The Way Ahead

Chapter 56: The Scientific Method

Edwin wasnt really sure how long he sat in silence, staring at the flames as his campfire slowly died down. Inion had tried to say something at one point, trying to get him to continue talking about Earth by trying to persuade him that she really did care about his story, and that she did care about him. She seemed almost genuine, too.

Edwin didnt buy it, though. Hed been in this position before. Even if she did legitimately feel bad for him, it wouldnt last. Give it a day, maybe two, and shed return to however she felt beforehand. She wouldnt ignore him, at least, though in some ways that might be worse.

His emotions began to try and claw their way out of their boxes, wanting him to pay attention to them. But no. He couldnt do that, not yet. If he gave his emotions even an inch, hed regret it. Hed do something which seemed like a great idea at the time, but just didnt make sense, or made him vulnerable, or something. No, if he was going to open up fully with his emotions, he wanted to find someone who actually cared about him and somewhere to call home first. He was in a completely new world, after all! There was bound to be somewhere just right for him where he could settle down. Heck, that was even partially the point of his cabin-in-progress! If it turned out well, maybe this could be his home. Even if this wasnt it, the world was really big. He could find somewhere to settle down.

The fire swirled into eddies, twisting and dancing as he poked at the burning logs with a spare stick. Edwin tossed the branch into the flames, twisting Firestarting such that it was firmly on fire before it even landed. Well, there was nothing to be gained sitting around feeling sorry for himself. Before he did anything else, though, he stood up, brushing off the dust from sitting and stretching his cramped legs as he got a few more logs for the fire.

Hed found that Firestarting meant he didnt strictly need dried wood, but unless he wanted to keep the Skill constantly active, green wood made a lot more smoke than deadwood. Granted, it would probably help his Skill level if he did so- he dismissed the level 45 notification as it popped up- but the strange fatigue associated with doing so made it firmly not worth it for the time being.

As a result, he only kept it going long enough for his fresh logs to catch firmly ablaze before releasing it. He then retreated a few feet to escape the smoke, dropping onto the dry ground.

The half-finished rhoreed mat lay next to him, discarded some time before, and Edwin retrieved it, silently picking up where he left off. A few minutes later, Inion returned from wherever she had meandered to, taking up a seat to his left.

So do you wanna talk about it?

Over, under. Over, under. Over, under. Okay, that row was done. Grab a new reed, start threading that in

Look, Im no expert, but Im pretty sure you wanna try to deal with that somehow. Its not good for you, keepin it all locked up like that, y'know?

Finish the row, then press the stalks together for a tighter weave what Edwin wouldnt give for internet access. He had a vague recollection of Egyptians making boats out of papyrus? How did they get it waterproof? Did they wait until the stalks were dry first, or did they weave it while wet? Rhoreed seemed oddly flexible for something which Edwins intuition indicated should be stiff, but that was grass for you.

Come on, Edwin. Talk to me. Youre obligated to.

Not when Im working.

Not when doing so would distract you from working. If youre even half as smart as you like to think you are, you can weave and talk at the same time. You humans have been doing it for centuries.

Guess Im not that smart, then, his mumble was intended to be almost inaudible, but Inion clearly had better ears than most humans. That, or he was just bad at determining how loud was too loud. Probably that one, honestly. He always brought up topics and dialogues which people just did not want to hear.

Come on, now. Dont be like that. You have four mental skills, thats way more than most humans ever get. She nudged Edwin for a few minutes until it became more obvious that he wasnt about to budge from his duties, If you dont wanna talk about yourself, you can talk more about Earth or whatever.

That declaration hardly surprised Edwin. Of course they werent going to be interested in him, just care about the information he could provide. Not to mention that the only thing of value he could provide was because of the System, not anything inherent to him. Just that he had four mental Skills. Well, hed anticipated as much. Still, he supposed he could oblige, and this time, Edwin made sure to keep his story centered more around what Inion actually cared about.

So then you were an ongoing student of.

Physics.

Right. And that was basically just math. If you wanted to focus more on things, youd go with Chemistry, and Biology is life. 'Making things' was engineering.

Yep. Physics is about taking the most fundamental aspects of reality and turning them into math. Somewhere in my mind is the speed of light, and how objects are put together on the most fundamental levels.

Its so strange she eventually settled on, that your kind was able to measure something like how fast light itself moves, but without magic to help support you. How big of a population can you really support?

That had earned a few chuckles from Edwin, and led that conversation down the path of the scale of Earth, and how a few thousand just wasnt a big town for him, that selecting from hundreds of thousands to millions of individuals was needed to find someone suitable for the most advanced of physics, which even Edwin couldnt manage. Though with his new Skills, he could probably manage even more these days.

Over the course of their conversations, Edwin made good progress on his rhoreed mats, finishing off his first one, followed by his second. While the mat was far from luxurious, Edwin welcomed any and all additional layers of comfort between him and the dirt floor of the forest. Still, with nothing else to really do as the sun set and the darkness began creeping in, he bade Inion goodnight.

