Alchemist

"oh I see," Cadmus said, "so you went out to hunt for leader-ranked monsters?"

Arjuna nodded his head repeatedly

Cadmus narrowed his eyes in suspicion

"so you both just went out to hunt monsters randomly?"

Both Alanis and Arjuna nodded their head furiously

Cadmus looked at both of them, he let out a sigh.

"fine, as long as your safe Arjuna, but more importantly who is this person?" Cadmus looked at Alanis who was completely covered in a black cloak. She didn't say a word in fear of Cadmus discovering her identity.

Alanis noticeably froze while Arjuna covered for her

"shes my friend," he said as he looked at Cadmus "you can trust her"

Cadmus and Arjuna made eye contact for a few seconds before Cadmus broke off gave off a heavy sigh

"fine," he said, "but first you're a week behind your lessons, I think you know what that means"

Arjuna's eyes widened as Cadmus's expression morphed into an evil teacher.

"you," Cadmus said as he pointed to Alanis "you can watch, but don't interrupt us okay?"

Alanis nodded quickly and Cadmus lit up the alchemy room with a clap of his hands. It illuminated the entire room which both Arjuna and Alanis had only seen in the small amount of sunlight streaming through the window instead of the well light room right now.

Alanis saw a pure white room which was a direct contrast to the old wooden hallway that was next to it.

Various tables filled with alchemy tools neatly placed on them, from scientific beakers to grinding tools. On the very left of the room were tabled filled with various herbs, there was the golden seal which Arjuna had spent lots of time collecting and other leafy herbs.

Cadmus walked over to the front of the room where a large blackboard was placed.

He turned around to Arjuna

"Okay, so you know how a regular potion is made, simply taking the ingredients and changing them into whatever form is required from grounded to liquidized and more, then you mix them or any other instructions and then put them into the transmutation table and pour mana into it."

He looked at Arjuna expectantly

"What's the most important part of making a potion?"

Arjuna answered immediately

"its the quality of the mana and ingredients and how closely you can mix and make the potion to the exact measurement"

"yes, but with the alchemy style that you are being taught, only the quality of the mana and ingredients are required, how closely you can get to the original recipe is secondary"

Arjuna nodded and Cadmus tossed him a scroll of paper.

"learn this," he said "and make me 30 excellent grade potions of them at the end of the day if you can, ill teach you a good skill"

Arjuna caught the scroll and looked at it. Cadmus stood up and made a motion with his hand. The 3 pebbles that had enlarged into seats shrunk and flew to his hand.

He said to Arjuna as he walked out of the door

"you can use anything in the room, come to me with the finished potions when you are done"

Alanis watched the lesson with her mouth wide open.

That was a lesson? what about teaching the student how to actually do things instead of just giving them the stuff to do.

Arjuna smiled as Cadmus left the room. That was his teaching style and also why his building was the most unliked.

Cadmus believed that if you weren't able to learn something on your own such as the potion recipe in his hand, then there was no point in teaching that person.

Arjuna was totally fine with this style of teaching though, he was able to make potions and learn them by himself in peace and quiet.

He quickly analyzed the scroll

[you have discovered the recipe for the (speed potion)]

[would you like to learn the recipe?]

[yes/no]

Arjuna pressed the yes button and the piece of paper burst into blue flecks and then disappeared.

Arjuna slightly clutched his head as information flew into his brain. Unlike the other players, when Jason or anyone who had their status's in reality and in-game tied together, the information wouldn't only be implanted onto the avatar, but instead on the person's brain themselves causing pain. But each of the 3 knew that it was a worthy sacrifice and that it was only a small thing in the face of what they really needed.

So Arjuna clutched his head and tried to endure the pain as it coursed through his head like streams of fire

"Arjuna!"

Alanis cried as she ran over to him.

"are you okay?" she asked worriedly, the headache left Arjuna, and he looked up and said gently

"I'm fine, thank you though"

Alanis stared at Arjuna in disbelief, for a second it looked like Arjuna was in horrible pain, but now as she looked at him. He was back to his normal cheery but silent self.

She gave one last

"Are you sure?" as Arjuna reassured her one more time she finally went back to where she was originally leaning on one of the walls and diligently watching Arjuna again.

Arjuna reviewed everything that was in the recipe, it centered around speed, obviously, so it required Nimble Avens which originated from places that had abundant wind mana.

It also needed some goldenseal which would support and enforce the person's body just to make sure that the person who drank the potion wouldn't explode or break his own body.

Other ingredients like Cinder Bamboo, Humming Aniseed, and Lake Borage was needed. They were all required to be ground into powder, except for the goldenseal which acted as a medium for the rest of the ingredients when it was liquidized.

Arjuna gathered the ingredients that he needed in one arm after carefully selecting them from the table full of ingredients on the left and carefully placed them onto the table.

Cadmus had told him many times to treat each of the ingredients with respect.

So Arjuna did, he carefully peeled off the outer skin of the Cinder Bamboo making sure not to prick himself on the sharp little needles it had which stun like fire which earned it its name. The Humming Aniseed was already in the form of little seeds like chia seeds. He tossed them into the mortar and pestle and started to grind them.

The Lake Borage was simply a week that was found near lakes and other water sources, apparently it had the effect of increasing blood flow in a person's body.

The Nimble Avens were the most important part of the potion. As Arjuna held the green whispy like leaves, he could feel a rush of wind flowing out of them.

He carefully placed them into the mortar as as he ground them a gust of wind flew out almost hitting Arjuna. Thankfully he dodged it and within a few minutes, Arjuna had poured all of the contents into a single bottle. As he poured them in he gently mixed them with a small white stick that Cadmus had given him.

In the end, the potion after he mixed it, looked like a green glop it almost looked like puke.

Alanis held up a hand to her mouth. Trying to suppress a giggle. Was that all that Arjuna could do?

Arjuna gingerly took up the bottle and brought it over to where the transmutation tablet sat. He laid it down and placed his hands on the tablet.

He closed his eyes and focused as he let mana flow from his hands into the tablet. The mana flowing from Arjuna traveled into the tablet and lit up the various magic circles inscribed onto the tablet. Once all of the circles were lit, they all seemed to glow and focus on the bottle in the middle of the circle.

Just like the runes on the tablet. The potion also started to glow in a blue light.

A few minutes passed where Arjuna had to keep a steady flow of mana into the transmutation tablet.

It was a tense few minutes for Arjuna but finally, he lifted his hands, and in front of him sat a light green potion. It didn't look like bark anymore. Instead, it gave off the color of grass, and wisps of wind seemed to fly out of it.

A notification came up to Arjuna as he lifted his hands from the tablet and the mana finally settled down

[you have made a speed potion]

[would you like to view the effects?]

[yes/no]

"yes"

[speed potion (normal grade)]

[effect: movement speed is increased by 20% for 5 minutes]

[disription: a potion that has been made by a promising new alchemist, though he is lacking in experience and technique, all instructions were followed in the making of this potion and it will bring speed to the person that drinks it]

Arjuna got annoyed at the rank of the potion.

*Thud*

Arjuna turned around to see Alanis dropping off a huge bundle of the ingredients that were required to make the speed potion. He looked at Alanis who smiled back and pointed towards the pile of ingredients

"hurry up Arjuna you have work to do"

Arjuna smiled and grabbed the nearest goldenseal while Alanis watched him with an interested look in her eye.