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I want to apologise for the lack of Chapters due to exams. However, I am happy to announce that my exams are officially over. The release rate will come back to regular, and I will compensate the lost Chapters. Not a single Chapter will go unaccounted for.
Thank you for all your support and love. It means a lot!
Chapter 23: Group Project (2)
Time flew by, and several weeks passed.
“Baek Yu-Seol. What did I tell you? Don’t use materials you aren’t supposed to,” said Professor Maizen, pointing at the potion on Baek Yu-Seol’s workstation.
Bubble! Bubble!
"I modified your formula slightly, Professor, and it resulted in something even better."
“What?”
“Look. By using tomato ketchup instead of red iodine juice, the detoxification effect is nearly doubled.”
“You’re…”
Maizen checked the potion and bit her lip as if trying to find a retort.
“Why do you come to the academy if you’re just going to do whatever you want?”
She had a point, but Baek Yu-Seol’s goal was to hurt Professor Maizen’s feelings. He had no intention of changing his behavior.
That was because the boss of [Episode 8 Dark Magic Corruption], which would occur later, was none other than the professor.
The fourth episode hadn’t even begun yet, but he needed to prepare beforehand. After all, she was an exceedingly powerful and dangerous boss.
[Maizen Tyren]
[Progression of Dark Magic Corruption: 21%]
[(Inferiority, Jealousy) Dark Magic Contractor]
[Professor of Alchemy]
[Episode 8 Boss]
[Dark Magic Transformation Confirmed]
Maizen was one of the villains who later became a dark mage after being unable to overcome her negative feelings.
If the Dark Magic Corruption, where emotions were slowly overwhelmed by darkness, exceeded 90%, she would completely transform into a complete Dark Mage.
Baek Yu-Seol could tell because of Sentient Specs, but there was no way to prove it, so he could not report it to the Dark Mage Extermination Squad who hunted down and executed mages consumed by dark magic.
Therefore, he purposefully provoked her instead. That way, he could raise the professor’s corruption level rapidly. Once it reached 50%, the effect would be noticeable but not too dangerous, and he could call the Dark Mage Extermination Squad.
‘If it were a typical dark magic corruption, there’d be a way to reverse it before the full transformation...’
There were numerous ways to undo the dark magic corruption before it reached 70%, such as drugs, magic, or voluntary awakening.
However, Maizen was a dark magic contractor. By voluntarily making a pact with the dark mages, she had willingly offered herself to the darkness.
Her body already contained the seeds of a dark mage, and it was already impossible to get rid of them.
Not only was she going to become a dark mage, she was going to become a boss who threatened Stella with an ability that affected other students and turned them into dark mages.
To avoid that, he was trying to draw her attention to himself, intending to minimize collateral damage.
Of course, the chances of that were pretty low.
In that episode, many characters were seriously injured. The worst-case scenario would be an immediate bad ending, so he decided to give it his all to prevent it.
“Your attitude hasn’t changed. Expect to get low grades in alchemy.”
The professor’s decision to bring up grading issues was natural in some ways.
What else could the professor do if a student was disobedient?
Still, Baek Yu-Seol’s grades were good in all other subjects, and since his goal was to graduate without academic warnings, getting poor grades in alchemy was not a big deal.
'Now that I think about it, since there’s no way I’d get good grades anyway, why should I do alchemy assignments? Wouldn’t it be better if I spent my time building muscles instead?'
Unfortunately for him, things didn't go as planned.
“There will be a practical exam next week. You will make a D Vitality Potion. It’s possible to prepare it quickly if you combine everything you’ve learned. However, the ingredients are many and the process is complex. Therefore, this practical exam will be done in groups of four. Find friends you want to work with and form groups now.”
Baek Yu-Seol couldn’t help but be perplexed by Professor Maizen’s words.
Group Project.
One of the greatest punishments a professor could inflict. But there was another reason for his dismay.