The next day proved to be quite eventful. His batch of wood-drying potion had finished treating his test lumber, and the briefest taps with Firestarting had it burning merrily. Once those flames died down, even a bit of testing showed that the wood had indeed been dehydrated, and the lumber served as excellent fuel for his fire, burning almost as well as the deadwood hed been utilizing so much of.

The sudden success threw Edwin off balance. He'd made it work on his second attempt? That wasnt how this was supposed to go, but hey. That just meant he could use his last batch as a bit of an experiment. Time to see if he could improve on the basic concept!

As his working theory for the mixture was that he was making something of a reverse-soap, Edwin decided to start off by more or less making standard soap, purifying his lye as much as possible, and going from there. His memories, reinforced by Alchemy, involved creating lye by boiling ashes and skimming the solution off the top into a second bowl. Once hed filled the second bowl, a process which took hours, he boiled all of that, letting the water evaporate until he had nothing but some off-white powder at the bottom of his bowl.

This, if his memories served him properly, was Sodium Hydroxide. Perhaps not terribly pure NaOH, given the slightly yellowish color present, but NaOH nonetheless. He dried off the powder with a bit more heat and ran it through a small sifter, trying to remove any contaminants. With that completed, he placed the final powder in a ceramic beaker off to the side to make room for everything else.

Satisfied with his results, Edwin distilled some water from Inions pool, collecting the purified springwater in another bowl. From there, it was a simple matter to produce mostly-pure lye, slowly mixing his NaOH into a small measure of water, stirring throughout until the powder had completely dissolved. By the time he was finished, the container was actually quite warm, the dissolution having generated a sizeable amount of heat.

So what was the point of all that? Inion seemed genuinely curious rather than just making conversation, so Edwin didnt ignore her this time, Was that salt?

No, it wasnt salt, though I get the confusion. Its sodium hydroxide, which is a salt, but not the kind youre thinking of. Highly corrosive and quite dangerous. Honestly, I should weaponize it

Anyway, a salt is just a chemical term for something consisting of a cation and anion in a crystalline ionic structure. Inion looked even more confused than when he had started, which fair, So remember what I said about atoms and molecules? The smallest you can divide a thing until further divisions just result in something different? she nodded, so Edwin carried on, Theres different ways that they can combine. You guys have lodestones, right? Metallic rocks which can stick to each other or other metals? Good. Basically, cations and anions work like that, just on a really tiny scale. They stick together and make tiny crystals, and thats what a salt is.

What I made is similar to what youre used to calling salt, but when its dissolved in water, it makes the water basic. Thats the opposite of acidic. This, he pointed at the beaker where it sat, slowly cooling off, is as pure as I can make lye, which I suppose finally answers your other question. I went through all of that because I have a theory about how the drying-out potion works and need to test it.

To do that, I need to eliminate as many variables as I possibly can, so I took lye, which I think is the active ingredient of the ashes, and purified it as much as possible. That included getting rid of any contaminants in the water- Inion made a vaguely offended choking noise, Im not saying your water is dirty, but theres all sorts of things in any water that, well, arent water. Minerals and the like, which help with flavor, to say nothing of tiny creatures, dust, and more. Distilling the water just means I can be more confident that any water I use, regardless of source, should be essentially the same as any other water. Theres a whole bunch of ways to do that, and they should be used together, but I work with what I have, which isnt much, at the moment.

Now, I really wish I could make DI water- ah, deionized water, that is. Like what I was saying about cations and anions, but different- especially given Im messing around with acids and bases, but Ill take what I can get. Theres probably some alchemical methodology I could use to magically purify it, but the Grimoire doesnt care about that sort of thing. No, much too practical, he muttered, somewhat bitterly. What he wouldnt give to get his hands on the notes of Salvierra or whoever had supposedly pioneered alchemy. If she was an Outsider, she might actually have respect for the basics.

Sorry, Im getting sidetracked. Anyway, now that I have my lye purified enough, I can use that as my variable for this trial. Id like to try and implement all of my desired changes at once, but when it inevitably fails Ill have almost no information about what actually caused the problem. This way, I can just establish my baseline, get a nice, consistent base for future experiments, and hopefully get some high-quality anti-moisture potion all at the same time!

Seems kinda slow and boring if you ask me.

Edwin shrugged, Well, thats science. Heck, thats life. Hurry up and wait, do lots of boring work for a few moments of success. No job is entirely exciting all the time.

Well, for you humans anyway! My life is thrilling!

Didnt you just sleep for two thousand years?

Other than that!

Edwin shook his head and chuckled as he checked the temperature of his lye, lightly tapping the beaker with a bare knuckle before putting his glove back on and picking it up, angling the container to let light shine into it and double-check that there wasnt any undissolved powder still drifting around. There was, so he added a drop of water more, but when it didnt dissolve, he figured it was probably a trace contaminant, dust or something. Ah well.

The rest of the procedure wasnt exciting, just following the steps one at a time until he had his final result. It looked somewhat different, for sure, as it wasnt quite as gray as before thanks to the missing ash, instead primarily green from the added rhoreed, but otherwise had the right consistency and looked like it should work fine.

He applied it to another test log, gave himself a few stretches, and pulled up his notifications. He was expecting a handful, for sure, but was still completely blindsided by just how many he suddenly found himself confronted by.