LIGHTNOVELONLINE Extra Chapter: Antibiotics
Stahlia, Ten Years Old, Eighth Month of 947
Glaring down at the notes and diagrams on the desk in front of me, I let out a heavy sigh. This was the most recent failure in my little project. Then again, without proper equipment, I was a bit limited in what I could accomplish. After Jacqueline lost her arm, no, after I took it from her, I had hit upon a potential new use for alchemy.
This wasn’t something I planned on marketing; it would cause far too much of an upheaval to the markets and drastically shift the tenuous balance of military power on the continent. Not something I was overly concerned with, other than the fact that I didn’t want to be caught up in things. It was bad enough that I was an unwilling player in a power struggle between gods and demon lords.
What I had noticed, was the lack of any real treatment methods for serious injuries; when Jacqueline had lost her arm, I had resorted to cauterizing the wound. If Sana was there, we would have been able to close it with a quick miracle, but that wasn’t an option. A healing potion poured directly on the wound would have sealed it up, but it would have locked any debris under her skin.
Want I was trying to do, was develop a compound that would solve those problems. Namely, I was trying to develop an antibiotic. If I could mix it with a cream, I would have a way of sterilizing wounds without using magic, before applying a healing potion. The issue I was having was the materials.
My chosen compound was theoretically fairly easy to produce. Sulfa drugs were among the simplest antibiotics. Theoretically, they could have been made using only materials and equipment from the early bronze or stone age. As such, it was something I should be able to make while on the road back to Ris, and I was trying my best. No, equipment wasn’t the issue. I was unable to source one of the materials.
A Sulfa Drug could be made by reacting the chemical sulfonyl chloride with ammonia. I had already developed the latter, so the sticking point was obviously the former. To make that chemical, the simplest way was to react Benzene with Chlorosulfuric Acid. Benzene was also easy to get; while nobles like myself preferred magic lights, commoners used oil lanterns, and Benzene was extracted easily enough from the oil fuel.
The Chlorosulfuric Acid was proving almost impossible for me to source though. Theoretically, all I needed was Hydrochloric Acid and Sulfuric Acid. Mixing the two in equal molar quantities would yield Chlorosulfuric Acid in a 1:1:1 ratio. Hydrochloric acid was super easy to get; my nightly inflicted remorse usually resulted in about a liter of the stuff after I finished throwing up. Sure, working with my puke was gross, but it would work for the experiments.
Sulfuric acid though was much harder. So far, I had tried a variety of reactions using oxygen from Air Powder and Sulfur crystals in my mini pressure chamber, but no matter what ratio I tried, I couldn’t seem to get the reaction to trigger. There was also the concern that if I was successful, the acid would eat the seal on the pressure chamber, resulting in a rather violent occurrence.
Rubbing my temples, I muttered several series of numbers to myself. I was attempting to work out a mathematical solution to gauge the ratio I needed, but the Air Powder yield was so just damn imprecise. It would be so much easier if I could just create the damn stuff! Like a jolt of electricity, I sat up. There’s no way it’s that fucking simple… is it?
There was one way to test. I grabbed a bucket and pointed my palm at it, “Oh Water, Form a ball of acid in my hand. Fly forth and melt my enemies, Acid Splash!”
While chanting the super basic spell, I fixed the image of Sulfuric Acid in my mind. I had no idea what acid was normally produced by this spell, just that it hurt if it got on my skin. But I did know that spells were atleast partially influenced by mental image. It wasn’t to the point that you could control the size or power of a spell. Both of those could only be changed by adding words to the chant, or forcing more mana. But it might be possible to influence the type of something manifested by a spell. Either way, there was no risk in trying.
A small clear ball formed in my hand and splashed into the bucket. Metal was pretty resistant to corrosion from Acid, at least for a time, so I had a bit of leeway. Unfortunately, I had no way of testing the acid without going all the way to try and make a Sulfonamide. I went through the reaction process. Based on the liquid changing to a yellowish tint, it would seem that my contaminated Hydrochloric Acid had reacted with the magically conjured acid. That’s a good sign!
Next, I needed to add the Benzene. Without a centrifuge, it was pretty hard to extract, so I was sure that this too was contaminated by other materials from the lantern oil, but if I could just prove the formulation was possible, I could refine the process while I was in Ris.
To my great excitement, the solution reacted again, with the yellow color fading away into a clear liquid. Again, due to the lack of a centrifuge, I had no real way of separating the components. Briefly, I thought of trying to do it with magic, via a custom spell, but discarded the idea; I wasn’t sure how I could phrase “separate into the components” or something similar with my current vocabulary. In the worst-case scenario, I would consume a lot of mana and break down the molecular bonds. I couldn’t trust the mental image thing here, since what I wanted went a bit beyond selecting a type of acid.
Still, even if it was contaminated that was fine; the end product was a powder anyway so I could always get rid of the acid using other means. I took a small vial of smelling salts from our supplies and mixed the ammonia crystals into my vat of… stuff. Almost immediately, the liquid began to bubble slightly, and a white powder began to precipitate out and settle at the bottom of the bucket.
I felt a smile forming as I stared at what I was sure was a Sulfonamide. The idea of trying to picture a specific acid was, to toot my own horn, genius. Influencing the outcome of a spell with a mental image like that was a trick I would have to keep in mind. For instance, it might be possible to picture an oil fire before casting a fireball and wind up with a fire that couldn’t be put out with water. Or maybe I could make Dry Ice instead of Water Ice. There were a lot of possibilities, and most of them would require knowledge of chemistry, something sincerely lacking in this world.
After all, the predominant idea was that spells could only behave according to their scripts, with Healing Magic being one of the few exceptions. This will make a decent trump card if it works out! Unfortunately, further testing would reveal that I could not do something like drastically change the source; Acids all had something in common; their basic structure was similar in that they all possessed hydrogen. But the differences between Carbon Dioxide Ice and Dihydrogen Monoxide Ice seemed to somehow be too great to repeat this feat.
There was one other potential discovery I made though, and this one had even grander implications. After I had managed to separate the white powdered Sulfa from the remaining liquid, I needed to mix it into a healing potion or ointment. The problem was preventing the magical liquid from reacting with the drug. There seemed to be something there triggering the healing effect to dissipate.
After some trial and error, I discovered that I could mix the sulfa drug into the healing potion before condescending it. Seriously, screw that name! Doing it this way caused the sulfa drug to bond with the healing potion in a unique way; the healing property seemed to be heightened, if the rich red color was anything to go by. Appraising the potion also yielded a very promising line of text.
“Unnamed Healing Potion[High Quality]: An advanced potion capable of triggering minor regeneration of lost flesh, and restoring a large amount of vitality.”
If I was interpreting this correctly, then if I was able to make a potion this quality from the generic ingredients I had used… If I get good enough ingredients, I might be able to make something that could regrow entire limbs… I glanced around at the traveling companions, namely Lucy. When I had confirmed that she had not been paying attention to what I was doing, I dumped the crimson liquid out and onto the ground.
“Another Failure, Damnit!” Lucy looked up at my faux outburst and gave me a conciliatory smile, while Jacqueline looked on, a knowing smile briefly crossing her face.
A special thanks to Rita152, CypressLB, Loliconhanter, Plus1, and adityakr7531 for Beta Reading and for helping to edit this chapter!
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