Chemistry is fun

Chapter 30

Wednesday November 27, 2013

7:05 am

(Ivan's POV)

"You can't stop me!"

"Put the rocks down!

I reluctantly get up and reach for the wall. I feel around for the handle until I remember that I was back in the Fujin cabin. I wish I could be in my usual bed but Anenoid told me to go back to the cabin, apparently it would look suspicious if I wasn't here. The problem is that there are so many people here I don't think it would matter.

"No!" What's even happening? I remove the floor above me and peek out of my bed. I see a boy wearing glasses with blue-eyes behind them; he was standing on the table holding two huge shiny cubes in one hand, and a beaker of water in the other. A girl was standing on the ground a few feet away from her. She had black hair in a pony tail. She took a step towards him and he immediately put rocks in the beaker. The girl quickly spun on her heels while the boy put down the beaker and quickly jumped off the table; he quickly hid under a desk. The people in the cabin slowly started getting out of their holes. The girl removed the floor to a bed and quickly got in. I think I heard her say, "not taking any chances," while getting in.

A bright fire lights up on the top of the water. Oh that's kind of cool, why did the girl not let him do it? I didn't even know fire can start on top of water. In less than a second the beaker suddenly blows up, pieces of glass were sent flying through the cabin. The water exploded out the glass from all sides. I duck and feel droplets of water hit my skin. I slowly peek out the hole and see almost everything covered in water including the roof. What kind of magic was that?

The boy ran out from behind the desk and out the door while laughing. I slowly come out of the hole and look around. I move the pieces of glass around me with my feet. I notice the leader of the camp come out of his hole and sigh. He did some hand signs and kind waved his hand a bit. The pieces of glass were lifted in the air and were put in one pile. He put his hand in his pocket and took it back out. He walked to the front of the cabin and turned around. He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a phone, he turns it on and takes a peek.

"Everyone get up, sadly we have to go to the mines." I heard some people complain as they got up from their holes. What's the point of having mines in this place? I stretch before following everyone already heading out the door. As I walk out the door I take out the map and look around for the mines. It took me awhile but I eventually found it in one of the corners of the map. I roll my eyes as I think about how long the walk will be.

After a short one-hour walk, I eventually got to the mines. The mine was just a huge hole in the middle of the wall, near the hole were some boxes placed neatly by its side. I notice everyone walk over to the boxes, I decided to go along with it. As I got closer to the boxes some people were already opening them, some took out pickaxes while some others took out long sticks of light and lamps. Most took out these weird long rectangles with metal sticking out of them along with these machines that were a cylinder with a red hue covering their arms. What's with the red glow? I look inside a box only to see it was almost empty. The only things left were the rectangle things and one machine. Now that machine was close, it looks kind of big. I notice everyone going into the mine already. Some were tied together by rope. Are we supposed to be in groups? A pair of boys suddenly appear by my side with pickaxes on their shoulders looked inside the box. One of them looked familiar. My eyes widen as I realized he was the kid who put the rock in the water this morning. By his side was a brown-hair kid who was slightly chubby wearing a backpack.

"Nothing here."

"Nah, there's rock bolts here." A blue-eyed kid said while pushing his glasses up.

"We have enough of those." The brown hair kid said.

"Doesn't hurt to have more."

"We can't carry anymore. Idiot." I could help them, but I don't wanna. I notice almost everyone go inside. I do need a group though. I take a deep breath and face them.

"I-I can help." They face me, their eyes traced my body up and down.

"How?" The boy with glasses said. I casually grab the rectangle things and put them in my inventory. I look at them to see a blue-eyed kid with a smirk on his face.

"You don't have a group right?" He said. I silently nod. "Just join us then."

"What di- What did you think I wanted to do?" He shrugged and looked at the brown-hair kid.

"Give him the bag." The kid gave me the bag and I quickly put the bag in my Inventory. The blue-eyed kid looked in the box. "Grab the rest of the rock bolts and one of the rigs."

"What are rock bolts?" I asked.

