Chapter 3333 Ink

The news of tomorrow's action was passed to the church, done by Miss Reinhardt's followers, who seemed always good at doing this.

And Xia De was not idle that afternoon. The "Pharmaceutical Merchant" went to his potion store to pack his things and had not come back yet. The meeting time he agreed with Major Rades was next week, so he found some other things for himself.

In the morning, Xia De did not forget the ink written on the snake shed that Lu Weiya mentioned. He asked the two elders after lunch, but the elders said that although there are indeed some ancient documents written on the snake shed, this tradition has long disappeared and they have no ink recipe:

"But Claire's father studied the ink composition on the ancient snake sheds, and seemed to want to determine the changes in the way local texts were written. You can ask him."

The Witch had something else to do in the afternoon, so Shade visited the Reinhardt's house alone. Today was Thursday, and Mrs. Reinhardt went to the town school to attend classes, but the Folklore professor was at home without going out.

He was not drunk today. After entertaining Xia De in the door and hearing about Xia De’s problems, he invited Xia De to sit down and speak:

"Mr. Watson, have you ever learned about the changes in the way ink is made? Before the steam era, most of the ink used was iron gallbladder ink, which required soaking the crushed quids, extracting tannins, adjusting colors, thickening, storing, etc. The production process is very complicated, and the finished product of the ink is corrosive."

He picked up the pen on the table again:

"When we are talking, common ink is a coal tar chemical product, which is cheap and easy to use. However, according to my investigation, the ink marks on the ancient snake shed text of Fatu people are not the above two inks, they are ore pigments. To be precise, they are finished products of ore pigments with other materials."

“Is the ore from this island?”

The professor nodded:

"It's very keen, yes. I spent half a year trying to compare and match the colors on the ancient snake shed text, but they all failed. Later, Elder Ursha told me that the unique dark brown color is like a mineral called "snake scale stone" specialty on the snow mountain. This stone is named because the surface has patterns that resemble snake scales."

Xia De didn't expect that he could find clues so smoothly:

"Then this stone"

"It's just a stone for ordinary people, but it seems to be a rare material for you extraordinary people. Snake scale stones produced on snowy mountains are rare, and the Fatu people have no habit of accumulating such useless stones.

So you can try your luck in the mountains yourself, or search for the local black market.”

“You also know about the local black market?”

Professor Reinhardt smiled and nodded:

"I have never been to the Clock Tower Black Market, but I have heard of it. I have never learned the method of making ore into pigments, but I can be sure that the pigments on the ancient snake shed texts were not just mineral pigments, and some special ingredients should have been added to it.

But this is no longer the scope of research for ordinary people like me, so I did not continue to study it in depth. Maybe you can ask some herbalists or pharmacists of the extraordinary. There are also snake shed texts in the tribe. Maybe people who have mastered extraordinary power can use the ancient text to distinguish other ingredients in the pigment."

The best local pharmacist is of course the "pharmaceutical merchant" Mr. Sargent. When he came back at 2:30 in the afternoon, Shade mentioned this to him. Of course, Mr. Sargent was willing to help Shade analyze the ingredients of ancient ink, and even his collection contains "snake scale stone".

"I rarely use this kind of stone. If you need it, just take it away. Apart from Fatumonster Island, I have never seen this kind of stone in other places. This stone should be just used by local ring warlocks."

"Can this stone be equipped with potions, can it be?"

The "snake scale stone" is not big and its shape is not regular, but the smoothest surface does have patterns that resemble snake scales.

"Yes, this is what I discovered after living here for many years - adding some snake scale powder when cooking potions seems to help improve the success rate of potions, but I can't be sure if this is a psychological factor.

I’m no longer the kind of pharmacist who needs to care about success rate. What I care more about is whether the effects of all materials have been exerted. So I’m just interested in this stone, and it’s useless to stay with me.”

"So what will the ring warlocks on the island do with it?"

"When making alchemy items of amulets, adding a little bit of stone fragments can make the amulets better, but the degree of improvement is not very large. There are many divinationists in the Principality of Lagson, so there are also many ring warlocks who can make amulets. The function of this stone has been discovered long ago, but the price on the black market is not high, which can well show that it actually does not work much."

