Year 2, Spring, First Month, First Week.

“To create a magic tool you need three things: First, to comprehend the design of the tool. Second, to gather the magic materials needed. And third, you need to use your spiritual energy to craft the design in the tool.”

The crowd listened to Karl attentively, almost all villagers wanted a shot in becoming an Alchemist, even some elders.

“Two things are essential for an Alchemist, the ability to comprehend designs and high spiritual energy. Although both of these can be increased through extensive training it's easier to become an Alchemist if you already have them. To select the villagers with better chances, I’ll conduct two tests, one to measure your spiritual energy and another to measure your design abilities.”

After hearing that every villager had a chance, their hope and excitement started burning high.

To measure their spiritual energy Karl would ask the villagers to draw a line connecting to points using magic ink, he emphasized that they should hold the thought of connecting the two points while drawing.

This exercise was pretty simple, to draw spiritual energy from a person he needed to make them hold a concept in their minds while drawing something. The connecting line was a simple concept that could be comprehended by everyone so it should be possible even for the normal villager.

The villagers formed a line and looked nervously at Karl, nobody wanted to go first. But after Karl explained it, they realized it was an easy task. The villagers would start the task confidently, soon their spiritual energy would be drained by the magic line and when it was near depletion they would get dizzy.

When they dropped it, they would look confusedly at Karl, but he only said ‘thank you, you're finished’, before separating them into groups with similar lengths of lines.

Karl spent the whole morning doing this test, by the end of it, he had five different groups. Initially, he only planned to divide four groups with different levels of spiritual energy, but three teens surprised him by actually completing the connection.

The two groups with the worst spiritual energy were thanked for their participation and dismissed, some of them would probably try to join the hunting team selection tomorrow. Karl was left with 500 villagers.

The next test was slightly more difficult, Karl asked for the villagers to come to him in groups of 10, each person would be given ten different types of objects that represented different resources or actions. He asked them to arrange the objects to represent the task of preparing breakfast.

Karl used different stones, woods, and leaves to represent the resources water, vegetables, pot, fire, knife, and actions like carrying, cutting, putting, holding, and cleaning.

Each villager could use the same type of object more than one time, for example using the resource ‘pot’ more than one time. Most of the villagers didn’t understand what they should do, but Karl explained until they got it.

Basically, Karl wanted to see how they would describe the process of preparing breakfast, if they could do it using the representative objects, if they would follow a logical sequence, or even if they would use unnecessary resources.

Karl carried the second test without dismantling the three remaining groups from the first test, because he wanted to take their spiritual energy into account when making a final decision.

After each group of ten finished their five minutes, Karl would further separate them into the other three groups. The first would hold the ones that had successfully completed the test, the second would hold the ones that made mistakes in their arrangements, and the last group would be formed by those that failed the test, which would be dismissed.

In the end, Karl ended up with 150 villagers, from which only 30 had successfully completed the test. From the group with the higher spiritual energy (previously three villagers), only two had stayed after the second test, but fortunately, they were both in the 30 people group.

Karl decided to put more effort into teaching these two villagers, they could be great Alchemists in the future.

Karl decided to ask the Chief if he could use the 150 villagers stead of the 105 that they previously agreed. The remaining 148 selected villagers would be placed according to their position on the tests.

Master AI told Karl about an ancient tradition of Alchemists, which separated Alchemy students into disciple levels.

The levels were direct disciples, level two disciples, level three disciples and students. For this system to work, the levels had to form a triangle structure, with more students in each level than the previous level.

Direct disciples would be taught directly by Karl and they would follow him in his daily tasks. This position had the best benefits, both in learning and access to resources, so Karl decided to take the two best-positioned villagers.

The level two disciples would receive regular lessons from Karl, but their studies would be supervised and handled by the direct disciples. They would have access to resources, but sparingly. He decided to place the ten villagers that had higher spirituality and successfully completed the second test in this position.

The level three disciples would receive a few punctual lessons from Karl and their studies would be handled by the level two disciples. In this position, Karl placed the other 18 that went better in the second test.

Finally, the student level wouldn't receive Karl’s lessons but they could learn from the level three disciples and access some resources to train, provided authorization. The remaining 120 villagers would fall under this level.

Each level would also have some obligations according to their abilities. The Arrays maintenance and crafting of regular magic tools would be handled by the disciples, once they were able to do it. While processing and collecting of magic materials would be done by the students.

Initially, Karl didn't like the level of differentiation, it reminded him of the Serion Kingdom exploitation system. But Master AI made some important considerations about it. Karl didn't have time to teach 150 people. If his primary aim was to reduce his workload, how would spend all his time teaching help?

Also, the Serion Kingdom system was despicable because it treated the lower-level citizens like slaves and didn't allow mobility. So, if they guaranteed respectable and fair treatment to everyone and established technical and clear advancement requirements, they wouldn't be replicating a toxic system.

Karl was hoping that some disciples and students would show potential and move to a higher position later. Master AI also suggested establishing a progressive but cooperative advancement system.

In the end, Karl decided to create specific requirements to advance to each position. First, his direct disciples would be selected every year by an ability test of crafting magic tools. So, the direct disciples would have to keep improving to maintain their position. Of course, if they failed in their duties they would be demoted.

The other disciples and students would follow a different system, which would respect requirements and wouldn't follow a selection.

For the student level, they would have to work at least six hours a day in processing materials and had to pass a general test applied two times a year. The test would only cover definitions and resource properties, and it wouldn't cover any practical drawing.

To advance to a level three disciple, the students would have to score 80% on the general test and successfully draw a magic Array.

The level three disciples would have to redraw or upgrade at least four tools per week, give two open lectures per week, tutor at least ten students and pass the Array test two times a year. The Array test would cover Array theory and a practical drawing exam.

To advance to a level two disciple, the level three disciple would have to score 80% on the Array test, successfully tutor one student to advance to level three disciple, and create and draw a new design or significantly upgrade an existent design.

The level two disciples would have to redraw or upgrade at least two tools per week, give one open lecture per week, tutor at least three level two disciples and pass the Rune test two times a year. The Rune test would cover Rune theory and a practical drawing exam.

Finally, the direct disciples wouldn't have specific obligations besides helping Karl, making their position even more envied.

If there aren't enough students or disciples to fill the tutoring quota, the disciples would only need to tutor the minimum available number. For example, for the time being, each level two disciple would have to tutor one level three disciple.

To encourage level two and direct disciples to tutor more disciples, the number of tutored disciples would be counted in the direct disciple selection.

Night came and Karl’s Alchemy group was formed.

Previously, Karl and Diana had agreed to hold the tests on different days, because they wanted to give the villagers the chance to participate in both tests, so tomorrow would be time for Diana’s hunting team selection.

........

“Omero, are you sure?” Marlen asked.

She already knew the answer but the consequences would be irreversible.

“Yes... We started this Marlen... We chose this path, but it's your choice to continue, you already did enough, I can't ask you to risk your family again... We can arrange your escape, we can ask Keller...”

“I won't go. Katlyn can take the kids, I'm too old to run and I'll see this through... I'm just afraid, I don't want to see a massacre again... ”

“She won't leave, Marlen. She has too much of you... And she wants revenge too...”

“It's decided! If Bill agrees, we can send one of the twins to Wind Castle for the registration ceremony and contact Keller. They have to support us! They owe us this much and after we show’em the magic tools they won't resist...”

“May the Origin save us!”