"They're the rectangles with the bolts, they keep the mine of collapsing, just grab them." I nod and grab some. The rock bolts were unsurprisingly heavy. It took me while to get the rock bolts, as I finished grabbing the rock bolts I looked at the machine. What's that for? I look down at the machine and begrudgingly wrap my hands around it. I tried picking it up, the machine wouldn't budge. I strained my arms trying to pick it up, but the machine still wouldn't budge. The brown-hair kid stepped to my side and gently put his hand on my shoulder and pushed me to the side. I glared at him as he bent over and picked the machine up. His arms were covered in a red hue; he walked over and stretched out his arms. I wrap my hands around the machine and put it in my Inventory.

"Do you not know how to control your magic?" The chubby kid asked me.

"No." I responded as we walked into the mine.

"Right." Was the only thing the blue-eyed kid said. The sides of the mines were littered with these long, bright sticks hanging from the wall. There was one big room that had multiple tunnels sprouting out in different directions. We went in the tunnel on the far left.

"How do you not know?" The chubby kid said.

"I just got here three days ago." We suddenly start walking down a slope, there were barely any lights on the walls.

"Oh, nevermind then. Anyway pass the bag." The blue-eyed kid said. I take the bag out of my inventory and pass it to him. He crouches down and opens the bag. "Qaid, what do we need again?" I guess that chubby kid is Qaid then.

"Half a jar of Sovlent Diethyl Phthalate." The kid pulls out a jar with a clear liquid, on the side of the jar was label named Sovlent Diethyl Phthalate. He pulls out a empty jar. He poured the liquid until half was in the empty jar.

"Yep."

"A little bit of Rubrene." The blue-eyed kid pulled out a tiny bottle of a red powder and put a tiny amount of the substance into the liquid. He closed the jar and shook it around for a little bit. The liquid slowly turned into a orange color.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Homemade glowsticks." I stayed silent as I watched the blue-eyed kid take out a tool in the shape of an L. The tip of the tool was flat. I always wondered how glow sticks were made.

"Get the TCPO." The kid quickly pulled out a jar of white powder. He put the tool in the jar, he scooped up enough powder to where the flat end of the tool was covered with the powder.

"Yeah,yeah I remember." The kid grabbed another jar of white powder. He put the tool in again and scooped some of the powder out of the jar. "Now time for the Sodium Acetate." He poured some in and closed the jar. He wrapped his hands around the jar and started shaking it.

After awhile of shaking the jar, he put it down as the jar started to glow a bright orange. "Wait why did it start glowing?" I asked. The kid reached into the bag and pulled out some tape and a flashlight. Qaid took a deep breath as the blue-eyed kid starting doing the process all over again.

"When you mix the Sodium Acetate, The Sovlent Diethyl Phthalate, and the TCPO it releases energy,; the energy is then lost as heat. Just so you know they don't make the glowstick glow, what makes it glow, flourecent dye is what makes it glow. The flourecent dye here is Rubrene, it makes it glow orange. You can use other dyes for other colors. 910-bis Anthracene for green, Rubrene for orange, 910-Diphenylanthracene for a blueish purple color, and Rhodamine B for Red." I listened intensely as the blue-eyed kid started taping the flashlight to the bottom of the jar.

"Why did we use Ru," I stuttered. "Rubr-Rubrene or is there no reason?"

"Orange is the brightest." Qaid replied. Oh. I stared at glowing jar as the blue-eyed kid turned on the flashlight. The jar suddenly brightened as soon as the flashlight turned on. Cool. The tunnel was a lot brighter than before. They picked up their pickaxes and rested it on their shoulders. The blue-eyed kid looked at me and pointed to the ceiling.

"Put some bolts right there. Shouldn't be that hard."

"Yeah sure." A box suddenly appeared in my face.

Thanks to learning new things, you got a new skill!

Knowledge of Chemistry- You know some things about the identification of substances and what they are composed of.

Lvl 0(01%)Knowledge of Chemical Reactions- You know what happens when you mix chemicals.

"Is something wrong?" The blue-eyed kid asked. I closed the box and replied.

"No, why?."

