Chapter 36: Making a Super Potion

Violet Guild, was an exclusive guild only for Alchemy students. If one was to become a member of the guild, they'd get benefits, support, financial support and protection. If you become an official member, you'd instantly obtain the rank of Baron. You'd be able to own a house, a land and a few people and adding with the other benefit of being a part of the guild, you'd be able to enter sanctum inside the territory of the academy. But to become an official member, you had to be scouted by a member of the guild you'd get a recommendation to higher ups and be able to take the trial as to become an official member.

"Join the Violet guild. I assure you that you'll have a good future here in the academy." Nolan spoke in a very perfect English accent. His tone suddenly changed from an arrogant Scottish man, to an English gentleman. It was quite freaky but no one paid heed with that, they were most surprise by the sudden invitation and everyone knew of the guild and it's reputation. It was one of the reasons that even though many here sucked at scientific alchemy, and we're more suited in combat, as long as you piqued the interest of one of the members of the guild, becoming a member meant that your future was secured.

"Why?" Kal asked. When they heard his words, they were dumbfounded, unless you were unprepared or had lived under a rock, no one would dare asked or refrain a prestigious invitation. It was only normal to automatically accept it. Anyone in their right mind would not question those words but Kal seemed to look doubtful.

"What the hell are you saying? You're being invited to the guild! Why asked when you already know that your life will be secured?" The thin man exclaimed to Kal. Nolan nodded his head in agreement to the thin man's words.

'I already know what the Violet guild is since Qingcheng had told it to me. She said that if I join the guild, I'd come closer to finding the demon pills secret but will also put me at risk since there might be high chance that I'll be picked as a part of the experiments. She also said that the Violet guild has the lowest reputation because they had one of the weakest combat power and there had been cases of missing members of the guild a couple of times every year. If I guess it correctly, those missing people are subjected to their experiments. But if I want to save this academy, I have to dive to the tip of the iceberg to do that.' Kal thought to himself.

"Okay then I'll accept it." Kal accepted his offer. Nolan had a bright expression in his face.

"Great! I'll be seeing you two days from now at 1 pm in the morning. Since you are still an unofficial member, you'll have to participate in a test with the other unofficial members, and if you pass, you become an official member." Nolan said to Kal.

"..." Kal didn't respond and simply returned his spear. Nolan and his men left the hall leaving Kal and Tony inside. Tony was still baffled at what had just happened, he couldn't help but look at Kal as some sort of genius.

"To be able to impress one of the members of the Violet Guild and also display such polished weapon arts, there's no way that you don't hail from some powerful family." Tony said to Kal.

"I told you, I'm not from any family and I taught myself these weapon arts. So how about that, was it enough to impress you?" Kal said with an arrogant look.

"Sigh, yes but you only showed me the fighter role, you haven't showed me the assassin, marksman, and tank role yet. Well it's fine, I can lend you my books. But you really don't need to borrow my books you know? Once you become an official member of the Violet Guild, all the information regarding alchemy will easily found in their guild storage. I can't help but be envious." Tony sighed.

"It seems you really know a lot about the Violet guild, can you tell me what they are and what benefits I get from them?" Kal asked.

"The Violet Guild is one of the 4 guilds in Hunter's University. They have the lowest reputation since they lack fire power and even though they are able to produce various potions and consumables. The academy today has been selling roughly due to the lack of ingredients to make high quality ones, it's expected that the guild will go bankrupt in the next few years so the Alchemy academy  won't have a choice but to loan on the other Academies. The violet Guild manages the potion production and also the safety of the citizens in the academy against crime, monsters and dungeon breaks. They also have the authority to all the sanctum within the territory. If you become a part of the member, depending on your ranking among the guild, you can get exclusive informations, discounts, protection, and many more. But to go up to ranks, you must contribute to a certain task given by the guild to rank up." Tony explained. Kal seemed to understand what the guild was as he nodded in understanding.

"So it's just like any other guild? Are there any other guild besides the 4 guilds?" Kal asked.

"The making of guild is banned by the law and the only guilds are: Golden Horn Guild of the Royal academy, Silver Wings Guild of the Magic Academy, Iron Body Guild of the Industrial Academy and Violet Guild of the Alchemy Academy. The difference it has from guilds found outside the University, is that every year, a competition is held in the center that intersects the 4 territories. They must compete in various challenges and whatever guild wins the competition, gets to claim a small authority to the losing academies. It could either be a portion of land, sanctum, citizens, information, goods, money, infrastructure etc. This was made since the four academies are already considered a kingdom and any usual kingdom who wants to expand their territory is by waging war, so to minimize any bloodbath, this yearly competition was made by the Principal, also the president, Jude Armstrong." Tony explained.

"Armstrong? Like the 2nd rank S-ranker Daniel Armstrong?" Kal said with disbelief.

