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Source of Wonder
Chapter 18: Savior

Chapter 18: Savior

The monsters in the cage rattled, their unintelligible screeches echoed in the room. Gasping for help, begging for death. Hazel looked away with her conscience, her muddied thoughts filled her head as she looked at the chained woman.

She sighed, then picked up the bottle housing a purple liquid. The candlelight flickered, the orange light accentuating the glare in the bottle.

How horrible, the hexes inside the glass bottle whispered- taunting Hazel for her negligence. She blamed herself for this, feeling powerless to go against her father directly. So, in her pent up rage, the grasp on the glass bottle tightened.

Crash!

It shattered on the ground, thrown with pure rage. She gritted her teeth, her eyes narrowed as the purple liquid fizzled on the ground. Reducing some parts of the cobbled floor into a toxic purple smoke.

Flames engulfed the smoke, it bursted into more flames as Hazel took a step back from her position. "This is…" Hazel halted for a moment, narrowed her eyes then poured another mixture from the table.

Pshhhtt!

The liquid sputtered as it corroded the lining of the rock. More of the fumes emerged. She took a stance, wound her arms up as aetheric energy channeled through her arms. "Stop it, you can cause an explosion if you continue that."

A blast of wind swept the fumes away into the winding hallway of the dungeon. Arise, with his hand on his head, walked on to Hazel. The mental strain of a ringless magic felt like his head was split like a log. He stared at her, his face was serious.

Then, Hazel asked. "Why?" The woman put down the bottle onto the table. "That thing is dangerous."

"Even more dangerous if you decided to light it up. It's a combustible gas, and we're in an underground space. A confined combustion like that could spell trouble for us." Arise flailed the iron bar he nicked from the corroding empty cages.

Hazel felt a wave of shame throughout her body. Her reckless behavior could endanger them, she clenched her fist, her head down.

"I'm sorry…" She muttered.

The scientist walked up to the woman chained on the bed, he checked the tube connected to her stomach. It hissed as the valve released a noxious steam. "Don't be, you don't know what gas it is."

The fair lady nodded silently as she observed Arise.

If I forcibly remove this tube, it could kill her. And, if it didn't kill her, it would surely cause her an entire world of pain. Ugh, what a drag. Arise looked around for a potential substance he could use. But everything in the dungeon must be dirty, so he surrendered to that thought. Then, his mind flared up.

As the effects of the mimicry spell wore off, his clothes reverted back to his former ones. He reached his hands into the bag. He brought out a vial with an oily substance, tannin powder and some sort of copper thread.

He stood up, lined the items on the table beside him.

Hazel watched as Arise looked at the items with focus.

An opioid, tannin extract and a wire. It could do the job, but I'm not a doctor. I could accelerate the healing with healing magic but I fear that the infection could accelerate as well… I'm stuck. Arise thought as he scrambled for a solution inside his brain.

Clang!

Clank!

The metallic sounds distracted Arise, his mouth parted as he deviated his attention to the sound. Hazel pulled the chains, it did not budge from its pin. Arise stared at the fair lady as she continued to pull on the chains.

The scientist rubbed his eyes, then he said. "That won't work you know?"

"I know… but I'll try freeing her." Hazel replied, her voice was worn off as she consumed her energy on pulling the chain with her strength.

Arise sighed. I know her intentions are pure but… this falls on the realm of naiveté.

Out of nowhere, orange light flared in the room. Hazel parallel her hands as she directed aetheric energy on the space. Flames compressed into a ball, golden symbols guided the energy as it continued to pool the fireball. "Uriel's flare!"

"Hazel, do not release that." Arise hastily warned Hazel. "Stop being reckless now."

It seems like Hazel did not hear what Arise said, she beckoned with the intent of hitting the chains

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She fired a flamebolt onto the chains. Orange light flared up every inch of the room as Hazel flew back from the shockwave. The table tumbled down causing the liquid inside the bottle to shatter and corrode the wood and the stone.

Thud!

Arise hit the wall, he felt a dull pain jolt through his body. He inched up then channeled aetheric energy through a lodestone ring that's not his. "Tropical Depression!"

Wooosh!

A gust of wind swirled in the room, containing the purple gas. Arise groaned as the ringless magic tolled on him. Now, I know why the lodestone ring is important… But why is mine not working?

He controlled the tempest of his own making as he directed it into the hallways of the dungeon.

An orange glow casted on the iron chain, however it cooled down as quickly as it heats up. Arise gave Hazel a disappointed gaze, he drew closer to Hazel and said: "You should've not done that. Keep your cool, I know you're conflicted with all of this, but if you keep being reckless and put us in danger. There won't be any resistance to lead if you're dead."

Before Hazel could speak, Arise interjected again. "Enough with the sorry, let's get all of this over with. This dungeon is wearing my sanity out."

