Chapter 19 (part 2/2) - Anti-Mage Countermeasures

  Rin turned around and took a small box of assorted vials from a shelf. She set it on the counter and began pulling out various medicines and extracts. From what Vincent could read on the labels, they were simple ointments, brews, and dyes to treat diarrhea, headaches, itching, and other ailments, including pregnancy prevention.

  “I don’t have any herb that blocks meridians immediately, though I do have training potions that temporarily harden them… but I don’t think that’s what you’re looking for.” Rin picked up the meridian training potion and set it aside, then took out another vial. “You see, dangerous herbs that can be used for malicious potions or recreation tend to have higher levels of restriction. To acquire them you need permits and a justification. Things you could get, but not in the short term.”

  “Then? What is it you’re holding?”

  “This?” She tilted the vial. “This is a constipation potion, in case something you ate didn't sit well with your stomach. It works quickly, though many report that it hampers training. Its side effect seems to block the meridians, but it’s neither immediate nor very strong.”

  Vincent understood the implication instantly. He couldn’t obtain the herbs for the effect directly… but if he could find a way to concentrate them…

  “I also have this,” Rin said, holding up a potion in a much more elegant, smaller vial. “It’s an abstraction potion. For those who can’t stop ruminating while they meditate. It produces a mild hallucinogenic effect. The more ingenious ones use it to get high, if they’re able to distill it.”

  “I see, I see. That must be a real problem,” Vincent said, glancing at the vials and alchemical stills on a nearby shelf. “So you sell that as well.”

  “Yes. The tower has a rather libertarian approach when it comes to the personal development of husks. Instead of spending resources on scholars who may not have the ability or interest to learn certain subjects, they prefer to offer tools to help them reach a basic level before introducing them to the subject matter.”

  “Right… after all, you have a library with the knowledge of the entire world, and several others besides, for people to learn on their own.” Vincent took out his coin pouch and asked, “So how much would the full kit cost?”

  “I can give you the beakers, holders, distiller, stills, and all the basics for five silver towers. Though you’ll probably need decanters, energy burners, and more if you really want to get into it…”

  “I’ll also need some of the potions you showed me… three anti-diarrhea and two abstraction ones… I’ll come back in a bit to see what else I need. Go ahead and set everything aside for me; I need to consult the library.”

  Vincent had knowledge of chemistry. Decanting, distilling, or filtering a potion shouldn’t be much trouble, though he first needed to know what he was dealing with. Most basic potion books were far too vague about why they worked the way they did, so he also needed a book on herbology and another on medicine to complete the knowledge required to extract the active components from the simplest potions.

  Besides the alchemy kit and the potions, Vincent bought several other harmless items on his own that would be useful for his new project, ignoring the gloves for the moment, for a total cost of about fifteen silver towers. When he reached his room, he assembled the basic potion kit and tested the burner. At Vincent’s request, it wasn’t fully energy-dependent, but also ran on alcohol. Spiritual flames burned much hotter, but buying such an item was unnecessarily expensive for the time being, since, according to what he had researched, extracting the blocking component from the anti-diarrhea potion wouldn’t require anything too complex.

  Let’s see… this potion relies on two active components to deal with diarrhea. On one hand there’s the astringent component, which contracts tissues and reduces intestinal movement. The other, the antispasmodic component, also helps the intestine, but has the side effect of interrupting and blocking meridians…

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Vincent took a glass beaker and poured the contents of the anti-diarrhea potion into it, filling it halfway. He then placed it on the burner stand over low heat, adding a bit of water to expand the active volume of the solution. The oak bark used to make the potion contained tannins, which helped regulate intestinal movement, and these same compounds could be extracted by adding iron salts and stirring the potion until they bonded to them.

  As he stirred, the potion shifted to a less intense hue, more yellowish than its original green. Using a small spoon, Vincent lifted the iron sediments and passed them through the entire volume of the potion until it could no longer lose color. The next step was to transfer a portion of this liquid, still containing floating particles, into a glass vial. He sealed it and tied a small cord around its upper end, making sure the knot was tight. Then he let it hang and began to spin it, using centrifugal force to finish separating the sediment from the solution.

  When it was done, the dark iron salts at the bottom had absorbed the bluish tint of the potion, leaving a vivid yellow layer on top, which Vincent carefully extracted with a dropper into another vial. The first attempt was a success. He had bought three potions just in case, so, while he was at it, he extracted the blocking component from the other two as well.

  Now, the abstraction potion.

  This procedure was much easier to deal with. While searching for herbology books in the library, a fellow husk had kindly explained the distillation process after seeing Vincent study illustrations of nightmare flower seeds. Apparently, it was a commonly used substance among husks, harmless and taken for recreational purposes.

  Its extraction was somewhat simpler, but far more tedious. The abstraction potion was highly diluted and contained other herbs meant to counteract the immediacy and potency of the nightmare flower seeds. Its liquid was “dirty” and needed to be purified, which simply required filtering it multiple times until all impurities were removed.

  Husks usually did this in a more artisanal way, but Vincent had purchased a filtration decanter, making the process far easier. After filtering, the liquid was distilled in an still and set aside in its own vial. Once the active components were separated, a reduction process was necessary to concentrate the liquid to its most potent form.

  And now, the method to administer this cocktail…

  He couldn’t afford to waste time on multiple iterations of a weapon; he needed to defend himself now. The design was simple, based on the runes from his vaporizer. He would shape the weapon by hand, giving it its final touches with his argent steel sphere, and the gems would come from his vaporizer prototype, which he would unfortunately have to dismantle.

  Using the spare ceramic he had on hand, he molded the weapon’s casing, similar to a flare gun, with a simple trigger and an ignition rune embedded inside. It required every bit of energy he could supply, so the engravings were modified to accommodate that demand. Salvaged quartz fragments, leftovers from the array, were added as reinforcement to increase the energy flow. This was classified as theft by the tower, so his bracelet pulsed in disapproval; he would have to work later to pay for it.

  Its inner chamber was simple. He didn’t have time for complex liquid-release mechanisms, so a wide hollow space would be enough to hold the payload with a bit of ingenuity… but first, the ceramic had to be fired.

  Using a simple engraving on paper, Vincent managed to summon enough energy to dry his anti-mage deterrent pistol (after burning through three batches of paper circles), leaving it solid enough to handle… after all, it was only meant for a single shot.

  He had no way to test the device without injuring himself, so he simply used what seemed reasonable inside the weapon. Before pouring the mixture in, he added melted wax to the combined potion compounds, along with pepper extract and other irritating ingredients. Holding the weapon vertically, muzzle pointing upward, he poured the hot contents until the chamber was half full. He waited a moment for the wax, which had floated to the surface, to partially solidify.

  Once a thin white layer formed on top, Vincent could move the weapon. The wax had created a natural plug, one that would break apart when the liquid inside was excited enough to change phase directly. If it worked as intended, pulling the trigger would release a burst of vapor from the muzzle, laden with components that would block and disrupt the use of magic.

  Assuming it works and doesn’t explode in my hand from the pressure, it should behave more like pepper spray than anything else… aside from the blast of hot steam to the face…

  This weapon was a gamble, a desperate option for emergencies. Mages in this world were terrifyingly powerful, but from what he had seen with Lily, they lacked speed. If he could draw fast enough, maybe this simple pistol would save his life someday in the near future…