Chapter 64: A Meticulous Test (Bonus Chapter)

Sylvia posed a dozen knowledge questions covering general academic courses, and Xazo answered every single one of them fluently without a moment's hesitation.

The second stage of the test began almost immediately.

"On the workbench of the alchemy station, there is an introductory-grade poison formula that has not yet been included in the academy textbooks, along with its refined powder formula."

Sylvia closed the illustrated catalog in her hands.

"We require you to brew a batch of the refined poison within two hours. You will only have a single opportunity to brew it, and the final alchemical product must be of flawless quality."

"As you command, Madam."

Xazo bowed modestly toward the figure seated on the sofa, turned, and walked over to the wardrobe against the wall to put on a complete set of anti-toxin alchemy gear.

He then stepped up to the alchemy station, approached the preparation table, lowered his head, and cast the Perception spell. His eyes swept across the lines of alchemical script, and his expression gradually grew solemn.

This poison formula utilized four basic toxins, which was one or two more than the formulas recorded in the textbooks.

Merely creating the compound toxin required for the poison involved a total of fifteen distinct alchemical operations.

If the subsequent preparation of the refined powder was factored in, there were thirty-two alchemical operations in total, eight of which required the highest-difficulty procedures of evaporation and baking.

Xazo glanced at the wall clock and mentally calculated the time. On average, he had only four minutes per operation. Based on his past experience in poison brewing, he would have to begin actual operations within ten minutes.

He picked up the formula and walked past the four supply racks, cross-checking to ensure that all raw materials were completely accurate while mentally simulating his movements and steps during the brewing process.

Instead of starting the brewing process immediately, however, he proceeded to the next step.

He pulled the cord ring of the blower and observed the intensity of the fire in the furnace.

After entering the academy, the very first alchemy station Xazo had encountered was the one currently dedicated to teaching—the one Kurov had used for demonstrations during his very first class.

Even the advanced alchemy station in the advanced alchemy room had been demonstrated by Kurov first before Xazo was allowed to step up and brew poisons on it.

Achieving success on the first attempt at brewing a poison was inseparable from a thorough understanding of the alchemy station's performance.

He had never touched this particular advanced alchemy station before.

There was no guarantee that the furnace's fire intensity, the crucible's heat transfer rate, the baking oven's heating speed, or the cooling basin's cooling efficiency would be completely identical to those of the advanced alchemy station in the toxic-alchemy zone.

If even a single one of these various details went wrong, the entire brewing effort would be ruined.

Back when he served as a temporary teaching assistant, the freshmen of that year had made mistakes simply because they were unfamiliar with the alchemy stations.

He had no intention of making the same mistake.

Xazo pulled the blower cord three times in succession, causing roaring flames to shoot out from the fire vent.

It was a good thing he had tested the fire intensity.

The fuel inside this furnace contained more than just the common dry firewood and coal blocks. Buried beneath those fuels was some kind of combustion-supporting substance.

How utterly insidious.

Xazo suppressed the twitch at the corner of his mouth and forced the impulse to complain back down into his heart.

Over on the sofa, the Master of Poisonous Alchemy, Adanavadors, raised a smile and exchanged glances with Kurov seated beside him. Both of them saw a look of satisfaction in each other's eyes.

The bald giant Rexol let out a muffled exhale, as if releasing some pent-up frustration in his heart.

"You guys in the Poisonous Alchemy branch have all the luck, managing to snatch up another prudent and capable student."

When the bald giant opened and closed his mouth, his voice traveled only a few feet, securely trapped within the perimeter of the sofa seating.

"Hmph-hmph," Adanavadors chuckled softly with a hint of complacency, the wrinkles on his face deepening with the smile. "This wasn't snatched, Rexol. This is a student nurtured by our alchemy school. If your Monster Hunting school were willing to manage a territory, wouldn't you have a steady source of recruits just like us?"

Rexol did not speak, his eyes flashing as he stared fixedly at the figure by the advanced alchemy station.

Adanavadors noticed that Xazo was now inspecting the baking oven.

He stroked the white beard on his chest and said, "It seems this test is no longer a difficult matter for this little fellow. Kurov, did you remind him to inspect the alchemy station?"

"No, Teacher. I never mentioned it to him."

Adanavadors grew even more satisfied. "His compatibility with poisonous alchemy is very high. The modification effect of toxins on the physical body is quite obvious."

Kurov took over the conversation from the side. "Indeed. I noticed it the very first time he tested a poison. The elemental resistance gained from consuming the poison is extremely pronounced, roughly three times that of an ordinary person."

Rexol, sitting nearby, was somewhat moved, but he chose to remain silent and said nothing.

"How wonderful it would be if he had been born in the Silver Moon Federation," Adanavadors sighed, then calmed his mind to observe the movements at the alchemy station.

The sofa area returned to silence.

At the advanced alchemy station, Xazo finished inspecting all the alchemical apparatus and expressionlessly placed several toxin vials on the workbench.

These old foxes...

Sure enough, the longer they lived, the more cunning they became.

On the surface, they were testing a student with a complex formula, but behind the scenes, they were actually tampering with the alchemical equipment.

He picked up the spoon for stirring the crucible, the iron tongs for gripping the scalding trays, as well as the spatula, glass rod, measuring cup, and other alchemical tools, inspecting each one carefully.

Even the rag used to wipe the mask was not spared.

Who could guarantee that this rag didn't hide some kind of oily substance that made things dirtier the more you wiped them?

Xazo mentally complained a few more times, stepped up to the crucible, picked up a potion bottle, and poured in the base ingredients...

Plumes of mist in various colors billowed from the liquid in the crucible and were sucked away by the ventilation duct overhead.

