Is That A Wisp?

Once they got there, Ruik went somewhere else to watch while Krune moved back to his work station.

As expected, there were quite a few eyes on him once he appeared, much for his displeasure.

'Fortunately, I'm still at the Six Silver Stars level. From today onwards, I should fare quite average between the other alchemists, let alone the Golden Star ones that I found about yesterday.'

All the alchemists participating in the next phase arrived one after another. There were also those who failed but still went back to their workstations. They were here to see those who are participating in the next phase. Even though they are disqualified, they can still gain something from this competition.

Kaio entered his workstation and looked at Krune beside him. Even though he got first place on the last day, it didn't change the fact that he is a lot older and more experienced than Krune. So he still felt a little bitter that their scores were so close. Not to mention that he already found out that Krune, or better, Jolk, is a wisp. Especially the fact of him being only 12 years old.

'Oh, well. From now on, only skills matter. So I guess it's a goodbye to this wisp.'

Irken and Xaia also were looking at Krune's workstation from far away. Different from Kaio, the two of them had lower scores instead, so they were even more annoyed by that outcome. Especially Irken, who is also a demon beast.

The start time soon arrived, and Palo Yiag once again went up on the stage.

"Welcome back. I won't waste anyone's time here, so I will go directly into the rules of the second phase. The medicinal properties extraction and impurities elimination. The way that you chose to do it is up to all of you, whether you do it fast or slow, I won't care. All you need to know is that you will have once again 8 hours to give me the finished products."

"If you want to try several times, good. If you don't, that no problem either. As long as I get the medicinal bottle with the result of your best work, that is fine. I believe that there is no meaning in saying this, but I will anyway. From now on, talent is highly required, so it's time to put to the test how good you all are in comparison with the others."

Palo also added.

"Just remember that if you send more than one bottle with medicinal liquid for examination, each one of them will receive their own score. So all of them will appear in the ranking after the second phase is over. Of course, after the initial rating is calculated, we will then separate the medicinal liquid with the best score of each candidate to advance to the next phase. So don't worry about someone taking several positions inside the top 100. In the end, there will be 100 alchemists competing tomorrow in the final phase."

Palo then once again checked all the examiners and announced.

"The test starts now!"

Krune was feeling quite relaxed at the moment. That was because he knew that he probably wouldn't make it even into the top 100, so he felt no pressure what so ever. This is also good because he can put his best effort into it without being afraid of catching anyone's attention.

'Let's see, they gave us a list of herbs that can be used. All of them are more or less on the same level too. It is evident that they want to make it as fair as possible, which is a good thing.'

Krune scrolled through the list, and soon he found his target.

'Oh, they have the azure grass. Last time I used it was during the concoction of the Soul Healing Pill. Of course, this one is a lot older, and the quality is also a lot higher, definitely inside the Silver Stars level. Now that I remember it, I was still a 4 Bronze Stars alchemist at that time, it's quite nostalgic.'

Krune smiled when he thought about it.

'It's decided, the azure grass it is!'

Krune then selected the herb on the list, and just a few seconds later, it appeared on the small teleport formation beside it.

'Such a convenient way of transporting items.'

Krune took the grass and couldn't help but nod.

'Such a good grass, I believe I can do a great job with this one. Let's start.'

Krune then selected one of the cauldrons and immediately started to work.

'As expected of a Silver Level Grass, compared to the one that I used before, this one is a lot more resistant to the infusion of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy. But that's okay, this is proof that it can hold a lot more energy as well. Let's start the extraction.'

Krune didn't know, but his extraction method was a little different from the others. While everyone else 'pulled' the medicinal properties out of the herbs, Krune used his Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy to 'push' it out. This is something that he came up with a long time ago during his time at Kaley City's Alchemist Guild.

There wasn't a real reason behind this, he just felt that it was easier to do this way. The only difference now is that he isn't using only Spiritual Energy, but Elemental Source Energy as well. His method was quite straight forward. Fill up all the 'veins' of the herb and push the medicinal liquid out. Thanks to that, he could 'feel' the insides of the herbs and make sure that only the parts that really mattered would come outside.

