By the end of the tour, Skymender was ready to begin actual research. Granted, he did not have even a percentage of the knowledge that old Lee had. Even his apprentice was a few levels above Skymender.
He had been studying for less than a month. He may be talented, but not to the point of surpassing experts in such a short period of time.
However, Skymender believed in two things. Luck, and his imagination. He believed that he had the luck to accomplish his goals, and the imagination to try out things that no researcher had tried before.
Skymender went down the basement, Li Youcai following as always. He found a few materials that he had marked as interesting and grabbed them.
He then returned upstairs.
The lab was more than big enough for ten people, so with three, Skymender had plenty of room to work.
He went back down to the basement after sitting the materials down. Here, he stored things that he had imagined could possibly cause changes in the materials that would allow them to contain the properties he wished.
It was naturally a far stretch, but this is where he would begin.
He and Li Youcai returned upstairs with their hands full.
Skymender took a seat while Li Youcai stood beside him.
Skymender first started by grabbing a pink crystal that could be seen through. He put it in a pot, and opened up a bucket on the table. Inside of it was refrigerated blood. The blood was not from humans, but from a rare species of animal known as echo chameleons.
Like normal chameleons, they had the ability to change color to blend into their environment. However, they were also about as large as a small dog and could only see through echolocation.
Skymender had been able to gather a bucket of their blood and store it downstairs.
The stench of blood instantly filled the surroundings.
It was a stench that had never appeared here. After all, who would think of using blood to change a substance?
Nobody here had, but Skymender did.
He poured the blood in the pot with the crystal, making sure to keep a record of the amount poured in.
He then turned on the heat below and watched as the pot heated up.
The blood slowly started to produce bubbles.
This was a medieval world, but there were indeed a few technological advancements such as refrigerators and using gas to create flames.
Of course, these things were only ever found in noble households or research facilities such as this one.
When the blood started to boil even faster, and a blood-red steam was being let out, Skymender took the pot off of the heat and fished the crystal out.
It was coated with blood. Skymender took a rag and cleaned the blood off. The crystal was no longer pink, but blood-red. Inside, there seemed to be a hint of rainbow flashing.
At this time, old Lee and his apprentice came towards Skymender.
Old Lee was about to speak when he saw the crystal. He looked at it in amazement. He came up to Skymender and spoke.
"What did you do to create that?"
"I mixed a pink crystal with the blood of the echo cameleon." Skymender responded.
Old Lee looked surprised for a moment before he continued to focus on the crystal. It was a truly astonishing sight.
"Blood, huh. Perhaps I had overlooked it." Old Lee mumbled to himself.
After all, blood was what maintained the life of every living being.
Old Lee and his apprentice soon left, deep in thought. Meanwhile, Skymender pulled out another material. It was a pure black rock that seemed to absorb the surrounding light.
This was one of the rarest materials in the world. Skymender had paid quite the price to get it.
And now, he was going to use it in an experiment.
He put the black rock in a new pot. He poured the unused echo cameleon blood in the pot and let it begin to boil under the flame.
Skymender stirred the pot the entire time so that the blood didn't burn up too much.
He let it boil more than the last pot. When it had begun to boil as much as water could, Skymender fished the black rock out.
Now, it was not even close to the same.
Surrounding the outside of the rock was a see through, multi-colored crystal. Deep inside, the black rock was still visible, though it seemed different as well.
Skymender had nearly forgotten about his goal seeing the crystal. It was truly beautiful.
However, it would not help him towards his goal, it seemed. Skymender put the crystal in a nice looking box and grabbed some other things from the side.
Some were crystal, some were liquids, some were powders. For multiple hours, he began to mix things together that any sane person could never think of.
90% of his attempts ended in utter failure, creating a sort of black substance that stank or some other form of useless goop.
However, he occasionally experienced some success, even if they did not seem to help him towards his goal at all.
The first two crystals were the best result he got all day. He stayed late into the night and only returned home to sleep.
The next day, he came back.
There were two weeks until the yearly Noble Gathering. Skymender was focused on research, and had nearly forgotten about it.
He needed to make some preparations, but he wanted to focus on research for just a bit longer. Unfortunately, even as another day passed, he did not experience any sort of success that moved him towards his goal. He temporarily had to set it aside and make his way back home. He would go back to the research center after the Noble Gathering.
It didn't seem as if he needed to prepare much, but to have the best chance of experiencing a good result, it was better to do everything possible.