“The needs of Alchemists and Cooks, however uninteresting they were at the time, led to the creation of standardized containers of measurement with the Gold Standard Weight as a reference; it even changed the way spoons were made. Two tablespoons of gold of ninety parts purity for example, make a gold coin and you would need about eighty of such spoons to make one gold standard. Merchant scales were also roped into this kind of constructive disruption; it also became the basis for measuring the purity of gold coins in merchant banks to prevent counterfeits. In response to these developments, the smallest subdivision of weight, the granaum (which literally translates to a grain of gold), was born. However, the use of spoons had been so ingrained that most recipes, alchemical and not, featured it as a notation of measuring ingredients; it is noticeable by the notation (tbsp).” -Excerpts from Archival Records of the Merchant Guild, Antefall Calendar Year 1520.

Ah, tea in a laboratory, bubbling magical concoctions, intellectual brain picking; it was like sitting in the professor’s lounge at college again. Nostalgia; well at least those sort of pleasant memories that just happened when the circumstances seemed to coincide were not painful.

Arthur was in the middle of a fascinating discussion with the [Alchemist]. The bespectacled aquamarine eyed man had hair that was sunflower blonde in color. His height about a head or so shorter than him and he looked to be in the prime of his years, retaining a fit and lean physique despite his sedentary occupation. It did seem like his parents won the genetic lottery. Not a bad looker like himself because real recognized real. Aside from the hair and the eyes, would have most definitely been at home in a Scandinavian country.

After his accident and recovery though, height-wise, Arthur was pushing it while Edel was average. Besides that, his non-prominent cheekbones were well complimented by his straight nose and moderately thin lips. Naturally, his chin was elongated not to a point but rounded, giving the guy a sharp professor look. His brows and mustache were the same color as his hair. In a word, Edel Lalilab was this world’s version of a PhD professor of advanced chemistry.

“So Arthur, how did you meet my daughter?”

Where Arthur would have done a spit-take, [Eye of the Storm] served a forewarning and quelled his surprise. It was like a toggle for situational awareness; he could smell chaos coming like a farmer could smell the rains. He could manage his surroundings better, center himself when making decisions even when the sky was falling.

That is what [Eye of the Storm] was, well part of it really, he was still discovering what the skill could do. It was actually a quasi-passive skill that kicked in when certain conditions were met, yes, but that was still an ambiguous way to describe it. The best way to describe the skill was to describe instincts or a very insistent gut feeling.

No fluster actually bled through as he answered the question with a straight face, “Perhaps we should ask the lady herself since she is here? I just got the invitation from her that is all,” Arthur shrugged.

“Well, Sunshine, would you tell these two gents how that came to be?”

“I assume mother didn’t tell you then?” Hanna queried, as she dusted off the crumbs of biscuits on her lips. “It was all mother’s plan to go see Master Arthur.”

“Mmh, typical of her. She had to have smelt an opportunity from afar; I don’t know how she does it.”

“It’s a skill obviously,” Hanna said, as a matter of fact.

“That’s what makes her a better merchant than I,” he stroked the back of nape self-consciously.

“Was it her that drafted the proposition for a meeting on your behalf?” Arthur asked.

“You didn’t know either?” the girl replied.

“No Miss Hanna, my maid takes care of all my letters.”

“You don’t have a secretary, Arthur?” Edel enquired.

Arthur shook his head in refutation, “My maid, who just so happens to be my administrator and housekeeper is looking to hire someone…”

“Who?” Hanna chirped excitedly, “Maybe I have some information I can tell you about them…for free of course,”

“Eh, Miss Hanna, I didn’t know you had that kind of inclination; keeping tabs on people I mean,”

“It comes with the territory,” she grinned impishly. “So who is it?”

“I think it’s a certain Miss Elena…” Arthur said, hesitatingly.

“Oh,” Hanna mumbled, looking disconsolate.

“What’s wrong my little Sunflower?” the Alchemist asked worriedly, he looked from Arthur to Hanna inquiringly, wondering what he was missing out.

“My friend papa. Something happened to her…something bad. I haven’t seen her at work ever since.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that Sunshine, I didn’t know,” Edel said consolingly, “How is she Arthur?”

