"Professor Lynn, what's the point of learning all this?" Elok asked in a soft voice, looking a bit puzzled.
Elok thought that if it was just about exercising their brains, dealing with indices, square roots, and solving equations would be torturous enough.
Lynn glanced at the equally confused group and smiled before speaking, "Haven't you all been curious about how alchemy can be combined with magic?"
"Are you going to teach us magic involving alchemy, Professor?" Debra exclaimed in surprise.
The group of wizard apprentices eagerly looked at Lynn, their memories of the terrifying ice magic he had used on the training ground is fresh in their minds. Just the residual magic from his demonstration had nearly frozen their arms. They had heard that Lynn had personally developed this unique magic.
Lydia, on the other hand, pouted and kicked the table in frustration because she was the only one among them who couldn't grasp this whole magic thing.
"In a way, you could say that." Lynn nodded. He then asked everyone to leave the classroom and join him in a more open area.
Once everyone was in position, Lynn turned his gaze towards the Screaming Tower, raised his hand, and began to calculate something.
"What are you planning, Professor? Are you going to blow up the entire Screaming Tower?" Elok whispered.
"How could that be?" Pierce scoffed. The Screaming Tower was the iconic landmark of Iyeta Harbor, and it couldn't just be demolished, could it?
But when Pierce saw Lynn's serious expression, he became unsure. "It can't be... right?"
Under the curious gazes of the group, twelve Magic Missiles appeared around Lynn. Then, with a whooshing sound, they streaked towards the Screaming Tower.
As they watched, the disappointment on the faces of the onlookers was palpable. They had hoped for something more impressive. However, they still kept their eyes fixed on the trajectory of the Magic Missiles.
Was he planning to attack the top of the tower?
Elok looked up at the sky, but to his surprise, the trajectory of the twelve missiles followed a parabolic path, soaring over the tower's dozens of meters tall peak. They then descended downwards and disappeared from view.
The field fell into an eerie silence, and everyone's expressions turned strange. Elok and Debra stifled their laughter.
Failure... this was definitely a failure, right?
"Professor Lynn, that was just a demonstration, right? Should we try it again?" Jenny kindly suggested, trying to save Lynn from embarrassment.
However, Lynn's expression remained unchanged. He scanned the group of apprentices, who were barely holding back their laughter, and then looked at Elok and Debra, who were struggling not to burst into laughter, and casually said, "Elok, Debra, go to the training ground and fetch the training dummies."
"Sure thing, Professor." Elok struggled to keep a straight face, but as soon as he received Lynn's order, he rushed off. Only when he was out of Lynn's sight did he finally burst into laughter.
"Hahaha... I never thought Professor Lynn would have moments like this."
Debra also joined in the laughter.
It couldn't be helped; Professor Lynn had always carried an air of confidence, as if he had everything under control. However, today's teaching mishap was just too amusing.
"Let's hurry and get there, so we don't keep the professor waiting," Elok said, picking up the pace after a good laugh.
He was sure that the Magic Missile Lynn had cast wasn't as simple as it seemed. It was probably just a mistake, and Elok wanted to see what it would be like to combine alchemy and magic.
The training ground was quite a distance from the Alchemy classroom, situated at the far corner of the entire campus for safety, to avoid any magical accidents.
When the two arrived at the training ground, they were surprised to find a crowd gathered there. As they squeezed their way in, they were left in shock.
In front of them stood a row of decapitated training dummies.
"There are twelve of them, exactly twelve," Debra counted, and then a ridiculous idea suddenly came to her mind.
Elok also thought of the same thing and turned to the other apprentices next to him. He asked urgently, "Dakka, what happened to these dummies?"
"We don't know. Just as we were practicing our magic a moment ago, several Magic Missiles fell from the sky and struck the dummies on the head, scaring all of us," Dakka replied with a perplexed expression.
"From the sky? Do you know which direction they came from?" Elok asked quickly.
"It should be from that direction," Dakka pointed behind him.
Elok and Debra exchanged glances, and their expressions changed immediately because behind them stood the towering Screaming Tower.
Could it be that Professor Lynn, from the Alchemy classroom, across the entire tower, covering hundreds of meters without any line of sight, accurately hit the training dummies on the training ground with Magic Missiles?
How was that possible?
"What on earth is going on?" Dakka and the others, gathered at the training ground, couldn't help but ask, looking at the surprised expressions of Elok and Debra.
"If I'm not mistaken, this was probably done by Professor Lynn," Elok swallowed hard, his disbelief evident.
It was only now that they realized Lynn didn't want them to bring the training dummies for experimenting with magic. Instead, he wanted to take these damaged dummies back to showcase the effect.
***
At the same time, Lydia and the others waiting in front of the classroom were getting impatient.
Where were Elok and Debra? They were just supposed to bring a few training dummies, and yet, they hadn't returned for so long. Could they be intentionally trying to watch the professor embarrass himself?
This was really mean. Pierce couldn't help but grumble in his heart. After all, the professor always liked to throw strange and difficult alchemical questions at them.
Just as he was thinking Pierce saw Elok and Debra, accompanied by Dakka and a few others, approaching. Each of them was carrying two headless training dummies, which looked particularly eerie.
Without waiting for them to ask, Debra immediately approached Lynn, her curiosity brimming. She inquired, "Professor Lynn, how on earth did you do this? It's simply unbelievable."
"What's so unbelievable about it?" Pierce couldn't help but interrupt.
Elok didn't beat around the bush either and quickly explained what they had witnessed on the training ground. Dakka and the others also chimed in, describing how the Magic Missiles had fallen from the sky and smashed the dummies during their magic practice.