A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 107 Mr. Rorschach

Sunlight streamed into the office building, where the third-floor laboratory was filled with bottles, jars, and oddly shaped glass instruments, through which light passed, refracted, and scattered.

Mr. Pierre Newsingen and the other partners listened to the Alchemy Department without question. When the old guys gave them the blueprints, they strictly followed the blueprints and even traveled all over Valuvana to procure the experimental equipment required by the Alchemy Department.

It can be called Valuwana's most beautiful business partner.

"Is the alcohol ready? And the glycerin too?"

"Yes, the goods are sourced from manufacturers designated by the metalworking department."

Upon entering the lab, Rorschach immediately dismissed Pierre and his burly bodyguard. He needed an assistant, and clearly, neither of those two were suitable candidates.

Antoine would be a good fit. He's quick-witted, interested in this line of work, and has a wealthy uncle. It's great that even if I get him involved with Rorschach, it won't be a burden.

Antoine saw his uncle give him a thumbs-up before leaving.

Now, Rorschach and Antoine have two main ingredients laid out on their table: oxtail and mallow fruit. Rorschach has already seen the former; its most striking feature is the specialized pulvinus beneath the leaves, resembling a drooping pouch with vein-like purple streaks. It is said that the more streaks and the deeper the color, the better the quality.

There are two batches of mallow pods: one batch consists of whole, unprocessed, fresh pods, with five large green pods arranged radially in clusters; the seeds must be peeled open to see them. The other batch consists of large, dried, dehydrated seeds with a purplish-red outer skin.

The existing process was repeatedly finalized by the senior members of the metallurgy department, so the temperature and extraction method are very valuable for reference.

"What is the heating temperature of the first vessel?" Rorschach asked.

"The process manual for the metalworking department says 110 degrees, but in reality, the workers don't adhere to that strict rule when burning charcoal; they maintain it between 100 and 130 degrees."

Therefore, Rorschach knew that at least the active ingredients would not undergo significant decomposition or reaction below 130 degrees Celsius.

Rorschach could roughly guess the types of active ingredients in the two plants. He held the finished energy potion up to the sunlight and observed it; when gently shaken, it was a slightly purplish, cloudy liquid clinging to the sides of the container.

The direct extraction of ox gall grass produces a viscous product, which likely contains a large amount of lipids. The process of drying mallow fruit involves adding water and steaming to concentrate it, indicating that its active ingredients are water-soluble and can boost energy; they are likely glycosides, alkaloids, or organic acids (salts).

"The chefs said that if the juice from boiling mallow fruit is not concentrated enough or too much ox gall grass juice is added at once, the whole pot of product will become very cloudy, and in severe cases, it will even separate into layers, and that batch of product will be ruined."

"Because one is an oil phase and the other is an aqueous phase." Rorschach guessed that there should be trace amounts of surfactants in the two plants, which could act as emulsifiers. Originally, water and higher fatty acids are immiscible, and surfactants are like "matchmakers" forcibly combining them. If there are not enough "matchmakers" or they are too busy, turbidity and phase separation will occur.

If it were just for the alchemy department guys to use themselves and for the magic guild to consume internally, as before, they wouldn't care whether it was clear or turbid, they would just chug it down. But now that it's being sold as a commodity, in Rorschach's eyes it's unacceptable. Turbid liquid is easily associated with sewage and dirty water, while clear and uniform liquid is more likely to be accepted by customers.

[Decomposition Technique] was used, but the sac of the ox gall grass did not completely break as Rorschach had intended. It seems that in addition to ordinary chemical substances, this grass does indeed contain magically activated components.

In that case, it's time for the assistant to step in: "Antoine, go and chop up the ox gall, I'll set up the equipment."

The glassware he had was different from what he had in his previous life. Rorschach could only use a swan-neck flask for distillation, and he didn't have a condenser. Fortunately, the heating temperature wasn't high, and the swan neck was long enough. Rorschach wrapped a towel around the swan neck and kept pouring water on the towel, which made do.

Alcohol is a wonderful thing. As a lower alcohol, it's arguably the most readily available social lubricant, being miscible with water in any proportion and capable of dissolving many organic compounds. However, Rorschach doesn't intend to directly soak and heat the ox gall extract in alcohol from the outset.

