The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 263: Alchemy 10

“What are you supposed to do if lumps start forming in the concoction?” the teacher asked.

“Generally, you break them either by increasing the cauldron’s temperature or by stirring.” Percy replied, before elaborating. “Usually, heating the mixture up is preferable, as it impacts the yield less. That said, novices are advised to stir instead, since they lack the experience to gauge the correct temperature by eye.”

He was sure he’d answered correctly, but the man showed no reaction, maintaining his cold expression.

Suffice to say, Mr. Dugris who was in charge of the Alchemy 10 course was nothing like the easy-going Mrs. Kemdahlia from yesterday. He was a stern man with dark fur and sharp features. A bright Green core pulsed inside his sternum, a faint aroma of herbs and potions emanating from him. Or it might just be from the lab they were currently in.

In any case, his piercing black eyes had lit up in recognition the moment he spotted Percy. He’d probably identified him as the pesky student who wanted to jump ahead, due to being the youngest in the room. Regardless, he’d then proceeded to fire all sorts of questions at him about brewing, seemingly to assess whether he was qualified to attend the class.

Naturally, Percy hadn’t had any trouble answering at first, though the questions grew more and more difficult as time went on, showing no signs of stopping. At this point, it would be hard to call this a simple test – it was more like a goddamn interrogation!

“Does your answer change based on the type of alchemic step you’re working on?” he asked again.

“For redirection and deattunement, no. But it’s best to avoid heating the concoction up during pacification, even for experienced alchemists, as it can diminish the potency of the ice mana in the ingredients.”

Dugris nodded, but he didn’t give up.

“What do you do if the lumps decrease by themselves?” he asked, the corner of his lips curling into a smirk.

Percy raised an eyebrow. He actually knew the answer for this too, but this was already outside the scope of what an Alchemy 10 student should know. At least, he hadn’t found any mentions of this in the books he’d read to prepare, and for good reason.

This was a rather rare phenomenon that novices couldn’t easily judge by eye. If it happened, they’d typically just eat a loss to their yield and move on. Learning to deal with it would come naturally with experience – not something to be taught in a class.

Alas…

“If that happens, it means the lumps have coalesced together beneath the surface. At that point, you want to use both heat and stirring. If there are more bubbles by the walls of the cauldron, it means the lumps are even larger, so you need to increase the pressure too.”

Hearing his response, the other students broke into hushed murmurs, giving each other uncertain looks. Percy doubted any of them could have answered this correctly, so if this was truly the standard for attending the class, they understood they ought to be packing their stuff right about now.

Even the teacher was taken aback, his smug expression giving way to disbelief. Still, he hid it quickly, moving on to another question, once again pushing the boundary of what a student in Percy’s shoes could be expected to know.

‘The bastard is making this harder than it needs to be on purpose…’ Percy grimaced.

Truth be told, he’d come into the class expecting some resistance. Any teacher who genuinely cared about the subject they taught would be offended by Percy’s attempt to skip years of classes. That said, he’d already answered more than enough questions to prove his competence. A reasonable person in Dugris’s position should have long accepted that he was qualified to stay…

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***

In the end, the man kept grilling him for hours, until way past noon.

By now, Percy was certain that Dugris wanted him gone. Sadly for him, however, there were limits to what teachers were allowed to do. While it was up to Dugris how he chose to assess him, he couldn’t just kick him out without proper justification. There were several witnesses present who would confirm that Percy had answered everything correctly, and the lectures were recorded too.

Of course, Dugris had a few more cards up his sleeve.

Teachers actually had the authority to extend the duration of the lectures if they wanted. They didn’t do it often, as nobody liked working overtime. Not to mention that the students stopped functioning after a certain point.

But that didn’t stop him from holding them there until nightfall, ignoring their protests that they hadn’t eaten anything for lunch. He reasoned that he’d wasted all morning on Percy, so they still had to cover the day’s material. Yet, everyone knew this was little more than an excuse.

‘He’s trying to pit everyone against me. To get them to blame me for wasting their time…’

That much was clear. What wasn’t as clear was why the man hated him so much. This obviously went beyond alchemy – it was personal.

‘Does it have something to do with Leo?’

Whatever the boy had done in the past, it had pissed a lot of people off. Both students and staff – some more than others. Though very few showed such an intense disapproval of him as Dugris did. Was he more involved than the rest?

“Ok. That’s it for today.” the teacher finally said, much to everyone’s relief.

The students didn’t waste a second before washing the residue off their cauldrons, all of them in a rush to leave the lab before Dugris changed his mind.

Percy sighed as he sealed the vial with a cork, giving the bright green liquid inside it a swirl. They hadn’t worked on the restructuring principle yet, even though they’d technically covered the theory for it in Alchemy 9.

Dugris had asked them to brew a few simple potions today as a refresher, though Percy knew the man was probably worried about them wasting the ingredients given how tired everyone was. And sure enough, very few people had succeeded in their brews, Percy among them. In a world that made sense, that would have further proved that he belonged here…

“I suggest you study hard for next week. I have one more class to make my mind up about you and I’ll prepare tougher questions…” Dugris muttered, patting his shoulder.

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‘Tougher how?! The only thing you didn’t ask was the colour of my underwear!’ Percy wanted to swear, but he held himself back.

He had less than four days to get ready. Under 48 hours actually – in Remior’s time. He’d have to skip the other lessons and pull a few all-nighters to raise his odds. It wasn’t ideal since he’d really enjoyed Mrs. Lia’s lecture yesterday. Plus, he was already behind on Pre-casting.

‘Oh well… it’s just a couple of lessons. Making the Alchemy class takes precedence…’ he sighed.

After putting the ingredients and the equipment away, he headed back to his room. The corridors were already nearly empty, most of the kids having gone to sleep by now.

Briefly stopping by the restroom, he relieved himself before taking a quick shower. Once he was done, he allowed the warm water to splash on his face for a couple minutes, letting it wash away some of his fatigue as he pondered his situation.

‘It’s not so bad I suppose… Dugris is a certified asshole, but the class itself will definitely benefit me. I only need to get through one more for this to be over. Then, I can take my time catching up with everything.’

Returning to his room, he emptied his satchel of anything unrelated to alchemy, replacing it with as many snacks as it could fit. He then grabbed a few more bags, placing a couple under his armpits, holding the rest in his hands. Only then did he leave for the library, planning to essentially live there for the rest of this week.

The librarian – a different one from last time – gave him a funny look. He probably wasn’t used to seeing students come here this late.

“Good evening, sir.” he greeted him with a smile, getting a nod back. “Could you please point me to any books on uncommon alchemic ingredients and obscure recipes?”

Dugris had already grilled him on all the standard stuff, so he’d have to branch out as much as possible to handle the next session.

The librarian raised an eyebrow at the unusual request, but he didn’t voice his confusion, merely giving Percy what he’d asked for.

Percy thanked him, grabbing all the recommended books, along with the ones on Alchemy 11-15 – just in case. Of course, he knew there was no way he could read that many books in a couple of days – let alone memorize everything – but he could at least skim through them and try to cram as much stuff into his brain as possible.

‘I’ll be damned if I give that bastard the satisfaction of kicking me out!’