Mosido, Sain's mentor, had arranged for him to take a half-year leave in order to focus on meditation and building up his mental power and magic spring.
During this time, Sain didn't hastily learn anything new, since his mentor's attitude suggested that time was tight.
Half a year was not enough time for Sain to make significant progress in any particular magic.
Instead, the fastest way to improve his strength was to focus on enhancing his mental power and magic spring.
During this same half-year, Sain discovered that the academy's public courses had been suspended.
Junior and novice apprentices could only obtain limited knowledge from the public library, but how much integral points could they afford to spend?
With the impending change in half a year, it's likely that these low-level apprentices had been abandoned by the academy's formal Dark Magicians.
In order to help the academy place the "Portal Generator" in an unknown dimensional space, as Mosido had mentioned, at least advanced apprentices and quasi-Magicians would be needed.
Even intermediate apprentices like Sain would likely become cannon fodder, let alone those with even weaker abilities.
During this half-year, Sain had multiple discussions with Lena about the dimensional space.
Lena had already obtained relevant information from her mentor, Ferena, before Sain could even bring it up.
However, Lena didn't know as much as Sain did, such as the "Portal Generator" and the threat from the surface.
Sain ultimately decided to share this information with his two close friends, Merry and Bosch.
Upon hearing the news from Sain, Bosch was taken aback, as he had no prior knowledge of it.
Although it was only half a year in advance, the time difference was enough to put Bosch ahead of most of the low-level apprentices.
If there were to be any crisis in the future, he would have a higher chance of survival.
Sain was somewhat surprised that Merry, who had Dark Magician Dirth as her mentor, was completely unaware of what was about to happen in half a year!
It was clear that Master Dirth valued Merry far less than Mentor Mosido valued Sain.
Even the seemingly unapproachable old witch Ferena had informed Lena of some relevant information, unlike Dirth, who completely kept it from his apprentice.
Of course, it was also possible that Merry's strength was too low, and as a mere low-level apprentice, she might be even more cannon fodder than Sain when the time came.
Dirth had more than one alchemy apprentice under him.
Even if they were lost, this viperous beauty probably wouldn't have any heartache.
Half a year passed in this tense and eerie atmosphere of the academy.
Although only a few middle and advanced apprentices, including Sain and Lena, were initially aware of the situation, with the passage of time, some scattered messages and rumors gradually spread throughout the entire academy.
Although it didn't cause panic, a tense atmosphere pervaded the entire academy.
All the apprentices were doing everything they could to improve their strength or increase their chances of survival.
It was also under these circumstances that Bosch's magic shop was almost overrun with customers.
Even Merry received a large number of orders for low-level and intermediate potions from apprentices.
Because of Sain's advance warning, Bosch had been hoarding a large amount of low-level magical materials and potions with his own money during this time.
Before the crisis could arrive, Bosch ultimately chose to risk his life for nothing.
He had not sold any of the magical materials or potions that could be used, but had left them behind or given them to Merry and Sain, who could better utilize the value of those magical materials.
The fat man even managed to find a pretty decent Intermediate magic item somewhere, a cloak that could provide an Intermediate magic - Wind Walk, greatly enhancing his survival abilities.
Merry's decision during this half year was somewhat unexpected to Sain.
Merry spent most of her time honing her skills in potion-making, besides practicing the enhanced version of Minor Fireball Spell with Sain as a last-minute attempt.
Over the years, despite remaining at a low-level as an apprentice, Merry's aptitude in potion-making was truly exceptional.
It was no wonder that Dark Magician Dirth had taken notice of her during her early days as a low-level apprentice.
A year ago, Merry could barely create an Intermediate Restoration Potion, but she had since learned and mastered Intermediate Antidote and Vitality Potion, both of which were of the same level.
While Intermediate Antidote spoke for itself, Vitality Potion was a rare concoction that helped magic apprentices rejuvenate their spirits and enhance their Meditation efficiency.
Sometimes, after an exhausting day and night of experiments and research, a swig of Vitality Potion could restore their wilted spirits in no time.
However, compared to restoring spirits, both Sain and most magic apprentices were more concerned with the effects of Vitality Potion on increasing their Meditation efficiency or even accelerating their Mental Power recovery.
With the dual benefits of Vitality Potion and Acidic Wand of Strength, even though Sain was only an Intermediate apprentice, he could rival the endurance of an average Advanced apprentice when it came to sustaining magic spells.
Of course, Merry did not sell the potions she made.
Instead, Sain, Lena, Bosch, and Merry formed a stable cooperative group, each of them playing a unique role.
While Lena was the strongest, Bosch and Merry had their own strengths.
As for Sain, after relying on Merry's Vitality Potion to engage in high-intensity Meditation for several months, he poured his heart and soul into creating three pieces of equipment of excellent quality in the last two months.
One of them was a black stone necklace that could accelerate the user's ability to channel Dark Element power, which Sain made for Lena.
It was a small treasure among low-level magical items.
Lena's proficiency in magic made it clear that equipping her with lower-level offensive spells would not provide much improvement.
Instead, a functional black stone necklace would be more useful to Lena than a typical intermediate magic prop.
Sain crafted a pair of Feather Walk anklets imbued with low-level magic for Bosch, who was on the heavier side.
Initially, Sain had planned to create an offensive magic item for Bosch, but the latter knew that even with an additional offensive spell, it would not be much help to his overall strength and survival chances.
Thus, a life-saving item that could enhance his escape ability, coupled with his cloak, was a better choice.
The Corrosion Staff, the highest quality magic item that Sain had made in the past two months, was gifted to Merry, who provided Sain with various potions despite being weaker in terms of magical abilities.