The days went by so fast.
In the afternoon, in the attic lab on the side turret, the sun was shining brightly.
Richard was totally focused on a really complicated experiment.
There were bottles and jars all over the table, way more than he used for distillation, and it made my head spin just looking at them.
"Hiss, hiss..." White steam kept coming out of those bamboo pipes.
"Drip, drip, drip..." The jars in boiling water just wouldn't stop moving up and down.
"Bang, bang, bang..." Sealed jars with boiling liquids inside were shaking like crazy, their lids about to come off any second.
Richard looked super serious as he watched over all the equipment, telling us what to do constantly: "Pour 100 milliliters of water into Jar 2 from Container 5. I showed you how last month; I hope you haven't forgotten."
"Quickly open the lid of Jar 9 for some air!"
"Gently cool down Jar 17 with cold water to keep it from cracking."
With Richard telling her what to do, Lucy, the young maid, was kept super busy.
She had to move bamboo pipes around, add water here and there, and take care of a bunch of other stuff.
The sweat on her face made her bangs stick to her forehead from all the stress.
But Richard didn't let up. He kept on giving orders while he stared at the stuff slowly coming out of the final jar with a serious look on his face.
As the substance built up and turned from light yellow to dark yellow, Richard knew it wasn't working out.
He looked at Lucy and said, "Okay, you can stop now. We don't need to rush."
"What!" Lucy stopped suddenly as she was adding water to one of the jars, shocked by what he said.
She asked carefully, "What happened? Did you get what you were trying for?"
"Nope," Richard shook his head and let out a big sigh as he calmed down again.
"Actually it's quite the opposite. The experiment failed. There are too many impurities in it so we can't use it at all."
"Wow..." Lucy was speechless and totally caught off guard by the news.
"It wasn't the experimental method's fault," Richard said calmly.
"The problem is with the equipment; it's just too basic. Usually, small mistakes are okay, but after such a long experiment, all the errors added up and caused a big change, leading to failure."
"Then..." Lucy still didn't know what to say.
"Okay, that's enough," Richard waved his hand. "Let's clean up the equipment. I'll think of other ways and see if I can come up with another anesthesia."
With that, Richard went over to a table against the lab wall, grabbed some paper and a pen, and started writing down ideas and drawings.
Lately, Richard had been working hard to tackle the first of the three challenges from the Human Skin Folio.
For deep meditation challenge, Richard already had an idea: since reaching that state on your own is impossible anyway, why not use some help?
For example... by using anesthesia drugs he could reach exactly what was described in the folio.
However, making anesthetic drugs wasn't a piece of cake, especially in a world where technology was stuck in the medieval era.
Taking this into consideration, even though present-day Earth has tons of different types of anesthetics, Richard decided to focus on just three for his experiments: alkaloid-based anesthetics, nitrous oxide (aka laughing gas), and ether.
Richard thought alkaloid-based anesthetics would be the easiest to make since lots of plants have the necessary compounds.
But after a recent experiment flop, he had to rethink things.
"Scratch, scratch..." Richard quickly jotted down ideas on parchment with a goose feather pen as he brainstormed for his next experiment with nitrous oxide.
Laughing gas is actually a pretty simple anesthetic that's been mostly used in dentistry. It helps patients not feel pain during dental work while still being awake enough to follow instructions.
The laughing gas is actually just nitrous oxide (N2O), so it's really simple. Richard was trying to figure out how to make it, and he got deep in thought while writing down its symbol on the parchment.
The easiest way to make nitrous oxide is by heating up something called ammonium nitrate at about 200 degrees Celsius. When you do that, you can get nitrous oxide and water.
But here's the problem – ammonium nitrate isn't something you find in nature, it has to be made through chemical processes.
Even back in the late 19th century, Europeans had to use a fancy reaction with another substance called ammonium sulfate and Chilean saltpeter just to come up with some of this stuff.
And now things are even more complicated – because even the stuff they used to make ammonium sulfate needs to be made too!
Same goes for Chilean saltpeter, which also needs special components if you can't get your hands on the original stuff.
It's a whole big mess!
Mixing these two things together takes…
Soon Richard was filling up whole sheets of parchment with words, unable to help but bitterly smile.
Making laughing gas is actually pretty easy in modern times, but in our world right now, it's like something out of a fairy tale.
We're missing one key ingredient, so we have to use all kinds of other stuff instead. And guess what?
Those substitutes are hard to come by too, so we end up needing even more alternative materials.
What should be simple turns into a huge headache.
Richard looked at the parchment covered with dozens of steps for making nitrous oxide and just sighed.
He scrapped the idea and decided to focus on making ether as an anesthetic instead.
Ether is different from the solid alkaloids or the gaseous nitrous oxide - it's a clear liquid that tastes sweet.
You only need a little bit to knock someone out.
In movies back on Earth, you often see people using ether to knock someone out by putting it on a cloth and covering their mouth and nose with it - then they pass out instantly.
So how do we make this stuff?"
Pulling out a fresh sheet of parchment, Richard once again began to design the experimental process.
Ether, on modern Earth, is used not only as an anesthetic but more often as a solvent in extractions.
The industrial production method seems to involve aluminum catalysis.
Therefore, if ether is to be obtained using this method, the first step is to obtain aluminum.
Just as Richard began to write this, he suddenly stopped his pen, then rejected this method.
The reason is simple—aluminum cannot be obtained.
In modern Earth, aluminum ranks third in the crust in terms of abundance, following only oxygen and silicon.
However, due to the weak oxidizing nature of aluminum compounds, it was extremely difficult to extract pure aluminum from its compounds until 1854 when German chemist Deville successfully used sodium instead of potassium to reduce aluminum chloride and obtain aluminum ingots.
