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C1040

At this point, the Rank 5 Artisan exam had nearly hit the ten hour mark, leaving the examinees with only two and a half hours left to realize their original handcrafted product.

On the high podium overlooking the hundreds of work stations, where Grandmaster Hazard was seen sitting, two figures walked over.

Apparently, two more grandmasters had come to the exam venue. They came to check the final results of the best apprentices of the month. Seeing his colleagues arrive, Grandmaster Hazard stood from his seat and welcomed them.

One of the grandmasters was a woman, known as Grandmaster Hypatia. She was a beautiful middle-aged woman with long white hair tied into a bun and emitting a cold but graceful aura to the onlookers.

As for the other grandmaster, Emery would certainly recognize the other party because he had seen them before in the past. Grandmaster Anmir, the one who was the examiner on the exam that Emery last took.

"Anything interesting this year, Hazard?" said Hypatia with a condescending attitude.

"Define interesting." replied Hazard in an equally superior attitude. "It's been a year since we found a real talent."

"Alright alright. We all know already. Stop bragging about your little protégé anymore."

After the short banter, the three of them made their rounds on the one hundred work stations on the premises. As Grandmaster Apothecary, with just a glance, they could already tell the level of expertise these examinees possessed.

Not finding anything notable nor interesting, Hypatia started yawning. Her facial expression screamed the boredom she felt. It went on for quite some time, until they arrived at a workplace filled with more material than they had seen from the other examinees.

"What in the world is this kid trying to do?!" said Hypatia with an incredulous look.

She spoke those words in a soft voice, but even if she didn't, the young man she mentioned – Emery – wouldn't have responded because he had focused all his attention on what he was currently doing, which was casting a spell on the plant on his workbench.

"What kind of spell is that?" said Anmir when he saw the spell causing significant changes and bringing a unique development to the plant. Curiosity was evident in his eyes.

Upon hearing the question, Hypatia expressed her opinion. "This is definitely a spell based on some theory of Physics. You can see the changes it brings in the molecular structure of the plant."

However, Anmir seemed to have a different opinion. "No, I don't think you're right, Hypatia. This is certainly a spell involving Biology. None of the energies present in the process are extraneous, they are all natural mutations."

Hypatia seemed to want to argue more, but she held back her words when she noticed something. Her facial expression turned odd. "Wait, why is this kid not using any Tier 5 ingredients? This is an Artisan exam, is it not?"

Hearing the two grandmasters' discussion about the young man he didn't like, Grandmaster Hazard became interested. He approached Emery's workstation which he had purposely neglected earlier, inspecting the residue in the two cauldrons and the two final products he had made so far.

"Tier 3, with level one originality… Nothing special here."

As soon as he said those words, Hazard suddenly felt a huge change from the plant that Emery was currently dealing with. Sensing the same thing, the other two grandmasters were also surprised. Their attention was immediately drawn to the plant on the workbench.

"The plant just evolved to a higher level!" Hypatia exclaimed, disbelief evident in her voice. "Such an amazing spell! Who exactly is this kid?"

As Grandmaster Apothecary, they had actually seen a dozen such skills, all of which were categorized as Apothecary Divine Skills. Hence, seeing this level of skill being used by an Apprentice Apothecary shocked them.

Unaware of the commotion he caused, Emery continued to be immersed into what he was doing.

Before long, the three grandmasters saw Emery finished with the plant. As he raised his head and heaved a sigh of accomplishment, he was puzzled to see the three people standing in front of his workstation.

Even though he knew who the three people were, having no time for pleasantries, Emery ignored the three grandmasters and quickly went back to his task, casting [Photosynthesis] in other plants.

Seeing his actions once again, Grandmaster Hazard heaved a sigh, before muttering under his breath, "Privileged class… huh! giving their acolytes a divine skill, and use it like this... such a waste."

After that, the three people returned to their seats. However, they – especially Grandmaster Hypatia – still couldn't take their eyes off Emery's workstation in wonder, waiting to see what outcome would come out of his efforts.

On the other hand, Emery was anxious. He was anxious because of the spell, [Photosynthesis].

The spell, essentially, worked like [Accel Growth]. However, Emery had only ever used the spell on plant seeds, never to mature plants. Therefore, it took him a while for the spell to work as he wanted. He was worried that he was wasting too much time.

[Pearl Dust Tier 4 - Mutated]

[Geranium Tier 4 - Mutated]

[Mallowsweet Tier 1- Mutated]

[Hellebore Tier 2 - Mutated]

[Newt Spleen Tier 4 - Mutated]

[Starthistle Tier 4 - Mutated]

[Vervain Tier 2 - Mutated]

[Dittany Tier 2 - Mutated]

After a while, Emery finally finished improving the quality of the 8 plants he used as ingredients for his recipe. The system classified the improved plants as mutated plants. However, Emery could tell that each plant had increased its potency by at least one level.

Unfortunately, he didn't have much time left for trial and error. He had to make do with what he has at the moment.

[1 hour 59 minutes]

Without further ado, Emery lit the fire and once again prepared the two cauldrons. Once the cauldrons reached the perfect temperature, he quickly put the prepared ingredients in it, following the recipe to the tee.

There were some mistakes occurring in the process, and Emery needed to adjust the amount of ingredients according to the difference generated after the mutation. But in the end, he managed to make two products with 90% potency.

"It's done!"

However, after being analyzed by the system connected to the institution's database, the two products were categorized as:

[Spirit Pool Potion - Tier 3 originality 2]

[Health Regeneration Pill - Tier 4 originality 1]

Emery had managed to raise the quality of his products by one level. It was a remarkable feat, considering the limitations and circumstances he was in. However, such a results was not enough to pass the Artisan exam.

Feeling slightly downcast, Emery looked at the remaining time.

[1 hour 38 minutes]

Seeing that he still had time, Emery slapped both cheeks. "Okay, calm down, Emery. You still have time." He said to himself.

With time remaining, Emery decided to look around the corner of the exam venue. Some equipment similar to the ones he saw in Cedric's lab could be seen there.

"I should give those a try."

To be continued