That's right, good, very good, excellent, that's exactly the expression I want!
After sensing Carly's emotions, Lucien's face, turned away from her, couldn't help but reveal a hint of a smile.
However, to maintain his own dignity, Lucien didn't speak, but instead continued his performance.
His right hand was steady as he poured the potion from the test tube into the bubbling crucible at an almost constant rate, immediately causing a large amount of bubbles to form within the solution.
A perfect beginning!
Lucien silently gave himself a nod of approval.
But the next moment, he noticed an abrupt change in the color of the mixed potion in the crucible, switching from the original dark green to a dark red.
"Not good, the pretreated potion sat for too long!" a pang of alarm shot through Lucien's mind.
After all, he had only just crossed over to this world not long ago; although he inherited the original owner's memories, it was quite clear that experience and familiarity hadn't been fully passed on.
With a bang—a soft explosion emanated from the crucible, followed by the rise of thick black smoke.
Lucien: ...
Carly cautiously observed Lucien's now somewhat unpleasant expression, feeling like her luck was exceptionally bad.
"Cough, it's a minor issue." Lucien took a deep breath, no longer caring about mourning his potion, but instead looked at Carly with some curiosity, his eyebrows soon creasing slightly, "Is it just you?"
"There's... there's one more, they might... might be a bit slower," Carly thought of Yellen, who had run off with the third-level wizard apprentice, and hesitated a bit before saying it with a bit of tact.
"I see, well, just sit for a while then, and we'll start the first lesson together in a moment; it's also more convenient this way." After pondering for a moment, Lucien waved his hand gently, and instantly a chair flew out from the storage room in the back, landing sturdily in front of Carly.
"Should I do something, teacher?" Carly appeared somewhat restless, especially after seeing Lucien slowly clean up the waste from the physical potion he had just concocted. Hesitating, she finally mustered the courage to speak up.
Lucien regarded the girl who was nervously clutching the hem of her dress, then looked at the "scene" in front of his desk and couldn't help but laugh, "All right, you clean it up. I'll also teach you how to clean these potion-making instruments; you might need to know this in the future."
"Ah, yes." Carly hurriedly stood up, then scampered over to Lucien's side, holding her breath as if a larger breath would disturb him.
"Nervous?" Lucien asked the slim young girl, who couldn't have been older than eleven or twelve, offhandedly.
"No, not at all!" Carly instinctively stood at attention, her hands awkwardly clenching the fabric at either side of her dress.
Looking at her like this, Lucien suddenly thought of that "My name is Not Nervous" man from before he crossed over.
"This is actually quite similar to washing dishes, of course, you need a little bit of skill; otherwise, you might damage the instruments." After a brief demonstration, Lucien had Carly start cleaning from the simplest test tube.
"Okay, I'll give it a try..." Carly was competent, her movements deft.
Lucien nodded slightly and began to clean the crucible himself—it still contained a substantial amount of waste. As this is a source of "contamination" to a new blood who had yet to formally set foot on the path of wizards, he needed to handle it himself.
"Why hasn't he arrived yet?" The cleanup had finished a while ago, but the other apprentice still hadn't shown up, which caused Lucien's brow to furrow.
Although he considered himself to have a good temper, being stood up for close to two hours by a student who had not yet officially become his apprentice still made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.
After all, he was planning to quickly bind a student and formally activate his system!
"Mentor…" Carly, noticing Lucien's increasingly gloomy expression, hesitated for a moment before she was about to say something, when suddenly, a loud and careless voice came from outside the door.
"Lucien!"
Carly closed her mouth.
Lucien's brow furrowed, and with a wave of his hand, the laboratory door opened. Then, he saw a Third-level Wizard Apprentice, also cloaked in a black Wizard Robe, striding in from the corridor outside.
"Nolian, what is it?" Lucien looked at the newcomer, his eyebrows slightly raised.
According to the original host's memory, this was a Third-level Wizard Apprentice whose combat ability was not inferior to the original host's, and he likewise had a Formal Wizard as a mentor backing him. However, Nolian and the original host were just acquaintances with an average relationship, with even a few minor conflicts between them.
Carly shrank her neck, recognizing the newcomer as the Third-level Wizard Apprentice who Yellen had just gone after, so she had roughly guessed what was about to happen.
"A small matter," Nolian smiled. "A newbie is very eager to learn from me, but when he was choosing his mentor earlier, he accidentally chose you instead."
"How about this, we do it by the book, you hand over the little guy to me, and I'll give you compensation of equal value. Hmm, just an average talent, nothing rare. How about… one Magic Stone, what do you say?"
Nolian smiled, not caring at all about Lucien or Carly next to him, and even gave Carly a meaningful glance, leaving a significant look.
Clearly, Nolian didn't care about the seriously injured Lucien at this moment; if not for the academy's rules, he likely wouldn't even be willing to offer that one Magic Stone.
Lucien's pupils slightly constricted.
One Magic Stone!
This was the threshold for a formal "transaction" within the academy.
In other words, if it weren't for the transaction to be officially established, the other party likely wouldn't even be willing to offer that one Magic Stone!
This was taking advantage of his injury to bully him and snatch away his student!
The change in Lucien's gaze was naturally noticed by Nolian, but he didn't care at all.
After all, even at his peak, Lucien was only comparable to him, and he was certainly not afraid of offending a Lucien who was now seriously injured.
The Wizard World is indeed a place where the strong prey upon the weak.
Lucien was injured and weakened, so upon spotting the opportunity, Nolian naturally wanted to tear off a piece of flesh!
Otherwise, if he waited too long, there might not even be any bones left.
Lucien took several deep breaths, looking at Nolian with his somewhat mocking smile, recognizing that this was the cold law of the jungle, the rule of Wizards.
Still, there was some unwillingness in his heart.
After all, he had just spent twenty Magic Stones for this very cause. That was a significant amount. Keep in mind, the Magic Stones he had left were now fewer than twenty!