Chapter 009

Lessons

Alevier moved through the corridors in silence, the alchemy labs were located on the ground floor. He knew the way so he was walking while thinking of Jarkiso - his promise to be accurate. It was all sudden: he gained two new friends today, had been told that the Mage Cup will have high stakes and had his prodigious potential discovered so he was emotionally exhausted; he had an emotional spectrum the size of a teaspoon after all; not that he was complaining.

He reached the laboratories, had a small talk with the Laboratory Supervisor explaining to him the circumstances and assuring him that he would not try anything dangerous. To get an empty lab for your personal use was extremely difficult, however, Alevier was familiar with the supervisor and hence, he could get a lab with a small verification process. Of course, he would have to clean the apparatus himself after he is done.

Alevier made his way to lab 3-C: the lab allotted for self-experiments.

The Alchemic Laboratories of Yarukok Magical Academy were not very grand, but that did not mean that they were not well furnished: they simply did not have useless decorations. However, that did not make it any less appealing in the eyes of an alchemist, the spacious labs had literally everything required to practice general alchemy. They had two big cabinets full of different reagents and apparatuses in the two opposite corners. Three long platforms with wash basins installed in them were placed in the centre, five shelves of general reagents were placed on each platform. Two magical fans were embedded in the walls for ventilation.

Alevier pulled out a stool from under the platform and sat on it. He quickly shuffled through his bag and fished out an old notebook. He flipped through its pages which were filled with notes and scribblings - Alevier did not have very neat handwriting. Shaking his head at his own handwriting, he stopped at a certain page which was titled, ‘Hemostasis Potion’.

Yeah, he will become a life-saving alchemist!

It was an intermediate level potion and Aleveir’s alchemic skills - by intermediate standards - were quite good, but this was one of the few potions he had trouble synthesizing. A person must begin somewhere, all life-saving alchemists were amateurs once too.

Casting aside the thoughts of becoming an awesome alchemist, he focused on what was in front of him. First, he took out some glass apparatuses from the cabinet which had a plethora of other things. With small clatters, he set the apparatus on the platform: now his workbench.

He sat down and stretched his arms for a moment before taking out a bottle of concentrated sulphuric acid, ethanol, acetic acid and methanol from the shelf. Yeah, they were dangerous chemicals that should not be given to anyone but, Alevier knew that he was being watched by a strong sentry spell. Moreover, they had protective enchantments applied everywhere in this room so that students don’t die on a regular basis if something goes wrong.

He stared at a test tube for a moment while he organised his thoughts. A pity that he had to make a reagent himself. Although that reagent was not used much and could be easily prepared still, it would same him a few minutes if the academy could provide it! Maybe it was because that certain chemical was slightly tricky to store and its vapours had a burning desire to spontaneously burst into flames at room temperatures that the academy did not have it stored in bottles. Alevier sighed at how his logic opposed his desires.

Putting aside those thoughts, he poured in equal volumes of ethanol and acetic acid in a flask, then he carefully measured a small amount of concentrated sulphuric acid and slowly added it to the flask. The solution warmed a bit, but it was not much: the solution was lukewarm. Alevier shook the flask, after adding a small amount of baking soda in it (which made the solution bubble), he quickly put a rubber cork on its mouth. He connected it to another flask via a glass tube. It was a not-so-easy task for his frail arms but he managed to do it.

Cursing under his breath, he placed a simple heating enchantment on the filled flask. A glowing spell model circled around the flask before contracting and attaching itself to the flask. Alevier supplied it some more mana so the enchantment could keep going, but he was careful so as to not step-up the enchantment into overdrive - something which newbies at alchemy did only to have the flask explode in their faces. Stupid rookies.

Anyway, he could heat up the flask with ‘primitive’ unstructured magic but that would require him to divide his focus - he had another spell to cast.

The solution slowly heated up and vapours began to rise and pass through the glass tube.

Alevier now used unstructured magic to cool the other end of the tube. Despite unstructured magic’s versatility, it was not very popular and considered primitive because of its low efficiency: it was mana and spirit exhausting and produced little effects. However, it was quick to cast and easier to modify hence, making it perfect for immediate and convenient fine-tuning.

Happy at how easily he could use unstructured magic, he grinned.

Suddenly a small flame popped into existence at the end of the tube which made Alevier’s smile quickly turned into a frown. He cursed and increased the power of his cooling magic as he blew air to put out the flame. The flame extinguished and a small layer of frost crept along the inner lining of the tube.

