We entered a very rustic cabin, benches lined the edge of the cabin with a extremely large worn sodden table in the center. All the other students were huddled around the table chit chatting waiting for the class to start.
"Hello Hello everyone, please settle down, my name is Professor Courtney I'll be your Herbalism and Alchemy teacher." The scruffy looking young woman with extremely large round glasses, spoke to the entire class.
"What's Herbalism?... is it the same as Herbology?" I whispered asking Helen.
"If Herbology means the study of plants for medicinal and alchemic uses then yes…..." she whispered back...
"Ohhh I see…" I nodded in understanding.
"So children we will be carrying on from the previous lesson." Professor Courtney said to the class.
"So we will proceeded further into healing herbs.... So who knows the best herb for healing burns with small natural healing properties?" Professor Courtney aske the class while exiting a set of doors behind her and re-emerging with a crate of a very familiar looking plant, sprouting out of soil with very thick fleshy skies leaves.
"Aloe… Professor Courtney." Calista shouted out to her as she came back into the room.
"Well done…. Princess Calista." She replied to her with a smile.
Placing the large crate on the table one by one she began passing the pots to each student. "The gel is the most important part of the plant, applying the sap on burn wounds will help heal and smooth most wounds but is extremely effective on burn wounds." She explained snipping off a leaf cutting off the skin on the flat side and proceeded to spoon out the translucent gel with a slight hint of green.
"We have this back at home.... it's called Aloe Vera...." I said to Jay watching the demonstration.
"Ohhh that's pretty handy." he replied seemingly uninterested.
"But why do we need to learn this is we have magic that can heal us??..." I whispered to him.
"Well....casting spells is taxing on the casters body... We can only accumulate and store so much Arcanum so once we have exhausted our reservoirs, we will need to rest and eat allowing our body to recover and gather Arcanum again….... So in a pickle Potions can come in very handy." he explained.
"Ohhh I see.... so that is why I fell unconscious…?" I nodded in understanding.
"Yes that was what Paul said. Plus learning and mastering spells take extremely long time and effort so some people may just forgo learning healing magic and focus on certain schools and roles." Jay added.
"Ohhh so because Daisy is learning Holy and Divine magic??... I can forgo learning to heal?..." I asked trying to understand further.
"Yeah something like that ... so instead of being a Jack of all trades you can focus on a certain role." Jay explained.
"Are you gonna learn some healing spells?..." I asked.
"Hmmm basic spells might come in handy.... but probably nothing too complicated..." he answered.
"Ohhh.... okay..." I replied.
"So children once all the flesh has been extracted from the plants store it in these glass beakers and then we will proceed to learning how to use it in medicines and potions." The professor informed the class with a smile, the whole class proceeded to follow the professor's demonstration cutting the plants and spooning out the flesh into glass beakers.
"Do you know anything about alchemy???..." I asked jay.
"Nothing at all to be honest.... it's not something someone can just pick up and experiment." he answered. "But I'm sure Helen and Grace would know.... the best alchemists are generally elves... since they are very knowledgeable when it comes to nature." he added.
"What do you mean???.." I asked.
"Well naturally elves are stronger druids and rangers.... there's something about them that allows them to communicate with nature and understand animals and stuff better the other races." Jay explained.
"Ohhh I see...." I nodded in understanding.
"For example Daisy's race Tieflings has strong connections to magic some say it was because of the blood pact made by their king ...." Jay added.
After the whole class extracted beakers full of the aloe sap. The professor began tidying up the plants into the large crate and taking it out.
"Talk among yourselves while I prepare everything we need to make use of the gel." Professor Courtney said walking into the other room and taking out several small crates handing it out to each student before returning to the other room to get more.
"Okay children, so everyone please carefully take out each apparatus" Professor Courtney instructed also taking out each piece of apparatus.
Taking out a pestle and mortar, a jar of thick yellow golden translucent liquid, a bottle of very thin brown liquid, and several smaller empty jars.
"So the first recipe will be to mix the Jar of honey and Aloe in a 1:1 ratio in the pastel and mortar, make sure both ingredients are completely emulsified. This will result in an Aloe balm the honey will act as a preservative allowing the gel to last longer." She explained with a giant smile, demonstrating the process to the class.
"Umm Emilia?... why is your badge glowing slightly??..." Daisy asked, looking down at my badge I noticed the slight blue glow.
"Ohhh it's nothing...." I replied silently pushing the badge to activate it.
"Paul..... You need to take this more seriously...." I heard Ashley in my head talking.
"You said it was just a malfunction..." I heard Paul reply to him. I carried on listening to the conversation while starting the procedure of making Aloe Balm.
"It may look like a malfunction, but it's all way too strange... to pass it off as a malfunction." He tried to explain.
"Scarlet what do you think?.." Ashley asked her.
"Does sounds suspicious... but it's alright we dealt with the problem..." She answered him.
"You both are so frustrating, how you guys are not worried that someone broke into the computer room, had a log in access to change and worse of all, and somehow added a new simulation." Ashley explained to them.
"Well..... You're the Tech guy....." Paul began to imply.
"AND that's why it's so fishy! Whoever it was has intricate knowledge of the school and how it operates enough to even hide their tracks from me!" Ashley explained.
"What do you want me to do?... Start a witch hunt?..... How do u think everyone will feel getting interrogated like a criminal?..." Paul asked.
"I think he's right Ashley...." Scarlet agreed with Paul.
"I don't even know why I try.... You're always on his side anyways." Ashley replied sounding annoyed.
"I'll keep my eyes open and watch my back from now on..... Is that alright?.." Paul asked.
"Fine I'll try and do as much as I can from my end to find the culprit or culprits." Ashley added.
"But Paul he's not wrong it's too much of a coincidence, that we were attacked for the first time in years..... And then there was a Simulation error.... and this all happened in under a week." Scarlet added.
"Is there anyone who has a vendetta against you Paul?.." Jay asked him.
"You mean who doesn't have a problem with me?... Rumoured to be the strongest of all the Sorceresses….. I'm pretty sure everyone would like a stab at me." Paul answered.
"Emilia.... I think you mixed that enough...." Helen said poking me in my side.
"Huh?.. What?.. Sorry.... I was day dreaming.." I replied to her.
"I think she meant your Aloe Balm is ready...." Grace said pointing at the postal and mortar I was stirring while eavesdropping
"Ohhh crap..." I cursed as I began pouring it out into an empty glass jar.
"Emilia?..." Scarlet asked.
My heart skipped a beat, as I pressed my badge in a panic ending my connection in the conversation, hoping that they didn't realise it was me.
"You okay???.... looked like you wasn't here for a moment..." Jay asked.
"Yeah..... Yeah... I'm good....." I replied to them.
"So next will try and make a minor healing." Professor Courtney informed us pulling out her wand and giving it a small wave, a small box containing several apparatus, magically slowly began to manifest in front of us with a blue glow. With another small wave of her wand, a small book appeared next to the apparatus.
"Please keep these books on you at all time.... it will be your Alchemy books." she instructed the class.
Picking up the book and flicking through to the contents page. It listed hundreds of potions all categorised in their own groups.... from miscellaneous, poisons, hallucinogenic, polymorphing.....
"My God there's so many.... potions...." I whispered to Jay flicking through the book.
"Yeah.... alchemy is an art...." he replied.
Looking at Daisy and Helen they both seem uninterested in Alchemy... but surprisingly Grace looked a little interested.