(Michael's POV)

9:10 am

I spread my legs a bit apart as I stare at the girl about my age standing front of me. Her blond hair flowed in the wind as her eyes flickered from my head to my legs. I ready my bat-like weapon as the girl raised her sword over her head. She quickly brought her weapon down as I stepped to the side. She quickly followed it up with a kick to my side. I take a deep breath as her foot digged deep into my side. I stomach the pain and swung my weapon at her arm. A sicking crunch came out of her arm as she brought down her leg. I step back and barely doge a kick to the cheek. I see her leg kick the space in front of me and erupt in flames. I step back and swung at her leg keeping her up. Her leg suddenly teleported back to the to the ground, she kicked the space in front of like before. Her leg even erupted into flames like before. Her leg went over my head, her eyes widen as my weapon quickly closed in on her leg.

My weapon crashed into her leg, the force of the blow sweeped her leg from out under her. Her body fell to the floor with a faint thump. The flames on her leg instantly disappeared. I bring my weapon over my head and bring it down on her stomach. Spit flew out of her mouth as I quickly brought over my weapon over my head. She quickly patted the ground as she slowly got back up. I put down my weapon and stretch out my hand. The sides of my stomach burned with pain, it was hard to ignore the feeling. She took my hand and I lifted her back to her feet. She held her stomach as she picked up her weapon.

"Did you really have to use that much force." She groaned out.

"It was by accident though." I don't think I used that much force.

"I feel like you just shattered my ribcage." I feel around my stomach for a bit. I wince as the pain in my sides intensified.

"Isn't your ribcage on the sides though?"

"I think." She said as she kicked the sand. "You're lucky I slipped on the sound."

"You did?" I didn't notice, when did she slip. Her eyes shift to the side.

"Yeah."

"Oh. You okay?"

"No." She sad while slowly letting go of her stomach.

"So, what do you want to do now?"

"I don't know, you wanna see what they have in the market?" I thought about it for a little bit.

"Sure, why not?"

(Ivan's POV)

11:09 am

"Wait so you just combine Sodium and water and you get an explosion?" I asked as I raised the machine to the ceiling. It was hard to breathe, why did I have to be stuck with the machine? The red hue in my arms was starting to fade, my Mp barely had any blue left. It's hard flying and controlling magic at the same time, I should've just picked mining. I press the button on the bottom of my machine, the machine started to drill into rock. Vibrations went up and down my arm. The machine stopped, I quickly put the machine in my Inventory. I slowly drop to the ground and drop to my knees.

The skill Empowerment leveled up to level 6!

Lvl 6(03%) Empowerment- When you focus on a specific part of the body, the body part will strengthen. It takes a lot of focus to activate.+50 Str to focused body part. 80 Hp will randomly be taken off when used. Costs 60 Mp per second.

I honestly don't know how to feel about this skill. It's good, but bad at the same time. Maybe if I use enough it will become good? It's even under the Magic Management skill. I close the box as Qaid answered my question.

"Yep."

"Is there anything else that makes explosions?"

"Water with Lithium is pretty cool. That's the only thing that comes to mind." Qaid asked.

"If you want I could give you book about Chemistry." The blue-eyed kid said. A smile creeps up on my face as I stare him.

"Really!"

"Yeah, I don't know need it anymore."

1:20 pm

I walk up to the library. I recognize the building as I walked up to the door. I mean I would if the door wasn't laying on the ground. I frown as I remember the ape stealing my weapons as it ran out the building. I walk through the doorway and wonder around the isles until I find the area with all the tables. I sit down at a random table and take out two books, one of them was called, "The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe" by Theodore Gray. The other was called, "The Book Ingeniously Daring Chemistry: 24 Experiments for Young Scientists (Irresponsible Science)" by Sean Connolly. What's an atom? I open the first book and start reading. My eyes widen as I saw the table of contents. The chapters only had one word and I didn't even know most of the words. What the hell is Thorium anyway?

"Oxygen atoms are still present in these compounds, no matter how unlike pure oxygen the substances may appear. Huh? What do these words mean?" I close the book and open the other one. As I grabbed the book I saw Alice reaching for a book. Why do I keep running into her? I ignore her and start reading. Just a few minutes in I hear footsteps approaching me. I try my best to ignore the footsteps but the chair beside me scrapes the floor.

"Hey." I see Alice sit down in the chair in the corner of my eye.

"Hey." I ignore her and keep on reading. Alice reaches for the book beside me and flips to a random page. She's just not going to ask?

"Why is this book talking about quantuim mechanics?"

"What?"