Drip by drip a clear liquid which had a fruity smell filled the flask.

Several minutes later when almost twenty millilitres of the liquid had been collected, Alevier stopped the reaction and put away the apparatus, he dispelled the enchantment with a dispelling wave. He cooled the flask with the liquid again using magic and put it aside.

Then he took out a mortar and pestle and crushed some soft thumb-sized berries - Zingo berries to be accurate - into a bright green paste. He scooped up a bit of that paste with a spatula and dumped it into a test tube. He cracked his knuckles and added the clear liquid from his earlier experiment along with methyl alcohol in the test tube. He did not fill it to the brim because he was not a complete idiot doing this for the first time.

Now comes the hard part - he had to heat the test tube and not make it explode nor let its contents vapourize into a burning mess. He capped the test tube with his thumb and held the test tube with a cloth. Then used unstructured magic to heat it. The pressure inside the test tube slowly rose as its contents heating up. Slowly and slowly the test tube began vibrating because of the heat. Normally, Alevier would have used a burner to heat it but he had mana to spare. Hell, it feels good to have so much mana to spare!

The contents, without any warning, started to boil and shot up increasing the pressure inside by many folds, Alevier quickly removed his finger and thrust his arm over the wash basin while tilting it forward. The blackish green froth rose and fell out of the test tube and into the sink. Spilling out like a small volcano and staining the cloth with hot green liquid. The froth continued to spill forth until it eventually stopped. Yes, only the froth, which contained most of the impurities and harmful by-products had been spilt out, however, some of it remained in the test tube along with the important ‘stuff’.

He washed the sides of the test tube before letting out a sigh of relief, he just needed to filter the solution now. He took out a small piece filter paper and folded it into a cone, then he filtered the solution in a larger test tube using a funnel. Easy.

He discarded the used filter paper and glanced at the filtrate. He was left with a clear green tinted solution. Alevier grinned stupidly while admiring the liquid as if it was the most wonderful thing in the world. With the first hard part over, it was time for hard part number two!

He pulled out a Drakgren Leaf and tore it into pieces before stuffing them into that test tube. The solution immediately began changing colours and bubbling with black and red vapours, consequently, it started heating up. Alevier, being the sane alchemist he was, used unstructured magic to cool down the solution, he pumped in a lot of mana - normally, he would be completely exhausted of mana in this step but, that was when he was a talentless nerd but he is a genius ner- person now so it wasn’t a problem!

The solution began to chill, it was not spewing totally-not-toxic black vapours now. Great.

Alevier shook the test tube. A dark red liquid had replaced its former contents - the preparation Hemostasis potion was a success! Well, kind of. He still had the pain to test it out.

He took out a sharp steel needle. Although Alevier was not a big fan of self-mutilation, he still had to test it out. He bit his lip and scratched the back of his hand with the sharp utensil. A small cut with some blood oozing out of it was formed.

Alevier wiped it with his finger and used that needle again: he dipped the needle in the potion and smeared a small droplet on his cut with it. Only a madman or a student blinded by excitement - there was not much of a difference between the two though - would use a whole drop or more of a potion they brewed on an open wound. What if it was poisonous?! Help would arrive quickly but, the effects would be quite nasty and might last for some time.

He turned his attention to the wound. The wound felt hot and he could see that the skin was slowly healing itself up while greedily absorbing the red potion. A minute later the wound closed up completely with no traces of its existence to be found. Success!

He let out a laugh of victory, today was the best day ever! He could not wait to tell Jaysaun about yet another victory of his. Goodness, he was missing his friend already! He clicked his tongue at how he was behaving, it was almost as if he was being fed a brainwashing potion. He chuckled at this thought; at least he was as paranoid as ever.

Alevier spent the remaining time making more hemostasis potions to warm up his skills and, not to mention, for fun.

* * *

“Good morning students!” said Methra in an oddly cheerful tone. “As you all know, I, Methra Ovil, am your alchemy teacher for this year! We will have a wonderful time this year and we will make lots of good memories. So cheer up everyone! What is with the gloomy faces?”

She peered through her round spectacles at her class - most of them had an annoyed expression on their faces.

“It is nothing Professor, just a certain someone decided to pull a prank on us just for the sake of showing off,” snorted a student while looking at Alevier.

