Nicole looked up from her papers.
A beautiful woman, with a plain yet charming appearance, entered from outside.
"Lia, you're just in time," a female student called out.
"Come and see my latest magic potion. Do you think there will be any issues?"
"I know you have the most experience with these kinds of magic potions."
"Lia, over here," another girl, her face dotted with freckles, requested.
"Could you help me refine this solution?"
"In our association, only you can purify this solution to flawlessness."
Nicole watched the girl happily blending in among the many students of the magic potion class, feeling an uneasy sense of foreboding.
Professor Palin was a staunch advocate of the resonance pill, and Lia was the disciple he most cared for.
Nicole wondered if Lia would resort to exchanging for a resonance pill.
However, judging by Lia's mastery over magic potions, Nicole felt that calling it mere talent would be an understatement.
She speculated that Lia had likely consumed a resonance pill too.
Thinking of Professor Palin's disappearance and the inscrutable attitude of the academy's higher-ups, she couldn't help but worry for this lovely girl.
While Lia was assisting her classmates, she was also searching for her own materials.
Her memory was sharp; she had very few materials on her, yet every addition she made was precise, as if calculated in advance, never wasting even a bit.
Nicole knew that these materials had to be exchanged for credits.
When Lia, through half an hour of meticulous and focused effort, succeeded in concocting a clarity elixir capable of dispelling illusions, Nicole couldn't help but marvel at Lia's success rate.
"A ninety percent success rate," Nicole noted, examining Lia's records and announced.
This achievement could rival that of an advanced potionologist, perhaps even reaching the standards of an elite potionologist.
Even Nicole herself could not achieve this rate of success at Lia's age.
"Lia, you're truly remarkable," Nicole praised sincerely, her interest piqued.
She wanted to see the limits of this girl's capabilities.
"Perhaps it's time for you to try your hand at concocting advanced magic potions."
She retrieved a set of materials for an advanced magic potion from her own storage space, looking encouragingly at Lia.
"Lia, this is a set of materials for a potent mana potion! It's in your hands now!"
"I really don't know if I can do it," Lia exclaimed, surprised as she took the materials in hand.
Though she expressed doubt, Nicole could see the eagerness in Lia, perhaps hesitant to agree outright for fear of wasting the materials on a failed attempt.
"Don't worry, just go ahead and try. If it doesn't work out, I have more," Nicole reassured her.
As a teaching assistant, Professor Palin's departure had opened up an opportunity for her to become a full professor.
"If I could mentor an advanced potionologist!"
If someone in her class could concoct an advanced, or even elite, magic potion, she was sure to catch the attention of the Resource Department.
That could very well secure her position as a formal professor.
"Just go for it, Lia," she urged, looking earnestly at Lia.
Lia no longer demurred, nodded, and took the materials to her own potion altar to begin her potion-making process.
Before long, Lia's potion station was surrounded by a group of freshmen, all eager to witness her work.
Nicole watched as Lia's delicate fingers skillfully maneuvered around the various bottles and jars, presenting a sight that was truly pleasing to the eye.
Every movement she made was executed with precision, earning Nicole's admiration.
The freshmen watching this scene couldn't help but show expressions of envy.
As time gradually passed, Lia's potion-making reached its final stage.
She needed to purify and dry the solution she had prepared over the past twenty minutes.
This process was the most challenging of all steps.
A slight lapse in attention could ruin the purified solution, making this task far more difficult than cooking.
Moreover, concocting an advanced magic potion was a step up in complexity compared to an intermediate magic potion.
Everyone watched very closely.
Due to the tension, fine beads of sweat appeared on Lia's forehead.
Another ten minutes passed, and with a clean and swift motion, she extinguished the magical flame.
The final step was a success.
A pair of pale blue powder crystallized in the cauldron.
"I was so close," Lia expressed her regret, not achieving the highest quality possible.
If she hadn't been overly nervous in the final stage, she might have been able to produce a higher quality advanced magic potion.
