Chapter 482
Chapter 482
Young people hurried to the rack to collect the ingredients necessary for the manufacture of the medicine. Elsa noticed that the fat man took the same ingredients as she did, as if he was going to repeat her every action. He understands that alchemy doesn't work that way, right?Or do they both know the same recipe?
Shaking her head, the girl took everything she needed and started making the medicine.
Ten students were completely focused on their work.
Master Feng was watching everyone, but he was paying the most attention to Baker's actions, and the blonde noticed it. The girl was increasingly annoyed by this state of affairs. How did Dick deserve such an attitude towards himself?
The truth is that the man was simply amazed at the young man's skills. It was really impressive that he handled the tools and prepared the ingredients so efficiently, as well as the fact that his every movement was honed to perfection.
In order to become a great alchemist, it is not enough just to read books, you need to immerse yourself in experiments with your head and find patterns.
For 9 months in Cernos, Kyon completely mastered the basics of alchemy in all directions, but he could not learn how to make something really difficult, because 1% of the available elemental energy severely limited his capabilities.
An hour passed unnoticed.
«So, time is up. Put the alchemy kits aside.»
The disciples obeyed.
«It's time to check your results, but before that I want to show you something amazing… Have any of you heard of "The Legendary Lord of the Cauldron"?»
Elsa raised her hand up and after a nod of the master with genuine respect in her voice, touching her heart, she sang: «"The Legendary Lord of the Cauldron" is the pseudonym of the monstrously brilliant student Albert Clinton. They say he can make medicine with one hundred percent purity! But an even more amazing thing is that he demonstrates by his example to alchemists all over the world how limited they are in their knowledge and how limitless the possibilities of alchemy as a science are… Some of his works are unique and inimitable. Even three legendary alchemists of the first rank cannot compare with him…»
The girl was talking about "The Legendary Lord of the Cauldron" with an enthusiastic breath for about two minutes, which made Kyon feel strange. He was still mad at Stone for her recent antics, and she was probably mad at him, too. However, the lady was clearly a fan of his other personality.
«I want to become as talented as he is, or even surpass him!» – she concluded decisively.
«Your ambitions are worthy of praise, my disciple!» – smiled master Feng. – «As some have already guessed, in addition to the token, the winner will receive from me the medicine made by "The Legendary Lord of the Cauldron"!»
The students froze in amazement, their mouths open.
Elsa jumped up from her chair, and her eyes were full of anticipation. She watched greedily as the master carefully took out the box with the pill. Can she really study the treasure created by her idol – the greatest alchemist?!
Kyon scratched his temple with some embarrassment.
«This healing medicine can align the spine of any practitioner up to the noble phase inclusive. No side effects.» – the alchemist checked the pill with the device, and the number 100 appeared on top. – «As you can see, it is impeccably clean! I bought it to study it, but I couldn't find any traces of the techniques used to fuse the ingredients. Apparently, "The legendary Lord of the Cauldron" came up with his own method, unique and inimitable, and most importantly, effective.»
{Feng deservedly holds the title of alchemist of the third rank.} – Kyon nodded respectfully to himself.
«Now the medicine must fall into the hands of my best student. Or, more precisely, the winner of the competition! Let's find out who it will be!»
Elsa swallowed convulsively and looked at Dick. He is a dark horse, the only one who has at least a microscopic chance to surpass her. If he gets the pill and the token… The girl tried not to think about it.
«"Sobering Guanine" – an invigorating "С" rank medicine of average quality, not bad.» … «Oh, this is "The Cleansing Dragee" of high quality! Broad spectrum antidote…» … «"Morning Dew" of high quality, excellent work.»
Finally the master approached his best student: «The medicine of "Enzymes" for the practitioner of the royal phase with a purity of… Sixty-six percent! That's great! Elsa, you have surpassed even your master!»
«Lady Elsa is incredible!» … «A genius among geniuses!» … «Congratulations on your victory.»
Elsa proudly lifted her chin with a slight smile on her lips. She didn't expect such a result from herself either. She was strangely lucky. But now victory is guaranteed to her! Baker has no chance. She was worried for nothing.
Kyon caught his sister's arrogant look, as if saying that victory would be hers, and grinned in response.
«And now let's check the last work… So, also the medicine of "Enzymes" for royal phasers, and its purity is… Eighty-seven percent!» – the alchemist exclaimed.
When the number "87" appeared above the device, the students gasped in amazement.
Elsa reacted especially expressively: she got excited and opened her eyes wide, as if she had found out that Dick was actually a girl.
«Grandiose purity… Dick Baker made "B" rank medicine of grandiose purity!» – master Feng shouted with genuine delight.
«That is, Baker surpassed Lady Elsa?» … «Did he win?! How so?!»
«I don't believe it!» – the girl suddenly protested. – «Dick cheated somehow!»
«You offend me, Lady Elsa…» – Kyon responded resentfully. – «I tried my best, but you are dipping my work in the dirt, accusing me of cheating… Not nice.»
«Then tell me, what methods did you use?!»
Kyon looked down at the floor in embarrassment: «I only have pure energy, so…»
This time even Master Feng got excited.
The blonde jumped up and banged on the table: «I own four elements, I use dozens of methods to merge ingredients and as a result I barely reach great purity, and you, owning one element, immediately reach the grandiose one?! I'll never believe it!»
«Dick cheated!» … «Damn liar!» … «Lay all the cards on the table, fat man!»
