“I’ve thought hard about it over the past few days, and it is very clear that Leo is a talented and hardworking student who is more than qualified to attend the class. I shouldn’t have pushed things so far, and I most certainly shouldn’t have involved the rest of you in it either.” the man elaborated, sounding genuinely sorry for his actions.
Suffice to say, Percy was still taken aback by the teacher’s complete 180. Though his surprise soon shifted to annoyance.
‘Wow. So, I’ve just spent a week in the library for nothing?’
Oblivious to his thoughts, Dugris turned to look at him directly.
“In my defence, I still believe that what you did last year was inexcusable. Disrespectful. If it was up to me, you would have been expelled from the academy right then and there.” he added, causing Percy to raise an eyebrow.
He was really tempted to ask what the hell Leo had done to warrant such hostility from everyone. By now, his curiosity was killing him. But alas, asking something like that would do nothing but expose him as an imposter. Whatever it was, he was better off burying it in the past.
“Still, you were allowed to remain, and here we are. I suppose everyone makes mistakes, and kids – more than anyone – deserve a second chance. At the very least, I shouldn’t have let my feelings about you cloud my judgement, nor affect my conduct as a teacher. Needless to say, you will be allowed to remain here.”
Percy’s heart skipped a beat, but the man’s eyes had already moved past him, his gaze brushing over the rest of the class.
“I also happen to believe that spoken apologies amount to little more than hot air. That is why I’ve decided to make it up to you with something more tangible.”
“You guessed it. As you all know, every teacher in the academy is allowed to refer one student per year to spend three days in the Wiseman’s Chamber. Usually, we reserve that honour for our brightest students tackling some of the most daunting courses. I’ve personally never referred a student unless they’d already passed the exams on Alchemy 1-18 with flying colours. But I’ve decided to make an exception for you this year.”
The lab erupted into cheers upon hearing that. Percy, too, could tell that this Wiseman’s Chamber had to be quite the opportunity, though he couldn’t ask directly about it. His best bet would be to look into it discreetly in the library later.
“Now, don’t get ahead of yourselves.” Dugris hurriedly said, trying to douse their excitement. “I’m not just going to give you my recommendation. Only a chance to earn it.”
The room calmed down a little, allowing him to continue.
“Normally, your goal for Alchemy 10 is to successfully brew an alchemic product of your choosing in any non-default state. A lot of students go for healing pills as they’re among the simplest and most commonly used brews. The solidification process in particular is relatively straightforward too.” he explained.
The students nodded along, already familiar with the course’s demands.
“Well, since there’s around a dozen of you, and only one spot in the Wiseman’s Chamber, I’ve decided to turn this into a little competition – to hopefully motivate everyone to work harder. I’ll give my recommendation to the first one among you to successfully brew any potion of your choosing into three, different, non-standard formats by the end of the term.”
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This time, several faces fell upon learning of the steep requirements. Percy noticed it was primarily the students who hadn’t managed to brew the normal healing potion last week. The rest of them appeared more confident.
‘Whatever this place is, it sounds useful. Three days are more than manageable for my schedule too. I should try to win this.’
Suffice to say, he was confident that he had more experience under his belt than the other top students in the class, but not with the locals’ tools and methods. He also lacked his mutated eyes, meaning he wouldn’t be able to cheat.
‘Well, either way, my original goal was to master the restructuring principle. This competition sounds like the perfect way to work on it anyway. If I win, that’s just a nice bonus.’ he decided.
Much like the previous week, the students had stayed in the lab until well past noon, this time of their own volition. Well, half of them at least, the others having given up after realizing they didn’t stand a chance.
Overall, the Alchemy 10 course was rather flexible, the kids given a lot of freedom in how they proceeded. Dugris allowed them to attempt any brew they felt comfortable with, merely overseeing the process while offering them advice and pointing out their shortcomings.
True to their teacher’s words, most of them started with healing pills, Percy included. He actually wasn’t a complete novice in this department, having crafted similar things back on Atlantis.
That said, condensing a potion into a pill was very different from concocting a pill directly. In the former case, the brew naturally existed in a liquid state by default, so he had to introduce an agent rich in earth mana to convert it into a stable solid.
In fact, something similar was at the basis of all the permutations of the restructuring principle. For example, if one wanted to convert something into an inhalable, they’d typically use a reagent containing air mana. If they wanted to liquefy a solid, they needed to add water mana and so on.
Of course, each variation and each ingredient came with their own peculiarities, making the restructuring principle a rather multifaceted one. Consequently, Percy knew it would take him a few more weeks to nail the pills down, and several more for the other two milestones.
Either way, turning potions into pills was one of the things he’d wanted to learn from the beginning, since he intended to incorporate that into the Aurora Dew. As for the other two variants, he already had some ideas.
“You need to make sure the crushed limestone stems are fully blended with the potion before you raise the temperature, or it won’t solidify properly.” Dugris told one of the students, staring at the inert sludge in his cauldron.
‘At least the others aren’t faring any better than me. I’ve still got a good shot at winning this.’ Percy reassured himself as he observed his classmates.
By the end of the lecture, he felt as if his brain had just gone through a meat grinder.
‘The good news is that I made it into the course. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. Everything else is just a question of time and effort.’
Wearing a content smile on his face, he made his way to the dormitory, eager to finally sink into his soft mattress after the hellish reading marathon Dugris had inflicted on him over nothing. Of course, he still had to look into the Wiseman’s Chamber at some point and he also wished he could have practiced a little for tomorrow’s Pre-casting class – especially after having missed the last one.
Sadly, he didn’t have the strength to do either right now, feeling like he was about to collapse. Suffice to say, it was with great relief that he made it to his room, though one final obstacle stood before him.
Once more, he found his friends waiting outside his door.
“Leo! Where the hell have you been all week?!” Lyn asked, her voice cracking.
“You’ve missed all your classes again!” Klatz pitched in, his expression just as grim as hers.
“It’s not what you guys think.” he muttered. “It has nothing to do with the sleeping pills or my insomnia. I promise you that much. It’s just that my new Alchemy teacher gave me some trouble letting me into the course, so I had to spend the whole week in the library cramming information into my head.”
The kids visibly relaxed upon hearing that, having probably expected the worst. Though Lyn still punched him in the chest. It didn’t hurt much, as she was only at Orange, but it did catch him by surprise.
“What was that for?” he asked, rubbing the spot.
“Sleeping pills or not, you should have given us an update! We were worried sick about you! We were actually considering breaking in just now!” she yelled, some tears glistening by the corners of her eyes.
“Ok. I suppose I deserved that.” Percy raised his hands defensively. “I’m sorry I scared you. But I really need to sleep right now, if you don’t mind. I’m literally about to pass out.” he said, opening his door.
“So, tomorrow…?” she asked.
“I’ll be there. I know I’m quite behind, but I’ll do my best to make up for it. Everything is settled now, so I hopefully won’t have to miss another class this term.”