"Yes, principal Jude Armstrong is his father." Tony replied.

***************

Kal and Tony went back to their dorms, as what Tony promised, he gave the alchemy books he had and gave it to Kal. Tony was first to sleep and Kal began reading the books. When Kal started reading he was fascinated by Alchemy, it was like chemistry and cooking mixed together. Alchemy is a process of creation, combination and transformation of mana amplified materials into a consumable that could range from pills, elixirs, antidote, potions, enhancers, poison and many more. The materials had to be brewed, boiled, melted, crushed, pound, flattened, condensed, evaporated, or combusted depending on what type of material. It was a complex procedure but once you understand, it could become relatively easy. Memorization was one point to learn alchemy and Kal was one who was am expert at it. He had only glanced on the pages of the books and each words and pictures where ingrained in his brain like a clear picture of your mom. It only took him a few minutes to finish and once he was done, he placed to books near the sleeping Tony and slept as well.

Morning arrived, Kal and Tony went back to the place they were aligned. When they arrived, they could see small tables lined up and in the table were tools and materials for alchemy. Each of them lined up at the tables and Mr. Abdul went in front of them.

"Here you have in front of you are tools and materials needed to make a potion. I want all of you to make a potion out of these materials. The materials are, Ammonent Leaves, Tundra branch, Luminence Poppy, Gall Cactus water and Red Imp bone marrow. In 2 hours, you must be able to make a potion out of these materials. If you can make use of all the materials into a potion that is a plus, if the potion is high quality, also a plus, if the potion has less side effects, also a plus and if the potion has 2 or more effects, it's a plus. So, now you heard it, start!" Abdul shouted. The students began moving their hands as they planned out their potion. Each one was busy and what they had in their mind was not to mess it up. There were only miniscule number of material so if one screws up in their procedure, they won't be able to a new one.

Kal wasn't in a rush and he began to examine the materials in front of him.

Ting~

[Ammonent Leaf

Type- Material/Consumable

A leaf from the Ammonent tree. It is filled with energy and has some dash of mana and if one consumed it raw, it heals 5 of their health and drops their fatigue by 2%. If one consumes another leaf in the next 5 minutes, defense will fall by 5% (Effect Stacks)]

[Tundra Branch

Type- Material

A branch from the Tundra tree. The branch is able to absorb mana from anything it contacts. The mana will be stored in its stem where it will grow even without planting it. ]

[Luminence Poppy

Type- Material/Consumable

A flower that glows in the dark. It's pollen is able to replenish some built up fatigue and it's petals can heal 1% of your health. The side effects of consuming the petals is that your body will temporarily become luminescent.]

[Gall Cactus Water

Type- Material/Consumable

A water that is able to replenish dehydration and increases your speed by 10% for 2 minutes but after two minutes, your body will be in a dehydrated state that lowers status by 20%.]

[Red Imp Bone Marrow

Type- Material/Consumable

A very soft bone that if consumed raw, increases strength by 5 points but will decrease speed by 10 points for 3 hours. If cooked, the side effect will disappear but increased strength will only be 3 points.]

'Ammonent leaf and luminence poppy is one of the main ingredients when making health potion, tundra branch is for mana potion, gall cactus water is for energizer and Red I'm Bone marrow is for strengthening potion. It would be impossible to make a potion by using all the materials wince their effects overlap and if we force it, the chances of failing is 90%. So the only way to get a high evaluation rate is by making a health potion of high quality. That's probably what everyone else is thinking but I might be able to make a 4-in-1 potion.' Kal said to himself. Everyone was already doing their tasks, some looked confused, some didn't even know what to do and pretend to do something and others were focused, one of them was Tony who looked so serious as he inspect the materials.

'Everyone is so focused. Let's start shall we?' Everyone was given a small brewing station. This brewing station had a cauldron, a small furnace, glass tubes, glass containers, mortar and pestle and many more. Kal ignited the furnace and threw the tundra branch in, as it slowly scorched the branch, Kal brought the Ammonent leaves and luminence poppy's petals and mushed it in the mortar. He then moved on to boil the gall cactus water along the furnace and removed the soft bone in the red imp bone marrow. His movements where delicate yet fast that it looked like he had octopus hands as he moved on to the next procedures. He removed the scorched branch and dried it up using his wind power, Kal made sure to control the wind moderately that it only affected the branch as it could disturb the other students. After that he set aside the branch to let it cool down and compressed the mushed leaves and petals so only it's glowing green liquid essence would excrete as he out it on a tube. He heated the tube with a bit of fire so the foreign substance in the liquid would disappear cooled it down. The volume of the gall cactus water which was boiling went from a liter down to a cup. The greyish caller of the water and turned transparent that it resembled water. Kal poured the water in a purifier for 5 minutes.

