Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Test Rabbits
"Let’s start small."
Siderius began mixing the tonic. First, half a cup of ale was poured into the bowl.
Then, it was time to introduce the Binding Agent. As its crucial role, the binder must be present before any mixing process.
Siderius grabbed a piece of crystallized calcium and hovered it over the bowl. With the will of his soul, the crystal dissolved into salt and floated around his palm while the calcium dropped into the alcohol below.
Dark Aether had done a great job at allowing Siderius to manipulate the alchemical process even further. Now he didn’t need any sign to deactivate a previous Alchemical Seal. This ability was limited to simple seals like Salt Crystallization where the execution would not put too much strain on Siderius’ soul.
Now the main ingredient must be introduced.
The heart of the wolverine contained most of its essence. Siderius had only one and there wouldn’t be any second chance if he failed. So he used other organs for his experiment.
The lungs contained a lot of the Wolverine’s stamina so Siderius had collected it. Along with them were the spleen and liver, two other concentrated essence organs that could be used as substitutes.
The spleen was the smallest so Siderius began with it. He dropped the wolverine’s spleen into the bowl.
Next were the sub reagents, the lemonbulb and the bluemantle.
Siderius started with the least concentrated amount of the reagents. Crushed bits of the lemonbulb and crushed leaves of the bluemantle.
The ingredients were all present and Siderius started the sign sequence.
The Directing Agent Seal lit up and took control over the mixture, forcing them to fuse with each other. The ale bubbled and the calcium bound the ingredients.
The ale already had a dark brown color. Once the calcium reacted, it lightened the ale significantly. The lemonbulb dissolved into thick yellow foam, adding a second layer on top of the ale’s original white foam.
The bluemantle lowered to the bottom of the ale and changed into a tiny little blue sparkle that circled into a tiny whirlwind inside the bowl.
"Hmmm. A failure as expected."
Siderius could already guess the result based on the current reaction. He hurled the bowl away. In mid-air, the liquid expanded and turned into a dense white liquid.
The bowl landed near the baby wolverine which made it jump up a little bit. The white liquid flooded the ground and froze the green grass, turning a small area into a mini snow field.
Water with Earth wouldn’t cause explosions like Fire with Air, which was what happened in the previous experiments with Arvenox. However Earth greatly enhanced the Water element, causing the temperature to lower significantly.
The baby wolverine was not scared of the unfamiliar snow. It jumped on the pile of snow-ale and played with it.
Siderius placed a second bow on the seal and tried again.
Ale itself already had quite a huge amount of Earth element. Siderius needed to factor that in when calculating the percentage of the recipe.
Too much Earth would cause Water to freeze. To counteract this, one must do very counterintuitive solutions to stop the reaction.
There were two main solutions Siderius could think of off his head.
One was by adding even more Earth, its stabilization would revert the freezing at a certain point and change the mixture back to digestible temperature.
The second solution was to introduce a second source of Water element. Water elements were not the same across every object. As there were with different kinds of flame holding different aspects of the Fire element.
With two different sources, the Water element would not be able to reach equilibrium for a freezing temperature.
Siderius tried the first solution first and added in the lemonbulb slices. He threw a piece in his mouth to have a little snack while experimenting.
As a matter of fact, aside from being an ingredient, lemonbulb tasted quite good and Siderius liked to eat it.
Once the mixture was ready, Siderius activated the sign again.
The freezing still happened but only for a couple of seconds. The foam at the top began to freeze but the Earth element worked its way immediately and stabilized the mixture’s integrity. The freezing dissipated by itself and the ingredients dissolved into the alcohol.
The dark brown liquid didn’t lose its color this time. Instead, it became darker with a dirt color.
"Hmmm. A bit too much Earth. But is it a success?"
The solution proved effective but now Siderius needed a test subject.
Ashe had become quite good at setting up traps and catching small games like rabbits and other small animals. She had built a small cage to hold a few of them.
Siderius picked a rabbit out of the bunch. Rabbits couldn’t process alcohol and a tonic would be fatal to them. However, Siderius had no intention of letting it drink the batch. He only needed to see the reaction of the tonic on living flesh.
Siderius dropped a little bit of the mixture on the rabbit’s leg and left it in an isolated cage to observe its reaction. This way the elements would have a clear effect on it without killing the poor rabbit.
The beast survived but it pushed out a huge pile of poop not long after. It produced so much manure that it fainted after the torturous "waste-disposing process".
Siderius popped it back into the cage with the other rabbits, which made the rest run away because of the gas it kept releasing in its coma.
"Not a good result. Let’s try something else."
Earth-element plants could have a very strong laxative effect, which was probably why the rabbit couldn’t stop pooping.
Siderius lowered the dose for the lemonbulb slices at the third try. The spleen was used up so he switched to using the wolverine’s lung this time.
He cut out a small piece that would be sufficient for the experiment and dropped it in.
Siderius also added Blueroot Lily to introduce a second source of Water, hoping it could calm the freezing.
The freeze didn’t happen at all for the third bowl.
The ale settled on a darker shade of brown but still lighter than the second attempt’s dirt color.
Siderius smelled it. It gave off a vegetable aroma, like an alcohol made from herbs.
"The ingredients settle nicely for the third attempt. The ale preserves most of its properties. Let’s see how the rabbits react."
Siderius grabbed another poor rabbit and drenched its feet in the ale. He dropped it on the ground to observe.
The rabbit darted away for a little bit before wobbling and falling face first on the ground. The tiny animal laid on its belly and breathed like it just had the best meal ever. Its tiny white leg twitched from time to time.
Siderius picked it up and checked its vitals. The rabbit was fine but it had too much energy. It looked like it had just stuffed two meals into one serving.
Water could bloat one’s digestive system and fill it up.
Rabbits were small so even a tiny bit of Water element could cause this. But for a human, it might be fine.
Siderius let the rabbit eat some natural fire herb which caused the excess water in its body to evaporate, calming down its symptoms. Then he threw it back with the rest in the cage.
"Interesting reactions. I won’t gain any more insight from watching the rabbits. The only sensible thing to do now is to try it myself."