Anqi was sitting in the front row of the lecture theatre, along with the remaining elders. He and four others wore violet robes – the only ones in the entire Guild – while the most recent addition to their group stood out in blue. Ostanes still complained from time to time about Orin’s promotion, though nobody else was bothered by it as much.
Sure, it was highly atypical to count a Blue among their ranks for the first time in Remior’s history, and it could even hurt the prestige of their position slightly, but this was ultimately a small price to pay as far as Anqi was concerned.
If it hadn’t been for Percy’s close ties to his former mentor, there was a good chance that he would have adopted a far harsher stance toward the Guild. If anything, Orin had contributed more than any other elder over the past few months, merely by smoothing out their relationship with the young man.
‘Public lectures are still a little overkill though,’ he thought as he glanced at the empty lectern, waiting for their teacher to arrive. His colleagues probably felt the same way.
It wasn’t like they were looking down on Percy. Anyone with a functioning brain would readily admit that the young man had accomplished many impressive feats in his relatively short life.
Saving the Starry Wasps from extinction and exposing Machaon’s crimes were things that Remior would never be able to repay Percy for, and this was without even considering his recent impact on the hive and the Alchemists’ Guild.
Whether it was the increased production of nectar, the miraculous recipe that he had shared, or the alchemic principles that he was about to teach, the Red-born had already revolutionized the field of alchemy more than any other figure in their planet’s past.
Adding the Cascading Cracks technique that had already massively reduced everyone’s elixir consumption and the advanced runecrafting knowledge that he had disseminated, Percy had arguably given all of humanity infinitely more than they deserved – given how unfairly the noble Houses had treated him.
However, Anqi still wasn’t expecting much from the young man’s demonstration.
That was not to say that the content of the course itself wasn’t immensely valuable, but Percy could have just written everything down – the information regarding his supposedly-special cauldron, the alchemic principles, and whatever else he had discovered in his travels – and passed the documents to the elders.
With their superior experience in the field, it wouldn’t take long for them to master everything and relay it to their subordinates more effectively. As for Percy’s current brewing skill – nobody thought much of it.
‘How high could his yield even be? Forty percent? Forty-five, at most?’
Orin had informed them that Percy had been a qualified alchemist even before his escape from the Guild, and he was bound to have improved since. The young man had sounded especially proud of his skills too, though he’d never stated his exact yield.
That said, there was a limit to how much he could have grown in a couple of decades – even after taking into account all the knowledge and techniques that he had incorporated into his craft. After all, Percy had spent most of that time on the run or fighting an army of hostile nobles several grades above his own.
How much free time could he have even invested into honing his skills?
Of course, a forty-five percent yield was nothing to scoff at. It was higher than most senior alchemists sitting behind the elders in the auditorium. Nobody in the Guild – including Anqi and his colleagues – had been nearly as proficient in their youth, so they all understood that Percy would surpass them eventually. It was even more impressive that he had accomplished this under such harsh circumstances.
No matter what happened during today’s lecture, nobody was going to think less of their young overlord. Even so, Anqi felt that this whole thing was rather pointless. It was nothing more than Percy’s desire to show off after getting carried away by his recent fame.
‘Oh well… To be young is to be hot-blooded. I suppose there’s no harm in letting him have his fun,’ he thought with a shrug.
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Two minutes before the lesson was supposed to start, Percy entered the lecture theatre, making his way to the front. A wave of silence rippled through the room, with naught but the Red-born’s footsteps echoing through the vast hall.
The place had been relatively quiet to begin with – at least more than during a typical lecture – as the attendees were all senior alchemists, and nobody had wanted to disrespect the elders. That said, even the occasional hushed whisper had died down as everyone looked at their young lecturer with bated breaths.
Percy himself also looked tenser than Anqi had ever seen him. It was a bit jarring to see the same figure who had singlehandedly challenged the authority of the gods and forcefully seized control of the Fungal Spire acting nervous over a simple alchemy lesson.
‘I guess he’s still human beneath all the mutations and spells…’ Anqi thought, the corners of his lips curling up.
It was quite a relief. He wasn’t sure when, but he had inadvertently started seeing Percy as more of a monster than a young man. He doubted that his colleagues had felt any different.
