Alchemy VIII

The following morning, Kle In is sitting in the kitchen staring at the food he was served five minutes ago. His appetite still refuses to accept the devolved form of the set meal before him. There are slices of hard bread, a bowl of soup and god-knows what those minced vegetables placed beside the bread.

While the taste was not that bad, his palate is really having a difficult time adjusting. Even the food he was given while he was in a cage tasted and smelled better. Kle In sighed and still is grateful since it is still better than the rations from the orphanage. He can only set his objective to concocting High Tier Pills to improve his living conditions like what Elder Ulvar said.

While eating, Kle In tried to switch his thought to the process of concocting pills. He did not want to go back and repeat and produce the same Low Tier pills. Like a real child, he looked like he stopped eating and staring at an empty space daydreaming.

Cough!

Kle In heard her maid reminding he should finish his meal. He came back to his senses and then when he to tried to scoop a piece of mushroom from the soup, he suddenly had an inspiration.

"What if I could just scoop out the impurities from the pill as it forms?” he thought to himself.

Kle In smiled and thanked the goddess of soup for the enlightenment. Kle In finished his meal and went to the Alchemy Room.

His objective today is to scoop out the mass of impurities that forms in the middle of the pill as it coagulates. Having conditioned himself, he placed the three ingredients of Qi Sensing Pills inside the Cauldron.

Two minutes after combining the medicine essences, he noticed the same chemical reaction taking place as the pill starts to solidify. When he felt the black impurities starting to take form, he materialized his Qi to look like a thin spoon to scoop out the dark substance within the cloud in the middle of the semi solid pill.

When his Qi penetrated the ball of combined essences, Kle In suddenly lost control. Like how he was unable to control when the pill starts forming or when the medicine essence leaks out during pill formation, all he could do was expect.

Poof!

Though the explosion was not strong, it was enough to displace the lid of the cauldron throwing it a few centimeters upwards before it dropped to the floor.

“Holy mother of Lord!”

Kle In moved away from the cauldron. Terrified and gasping for breath. He could feel his heartbeat racing.

He cursed the goddess of soup inwardly while looking at the cauldron.

Due to fear, it looked to him like a raging volcano spewing black smokes. He just stood near the door ready to leave with the slightest sign of danger. He wished he could contain it to avoid from potentially burning his precious house but he was not reckless and patiently waited for the cauldron to cool off.

Clocked ticked and after a few minutes, the cauldron stopped emitting smoke but he was still did not have the courage to get closer to it. He waited another hour before finally making his resolve to investigate the cauldron.

Kle In slowly approached the center of the room while observing precaution to the highest level. When he was a step away, anticipating there might be an after explosion, he extended his Qi to make sure there was nothing wrong with the cauldron.

*Exhale

Kle In sighed upon looking into the cauldron. Aside from the ashes, he did not find any noticeable change.

He touched the cauldron and inserted his Qi into it. Earlier, right before the explosion, he felt another set of Formation that activated and absorbed a portion of the impact. He was in deep thought as he recalled every detail up to the point when he had to run. Everything happened in a split second.

“And here I thought I was making progress.”

He could only blame himself for the lack of knowledge. Since no one is going to supervise his refinement he can only figure everything out by himself.

He does not know the exact details of the explosion but he is positive that scooping out the impurities is not a way to do it as of the moment. Either the timing was not right, he used the wrong material for the extraction, or maybe the intensity of the flame.

“If only I have a computer to record it.”

Out of nowhere, Kle In blurted out something from his previous life which then made him thought his memory fragment as if he was a scientist. He is still unclear as to what his actual identity is but reckoned that if he as something similar to a white board, it may triggered him to remember more of his past life.

Kle In looked around and wanted to go downstairs but immediately stopped upon realizing how empty the house was. And even if he went outside, just thinking how backward this world is, the concept of a board and a chalk is has yet to be discovered.

He wanted to laugh but upon the sight of his cauldron, a crazy idea entered his mind.

“Let’s see if it works.”

Kle In looked into the cauldron and smiled at the ashes accumulated at the bottom. He has no desire of making a mess in the room but he scooped the ashes to his palm and since no one was around, he used his saliva to improvise a paste and walked towards the wall.

“Nah, I’m a child now. Nobody would care.”

At this point, Kle In cast away his other thoughts and concentrated on writing on the wall hoping that his actions would trigger his subconscious to further induce his buried memories. Since he decided to vandalize the wall, he may as well do it correctly.

After three minutes, he has written three major factors involved in pill synthesis namely, ingredients, flame, and cauldron formation. There were arrows for additional factors and variables.

A few minutes later, Kle In sat beside the wall and in front of what he has written, then took out the alchemy books again for a reading.

Not aware on how much time passed and if not because of his stomach complaining of hunger, he would not noticed he spent the whole day in front of his improvised white board.

Before leaving the room, he sat down in a meditative position expecting new memories would unfold. After all, he spent almost a day hoping to imitate the scientist in his memory.

However, as soon as he closed his eyes to concentrate, his stomach is rumbled again. He wanted to ignore it but the idea of eating and satiating his hunger is all that he could think of.

“So I’ve wasted an entire day, huh?”

Kle In opened his eyes in defeat. He knew it will not work but he did not mind. At least the things he had written on the wall helped him better picture basic Alchemy.

For now, he should be grateful he could concoct Low Tier Qi Sensing Pills. In a few day or years, once he accumulates more knowledge about alchemy, answers to High Quality Pills should reveal itself. He just needs to be patient for now and slowly build experience.

He got up to feet and left the room.