An invisible barrier had formed between the advanced alchemy station and the sofa seating. Any mist that failed to be sucked away was blocked by this barrier, drifted toward the ceiling, and was eventually drawn into the ventilation duct all the same.

Xazo became completely immersed in his alchemical operations.

He continuously cast the Perception spell, refreshing the information fed back by the spell at a frequency of once every three seconds, while keeping his hands moving in a steady stirring motion.

Roughly half an hour later.

A vial of flawless-quality unknown poison appeared on the workbench.

Xazo rested briefly against the edge of the table and cast the Perception spell on the glass bottle.

[Item Name]: Unknown Poison
[Item Type]: Poison
[Item Grade]: Introductory-Grade
[Item Quality]: 100% Completion, Flawless
[Associated Resistance]: Earth Element Resistance
[Item Description]: Crafted by Xazo.
[Item Effect]:
Drinking every one-third of a bottle causes a lump to appear on a random part of the entire body.
For every lump that appears, gain 1 stack of the [Excruciating Pain] effect, deducting 2 health points per second for 5 seconds.
The [Excruciating Pain] effect can be stacked, and the duration of each stack is calculated independently.

Lump Excruciating Pain.

Xazo quietly noted down the toxic effects of this poison. Once his stamina had recovered sufficiently, he walked back to the supply rack to retrieve the toxin vials.

The refined powder of this poison required repeatedly evaporating the moisture, and the vast majority of his time was spent stirring the crucible.

Crucially, every time the moisture was evaporated, there was only one-fifth of the crucible's capacity left in liquid form. This required manual operation; he could not use the automatic stirring arm, or the mixture would easily scorch.

Xazo had no choice but to honestly and obediently slide the spoon round after round, like a numb machine.

The hour hand of the wall clock pointed to 10:00 AM.

Xazo poured the freshly brewed green powder into the toxin bottle, capped it, and gently shook the body of the bottle to thoroughly dissolve the powder into the poison.

"Perception."

[Item Name]: Unknown Poison
[Item Type]: Poison
[Item Grade]: Introductory-Grade
[Item Quality]: 100% Completion, Flawless
[Associated Resistance 1]: Earth Element Resistance
[Associated Resistance 2]: Wind Element Resistance
[Item Description]: Crafted by Xazo.
[Item Effect]:
Drinking every one-third of a bottle causes a hard lump to appear on a random part of the entire body.
For every hard lump that appears, gain 2 stacks of the [Excruciating Pain] effect, deducting 4 health points per second for 2 seconds.
The [Excruciating Pain] effect can be stacked, and the duration of each stack is calculated independently.

Madam Sylvia, clad in her starry-night robe, cast inquiring glances toward the masters on either side of her.

Upon receiving affirmative nods, she looked toward the figure at the alchemy station and said, "The second round of tests has concluded, and you have passed this round. For the final round of tests, we require you to identify the toxic effects of this poison. You may test the poison yourself or use conventional identification methods. As long as you provide the correct toxic effects, you will pass the test."

Xazo lowered his head, rubbed his brow, and glanced at his health bar.

[Health]: 50/50 (Healthy)

Theoretically speaking, swallowing this entire bottle of refined poison would deduct at most 24 health points, not even enough to trigger [Urgent Moment].

However, drinking an entire bottle straight down would seem rash, inconsistent with his previously established prudent persona, and might arouse suspicion from the inspection delegation seated before him.

Most importantly, a line of text in the detection results had caught his attention:

[The Excruciating Pain effect can be stacked, and the duration of each stack is calculated independently.]

This was a rather data-driven description.

To put it concretely:

Suppose that at 10:00:00, one first drinks one-third of a bottle of poison, producing a lump. This lump will disappear at 10:00:02.

After finishing the first gulp, wait 1 second and then drink another third of the poison. The lump produced this time will not disappear until 10:00:03.

To identify this fine detail of the toxic effect, one had to consume the poison in at least two separate doses. Even more crucially, the refined toxic effect lasted for only two seconds, meaning the interval between the two poison tests could not exceed 1 second.

Detailed.

Too detailed.

How utterly infuriatingly detailed.

After a brief moment of thought, Xazo formulated an accurate plan.

First, he needed to determine what dosage was required for the toxic effect to take effect.

According to the unwritten rules within the poison alchemy discipline, when the critical dosage was unknown, drinking one-third of a bottle first was never wrong.

Xazo uncapped the bottle, poured one-third of its contents into a measuring cup, lifted the cup, and tossed his head back to drink it down.

A round, bulging protrusion instantly appeared on his back, as if something were trying to worm its way out from inside his body. The tip of the protrusion writhed from side to side as if struggling.

The two-second duration passed almost in a flash.

The pain came and went without a trace.

After catching his breath a few times, Xazo recovered from the discomfort brought by the excruciating pain.

Next, he fetched another measuring cup and poured poison into the two cups before him separately.

He looked at the wall clock, calculated the timing, and drank the two cups of poison successively with a one-second interval between them.

A protrusion appeared on each of his left and right arms, respectively, before disappearing without a trace one after the other.

"Madam Sylvia."

Xazo pressed hard against his temples twice to drive away the dizziness caused by the rapid health deduction in a short span of time.

"As you and everyone present can see, I have determined the toxic effects of this refined poison through the method of poison testing.

"For every approximately one-third consumed, a lump will appear on a random part of the body. The lump causes excruciating pain, which lasts for 2 seconds.

"After the first third is consumed, any subsequently consumed poison will not make the existing lump larger nor extend its duration; instead, a new lump will appear on a random part of the body, and its duration will likewise be 2 seconds."

"Then..." Sylvia exchanged glances with the masters, smiled toward the advanced alchemy station, and said, "Congratulations, Xazo. You have passed the inspection delegation's test."