What Krune didn't know is that this method was only possible because of his Myriad Energies Technique. Or to be more precise, his Elemental Energy Meridians. His control of both energies far surpassed other of the same level, after all.

In the end, more than 80% of all impurities were left behind in the dregs instead of mixing together with the medicinal liquid. This is something that couldn't be felt with Divine Sense. In the eyes of the examiners, Krune was basically doing the same thing as the others since all they could see was the medicinal liquid coming out of his grass.

This could be said to be one of the greatest reasons as to why Krune can advance ranks so fast. A secret so well kept that even Krune, the user of this technique, didn't know about its value. Because his medicinal liquids were always so free of impurities, it significantly increased his concoction success rate. Of course, the Elemental Meridians helped a lot more than just the extraction. The synch of elements and energies control is another part where it is of great help. Simply put, Krune's Elemental Meridians are really a cheat through and through.

For Krune, this is something as a matter of course. As mentioned a second ago, this process of extraction can't be felt with Divine Sense. So Krune also never paid attention to the difference in the other alchemists' way of extraction either. Whether they 'pulled' or 'pushed' mattered little to him. Of course, there is also the fact that he had never commented this with anyone. Otherwise, he would have noticed it already.

Krune wanted to do his best, so he went through the process slowly. It wasn't before an hour that he finished extracting all the medicinal properties in the azure grass. If others could check the purity of his medicinal liquid at the moment, they would see that it is already around 80%+ 'clean.'

For the other alchemists in the competition, the best one was Xaia. Her medicinal properties were almost 65% 'clean' once she finished extracting it.

With this, Krune's impurities elimination started at least 15% ahead of anyone else in this place.

'This is good! The other higher-level alchemists probably had done way better than me, but it doesn't matter. This is definitely one of my best extractions ever, so let's start the impurities removal.'

The process of eliminating impurities is quite a personal choice. Some liked to use other herbs suited for it or minerals. Others liked to use their spiritual fire to simply burn it away. Of course, there were also those who did both at the same time. Not to mention that those weren't the only methods available.

Krune, of course, chose to one where his control over the elements and energies would help the most. So at least this time, he did one of the standard things, which was to simply burn the impurities. Well, the truth is that with his Elemental Meridians, Elemental Regulation technique from his Master, and the All-Encompassing Soul Technique, he was quite overpowered at this side too.

'Good! Even though the difference wasn't that big from what I usually do, it is still quite better.'

Krune then looked at the clock and noticed that he only used 2 hours to finish this first medicinal liquid.

'Oh, I still have a lot of time. Haha!'

Krune then went through the herbs list once more.

'Since I don't need to worry about getting a good position with my lower Silver Rank level, I might as well use this chance to practice with some of the rare herbs available. In the end, I will just send all of them together for checking. As long as I get into the top 200, I can say that my mission has been accomplished. Who knows? I might be lucky and get into the top 100 too. Haha! That would be great already. It wouldn't be a position that catches too much attention, but would allow me to participate in the last phase.'

Krune then spent the next six hours to prepare another three bottles of medicinal liquid for examination. Once the time was over, he sent all four for analysis.

'Well, I hope at least one of them gets into the top 100. In the end, the one I have the highest confidence is still the Azure Grass, though. I feel like I did a lot better with it than the other three.'

Back on the stage, there was a formation made specifically to check the percentage of 'cleanness' of the medicinal liquid in the bottles sent by the participants. The higher the number, the fewer impurities the medicinal liquid had. Everyone was watching it through the monitors and the internet. Still, the results would only be displayed once all the bottles were analyzed. So there was no other choice other than wait.

Around thirty minutes later, the final medicinal liquid was finally tested.

Palo Yiag then came forward and said.

