"Arrgghh!" A young man bemoaned, burying his head beneath the pillow to muffle the outside noise. It was morning—the most active time of the day in every large city in the nation, everyone was out to make money. Cars honking, people bickering, and the sounds of hundreds of footsteps.
Rai had been up studying—not the tedious books written by people with questionable morals nor ones by his professors, he was actually occupying himself with something he found interesting and exciting, something greatly worth his time.
Lu, his roommate majoring in archaeology, had brought in something interesting the other day. The very act could pass as an act of crime as the item did not belong to Lu, but on a more lenient position, it was his, he did find it in an expedition, he only simply chose not to report his finding, and kept the artifact to himself.
"Arrgghh!" He screamed once again, and sat up from the king-sized bed he shared with Lu. He turned to see that Lu had left, likely for morning lectures, whereas he was free for the whole day, and likely would be throughout the entire week. He muffled a cough, it was choking in the room, as usual.
Rai stood up, it was terribly dark in there, but he had done this hundreds of times that it was an habit already, he walked to the window, and pulled away the curtains, letting the few rays of sunlight that could get past the dark clouds into his room. He coughed again, muffling the noise with his hand.
He hated this city, the terrible smoke constantly suspended in the air gave him a constant terrible cough, and everything got dirty quickly from all the soot.
Enorh was terribly depressing, Rai had known that before picking its university to study chemistry. It was a sad gloomy place that probably reduced one's lifespan, but it was also the largest city in the kingdom, and where every ambitious traders and academics based, it was Tolgast's trade and science stronghold.
'It ought to be the best place, but I'm having strong doubts now. Maybe I should have picked Harry heights instead.'
He peered outside watching a metal box on four wheels honking and churning out copius amounts of smoke into the atmosphere. The moving contraption—they dubbed them cars, and they were recently taking the nation by a storm. Only the well-to-do could afford them, and yet, every morning, they clustered the tarred roads creating a cascade of noise.
People below wore overcoats, suits, and fashionable caps heading for their posts of profession. He let out another sigh knowing that he would be part of them soon, always hurrying to work, always about work.
He turned away from the mechanical chaos, and looked around, hoping Lu had left some leftovers he could eat. Lu did not.
He punched the wall slightly in frustration, he despised making meals, to him, they were too time-consuming, and he had better use of that time. Usually this wasn't a problem except that now, he was terribly broke, and could not afford buy-outs.
"Oh fuck it." He stormed out, slamming the door of his room. He and Lu shared a room in a large apartment building that was evidently once a beautiful noble building now aged and darkened by soot. Light bulbs lit up the large corridor, and he walked ahead to his right.
A man in an overcoat and dress trousers—one of his many neighbors walked by him, and the two simply disregarded each other. He got on the stairs and got to the second floor, and then to the base floor. There he met the house lord standing by the entrance door and smoking a fat cigar.
"Hmmm hmmm! Good morning Madame." Rai greeted. The short, plump, and red-haired house lord stared at Rai from his feet up to his unruly dark curly hair. She met his dark eyes, and smiled, "Rai! You must not have had the best sleep, you look awful."
"Ah madame, you know how the city is, and I was busy last night."
"You scholars, hmmm! You're free to lay on my bed, you know, my apartment is built to muffle the noise."
'You could have extended that generosity to the rest of us.'
He smiled wryly, "I am flattered Madame, but you know me, always busy, I have work I must continue in the basement."
Madame Lydia let out a puff of smoke, and blew a kiss. Rai simply bowed to her, and made his way down the stairs at the edge of the base floor. At the end of the stairs was a thick wooden door—the door to Rai's scientific abode, his lab so to speak.
As soon as he entered, he retched.
"Disgusting." He muttered, the Madame interest came with certain perks such as freely using the basement and some leniency on him and Lu, but the surge in bold passes was becoming unbearable, it did not help that the house lord was older than his mother and not nearly as good looking.
He shook his head dismissing the encounter. In the basement, shelves of chemicals lay lined up, an overly bright light bulb hung at the center, and beneath it was a steel table and a pot of dense iron holding a strong acid.
Inside of the acid was the rock. It was reckless, the rock could dissolve and get lost, but Rai was confident that it would not, and taking a pair of iron throngs, he searched for the stone and he picked it out.
A wide smile was plastered on his young face.
"Proving to be very fascinating."
He had struck the rock repeatedly with heavy mallets, boiled it, heated it at hundreds of degrees, and tried freezing it, but the rock remained impervious to all of these tests. It refused to be affected by external factors.
If the rock had technically not been stolen, Rai knew he and his professor would share the excitement of prying the substance's secrets. Unfortunately, that could not be.
"We are charging her up." He said, wearing a maniacal smile.