Yes he does

Author's note: Minor retcon. For the magic event in the tournament, the magic knife is now the 2nd place prize, not the 4th place prize. Apologies.

"So, you got everything. Now what?" Fenri asked as Verdi placed a sack and a large glass pane on the ground, the sun in Citrinas' domain setting as he began his work. Both girls yawned at that moment, slightly fatigued from their shopping spree while Verdi hummed to himself, relieved to be free of that hellish experience.

"Gotta start processing ingredients. Give me a sec." He said as he sat on a bench and got to work calculating 3 separate formulas at the same time, using all 8 monster cores and his own brain to make the proper specifications. Since gunpowder was still in its primitive black powder stage of using potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal, he was able to more or less secure the basic supplies to create the mirror. It might take a while, but he could work through the night while they were sleeping

Sulfuric acid was a simple enough molecule to make. Burn sulfur, mix the gas with water until it dissolves, and then you were done. The issue was that he required some equipment and catalysts to speed the process up and minimize waste. Of course, if he could recirculate the gas using wind magic in lieu of a pump, condense the vapor with ice magic, and keep the process hot with a normal fire, he should be able to get a suitable amount of sulfuric acid produced.

"You guys can go take a nap, I should be done by the morning." Verdi said, undoing his transformation and returning to his monster form. Rather than violate the two of them, he got to work processing his basic reagents, sending several tentacles into the estate to grab a glass distiller, burning the sulfur while evaporating water, and using water magic to keep the condenser suitably chilled. Fenri yawned and left to go sleep while Citrinas sat on the bench and stared at Verdi work, slightly interested in his latest project.

"Oh, you're making vitriol." She concluded after a few seconds of watching and smelling the caustic fumes. Muttering a few calculations, Verdi listened in and tried to make sense of her calculations as he watched his sulfuric acid production accelerate by leaps and bounds. After a few more seconds, he realized what she was doing.

"You're using magic as a catalyst instead of metal." He noted, the rate of the reaction accelerating as she altered the hydrogen and oxygen bonds' strength with magic power.

"Catalyst?" Citrinas asked, unfamiliar with the word. It seemed catalyst wasn't a word in Ruyanei.

"Materials that accelerate chemical reactions. Usually, they're metals." Verdi answered, drawing out another random fact from his head as he tried to make sense of Citrinas' insane computational power. Altering molecular bonds required one be surgical in their formula and having knowledge of data that should be beyond the capabilities of this world. She shouldn't be capable of casting this spell, yet here she was doing it in front of him.

"How exactly does it work?" Citrinas asked, suddenly interested as Verdi began giving a lecture on the mechanics of metal catalysts. Though it was common sense to him, Citrinas seemed entranced by his explanation as she took in his words with growing interest. Instead of falling asleep to the highly technical explanation, she only seemed to grow more interested as she cross referenced his knowledge to her own magical theories.

"So how exactly do you know this formula if you don't know about catalysts?" Verdi asked in turn as Citrinas shrugged.

"Most of the spells regarding chemical synthesis are from the Ancients. Nobody really knows how they calculated it, only that they did." Citrinas answered as Verdi finally understood why Ruyanei's tech level was so strange. Their understanding of the world was a relic from the Ancients, who knew the laws of reality without explaining the experiments that proved them. The dungeons that endlessly spawned restricted logistics and travel, ensuring that ideas and materials couldn't be transported very frequently. Then there was the over reliance of magic over technology, with mages being uninterested in trivial things like technology when magic could easily solve their woes, denying the world the tools for mass production.

"So what exactly is the vitriol for?" Citrinas asked as Verdi grabbed the potassium nitrate and mixed it with the freshly made sulfuric acid. He began heating the mixture, releasing caustic gases as he muttered another spell, sending water through the condensing column to chill it. Soon, fuming nitric acid began dripping into the beaker at the end of the condensing column, the entire apparatus functioning far faster than intended.

"We're making nitric acid to dissolve some silver and make silver nitrate." Verdi answered as Citrinas helped accelerate the reaction once more to produce a beaker of fuming nitric acid. Grabbing several silver coins from his money pouch and a knife from the kitchen, he began shaving silver flakes into the glass beaker, letting the fuming nitric acid dissolve the silver in seconds.

"I assume your next step is to evaporate it?" Citrinas asked.

"Yeah. Seriously, do mirrors do something I'm not aware of?" He asked, still unsure if he was missing something about mirrors as Citrinas gave him a hand, casting a wind spell to create a weak vacuum in the direct vicinity of the glass beaker to boil off the liquid. Soon, silver nitrate crystals began forming as Verdi prepared the final steps in his process.

"They perfectly reflect your appearance. What more do you want?" Citrinas asked as Verdi sent a tentacle into Citrinas' kitchen and grabbed some sugar.