‘A group project...? Was there anything like this in the game?’
There wasn’t.
No matter how much Baek Yu-Seol thought.
Maybe because the game needed to progress quickly, trivial stories like group projects were not included.
Was this the difference between the game and reality?
‘Is there anything like this in the original novel?’
Baek Yu-Seol secretly glanced at Flame, but her dissatisfied expression made her thoughts completely unreadable.
'Ugh, what's with this group project…?'
As he glanced around, the students slowly averted their gazes.
"Hehehe. Is that guy going to end up working alone?"
"No way. Even if he has no friends, that’s too much."
Baek Yu-Seol heard a low sneer. They were students of Jeremy’s faction. After beating Morso in practice, their jeers had become even more severe. Even Professor Maizen was bullying him using his personal network.
No one would dare approach him first, fearing the professor and the crown prince's group.
The students began to form their own groups, and while they were busily wandering around, he had nowhere to go.
About ten minutes later, Professor Maizen said, “The groups are almost complete.”
Four people were left behind, while 11 groups had been formed.
“The students who were unable to form a group, come here.”
‘Phew.’
As he slowly moved to the desk located at the back, the students without friends like Baek Yu-Seol gathered.
The remaining students were Kasahun, a boy with brown hair and a face full of freckles; Maliwan, a boy with chubby cheeks; Eisel; and Baek Yu-Seol. As it turned out, Eisel didn’t have any friends either.
The death of Eisel’s father, Grand Duke Isaac Morph, was not widely known among the public.
A dreadful rumor spread worldwide that Isaac Morph, a descendant of the Great Morph who was once a hero to mages, betrayed the magic world and turned into a dark mage.
Of course, it was a false rumor, but no one could uncover the truth, and in the end, Eisel was firmly branded as a traitor’s child.
It was only natural that there were no people around her.
‘The other two… Well, it’s just their personalities.’
Baek Yu-Seol had no idea who Kasahun was. His attitude seemed noble, but he must have been bullied for not letting go of his personality after entering Stella.
However, he knew the boy named Maliwan well enough. He was not a significant character and played no part in the story, but Baek Yu-Seol remembered him being quite good at alchemy later on.
Baek Yu-Seol greeted as brightly as possible, “Nice to meet you. I’m Baek Yu-Seol.”
The two boys grew even more gloomy.
Once again, he was made aware of his circumstances.
There was no point in trying hard because the group would receive many deductions just because it had him.
They had been working hard for their own grades, but in the end, they were stuck with him.
‘How do I do this…?’
To Baek Yu-Seol’s dismay, an awkward atmosphere quickly formed around them. Unexpectedly, it was dispelled by Eisel.
"Are we going to sit here awkwardly? Why don’t you introduce yourselves? You all know my name, right?"
The two boys nodded awkwardly.
"Ugh, seriously. Are you really acting pathetic because of grades? As long as you do well, your grades will be fine, so stop whining."
“What do you know? Our group is already doomed. Let's all just work individually.”
Kasahun bluntly refuted, but Eisel only snorted. “Giving up before even trying? How did you get into Stella? You’re hopeless.”
"What did you say?"
“I know having this guy in the group is very annoying, right?”
'I’m sorry about that.'
“But it doesn’t matter. After all, at least three alchemists from the Alchemy Castle will come to examine the alchemy practice test. Professor Maizen can’t arbitrarily ruin our grades.”
“Oh…”
Baek Yu-Seol had no idea. The other boys looked surprised too, and Eisel flicked her light blue hair behind her back as if proud of herself.
Baek Yu-Seol believed he had read somewhere that ‘intel’ was the most important thing to Eisel, who had lost everything.
As Kasahun became silent, the quiet boy named Maliwan slowly opened his mouth. “Well then, are we gonna give it our best?”
“Do I have to say it twice?”
“I’m glad. Let’s do this.”
“I’m glad you’re motivated.”
