics were a non-issue.
“So Nigredo is most likely going to succeed. For the next step, Albedo, I want you to go over everything you know about your target product. Try to summarize it and distill it to its shortest but most concise idea and image, this is what you will have to focus on when we will be going through the step of Albedo. It could be a single image or a sentence but it can’t be more than one sentence.”
So basically, describe the end product in a single sentence or image? Isn’t that easy?
“Well, it is the knowledge that carries the idea. You could tell me what you came up with but that doesn’t mean that this process would succeed if I tried to make your spirit vessel. Just make sure you have something that describes it well.”
An image that carries the idea, eh? Everything I know about this vessel is to approximate the body of a humanoid. Its goal is to give a spirt a physical form; a spirits functioning physical body. That is probably what I will be going for.
Can I improve on this? Something a spirit can possess or live in is technically correct but it doesn’t grab its essence. An imitation of humans or 9t is also wrong because Bywen’s vessel will have 4 arms, she will look like an elf besides that so it’s not an imitation of anything. So ‘A spirits functioning physical body.’ Is still the best I could come up with. It is not something they possess or live in and leave when they can or want, it is not an imitation. They will be bound to it just like most other species are bound to their body.
The days passed and it was the night of the new moon. 3 large flasks were readied; 1 for Bomba and 2 for me since I was creating 2 batches.
“I have said this before but thank you for making my dream come true.”
Thank me after we’ve succeeded.
I am adding the ingredients.
Greg used his [Shadow Tendrils] to place the ingredients in the flasks. My flasks had wide necks because I had some bulky ingredients. The spirit skin, the spirit muscle dough, the spirit fat, the spirit systems and finally the spirit bones and Ichor Pneuma got added.
I just light a fire under the flasks, right?
“Yes, the lead will be added after an hour.” Greg added 3 solutions, besides our main ingredients, he and Bomba had made for the Nigredo process. He started stirring and added 3 cubes of lead into each flask after an hour.
Now we just wait till everything blackens.
So, when everything is burnt?
“Well one solution prevents our ingredients from turning into ash or charcoal so while that is a concern normally, in our case it’s not.”
So, you’re going to Leanne after you finish all this? What are you going to research?
“A way to make something similar to the witch’s hat for humans.”
Is that a good idea?
“Well, both of us think it’s not but that’s what the research is for, to find out how much of a bad idea it is. Maybe humanity will be ready for it in the future.”
Progressing your own race, eh?
“Yes!”
Well in that case I can recommend the research papers written by Ayaru Mistflower, and some follow up studies from me, Agnis Hourai. Oh… I burnt down the library. I have a clone in the elven village that’s rewriting whatever I archived from there he will put those on a hold and start rewriting Azu’s study on Misha hats. I have mine somewhere…
I rummaged through my dimensional pocket and took out a copy of my studies on Misha hats. I could say that I’m an expert on them. I had to be, else I couldn’t steal them or create [Hattrick].
“Oh, Lea did mention that you had done something like that thank you!”
Just a warning, these hats are more complicated than most Misha are aware of.
“I will keep that in mind.”
Greg got curious and I told him about some details of what I had researched in Witchaven
The mixtures started to blacken at the 3 hour and 23-minute mark.
Hey Greg, don’t forget to hand me the protocol and part of your paper after we finish.
I have everything noted down don’t worry.
Greg had been vigilant and had been taking notes of the process during our conversation.
“It seems to have been a success. Let’s seal the flasks and wait till the full moon to start on Albedo.”
And that is what we would do, we waited until the full moon would appear. Silver was the catalyst for Albedo and had to be executed under the full moon. The understanding of the ingredients and the end product were extremely important here. Water magic had to be used to rinse and mix and cleanse the ingredients. Bomba and Greg had 3 more solutions for this. The mixture had to be split in 2 after adding these so we set up 6 more flasks.
“Don’t forget that the image and sentence is also an ingredient. Focus on that when stirring your ingredients.”
I looked at Bomba’s batch which drew my attention.
What about your batch? Won''t my sentence interfere with your batch?
I will stir his mixture with water magic. He will have his hands on the flasks to infuse his image into the mixtures.
Oh ok.
“Try to keep them cool but don’t let it freeze. One of the ingredients we will add has anti-freeze properties.” Bomba said and went to check the equipment and ingredients and wrote things down. He was also being vigilant in keeping record of whatever he was doing.
Here we are 3 nerds waiting for the full moon. Does this make us lunatics?
