Alchemics.

After spending the last of the money left in his possession, Jez had finished purchasing all of the supplies he required for classes. He had then spent the rest of the week reading through the course material and memorizing the location of the various classes on the premises. The week gradually was brought to an end, leaving Jez to stare at the ceiling of his room and contemplating his schedule for the next few months. His first class of the day would be Alchemics and he hoped he didn't have to lug the heavy pill furnace and draft caldron to class every day, that was something the guard captain wasn't cruel enough to do.

It was early morning and Jez had already gotten ready for classes and dressed in his uniform, the set of empty vials slid into there slots and a medkit placed in the pouch underneath his right arm. He pined his badge on and set a small knife into a wrist holder hidden in his sleeve, it had become a habit. Jake was still preoccupied with the entity, for the first time in at least a few months, he was completely alone. It was a strange feeling, but not an unpleasant one. He finished preparing and stepped up to the door of his room, took a deep breath and made sure he had accounted for everything, before pushing the door open and stepping out. Once he shut the door behind him, he navigated the halls of the dorm before reaching an exit, leaving the building, and breaking into a light jog, the Alchemics classroom was on the far side of the school, requiring a hefty walk to the classroom. The sun was starting to crest above the horizon and send rays across the center spire of the academy, as the sun continued to rise and illuminate the city, an old woman started to wake in the Alchemics building. Her build was thin and fragile, the effects of time evident on her grey hair, her face was wrinkled with lines born from smiles, she had an aura of calm and care. She got up and prepared her breakfast and was looking out the window of her room, the sun had started to crest over the inner wall. When she finished, she stepped out of her room, the door had a sign on it with the name "Clarise Sulivan". Clarise was the Alchemics instructor and had been working in the academy for over 20 years, as a nurse assistant at first before graduating to campus apothecary, she eventually retired and became the Alchemics instructor. She started to dig out her papers and the topic she had planned on teaching her class. When she stepped into the lab, she noted that there was already a handful of students present, there was three total all of which had spread out across the classroom. Ms. Sulivan decided to gather up this group and make them into one team, she had decided to split her class into groups of three or four and this group of early birds looked just perfect to form a group with. "you three, come here." she spoke out with a soft voice, the words weren't loud but because of the dead quiet of the room, all three of the students had no problem comprehending her words. Jez was a member of the group and got up to gather with the other in front of the teacher. "Since all of you are early, you three will be a lab group," commented Ms. Sulivan, "But we don't even know each other names yet," protested, his Badge read Marek B and it depicted a tree with a halo above it, meaning he practiced life and light-based magic. Ms. Sullivan proceeded to walk over to her desk while responding, "class doesn't start for another thirty minutes, you have plenty of time to get acquainted with your new partners," before sitting down in front of her desk and starting to read the paper she had with her.

The three people walked to a table and sat down around it, Jez introduced himself first, "Hello My name is Jez Terask, as you can see I practice fire and metal magic," this was quickly responded with a, "why are you learning medicine, your magic isn't suited for healing at all,". The quick jab was courtesy of Marek but before Jez could defend himself, the third member of the group raised his badge which depicted an ingot with the engraving of three swirls on it, a practitioner of wind and metal, along with the words David L. "you could bind a wound together with a piece of wire couldn't you?" he rebutted before adding "Names David Lapshaw, pleasure to meet you". Both David and Jez stared Marek down until he eventually gave and introduced himself, "My name is Marek Bilinski, I really don't mean to be rude or inconsiderate, I was just wondering aloud," he said in his own defense. The three of them talked about what they knew about the class until more students slowly worked there way in, in total the number of students taking the class was around 20 or so strong. The first group formed by David, Marek, and Jez sat close together at the front of the class. Ms. Sulivan stood at the front of the class, the room had a design similar to that of an amphitheater, Ms. Sullivan stood in front of a chalkboard with three outlines of a human body.

She started her lecture.

"Alchemics is the distribution and delivery of magic and substances throughout the body using chemicals. Because of this, the field could be seen under the category of enchanting and less under the field of healing. As you are adding an enchantment to a chemical that then caries that enchantment to the part of the body it is needed. It is like storing a bit of your magic to use when you are incapable of normal casting."

Finishing this statement, she swept a gaze over the students and when she felt that everyone had understood her statement, she focused her attention on the chalkboard.

"Different injuries affect different parts of the body and require a different chemical that can affect that area. A gash on the leg won't be treated effectively by a pill meant for a gut wound and vise versa. That being said, there are three main ways to deliver a remedy, direct internal, direct external, and indirect."

While she said this she wrote the words out above the human outlines. She then stepped back and shot another glance across the class before returning and standing in front of the outline with the words "Direct External".

"We will start with Direct External, as it is the simplest and easiest to understand. Direct External is the use of chemicals that can permeate the skin and affect the tissues directly underneath. these treatments are highly localized and are mediocre in their efficiency. The benefits of this type of drug are that it will be fast and easy to synthesize and will have little to no side effects. The bad part is that it takes its time to do its work. Examples of these would be your balms, gels, lotions, and even bandages could be enchanted to do this, take for example the trauma bandage in the medkit under your shoulders. It has a simple nature and metal enchantment that makes a thread of silk fused to an iron needle that quickly stitches a wound shut."

Ms. Sullivan quickly sketched out a lining on the outside of the human outline and drew arrows pointing towards the center of the outline. Before walking over to the outline with the words "Indirect" over it and started to explain.

"Indirect is the next as it requires more delicate preparations and in most cases, needs to be custom made to each injury. However, indirect has a wider area of effect that includes anything that doesn't directly connect to deep tissue like the brain or bone marrow. Drugs using this vector are eaten or inhaled and are absorbed into the bloodstream from there. They usually have poor efficiency as the body will naturally destroy or isolate them. This means that the drug would have to be given multiple times in a higher quantity. However, the benefit is that the drug stays in the system longer."

After she quickly sketched out a stomach and lungs in the outline, before drawing a bunch of arrows out from those two organs to the rest of the body. She then stepped forward and to the last outline.

"The last one is called Direct Internal, this is the last resort. This method will result in a massive amount of negative side effects and we won't be going into it yet but understand that this type of drug would be injected directly into the bloodstream."

Ms. Sullivan then proceeded to write out a small list of chemicals on the board and said, "These are some basic chemicals that are used in Direct external drugs, we will be exploring the use of an easy one to work with and use, Capsaicin". She finished with a wicked smile.