A week later, the three carriages carrying Claude's custom-made furniture arrived at the wood.
The Sioris came to watch as well. Sioris asked Claude, puzzled, "Why did you buy the furniture?
Also, is that thick square table used as a dining table? "
Claude smiled and said that he was going to set up a study in the hut to store the books he bought.
The weather was getting colder and colder. Sometimes, it would be too late for him to read in the lab and it would be troublesome for him to return to the hut.
So, he decided to set up a small study so that he could read in the future without leaving the hut.
As for the square table, it would be placed in the study to store maps or large paintings. Those things couldn't fit on the small study table.
The Sioris returned home sulkily, perhaps cursing Claude for being so picky. The furniture cost at least five thales, which was about two months of Claude's salary.
The couple's monthly salary at the wood didn't even amount to three thales. Sioris earned one thale and five riyases a month, while his wife, Lancy, only earned one thale and two riyases a month.
To Maria, the couple lived out their retirement in the wood and even used the wood to run their own chicken farm.
If it wasn't for the fact that their children were her brother's people, she wouldn't have let them stay in the wood.
Paying them a salary every month was already quite benevolent of her.
Claude didn't waste the past seven days either. He spent the afternoon and after school sweeping through the town's open-air market and general store to buy the materials and equipment he needed for his experiments.
He used the excuse of buying materials for Maria's lab, so he didn't attract much attention.
However, he spent a lot of money. Apart from the nine shaliuns he had left, he used up almost all of his savings.
Just as he expected, he hadn't heard any news of a murder in the Mermaid Tavern for the past week. Even Eriksson, who claimed to know everything about the docks, didn't know about such a thing.
The bearded man called Edmig disappeared from Whitestag just like that without leaving a trace.
During that time, Claude, Eriksson and Welikro went to Hurian's shop to buy some malt candies for his younger brother, Buke.
Hurian didn't recognize Claude as the masked magus either. He chatted happily with Eriksson and eagerly introduced the goods in his shop to him.
Of course, they didn't enter the secret chamber, but there were two or three trashy magic items on the shelves outside. The fat old man bragged so much about them that Eriksson's interest was piqued.
In the end, the price was too high and Eriksson couldn't afford it.
The workers who came with the carriage moved the furniture into the innermost room on the first floor of the hut Claude cleaned and arranged them according to his instructions. They also installed curtains and curtains. After Claude was done inspecting the furniture, each of them took three sunars as a tip and left happily.
After everyone left, Claude cleaned the furniture with a rag and brought in all the materials he bought for his experiments in the past week. Only then did he heave a sigh of relief.
Everything was ready except for one last thing. He could finally set up the alchemical formation at night.
The night in the wood was quiet. It was only around eight at night, which was still quite lively in town. However, Sioris and Sioris were already preparing to go to bed. The later they slept, the more money they had to spend. They had to buy oil for their lamps.
They weren't like the prodigal Claude who could read until midnight. The amount of oil they used was enough to last them for a month.
Claude stood on the balcony on the second floor of the hut and watched as the lights in the chicken farm went out.
After resting for a while, he went up to the platform to meditate. It was much better in the wood than in the attic of his red-bricked house. There was no one to disturb him while he meditated and studied magic.
After checking his surroundings again, Claude went downstairs and checked all the doors and windows again before entering the study. He closed the door and curtains, cast a Luminous Pearl and blew out the oil lamp on the table.
The study was as white as day under the illumination of the Luminous Pearl.
Claude pulled out his backpack from under the table and started taking out the materials needed to set up the alchemy formation.
After wiping the surface of the table with a clean linen towel, Claude placed the cleaned magestones on it and quickly formed a hexagram.
Next, he had to carve out the complicated runes on the hexagram and connect the six magestones into one.
After that, he had to carve out the positions for the fire crystals and the runes to control the alchemical formation.
There were many things to do, but Claude didn't have to do it himself.
Landes had mentioned in his diary that using Magus's Hand to complete the alchemy array was more efficient, more precise, and less laborious than doing it himself.
The first step was to carve the runes and mana patterns on the magestones. The patterns were like mana channels that connected each rune to produce magical effects when infused with mana.
Of course, he couldn't just use ink to draw the patterns on the magestones. Landes mentioned in his diary that it was best to use the blood of a fiend to draw the patterns.
However, if he didn't have the blood of a fiend, he could use the blood of a magus, as magi's blood contained a small amount of mana.
He was treating magi like fiends. Fortunately, the amount of blood required wasn't much and it had to be processed before it could be used.
According to Landes, a magician's blood could not be compared to a magical beast's. The mana in the blood of magical beasts was naturally stored in their blood, whereas a magician's mana was cultivated. Thus, the mana in their blood could easily dissipate into the air.
Claude stood by the side of the table with his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes fixed on the hexagram formed by the magicite slabs on the table.
