The days passed uneventfully, and it was already early November.
On Halloween, in the Slytherin dormitory.
Ino looked at the materials laid out on the table: a dirty mat and a wooden stick over two meters tall and about as thick as a baby's arm.
He was very satisfied with these items—unicorn hair and mountain ash branches, all gifts from Hagrid.
Today, Ino planned to create an alchemical item. A week of intensive study in the library had given him a considerable understanding of alchemy.
When it comes to alchemy, it's actually out of necessity.
The ancient runic texts, with their thick dictionaries, already covered all known knowledge. For unknown knowledge, if it wasn't in the dictionary, not even the Hogwarts library would have books on it.
He had no choice but to knock on the door of alchemy.
He sought to find the knowledge lost to time.
In essence, alchemy is another application of ancient runes, though over the long years, the discipline has become more autonomous.
Alchemy uses ancient runes as components, embedding them into alchemical items in a special way to create powerful runic circuits that yield unexpected effects.
In this regard, it's somewhat similar to Muggle electronic chips. For example, logic gates, using only AND, OR, and NOT gates, can create complex digital logic modules.
Alchemy is the same, based on the 24 runic letters plus the "blank stone." Arranging them in some mysterious order, combining them creates a complex alchemical item.
A simple example: the second letter of ancient runes, 'u', originally meant fate, destiny, or unknown factors.
The third letter, 'th', originally meant thorn, surprise, protective triangle, or hidden energy.
Combining these two letters through alchemical methods results in a fate amulet, an alchemical item that wards off bad luck and protects the wearer.
Of course, this is just theoretical alchemy.
Alchemy has three main parts: magic patterns, alchemical methods, and alchemical materials.
As mentioned before, alchemy has become more autonomous. Ancient alchemists have discarded the term 'runes.'
They prefer the term: magic patterns, meaning magical patterns with special effects.
Likewise, with deeper understanding, Ino realized alchemy is a vast field. If not for the initial power source of 'magic,' alchemy might have already become a standalone discipline.
This is no exaggeration.
Because the three parts of alchemy encompass all knowledge, anyone who excels in any one part can be called a master.
Just like Headmaster Dumbledore.
Ino had read Dumbledore's alchemical works in modern books, but Dumbledore specialized in one of the three parts: alchemical materials.
His academic representative work is the famous "Twelve Uses of Dragon's Blood."
A master proficient in all three parts of alchemy, throughout history, might only be one person: the creator of the Philosopher's Stone, Nicolas Flamel.
After entering the realm of alchemy, Ino felt a bit regretful.
He hadn't seized the opportunity to take the Philosopher's Stone, the pinnacle of alchemical items. Even though the Philosopher's Stone had lost its ability to grant immortality, it was still incredibly valuable for an alchemist. Its complex magic pattern circuits could serve as a precious sample for reverse engineering, potentially leading to the creation of a second stone.
Though he regretted it, he didn't dwell on it too much.
He still believed that given enough time, there was nothing that couldn't be achieved.
Nicolas Flamel's proficiency in all three parts of alchemy was closely tied to his nearly seven hundred years of longevity.
...
After a brief moment of thought, Ino shook his head to clear his mind and prepared to create his first alchemical item.
But the first step was to handle the materials. Unicorn tail hair and mountain ash wood—both were favorite choices for beginners and the most accommodating alchemical materials.
Among these materials, the most difficult to handle was the dark, encrusted mat. Even with household cleaning charms, he had to work hard to clean it. Anyone who didn't know better might think the mat had been used as a dog bed by Fang.
After casting the cleaning charm three times, when all the stains were thoroughly cleaned, the unicorn tail hair revealed its true appearance.
Smooth and shiny, its gentle light flowed as if it were made of solidified mercury.
The mountain ash branches were easier to deal with—a cutting spell was the best magic for the job.
Holding his wand, Ino used it like an invisible high-speed saw, cutting away the excess branches.
After processing the materials, he split the mountain ash in half and began engraving magic patterns into the core with a carving knife.
At first glance, this operation looked like wand-making.
In reality, he was mimicking wand-making. Simple splitting, engraving, and then connecting with unicorn tail hair.
...
"Clarity, inner light, warmth, healing, divine wisdom, miracles, thirteen, calamity and death, elk, fate and protection..."
For half an hour, Ino engraved as many runic letters as he could understand into the inside of the two-meter-long staff.
This was why he chose a long staff. Without using sophisticated alchemical circuits or professional wand-making techniques, he used the most primitive runic letter stacking.
And all this was to test a hypothesis, not to create something for sale.
Once all the runes were engraved, the two-meter-long mountain ash resembled an exotic piece of art.
The staff had each runic letter spaced an inch apart, leaving room for the unicorn tail hair to connect.
Ino picked up selected tail hairs and connected the upper and lower runes in a loop, forming an ouroboros pattern.
This time, the ouroboros wasn't circular but a twisted pattern resembling the number '8,' similar to the Dark Mark.
Engraving and connecting, the final step was to bond the split mountain ash with a spell.
"Adhaero Aeternum!" (Permanent Sticking Spell)
Ino waved his wand, and a gray beam shot out, sealing the split mountain ash perfectly.
To the naked eye, there was no sign it had ever been split.
On the other hand, when the mountain ash was joined, a profound change occurred.
The two-meter-long staff now resembled Gandalf's staff.
The dark brown wood grain emitted a faint, holy white light, giving it a divine and warm feeling.
Clearly, this staff had become a magical alchemical item.
Facing his first success, Ino felt no great joy.
After all, this was the simplest and most primitive alchemy. If even this failed, he wouldn't need to continue his studies because anything requiring thought would be a waste of time.
Ino examined the finished product, picking up the makeshift staff. Weighing about four or five pounds, it would be a handy tool for hiking or fighting.
The staff's functions seemed limited to illumination and hand-warming.
Nominally an alchemical item, it was essentially a pretty, warm, sturdy stick.
There might be some hidden amulet effects, but those were subtle.
Though it was just a warm stick, this success validated his approach—using the most primitive and cumbersome disassembly method to deduce unknown runes.
In essence, as long as enough experiments were conducted and enough time was invested, the complex magic pattern circuits of items like Ravenclaw's diadem could eventually be deciphered bit by bit.