The bone marrow was now being sliced into small chunks until it turned into liquid as he mixed it with the green liquid essence  and mixed it as he put it in a delicate fire. After that, Kal placed the dried up tundra branch  and used the purified gall cactus water to steam the branch in the steamer. The branch slowly melted down the steaming pot and the gall cactus water and the melted branch caused a blue faint glow on the brown water. A smile etched on Kal's face as he felt happy at the outcome and again purified the brown water for another 10 minutes. Kal made sure to heat up the green liquid essence frequently as the bone marrow would cause it to become sticky if it cooled down. So the constant heat of the temperature maintain its liquid state.

10 minutes passed, Kal placed the purified brown water into a glass basin and now it looked a bit more transparent brown. Using his fire element, Kal heated the water to reach 60°c and as it reached the mark, he immediately poured and mixed the water with the green liquid essence. He mixed it counterclockwise with a glass rod and Kal exerted some heat on the glass rod so the liquid could reach 80°c. He then poured his own mana into the liquid as to try to control the substance to not overpower or under lap the effects and maintain it at the perfect level. It was the hardest procedure as Kal needed maximum concentration since small mistakes would degrade the potion's quality but with the help of [Aura Manipulation] and [Analysis], his control was precise and delicate.

After a constant mixing, the potion was now glowing in a purple color that glowed in a faint blue. He placed the liquid in three small glass bottle and window panels appeared in his view.

Ting~

[YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED IN MAKING A HIGH-GRADE POTION!

+10 to all status]

[+600 EXPERIENCE TO ANALYSIS]

[+0.9% IN ALCHEMY (50.9%)]

Ting~

[POTION OF ENHANCEMENT

Grade- A-

Type- Consumable

Effect-

+290 HP (Per second/10 seconds)

+100 MANA (Per second/10 seconds)

+10% MOVEMENT SPEED (3 HOURS)

+15 to all status (30 minutes)

- Removes 50% of built up fatigue]

'Woah! My first ever potion and it has great effects! I knew it would work but I didn't think that it would give this much effects. It doesn't even have any side effects and on top of that, I gained a status reward and now my Alchemy mastery has almost reached expert!' Kal couldn't help but be in awe. His Alchemy mastery had increased by 50% last night after his complete understanding on the contents about alchemy. He expected good results from his first ever try on alchemy but he wasn't so sure as to what the outcome may be in his very first try, he didn't expect it to get such great results.

The potions he made were then brought in a table were few other potions were being made. He placed his name on the potion to mark it's identity and returned to his position. Aside from his, only a few potions were in the table since the elapsed time was only 30 minutes so most of the students were still making their potions.

"Hoh?" Abdul's eyebrows furrowed as he stared at Kal's potion. He inspected it closer and a grin etched on his face.

'This potion has both the quality of a helping and mana potion.The glowing liquid shows the purity of the healing, and the faint blue essence that envelope the potion shows the mana it contains. It's hard to tell if there are other effects but this one seems to have two of the effects, they are not even overlapping, it's ands if their just one of the same essence. What's his name? Kal Nietes? Haven't heard of that family name before but it seems like this kid might be placed in the A-section. I hope more students show exemplary performance and it won't be the same as last year where not a single student manage to get an S worthy of performance.' The percentage of reaching the A-section was 5%, S-sectipn was only 1.7% and anything below that was 20-99%, which means that from the 500 students, only 4 students where able to enroll at the A-section and only 1-2 students are obliged to enroll at the S-section.

An hour passed, 1/4th of the students including Tony finished their potion production. Tony was surprised to see that Kal already finished his potions before him and was in both shock and disappointment.

'I can't believe he finish his potion that fast. Is he trying to fail miserably or is he just being boastful? He should've take his time since there is still a lot of time left, even if he has studied a bit, making one first-handedly is an entirely different thing. Sigh, I should help him at least.' Tony felt bummed as he looked at Kal who was relaxed at his seat.

****************

3 hours passed and most of the students finished their potions, there were a few who hadn't finished yet and they were immediately expelled. Abdul Salsalani, along with three other teachers gathered up in front of the long table where the potions where placed. One peculiar man who looked like he was in his 60s, walk to the edge of the table and began inspecting the potions. As he looked at the potions on the table, he began flicking the potions with his fingers as they fell to the floor and break. Every student was shock by the sudden scene. The students who had their potions threw on the ground felt immense rage and wanted to choke the old man but the guards who were in the scene restricted them as they were brought out of the school to be expelled.

The students couldn't do anything but watch as their potions which they worked tirelessly thrown away like it was nothing but trash.

"Who's the grumpy old man?" Kal asked Tony.