Arise stretched his arms forward, locking his focus on the chain. I can't believe that lady… i'll just finish this, good thing the opioid did not shatter falling from the table. Modern glass is really good.

He casted under his breath. "Construct."

Bit by bit, the shackles were deconstructed. It reformed into a pile of spoons.

Hazel watched in awe, it was the first hand that he saw Arise's Erudition.

Arise looked at the woman. He picked the opioid bottle from the ground, and walked to the woman. He forced her mouth open, and poured the medicine.

The woman's tensed body relaxed as the opioid swirled through her system. He gestured Hazel closer.

"I'd like you to do something for me." Arise said to Hazel as he spread the tannin extract to the clean cloth. "When I pull out the tube, burn her wounds."

The fair lady nodded. Arise smiled then slid his hand onto the shaft of the tube.

"Be ready, In three, two" Arise pulled the tube as hard as he could. "One!"

Blood sputtered as the tube slid clean off the woman. Hazel then cast a fire magic, the woman's wound sizzled as it was burnt close.

He covered the wound with the cloth. He held his hand, as he casted healing magic on the woman. The burnt wound alleviated as it interacted with the magic. Now, bacteria can't grow rapidly because they died during cauterization.

The opioid worked too well, I'm glad.

Arise released a sigh of relief.

If this is earth, I would be charged with several counts of medical malpractice. Arise could not help but laugh.

Hazel caught her breath, she looked at the woman as she shifted her to a comfortable position. To think that she lasted on this hellish place for who knows how long, Hazel could only sympathize for her. She was relieved about that damned tube removed from the woman.

She ruffled the woman's hair as the look of content accentuated on her face. "You're safe now… I'm sorry you got caught by this."

Suddenly, she heard a metallic clank. Arise sat on the floor, tinkering a metallic plate. The table's leg disappeared as it reformed into a wooden box.

As he muttered 'construct', the metal plate on his hand flicked as he manually removed the impurities from it.

Even with an ability as handy as this, it was fairly limited.

When Arise experimented on his ability, he discovered that he could not turn raw materials into processed ones instantaneously. He could only use raw materials on their own, as with the latter. But, Arise found a loophole about this. If he could not turn a processed material from a raw one, he could instead manually shape the material itself into a processed one.

That's what he did, he nicked the impurities from the copper metal he bought from the merchant awhile back.

"What are you doing?" Hazel asked as she observed Arise polishing the metal with his erudition. It was strange for her to see Arise making some sort of metal sheet, he seems preoccupied by this. It glistened in the candle light.

"Making a copper sheet, among many others." Arise replied. He muttered 'construct' as the broken glass bottles from the room reformed into a modern ampule and erlenmayer flask.

These weren't as pure as ones on earth, but it could do its job.

At the end of his fingertips, aetheric energy pooled in. He casted, "Magic Bag." The space ripped open as the pocket dimension emerged. Arise rummaged through the objects he stored inside. He brought a dark yellowish liquid housed in a plugged bottle, it was labeled with a messy charcoal letter, 'Iodine'.

Then, he brought another, several bars of silver and copper and a few gold coins. Followed by two bottles labeled as 'Aqua Regia'

"For?" Hazel asked again.

"This evidence is incriminating, but I don't have anything to capture it." Arise explained, his voice was a low hum.

On the back of Hazel's mind, the only thing she could think of was the memory cell. But she could not bring it to Arise, it was banned in the Soren kingdom because of its invasive nature and causing bleeding from the user's brain which could endanger them.

Moments later, Arise finished manually polishing the copper plate. He could see himself in the polished plate. With his touch, the plate was recorded on his erudition, 'Theory of Creation'. And could replicate it with other copper based material into a perfect copy of the one he made.

"Construct." The copper bars dissolved in the air, it formed into a flawless copper sheet as it piled on top of the cloth covering the ground.

Alright, let's start with chemistry.

Using a fire stone, he laid the erlenmayer flask flat on the stone. He poured a moderate amount of aetheric energy on the stone. Once it hits 200 degrees celsius, Arise stopped funneling energy onto the stone.

By subtly manipulating the wind, Arise made an updraft that was directed to the tunnel.

Here we go.

Arise tied a cloth to his face. Next, he slowly poured the aqua regia onto the flask. It fizzled as it boiled upon contact. Then, he added the gold to the acid. As soon as the substance touched the acid, it sputtered violently. Turning into a muddied yellow liquid as the acid ravaged the rest of the coins.

The resulting substance was chloroauric acid, water and various unreacted acids. Arise then used his erudition to isolate gold chloride from the acid, bits of light slithered into a shiny ball and formed a deep red crystal.

God, this erudition makes chemistry easy. By specifying the items I can create, I can effectively isolate anything by using it as material.