For a long period after that, due to its rarity and difficulty in production compared to gold and silver, aluminum remained a precious treasure enjoyed by emperors and nobles: the French Emperor Napoleon III used an aluminum fork at banquets; the King of Thailand wore an aluminum watch chain; at the Paris World Fair, aluminum was exhibited alongside gem-studded crowns with a label specifically indicating 'silver from clay'.
Richard knew very well that it would take decades to create aluminum from scratch. But now there was no time to waste.
What should he do?
Was this first challenge going to be so difficult?
Frowning in contemplation, Richard's young maid Lucy carefully tidied up equipment behind him, afraid that any noise might disturb him.
Suddenly, Richard's eyes lit up as he realized that he had hit upon a dead end.
First of all, there was no need for a large quantity of anesthetic agent; just enough for his own use would suffice.
Therefore, industrial methods could be completely abandoned in favor of laboratory synthesis.
As far as he could remember, the laboratory synthesis of ether involved heating a compound of ethanol and concentrated sulfuric acid to 140°C to produce dehydration and form ether.
This should be covered in high school chemistry textbooks on modern-day Earth...
During this process, only two raw materials were required: concentrated sulfuric acid as a catalyst, which Richard possessed; and ethanol as the reactant.
And what exactly was ethanol?
Ethanol is nothing but alcohol - the chemical name for alcohol!
Speaking of alcohol, didn't he distill quite a lot of it before?
Richard looked towards the neatly arranged sealed containers of alcohol in the corner and couldn't help but smile.
Sometimes, experiments can be incredibly intricate and complex, while at other times they can be delightfully simple.
In the next moment, Richard spoke up and instructed Lucy, she who had just finished tidying up the equipment, "Prepare for the experiment."
"Yes, sir," replied the obedient young maid with a nod.
The experiment began.
And then it ended.
Without any complications, Richard successfully obtained a small amount of ether according to plan.
Though the quantity was limited, it was sufficient for his needs.
Satisfied with filling the ether into a sealed bamboo tube, Richard nodded in approval and turned to leave the laboratory.
He made his way towards a bedroom in a side turret under the attic.
\
Night fell quickly.
In the darkest moment of the night, Richard sat quietly on his bedroom bed, counting the number of breaths.
"One, two, three, four..."
By the time he counted to one hundred, Richard completely calmed down and took out a bamboo tube containing ether, and opened it.
Ether is volatile, so Richard only took a gentle sip at the mouth of the bamboo tube and felt the ether quickly entering his body.
He felt his body suddenly becoming heavy.
After sealing up the bamboo tube again, Richard closed his eyes and felt the continuous effects of ether in his body.
His body became heavier and eventually completely lost sensation as if petrified.
Then his consciousness seemed to be pulled by an invisible force upwards.
This situation lasted for an unknown amount of time until suddenly it seemed like breaking through some kind of limit; as if his soul was completely pulled out of his body.
Suddenly feeling lightened all over, Richard's vision brightened; a vast "stellar sky" appeared before him.
Looking around, Richard discovered various colored lights: red, green yellow blue purple...
"Is this an illusion or..." muttering to himself, Richard recalled some contents recorded in The Skin Parchment Notebooks.
According to those records, succeeding in entering meditation would allow one to sense external energy elements...
"Then, these dots of light are indeed the so-called energy elements," Richard confirmed.
Recalling the method recorded in the parchment to absorb these energy elements into his body using the power of thought, Richard proceeded.
First, he selected the nearest red element as his target.
He imagined his body stretching out, touching invisibly with consciousness, and then forcefully pulling the target closer, drawing it into himself.
Soon, the red dot of light entered his body, and Richard felt a sudden heat throughout, as if catching fire.
"Could this be the rumored fire-type element?" Richard wondered aloud.
He then realized the "fire-type element" pulled into his body existed for only a very short time before disappearing.
"As expected, without establishing a magic source, it's impossible to store the obtained energy elements within the body," Richard remarked, recalling further records from the parchment.
"Simple meditation may not store energy elements, but it has its benefits, such as strengthening consciousness, preparing for casting complex spells."
"What exactly is consciousness intensity? Is pure consciousness an enigmatic substance or material?" Richard pondered aloud. "Using consciousness to absorb elements, does it influence the material world? Is this idealistic or materialistic?"
/
The night passed quietly.
In the early morning, the chirping of birds woke Richard lying in bed. He had meditated through the night.
However, upon realizing that meditation couldn't replace sleep and even caused mental fatigue, Richard decisively withdrew from the meditative state and began to sleep. After all, only sufficient sleep could maintain vitality during the day.
In a sense, the meditation recorded in the parchment indeed trained consciousness intensity, hence causing fatigue.
From this perspective, consciousness seemed more akin to a "substance," and meditation should lean towards a materialistic worldview.
Richard had some thoughts on meditation.
If he aimed to make breakthroughs in wizardry research, daily meditation was a must.
Accordingly, other aspects of his life would need adjustment to avoid conflicts.
"Compared to practicing, it feels more like attending classes now. So, is diligent study the only path to excellent results?" Richard mused to himself as he left the bedroom.
After overcoming the first meditation challenge, Richard devoted most of his time in the following days to tackling the second challenge.
The second challenge was to establish a magic source within the body.
The parchment described the magic source as a special structure for storing absorbed energy elements, which could be opened in any part of the human body if desired.
Only after opening it could the energy elements obtained during meditation be stored.
During the process of opening the magic source, the most difficult part was entering a special state.
This state was described in the parchment as energy flowing continuously throughout the body, activating the entire body.
"How can I achieve continuous energy flow throughout the body? How can I activate the body?" Richard pondered, puzzled.