"I mean, the process is so simple that I'm pretty sure I'm missing something." He said before grabbing a handful of potassium nitrate and swallowing it with one of his tentacles. Breaking down the nitrate into ammonia in his body, he secreted the pure ammonia into a flask. Pouring some silver nitrate into the flask, the liquid turned a murky brown color before becoming clear once more. He finished by pouring some sugar into the flask to complete the process.

"And you're sure this will make a mirror?" Citrinas asked as Verdi used earth magic to create a small border around the glass panel he'd purchased to ensure none of his reagent would spill onto the ground. Finally, he dumped the contents of his flask onto the glass pane, taking care to let it spread into every inch of the pane.

"In an hour the silver should precipitate on the glass, and we should have a mirror." Verdi said as Citrinas made a small orb of light to illuminate the area, night finally falling over the area.

"That's it?" She asked as Verdi returned to his human form and sat on the bench, swinging his legs to and fro to pass the time as he leaned back and stared at the moon.

"Yup. That's how you make mirrors." He answered as she joined him on the bench, hopping next to him and waiting to see just what he was doing. She yawned, her fatigue building as she fought to stay awake, far more interested in whether or not Verdi knew what he was doing than in sleeping.

"Any other alchemy related things that you remember?" She asked as Verdi rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

"We have some leftover silver nitrate. Wanna make a camera?" He asked, the term unfamiliar to her as she frowned.

"Camera?" She asked, puzzled.

"You know, the little box that makes pictures?" Verdi asked, only to earn a confused look in response.

"You want to paint a portrait?" Citrinas asked in turn, not comprehending his answer as he sighed.

"Do you have a spare box I can modify?" He asked, turning into his monster form and snatching a piece of paper, a brush, salt, and some vinegar from her kitchen.

"Yeah, there's one in my room." Citrinas answered as Verdi snatched the box. Once he confirmed the box was suitable for his use, he began dissolving the salt in water before using electricity magic to break it down into hydrogen, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. When the sodium hydroxide reached a suitable concentration, he mixed it with the leftover sulfur and began boiling it.

"What are you making now?" Citrinas asked, now completely baffled at just what Verdi was doing.

"Boiling sodium hydroxide and sulfur to make sodium thiosulfate. Also, dissolving our sodium nitrate and salt to make silver chloride." He said, still remaining in his monster form as he dissolved the silver nitrate and salt in two separate containers before mixing them together. Instantly, a white solid formed in the beaker as Verdi stuck his brush in the flask and gently spread the white solid on the paper he grabbed earlier.

"So how exactly is this camera supposed to work?" Citrinas asked as Verdi placed the paper in the wooden box and returned to his human form to show her his contraption.

"So, silver chloride is light sensitive and can be dissolved in sodium thiosulfate. When it's hit with light, it breaks down into normal silver, which is not soluble in sodium thiosulfate. I'm gonna put the silver chloride on this paper then put it in this box. The idea is that-" Verdi explained as Citrinas interrupted him.

"More intense light from brighter sources will break down the silver chloride faster, while weaker light is slower to react. You'll expose the box to a light source, close it, then you're going to dissolve the silver chloride in the sodium thiosulfate while leaving the normal silver untouched to imitate an image." She said quickly, instantly catching on as she eagerly watched him work. Her interest peaked as she looked at the box with a newfound respect, the logic behind it nothing short of revolutionary. There were other heroes who spoke of such technology and Tomoko herself sometimes let slip that her world was a bit more advanced than Ruyanei, but none of them were alchemists. Even Tomoko was only moderately knowledgeable of alchemy, with her pool of knowledge primarily being focused on biology and microbiology. To see that Verdi knew of his home world's alchemy was exciting to say the least as she watched Verdi work.

Once his reagents were done, Verdi began tinkering with the wooden box with it while Citrinas watched him work and asked questions on what he was doing, his answers earning only additional questions from her. The two of them continuing to talk until the moon rose overhead, blanketing them with a dull, gray light as they discussed everything from the light spectrum's wavelengths to the creation of translucent film to create moving pictures or "movies" as Verdi called them. Despite her excitement, Citrinas' eyes began drooping while she leaned more and more on Verdi's shoulder, fatigue setting in as she slowly reached the limits of her endurance. She soon began to lean on Verdi's shoulder more and more, her words growing sluggish as the scent of flowers and Verdi's soft calmed her.

"Okay Citrinas, I'm almost done. All we need is a glass lens and... Oh." Verdi said, his excitement interrupted as Citrinas softly snored next to him, her head leaning on his shoulder as he stared down at his newly completed camera. He wanted to wake her up and let her see his handiwork. He knew she'd be excited to see it, but he couldn't gather the will to disturb her as he saw her peacefully sleeping next to him. Silence fell over the entire domain as Verdi stayed still, doing his best to keep his mind from wandering.