In the cupboard behind him, the box of whiteroot powder opened on its own and a silver spoon flew over. He scooped up some whiteroot powder and poured it into an empty glass tube before adding two-thirds of the tube of distilled water. He stuck a pair of silver chopsticks into it and stirred it nonstop.
When it was almost done, the glass tube was moved to Claude and placed on the table.
Only then did Claude reach for a small silver knife and cut his finger. He watched as his blood dripped into the glass tube while his other hand stirred it with the silver chopsticks.
Soon, the liquid in the glass tube turned pink. When he felt that it was about time, he wiped a bottle of healing potion on his finger and stopped the wound.
Then, he stood with his hands behind his back and cast Magus's Hands and Fine Control. He had Magus's Hands dip a small brush into the pink liquid in the glass tube and start drawing complicated runes and magic patterns on the magestone tablets.
If he were to draw the runes himself, he wouldn't be able to guarantee that he would succeed.
After all, the human brain's reaction speed was many times faster than the hands. Sometimes, he couldn't draw the runes with his hands no matter how hard he tried. Magus's Hands, on the other hand, didn't have that problem.
Claude found that as long as he had the complete rune structure in his mind, Magus's Hands would be able to draw it perfectly on the magestone tablets like a photocopy.
In just half an hour, the magestone board was covered in faint red runes and mana patterns. He cast Fine Control and turned one of his Magus Hands into a carving knife to carve out more grooves on the runes.
The hard Magic Slate was like tofu under the carving knife that was infused with mana. Grooves of the same depth and size were easily carved out.
In less than ten minutes, he was done. Then, he used Magus's Hands to pick up the bottle of stardust and sprinkled it evenly into the grooves. Finally, he infused mana into the grooves.
Wisps of dark blue smoke rose from the Star Sand in the grooves. The smoke slowly merged into one above the Magic Slate.
When all the stardust in the grooves was covered in smoke, Claude stopped infusing mana and waited for the dark blue smoke to dissipate.
Not long after, the dark blue smoke above the magestone tablet turned light blue, then light blue, until it disappeared completely.
By then, the six magestone tablets on the table had merged into a hexagram and couldn't be separated anymore.
The dark blue stardust runes and magic patterns on the magestone tablet were as flat as the plate itself.
The runes and patterns on the magestone tablet weren't just for joining the six magestone tablets together. In fact, even an entire tablet would have to be engraved with those runes. The real purpose of the tablet was to protect and prevent alchemical formations from harming magi. At the same time, it was also to limit the range of alchemical formations.
Next was the positioning of the fire crystals. That was rather simple. All he had to do was place a fire crystal at each of the six corners of the tablet and use runes and magic patterns to connect the six fire crystals. He also had to turn Magus's Hands into a carving knife and infuse mana into the grooves on the magestone tablet.
This time, however, he didn't sprinkle stardust on the grooves. Instead, he used crimson dew.
Landes had mentioned in his diary that the best mana medium for alchemy rune arrays was crimson dragon's blood or black dragon's blood. These two types of dragon's blood contained elements of the sun's fire and hell's fire, which could raise the temperature of the fire crystal's mana fire to its peak, burning away the elemental impurities in the raw materials and greatly increasing the success rate of alchemy experiments.
However, crimson dragon blood and black dragon blood had already become divine objects of legend. They had disappeared from Faslan more than two thousand years ago without a trace.
The blood of other magical beasts that could be used as a mana medium for alchemical formations also became extinct due to the disappearance of magical beasts.
In the end, the magi found crimson dew, a mineral similar to mercury, to be used as a mana medium for alchemical formations.
He poured the Crimson Dew into the newly carved groove, sprinkled White Root Powder on it, and then infused it with magic power, combining the Crimson Dew and White Root Powder, solidifying into a red magic channel.
As a result, the dark blue and crimson rune patterns on the Magical Hexagram Stone Plate intertwined, forming a complicated yet exquisite pattern.
Claude breathed a sigh of relief when he finally finished setting up the alchemical formation.
Setting up an alchemical formation didn't just exhaust his mana, it also used up a large portion of his mental power.
But even though he felt a little tired, he was still in high spirits.
Suppressing his impatience and excitement, he went up to the balcony on the second floor and meditated under the moonlight.
It was already close to three in the morning. He had already calmed down after finishing his training.
He went back to the study and looked at the alchemical formation on the table. He decided to do a simple experiment before going to rest.
The simplest experiment was to create a crystal bottle in an alchemy array.
First, he infused mana into the fire crystals and connected them together. Soon, he felt the temperature of the magestone plate rise.
Claude cast Magus' Hands and picked up a crystal ore that was half covered in rock and placed it into the alchemical formation.
Soon, under the high temperature, the rock outside the crystal ore was easily peeled off like an eggshell, and the crystal quickly became a transparent liquid. Under the precise control of the Magic Hand, the crystal liquid was separated into three equal sized lumps, and then molded into three standard-sized crystal reagent tubes.