Disciple

"The right way?", both Ivan and Serge looked at her questioningly.

"Yes. Of course, even though I call it the right way, that is only from my perspective.", she smiled slightly. "As you know, the medical essence shouldn't come into contact with the outside air, since it would lose it's potency otherwise."

"Yes, that's the reason one uses one furnace for the full process since it is inadvisable to transfer the essence from one pill furnace to another."

Miss. Klein nodded. She seemed to be satisfied with the answer Serge had given. "That's right. But if one uses mana spheres, who says one can't merge them, if one has multiple."

As soon as she said that, both of them understood. If it was possible to merge these mana spheres without reducing the potency of the medical essence then wouldn't they be able to heat up the herbs separately, making the process much more efficient?

"It sounds great, but I'm sure it can't be that easy or everyone would use that method.", Ivan said doubtfully.

"You are correct. It isn't easy. Not only does it require a high mana capacity, but also a great amount of control. Not to mention the ability to multitask even more than for normal pill refining. Besides that, it requires a lot of practice to be able to merge the different mana spheres."

Ivan thought about what she had said, but felt that that shouldn't be all the reasons, because if it only required practice and strength, while providing such a huge advantage then shouldn't more use it?

Miss. Klein's next words confirmed his suspicions, "But that isn't the real problem. The real problem is that the improvement it offers is too small compared to what one has to invest. Low-grade pills have only a few ingredients, so it is still not that hard to use this method, but an increased effect of a few percents, just isn't worth it. Might as well just make a few more pills after all the ingredients are cheap and easily available."

"Then what about the higher grade pills? Their ingredients are worth much more and are more difficult to process, so shouldn't the effect be worth much more then?"

"That's right. But don't forget that not only does the ingredients get more difficult to process, which would require more focus on each ingredient, but there also many more ingredients.

So with the increase of the grade, while the effect of using the mana sphere method would increase, the difficulty would increase even more."

"But doesn't the difficulty of processing the herbs would increase independently from the method used? And with the mana sphere, one would be at least be able to treat them separately, making it easier.", Serge made a valid point.

"Theoretically you are right. But sadly the reality is that one can't split one's focus infinitely. Sure it can be trained but only to a certain degree. There is still a limit to what the body and soul can support. That's why many see the technique as one that has many benefits, but in the end, limits one growth because once one has reached a certain pill grade, one would be unable to progress with it.", after saying that she looks a bit dejected. It seemed like she too had reached the end of her ability to progress.

"Is there no way around it? There should be one or you wouldn't have said that it is a much better method than using a standard pill furnace."

"Well, there are a few ways I know of. The best way would be to increase the capability of one's soul to multitask. But sadly I haven't found any yet. The next best is to strengthen the soul, which makes one able to switch focus faster. This can be used together with a rotating system to increase the spheres one can control at the same time. Of course, it has its drawbacks, since it leads to slight fluctuations in the control. Besides that methods top strengthen the soul are rare.

Lastly, there is the easiest and inefficient method. Still, it is able to increase the quality of refined pills. That is the method I came up personally, so I will only teach it to my students.", she looked at them seriously before continuing, "If you want to know it, then you have to accept me as your pill refining teacher and promise to only teach it to your own students."

When she said this the two of them looked at her in bewilderment, "Aren't we already your students?"

"There is a difference. At the moment you are students at the school and I am a teacher here. So while you are technically my pill refining students, the relationship isn't as close as what I meant. The relationship between teacher and student I meant, is often called the teacher-disciple relationship. It requires a ceremony and is officially accepted by the System. It also contains a set of rules and duties for both parties.", she paused to check out their reactions.

Seeing that both of them looked at her with interest she then continued her explanation, "The teacher has the duty to teach the students everything they know as well as provide the materials for them to practice. Of course, this only goes so far as the teacher is capable of providing. On the other hand, the disciple is to learn from the teacher and help with research as long as it isn't dangerous for himself.", she then listed a few other things concerning the teaching process. The other important point concerned the personal techniques of the teacher. They were only to be taught to other disciples and be kept a secret from everyone else.

"Alright, that's it for the teaching part. But the teacher-disciple relationship also influences other areas of life. For example, both the disciple and the teacher have the responsibility to help the other if there are problems. In this way, it is kind of like a family relationship. But I think you should read up on it in some books in the library. After that, you can then decide."

While Ivan listened to her offer a warm feeling welled up in him. There was absolutely no need for her to offer something like this to them. After all, neither of them had anything of worth and doing this only for future profit seemed unlikely. From Ted's words, when he had heard about Miss Klein being his teachers, after the tournament, he could guess that Miss. Klei's status in the community of pill refiners shouldn't be a small one.

"Why us?", he asked curiously.

She looked at him with amusement. "Ha, I knew you would ask this.", during her time teaching him she had realized that he never took anything for granted and liked to question everything. She usually disliked this kind of people, since they rarely knew when they should stop, but Ivan was different. When he didn't get an answer and didn't see a fast way to find one, he would just push it back for another time, if there were more information.

"Because you passed the test.", she readily answered, before continuing on before either of them could ask what the test was, "Not only was there a test at the beginning to find out these that are capable of becoming pill refiners. During the first half school year I often times secretly tested your personality and ability to learn, as well as your talent in pill refining."

Ivan nodded, satisfied with her answer.

"The two of you should think about it and when you have decided to give me your answer."

Although Ivan was already sure that accepting her offer would be a great idea, he still chooses not to accept yet. If he did it would make him seem hasty, even though he didn't think that Miss. Klein wasn't already familiar with his personality. But more important was that he hadn't decided yet about his skill 'Soul Division'. From his understanding, this skill would be a great help for the mana sphere method of pill refining because it would allow one to increase the ability to multitask, since each soul form could control the same amount of spheres as the main form, as long as they trained enough.

Sure he couldn't share it easily since it was a unique skill he had developed by accident, but maybe if he shared his method then Miss. Klein would be able to find her own way. If he became her disciple then he should share the skill, but the skill was surely valuable and made the method of Miss. Klein, less necessary to him.

As soon as his thoughts traveled this far, he hurriedly shook his head. Once again he had only focused on his profits, completely ignoring interpersonal relationships. So what if the skill was valuable? The trust Miss. Klein had shown them when offering them the position of the disciple was much more valuable.