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Chapter 19: Knowledge III

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Music was deemed as one of the highest forms of art by him. However, he never liked singing himself. He prefers humming, but listening to talented musicians was always lovely.

What's even more lovely is musical instruments, his favorites being piano, violin, and the flute.

However, he has none of those till now, and he didn't bother asking for one. Alvion would most likely refuse, saying it's a waste of time.

Humming was currently his sanctuary as he placed a test tube in a strange looking artifact.

It has an openable metallic sphere at the top with a hole at its bottom that happened to be positioned directly above the tube. There are also several tiny levers at its side.

He was in an isolated room specifically prepared for alchemy as it only has two tables. One has all the required artifacts, while the other has the ingredients.

He first picked up a dark ice flower and exactly seven Drainil grapes then placed them in the alchemy artifact. After that, he pushed one of the levers and let the artifact do its work.

He then picked a few leaves from the second table. The leaves were pale grey with a prominent sour smell to them.

These were the ghost leaves, the key ingredient of many spectral potions.

The ghost leaves are hated by all kinds of spectral entities, thus why they tend to stay away from them.

Even in their raw form, they're capable of corroding specters' bodies.

He put them in a large chemical bottle and placed them atop a heater before turning it on.

He closed the bottle beforehand, knowing what happens in such circumstances. In this formula, the ghost leaves are the only ether plants, and they tend to behave strangely in certain circumstances.

He turned his attention to the compression artifact, ignoring the faint sound of screams coming from within that bottle and the grey smoke filling it.

He turned off a specific lever on the artifact before turning on another. The moment he did, a pale blue liquid started dripping down into the empty tube beneath the artifact.

The sphere was divided into two parts. The top one where the compression is done, and the second where the mixing happens.

Val waited until the tube was nearly filled before taking it off and closing the alchemy artifact.

"Anna, clean it as usual." Said Val while handing the alchemy artifact to the maiden in the room.

She's a servant in training to be a butler, and there are several of them.

Louis is the supervising butler, and according to what Val knows, he's only responsible for keeping an eye on the butlers and over him.

Anna was used to this by this point. She took the artifact by her delicate hand and reluctantly went out, his humming seemed like a drug to her, and she couldn't listen to enough of it.

After a few seconds, Val turned off the heater and picked up the ghost leaves bottle which seemed to be thoroughly filled with grey smoke.

He then placed it within an exquisite white cubic artifact, then closed it. Just like most artifacts, it also has a few beautiful engravings.

He left it in there for a few minutes before opening it again, feeling its coldness. The artifact is a small cooler but one of the best despite its small size.

He brought the bottle out, noticing it now contains a strange liquid within, its color seemingly transforming continuously to all kinds of grey-ish colors.

He picked up the tube with the light blue liquid, then opened the potion bottle and hastily poured it in before closing it just as quickly.

That was one of the simplest potions to make, thus the quick process, but it still requires timing.

That's something where a lot fail though it becomes so much harder for more complex alchemy products, especially the ones that need ether art casting.

Val then started shaking the potion vial while ruminating through the process, 'I guess this is as good as it can get. That is why seeker alchemists are much more preferable than normal alchemists. What a few ether arts can achieve makes all the difference.'

He has already prepared many similar potions, going up the difficulty, and he found it quite easy. He studied through many alchemists' notes and learned from their mistakes.

According to the unified alchemy ranking of the world, he can say with complete confidence that he's a second-stage alchemist. Beyond that are stages where the ether is involved.

After all, he has only been practicing alchemy for two weeks, "That should be good progress, right?" Val said to himself, completely aware that that mere thought could send many to the afterlife.

It's important to note that a week in this bizarre world is 10 days. The month is always 30 days, and strangely, there are only 10 months.

Val did find it strange at the beginning but got used to it after knowing some pieces of information about how this world works.

Val then went on to take a shower and change his alchemy clothes which were a long black robe, and thin strong black gloves.

He then continued on with what he was doing for the past two weeks. He sat down in a meditative position and started to focus, his goal being to enter deep meditation.

He is quite sure he will finish his output runes today. This phase consists of Inscribing a big output rune or a few small output runes that will allow ether seekers to better output their energy, much more efficiently and much faster.

Ether seekers inscribe an output rune in the place or places they want using ether gravers. He already did that two weeks ago using dark ink though he went at it in a way much different from most other seekers.

The next step is entering deep meditation and manipulating the ether around into the rune or runes in a way as to forms a shape similar to how a seeker's soul curtain is.

If one has a spiral curtain then one will manipulate the ether to form a spiral of energy all around and within the rune.

He has a Lenticular soul curtain, so he naturally controlled the ether that way. The difference is that he's constructing several output runes at the same time, specifically seven output runes and they're all wide ones.

Most Seekers have trouble creating more than two small output runes at this phase as it puts a toll on the soul... Sigh.

His forehead. The top of his hands and the bottom of his legs. His chest and back. These are the places he chose to create his output runes, each for an important reason.

Furthermore, he felt like he can still create more output runes, but it will take time which he doesn't have... for a specific reason... Sigh.

His eyes were closed. Those bottomless abyssal eyes were tightly shut for a while. His inky hair was falling to his eyes, hiding the triangular mark on his forehead.

Only in specific times can one see more to a person... What's seen now is the epitome of calmness, emotionlessness, and much more.

It all seemed like an illusion as Val opened his eyes, regaining his carefree but elegant demeanor.

Four weeks passed since he created his output runes, and life wasn't easy on him.

He was training in whatever he liked every single day. He was eating absolutely delicious food every day. He loves knowledge yet he found himself able to read only a few hours a day.

Most importantly, he found himself having to meditate every day and deep meditation at that.

I mean, he does find it to be one of the most wonderful and comforting things to every experience... But still, those are still a lot of things to do.

'I guess I should start a recruitment process to free my time. I really miss Hana, she's been doing most of the work before we retired. I need to find a new broken jewel...'

Val was thoughtful, stroking his chin in the peace of his own gorgeous room. Alas, all things must come to an end.

He started wearing his clothes, one different from what he usually does. The castle is quite warm so he doesn't usually wear much.

However, now he put on black pants, a white sweater, and a thick black coat, lastly black boats.

He then wore a specifically prepared belt and placed his sheathed rapier on it. He then put on his already prepared backpack and picked up his bow and quiver.

"To ghost hunting, we shall go..."