Alevier was quite proficient at the art of not giving a damn so it hardly bothered him.

“Oh! Is that so?” Methra glanced around before her gaze stopped at Alevier. “Hey! You must be Alevier - the student who got the highest marks along with two others in Alchemy.”

“Yes, Professor. I am Alevier,” said Alevier humbly as some gazes on envy were directed towards him. But this was his forte - this was his pride, he would not flinch because of other’s hostility.

“I expect great things from you,” she gave him her flowery smile. Alevier smiled in reply, Methra was a rather young teacher who had recently joined Yarukok’s faculty. She was probably in her early twenties with a charming face and a petite body, so calling her anything short of cute would be a sin. Heck, Jaysaun would be head over heels if he saw her. But she was a 4th Star Magus, she would have no problem blowing Jaysaun off.

“Anyway, I expect great things from each one of you present here!” she exclaimed. Honestly, she was a little sweet for Alevier’s tastes. “So we will revise some easier potions for our first class. Are you all alright with that?”

The students agreed in unison.

“Have you all perhaps heard of the hemostasis potion?” she asked

Aw, snap.

“Because we are going to practice it until the end of this class!”

Seems like Alevier’s luck has run dry. This class is going to be terribly boring.

* * *

After an hour of repetition and Methra’s praises, Alevier was sure that he could brew a hemostasis potion blindfolded. Okay, that's a lie but the point is that he was thoroughly bored. The spell formulae and runes class which was taught by a small bald man named Huure Itoi. In Alevier’s opinion that man was a retired comedian because hell, he ‘sarcastically’ joked about a variation in the spell formulae he was teaching and a student implemented it which on activation blew up into a cloud of smoke, dust and wood. The student choked on the thick smoke and was immediately taken to the hospital since he had an amazing amount of splinters sticking out of his chest. Poor kid, he almost got killed by sarcasm.

Anyway, the rest of the class was dismissed after this incident. Alevier did not mind it since they were only revising what they had done last year. First classes of each year were always like this, excluding the students being hospitalized part.

With a quarter of an hour left before noon, Alevier marched off to the gardens. If he recalled correctly, Jaysaun's classes were over and he would be hanging out in the gardens with Sinchiya. Damn that flirtatious bastard.

He continued to navigate through the corridors and stairs, but his journey was cut short when he bumped into someone unexpected.

“Hey, it is the perdant!”

And horrible.

Alevier quickly turned on his heel and tried to run away but a strong hand grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back.

“Where are you running off to?” snickered Fobas. He quickly wrapped his heavy arm around Alevier's neck and held him in a chokehold. Alevier never enjoyed this so he tried to struggle out of it.

“Been three months since we last saw each other and you are leaving without saying hi? I guess we need to teach you some manners,” chuckled a short chubby boy named Rettre as he walked forward to face Alevier.

“Just like Rettre said, we need to teach you some manners,” laughed Vymer as he cracked his knuckles.

Well, these three wicked teens were in class 3R. And they had beaten up Alevier quite a few times in his previous two years. Seriously he was out of luck now.

Fobas tightened his grip around his neck, Alevier tried to kick this stupid giant of a person but his kicks were ineffective. He wished he had a knife so he could hack those muscular arms with, and escape.

“Oh now, I know you want to say, 'Harder Daddy'-”

Note to self: carry several knives with you at all times.

“-no need to struggle so much. I understand,” chuckled Fobas.

“Perdy Perdy Perdy, are you still nerdy?” whistled Vymer as he opened Alevier's bag and randomly threw out his books.

Alevier once used to bless those magic disruptive enchantments and wards which prevented students from using magic in the corridors, but now he cursed them. How have the times changed!

“Now tell me, my favourite friend,” said Rettre as he pinched Alevier's cheek. “Hmm? Why are you so cold? Did someone turn you into an undead?”

“My! Looks like Perdy was played foul by a necromancer whore!” laughed Vymer. Yeah, as if that made sense. But taking Vymer's retarded humour in consideration, it probably did.

“What a naughty Perdy,” muttered Fobas. “I guess he needs some fresh air.”

Okay, crap. This is going in a bad direction.

“Yeah, it will help him when he becomes an Archmage,” said Vymer as he slid open the window. “Flying is fun, don't you think Perdy?”

Being thrown out of the window is definitely not flying. Alevier internally debated the pros and cons of knowing your fate. He won't die that's for sure, he has enough experience to know that but, he might be bruised and cut because of the very bushes that will cushion his fall.

