"Of also like to participate in this bet."
Everyone stopped and looked at Alice in a strange manner.
"I'll also put the same thing at stake. A 1000 credits if I lose and a lifetime of slavery if you lose. Will Young Master Roger give me a favor of taking this boy if he loses?"
Hearing Alice ask for something for something from him for the first time, Roger got very happy.
His eyes done as he nodded in a graceful manner, " As Miss Alice wishes to take you, I'll have to oblige. It will be my pleasure to fulfill any of your wishes."
Roger reacted this way because he was very keen on marrying Alice. She was one of the candidates for the position of the heir of the Snow family and anyone who could may the future matriarch of the Snow family will be given a immense boost in status which would be enough to rival the city lord himself.
While it was know to everybody on the outside that Roger was the heir, infact his position was not as secured as everyone thought. It was a bloodbath in the Wade family and marrying Alice, even if she did not become the future matriarch, she would at least become a elder level figure in the family and HIV den her talent, she may even reach the grand elder level.
Roger turned to look at Xavier and said," Is lucky that Miss Alice has taken a liking to you that she is willing to keep you as a slave. If you had fallen into my hands, hmph!"
He snorted and looked away. Richard was dissatisfied with this and said," But brother..."
Roger got mad and avoided," You shut up. If you know what's good for you, you'll listen to my arrangements."
While the brothers were having their little discussion, Alice turned to Xavier and asked," What about you? Do you agree?"
"Of course!" Xavier replied with a bright smile while inwardly laughing at how easy it was too earn 2000 credits.
'While potion concocting may seem difficult, it's actually the easiest branch of alchemy. Only those idiots who have no idea about alchemy will think that potion concocting will be difficult. But for me who is well versed in alchemy, I'll easily pass the tests and then we'll see what sort of expressions they have he he he'
After half an hour, the attendant informed that the examination would start and brought Xavier to the examination hall.
Other than Xavier, there were 10 more people waiting for the exams. Most of them were around 20 to 25 years of age and Xavier was the youngest one there.
Looking at Xavier who just came in, all the other participants, who listened in on the scuffle earlier knew that he was a freshman and showed looks of disdain.
One of the participants even said loudly," Freshman sissy, you should not have should one for the exams. Not only have you offended Young Master Roger, you'll also lose your 100 credits and become a beggar."
"Would you like to make a very as well? It's just a 1000 credits." Xavier asked enthusiastically.
He turned around and asked everyone loudly," Would any of you like to bet your credits? Starting bid is just 1000 credits. Everyone don't miss a golden opportunity to get a high quality slave!"
Seeing his shimmering eyes while he advertised himself, the crowd thought Xavier was a Madman and turned around.
The man who spoke to Xavier also snorted and looked away.
The Supervising concocter came after another 10 minutes.
He looked at everyone and his gaze lingering on Xavier for a few seconds with surprise. This was the first time he saw a freshman come for the exams.
After a few seconds, he started speaking," I will be your supervisor today. I hope that you all know about concocters."
"There are basically 3 lever of concocters. They are the 1, 2 and 3 star concocters."
"Those are again divided into the sun levels that are the Basic level, Intermediate level and finally the high level concocters."
"Above these 3 levels, there are said to be the true medicine kings of our world, the Alchemists. They stand at the peak of medicine making and are one of the sacred professions in our country."
"But those individuals are just like legends, fleeing and ethereal. I've heard that only the sector capital has an Alchemist and his status is as high or even higher than the sector governor himself."
"Well we'll leave those lofty positions side for now. Let's get to our actual business."
"Today you'll be taking the exams for the 1 star basic level examination. I hope that you'll be able to pass the exams and join the concocters community."
"And one more thing, if you pass the exam, you can continue to take the exams for the next stage but those states will be free of cost of you pass. If you fail, you'll need to pay the corresponding fee afterwards."
"Now for the main exams. You'll be given 1 hour to prepare one level 1 potion and if it's at a satisfactory level, we'll give you the 1 star badge and the level we'll be allowed to you upon the purity of the potion you concoct.
"Now begin the concoction."
Everyone scurried to the tables with the ingredients. There were only 3 level 1 potions which were most common in the academy, They were the healing portion, the qi recovery potion and the strength enchanting potion.
Xavier decided to concot the strength enhancing potion. It was a very simplified version of a Strength enhancing pill he knew and by his own knowledge, he managed to improve the effects of the potion by doing some changes.
Soon 1 hour passed and the supervisor asked," Times up. So what you're doing right now!"
"Everyone bring your potion to the table and feed it to the pill beasts. After interesting your potions, the beasts will show rings. If it shows one ring, it will be a basic level potion
If it shows 2 rings it's will be intermediate level and so on."
"Now come on up and feed your pill beasts."
Everyone went forward and feed their potions to the pill beasts.
These pill beasts looked like albino ears but infact they were a whole new species of animals created by generic construction for testing pill efficacy and effect.
One by one the potions were fed to the pill beasts. Slowly 5 minutes passed by and the beasts started to shiver a little.
After a moment the shivering stopped and a the beasts began to change the colour of their fur.
Other than Xavier, of the 10 people, only 4 passed.
While those who passed were extrait and were jumping around and rejoicing, those who failed were downcast.
Of those who failed, one of them was the person who taunted Xavier at the start.
While he was in his detection, he observed that the pill beasts which Xavier used did not show any change in the fur.
