"Ahem," the teacher didn't press further as she began explaining today's class.
"Today, we'll be talking about the properties of the Drakebane grass, who can tell me what is Drakebane?" Cymoria asked.
Kassandra was the only student who raised her hand.
"Kassandra, go ahead," the teacher said as she nodded toward her.
"Drakebane, or the Dragon-scourge, is a rare herb that grows in hot environments. It has a growth cycle of ten years, before it reaches maturity, and has a single-day timespan for harvesting. The plant releases all its spores to propagate during that day and will wither the following day. And the reason it's potent against dragons is that it's able to burn their mana rapidly and exhaust them." Kassandra said.
"Good answer," the teacher nodded, "But there are a few misconceptions that most books don't talk about," the teacher said. "Anyone?" the teacher asked as she looked around.
Ludwig had no idea what they were talking about, he wasn't interested in alchemy after all, and from what he read, nothing had come in close to that subject, so like everyone else in the class he just sat waiting for someone to answer.
"Right, first things first, Drakebane is called that way because of a specific reason. Draks are not dragons, otherwise it would have been called Dragonsbane. The property of burning mana is true and very effective against Draks. They aren't true dragons after all and their mana is a mix of both natural and true dragon mana. Draconic mana is incredibly pure and chaotic and can easily neutralize Drakebane. And finally, Drakebane can be grown at a faster rate than the natural ten-year cycle. And we have some of it available right here," she said as she pointed at everyone's desk.
"Under your desks, there is a small lab kit, please pull it out," she said.
Ludwig did as told, and pulled a small black box up placing it on top of his table.
The box opened up revealing a magic circle in the middle of the box as it spread apart to form a hardened rectangular table.
There were several closed vials on the table and multiple strands of different grasses neatly assorted on the alchemy table.
"This is a basic alchemy table that anyone can obtain. Now, what I want you to do is to follow me in creating a Sundering Potion. This potion uses the properties of Drakebane which burns mana and is further amplified by some of the herbs that are in front of you," she said.
"But teacher," one of the students said.
"All of these herbs look similar…"
"That's why we're doing this experiment. After all, we studied about all of these herbs during the semester, I expect you to have done your homework and learned the properties and the differences between all of them…" she said.
"But…" he said in a defeated tone but the teacher ignored him.
"Now, students, first things first, light up your alchemy circle by simply injecting your mana into it." She pressed her palm on the table and immediately the circle on her own table lit up in a blood red hue.
Ludwig was a bit confused at first, he didn't study any of this, and compared to the rest of his class he was clearly behind them all. He didn't understand anything in front of him, nor did he recognize the hers. The guy who spoke earlier described Ludwig's situation pretty clearly.
But, he wasn't someone who'd easily give up, after all, Ludwig's eyes were focused on the teacher as he muttered, [Trace]
Immediately, a faint holographic appearance of his own body appeared in front of him, alongside with several pieces of side notes for information's.
[Inspect] has activated.
***
❖ [Flaming Lotus 🔥] A toxic herb that can cause blisters and high temperature rise once consumed unprocessed. It is also an alchemically used herb that can increase the temperature of materials once alchemy is applied.
❖ [River Side Grass ☘] normal grass that can be found anywhere in the world alongside rivers. It holds no special properties.
❖ [Drakebane ☣ ] a flower type herb that has the properties of sundering mana. It is incredibly toxic to all sub dragon species if directly injected into their blood. The effect is incredibly minor if only the flower part of the plant is used like what most do today. The mix of both roots and the flower part increases the potency but at the same time creates instability in the potions made.
❖ [Ice Pearl 🞽] a small pearl found in the stomach of glacial clams. It holds great freezing properties and can neutralize heat once it comes in contact with it.
❖ [Unprocessed Troll's Blood 🞧] An incredibly powerful agent that can easily absorb all matters of traits into it. It has a high regenerative property and by itself can help heal wounds, though untreated it can cause many issues to a human's body. It is mainly used in creating Health and Mana potions, but is almost the number one go to when creating any type of potions.
There were several others pieces of weeds and all sort of liquids, but just these caught Ludwig's attention. Because they all seem to have a purpose.
For example, the river side grass was useless, uncompetitively so and had no properties, but it held a striking resemblance to Drakebane. and this told Ludwig that this was meant to confound and confuse the students. Along with several other herbs that looked like the Flaming Lotus, and a few vials of liquids of varying shades of blue that looked similar to Troll's blood.
