After Winter Solstice left, Tom grabbed Menes' Jade Tablet and returned to the Room of Requirement, where Winter Solstice had already left. Tom and Hermione sat together at the table and examined the Jade Tablet they held in their hands.
"According to Menes, this tablet is less of an alchemical tool and more of a..."
"A wish machine!" Tom interrupted, both of them in sync and they smiled at each other.
Yes, Menes had managed to turn alchemy, one of the most complex operations in magic, into something akin to a vending machine. All they had to do was provide enough blood to complete the alchemy.
Tom closely examined the Jade Tablet in front of him, inscribed with columns of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and at the top of the slab, there were four black gemstones arranged in a row, along with an empty slot whose purpose was unknown.
"Quick, put some blood!" Hermione urged, impatient to see how that magical tablet worked. Naturally, Tom didn't hesitate to drip Menes' blood, which he had just used for his experiment, onto the tablet.
The blood dripped onto the tablet like water droplets on sand, quickly seeping into the board, and Tom watched as the ghostly hieroglyphs gradually turned a dark red color, seemingly accumulating in the grooves of the writing as the blood seeped into the tablet.
The amount of blood was clearly insufficient, but the quality of the blood was high, coming from Menes himself. What he obtained from the rat was only a small part and, in terms of quantity, it was probably much less than the blood obtained from the original body.
After the drop of blood infiltrated, Tom understood the purpose of the black gemstones on the top of the slab: they flipped slightly, revealing the other side. Each of the black gemstones on the slab had a ruby of the same size and shape attached to the back, and when the black face of the gems turned inward into the tablet, the ruby was exposed. Tom's drop of blood caused the three rubies to rotate.
Evidently, a three-star alchemical artifact was the limit. The artifact fueled by Menes' blood couldn't unleash its full power due to the lack of sufficient blood, which was understandable.
"A three-star alchemical artifact," Tom frowned. This star rating was neither high nor low. The created objects could turn out to be quite mediocre, making it difficult to choose at the moment. "Is there anything you desire?" he asked Hermione, hoping to gain some inspiration from her.
"Actually, I really want to take a break... even if it means leaving the school for a mission, it would be better than now..." Hermione sighed softly, and Tom looked at her in surprise. Seeing Tom's reaction, Hermione gave him a disdainful look and said, "I'm not made of steel, and I'm naturally tired from all the classes I'm taking at the same time, not to mention the assignments given by the professors."
Tom, in a bad mood, responded, "Isn't it something you brought upon yourself? Who told you to take so many classes?" Although Tom responded to Hermione in that manner, an idea crossed Tom's mind and he seemed to know what to do.
There was a clever way to make low-quality objects function like high-quality ones: to make the low-quality objects have flaws, so they had an astonishing effect but at the same time a massive negative effect. For example... disposables. An alchemical artifact could only be used once before being destroyed, obviously not having a high rating, but that wouldn't prevent it from having an extremely strong power.
Tom planned to create a disposable alchemical artifact so that Hermione could have time for a vacation. Once he had a concrete idea, he took a piece of magical silver from the materials cabinet on the side and placed it on the Jade Tablet. Quickly, the magical silver began to slowly transform, while the dark red traces in the grooves of the Jade Tablet also gradually disappeared.
Soon, the magical silver turned into a small, soft case, and the Jade Tablet returned to its previous appearance.
"What is this?" Hermione lifted the smooth silver case with curiosity.
[Disposable Protector (3 stars): Can be placed on a Time-Turner and will not be damaged even if the Time-Turner's time reversal exceeds five hours]
After Tom explained the function of this case to Hermione, she immediately understood what Tom had in mind: time was limited, so they could "borrow" a bit of time from the past. In reality, they were not lacking in Time-Turners. Aside from the one Minnie had given them, they also had the one lent to them by the Ministry of Magic. But there was a problem, both Time-Turners were cumbersome to use. Minnie's Time-Turner probably went back in intervals of a hundred years, which could take them back to ancient times instantly. The Ministry of Magic's Time-Turner was the opposite, it could only go back a maximum of five hours.
If Tom wanted to go back three days, sorry, even though they had two Time-Turners, they couldn't achieve that. This disposable protector could change that situation, allowing for a longer limit of backward time, and that meant...
"Vacation!" Hermione immediately became excited. Even for a brilliant student like Hermione, vacations were a cause for joy. She immediately began counting on her fingers the things she could do.
"First, I'll finish my assignment on Uric the Oddball that Professor Binns gave me, then I'll write a technical summary for Potions, I've already done my Transfiguration homework, so I'll review it and prepare for... so that's about it for the first day..."
Upon hearing Hermione's "vacation" plan, Tom was dumbfounded. This wasn't what it was supposed to be used for!
"Stop! This isn't a vacation! It's like going to a cram school!" Tom couldn't let Hermione proceed with that plan because he had several projects in the same group as Hermione. If she planned to work hard on the essay, he would have to do it too.
Usually, working together with an outstanding student allowed for some relaxation, but not with Hermione. Hermione knew what Tom was capable of, and she wouldn't leave any room for Tom to slack off in the planning process. If Tom couldn't do it, she wouldn't force him, she would simply take charge and complete it silently on her own. After going through that once, Tom couldn't bear the thought of assigning more work to Hermione; he cared too much about her.
"What's a vacation? It's supposed to be going out in the sunny streets and taking a ride in a convertible, not sitting in a corner of the library, buried in a pile of books." Tom reprimanded Hermione sternly.
"Well then..." Hermione took a step back. "Let's see how far the Time-Turner can go back, and then we'll decide what to do, alright?"
Tom supported Hermione's idea. If they were going to make plans, they should at least know how many days those "vacations" would last. Although one day off and one week off could both be considered vacations, the difference was huge.
Hermione took out the Time-Turner from her chest and placed the disposable protector on it.