He rejoiced at Xavier's failure as he would become a slave for life but soon he observed that the supervisor was looking carefully at the pill beast.
The pill beast was trembling and it got more intense with each second. The fur on its back stood up like needless.
Seeing this strange phenomenon, not only the supervisor, but even the other participants showed a hint of curiosity.
This took place for another half an hour and finally the trembling stopped. They observed the beast for a few more moments. Seeing nothing happen, the supervisor sighed.
'Sigh, for a second I thought that I could see that strange thing which the Dean said would happen if the pill beasts ate a pill of higher grade, but well, if it occurred so easily, it won't be such a matter of importance.' the supervisor thought.
A few months back, the Dean had said something about these new pill beasts which has been given, it's that once they eat a potion of a higher purity, these beasts could also benefit from the potions the same way like humans.
As Xavier fed the strengthening potion to the pill beast, and seeing the pill beast act in such a strange way, the supervisor hoped that the change might occur and if it did, it would be a meritorious deed on his part.
But seeing the pill beast become calm once more, all the hopes the supervisor had were doused.
Just as he was about to announce that the exam was over, the beast started trembling again and soon something happened which not even a single person standing th there could believe.
The pill beast which was like a rat of the size of a human hand suddenly started growing.
It he and he and finally reached the size of a human head. The pill cage which was just a little big for the beast of normal size, this new pill beast looked as if it would burst out of the cage.
Not looking the constrained feeling it was having, the beast swiped at the cage. The cage, which was supposed to withstand a strength of 50kgs bent to the point of breaking.
The supervisor's eyes shone as he observed the change in the pill beast.
Who could have known that, the phenomenon which happened only once in a thousand tried happened right before his eyes.
Like potions, pill beasts were also divided into many grades and each grade was corresponding to the grade of the potion it recieved.
After they recieved the new pill beasts and got to know about their ability to transform, they had been fed various potions to see if they could transform.
If they feed the potions of the same grade to the beasts, they didn't transform say all and on feeding a higher grade potion, they would suffer severely it in the worst case, they'd just explode.
They had wasted many herbs and beasts in the past few months doing such experiments and of all the places, the supervisor didn't think that he would see this happen at a exam for 1 star potion concocters.
This showed that the potion concocters by Xavier was at the very least was more refined than the potion made by the Dean.
Putting on an assisted expression, the supervisor said, " The exams are over. Other than the five who passed, the rest of you please go out of the hall and wait in the room beside the hall. You are not allowed to go out before given the instructions to."
The rest 6 people were a detected look on their faces as they slowly departed from the hall and entered the side room.
The supervisor turned to those who had passed and said with a smile," All of you have passed and will be a part of the concocters' community from now on."
"Now I'd like to ask if any of you wish to continue taking the examination?"
The 4 people looked at each other with pensive looks, while Xavier was smiling inwardly.
"I'd like to take the exams for a 2 star Alchemist." Xavier said with a smile.
The supervisor was not surprised. He nodded with a smile and told," If you want to take the 2 star examination right after taking the 1 star examination, you must concot the most basic bone mending potion. Are you sure you can concot it successfully within 3 tries? If not, you'll over a 1000 credits for the cost of the materials."
"I'm confident I'll be able to do it." Xavier said not trying to sound two cocky.
"Hmm, if your confident then come on, follow me to the inner hall where the exams for 2 star concocters are conducted."
Xavier more and followed in. After another hour, both the supervisor and Xavier came back and the supervisor had a shocked look on his face. It was like he didn't know what to say.
Mulling over what he should report to the Dean, the supervisor came and took all the 11 people out of the from.
Outside, there were Roger, Alice and Richard standing just behind the door.
When Xavier saw them, he thought," Were they standing in front of the door all this time or did they run here when they saw the door opening? I can't understand these young master and mistresses' need to act cool."
"How are the results?" asked Richard impatient to know the result. He then turned around and said to Xavier," And you, you better not fail. Even though you'll become a life slave for Miss Alice, she has agreed that she'll lend you to me for a few days. I'll show you what hell is then."
Hearing this Xavier smirked and flashed his academy badge. It changes its colour and soon it showed a golden star with 2 stalks of grass embedded into the star.
When the three of them saw this, their eyes widened in shock.
Richard couldn't even speak as he stuttered," That's impossible! How can you be a 2star advanced level concocter? Even my big brother is a 1 star advanced level concocter and miss Alice is a 2 star primary level concocter. You must have cheated!"
The supervisor who was beside Xavier snorted and before he could say anything, Roger shouted," Shut your ass up! This is not the Wade family, it's the prestigious Medicine Hall. Don't act imprudently!"
While Richard may not know it, Roger and Alice city knew that a 2 star concocter had a special privilege in the Medicine Hall. They could easily ban anyone from the medicine hall for life offer are unhappy and if someone was banned, they'd practically lose their life in the academy as the medicine hall will make it difficult on those who also supported the banned person.
Seeing the smug look on Xavier's face as well as the light of ridicule flashing across his eyes, Roger felt like he was being pitied by thus freshman.
A sense of rage washed over him and he said in his mind,' Good good, you keep on grinning I'll show you.'
Roger then took out his academy card and transferred Xavier 1000 credits.
Alice who was by Roger's side also transferred the 1000 credits from the best while looking at Xavier with an interesting expression.
Xavier, who was happy with just swindling 2000 credits, was just about to leave when he heard," Excuse me Xavier, can we talk for a moment?"