Ella pushed open the old door of the laboratory, and what appeared in front of her was a room that was pitch black with smoke. There were a lot of oil stains condensed on the walls, roof, and windowsills.
The alchemy laboratory is said to be alchemy, but in fact a large part of the room is equipped with equipment used for metallurgy. Alchemists often need to rely on their own skills to refine metals from ores, and many alchemical steps also need to be performed at high temperatures, which makes the furnace the most basic and important piece of equipment in the alchemy laboratory. As for evaporating dishes, crucibles, mortars, etc., they only occupy a small corner in the alchemy laboratory.
Playing with metals and solutions in a smoky, hot room, always smelling of sulfur - this is the true portrait of the alchemists of this era.
Ella scanned the bottles and cans in the room: "The raw materials and equipment are still complete. But what exactly does the teacher want me to do? He said that it is just a matter of mixing them together to make something new, so I will just do it. Some alloy?"
But Amy had a different opinion: "I don't think it's that simple! Your Majesty, I have heard from many people along the way that not even one percent can pass this entrance test!"
"But I don't think this test is difficult at all..."
"Your Majesty, do you still remember? The teacher said he wanted to come up with something new. But what exactly is the basis for 'new'? He didn't say anything at all!"
Ella suddenly realized: "Yes, if this 'new' refers to something that these alchemists have never seen before, then this is a very difficult question!"
But thinking of this, a look of embarrassment suddenly appeared on Ella's face: "I have no contact with the alchemy community at all. I have no idea what these alchemists have seen?"
"Why don't Your Majesty try the teacher's second question: destroy some kind of metal? He said you can pass it this way."
"Did you get rid of a certain material?" Ella held her chin and thought, "If the metal is turned into a liquid, it will still leave traces no matter what. In other words, you want me to turn the metal into a gas? In this case, just heat the mercury a little... wouldn't it be very simple?"
"If it were that simple, the enrollment rate shouldn't be only 1%! I don't understand alchemy at all, but is there something you haven't thought of, Your Majesty?"
"There are only seven kinds of metals in total: gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, and mercury. Each metal has its own unique properties, and the difficulty of volatilizing them varies. I understand, the teacher wants to My level of alchemy is judged by the metal I choose. In this case, I will choose the most difficult one. Amy, help me look for gold."
"Okay, gold, gold - eh???" Amy jumped up after reacting, "Your Majesty, are you going to choose gold?"
"Gold is the most perfect and stable metal, and the difficulty of volatilizing it is also the highest among the seven metals. If you volatilize gold, you will definitely pass the test, and I just learned this..."
"I don't understand alchemy? But Your Majesty, is that gold? Look at how dilapidated this alchemy laboratory is. Do you think there will be materials like gold in it? And gold volatilizes - ah ah ah, I remembered!!! Antilia was originally said to have seven golden cities, but when we went there there were only a few left. It turned out that they were all vaporized by that Jaber, right???"
"This is the necessary price to pay for the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone."
Ella took out a gold coin from her pocket and threw it into the crucible.
"Your Majesty, do you really understand? What you just threw into the crucible were three sheep???"
Ella ignored Amy's words, closed her eyes, and stretched out her hand towards the void in front of her - Amy quickly closed her mouth. She knew that Ella had already started to look up relevant information. Ella must not be disturbed in this state. And if it's just a Nomis horse, it won't have much impact.
The book that Jabir left for Ella mentioned 12 key keys to the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone, all using code words. The first three keys have been successfully cracked by her. Using the knowledge of these three keys, she can successfully volatilize the gold.
"The first key: the king's crown should be of pure gold, and a chaste bride should marry him. The greedy gray wolf was born a child of Cronus, but his name was in Alemanni and belonged to the warlike Al Rhys, lives hungrily in the valleys and mountains of the world. Throw the body of the king before it, and it may get nourishment from the king. When it has devoured the king, light a bonfire again, and throw the wolf into the fire, Let it burn completely; thus the king is saved. If this is done three times, the king has conquered the wolf. There will be nothing left to eat from the wolf; and the first step of our work is completed."
When Ella opened her eyes, Amy asked in a daze: "Your Majesty, what did you recite just now? Where did you learn this kind of magic spell?"
"This is a typical alchemical code word. In order to hide knowledge, alchemists will use pseudonyms for various raw materials in books. 'King' in alchemy must refer to the noblest gold. But whether it is gold mines, gold fast , or gold coins, there will be many impurities in them, 'The king's crown should be pure gold', which means that the next step is to extract pure gold from gold nuggets."
"I still don't understand... What is the gray wolf? Why is it the child of Cronus and affiliated with Ares? My Fenrir is affiliated with Loki, but it is a white wolf. Can you try it and see if it can swallow the gold?"
Ella laughed.
"Amy, first of all, you need to know that in the alchemical system, there are only seven metals in the world, and other metal-like things are considered to be by-products of these seven metals. The seven metals correspond to the seven stars... Ah no , seven gods. Gold corresponds to Apollo, silver to Artemis, copper to Aphrodite, iron to Ares, tin to Zeus, lead to Cronus, and mercury to Hermes. Book It says that the 'grey wolf' is the 'child of Cronus', which means that its nature is similar to that of lead. The 'name' in Alemanni is affiliated with Ares, which means that he is in the Alemanni Federation. The text is related to iron. 'Living hungry in the valleys and mountains of the world' reveals the distribution location of this substance in nature - after that, 'devouring the king' and 'the king is redeemed' are in Describe the process of reaction."
Amy said dazedly: "Even if you explain it to me, Your Majesty, I don't know what substance this is. Alchemists use this code to write books, aren't you tired?"
"Without a certain degree of alchemical practice, of course you cannot decipher these code words. After all, the purpose of alchemy is to turn base metals into silver or gold. This kind of knowledge cannot be made public by its nature, otherwise, gold will not be valuable Okay. Okay Amy, help me light a fire for the stove..."
The door suddenly opened, and a strange cold wind blew in. A girl with black hair and black eyes appeared at the door. She was only wrapped in a short white sheet, and her long and plump legs were almost completely exposed. But she didn't care about such attire. She just looked directly at Ella and said in a tone as cold as winter:
"If you solved this mystery by yourself, then leave here immediately. There is no answer you are looking for in this school."
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Historically, the text of the "Twelve Keys" mentioned in this chapter was not written by Jabir, but by Basil Valentine.
Valentine's alchemical text On the Great Stones of the Ancients (Of
the
Great
Stone
of
the
As). The texts on the Twelve Keys that will appear later are selected from this book.
Barcelona's Restoration Diary
