The Dungeon Crawler's Academy

The Right Oil

"...Time to get to work.."

Argent uttered quietly to himself as Gauge disappeared into the forest. It was no laboratory or shop, but soon the small enclosure in the woods was alive with the sounds of careful work and bubbling solutions. Argent's bright eyes focused intensely on each measurement, each small spoonful of powder and vial of liquid. He maneuvered skillfully around the campfire and his tools, monitoring both a hearty pot of stew and his developing alchemical solution with equal attentiveness. Luckily, the simple meal had reached the point where it required little more than a bit of heat management around the coals and the occasional stir, leaving Argent to hone the finer details of his craft. The portions of herbs and supplies he had purchased from Eophi were spread along the ground beside the large stone he was utilizing as a table, his alchemist's kit propped open against the stump which was his chair. Two running burners hummed with low magical flames, vastly different containers held in their clamps. One an open beaker filled with a small amount of crystal clear substance, the other an enclosed sphere filled with stems, with a sealable port for adding ingredients and a single valve for pressure release. Connected to this valve, Argent had run a section of spiraling copper tube which led downwards into a separate beaker. Tapping the side of it lightly, he watched as small droplets of liquid fell into it, consisting mostly of water but with a steadily growing film of oil separating along its top. Removing the sphere from the flame for a brief moment in order to open up the seal, he added the last of the Silverstem that had been purchased, nodding his head with confidence.

"That should give us enough oil for a base..."

He thought out loud, leaving that apparatus to do its work. It was a simple way of distilling oil from the Silverstem plants, but he lacked the proper setup to effectively extract it mechanically without a press. Doing it this way would take time, but time was what he had. Moving now to the other beaker, Argent used a small silver spoon to agitate the ether inside, before turning to his remaining herbs and reaching for several clusters of small white flowers. Laying them into the groove of a mortar and pestle, he began to grind them with the wheel until there was little left but pulp. Scraping out the finely crushed residue and adding it to the beaker each time, he ground down each cluster until none remained. Letting the substance heat for a time within the beaker, he carefully managed the level of flame to maintain a dull simmer, never quite permitting it to reach a full boil for fear of it exploding. Once the liquid inside had changed colours from clear to a very faint shade of gold, Argent flipped a mesh strainer over the top and poured the contents into a fresh beaker. Reapplying it to the heat and measuring out a single portion of finely powdered emerald dust, he stirred it into the solution and reached into the aether plane. [Enhance Reaction]; his internal kai swept through the ingredients and swiftly bonded them together, resulting in something akin to a thick green syrup. Once it reached a sufficient level of viscosity to satisfy the Alchemist, he placed a cap to vent steam and fumes away from the heat source atop the beaker, and permitted it to slowly cook down until only a hard crystalline crust remained on the bottom.

"Looks like you've been busy."

Argent looked up at the familiar voice, watching as Gauge stepped out from the surrounding woods and settled into a sitting position on the other side of the fire. Two things caught the alchemist's attention in that moment, and he wasn't sure which to comment on first, the stings along the side of his companion's face and neck or the stone at his waist.

"I didn't know you had a waystone."

He went with the second option, deciding to avoid the injuries for the moment. He didn't want Gauge to get defensive about being 'coddled'. The rogue glanced down at the item and gave it a gentle pat.

"Sure do. Won it in a dice game."

Argent wasn't sure he liked how pleased the older boy seemed with himself at that piece of information. Nor did he want to know what kind of money had been on the tables. Waystones were simple but valuable pieces of equipment that were highly prized by adventuring types. Enchanted with locational arts which permitted anyone to bond them with specific spots, so long as they could channel kai into the stone. Each time the stone was bound to the essence of a place, one of its sides would always point the way back towards it, no matter how far the separation. He had heard that some had as many as twenty sides, and that more intricate waystones could even calculate the general proximity from a saved point and represent the distance with differing colours of light.