Night fell and the full moon appeared and I tried my best to not look at it. Greg added the ingredients for Albedo to the black mass. We then used water magic to add water to it and pull the mixtures out of the blackened ‘Nigredo’ flasks, split them and drop them into the ‘Albedo’ flasks.
The mixtures became lighter as I stirred them. I infused the sentence into the 4 flasks while chilling them and stirring them with water magic. We were to keep this up until daybreak. I got lucky and clouds covered the moon for most of the night so I wouldn’t have to worry about looking at the full moon and spacing out. This however didn’t seem to hinder the ‘Albedo’ process, clouds or not it was still full moon.
Greg tired but he held on till day break. I was used to unusual and long applications of magic or water magic in general so this wasn’t a big deal to me.
Good job Greg.
He sat down and rested.
“My batches have succeeded, let me inspect yours. Hmm, looks good. Now we don’t have to wait long to use Citrinitas. It just has to happen near noon, mercury is the catalyst. Now for me it doesn’t matter when exactly I do this but for you it might. There was a strange line about gendered results, before noon will create the female, while after noon the male. This is probably why Albedo splits the ingredients in half.” Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
I see so I will do 2 flasks before noon and 2 after, does it take long?
“It will take 12 minutes at the longest, we just have to add 4 ingredients at ambient temperature, it’s by far the easiest process. But this is a process where only the creator is allowed to add the ingredients, there are no special requirements, just that you add them.”
Citrinitas could happen in the same flasks we had completed the Albedo process in so I started around 11:30. It was quite easy as Bomba said. The mixture turned bright yellow. No stirring needed just add the ingredients. I marked the flasks afterwasrds for clarity. The color stabilized after 10 minutes and Bomba confirmed that everything worked out.
Is there any risk of failing actually?
Yes, but that solely depends on the extra ingredients Bomba and I had made. We were diligent in ironing out any mistakes and inaccuracies. Everything should succeed.
Bomba and I started at 12:04 and this also only took 10 minutes. We took out 5 big flasks out after completing Citrinitas. These would be the Rubedo flasks. The glass of these were slightly red tinted. We helped Bomba pool his solutions into one Rubedo flaks. Mine had to stay separated.
We labeled everything and rested.
“Now for the blood moon. This is going to take the longest…”
The next estimated blood moon will appear in a year and 2 months…
Wow that sucks. I might be able to do something about that but let’s have a change of pace!
What do you want to do?
Bomba has a Dimsha I want to see him fight you!
“Ooh that’s a great idea! I can show off my alchemical prowess!” Bomba got excited and gathered his…explosive setup.
Why don’t you fight him?
I’ve had more than enough action the last months, you’ve been inside all this time, gogo get your ass kicked by Bomba!
Why do you assume I will lose?
Then prove that you’re gonna win!
Bomba and Greg picked a spot very far from our setup. I stayed behind but I could still spectate with Elgards eyes. I had to make sure no wild animal would knock over our hard work.
They started and Greg’s mana plummeted to Bomba’s level.
Bomba chucked flasks at Greg which exploded. He also sent out some fireworks. Basically, he was fighting with bombs and explosions. He surely was fighting as his name suggests.
Greg had a hard time defending against this because Bomba’s magic was absolutely garbage so Greg’s magic matched that because of Bomba’s Dimsha. Greg’s hammer was unaffected because it could change its weight so Greg could still launch himself although not as far as he normally would.
Bomba had to watch out from the hammer slams because his Dimsha did nothing against heavy objects. It looked like the battle of the noobs but Greg won in the end. He did get quite beat up in the process though. Bomba had some bruises and Greg looked like a burnt cat.
They returned 30 minutes later after they had concocted and ingested healing potions.
“Whew, Greg really is strong, my Dimsha does nothing against skilled fighters.”
You were close to kicking my ass though.
You both did well but it’s good that you nerds could get some exercise in!
You are as much a nerd as we are… have you figured out how to solve our blood moon problem?
Dunno. I think I should be able to do it. Do we need any preparations beforehand?
“Bring out the blood moon? Are you a moon god or something? And we have everything, the most important parts are the ingredients you have provided. We made 5 solutions that should work. I’m a bit concerned about the phoenix blood because it’s properties are a bit different from what they should be but it should work out fine.
That made me relieved, I’m not a pure phoenix so that was to be expected.
Right, this might shock you but just keep your surprise to yourself. I have one question though. For how long do we need the blood moon? I might have difficulties keeping the blood moon up.
“We need to heat it up with fire magic, as much as possible. The duration depends on the heat, phoenix fire is very good in reaching extreme temperatures very fast but if we can do that without phoenix fire, it will be fine. We could need between 3 hours and 15 minutes depending on the temperature.”
