Two days went by since Eren started conducting his own experiments to prove Marie's hypothesis.
During these two days, Eren did nothing but focus on his potioning and taking note of his results. He would often get back to reading the study material he had.
He would have preferred if Levine was here to discuss a few things with him. But unfortunately, she had left the city for her work.
Discussing these things with Marie was inconvenient. Eren could understand what the halfling would come up with or say to any of his problems by looking at her research papers.
Frankly, Eren thought that Marie was taking on more than she could chew for her current rank. She would have had refined results had she been in the Adept rank while drawing her hypothesis.
When there was nobody nearby to help him, the butcher decided to do everything by himself. He isolated himself in his lab and carried on with his experiments.
"This should be it."
Eren thought out loud as he looked at the floating cauldron in front of him. The contained solution was surrounded by flames generated by the array, and there were sounds of the solution boiling.
It looked like the cauldron was about to implode from the instability generated by the potion. The cauldron would blow and the experiment would be ruined if he didn't introduce the missing ingredient at this point.
Eren looked at his open palms and pondered for a bit. He then retrieved the space-element dagger from his storage before introducing a tiny slash at the tip of his right index finger.
A drop of red blood came out of his self-inflicted wound. That was all he needed. He let his Adept-ranked body's rapid recovery rate take over and close the wound.
"What are you doing?"
Eren was about to drop the drop of blood into the cauldron when he heard a familiar voice from behind him. He looked back to see Alephee looking at him keenly.
"Just testing some theories."
Eren said and turned his attention back to his experiment. Alephee would do that sometimes– appearing out of the blue whenever she felt like it. So he wasn't surprised by her presence.
Alephee raised her eyebrows as she looked at the potioning experiment Eren was conducting. She could figure out what he was about to do instantly.
'He is trying to find out more about his blood.'
Alephee looked at Eren's back and smiled as she had a random thought. However, she didn't say anything and let him carry on with his experiment.
Eren dropped a drop of blood into the cauldron and sealed the lid. He then closed the slightly opened lid once again and paid close attention to what happened.
The about-to-be-imploded cauldron was in a constant state of vibration because of the pressure it had generated inside it. But as soon as Eren's blood entered the cauldron, the vibrations started to diminish.
It took a while but the cauldron and the contents inside were eventually stabilizers. The butcher's blood had done its job as he had hoped it would.
Eren stopped working on the array immediately after confirming Marie's hypothesis. The cauldron crashed on the ground when the array was stopped abruptly. The test potion inside it would have spilled all over if the cauldron didn't have a tight, rune-sealed lid over it.
Eren crashed to the ground as well. He was exhausted after conducting the test for two days straight without taking any breaks. Panting, he chuckled before commenting to himself.
"Mine… it was my blood that was the missing ingredient!"
Eren concluded his remarks when he summarized the test results.
Marie had hypothesized the properties of the missing ingredient. The primary purpose of the missing ingredient was to make the elven method of imbuing elemental attainments into concoctions work with human recipes.
An ingredient that can serve as a bridge between two schools of concoctions. An ingredient that is neutral to all elements. It can be made reactive to all elements at the same time, depending on the catalysts added to it or other external parameters.
The non-elemental conflict nature of Eren's bloodline had led him to see his blood as the missing ingredient in Marie's experiments. And the result just now proved his hypothesis to be right.
Eren started laughing when he understood what the success of this experiment entailed. A new brand of potioning was made available to him. And only to him.
It's only a matter of time before he could make an original blend of White Raven ale a reality. An ale that can be produced en masse using human recipes and having the blessing of elemental attainment. It might also have various special characteristics attached to it depending upon how it was made.
This concept is not limited to ale, but could also be adapted to a variety of potion recipes after a few modifications. A new, more potent variant of any potion could be synthesized using Eren's blood as one of the raw ingredients.
If Eren were right, even artifact manufacturing would benefit greatly from applying the experiment's results differently. An artifact with multi-element compatibility could be made possible with Eren's blood added into the equation.
Eren raised his hands in front of his eyes while lying flat on the ground. He was suffering from mana exhaustion. As a result, his hands were shaking a bit due to fatigue. However, he didn't care. He looked at his hands with excitement and a bit of greed.
The ideas kept popping in Eren's head like wild mushrooms as he extended his thought process. He only wished he had infinite mana that would have let him carry on with the new batch of experiments.
"No. This is big. It would be more challenging for me to do this thing all by myself when I have a shitload of things to do.
I can't concentrate on everything at once. I need a division of labor. Someone to take over my place and spearhead this path for me."
Eren told himself not to tumble down the rabbit hole of self-experimentation. He needed to learn to count on others if he wanted to progress in all fields at the same time.
"Marie… that lass is more capable than I had thought her to be. I need to… have her in my inner fold."
Eren made up his mind as he came to a decision. Just when he got up, Alephee came close to him with a smile on her face. She looked at him intently before speaking up.
"I need you to do something before you start your experiments. We can't allow you to take unnecessary risks, you see."