“Let's go!” Fobas and Rettre dragged Alevier to the open window. He didn't even struggle as he was pushed out of the window, maybe because he knew that struggling would make it only harder.

Well, here comes the window pain. His head hit the end of the window making it clatter and his elbows struck the window sill. Damn, can't these good-for-nothings learn to do it correctly? Sighing, he himself jumped out of the window and plummeted down the first floor with a poker-face without complaining. Sometimes you have to do things yourself.

By now he knew how to control his fall and he pulled his body into a ball as soon as possible and then with a heavy thud he fell down into the bushes. Ouch, he still couldn't get used to the pain. He stood up and dusted his clothes: pulling out twigs and leaves from his sweater, then he rotated his joints to see if anything had been displaced. Thankfully, such a thing did not happen; he remembered the time when he had twisted his foot, that week was a disaster, much like the most of his miserable life.

Then suddenly a book came crashing into his head.

“Ow,” he groaned in pain and looked up. The trio of those rascals had not given up on troubling him, now they were throwing his own books at him. Well, that saved him the trouble of collecting them afterwards. Fobas threw another book at him which he hastily dodged. He purposely let himself get hit by a book or two so those scoundrels would be tempted to throw all his book.

When they were done bombarding him with books, they fired some insults at him which were promptly deflected off his shield of I-don’t-give-a-damn. With that over, Alevier began collecting his books from around him.

As he was absentmindedly picking up his books, he thought why were most people so mean to him. Well, most of them were indifferent to him but, two in every five of his classmates was had some kind of dislike towards him. He totally did not calculate that it was just a guess.

Anyway, there were four obvious reasons that people did not like him. First, he had a rather average magical aptitude by normal standards and a bad aptitude by Yarukok standards, people with a better magical aptitude did not like that category of people. Secondly, he was quite good in theoretical exams and occasionally topped, this made the envy in others boil - how would one feel when they are bested by someone (who they can defeat easily on the field) on paper. Third, he came from a non-magical and a rather humble background. Yes, his siblings were mages but his parents were not, nor did he have a noble lineage, there was a certain bias among old magical families and nobles against these people. And lastly, because of his sister. She was just so damn good at magic and the fact that she was a first generation mage infuriated the egos of the geniuses that studied here. They couldn't lay a finger on her so they chose to vent their frustration at a much weaker target: our 'friendly’ Alevier.

What a difficult life.

He arranged his bag and walked off in the direction of the gardens. Lucky he did not have to take the stairs. From here it was a short journey, it took him less than a minute to reach his destination.

The gardens were full of life, like always with the bright flowers in full bloom and the sun shining pleasantly over the lush green grass. Love was in the fresh air, a lot of couples spent their time loitering in the garden. It was no place for a fabulous and single Alevier. The reason he had not found a love partner was that he was just too great for any girl, it was totally not like he had been rejected by someone and was traumatized by it. A pity.

He shook his head and walked through the flowery arch when someone unexpected appeared in front of him.

“Well, look who is here?”

Okay, this is becoming repetitive.

Lueirby approached him. At least this time she did not greet him with a mana missile.

Alevier tried to reply as politely as possible, “Hello Lu-”

His words were cut short when she suddenly punched him in the stomach, his whole body convulsed as a sharp pain erupted from his abdomen. He clutched his stomach and fell on his knees. He knew that Edeye family had some bloodline ability which increased their physical prowess, but damn, she was too strong.

“A peasant like you should not dare utter my name,” she said as she took out a handkerchief and wiped her fist. “And you dared to use mana orbs? Pitiful, I guess it was your sister’s? Must be a pain to have a sibling like you - incompetent.”

Ah, she did not dare abuse her sister, maybe she knew that Waelecia is an expert in scrying and divination magic too. So she can find out literary anyone who dared to speak her name or referred to her in some two-mile radius. But for some reason, she was completely indifferent to Alevier’s plight. How awful.

“Well then, I look forward to a duel with you. I will challenge you some other day, dare not to decline,” she said in a threatening tone. After saying that she quietly walked off.

Alevier recovered after a moment and dragged himself forward. Damn his luck! It had to run out now. Hopefully, he will find Jayasun and Sinchiya before bumping into another bully. Hopefully. While thinking about that, he walked on in the search for people who cared about him. Yes. People who truly cared about him.