The forge was a large, almost two meters tall structure with an open hole beneath. A bellow was installed right next to it with a foot pedal on which the blacksmith could step to deliver more air inside.
The forge was built of stone and clay and it looked in pristine condition, even though a little bit old.
It wasn’t cheap constructing this forge. George must have felt the utmost sorrow leaving this behind.
Next to the forge was a pile of charcoal. They looked to be in good condition and didn’t have any moisture on them.
"Let’s finish this before sunrise." Siderius said.
The forge would produce a lot of smoke and draw attention to George’s house. Siderius didn’t want any of that. He needed the veil of darkness to shield him.
First, Siderius put the charcoal into the forge. A good amount that made sure it could reach his desirable heat.
Then he put tinders and kindlings inside, which were also available nearby. George was a careful planner.
The tinders were small wood shavings while the kindlings were dried firewoods that George had collected.
Luckily, no one had stolen these materials. Or else Siderius would have wasted more time to collect them.
He then scraped his knife onto a piece of pyrite, producing a spark to ignite the tinder.
The tinder quickly caught fire and spread to the surrounding wooden sticks.
Once there was a stable fire. Siderius stepped on the foot pedal, delivering more air into the fire chamber.
The fire caught onto the air like a hungry wolf and ate it all up. The charcoal absorbed the heat and slowly brightened up.
The chaotic fire at the beginning was diminishing for every second that passed by. Its heat dispersed onto the charcoal beneath.
Siderius let the fire burn for a while to make sure all the charcoal was heated. It would also take time for the forge to reach the desired temperature.
In the meantime, Siderius looked around for a suitable crucible.
The crucible was a container made from hard clay or ceramic. It was the main thing blacksmith used to hold metal or other material when putting it inside the furnace.
It usually had the shape of a cup and a thick wall to make sure it wouldn’t crumble easily.
Crucibles had different sizes depending on their uses. They are distinguished by their diameter.
An average crucible was around 10 centimeters, suitable for a lower quantity of metal. A big crucible with a diameter of 20 centimeters was usually used for bigger projects.
George had five different crucibles, ranging from the smallest with a 5 centimeters diameter and the biggest of 20 centimeters diameter.
Choosing a bigger crucible meaning Siderius could heat more pyrite but it would take a lot more time as well. He was also unfamiliar with this forge so going big at the beginning could be a devastating mistake.
He picked the 10-centimeter crucible for this task. There were also many different sized tongs next to the crucibles, a tool that was used to hold them without touching them directly.
Siderius placed the chosen crucible on the ground. Next to it were the pieces of pyrite.
Siderius first wrapped a piece of clean cloth around three pieces of pyrite. Then he continued to crush the pyrites into the smallest bits possible. This would guarantee a larger surface area for the heat to travel, significantly lower the reaction time of the alchemical process.
The piece of cloth was to reduce friction and made sure those pyrite wouldn’t produce any spark and ruin the whole batch. It was called sparkstone after all. The rightful source is nοvelfire.net
To separate Sulfur away from the pyrite, Siderius needed to make sure it wouldn’t react with the oxygen in the air. That would create a completely different product than the Sulfur he wanted.
So he also needed to seal the pyrite powder in a vacuum container.
This was easy as he had brought Salt with him. Salt had a much higher resistance to heat than pyrite. At the same temperature that pyrite would react, salt would still be able to withstand the heat.
Salt was also capable of forming a vacuum container via a simple alchemical seal.
Siderius simply needed to do a crystallization process.
Sulfur was for separation.
Salt was for crystallization.
Mercury was for transformation.
Mercury was used in mutation as it could transform the organ. As for salt, its crystallization property made it the perfect container for many alchemical processes.
Siderius took out his pouch of salt and used the salt to draw an alchemical seal onto the ground.
This seal was called Salt Crystallization for obvious reasons. It was one of the very basic alchemical seals an alchemist could conduct.
Siderius drew three seals and placed the crushed pyrites in the middle of those seals. Then he began.
Salt Crystallization had three seals with three signs counterpart, Isolation, Formation and Crystallization. Straight forward names for the ease to remember.
The first sign, Isolation, began with the alchemist’s two hands crossing each other by the wrist. The palms faced upward and opened wide. Then the alchemist drew a circle with the palm, ending with each palm stacking on each other in front of the alchemist and facing outward.
As Siderius did the first sign, the salt lit up in blue. All the salt particles floated up to the air and brought the pyrites flying with them.
The white salt powder danced around the pyrites, forming a sphere and sucking every impurity out of the seal. This included tiny little particles of dirt, dust and other materials. Air and other gases were also isolated outside of the sphere, creating a vacuum space.
The next sign was Formation. A simple sign continued from the last sign. As the two hands were stacked, the left palm formed a closed fist with the right hand’s fingers wrapped around the left fist.
The salt particles drew closer to each other, creating an airtight sphere.
The last sign was Crystallization. The hands departed from each other and quickly clasped again, with all ten fingers interlocking.
The salt particles hardened and created a crystallized sphere sealing the pyrites inside.
The new crystal ball landed gently on the ground.
This would guarantee the pyrites to not react with the air and could be used to produce pure Sulfur.
All the preparations were completed.
The fire in the forge had disappeared completely, leaving only the glowing ember of the charcoal. It may look less impressive than the original fire, but the charcoal was much hotter and ready to be used.
Siderius picked up the crystallized sphere and put them inside the crucible. He used the tongs to pick up the crucible and slid it inside the burning furnace.
Now all he needed to do was wait.