Clutching his acquisition from the library, Mike rushed back over to the Summoning pavilion, making it there shortly before the clock tower started chiming. Catching his breath, he caught sight of a notice posted on one of the support pillars.
It was clearly written by Madeline, since it had her lackadaisical approach to wording and structure. As far as he could tell, she'd cancelled classes because the department had called some kind of big meeting that was taking place all day today. However, she encouraged her students to practice what they've learned so far.
[You barely taught us anything, yet. How can we practice?]
It looked like there was something big going on at the moment, which involved the majority of the teachers. Thinking back to the 'mobilization exercise' mentioned earlier, he guessed the two were related. The whole thing gave him the feeling that he was going to be dragged into another major event in the near future.
[Hopefully, this isn't a precursor to being attacked by another horde of demons or something. I could use a break from apocalyptic scenarios.]
Sighing, he made his way back to the Magic Department's main campus, stopping by one of the cafeterias to get lunch, and moved into the large courtyard underneath the Tower of Will. Finding an open bench, he pulled out the book he'd picked out earlier.
"Basic Elemental Chants: Foundational Spells for the Four Primary Elements," was a thick leather bound volume that went into excruciating detail about the specific pronunciation and wording for each of the roughly one hundred commonly used Tier 1 elemental chants. Apparently, even this level of knowledge warranted special considerations, since he received a rather stern lecture from the librarian about properly taking care of the book, and ensuring that he didn't inadvertently share the information it contained to anyone outside of the University.
Mike settled down to start learning chants seriously, since he'd been slacking in this aspect lately. While he had the excuse of not wanting to call attention to himself for his ability to modify existing chants on the fly, he knew that this was the next category he really needed to improve on.
Cracking the book open, he started on Earth Magic chants, and was able to make it up to Water Magic spells before he needed to head to his next class. The chants themselves were fairly simple, and it took no real effort to learn them, especially with his Communication Magic assisting. He did run into one problem, however. Memorizing the exact wording proved difficult for Mike.
[I need to start putting together a notebook for these things. Something I can reference on the fly in the event I forget.]
Deciding that further reading could wait until he had something to record them in, Mike walked to his Chanting class, half expecting it to be canceled as well. Unfortunately, the lesson took place as usual, and he was forced to sit through the students moving from pronouncing individual sounds to stringing them together. Apparently High Elven was one of those obnoxious languages where a symbol had different sounds attached to it depending on its placement in relation to other symbols.
It gave him time to skim through the rest of his book, and get a clear idea of what sort of chants it had to offer for each element. Finally, after a painfully long hour, the instructor ended the lesson early and gave the same announcement as the Magic Theory teacher. He also made sure to reiterate about the event that was scheduled for tomorrow, and encouraged everyone to attend. Finally, he released the class after emphasizing the need to speak to their advisors in the near future.
Mike walked to Alchemy, expecting it to be canceled for sure. Once again, he was surprised, pleasantly this time, to see the class continuing, only with a senior male student leading instead of the usual instructor. Something had come up suddenly, and he was asked to fill in at the last minute.
Without anything in particular planned for his juniors, the student simply gave them access to the basic supply closet and had them perform their own experiments.
Thankfully, Lily wasn't there today. Mike could only imagine the number of casualties that would have occurred if she had free reign on the supply closet.
Most of the other students took this opportunity to slack off, throwing a few random ingredients into a pot, and using the time spent waiting to chat with their friends. Mike thought it was a bit silly to waste this opportunity, but supposed that this was a common problem among the young of any world.
Mike dug through the haphazardly arranged closet, looking for some promising materials. Picking out three, he returned to his table and laid them out. He'd located an unusual black fluid, a desiccated liver from some kind of animal, and a red mana core the size of a golf ball. Before launching into his experiment, he took some time to use Appraise on each of them.
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{Evernight Swamp Water}
Magic Material (Tier 1, Rank 4)
An alchemical material. Water drawn from the Blighted Swamp without filtration, this fluid has been aged in a mana infused cask for 100 days, enhancing its potency. As a Dark attuned material, it is commonly used in recipes that involve darkness or deception. When mixed with a mana source, this water is also known to release airborne toxins.
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{Dried Basilisk Liver}
Magic Material (Tier 2, Rank 1)
An alchemical material. Due to the Basilisk's highly toxic diet, their livers retain vast amounts of harmful chemicals in comparison to its size. Dried, this organ is most commonly used as a poison, but also sees frequent use as medicine.
