Chapter 71 — The Birth of Compound X
S.C. 1510 — Late September
Foosha Village — Underground Shed Lab
Ren had barely slept.
The predator's appearance last evening lingered in his mind like a shadow that refused to fade.
But another thought weighed even heavier:
The strange extracts.
The crystals.
The reactions.
Something about the plant wasn't just strange.
It was revolutionary.
Ren sat at his stone table, eyes focused on three small bowls:
Clear greenish liquid
Thick elastic jelly
Pale-green powder from yesterday
A small cluster of crystalline specks
He had separated them.
Tested them.
Observed their behaviors.
But he hadn't tried combining them.
Not properly.
And today, he had to know.
Zemo watched from the ladder entrance, tail flicking in nervous rhythm. He hadn't forgotten the predator either.
Ren took a breath.
"Let's do this."
---
Combining the Three Extracts
He started small.
He placed one drop of the clear liquid into a shallow bowl.
Then, with tweezers, he added a tiny piece of the jelly-like extract.
The reaction was instant.
The jelly shrunk, pulling inward sharply.
The liquid brightened, responding like it was absorbing something.
Ren leaned in, fascinated.
"Opposite reactions… they're exchanging something."
He added a pinch of the fine powder.
The mixture trembled.
Literally trembled.
Zemo stepped closer, hackles rising.
The mixture slowly settled—forming a uniform, slightly glowing green layer.
Ren's eyes widened.
"Wait… you're stabilizing each other?"
He couldn't believe it.
But it made sense.
The grass had produced three strange components:
The liquid: light-reactive
The jelly: heat-sensitive
The powder: water-responsive
The crystals: solid form
All chaotic individually.
But together—
They formed something stable.
Something new.
Ren's hand shook slightly with excitement.
---
Heat Test
He placed a drop of the new mixture onto the metal dish connected to the battery.
The reaction was… perfect.
No contraction.
No violent movement.
Just steady warm brightening, like the substance had found balance.
Ren's heart raced.
He scribbled notes:
When all three extracts are recombined:
Heat reaction stabilizes
Brightness increases uniformly
No shrinking or expansion
Substance remains intact
Zemo sniffed the mixture—and immediately backed away.
Ren frowned.
"You don't like it?"
Zemo stared at the substance with the same look he gave predators.
Ren suddenly realized:
This wasn't a plant extract anymore.
This was something entirely new.
---
Sunlight Test
Ren moved the bowl under a thick ray of sunlight.
The mixture pulsed softly, growing brighter with each second.
Not glowing—just responding.
Alive in a way.
Ren whispered:
"…You're absorbing light… evenly this time."
He carefully pulled it back into shadow.
Brightness faded gently—not instantly like before.
Stable.
Balanced.
Predictable.
For a first-time mixture, this was almost miraculous.
Ren stared at it with awe.
"This… This could actually be useful."
But what was it?
He had created dozens of experiments.
Tested plants, roots, extracts.
Nothing ever combined so perfectly.
This substance didn't belong to normal biology.
It was something special
Something rare
Something powerful
Something that could—
He caught himself.
He wasn't ready to imagine applications yet.
He needed a name.
A scientific name.
Something neutral.
Something simple.
Something that fit the strange nature of the substance.
Ren looked down at the faintly glowing mixture.
"…You're the tenth major experiment I've done with this plant," he mused softly.
"Tenth attempt… tenth variation… but the first stable one."
He wrote slowly into his notebook:
Experiment X
Stabilized Form — X-Compound
He stopped, staring at the words.
It felt right.
Mysterious.
Scientific.
Precise.
Ren exhaled.
"Compound X," he whispered.
Zemo tilted his head.
Ren smiled faintly.
"That's your name… from now on."
---
A Sudden Realization
Ren held up the bowl.
Compound X pulsed slightly under his hand.
Not warm.
Not cold.
Just… responding.
Like it recognized sunlight, heat, and water all at once.
Like it was more alive than any other plant-derived substance.
He thought back to yesterday—the predator sniffing around the shed.
Was it attracted to the grass?
Or to this substance?
He clenched his fists.
"I need to hide this… and work quietly."
Zemo nudged him in agreement.
Ren placed Compound X carefully into a sealed clay jar and buried it beneath the stone table.
He wasn't ready to use it.
Not until he understood it fully.
But he knew one thing:
This was his greatest discovery yet.
A discovery no one else in Foosha Village—or maybe even the whole East Blue—would ever notice.
A discovery the forest seemed to be watching closely.