Allen felt a little bad the following morning, but after going back and forth multiple times, he had eventually decided his plan was the best option. That was why he had left Kyle with instructions on what to do with the rest of his class and headed straight for the gate out of their territory. Given he had been at the academy for two days now but was yet to spend even a single minute in an actual lesson, he probably wasn’t going to win a model student award anytime soon. Sadly his guide wasn’t overly happy with the plan either.

“I don’t understand why we are wasting time like this.” Priya complained, marching alongside him through the island streets.

“And I told you, planning is never a waste of time.” He replied tightly, regretting asking for help.

The noise she made was somewhere between a snort and hum, but it made very clear how little she thought of his statement. “Theres no point planning if you don’t have any points to spend.”

Allen really couldn’t be bothered to have this argument again. His plan was fairly simple, he needed to help make the rest of the class stronger. That was hard given the fact they lost duels frequently, meaning they were unlikely to have enough points to earn a cultivation technique anytime soon. Therefore he had decided to spend the morning on research. Once he knew how many points key things cost then he could start setting goals, but from what Kyle had told him the day before, it was unlikely any of them would be buying a technique anytime soon. That meant he would need to be creative. Which is why the alchemy stores were their first destination. There were any number of powders or pills that could help somebody reach the novice realm, as long as you understood what obstacles that individual faced. For example from his brief scan of her boy the day before, Allen was confident he could help Priya ascend with very little effort. Whether it was hard work or just luck, her pathways were very nearly formed. She just needed to increase the amount of mana she was bringing in and learn to harness it. Even without a technique she would then be a cultivator, and have the extra time to try and make more progress. Priya’s obstacle was she only had a single meridian open, her left hand. That meant her natural mana replenishment was extremely low. Allen had narrowed down a short list of powders that would work for her but his first choice was a powder that would grow her pathways. It wasn’t perfect, as it would probably take a few weeks to take effect, but it would give her a solid foundation for if she ever did become a real cultivator.

“How do class points work?” he asked, trying to distract the irritated woman away from things she could yell at him about.

“The academy keeps a leader board at the arena. The higher your class is ranked, the better tiered jobs its members can take. The higher tiered jobs all pay more points, which means you earn more points the following month as well.” She answered after a minute.

“So getting access to higher tiered jobs early means that you are always ahead.” Allen surmised, realising that this actually helped his plans. He only had to get the yellow class access to a higher tier of jobs and then he could step back and let them gain their own strength.

Finally they reached the alchemy building. Unlike the glamours of the arena, or the stone walls of the outer wall where his and the other Houses were based, the alchemy building was rather, well, normal. A long two storey red brick which jutted out in places where they had obviously been forced to fit extensions. The only thing that made it stand out was the complete absence of windows, with small post box sized vents instead lining the walls. That gave the building a slight prison feel, although Allen assumed it was simply a health and safety matter. He knew from his own experience, practising alchemy tended to to invite explosions every now and again. Even the best alchemists could fail when forming pills, and some of them had a tendency to be loud on failure. He himself had suffered through that experience more than once. Locating the door, which was fairly easy given it was the only glass on the entire structure, Allen made his way inside to find a typical doctors office. White walls and laminate flooring, with a single reception desk alongside a guarded door. Both the guard and receptionist wore the famous blue robes of a royal House solider, paired with the blaring spirit of a novice realm cultivator that hadn’t realised they weren’t the biggest fish in the sea. Allen kept his own spirit completely locked down as he approached, not wanting to start a conflict where it wasn’t needed. Approaching the tired looking guard sitting behind the reception desk, Allen waited until the man looked up.

“Do you sell ingredients here?”

The man, who looked barely older than Allen himself, narrowed his eyes. He was clearly annoyed at being spoken to at all, but did still answer “We do, but only when you hire a work room. All alchemy at the academy must take place here to prevent accidents.”

Allen sighed but nodded “How much to rent a room, and do you have a list of ingredients with prices?”

The man pulled out a huge ring binder and handed it over “Rooms are 100 points per hour, but you can waive that by taking a commission. If you just want practise thats a good way to do it. You do need to buy resources though.”

Allen took the folder “And where can I find commissions?”

The receptionist guard just smiled, and then pointed to several large television screens mounted behind him. Each was flicking through screens like old school Ceefax, and now that he actually looked he could see the names of lists of ingrediants along with payment and a date which he assumed was a deadline.

“What happens if nobody takes the commission?” he asked, curious.

“We either give a refund, or one of our staff members will finish the job. Depends.”

Allen nodded “Can you take commissions in pairs?”

The man frowned but didn’t answer right away. Instead he looked over to the much older guard standing by the doorway.

“You can, but it means splitting the reward.”

Allen nodded then looked at the screens once again. Most seemed to be for powders, and he saw some with truly ridiculous names. For example, the raging dragons might powder appeared to be the short strength enhancement powder. It gave a small boost to strength when taken, lasting maybe 15 minutes. The effects varied depending on the quality of powder and how strong the person taking it was, but even the very best outcome would fall well short of anything like a raging dragon. Allen had used it before when he had to carry equipment around the farm, and he doubted there were many dragons out ploughing fields right now. Looking over the various screens, he found a few he recognised.

“Priya come here.” He called. For some reason the woman had stayed back by the door. As she approached he looked back at the guard and asked for a pad of paper. Quickly he wrote down all the ingredients from recipes he had used before. Most of these could be found online, and he assumed the only reason anyone would put out a commission for them was laziness or a staggering lack of talent. Finally he had a huge list, with a lot of ingredients like first realm spirit blood appearing over and over again. Ignoring Priya as she came and stood next to him, Allen started flicking through the binder jotting down costs as he found them listed. Finally he looked up at Priya, pointing at the total “So how would you like to learn some alchemy?”