Bomba went to the hut with materials and came out dragging a large cart full of gold. Greg went to help him and pulled out 2 more carts.
“The catalyst is an extreme amount of gold, thanks for providing this.”
I gave a thumbs up. These were just gold treasures I still had stored up. I had no issues parting with them.
“The gold and the Rubedo solutions go in first and after the gold has completely melted will the phoenix blood be added, this should turn everything from gold to red. It will solidify when it’s complete.”
Boil the fuck out of it till it becomes solid, ok!
I found a good spot to where my tails wouldn’t knock things over and went 9t mode. I limited the mana burst and focused on the sky. I was looking for a blood moon that would happen in about a year. The day shifted to night, and back to day again. I kept cycling day and night until a blood moon appeared and managed to keep it on the blood moon.
Let’s start! We don’t know for how long he can keep this up!
Greg and Bomba added all the ingredients and I walked over to the flasks, wrapped a tail around each of them and started heating them up as much as I could.
The first 4 minutes went well but the sky wanted to turn back to its original state afterward so I experienced some resistance. Bomba was chucking his alchemical concoctions at the Rubedo flasks to help heating them up while Greg added the phoenix blood.
It became uncomfortable keeping the blood moon up after 8 minutes and I began to struggle after 15.
“Just a bit more! It’s almost done!”
I started [Elgard Overload] which would add 8 more minutes. That should be enough.
“It’s done! You can stop!”
Rubedo had completed 18 minutes after I had started the blood moon. I canceled my [Elgard Overload] and got kicked out of my 9t mode.
Wow that was rough. It was as if I was fighting against the rotation of the planet.
I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what you just did…
“It’s done! It’s complete! Greg, can you smash the flasks?”
I sat down as the day and night cycled back to its original point. Greg smashed the flasks and started to collect the results and note down any details.
Is it supposed to be a red solid? Isn’t what you wanted to create less red? And why has Agnis’ batch turned into some sort of clay?
“Well, we just have to form it in the shape we want, this is why the Albedo process is so important. Let’s take this back to Berfhais. It is relatively light like this but it will become heavy once I have given it form.”
Right. Give me a minute.
I rested for 10 minutes after which I got up and inspected the 4 batches of clay. I took note of which pile was what and sucked up everything in my dimensional pocket.
The Agnis express will leave soon!
Greg fixed some burnt patches of earth and we were ready to return. I grabbed both of them and I ran back to Berfhais. It took some time but we returned Bomba’s equipment safely.
<hr>
“Ok now completing Rubedo is extremely easy.” Bomba was standing next to the red solid which I had placed in his living room. “All you need to do is infuse the image or sentence you used during Albedo to it and…” He touched the red solid, focused a bit and it turned into some large cube shaped wired machine. “It’s done.”.
Greg and I clapped.
So, this works the same for my clay?
“Well, you did say you wanted to make a vessel with 4 arms, maybe that’s why it has turned into clay. You might try to shape it in a form where it looks humanoid and has 4 arms and then apply the Albedo image or sentence to it.”
I see, I might want to do this next to Bywen then. Thank you very much Bomba!
“No, thank you! This would have been impossible without your help. If you ever need anything alchemy related, you know where to find me!” Bomba said as he wiped a single tear of his face.
Next to a witch city, yeah we might have to be careful in visiting you.
“Hmm, maybe yeah. I will clean up the mess in my house, you have done more than I’ve ever hoped, go finish your project!”
Thank you Bomba, if you ever need help put in a request in at any AA, this guy might never read his messages but I do.
We said goodbye to Bomba.
I could see that he couldn’t wait to test his machine out. It seemed complicated but it did look like the most important parts acted similar to my [Tail Dynamo] and generated lightning. It didn’t seem to need a power source though which was probably the reason this thing was a big deal.
We returned to the AA. Raishin and Elliana had just returned from an adventure and waved at us.
“Greg you’re back!” Elianna ran at him and hugged him. “And you too Agnis, how did it go? And did you guys also see the sky acting strange?”
Uhh, we succeeded and that might have been me, we needed the blood moon so I forced it out.
Haha, I knew it was you! It looked like what happened in Boshi town years ago! You had to see the faces of everyone around us! Everyone was freaking out!
Wait, you saw that all the way over here? It was supposed to be a local effect.
Maybe your area of influence has increased, you might not show it because you always hold back but it’s clear you have become stronger.
I don’t feel like I’ve become stronger at all…
We caught up and went back to the elven village.
How? I drew a teleportation circle while my clone back in the village drew a receiving magic circle. We stepped in and got safely teleported to Nuverna village.