Chapter 598: The Creation of the Soul Vessel [II]
Since alchemy is involved in the process, the four decided that using the alchemy space of Julia to perform the necessary steps is the best option, not because Yona’s space is lacking, but because the tools and apparatus that Julia has are free and are not doing much compared to Yona’s tools, which continued to work even with Yona not being around her workshop.
"Does that mean Miss Yona doesn’t even need to be there physically for the process to continue? Did you possibly automate the process?" Adelaide asked after learning the information from Yona herself.
"Miss Yona is much more experienced and quite capable when it comes to alchemy and medicine-making. I learned a lot from her, and combining them from what I learned with Master, I am able to actually master things much more easily. And based on my experience, Miss Yona’s tips and tricks are more about making the process easy while still retaining the product’s quality, as if they have just undergone the complicated process themselves."
Yona smiled. "You flatter me, Julia. But I couldn’t do all of that without my years of constant alchemical usage and mastery. You have more progress compared to me, who barely got any progress back when I was your age."
I appreciate that, Miss Yona. But I will ensure to surpass you one day. It is my goal to become someone who can do things with alchemy that you easily do with a flick of a finger. Well, there’s more time to do that. The twins might be getting bored, so we shall start right away. Anyways, without further ado, let’s get the materials processed. So, how should we start?" Julia looked at the twins.
And so the twins started assisting Julia and Yona in creating the Soul Vessel. Julia is the one who is processing the Heartroot Ginseng with her expertise in medicinal preparation, and with the help of the Goddess of Medicine’s blessing, she is well suited for that. Adelaide is the one who is supervising Julia on how to properly prepare the Heartroot Ginseng and avoid causing issues that would require them to start again.
"I heard Heartroot Ginseng is considered one of the best ginsengs that can be grown by humans regularly, but due to how it needs certain conditions to grow, Heartroot Ginseng is very troublesome to even grow. Seeing one in the flesh is something I didn’t expect to see in my lifetime, but here we are, processing one in my hands."
"Is it that rare, Sis Julia?" Adelaide asked.
"Yes! Even Master hasn’t found a naturally grown Heartroot Ginseng. He even tried cultivating one, but because he didn’t manage to fulfill the conditions of growing the Heartroot Ginseng in the first place, the ginseng became a regular ginseng when grown instead of turning into the Heartroot Ginseng that is being needed."
The two continued to process the ginseng while, on the other hand, Arthur and Yona were sorting the usable branches from the Corrupted Treant. They had gathered a lot of what they believed to be branches, but of course, there were only a few that could be considered usable at that point.
"Hmm, this one’s not good. This one too. This one is too thin. This one is too damaged. This one too," Yona continued to sort out the branches with expertise.
"It seems you have processed or used the branches before, considering you looked like you know what you are doing," Arthur commented while watching Yona sort the usable and useless branches.
"Trust me, I have handled these items since I was the same age as you twins. This is one of the few items that we get to use and start experimenting with alchemy. And considering there were lots of Corrupted Treants back in the day, this material became something I memorized by heart after handling them a lot of times. Okay, looks like we have the usable branches now."
Arthur glanced at the pile of what Yona said to be usable, and he was surprised to see that it had been reduced to a significant number, much smaller than before.
"Isn’t that a lot of rejected branches?" Arthur frowned.
"Just to make this clear, although they are rejected, they are not entirely unusable. They can still be used, but using them in an important project like this just risks your whole hard work going down the drain. Those branches that have been sorted out by me are the branches that won’t give you issues in any shape or form. These rejected branches, however, will be a gamble, and you might have better options using other materials than using these."
Realizing the risk, Arthur sighed and gave up. He didn’t want the whole thing to fail just because he insisted on having the rejected branches be used.
The branches and the Heartroot Ginseng are now ready, and the next thing that needs to be done is to prepare the Memory Lotus and finally create the Soul Vessel’s main component and the one that will hold all of the ingredients in one place, a glass made from the Core of the Golems.
"Huh, I remembered that the Memory Lotus came from the seed that Miss Pixie gave to us, but do we need to grow that one?" Arthur asked.
"Nope. Apparently, the Memory Lotus works best if it started as a seed instead of a full-grown Lotus, making the seed that Miss Pixie handed over the ideal ingredient. Which means we will have to use the Core of the Golem and shape it up. However, I am not sure how to reduce the golem’s core into fine shards. If I remember correctly, the Golem’s core will shatter and disperse if broken to pieces, so we will have to rely on Sis Julia and Miss Yona’s knowledge on handling the Golem’s core," Adelaide explained before turning their attention to Julia and Yona who is now setting up the Alchemy table.
"Alright, you two, sit back and relax, as you two just needed to observe us so that we can transmute the Golem’s core and shape it exactly as you two needed. Just stay a bit far from us, in case there’s some accidents that might happen," Yona explained as she started pouring the Mercury liquid onto the flat table and drawing a magic circle on it.
Arthur was bewildered and a bit confused about what the two magic users were doing, while Adelaide was truly fascinated, with her eyes glued to the entire process.
It was naturally time-consuming to draw a magic circle using Mercury Liquid, but Yona just easily drew a simple but effective magic circle in just a few seconds that even Julia admitted that she would not be able to replicate or copy anytime soon.
Without even batting an eye, Yona snapped her fingers, and the Mercury Liquid lay and forming the magic circle suddenly glows bright like it has been installed with bright lights. Yona made a slight gesture to Julia, and the latter put the Golem’s core in the middle of the magic circle.
Yona then put her hands below the magic circle while Julia headed to the top of the magic circle and placed her hands opposite Yona’s. A massive mana spike was released as the two released mana from their fingertips, releasing and directing its current straight to the magic circle. From the regular person’s perspective, there’s nothing happening aside from the strong gust of wind suddenly blowing around the room, but in the eyes and perspective of those people who know how to use magic, the burst of mana is enough to blow someone like a mana bomb is being formed.
"Release!"
The two mages pressed their palms flat to the table, causing a flash of bright light to engulf the entire room. It only lasted a few seconds but it was very much like they used a Flashbang Bomb or the Flash Magic with how bright it was.
"Ugh, that was so bright! What happened?"
Arthur looked at the situation, and his eyes were locked in on the result.
"Did we fail, Sis?" Arthur asked.
"I don’t know," Adelaide answered without even removing her gaze from the result that is still brightly covered in light.
A few more seconds later, the light slowly receded, and the room finally returned to its regular brightness.
Arthur and Adelaide glanced at the middle of the table. There, the round golem core that was once placed there was replaced with a peculiar glass still smoking from the result of the transmutation.
Yona was the first to move and grab the glass container placed in the middle of the table, and examined it. The twins waited for Yona’s evaluation.
"So? How is it?" Julia asked as she slowly stood up as well.
Yona smiled and looked at the twins, waiting for the result.
"Congrats, you two. Looks like we succeeded. The Golem’s Core has been successfully transmuted into the container’s shape that you two needed. It is now ready for the final touches."