The ice pearl however seemed to be there in case shit went wrong and the whole thing began to burn.
The first thing she did was hold the Ice Pearl, "In case things go wrong, throw this in your pot, it will instantly stop all the reactions." She said and placed the pearl to the side.
"We start by grinding the flower of the Drakebane, and since it's already dried up, you can simply crush it between your palms like this," she said as the material turned to powder and began falling on a small pot she had ready on top of the alchemy table.
Everyone did the same when they began mimicking her. And so did Ludwig.
He followed Trace, and grabbed the appropriate piece of grass, while many others seemed to grab the closest looking one.
"Then add some troll's blood, though this is unprocessed, it should still serve the same purpose," she said as she poured in an incredibly accurate amount and left a bit in the bottle. Ludwig noticed her carefully hiding away the bottle.
It seems that there is a need to be specific, And thanks to Trace, he managed to get an almost exact recreation of her own action.
He continued following her, and while she was adding more and more herbs, several pots began overboiling, or turning stale. Some students seeing things going ugly, immediately threw the ice pearl into their pots, making the whole thing turn to an ice sculpture in the blink of an eye.
While some blew up outright stanching up the place, but thanks to the teacher being already aware of the 'dangers,' whenever something bad was about to happen, she'd cover the pots of the students with her own mana, enclosing the explosions or the overflows.
There was nothing she could do about the smell though.
Ludwig wasn't affected by the smells, after all he was an undead, but many others threw up outright or just left the room in a rush.
The teacher paid them no mind as she continued adding more and more materials.
"Good, now if you wait for about ten seconds, the concoction you have in front of you should turn a bright yellow if it's done correctly, the closer the color it is to red the worst the quality, and the closer it is to gold the purer the quality," she said.
Everyone's who managed to follow her, or close enough seemed to have a varying shade of red, Kassandra was the only one who had an orange color concoction.
Ludwig on the other hand had a clear golden solution in front of him.
***
[You have created a potion]
[Incomplete Weak Mana Sundering Potion ☣] {Toxic for consumption}
A potion made by a novice alchemist wanna be. It is incredibly weak and serves almost no purpose. Though it is a step in the right way, if this is used on a Drake type creature it will only enrage them.
***
This notification was bothering Ludwig, not only did it say that whatever he made wasn't really that good, it also didn't pop something important in front of him.
The notification of him receiving the [Alchemy] skill never appeared.
The teacher noticed Ludwig's concoction and smiled.
But he then did something different, he grabbed the roots of the Drakebane and began grinding them.
"What are you doing?" the teacher asked Ludwig.
"Oh… I want to try something…" he said.
She frowned while everyone seemed annoyed at him, after all, for him who got the closest to the teacher's concoction he didn't need to brag some more saying he wanted to try something. He already succeeded, but most of them hoped he do so he can mess up what he created.
The teacher however didn't stop him and continued monitoring the rest of the students and taking notes of their progress.
While Ludwig grinded the roots and added them to the mix, the whole pot began burning up some more.
He then grabbed the pearl and broke it apart, and began adding smaller and smaller pieces of the pearl into the pot to lower its temperature.
Soon, however, the liquid's boiling began slowing down bit by bit and began simmering. Not only that, the color itself began changing from gold to a purer and cleaner version until it became milky white.
The solution seemed to stay stagnant at that point and only then did Ludwig receive a notification.
***
[You have created your first true alchemy potion]
[Intermediate Mana Sundering Potion☣]
A reliable potion created by an ambitious young alchemist. It boasts great effects in sundering sub-draconic species of their mana.
***
The teacher approached Ludwig and smiled, "Good job Ludwig." She said.
"But teacher…" one of the students jumped up, "He didn't follow the recipe!" he said.
The teacher turned to him and said, "Many things in alchemy are still undiscovered, if we all followed the footsteps of someone who had done it before, we'll never learn. Ludwig understood the principle behind this alchemy.
The true use of the Drakebane flower is when one mixes both the roots and the flower. For it to have maximum efficiency, but that makes the solution unstable and will burn up faster. And using the Ice Pearl to stop that reaction will instantly freeze over the entire pot.
Ludwig seemed to have realized that from watching the students who used the pearl to stop their pots from blowing up, and thus broke the pearl to pieces so he can use only bits and pieces to cool it down instead of freezing it. It takes a strong mind to do alchemy among chaos, but an even stronger mind to come up with innovative ways to succeed in creation… good job Ludwig, I'll make sure to add this to your final results. Keep it up," the teacher explained.