Chapter 667 The common catalyst
[Eon's POV: ]
One would first have to identify what the item on the display was exactly since the explanation of the announcer was only for the audience and the other participants might not have heard it at all. So, identification was the first step.
They would have to see the material of the things that were revealed to them and just from the looks or the data given to them or the description provided by the announcer, one would have to figure out what this thing exactly was.
And, after identifying this common catalyst, they would have to figure out its type and kind... which is in no way an easy task.
'The experienced alchemists certainly could do something as simple as this, however, it is in no way anything simple for the students or the alchemists that were not much experienced or lacked the proper basics of the basics.'
The common catalyst was one of the fundamental things that the students of the academies learned to create after mastering the basics of the alchemy subject however, that all happened in their seconds. Years of school. Even in our academy, we would only learn to create the common catalyst after the midsams in the general classes, and after two months of teaching in the advanced alchemy class that we were taking... not that the class that we were talking about was something that would actually teach about this catalysis.
The superior alchemy class that we were talking about was something that asked for a prior basic understanding of things like that, or at least, a basic idea of what it was or how it could be synthesized.
However, this was going to be difficult for many of the students as well as the younger alchemists and the arrogant ones who yet did not know the true meaning of this competition.
This round would eliminate at least thirty to forty percent of the people directly and this was a number far larger than the last few years.
However, this is just my prediction at this point...
"So, master Axion. I have heard you have quite a deep interest in alchemy yourself. I have heard that you have created things that would soon be shaking the markets when they are out at the shops of Lady Nolen."
Lord Maverick spoke up suddenly and asked me while he fixed his eyes on some of the participants down there who had already finished creating the catalysis even though it had not even been five minutes since all of them had started.
'It takes three hours at the very least to normally synthesize the common catalysis with the normal processes or even though the special methods however, the people who had already finished, the masters and the grandmasters, were all people who could create something as simple as this catalyst in their sleep.
Creating it while being in the best state possible was not something that would obviously require more than what they had taken.
They were people who had understood the deep truths of the art of alchemy, earning a unique 'title' of <Master> or <Grandmaster> by nature and these unique 'titles' gave them special powers that not just anyone who knew all about alchemy could possess without proving their abilities to the world.
'This competition was a platform that was the grandest stage for the births of masters and grandmasters however, there have not been any master or grandmaster being born in the competition in the last decade.'
Everyone was looking forward to seeing the birth of another master of a renowned field of alchemy. And, this year, the one person that people were expecting to reach that high stage, was none other than the winner of last year's alchemy competition, a young man from the mother continent's one of the prominent empires that was compared with Miss Mia in terms of his talent.
However, I don't think luck was going to be on his side this time as well.
"I do have a great interest in alchemy lord Maverick, however, alchemy isn't the only subject my interest runs into.
I love many other fields like magic engineering, cooking, botany, magic, and of course archery. There are other areas where my interest lies as well, however, I do not think I can confirm or deny the fact that you have just spoken about."
Many of my inventions that were in the last stages of production were ready to make their way into the shops all across the stores that Mom had recently opened up.
It was all a secret and information about it was being strictly regulated, however, the fact that he just so openly spoke it when there were all these people present around us was also one of the political plays that not only put me into a tough spot, but depending on my answer, things would have gotten difficult for mom as well.
But, thankfully, it looked like he liked my answer.
"Huhuhu, Master Axion. You are quite good with your words, you know?"
"Of course I know Lady Carolina. Mother says the same words every once in a while.
However, though, I believe I am nowhere near people such as you or my dear mom."
Lady Carolina was the one to speak up this time and, after hearing my answer, she broke her attention from the things that were going on the ground and looked at me with a pleased smirk on her face.
"You certainly have a pretty way with the words, hun."
People were supposed to when they saw her smirk like that, some of the people who actually knew her and what this smirk meant were even shocked to see her looking at me with that specific look since the meaning behind that smirk was something pretty deep on the larger scale of politics.
'That smirk was a look of intrigue she had for very few people in this world, even some of the grandmasters of this world weren't enough to earn that specific smirk from her, and the few people who knew this fact were surprised to see it.'
Even her own husband was surpassed she was openly showing interest in me, something that had a much greater impact than the emperor declaring his positive stance with the two of us.
Her simple behavior was a precious gift for the both of us, he knew that, and he knew that she knew it better than anyone else and still decided to do it anyway, which meant her interest in us was real.