"Yeah, it says here, Every element is defined by its atomic number, the number of positively charged protons in the nuc- nu-nucleus? I don't even know what these words mean."

"Lemme see." I grab the book from out of her hands. I had to read the paragraph a few times before I could somewhat understand it. "I think it's talking about protons that are positively charged? Being around this thing called a nucleus, having the same number of negatively charged electrons. I don't know what protons or electrons are. I'm probably wrong." I got a notification telling me that my Int stat increased by ten points. That much for one paragraph? I have to read these books some more.

"Why are you even reading this book anyway?" Alice asked.

"It looked interesting."

"Can you even understand it?" I shake my head. "Then why are reading it?"

"I thought it would be easy to understand."

"Did it look easy to understand!"

"Can you just let me read?"

"Fine." Silence falls over us, Alice opens up a book and starts reading. I peek at the cover and read the cover. The cover had a picture of a tower, it had the name, 'Destinations of a lifetime book' by the National Geographic Society. I look back at my book and read. The book was way easier than the first one, I still don't get some of it but I still understand some things. The first few pages were talking about the Periodic Table and how it came to be.

+20 points to Int!

Oh cool. Is my Int supposed to grow this much? It feels like cheating.

"You're from outside the camp right?" Alice asks. I close the box and look over to her.

"Yeah, why?"

"Where are you from?"

"Chicago."

"How's it like there?

"In the part I live in it's like an island in an city, it's surround by city though."

"It's peaceful then?" I chuckle and shake my head.

"No, it's still Chicago.

"Anything interesting in Norridge?"

"We have park."

"So?"

"We don't have much."

"Hmm. I thought Chicago would have interesting things."

"That's just where I live. Chicago has the Seated Lincoln."

"Who? Never heard of him."

"He led America through the Civil War. How do you know not him?"

"First of all, I'm not American. Second, I haven't started studying America yet."

"Where are you from then?" She closed the book and laid her head on the table.

"I have no idea." She said sadly.

"Oh, sorry."

(Anenoid's POV)

3:43 pm

I see a bright orange fox with nine tails run around with Sombra chasing the fox. I open the water bottle as they ran around the living room. The fox jumped off the wall and landed on Sombra. Sombra flailed around as the fox jumped off. The fox ran off into the hallway. I heard a yelp and stomps getting closer to the living room. Jana walked into the living room holding the fox by the neck.

"Anenoid!" Sombra walked up to the fox and licked the fox's sides. Jana dropped the fox. "Don't let them run around! The living room barely has any space!"

"They looked like they were having fun though."

"They're acting like animals!" The fox quickly ran up to Jana's legs. The tails turn into steel color as the fox smacked Jana's legs with its tail. Jana winced as she bend down and grabbed her knee. The fox let out a loud, "Raaaa!" as it jumped off onto Sombra's back.

"They are animals." The fox let out a loud howl as Sombra sat down.

"But Goldie is literally a fox with powers. She should act like a human." The fox jumped off the Kirin and slowly shape shifted into her human form. The first thing to change was her head. I never want to see a fox with a human head ever again. A chill went down my spine as the fox's limps turned into a humans. I looked away as I waited for Goldie to be in her human form

"I'm not a fox, I'm a Kitsune." Goldie said calmly. A patch of saliva was on the side of her clothes. She hesitatingly tried wiping it off. The saliva stuck to her hand as a long line of spit connected her hand and clothes. "Ewww."

"Well you're acting like a fox." Jana replied. Goldie scurried off while shouting. "I'm taking a shower!" Jana sighed as she walked over to the couch and sat down. Wait, does she even have clothes.

"Wait how will a shower help her?" Jana asked.

"She showers with her clothes on." Jana ignores me and stretched her body out on the couch. Rude.

"I wouldn't doubt it. She was pretty confused about the Tv."

"Yeah, didn't she try biting your phone?"

"Yep, she thought it was food. She somehow left bite marks."

"Can I see it?"

"Sure." She takes out her phone from her pocket and hands it to me. She sighed as she closed her eyes. "It's so boring here, I wish we were back in a city." I suddenly get an idea as she said those words.

"I can do something about that."

"Please do it." Jana begged.

"Yeah hold on, I just need to make a call."