It may be instructive to show how this transmutation is approached by an alchemist that is not an expert in cycles.

In principle, both reagents could be used to create a 15-cycle machine, given a tight atomic schedule and perhaps advanced geometry. Using saltpeter alone could yield 31 cycles at best. For those with the gift of Hermes, the consideration is whether the 15-cycle machine is possible, because its penalties are steep for missing its minimum. Switching to saltpeter becomes tempting. But at my skill level, neither approach is tractible. Multiple pipelines? Animismus? No. Let us accept that cycles will be lost and lower our standards.

Instead, two units of charred sulfur can be bundled into one intermediate, relatively quickly, merging into a single pipeline. Many of the inscrutable tools of cycle-optimization become unnecessary. From there, the track loop is forgiving and all I must do is bond, debond, and output. Waste management is comparatively simple.

- Alchemist Kazyan, in correspondence with Alchemist Jasper