And then she looked at Baek Yu-Seol for no reason.
‘What? Does standing still mean I’m not motivated? I’m just enjoying watching you guys work hard.’
“Hmm, then how are we going to gather the ingredients?”
“Of course, each of us has to get some.”
Alchemy materials were difficult to procure, and the processing was complicated. It was a lot of work, and thus, the tasks would need to be divided among the team members.
“Then… What ingredients do we need?”
Baek Yu-Seol thought about pretending to know it, so he searched for the ingredients of D Vitality Potion with Sentient Specs, but Eisel opened her mouth first.
“Twenty severed tails of a fire-attribute lizard, 300ml of iodine solution, seven grams of pure silver, ten grams of fairy grass, pine needles…”
The ingredients’ names flew out of her mouth. Unlike Baek Yu-Seol who had to search for it, she had it all memorized.
Indeed, one of the characteristics of Eisel was [Versatility].
Whether it was magic, alchemy, politics, business, or stocks, she was a woman who was good at everything. In a sense, she was more impressive than Ma Yu-Seong and Hae Won-Ryang.
“Honestly, these are ingredients that aren’t difficult to find in Arcanium’s market. You’ll all be able to get them, right?”
The boys nodded their heads, but they seemed wary of what they would be asked to get.
Because among those materials, some were difficult to obtain even in Arcanium.
“First of all, who’s going to get the fire-attribute lizard’s tails?”
This ingredient was in the monster corpse category.
Even if a person memorized the textbooks, identifying good materials from actual monster corpses was difficult. Since the quality of the finished potion depended heavily on the monster materials, no one wanted to take the responsibility.
Baek Yu-Seol raised his hand without hesitation.
“I’ll get it.”
Eisel narrowed her eyes and questioned his confidence.
“You know that monster corpses are the most important thing in alchemy, right?”
“Of course.”
“To be so confident means something. Can I trust you?”
“It’s no problem.”
Eisel nodded her head reluctantly.
'Wow, this little girl doesn’t trust people.'
It was true that selecting materials was difficult. If it wasn’t for the analysis function of the Sentient Specs, Baek Yu-Seol wouldn’t be able to pick them out easily.
In truth, he didn’t plan to use the Sentient Spec.
‘It’s just a fire-attribute lizard. I’ll just have to catch it myself.’
He was already thinking about getting them fresh from the source.
Meanwhile, Professor Maizen Tyren had gone to see a certain student.
“Herick. Will you send this note to the first-year C group alchemy students?”
Maizen Tyren handed the note to a student named Herick. The content of the note was nothing special.
[Notice: The practical exam task has been changed from 'D Vitality Potion' to 'Tyren Point Potion.' Please take note of this change.]
A very simple statement about changing the subject of this exam. The new assignment, the Tyren Point Potion, was a vitality supplement developed by Professor Maizen Tyren. The concocting method could be easily practiced by students with available materials.
“... Except for Group 12.”
“Huh?”
At Maizen’s words, Herick looked puzzled for a moment before smiling. He immediately realized that Baek Yu-Seol and Eisel belonged to Group 12.
“Hehe, of course.”
Herick was a student of the Jeremy Faction, so he quickly recognized Maizen’s intentions.
'So, she plans to completely sabotage them during the exam.'
The practical test was unconditionally supervised by a professional alchemist from the ‘Alchemy Castle’.
Since Stella was not a professional alchemy training institution, it was intended to easily open an avenue for transfer or employment after graduation if a student with outstanding talent in alchemy appeared in the academy.
Thinking about it positively, it was a chance that could give an alchemist wings in his career, but…
On the other hand, if you messed up in front of them, it meant that your path as an alchemist was more likely to be blocked.
‘Yes, your alchemy is amazing. But in the end, a student ought to behave like a student.’
No matter how brilliant a student was, they were still playing in the palm of the professor’s hand. This was the perfect chance to make that crystal clear.