As for distinguishing the components of ink in ancient texts, according to Mr. Sargent, every little accomplished pharmacist has his own unique method to distinguish the materials of the potion, and ink can of course be considered a potion.

Xia De then borrowed an ancient snake shed text from the elders who were planning the process of the All Spirits Day in the Snow Mountain Hall, so that Mr. Sargent could distinguish it on the spot.

"Don't worry about breaking it, I have the ability to reverse time to repair items."

Mr. Sargent ordered a room alone and took half an hour to tell Xia De the result by the window:

"The main ingredient is indeed snake scale stone, and the other ingredients are a bit complicated. There are eighteen components in total, fourteen of which are common. I have made a list and you can find it yourself. One of the remaining four is human blood."

Seeing that Xia De had no expression, he continued:

"The content is very small, but I can't tell whether this human blood has a special meaning. After all, if you use ritual methods to make ink, the selected blood may have symbolic significance. For example, born in a specific year or a certain bloodline.

The second type is the solvent of ore pigment. Before this year, I would definitely think it was just clean water, but during the treatment process, the elders and others generously prepared some snow mountains and rivers for me. Yes, the solvent is the expensive and rare snow mountains and rivers."

"From your expression, the last two materials are definitely the most precious."

"Yes, the third type is the root extract of a plant specialized in the snow mountain. The plant called the 'Lacrimal Gland Fern' has a surface like a drop of tears. It only grows in the high altitude areas of the Fatumonster Snow Mountain, and can even be said to be the most famous and most precious material on the island - it is one of the few materials that can enhance the stability of the 'Calling Potion'."

The awakening of the ring warlock requires five steps in the formal process, namely collecting elements, ringing bells, ignition, pushing, and hymns. Among them, "Calling bells" refers to shocking the soul and allowing the soul to undergo the initial sublimation. This step sounds complicated, but in fact it is drinking potions.

Different tissues have different formulas, and the taste, stability and success rates of different formulas are also slightly different, so potion materials that can enhance the stability of this unique potion are indeed very precious.

"Do you have it in your hands?"

Shade asked, and Mr. Sargent immediately shook his head:

"It used to be, but it has long disappeared. The local Five Gods Church has purchased this material at high prices on the black market all year round. The price is really high, and you basically cannot see it on the market. It is said that the church has studied whether they can be planted at high altitudes in other regions, but it turns out that the lacrimal fern can only grow in this snow-capped mountain outside the window.

The Fatu people must have lacrimal ferns. This plant-configured potion is an essential potion for the All Spirit Day. Every year, the elders will prepare it half a year in advance. But now that the All Spirit Day is approaching, they probably don’t have any extra materials to give to you evenly.”

"That's it. Let's talk about this herb later, what about the final ingredients?"

The magic merchant actually looked at the door nervously before lowering his voice by the window:

"Although it's incredible, the Sage Stone."

"What?"

"The amount is very small, and it is the material with the least amount used in all the ink components. I can guarantee that it is not the fake [Forged Sage Stone], but it is indeed some debris of the authentic Sage-level relics [Sage Stone]. It is incredible, right? It is just a related text used to write tribal history, and the Sage-Stone was added to it. Are the ancient Fatu people very rich?

But this text itself has no strange effect, and this practice is really a waste. If I had the Sage Stone, it would definitely be used to make a rarer potion."

But what Xia De felt even more incredible was that Mr. Sargent was able to identify the "Sword of the Sage", which at least shows that this magic merchant who came here from another place many years ago had really come into contact with and even had an in-depth understanding of the Sword of the Sage.

So his origin must be extraordinary. Xia De discovered that everyone has secrets on this island.

However, although all the components of the ink were determined, the specific production process Mr. Sargent could not be determined. According to him, the difficulty of identifying the ingredients of the potion, if it is like a limited degree of competition among the same level of ring warlocks, then guessing the production process of the unknown potion out of thin air is almost the same as the difficulty of containing angel-level relics.

"Go to find a fortune teller to try your luck. This is a rich place in the local area except clocks."

He gave the most appropriate advice:

"Although the Prophets Association does not accept private work in name, as long as there is a way, you can find almost any kind of diviners in the Principality of Lagsen. Different diviners have different areas of expertise. I heard that there are people who are specialized in helping people investigate emotional relationships."
Chapter completed!