53: A year

"According to Abby's simulations and extrapolations, the mind meditation technique is most useful when used to construct basic nodes.

However, after a Rank 3 Apprentice has finished constructing their 3 apprentice rune, they can only progress slowly as the number of nodes increases exponentially, also the first three runes also need the mana to maintain their operations so this leads to taking a lot of time for the future breakthrough

No wonder even fifth-grade apprentices get stuck at the bottleneck to advance to a Rank 4 Apprentice!"

Wade looked at the results of the mathematical formulas and entered into deep thought.

"I have been in the academy for this long, but I haven't heard of any apprentices who own a more advanced mind meditation technique.

Furthermore, the apprentices of the other professors all stop progressing for at least a few years after they have reached Rank 3 Apprentice standards.

It seems like even the professors can do nothing regarding this matter of meditation techniques, so I can give up on it first!"

"As for the use of ingredients, there was some basic level potion formulas that could help in the raising of Spirit. However, the price for them is rather high and the ingredients are also very costly. Even the results are rather appalling..."

"However, my succession rate will definitely be higher than other Potioneering Masters because I have Abby. Therefore, increasing my Spirit with this method is highly feasible!"

Wade made up his mind. "What's next is to collect formulas for potions that can raise my Spirit. In addition, I should sell my potions outside and obtain more potion ingredients!"

"However, it seems rather dangerous outside the academy right now, so how am I supposed to go find those black markets or small-scale trading groups?" Wade was in a dilemma.

Wade furrowed his brows.

"No matter what, I must hurry up and become a Rank 3 Apprentice. Once I reach those standards I can start taking more serious and rewarding missions." Wade was resolved to start again with his repetitive cycle he had before in the academy.

In the year that followed, Wase would report to where Fred was every day, assist in the cleaning of the experiment lab, and sort out a few insignificant experiment resources.

In this period, he had started to try to get close to genius apprentice Sam, who was also his senior.

In all this time Sam had still kept his distance from him besides Fred, his interactions with him were minimal.

So he was trying to get to know him more as if in the future he needed some kind of excuse for the advancement of his pioneering skills he had to keep such tricks up his sleeves. This it could later be considered one factor attributing to his success in Potioneering.

In the remaining time, he spent them in taking lessons using the magic crystal stones he was earning.

The paid lessons in Black Academy differed depending on the depth of the lesson. Meaning if the person wanted to learn the beginner level or elementary knowledge than 1 crystal could get him 10 lessons consisting of 1 hour each.

But if the lessons we're for the basic level of knowledge than the price increases exponentially.

Each lesson would cost a magic crystal and as the knowledge was too derivative and varied one needed at least 30 to 40 lessons to complete a topic meaning one would need around 40 magic crystals a minimum to even think about taking even a single subject to master.

In the following year that went by Wade continued his potion brewing and selling to not only increase his income but also to keep his practices.

He started to make some of the easy basic potions as a practice to later be able to make the necessary potions when he needed them for his breakthrough.

As the potion, we're of a higher quality his success rate had gone down but it was still much higher than his senior Sam but it was slightly below of that his mentor Fred.

He had started selling this potions after around half a year as he had to keep up his act, as the potion were a commodity which would never lose its importance but was still a consumable it's demand was always high.

And as most of this basic potions, we're either made by either mentors or the apprentices at a very high level, but there was a situation behind this which was that as the success rate was always low the demand was high meaning that even if he only sold one potion the amount he got was more than 40 magic crystals.

As such he was not only able to keep up with his studies on advanced knowledge but also with his daily experimentation with a small profit by the side.

........

A teenager could be seen standing in front of a black table holding a teat time in one of his hand while holding a blue crystal in another.

There was a brightness in his eyes which did not match with his young face that had still not shown any signs of growing beard.

There was a look of seriousness on his face and he had unparalleled attention on the test tube in front of him as if any distraction would cause an unprecedented loss.

"Sarvossh" he chanted.

A huge amount of spirit energy was released from between his eyebrows but when they came out they slowly coiled together to form a very thin thread which then entered the test tube.

This teenager was obviously Wade, it had been a whole year since his last trip outside the Academy. In this year that he had slowly but steadily increased his basic nodes and started his journey towards the Rank 3 Apprentice stage.