Chapter 008 Preparation For The Experiment

"You must know something about this, right?" Richard argued.

The baron furrowed his brow even deeper as he looked over.

"It seems like you never gave up trying, always wanting to understand the legends about wizards, don't you?"

"Isn't that an interesting thing to pursue?" Richard smiled.

"To be honest, you'd be better off doing something else. After all, you're so clever, smarter than me, than your mother who died in childbirth, than the teachers I once found for you, smarter than everyone I've ever met. If you focused on practical matters instead of chasing these elusive ideas about wizards, I believe you could achieve higher status than me." Leo spoke earnestly.

Richard shrugged. "My perspective is quite the opposite. Doing practical things is certainly doable and I'm confident I could do them better than you imagine. But what's the point?"

"I could teach people how to make high explosives, rifled cannons, repeating firearms , lead armies to conquer the world. Or I could teach how to make high-proof spirits, transparent glass, small mirrors, and amass wealth enough to rival nations.""

"But what's the meaning in all that?"

"The outcomes are so predictable, like spending a whole lifetime just to reach a dull and unchanging conclusion. It's nothing compared to the wild fantasies I used to daydream about from books or the virtual games I used to play."

"When it comes down to it, things like wizards, these alluring mystical beings, grab my interest more. I used to think wizards were just silly nonsense and brushed them off."

"But when impossible things actually happen, like someone waking up in a completely unfamiliar place as a totally different baby, you start wondering."

"Maybe wizards or even more mysterious creatures are real?"

"And that's where Fire Bears come in as proof."

"Digging into this stuff, trying to understand it and maybe even take advantage of it, now that's something that really excites me. I reckon it's worth dedicating a whole lifetime to." Richard wrapped up his thoughts and left Leo speechless."

After a long silence, Leo looked at me and said, "I can't convince you, so I won't even try anymore. Anyways... take care of yourself. Honestly, my biggest regret now is giving you that stupid wizard's note on your tenth birthday, causing so much trouble."

"And I actually think that was the best thing you ever did. Even though the book was blank and useless, it took me five years of studying with no luck. But if things go well tonight, maybe there will be a breakthrough. Alright, sir, it's getting late. I really need to get busy, and as for you... good night," Richard finished and left without looking back into the darkness.

Leo stood in the hall for a while before shaking his head slightly and going upstairs to his bedroom.

The night was quiet and dark with only dim moonlight."

"The Baron's big old castle looked like a dark shadow on the plain, and the main castle stood tall with its side castles, looking like three long swords pointing up at the stars.

Richard went up to the attic of one of the side castles, opened the door, walked into what looked like a lab, and went straight to the table to get back to his experiment.

First, he got his thoughts in order and then Richard got to work. He carefully set up all his equipment and started distilling that blood-red oil he'd extracted earlier.

Distillation is when you separate different stuff in a mix based on how hot they get.

Richard was carefully with adjusting how hot it needed to be - first getting rid of just water with a boiling point at 100 degrees Celsius, and then turning up the heat even more until animal fats started coming out around 400 degrees Celsius.

Finally, there was only this little bit of red liquid left in the flask, looking like blood but definitely not blood because it didn't coagulate.

Richard was pretty sure this had to be that magical stuff he'd been searching for!

Magical stuff!

Carefully extracting the red liquid, Richard turned to the corner of the lab.

Over there, he found a heavy black iron box. After opening it, he pulled out a big book from the bottom.

The book was about thirty centimeters square and weighed at least five kilograms.

It had a dark red cover and its pages were smooth like leather, with a pale yellow color.

When Richard flipped through the book, he didn't find any words inside; all the pages were blank.

The only thing on the cover was a mysterious inscription: "You'll gain all my knowledge when I have magic power!"

There was no title or author's name on this strange book that Baron gave to Richard when he was ten.

There were rumors that it was an evil notebook belonging to a wizard, but it was just gossip.

After getting his hands on it, Richard realized its extraordinary properties—it could withstand fire and water due to its special material.

In addition, this book emitted some strong unknown energy which made some animals really uneasy.

When the big, scary hunting dogs got close to this book, they started howling like they were in pain and then ran away as fast as they could.

If you tied them down, they would go from screaming to shaking uncontrollably until they died.

When Richard examined the dead hunting dog, he found that its insides looked healthy with no signs of sickness, but its brain was covered in a strange gray substance.

It seemed like the hunting dog didn't die from physical harm, but from something messing with its mind.

Richard couldn't do much research because there wasn't enough information and the Baron had restrictions.

He had to lock the book away in an iron box.

But Richard didn't give up; he kept looking for magical creatures and trying to find magic substances for his research.

He thought maybe the pages of the book had some special stuff on them that changed color when magic energy hit them, revealing hidden writing.

Now it was time to uncover the truth."

"Phew," Richard said, taking a deep breath and exhaling. He focused his gaze and placed the book on the table in the lab, reaching for the bamboo tube with the red liquid.

There was a crack below the words on the cover, almost like a creepy smile. With a slight tilt of Richard's hand, drops of red liquid fell into the crack.