"As mentioned before, the first score results would take all bottles without disregarding a single one. So this time, the same alchemist can and will probably appear more than once in the rank. Once this part is over, we will take the best score of each alchemist and make the real top 100 for tomorrow's last phase."

Palo looked behind him and said.

"Show the results."

On the gigantic monitor behind the analysis formation and all the other monitors on the site, the results started to appear one by one. First, it showed the 100th place and kept going up.

100th- Eight Silver Stars, Merk Averg: 64.79% (Rocky Tree Leaves)

99th- Eight Silver Stars, Havan Yisser: 64.82% (Pony Root)

98th- Nine Silver Sta...

The results kept appeared one by one until the 80th place.

Krune looked at that and sighed.

'Already in the 80th place and my name didn't appear. Well, maybe I still have a chance to get into the final phase once only the best scores of each alchemist are brought forward. After all, there had been three alchemists taking more than a single position already. Their lower scores will be eliminated later to give space to the top 100 anyway.'

43rd- Eight Silver Stars, Yilio: 72.63% (Purple Aqua Stalk)

Krune immediately noticed that.

'Oh, it's Yilio. That's quite a good position considering that a few Nine Silver Stars alchemists appeared already.'

The positions kept being played one by one, and soon, the 15th appeared. The problem is that it surprised all the alchemists watching it.

15th- One Golden Star, Irken: 82.37%

The reason why the commotion happened is that everyone had been paying attention to Irken, Xaia, and Kaio, the three Alchemists at the Golden Star Level. The audience and people or beasts in the site at the moment all knew how many medicinal liquid bottles were sent by those three.

Irken had sent 3 bottles for analysis while Xaia and Kaio sent 4 each. That means that those three could at most take 11 positions in the first ranking display. But for Irken to appear in the 15th position, it could mean only one thing. The rank will show one or more Silver Stars Alchemists in the middle of those Golden Stars ones.

The surprise didn't stop there, though.

14th- One Golden Star, Xaia Lian: 82.59% (Mink Mint)

13th- One Golden Star, Kaio Tirenia: 82.71% (Vulcan Lotus Leaves)

The higher the rank shown, the bigger the commotion became.

Xaia, Irken, and Kaio started to feel that something wasn't right. When the 7th position finally appeared, It showed Irken's last Medicinal Liquid Bottle.

7th- One Golden Star, Irken: 84.52% (Blood Flower)

Irken immediately shouted

"Impossible!"

Of course, it didn't stop there. The next two positions were also the last Medicinal Liquid Bottle from Xaia and Kaio.

6th- One Golden Star, Kaio Tirenia: 84.81%

5th- One Golden Star, Xaia Lian: 84.93%

Both of them had hideous expressions as well after seeing that.

As for Krune? He was just enjoying the fun.

'Oh, to think that someone beat all three Golden Star Alchemists. It seems like someone had been holding back until now. Well, I'm also curious to know who this guy is. Haha!'

Unfortunately, Krune's smiled didn't last long.

4th- Six Silver Stars, Jolk: 89.61% (Lightning Bamboo Leaves)

Krune mouth twitched a little seeing that.

'There must be another Jolk who is also a Six Silver Stars Alchemist and used the Lightning Bamboo Leaves as well. Yes, that is definitely it!'

3rd- Six Silver Stars, Jolk: 90.11% (Soul Rava)

Quite a few alchemists were already looking in his direction.

For some reason, Krune felt like it got hard to breathe. But he insisted on denying reality.

'Oh, it seems like that same Jolk also used a Soul Rava, such a coincidence.'

2nd- Six Silver Stars, Jolk: 90.67% (Fire Olive Seeds)

At this point, there wasn't a single living being that wasn't looking at him with their mouths open wide!

Krune's weak little heart was already in pain. Denying reality simply didn't work anymore for him.

"You must be fuc*ng kidding me!"

But the fatal blow came right after.

1st- Six Silver Stars, Jolk: 95.39% (Azure Grass)

Krune didn't say anything else...

That's because...

A certain wisp...

Passed out...