Siderius kneeled down in front of the furnace and waited. He continued to control the True Aether to fuse with his soul.
The more powerful your soul, the clearer the rules of the universe will be. Elevating one's soul not only granted you the power to evoke alchemy, it also opened your Mind Eye and let you observe the universe in a better way.
Particles of True Aether seeped under the faceless being, dissolving like water droplets in a fountain.
His soul was brighter and brighter each time, producing a shinier silver color and enlarging his soul aura.
Hours passed by. Around the third hour mark, Siderius stopped his meditation and took a look into the forge. The process should be finished by now.
A cloud of yellow smoke had filled the crystallized container. Those vapors were pure sulfur in its original form.
The extraction process was a success. But the work wasn't finished.
Siderius used the tongs to grab the crucible out of the furnace.
Once cooling down, the vapored Sulfur would attach itself to the new mineral and once again transform into pyrite if there was no intervention.
So Siderius needed to act quickly. By using salt, Siderius drew another big circle of alchemical seals.
Originally, Salt Crystallization had three seals, representing three different processes, Isolation, Formation and Crystallization, with the Crystallization as its core sequence.
This seal was a variation of Salt Crystallization. It was sometimes called Salt Isolation by Siderius' peers, focusing more on the Isolation part.
Siderius placed the crystallized ball onto the new Salt Isolation seal.
And then he evoked the alchemical process.
The Isolation sign was different. Instead of two hands stacked on each other and palm facing to the sky, the two hands started with their palms aiming downward. Then Siderius moved his two hands in a half-circle with the bottoms of their palm, the heels, sticking closed to each other.
The salt floated up along with the crystal. The crystallized barrier broke down into salt and joined the floating salt circle, leaving only the yellow vapor of Sulfur and the new brownish powder inside.
Then Siderius repeated the Formation and Crystallization signs. However, instead of sealing the mineral, the salt sealed the yellow vapor.
Once the process was completed, the brown mineral landed gently on the ground along with excess salt from the seal.
Siderius opened his palm and the new salt container flew over and landed on his hand. It was still incredibly hot and if not for the salt barrier, Siderius wouldn't even be able to hold it.
Inside it was all the Sulfur that was separated from the pyrite. The new brown mineral, called pyrrhotite, was a balance combination between Sulfur and Iron.
There was still sulfur inside the brown mineral but continuing to extract it would be much more difficult. The pyrrhotite also had a special use so Siderius kept it.
Siderius had achieved his purpose coming here. The vapored sulfur needed more time to become solid.
There were still pyrites left for him to extract. But Siderius had no intention to continue using this barbaric method to extract sulfur.
Once he had his first batch of sulfur, he could directly use its separation ability to extract elements. There was no need to use the forge anymore.
Siderius put the crystal ball into his material pouch. He dusted off the remaining salt on the ground and put it in a different pouch.
This salt was already used in an alchemical process. It had lost most of its alchemy capabilities. Now it could only be used as ordinary kitchen salt. However, Siderius still collected it.
He could use it to season his meat. And leaving them behind would be an amateur mistake.
Siderius continued to clean up the yard and put everything back in its original place. He shut off the lid of the forge, cutting the oxygen to the charcoal.
In time, the fire would die on its own and leave no traces behind.
Siderius kept the 10-centimeter crucible and the tongs. It may come in handy later so he looted them. George wouldn't be needing them anyway. He also took a small metal pot in George's house to bring with him.
After finishing everything and erasing as many traces as possible, Siderius climbed over the fence and got away. The items he looted were stored in a shack behind his back.
Siderius looked like a thief that just looted a poor abandoned house.
Once he returned to his camp, dawn was nearly there. He took a few detours in the woods to throw off the trail in case anyone might track him.
Siderius took another path to enter the foothills. On his way, he found a small natural cave on the mountain. It was a child-size cave and was too small for any animal to live in.
However, what caught Siderius' eyes was a line of black rock stuck onto the wall of the cave.
He laid the shack on his back to the ground and approached the wall.
"This… is obsidian." Siderius mumbled.
His pair of Nocturnal Ocula had prevented him from operating in the day. Originally, Siderius intended to create a special concoction called Nocturnal Inhibitor to stop this effect. Or rather, he could completely nullify this weakness once he grafted a pair of Cathemeral Ocula.
Nocturnal Ocula was a pair of night time eyes. While Cathemeral Ocula was a pair of dusk and dawn eyes. The most familiar Cathemeral Ocula was cat's eyes, which could see well both in daytime and darkness.
However, creating Nocturnal Inhibitor proved to be a challenge because finding its ingredients would be difficult. Cathemeral Ocula also needed time, Siderius had to lower his psychosis to zero first before trying any other mutation. Otherwise, he could die in the process.
Or worse, turning into a mindless beast.
But maybe there was a simpler option. A pair of sunglasses would just solve everything nicely and he could use it temporarily before grafting the Cathemeral Ocula.
Siderius pulled out the hunter's knife and chipped off a piece of obsidian on the wall. Obsidian was too opaque to be used as glasses but it could act as a thin layer to block the light source.
Siderius put the piece of obsidian in his material pouch. One more thing added to his list of tasks.
Siderius picked up his shack and continued walking to his hideout. When he passed the river, Siderius took a pot full of water to bring home.
The sun rose above the ground and spread its light on the land, making Siderius' eyes a bit hurt.
He treated himself with a meal of buffalo meat and the non-reactive salt on top. It wasn't as good as Ashe's porridge but it provided good energy.
Siderius took out the crystal sphere and checked the status of the sulfur. The vapor inside had solidified itself and turned into long needle-like crystals.
This was a less stable form of sulfur and it would need more time to cool off before settling into the stable form that Siderius knew so well.
Siderius dipped the crystal ball inside the water pot and let it cool off. Then he crawled into the makeshift shelter.
Siderius drifted off to sleep.