“According to my maid she’s recovering. With time she should get back on her feet,” Arthur assured smilingly. “She’s helping her, she says perhaps a change of pace away from the Guild and adventurers may do her good. She might also be a live-in employee, Thea willing.”

“Truly?” Hanna’s face brightened. “Then shouldn’t we have a party to celebrate her recovery then?”

“I shall think about it then I’ll let you know; it’s still too early to tell.”

“Well, that’s settled then,” Edel Lalilab commented. “Arthur, I assume, we were just getting to the crux of the matter?”

“Ah yes, of course. Should we discuss it here or?”

“I think its fine; the lab is just a walk away,” Edel smirked as he looked back at the lab behind them. They were in a section sequestered away from the reagents and all the alchemical implements. It wasn’t really a room so much as it was a booth where Edel occasionally took breaks from work.

“First off, how did you do it? Extracting the aspect from a monster core I mean?”

“By dissolving it in a solution of aqertheryl and concentrated alcohol. You might find that alcohol is a very good solvent when extracting soluble substances from mundane materials like plants…so I thought, how would I extract essence from crystals—?”

“So you made the magical equivalent of a solvent…”

“Yes, exactly. We have been using some types of watered down alcohols to make potions for a long time; that is how it came to me,”

“Does it have a name? the solvent?”

“Mmh, I’m not good at these things; my wife does them for marketability purposes.”

“Eh, I’m not good in the naming department; we kind of went on a tangent there though…”

“A habit we both share as well, haha,” he chuckled in amusement. “So as I was saying aqertheryl plus concentrated alcohol is used to extract the essence from monster cores by slowly dissolving them in an enclosed chamber.”

“Otherwise you’ll lose the essence that makes up the affinity to the surroundings?”

“Correct, however, success varies with the type of affinity. For example, Aer mana cores will give you Aer mana and air. If you leave it too long without recrystallizing, it will decompose further to more air and raw mana which easily dissipates through unwarded magical containers…”

“Ah, so what containment measures do you use ?”

“For magical reactions of an explosive nature; for example, with Pyr mana cores that produce heat—,” he moistened his lips, parched from all the talking. “Enchanted glass or crystal vessels reinforced by magically non-conductive metals like null-steel works just fine. Are you familiar with null-steel Arthur?”

“Yes Mister Edel, I have come across it in my enchanting studies.”

“After we're done collecting the essence, we have to recrystallize it. While we cannot imitate the conditions in which natural crystals form, we can provide our own range of them to get what we want—

For example, when extracting the essence of ice magic, from the monster cores of frost wyverns, we will first dissolve it. The resulting essence will always be a liquid because such is the nature of Aqer—

However, at this point, we might lose the cooling properties of the core because the affinity will be assimilated by the increasing concentration of the solution. So we have to distill it, then cool it down, to either get the liquid essence which must be used immediately or preserved in warded vials, like these—” he showed him a vial containing the liquefied mana of ice magic in a tube.”

“However, if we go further, we can crystallize the liquefied ice magic by applying immense force to it and Aspicio ! you have an aspected crystal of the affinity from the monster you slayed—recall how diamonds form deep below Eryth with the weight of the mountains above them, yes?”

“Mmh; and what’s the efficacy of said artificial crystals?” Arthur leaned forward. This was what he’d come here for, the power of Pyr crystals without the danger of spontaneous combustion.

“Er, I regret I haven’t the foggiest idea how to measure the potency of my crystals, save for letting a [Mage] with mana sense or mana sight to tell me how strong it feels according to their perception; and the latter is rare mind you. Do you happen to have either Arthur?”

‘Should I tell him I have both? He has been so forthcoming so far.’

“I, in fact, do Mister Edel…”

“Truly,” he smiled broadly, “then you wouldn’t mind being an impartial appraiser of my products would you?”

“It’s no problem Mister Edel; I did come here to see their efficacy.”

The middle-aged alchemist then stood up and started pacing.

“According to the mages I asked to judge the relative strengths; a group of ten—five were pure mages, no specializations and five who were crafters having a second class on the side be it artificing or enchanting—,” he gestured with his hands, showing the numbers.

‘This is where a chalkboard comes in handy; where does he do his equations?’ Arthur thought, looking at the rest of the alchemy lab with the edges of his vision. He spotted an entire wall covered in charcoal scribblings. ‘Fascinating.’

