After tidying up, Edwyn carefully took out the Red Quicksilver he had refined months ago and placed it into a box padded with crumpled paper and straw.
If this stuff exploded, he'd be half dead at best.
Cradling the box, he headed to the Central Black Tower. On the way, he passed the Apprentice Self-Test Room and decided to check his stats.
[Spiritforce: ? | Physique: 22 | Mana: 176 | Rank: Initiate]
"Huh? Why is Spiritforce showing as a question mark? Is the crystal ball broken?" Edwyn tapped it a few times. Something seemed off with his magic reading too, but considering that arcane beasts' bloodlines contained innate magic, a small increase in magic after bloodline alchemy made sense.
By the time he reached the 56th floor, Edwyn was drenched in sweat.
Holding a box with a potential bomb inside, who wouldn't be nervous?
Knock, knock, knock!
Edwyn knocked on the nearest door.
Click.
"What do you want?"
A heavy-set apprentice answered the door. He looked middle-aged, with squinty eyes, a hooked nose, and a shiny bald head reflecting the glow of the magic lamp.
"Sir, I'm here to submit a task."
Edwyn carefully held out the box to the older apprentice.
"Submit a task? Which one?"
The man reached out, but paused when he saw Edwyn sweating bullets and handling the box with extreme caution. A thought crossed his mind.
Could this be Red Quicksilver?
Someone actually managed to refine that stuff?!
"Come in, come in, quickly. Just hold onto that box carefully. Red Quicksilver's no joke."
The older apprentice, clearly flustered, stepped back and opened the door wide, making no move to touch the box himself.
Only after Edwyn safely set the box down did he breathe a sigh of relief.
"Kid, you're bold. You actually brought Red Quicksilver up here yourself."
The man sat down and wiped sweat from his shiny forehead.
"What's your name, senior?"
"Chayle. And you?"
"Edwyn."
After a brief exchange of names, Chayle walked over to the window and called out a few times. Moments later, a normal-sized owl flew into the room.
"Agnes, someone's delivered the Red Quicksilver you wanted," Chayle said to the owl.
Edwyn looked at him curiously. "Sir, what's that?"
Chayle waved dismissively. "Just a little trick. Using animals for communication."
After releasing the owl, he returned to his chair.
"Sir Chayle, earlier you said 'Agnes.' I thought this Red Quicksilver task came from Master Joron?"
"Oh, no. The professor studies chimera synthesis, he doesn't need Red Quicksilver," Chayle replied, wiping sweat again. "The task was actually posted by Miss Agnes, using his name."
"So, does it still count for…" Edwyn started.
"It counts. If you want to join the professor's students, this task definitely counts."
Seeing Edwyn's uncertain expression, a crazy thought crossed Chayle's mind.
Wait… did he actually succeed in refining Red Quicksilver?
That couldn't be possible.
"Uh… Edwyn, how long did it take you to extract this stuff?" Chayle probed.
"Uh, about three months. Red Quicksilver's dangerous, and I failed a few times, so I took it slow," Edwyn lied without missing a beat.
"That's more like it. You look like a new student, I was almost worried I was dealing with a legendary alchemy genius," Chayle laughed, visibly relieved. "Even our professor sometimes fails refining Red Quicksilver. The difficulty is off the charts."
Hearing that, Edwyn felt even more confident that waiting three months to submit the task had been the right move.
Even Mages had trouble with Red Quicksilver. An apprentice succeeding too quickly would raise too many eyebrows.
They chatted a bit more. Despite his greasy appearance, Chayle was nearly a High Apprentice and a formal student of Joron.
Feeling more comfortable, Edwyn began to ask about joining Joron's tutelage.
"Senior, I heard that most of Master Joron's students just get assigned to the alchemy workshop?"
Chayle scoffed. "Don't believe those rumors. They say we just slave away in the workshop and don't learn anything real."
"But let me tell you, our professor treats his students better than anyone else in the academy. If you join, you get at least five Mana Stones a month, just as a stipend."
"And that's on top of any pay you earn from working in the lab. Once you get the hang of things, making ten or twenty stones a month is no problem."
"That's way better than risking your neck doing academy missions, right?"
Chayle then pulled a metal flask from a drawer and took a few sips.
"Besides, you should see how other professors treat their students, using them as test subjects for potions or spells. I've seen it myself."
"Our mentor? Not only does he not use you for experiments, he even pays you. Where else are you gonna find a deal like that?"
The more Edwyn listened, the more suspicious he became.
It sounded a lot like a sales pitch or even a scam.
If Joron was really that great, wouldn't students be lining up around the block to join?
Before Edwyn could say anything, the door suddenly burst open.
Bang!
"Chayle, where's the delivery?"
Edwyn turned and recognized the person, it was Agnes, the woman who had lectured during his class.
As soon as Chayle saw her, he quickly hid his flask, jumped to his feet, and rushed to her side flatteringly.
"Miss Agnes, the Red Quicksilver is right over there. Please, go easy, it's not something you can toss around!"
Agnes shot Chayle a glance, then looked at the box before turning her eyes to Edwyn.
"You refined this?"
"Yes, I did."
Once confirmed, Agnes strode over to the box and gently opened it.
"Huh?"
Inside was a brown glass bottle.
Most apprentices only knew Red Quicksilver needed to be kept out of the light. Using a brown bottle for storage? That was something even she had only learned from her mentor.
Before that, she had never seen anyone else use one.
"Brown glass bottle. Nice attention to detail," Agnes complimented.
Chayle's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
She just complimented someone.
Agnes, Joron's most prized student in the last thousand years, never praised anyone. For their group of students, not getting scolded was already a blessing. Praise? Unheard of.
"To block the light, so I got a brown bottle," Edwyn mumbled modestly.
Agnes opened the bottle. A distinctive aroma of vaporized Red Quicksilver immediately spread through the room.
Instinctively, Edwyn covered his nose. But with a wave of her hand, Agnes summoned a breeze to sweep the scent out the window.
"Chayle, even an outsider knew to cover his nose, and you're just standing there like a fool," she snapped.
Chayle flinched at her glare.
Ignoring him, Agnes's fingertip glowed with a faint blue light. A strand of magical thread extended from her hand into the bottle, delicately extracting a drop of shimmering Red Quicksilver.
"This color…"
Her eyes flickered with astonishment.
This color… this luster… it was unmistakably Red Quicksilver, but with extremely high purity.
Unable to resist, Agnes stimulated the mercury. With a bang, it exploded under magical pressure, sending a wave of force rippling through the room.
"You really refined this yourself?" Agnes turned to Edwyn again.
"Yes, I did," he replied.
"What's your name? Do you have a mentor?"
"My name's Edwyn. I don't have a mentor yet."
"Good."
Agnes sealed the bottle and strode toward him.
Edwyn was suddenly overwhelmed with confusion. Had the Infinite Forge refined something too perfect? Did she think he was a fraud? Was that question about his mentor meant to see if he had any protection?
Edwyn suddenly remembered, on the 50th floor and above of the Black Tower, it was Mage territory. No academy overseers.
If Agnes killed him here, no one would ever know.
His mind spun into chaos, and he instinctively backed away.
"Uh, Lady Agnes…" he said, now backed into a corner. "I-If you're gonna do something, just say it!"
Standing at nearly 1.8 meters tall, Agnes looked down at him. She placed both hands firmly on his shoulders and declared:
"Since you don't have a mentor, join our alchemy faction."