Nighttime was always something he despised ever since he found out the horrific truth of his current life. Back in his dungeon he could handle being alone with nothing but his thoughts since he was constantly fighting for his life and was too busy trying not to die to stop and contemplate his past. As paradoxical as it was, he was more comfortable being on the verge of **** than moments of quiet tranquility. He didn't like to think too hard about his current state, and the silence of night gave him ample time contemplate questions he didn't want to ask. Such as whether or not he should even be searching for his former life. He wanted to find his past identity. He wanted Citrinas to say his name. He wanted to prove he was somebody. At the same time, he couldn't help but dread the thought of finding out just who he was.

If he were a competent hero, he'd at least have a statue, a song, or something that proved he existed. The fact that he was denied the slightest recognition meant he must have been a particularly weak hero in his past life. He'd been deemed so useless by the person that revived him that he was left to die on a frozen mountain in the middle of nowhere. He had objective proof he was a failure after revival as a monster, and he was afraid he would have proof he was a failure as a human when he found proof of his true identity.

Fenri and Citrinas complimented his magical ability, but he couldn't even tell if that was because of his own talent and effort or if it was just the result of his hybridization. He had a 90 second cast time and he was restricted to casting only ice magic. The only reason he had a sub 30 second cast time was because he cheated by using multiple monster cores to calculate. His alchemy talent was the result of his monster body being capable of producing and processing ingredients. Had he not been able to regenerate, resist poison, or ignore lethal blows, Fenri would have killed him a thousand times over. Even his sexual ability came from his monster form's unending tentacles. As much as he hated being a hybrid, he was a hypocrite who relied on every ability his body gave him. It was this fact that made him doubt himself.

What if the only reason he was remotely useful to them was because of his hybridization?

If they found a way to return him to being human, would they still be friends with him?

What exactly could he offer to the party if he were human?

He focused on trying to think of random topics to keep his mind occupied, but it only worsened his stress as the unanswered questions rattled in his head. He was a failure as a hero and a failure as a monster. He tried to shrug off his self doubts and accept the compliments everyone gave him, but he knew he was just a botched test subject discarded for being useless. Had he been human and met them all, they would have just ignored him from the start. Just when he was on the verge of falling into a depressive spiral, Citrinas began mumbling something in her sleep, her mind working overtime as she hugged Verdi's arm tighter.

"Silver chloride is from silver, aqua regia, and salt... Mix, sensitive light, to make negatives... Shine light through and make positives so..." She muttered, repeating the lesson Verdi had given her regarding photography. She shifted on the bench, still fast asleep as she continued to mumble to herself regarding the mechanics of catalysts. The thoughts in his head went quiet as he smiled softly at the arch-imago, her presence reminding him he wasn't useless to her. She was a socially awkward girl who didn't comprehend human interaction. He knew from the bottom of his heart that she would never lie to him since she had no reason to do so. The compliments, her interest in his camera, even her belief that he had potential were the truth. Looking at her one more time, he pushed his dark thoughts away as he focused on another task to keep himself occupied.

Casting a quick ice spell, he **** part of the lake behind them to jump up and freeze into a large magnifying glass, his ice lens focusing a portion of the moonlight onto the bench that the two of them were sitting on. Grabbing the camera with several tendrils of ice, Verdi carried it away and formed a platform of ice to support the wooden box, giving it the perfect angle to focus on the duo sitting on the bench. Citrinas continued to lean on Verdi's shoulder, sleeping soundly as he stared into the camera's opening, forming a thin lens of ice at the hole he drilled into the wooden box earlier. Removing the black cover sealing off the paper he treated with silver chloride, he sat in silence as the first photo in Ruyanei was taken.

He waited there for the next hour, staring into the lens with Citrinas leaning on his shoulder, letting the silver react to ensure their image was perfect. After an hour passed, he covered the camera once more to halt the reaction and gently grabbed Citrinas in a princess carry, taking her to her bedroom and tucking her in. Returning to the camera, he took it into her estate and began developing the photo in Citrinas' alchemy lab, his heightened touch allowing him to work in the darkness unimpeded. By the time he was done, the sun was rising over the horizon as he smiled softly at the results of his work. It was perfect, capturing both of them in a flawless photograph underneath the moonlight. Placing the photo in Citrinas' dresser to show her later, he froze in place as he sensed movement in the estate. It seemed Fenri was already awake and doing her morning stretches to limber up for the day.

Content to have something to do to stay occupied, he walked outside and grabbed the glass pane he coated in silver the previous night to inspect it. He grinned to see that the silver had bound itself to the glass, forming a flawless mirror as he held it up to appreciate his own handiwork. He soon cursed as the light from the rising sun blasted his eyes and blinded him. Despite his burning eyes, he carried the mirror into Citrinas' estate and made his way to Fenri's room, licking his lips as he prepared to spend his day harassing the hero for doubting him.

"Oh Fenri~ I got a gift for you~" He said, knocking on her door as he prepared to bully the hero for doubting him.