“—based on their subjective measurements, most mana cores yield a potency of half power, two thirds of the power or three quarters of the power in order of ascending size compared to a mana crystal of similar size—

I still can’t fathom where the rest of it disappears to…I always make sure that my extraction set ups are airtight.”

‘My time to shine!’

“Perhaps because monster cores are an impure source of aspected mana? I mean, a core does grow inside a monster’s body,” Arthur supplied, feigning thinking deeply about the matter by cupping his chin.

“Could you repeat that Arthur?”

“As I was saying, a monster's mana has been heavily assimilated by its owner’s characteristics. I would imagine no two monster cores are the same Mister Edel—,” Arthur paused to give the older man’s thoughts to catch up before he continued. “The rest of the mana cannot be extracted as it is not pure; even if you were to, hypothetically find the most efficient method—have you tried extracting sugar from honey Mr Edel?”

“Yes I have, you could say the honey is the sugar— this all makes sense now,” he nodded. “I don’t have to beat myself up over the loss in efficiency; it’s all natural” the alchemist sat down, slumping as if a weight he’d been lugging had been lifted off.

“Perhaps a change of perspective was what I needed all this time, Arthur,” the alchemist said soberly. He paused, then retrieving a glass vial on his belt, glistening green, “For example, this alchemical product is a stain remover for when I’m cleaning stubborn spills; my wife offered the suggestion that I liquefy soap. I was so tunnel-visioned that I missed an obvious thing. And now, liquid soap is flying off the shelves thanks to her.”

He regarded Arthur with his serene, aquamarine eyes the color of the gem from whence the name came. “Master Arthur, pardon my use of formalities just this once. Let it not go unsaid that you came in like a gale and upended some of my preconceptions. I can now move forward with a clearer goal in mind now. I feel on the cusp of discovering something today, tonight?” Edel Lalilab looked at his daughter, who was just about dozing off.

He smiled fondly, “Ah much time has passed. I can squeeze in a few moments of my time…”

His countenance changed from a loving father to a professor’s sharp thinking face.

Arthur shifted in his seat as he waited for what would be a back and forth bouncing of ideas in the next few moments. [Eye of the Storm] was telling him the chaos was coming.

Up he stood, as if launching into a lecture before a class of advanced chemistry majors. His gestures became animated as if he was a conductor directing the flow of an orchestra when he was just illustrating the path of magical and chemical reactions. And so it went,

“Frost mana crystallizes at room temperature but I can’t seem to do the same for fire that is somewhat diametrically opposite to it, being a derivative of water magic and all that…”

“Perhaps Pyr mana behaves like very hot air or heat energy Mister Lalilab”

‘Like plasma!’

“And therein lies the problem, every attempt to cool it back to liquid has failed,” he pointed at nowhere in particular, as if the issue was made manifest in the air around them.

“I think sir; we should ask the owner of the monster core; how did the lava wurm keep it in liquid form…what are the characteristics of the lava wurm?

“Outstanding resilience to fire.” Edel Lalilab quoted from memory, “The hotness or coldness of its body is not affected by its immediate environment.”

“Yes, otherwise the wurm would just combust from the inside out if it does stabilize the fiery nature of its mana within a reasonable threshold.”

“I imagine it cycles the mana; no the mana inside its body is already in a state of equilibrium and is therefore stable. However, its attacks are like hot acid, its spit is fiery yet, it dissipates after sometime, but not before it manages to cook the flesh off your bones… we must be missing something.”

“So the Pyr or in this case the breath attack turns into a fine spray once exposed to air?”

“Exactly…”

“And air contains…”

“Aer mana and air that makes fires burn…” he stopped pacing, removed his glasses and rubbed them with the sleeves of his lab coat and then looked at Arthur with his mouth open.

“We just have to remove the aer mana and the air from the equation.”

“By the Primals!” his breath caught.

“Whu—what is it papa?” Hanna Lalilab woke up from her nap, hearing her father’s commotion. She stretched her lithe arms and looked around the lab, eyeing the two gentle-men caught mid-debate; actually a debate that had just concluded, and blushed, embarrassed that she’d fallen asleep.

Both men burst into raucous laughter…

And that is how a duo of brainiacs in an alchemy lab, found a way to bottle the essence of fire.