The old man instantly fell into deep thought. After a moment, he spoke.
"Yes. I can see why this would need to be secret. If such a thing could be created, it would change secret messages completely."
Skymender nodded. "Do you believe it's feasible?"
The old man shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I just record the movement of the stars. If you want to talk about inventing a new substance, talk to old Lee. He is the expert in that field."
Skymender nodded. "That will work."
The old man led him to a different area of the building before bowing and taking his leave. Looking around, this place was much different than the entrance.
It was clean and tidy, with only two people visible. One was young, while the other was old.
"Hello." Skymender said.
Both people turned around. One was an old man, and the other was a young woman.
They bowed upon seeing Skymender.
"I assume you are old Lee?"
The old man nodded. "Yes. That is me. Who do I have the honor of meeting?"
"Skymender. Ninth child of the Sky barony."
Both bowed towards Skymender once again. "Greetings, Sir Skymender."
Skymender waved his hand and began to explain to them what he had told the old man from before.
They nodded before speaking. "It is feasible, though it would not be easy. We hadn't really thought about that. Secret messages are usually sent out in a code language, which is much easier than creating an entirely new substance that can be seen through by a certain pair of glasses."
Skymender nodded. He knew that it was going to be difficult, but this substance was the best way for him.
Old Lee continued to speak. "If you want to research here, we have no problem with that. We can even teach you whatever you want to learn. In return, I only ask that you provide a donation to the research center. It doesn't have to be now, but when you're older."
Skymender nodded. "I agree."
Old Lee sighed with relief. "It's hard to find a reasonable noble nowadays. We have many materials in the basement, though I don't believe that any of them will be able to do what you desire without change. How much do you know about this field of research?"
Skymender showed him the three books that he had been studying nonstop. He had basically memorized everything already.
"You've started reading those?"
"I've memorized most of the information in them."
Old Lee looked up and down at him suspiciously. He was only nine years old after all.
"Then I guess you've been studying since you were a kid."
"Technically right. I was indeed a kid three days ago."
Old Lee continued to show suspicion. He began to ask Skymender questions.
Skymender answered almost all of them correctly. Although he had indeed incorrectly answered a few, Old Lee's eyes shined.
"This is my apprentice, Tara. She is going to take over this field of research when she becomes a master of it."
Skymender nodded, though he did not understand why he was being introduced to her.
Old Lee coughed. "Anyway, in the basement, you'll find everything you need. If you ever need help, guidance, or even suggestions, please ask."
Skymender thanked him and began to walk down a nearby flight of stairs. There were multiple basements in the large building. The one Skymender went down was naturally the one involving the creation and research of substance.
The basement, like above, was neat. There were bookshelves with books, counters with materials, and even a few elegantly designed pedestals with clearly valuable materials placed on them.
Li Youcai and Skymender looked around when they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
They turned around to see Tara.
"I've come to give you guidance on where to start learning."
She pointed at a bookshelf. "There are three good books there, in rows 1, 3, and 3. Book 4 on row one, book 3 and 7 on row three."
She then pointed to another bookshelf. "After thoroughly studying those three, look for four more books. book 1 on row 1, book 2 on row 3, book 9 on row 4, and book 7 on row 6."
She then turned around. "If you can thoroughly understand the content in all of those, come see us and we can help you go even deeper, if that's your wish."
Skymender nodded as she left. He took her suggestions, taking the three books mentioned on the first bookshelf and the four following it on the second bookshelf.
He then began to study. In this environment, he felt as if he could study even faster.
Li Youcai began to browse around as Skymender had no need for him to constantly stand by. A few times throughout the day, either Old Lee or his apprentice Tara came to see if they needed anything.
Skymender politely rejected them every time.
At the end of the day, he left, and in the next morning, he came back. He seemed to forget about any sort of plans or plots as he fell deep into learning.
Before he knew it, it had been a month since he first arrived at the imperial capital.
The books he had been shown were much more advanced than the first three he had been given by Li Youcai. After all, the first three were the basics. Still, he had thoroughly learned the contents in all of the books that had been pointed out to him.
He came in on this day and asked Old Lee to show him around the lab. He was given an in depth tour. Old Lee had begun to respect him after seeing him study so hard.
Although Skymender had known a lot of the information he was told from the books, it was always different seeing it in person.
Old Lee was clearly enthusiastic, showing him every small piece of every tool. He also showed long standing theories of further advancements for tools such as the telescope that he had been trying to further research for years.
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.
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