"Hahaha, yes yes. As Carol said, you are quite an interesting couple, you know? There have been talks of all kinds going on about the two of you, some of them being wild and some being totally inappropriate. Why haven't you taken any action against such things yet? Aren't you afraid of your reputation being tarnished by some misunderstanding?"
Master Maverick asked a deep question this time and, while he did so, his eyes were locked on a certain participant on the ground.
She was grinding a specific kind of rock that had nothing to do with the common catalyst since a while ago.
She had prepared some ingredients that had nothing to do with the common catalyst that was present on the display over there and, even though her technique seemed pretty interesting, everyone looking at her was curious about what exactly she was doing over there. However, I wasn't curious about her actions at all.nove(lb(1n
'She's doing great.'
Miss Mia was famous so many people here knew her already.
They had thought that she would also finish making the simple thing like a common catalyst as quickly as those older masters did.
They knew her talent and just how amazing she must have become after joining the academy, however, her actions were quite strange to everyone looking at her.
"Talks and rumors have quite a fragile yet powerful influence on this world, master Maverick. I understand that quite well. However, if it is about our reputation or the talks that have been going on, we do not think there is any need for either of us to say anything about any of those things.
We know what we have been up to and our family does as well, and, that much is pretty enough for us.
The flow of a legitimate power couldn't just be shaken by some weak rumors that easily anyway. The people who 'talk' about us will need a little more than just words to earn our open response. And without that, well, we are pretty happy with how things are going actually."
That was Rein's answer and though Master Maverick was surprised at how she answered his question that he had asked to me, what he got as an answer was better than anything he might have expected. His satisfaction was present on his face, however, his attention was fully devoted to what Miss Mia had just started doing down there.
"I see... that was a good response, Lady Reinelle as expected of someone so closely related to my fellow comrade."
He and her grandpa had been on the battlefield for a few years so they knew each other quite well.
They, as well as some of the other kings and the grand mages, had worked together to eradicate many of the demonic plains on the southwestern lands of the western continent while Grandpa had mostly taken care of the things in the northern parts in the days of chaos.
He knew her grandpa and grandma quite well, and, he was also one of the few people who knew that Rein was actually a witch. That's why he had framed his response specifically like that.
However, his attention was still on Miss Mia, and after his response, he wasn't the only one looking at her.
'So she was going for something like that, huh? That's quite ingenious.'
To create a Common catalyst, one has to first mix some common ingredients like Mana stones, powdered versions of some metals, and some diluted strong elements. Then, they would have to synthesize a perfectly harmonized solution with the help of a burner, evaporator, condenser, and separator artifacts.
Just doing that would take a long time, however, after doing that, they would have to put the final product through a series of processes to get a solid brick-like version of that catalyst with the quality that was asked form them.
Producing higher quality would always require more precision and more time, focus, dedication, and will. That was the main reason even the masters and the grandmasters didn't waste much of their time on something as simple as this and finished up with a little higher quality version than what was asked of them.
Most of them didn't even try to go about the problem in some other way, but... Miss Mia saw it differently.
'They were asked to produce a common catalyst, didn't mean they had to be bound by the things that were present before them. She understood this simple fact and approached the problem in a unique way.'
She first grinned at the rock, or the rock with a specific kind of low Mana density. Then, after she produced a satisfying material, she started creating a material that could make a polymeric bond with the rock.
'She was going to use the methods I taught her to synthesize something quite unique from the simple Mana rock of low quality, some high purity acids, some elements that had no use in something like a common catalyst that could speed up the normal and basic alchemical processes.'
She was doing something different that looked so unique that many eyes were now fixed on her, however... while she was in the process of synthesizing her liquid product, something happened near her that attracted all the attention away from her.
-Ooooooooooooong!
And, this thing could have been unfathomably more dangerous if the protective spells of the area had not been activated and contained the explosion caused by Prince Charles's young partner.
It could have been a big trouble had this been somewhere else, but, since this was the safest place for this kind of alchemical blunder, everything was alright... except Rein's calm.
She was even angrier now that the being that had been the center of all her anger and resentment in this place had done something dangerous like that.
But... what she had done was no mistake.
"Looks like we have another heaven-sent genius among us, everyone."
The explosion was caused on purpose, and, the reason to do such a reckless thing, was what that young-looking, half-demon girl had produced as the end product of her unique processes.
