Helen returns with an iron mace. Hanz feels the need to clarify that it doesn't necessarily need to be a weapon, but Helen made it hard for Hanz to complain with her innocent look while holding the weapon. So he just shrug it off and gesture to place the mace at the desk.
"How do we make this into pebbles?" Hanz looks at the mace, he tries to analyze its head and see if he can remove the iron and... well, make it to a small pebble.
He needs a blast furnace just to melt these iron, he needs a blacksmith to smelt it into what he desires. It's too much work.
He holds his chin with his fist, and tries to comprehend the use for the mace without making it into pellets or iron pebbles.
Then, he notices the spikes.
"Helen, can you remove this sharp things from the mace and place them at this metal here." He points at the metal flat that he handed to Elaina.
"Certainly." With grace, Helen, effortlessly, remove the the sharp edges of the mace's head and using magic, she blend it along the metal flat.
"Now... place the metals inside the glass please." Hanz clasp his hand in excitement, "Krisiana?" Turns his head to Krisiana as he signals her to cast a fire spell.
He waits for a bit as the chemical process enter its initial stage, mixing. The hydrogen and nitrogen will clump together.
Then,
"Elaina, please."
Elaina casts a gravity spell all around the four sides of the metal pieces. Actively pushing towards the center, signs are evident as it crushes against each other as its size shrink.
Elaina's pressure will help two of the chemical to mix. At this stage, it can now produce ammonia, albeit at low rate. However...
With the help of iron, which acts as a catalyst. The gas element will bounce, or specifically, the nitrogen. Since nitrogen are stubborn bunch, it requires something, a hard surface to bounce into and breaks apart, proceeding to the mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen.
The nitrogen can break, but slow, iron helps it break apart faster, and produce significantly more ammonia.
Hanz looks at the glass, sensing something unusual.
"Johanni, now."
"Yes."
Johanni casts a freezing spell, enough to cool the lower chamber of the glass. And slowly, a crystal clear liquid leaks from small gaps of the metal pieces.
That's it...
"Ammonia. Continue, Johanni."
---
"Young master?"
"Finally, ammonia." Hanz smiles in satisfaction, perhaps, even proudly.
The foundation of modern society, as Douglas calls it. He admires these people who achieve great things even amidst their dark sides.
Yet, sadness lingers in his chest. A... gap. A void... He can't begin to fathom this strange, uncomfortable sensation that surround his... heart.
He coughs to clear his mind, turns to his maids and order them to recollect the process they made.
Hanz prepares a note and a quill, with every detail, from the formation of hydrogen that is required to be separated from the water, the separation of nitrogen from the air, and the mixing process with an added additive such as the iron for catalyst and pressure for activation.
How many minutes it require to produce a single batch of the ammonia they made. That the production of ammonia is relative to the amount of nitrogen and hydrogen mixed.
The byproduct of the process, including the leftover nitrogen and hydrogen that can be processed back to the initial stages, recycled as they say it. The failed products that are produced when miscalculations are made, albeit rarely.
The ammonia can be directly injected to the soil but requires manual labor, not to mention its relatively unsafe workspace. So he also included the chemical process of creating urea, an ammonia-carbon product that turns them into a crystalline pellets or granules product that can be easily transported and distributed.
He closes the notebook and once again, smiles in satisfaction. It was fast, but it was also the longest time they had experience.
"What do we do now, young master?" Hanz hums as he bookmarks his new advancement and writes another draft from another book.
"Now? We create electricity." All the maids look at each other in confusion, Hanz notice this and laugh gently, "Lightning."
"Hmmm..." Synchronized hum echo as the maids nod in approval.
"Young master, is that why you have been assigning tasks from the adventurer's guilds?" Helen asks.
"Yes, I'm trying to find a possible location where mana concentration is high, we can probably mine condensated mana crystals there. We can use that by manipulating the mana within the crystals to produce electricity, lightning output, that can be used to power things!"
"Have we found something like that?" Krisiana sits from one of the chairs.
"Yes. I've received countless reports of high-mana concentration around the Riverbank that separates Eltz and Ytrea." Hanz lay out the map of the duke's territory, "Here's the place with most report of high concentration of mana, evidences are creatures of mana, like the Agelia, Teranovu, and other magical beasts. Not only that, here.
Hanz, drop something out of his pocket wallet, revealing a collection of diverse colored-mana crystals. All of which have differing mana impulses.
"They are manipulated mana crystals. Their color represents the element that can be extracted from them." Hanz points at each of the mana crystals, glowing ominously, "I am confident you all are familiar with this?"
They all nodded in unison, but they seem still quite skeptical about the idea of using mana crystals. But Hanz understand this. Mana crystals for one are not enough for a source of power. They barely power a mage's staff.
They do occasionally find mana crystals that are highly dense, it's enough to house a generational sum of power. But those are tightly kept, mostly for security and political reasons.
Even Hanz heard of them, but they only are equipped by state-recognized individuals. But, truly, they are usually useless.
"I will issue a mining operation of this, I will use some of the duke's treasury for the budget. Have Theodore know this, Helen."
"Ah, yes, certainly young master." Helen bows and rush outside.