Even master Feng had to agree with the girl's opinion. Alchemy is demanding on the mastery of the elements and their grades. Pure energy alone is not enough.
Kyon scratched his head thoughtfully: «Practicing alchemy with only pure energy is difficult, but not impossible. Yes, I can't use the techniques to merge ingredients, so I can only fuse ingredients through other ingredients.»
«So you are trying to convince us all that you have selected binding ingredients for each stage of preparation? Do you take us for fools?!» – Elsa narrowed her beautiful eyes threateningly, demanding the answer. She wouldn't believe such nonsense.
«There are too few binding ingredients known to be used in complex medicine! Tell the truth!» – one of the students intervened.
Kyon agreed: «Yes, it really is, so I had to find them myself. For example, I added dried Caribbean flies to merge stone lizard tongue powder and the pancreas of a blue toad. The perfect binder that for some reason has never been discovered before. And why? What about an alchemist's intuition? Or, for example, the coals of a fruit tree can be combined with the juice of a ischnoderma resinosum through the fried beak of a strigops habroptila. This bird just likes to eat both. But since it was about coals, the beak had to be fried… Now do you understand what the secret is?»
Elsa and the master exchanged glances, and confusion and disbelief were in the eyes of both. It is extremely difficult to open binding ingredients. If he fried the same beak at a temperature 5 degrees higher, the purity of the medicine would immediately drop by 10-15%. How did the fat man open these bindings? Alchemist's intuition? Nonsense!
«Rubbish!» – the blonde pronounced the verdict. – «Only fabulously rich fools can afford to be self-taught in alchemy! No one could provide you with the resources to search for binding ingredients, and what nonsense with one alchemical kit?! Even a child will not believe in such drivel! I refuse to accept that you are better at alchemy than me!»
Others could not understand, but now Elsa was not addressing Baker, but Stone, who could have neither the resources nor a great master to become a miracle alchemist.
«Lady. Elsa, you need to learn to admit defeat…» – Kyon shook his head.
«I know how to admit defeat! But I definitely won't lose to you in alchemy!» – the girl firmly maintained her position, not only because of the reward at stake, but also because she had already lost to Dick once in the field of "investigator". If she concedes to him in alchemy, then her pride will receive a crushing blow.
«You are positively confident in your abilities.» – Kyon grinned unkindly.
Elsa's heart stopped for a second, and goosebumps went down her spine because of the fat man's creepy smile. It seemed to her that it was no longer the feeble Baker in front of her, but the mighty father.
«Master Feng», – Lovr turned to the teacher. – «I want to prove to your student that I am not inferior to her in skill. Do you mind if we do a little test?»
«Test?»
«Yes. Let's say some kind of written test…»
«I object!» – Elsa immediately intervened. – «You are a bookworm! The fact that you are good at cramming does not mean anything! Prove your skills in practice…»
«Hmm…» – Kyon chuckled, driving the mouse into a trap, and grinned widely again. – «You suggested it yourself. Let Lady Elsa prepare any medicine that she can, and I will repeat after her. If my result turns out to be better, then she should properly apologize for slandering me by calling me a crook.»
«Ha-a-ah! Oh, my!» … «Oh, goddess, he's crazy!» … «Elsa is being challenged so insanely!»
Master Feng's eyes bulged in shock and he was speechless. Even an alchemist of the 1st rank, just reading the recipe, is unlikely to make a "B" rank medicine on the first try, but now Dick suggests repeating any medicine after Elsa, and even with a better result?! Besides, is he going to do it with his lousy alchemy kit, finding binding ingredients on the go?! The level of absurdity of this challenge defies any reasonable analysis.
Elsa was also discouraged. She believed that Dick would be scared or back down, but instead he made a supremely insane proposal. If by some miracle he manages to gain the upper hand, he will literally trample her dignity as an alchemist into the ground.
Intuition diligently prompted Stone to flatly refuse this confrontation, and the girl was about to refuse, when suddenly master Feng spoke:
«Well, so be it! My student will participate.»
«Wait, I didn't…» – Elsa began, but stopped abruptly when the surprised looks of the alchemist and his students crossed on her. Dick's look was especially infuriating, the fat man clearly considered her a coward. – «…I did not set my conditions: if I win, I will take the token and the medicine prepared by "The Legendary Lord of the Cauldron".» – she got out of the situation.
«And what will I get for winning? At the risk of sounding rude, but your demands seem absurd to me, especially in this situation where any sane person would bet against me.»
{Are my apologies not enough for you?!} – the girl thought indignantly, but did not say it out loud.
«What do you want?» – asked master Feng.
«In case of victory, I want, in addition to apologies, every student in the order to know as soon as possible that I have surpassed Lady Elsa. I will also address her informally, and she should not object to this in any way.»
«Miss Elsa, do you agree to these terms?»
«Yes, I do…» – the girl agreed, unable to shake off a bad feeling.
«Then get ready for the competition! Let's get started!» – the alchemist turned over the hourglass.
Elsa went to the shelves and took the necessary ingredients.
«Oh-oh-oh, hemostatic "Belkozyn", a good choice.»
{How could he understand?!} – Elsa was amazed. Goosebumps ran down her spine. She had a disgusting feeling that she was dancing to the tune of Dick – a monster, who was not taking his predatory gaze off the victim who had already fallen into his trap.
This behavior of master Feng's best student amazed the audience.
{All or nothing…} – Stone braced herself and gathered other ingredients.
{Unique body medicine? Girl, you know what to choose!} – Lovr rejoiced.