"That's the adviser for the S-section, Santiago Balais. He is a very strict and serious teacher who does not appreciate any small mistakes that he finds and acts all perfectionist every time. Many students fear and hate him but even with such brash temper, he is the smartest alchemist and is the teacher of the famous alchemist Don Trevor so his reputation was wildly respected by the world." Tony explained.

"Well thankfully, he didn't flick my potion away am I right?" Kal said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm surprised he didn't flick it away." Tony replied in confusion.

"You were expecting him to flick my potion?"

"Now that teacher Balais has organized the potions. We will now begin testing it starting from the first one, Jose Afritada." Abdul said as a student was called out. He stood up from his seat and watched the teachers with nervous eyes. One of the teacher who was a female in her 30s poured some of the contents in a small glass printer were it began to flash white marks as a paper was printed out. The woman grabbed the paper and spoke it aloud. "Normal Potion, Effects: Small healing, Small Rejuvenation, Side effects: Glowing, leg cramps"

"You will be put in the E-section." Abdul spoke as the student was then accompanied by the guards to his class.

"Who is the woman with that glass printer? Kal asked Tony.

"Joanna Lee, the adviser for the B-class, she specializes in antidotes and has made the first antidote that could completely cure CorVid-20 virus that had spread around the world in 2440. Her antidote was able to end that virus which had killed millions of people and she regained worldwide fame from that, I'm surprised you didn't know that even if you weren't born yet at that time." Tony replied,

"I'm not really fond with history so I didn't know about her." Kal responded. More and more potions were inspected and it was finally time for Tony's potion. Although Kal was first to place his potion on the table, he placed his on the nearest to the edge of the table which meant that his potion was last to be inspected. Tony's potion was a pure red one. It had a shiny red essence envelope it as its contents was poured in the printer, it flickered white light and paper came out of it.

"Intermediate Potion, Effects: Greater Healing, Greater strength, Side Effects: None." After Joanna Lee spoke the words in the paper, the students gleamed in amazement.

"Woah!"

"Crazy! Who is that guy?"

"It's the son of the famous Fowler family! They are famous from their potion production!"

"That explains why he is that good!"

"I'm envious."

Kal simply smiled at Tony and applauded at his work.

"Congrats Tony, I'm sure you'll be enrolled in the S-section."

"Thanks and I hope so." Tony was delighted as he averted his gaze on the teachers. He swallowed his nervous saliva as he closely listened to what they would say.

"Tony Fowler, you will be enrolled in the A-section." Abdul said with a smile.

"Th-thanks." Tony couldn't believe it. He was confident that he'll reach the S-section but it seems that the requirements was far demanding than he thought.

"Damn, I really thought he was gonna be in the S-section."

"Who could've thought that not even an Intermediate Grade Potion would place you in the S-section."

Seeing that Tony felt disappointed, Kal cheered him up. "What's the matter? You're still the first one to reach the A-rank! You just need to put your head up high and work hard, I'm sure there will be another chance." Kal patted Tony's back.

"Yeah, you're right. But you should also be optimistic too! If you can't even get a C-rank, you won't be able to catch up to me." Tony puffed his chest as if to say he was far on the lead.

"Haha, don't be surprised if I get enrolled in the S-rank." Kal chuckled in response.

"Yeah right." Tony rolled his eyes and guards then accompanied him to his classroom.

More and more potions were being examined. Almost half of the potions went to the F-section, a quarter to the E-D section, 20 students to the C and B-section and 5 to the A-section. There was still no one in the S-section and the last remaining student was Kal who seemed relaxed as he watch the Teachers go to his potion.

"So you're the last student. You were able to make this potion in just 30 minutes and when I daw your potion, I was amazed, I could tell that it contains both healing and mana potion but the color of the potion made me more curious." Abdul said to Kal.

"Woah really? This potion has both the properties of Mana healing and Health healing? Isn't having both of them quite hard to make since both are polar opposites?"

"Hoh? If what you said is true then I'm quite intrigued to try it out." Santiago Balais spoke as he brush his beard with his fingers.

Joanna Lee opened the potion and pour some contents on it on the glass printer, light flashed on the printer and a paper came out. As Joanna grabbed the paper, her eyes widened in shock.

"Super Potion, Effects: Greater Healing, Greater Mana healing, Greater Energizer, Super Enhancer, Super Rejuvenation, Side effects:.....None." After he finished his words. The teachers were boggled in disbelief. Their jaws fell to the ground and looked at Kal as some sort of once in a lifetime genius. Even the other teacher who seemed to have been silent in the whole process had her mouth form an "O" shape.

"What's the matter? Is the printer broken? You can try the potion if you want. There are 4 of them in the table." Kal said.

"N-no problem at all... and you really did make 4 potions. Can you check this other potions too if they have the same effects as other one?" Abdul asked.

"O-of course."