Limits

I woke up the next morning and set my plan into motion. I had to create the solution as well as some medicine and poison. I also needed to catch an animal for me to test those things. I came up with a clever idea to try and make all that medicine and poison. 'I can't just mush those herbs together and hope for the best, that will be wasteful of my limited amount of herbs. I need a stone that can hold some liquid and that is not too thick' I thought. I planed to place that stone on top of the fire, it would act as my pot.

I looked for a while and found couple of contenders but none were truly what I looked for. I set them aside just in case and another idea came to my mind. 'Stream! I may be able to find such stones in there!' I thought and went straight to the stream that was not far away. I searched for a while and indeed, there was such a stone at the bottom of the stream. I slowly made my way down and retrieved the stone. 'Good, this will be useful!' I thought and returned to my camp.

The stone weighted maybe 5-6 kilograms but most importantly, it had the shape I was looking for. It could hold some water because it resembled a bowl. It wasn't exactly bowl shaped but it had some space to contain water and that was what I was after. I started the fire again and placed the stone inside. I needed to make it very hot, which would take a while.

I then remembered about the lid. 'Right, If I place some sort of lid on top of the stone, I will have even more chances of succeeding!' I thought. The lid would have to be made from stone as well. If I tried to make one from wood, it could catch fire and burn. I didn't want that. I returned to the stream in search of flat bottom stone. The search was short as those stones were quite common. I found one that was a bit bigger in diameter compared to the previous stone but it had flat bottom as I wanted.

When I returned, I tried placing the "lid" stone on top of the "bowl" stone. The stones were not matching at all, there were some holes through which the air could get in. I came up with an idea to seal it using some clay. I went back to the stream again and retrieved some clay. The clay would solidify when heated and create quite a good seal.

'This should be fine now. I have the tools, I just have to make the stuff but first, I need to catch something' I thought. I decided to catch a rabbit, they were quite lively and besides they were very small. Handling them would not be a problem. I wasn't a monster either, I would numb the rabbit a bit then do those experiments. 'It may still seem cruel but at that point, I don't give a shit about cruelty that much. I will make it less painful for the rabbit but I will still do it' I thought.

With that in mind, I went out to search for rabbits. After 30 minutes, I caught one. It had no chances against my speed, catching a live rabbit was not a problem. It was more annoying to find them than actually catch them. I returned to my camp with the rabbit, then fainted it. It wasn't that difficult to do either.

I first started preparing the poison. I didn't have to take any special precautions when making the poison, the only thing I would have to watch out for, was not to directly inhale the fumes, drink it or let it make contact with my blood. I poured a small amount of water into the "bowl" stone that was now heated very well. The water started evaporating pretty fast so I continued adding water until the water no longer boiled.

I threw in the herbs and closed it using the "lid" stone. I then applied some clay around it, in order to seal the container. I had to wait for it to cook now. The process lasted for about 15 minutes. After waiting and letting it cook, I opened the lid stone and had a look. The dregs were still there but the recipe said to leave them until 15 minutes is up. I fished out the dregs using one of the wooden tools and again closed the lid and sealed it again. 'This has to cook for about 10 minutes, I should make the flame a bit smaller, it has to cook more slowly than it did before' I thought and took out some logs from the campfire.

After 10 minutes, I unsealed the lid and took it off. The fumes started rising which was a good sign. I needed to test the poison for its effectiveness. I made a small cut on my finger and applied a drop of the poison on top of it. My finger felt a bit numb but nothing major and it wasn't hindering my movements that much. 'It's only one drop and I'm much more powerful than a rabbit. For the animal, 2 or 3 drops should be enough' I thought and retrieved a wooden container.

The nerve poison was now stored inside the container and awaited the procedure. I then made the medicine which will help heal the wounds. I assumed it would work even better on a rabbit, even though it was made in such conditions. I had herbs for making medicine from before, I also picked some more while searching for the Trantum Solution herbs.

With medicine done, what awaited me was the last step. 'Now the hardest part. I have to make the Trantum Solution. The process is not that easy. it needs specific temperature and ingredients added in specific order. I can measure all that but controlling the fire, will be much more difficult. I hope that the 1st bach at least works, I can then figure out how to improve something' I thought and prepared everything for the solution making process.

I poured in the amount of water needed and then waited for it to become hot enough. With the water starting to boil, I threw in the Sponge Mushroom and Lantry Seed. The Lantry Seed had complementary effects when mixed with Sponge Mushroom. It helped bind things together while Sponge Mushroom was like a parasite that extracted more energy out of its host. Those two things combined allowed for more effective medical properties to be extracted. This was of course the replacement herb and the real one that should be used, was called Grearing Weed. The weed also acted as a parasite but had much stronger effect.

I closed the lid and sealed it. First step was to extract as many binding properties from the Lantry Seed as possible. I left it there cooking for 10 minutes. When I opened the lid, I could already see the effects it has taken. 'The water has changed to a substance resembling glue. This is good, it is supposed to be that way' I thought and removed all the dregs.

The next step was to throw in the Winter Needle Weed, Snowy Grass and Ground Flower. The 1st two herbs had similar properties and were the replacement herbs that I found. The purpose of them was to add a soothing effect to the gluey substance while the Ground Flower was there in order to keep the cold properties away from the mixture. Both Winter Needle Weed and Snowy Grass had cold properties due to the season and Ground Flower was there to make sure those properties are kept in check.

I sealed the stone bowl again and waited for the medical properties to combine with the gluey mixture. After 6 minutes, I opened the lid again and fished out the dregs. The mixture was no longer gluey and seemed to be alright. The colour was a bit worrying, it was becoming a bit whiteish. 'This must be due to the winter herbs used as replacement. Looks alright but we will see' I thought and continued the process.

The next step was to throw in the Spiral Pinecone and Woody Flax. The Woody Flax had the properties to bind things really well, while the Spiral Pinecone added flexibility to the mix. It was a replacement herb but it wasn't that less effective compared to the original. The mixture had to slowly cook for about 20 minutes. I took away some of the logs and made the fire smaller after sealing the lid.

When 20 minutes mark passed, I opened the lid again and to my surprise, it still looked fine. 'The colour became a bit more icy blue but the smell and the consistency is great. Now it is time for the last step' I thought and took out the Glacial Lotus. 'This is the last ingredient, if this goes well, I should have enough stuff to do my experiment' I thought and threw in the Glacial Lotus into the stone bowl.

After sealing it, I applied as much heat as possible to the stone bowl. The last ingredient had to be burned, especially since it possessed cold properties. After burning the stone bowl for 10 minutes, I finally unsealed it and took a look at what was left inside the bowl.