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[Red Mana Core}
Magic Material (Tier 1, Rank 3)
The condensed mana left over when a dungeon monster is slain. Mana cores are categorized by color and size. Red cores are the weakest of all mana cores.
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[…..Why are there so many toxics ingredients in a beginner's class? Anyway, it looks like whatever I try to make with this stuff is going to be dangerous.]
After considering the problem, Mike decided that he would just use a basic method and hope for the best. Since he could use Healing Magic in the event he poisoned himself or others, he wasn't too worried about any accidents.
Taking the liver and the mana core, he ground them up with the mortar and pestle, creating a dark red powder that gave off a slightly acrid smell. He poured the swamp water into his pot and added the powder, replacing the lid quickly.
He was about to turn the furnace box on, when he had a sudden flash of inspiration. Using Water Magic, he added nearly a liter of pure water, enhanced with mana, before sealing the pot.
Finally he decided to place the box on a low heat, and wait to see the results. After a few minutes he grew impatient, and increased the heat. Almost immediately the pot began shaking violently. He rushed to turn the heat off, but before he could, the shaking stopped.
Curious, he cautiously lifted the lid. The pot was now full of a copper colored liquid that swirled in a slightly mesmerizing fashion.
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{Low Grade Panacea}
Alchemical Potion (Tier 3, Rank 2)
Said to have been first refined by the Star Elves, panaceas are the most well-known and well respected type of alchemical remedies. Depending on the grade, they can treat virtually any illness or cure almost any poison.
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[Alright! Looks like my Fortuitous Alchemist title is paying off.]
He quickly collected a few vials and spooned the coppery substance into them. As he was filling the fourth, he noticed a small black bead at the bottom of the pot. Suspecting that this might be something of interest, he tried Appraise.
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{Evernight Bead}
Alchemical Item (Tier 3, Rank 2)
Occasionally created when mixing potent poisons with Evernight Swamp Water, this bead is a concentration of the harmful substances used in its formation. When broken, it produces a dark cloud of deadly poisonous gas.
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[Going to have to be careful about this one. Maybe storing it in the extradimensional sack would be the best option.]
He gathered up the finished products, putting them away. He was starting to build up quite the collection of useful items.
Since he still had a little bit of time left, Mike tried a few more combinations, but was unable to make anything of interest.
When class was dismissed, he made his way over to the Martial Arts department to honor his promise to Brenden. It was the first time he visited this part of the campus.
Simple brick buildings, laid out in regular grid patterns dominated the landscape. Several training yards, obstacle courses, and vast swaths of open ground made up the rest. Apparently, the students of the department spent a great deal of time outside.
Speaking of which, as he wandered through the area, trying to locate the specific training yard that Brenden mentioned, he was attracting a lot of the wrong kind of attention.
In general this consisted of slightly dirty looks from the crimson clad youths, but every now and then he heard muttered conversation behind his back. His Detect Hostile Intent skill wasn't fully engaged, but he felt a sort of low grade hostility from the students.
Now that he thought about it, he didn't recall seeing any Martial Arts students near the Magic campus. It seemed that there was some friction between the two departments. This was somewhat disappointing to him, since he had planned on taking some Martial Arts classes in the future.
Keeping his head down, he tried to avoid any trouble.
Fortunately, he was able to locate the training yard without causing an incident.
He spotted Tal, Brenden, and Sera standing in a deserted corner of the yard. Sera was practicing with her bow, shooting at a vaguely humanoid dummy made of straw.
As he watched, she lifted another arrow, pulled it back and released, striking near the center of a painted target on the dummy's chest, placing it next to several others which were likewise embedded.
[She's really improved. I'm impressed.]
He was just about to head over and greet the trio, when he noticed a group of Martial Arts students heading that way as well. Led by a tall, blonde haired man with a cocky grin, it definitely looked like they were up to no good.
Mike had read enough books to know where this was going. However, he felt slightly conflicted. His friends had likely been dealing with this situation for a while now, but had not told him about it at all. He wasn't sure if just didn't want to bother him, or were concerned about causing him trouble, but part of him was a little uncomfortable about the idea of stepping in at this point.
Besides, as a Magic student, involving himself could cause problems for them later on down the road. Now that Sera had found herself a mentor of sorts here, he was hesitant to do anything to mess it up.
Finally, he decided he would watch from a distance, and only take action when he felt like it was truly necessary.
Wishing, once again, that he'd picked up some kind of stealth related skill, he circled the training yard until he could find a well-placed tree to hide behind.