But now, falling just short, she felt somewhat apologetic for not living up to her teaching assistant's trust.
"I'm... I'm sorry! I only managed to achieve a standard-tier magic potion, not a superior-tier one." Lia presented the magic potion to Nicole.
However, Nicole remained still, as if she had been cast with a freezing spell.
"Successful on the first attempt, and achieving a standard-tier no less?"
Nicole was astounded!
When she first attempted to concoct an advanced magic potion, she had failed for an entire month.
Without her mentor's assistance in purifying the initial materials, she might have struggled even to produce an advanced magic potion at all.
Moreover, her first success had only yielded an inferior-tier advanced magic potion.
Despite this, it had made her the center of attention in her magic potion class at the time, the envy of her peers.
Yet here was this demure girl, managing to concoct a standard-tier advanced magic potion entirely on her own in just one attempt.
It was truly remarkable.
But then Nicole fell into a sort of melancholy.
Perhaps it was the effect of the resonance pill.
At that moment, a boy entered.
"Senior Mark! You're late and missed the birth of our magic potion class's first advanced potionologist," a girl said with pride.
The boy seemed surprised; he hadn't expected someone to beat him to it!
A week ago, he had finally felt confident enough to concoct an advanced magic potion and had planned to let everyone witness his becoming the class's first named advanced potionologist during this class.
So, he had deliberately arrived a bit late.
Unexpectedly, someone had gotten there first.
However, learning that it was Lia didn't surprise him too much.
Professor Palin had always appreciated her talent.
It seemed there was someone to accompany him on the journey to becoming an advanced potionologist.
"Lia! I knew you could do it! Keep it up!" he congratulated her graciously.
"Thank you," Lia responded softly.
Lia's reaction to his obvious attempt at closeness was rather distant.
She merely responded politely before going off to clean her potion altar.
"Pfft, what's so great about that, it's just the resonance pill at work," Mark scoffed as he took out his prepared set of materials for an advanced magic potion and began his preparations.
Instantly, he drew a crowd of onlookers once again.
Half an hour later, with a puff of green smoke, Mark succeeded in concocting a bottle of inferior-tier advanced magic potion.
He had finally succeeded! Excitedly, he presented the advanced magic potion to the teaching assistant, hoping for her praise.
However, to his disappointment, although some people were surprised by his success in concocting an advanced magic potion, it lacked the awe-inspiring impact that Lia's potion-making had generated.
Mark's expression turned awkward, the joy on his face fading.
For some reason, even though he had achieved the status of an advanced potionologist, he couldn't muster any happiness.
Instead, a subtle jealousy towards Lia simmered in his heart.
...
In the Resource Department's lobby, Benson, accompanied by two subordinates, had just returned.
The questions Nathan had posed left him feeling uneasy.
He intended to report the incident to Frank, but Frank was currently not in the Resource Department.
Hurriedly descending from the upstairs, he reached the magic potion counter and instructed his staff to remove all resonance pills from the shelves.
To avoid suspicion, he also listed three other types of magic potions for removal.
Ten minutes later, as he watched his subordinates pack boxes of magic potions into a safe, Benson secretly wiped the cold sweat from his brow.
However, the salesperson at the magic potion window was confused by Benson's actions.
"Lord Benson, the resonance pills have been selling so well, and someone just exchanged for them. Why are we taking them off the shelves?"
"Who?" Benson immediately became suspicious.
"Strangely enough, it was that warrior from the Inspectorate Department you had a conflict with! He just exchanged for two resonance pills at once," the salesperson said somewhat excitedly.
"What?" Benson suddenly felt overwhelmed, wondering if that young man from the Inspectorate Department had some sort of telepathy, acting so swiftly.
"Quick, pack up this batch of resonance pills as well," he said, fetching a box of resonance pills from his office.
"You might as well take a break, Lord Benson. What you should really be doing now is figuring out how to explain this," Nathan's figure suddenly appeared in the lobby at that moment.
Behind him, Aaron, Sophia, and Luna also revealed themselves, having deactivated their concealment spells.