"It's cut up. Is this the right size?" Antoine finished the task assigned by Rorschach, his hands covered in brownish-green slurry.

"Okay, thanks." Rorschach took the lump of raw material with his mage's hand, stuffed it into the swan-neck bottle through the large opening, and then added enough water to completely submerge the fragments.

"Add water?" Antoine remembered that after juicing and filtering, the water was to be concentrated and evaporated. He didn't know why Rorschach was doing the opposite.

"Yes, add water, and then let the water boil together with the oil phase from the plant." Rorschach judged that the plant oil was probably a light oil, and the concentration temperature was close to the boiling point of water, so steam distillation could be tried. Since water and volatile components have partial pressures when they azeotropically, they will boil as long as the total pressure reaches atmospheric pressure. They can be distilled together at a temperature lower than their boiling points, which is equivalent to vacuum distillation for organic oils.

"You control the heat source. Keep the temperature at 90 degrees for now. If the amount of steam produced is small, then increase the temperature." Luo Xia inserted the thermometer into the oil bath. Since the heating temperature is around 100 degrees, glycerin will suffice.

Gradually, water and green oil appeared in the conical flask at the swan neck receiving end. As the amount increased, they separated into layers, becoming much clearer and purer than the brownish-green slurry directly pressed out.

On the other hand, the extraction of mallow fruit involves crushing the dried fruit, repeatedly soaking it in alcohol, evaporating and concentrating it to obtain a brownish-red extract. This method was based on Rorschach's experience, considering that its active ingredients can be concentrated in the aqueous phase, and that the extract obtained by this method can retain glycosides, alkaloids, organic acids, etc.

If only we had a Soxhlet extractor. Although we've already obtained the extract, the yield would likely be even higher with alcohol circulation distillation. Rorschach separated a portion of the extract, heated it further until it became a brown powder, and then carefully baked the powder, covering it with a plugged glass funnel.

This was a delicate task, and Rorschach didn't know the range of sublimation and decomposition of the key components, so he could only slowly increase the temperature and experiment. He kept adjusting the baking temperature, and as expected, crystal-clear needle-like crystals slowly grew inside the inverted funnel. To accelerate the condensation of the sublimated components, Rorschach also used the [Touch of Ice] technique on his hand holding the funnel.

"It's so beautiful." Antoine couldn't help but lean over to admire Rorschach's masterpiece.

"Go, go, keep an eye on the temperature, don't let it burn dry!" Rorschach carefully scraped the crystals off the funnel.

On the other side, the extract of *Bletilla striata* was also distilled together with water, and the Rorschach extract was separated into phases.

Antoine had grasped the basics: "Do we need to distill it again to remove the water?"

Unfortunately, his prediction failed. Rorschach simply added crushed, dry chlorinated lime powder to the separated green oil. When the added powder no longer clumped together, it meant it had completed its water-absorbing mission. After a simple filtration, a refined oil with extremely low water content was produced.

Rorschach then separated a portion of the extracted oil from the ox gall, added alcohol and a small amount of salt, and stirred continuously, separating the phases again. However, this time he did not retain the oil but took the aqueous phase containing alcohol, heated and concentrated it to obtain a yellow-green clear liquid.

The current samples include ox gall root oil and concentrated extract, mallow fruit extract and crystals.

Rorschach mixed them in pairs, obtaining purple liquids from both. The combination of the concentrated extract and the crystals produced the deepest and clearest purple. The sample could only be contained in the smallest glass bottle, which Rorschach squeezed, and it emitted a mesmerizing, shimmering purple light in the sunlight.

The experiment began in the morning and lasted until after four o'clock in the afternoon. Rorschach and Antoine had missed lunch, but they didn't feel hungry at all. They were both staring intently at the small "Essence of Hercules".

"It's beautiful, a breathtakingly beautiful purple."

"It should be purer than the best stuff in the Alchemy Department," Mr. Rorschach said with great satisfaction.

Let's start rejecting gambling and drugs! Although I'm using a Breaking Bad reference, please don't misunderstand in the comments! Rorschach's product is not addictive! Not at all! Think of it as an enhanced version of Red Bull, or a magically enhanced nitrous oxide pump. I'm bowing deeply to all the readers: *bang bang bang bang*

(End of this chapter)