“Ahem.” The Red-born cleared his throat upon reaching the lectern. “Is this thing on?” he asked, speaking into a sound amplification enchantment carved onto the wood. Not even waiting for a reply, the young man frowned, gathering some mana in his fingers and using it to draw a new set of runes in a different language.
The previous enchantments had actually worked just fine, though nobody felt the need to speak up about it. Anqi wasn’t sure what everyone else’s motivations were, but he was more than a little curious to see the Red-born’s famous magiscript skills in practice.
A few strokes later, Percy nodded in satisfaction before speaking again. “HOW ABOUT NOW? IS IT ANY BETTER?!”
Most faces around the room winced, Anqi’s among them.
‘So potent!’ he thought with a gasp. ‘Just a simple enchantment he drew in a couple of seconds… and he barely poured some Yellow mana into it!’
Were all the tiny runes woven into the young man’s clothes as powerful as these? No wonder he was so strong!
Oblivious to his thoughts, Percy adjusted the amount of mana he fed into the symbols, as well as the precise locations were it was being injected as he scratched the back of his head with his free hand.
“Sorry about that! Hopefully, it’ll be better now.”
Lifting his palm above an empty spot next to the lectern, he began pouring a different kind of grey mana onto the floor. Leaving aside its atypical colour, it greatly resembled ice mana, though it wasn’t flowing out of the young man’s cores – it seemed to simply pop into existence somewhere in his torso.
From what Anqi and his colleagues had pieced together about Percy’s abilities, the strange mana type was a fusion of ice and soul mana that he created with the help of his crow, though nobody fully understood how Orin’s student could tap into this power in the bird’s absence.
The resource slowly accumulated into a block of grey ice, the wooden planks creaking beneath its weight as it grew tall enough to reach Percy’s navel. Placing his hand on the structure, he caused yet another object to seemingly manifest out of thin air – a spherical tool affixed to a tripod, which the young man promptly set atop the icy cube.
The round object was covered in countless tiny enchantments, so Anqi didn’t think that the Red-born had created this one on the spot like the frozen table. He must’ve taken this one out of that advanced storage device that he’d mentioned.
Twisting the lid off the spherical tool, Percy dumped dozens of glowing mushrooms inside it.
‘Don’t tell me! Is THAT the cauldron he was talking about?!’
It was ridiculous! Hadn’t Orin taught his mentee that cauldrons came in a standard size for a reason? Had Percy gotten so carried away by his desire to impress them that he thought he could brew tens of times as many ingredients at once?
‘He’s going to end up with nothing but inert sludge!’ Anqi thought, giving the other elders uncertain looks, his colleagues promptly reciprocating the sentiment.
They weren’t alone either. The entire lecture theatre broke into murmurs for the first time since the Red-born’s arrival, everyone seemingly having forgotten about their previous apprehension.
Meanwhile, Percy was done with his preparations, screwing the lid back onto his construct. With a wave of his hand, he caused everything to disappear: the block of grey ice, the tripod and the large cauldron.
At least, that was what it had looked like at first, though a spherical volume of squished mushrooms remained visible right inside where the cauldron was supposed to be, seemingly suspended mid-air.
The people at the very back of the room would probably have a hard-time seeing the exact alchemical reactions about to take place inside the tool, though most of the alchemists here were at Green or Blue, so they should all be able to follow the gist of what the Red-born was about to do.
“Er… I’m sure that you all have a lot of questions about my cauldron and what I’m about to show you, but I decided that it’s best to begin the lesson with a practical demonstration. I won’t be brewing anything special – just a bunch of healing potions – so try to enjoy the session for now. I’ll pick my actions apart and explain everything in detail later.”
Percy waited until he got a few nods back from the audience before beginning. Instantly, his entire demeanour seemed to shift, the nervousness disappearing entirely from his expression as a palpable wave of pressure radiated from him.
His eyes dug into the transparent cauldron with piercing focus as his hands turned into blurs. Mana spilled forth from his palms, splitting off into numerous tiny streams that rushed into the invisible enchantments.
Not missing a beat, the contents of the oversized construct stirred, marking the start of the most bizarre brewing session Anqi had ever seen in his long life.
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