Walking out of the teacher's dormitory, Dark looked up slightly, and the sunlight slanted down, dazzling his eyes until they were a bit blurry.
He closed his eyes, lowered his head, then opened them again, unable to hold back a sigh.
Life is rarely smooth sailing; nine times out of ten, things don't go as planned.
The older one gets, the more regrets they have.
That is why adults always hope children can have a happy and fulfilling childhood.
Because once they grow up, it becomes difficult to achieve.
The wish to "eat, drink, and wait for death" seems simple, but in reality, most people cannot attain it.
Dark held up the transparent bag and shone it against the sunlight. Three long, transparent hairs reflected a seven-colored glazed light under the sun's illumination.
This was the fur of a Magic Beast.
The core material for refining [Magic Beast (Eevee)] and [Magic Beast (Ditto)].
As for whether it could be used for the refinement of [Ultimate Move · Transform], only practice would prove it.
Originally, the refinement of [Ultimate Move Card] was not a mature technology.
Students racking their brains to find the corresponding core materials to refine a certain [Ultimate Move Card] was also a process of divergent thinking.
Professor Kazel likely did not hold much hope for whether the students could successfully refine an [Ultimate Move Card].
It was enough to learn more knowledge during the refinement process.
...
Dark returned to the dormitory, carefully put away the Magic Beast hairs, and then went out again, heading towards Traveler Street.
Due to the Rookie Tournament yesterday, a large portion of the first-year students chose to come and purchase materials on Sunday, so Traveler Street was full of familiar figures today.
Especially in places selling necessary basic materials, which had been occupied by the first-years.
Dark spent quite some effort queuing up to buy all the basic materials—he bought a total of six sets, each worth around 100 credits.
The quantity of six corresponded to the three Magic Beast hairs and three chances to refine [Ultimate Move: Milk Drink].
If he still gained nothing after six refinements, he would choose to cut his losses in time.
...
By the time he finished buying materials, it was already two in the afternoon.
Before returning to the dormitory, Dark made a trip to the Catnip Flower and Wood Shop, but he just took a look around and left.
It seemed the research on Catnip had indeed encountered technical difficulties. I'm afraid it will take some time and luck to achieve a new breakthrough.
After that, he didn't stay in Traveler Street. Carrying bags large and small, he returned directly to the dormitory.
A small portion of the materials in his hands were unprocessed raw materials. He needed to process them according to the textbook records before he could bring them to class for use.
Additionally, at least three bottles of milk juice needed to be squeezed.
Today was destined to be a busy and fulfilling day.
...
The next day.
Monday.
Professor Silf took the opportunity during the Summoning class to popularize Ritual Summoning and gave grand praise to Elsie Kevin's Ritual Summoning in the Rookie Tournament.
Immediately following was the second class, the Magic Guide Class that the little Magisters had been looking forward to for a long time!
"Thinking about it carefully, the last experiment class seems like it was a long time ago."
Diana's tone revealed excitement.
The victory in the Rookie Tournament had earned her a net income of a full 150 credits, allowing her to spend lavishly when buying materials!
At a time when most students' credits were stretched thin, Diana could be said to be riding high.
However, when she turned her head and saw the large and small bags beside Dark's seat, she still felt inferior.
She couldn't help but exclaim in astonishment, "Dark, Dark, how many sets did you buy?"
Dark gestured a number.
Diana covered her mouth: "Can you finish them in one class?"
Dark said airily, "Continue after class, then."
Then he added a sentence: "Strike while the iron is hot!"
...
Professor Kazel arrived in the classroom a few minutes early, waving his magic wand and chatting with the students, his wrinkled face full of kindness.
He was like a different person from the "drunken" state yesterday.
People say "drunkenness reveals the heart"; perhaps there is also a cold side hidden within his heart.
But everyone has multiple facets. A single-layered personality only appears in novels, comics, or film works where it is deliberately set to emphasize character traits.
Ding-ling-ling!
The class bell rang on time, acting like a dividing line cutting apart the two worlds inside and outside of class.
No matter how heavy the thoughts outside of class were, once switching to class, one couldn't help but calm down.
Professor Kazel knocked on the blackboard and spoke slowly: "The refinement technology for the [Ultimate Move Card] is not something only I am researching. But everyone's research progress and results are different, so what I teach and what other Magisters teach will not be the same. If any among you can master this technology of mine, and someone asks about it in the future, you may call yourself my student."
As soon as his voice fell, the students below began to whisper.
The "student" Professor Kazel spoke of was obviously different from a "student" in the academic sense.
That kind of relationship was like the one between Claire and Dark; it belonged to a personal "master-disciple" relationship, involving the inheritance of techniques, and was much more intimate.
Although he looked like an old goblin, Professor Kazel's reputation outside was enormous.
As the only remaining Alchemy Master of the old era, just mentioning his name would bring great benefits.
A combat-oriented young Sage like Claire simply couldn't compare to Professor Kazel in terms of academic prestige.
To be able to become a "student" acknowledged by him was obviously glorious!
For a moment, everyone was energized.
Even Dark couldn't help but become more serious.
His relationship with Professor Kazel was indeed good, but there was still a clear dividing line between the two.
If he could become a "student" acknowledged by the Professor, then he could dissolve that dividing line a little.
Among all the first-year professors, Professor Kazel was the one he respected the most.
Sometimes, he would subconsciously categorize him as an "amiable grandpa."
...
After a short interval.
Professor Kazel continued, "Then let us now begin to review and deepen the content of the last lesson. Remember to take notes."
After speaking, he tapped the chalk lightly with his magic wand, and a transmutation circle unfolded upon the chalk.
In just a moment, the chalk turned into an existence similar to a golem under the effect of alchemy.
He waved his magic wand gently, and the chalk jumped up by itself and began to write on the blackboard on its own.
This understated scene made Dark, sitting in the back row, stare blankly for a moment, unable to stop himself from roasting silently: "Since he has this kind of technology, why did he still have to stand on a stool and tiptoe to write so painstakingly before?"
Perhaps he didn't want to show off his skills.
Perhaps he cared about the unity of man and pen, wanting to hold the pen personally.
Who knows.
...
In short, with the previous encouragement, the students' attitude when taking notes was obviously much more correct.
→Regardless of whether they understood or not, copy the notes first.
About half an hour later, the review of theoretical knowledge and the demonstration of specific steps were completed.
The students would have one hour to focus on their own experiments.
Looking around slightly, one would find that most students had only prepared one set of materials, at most preparing a bit more of the consumable materials.
But as for the expensive core materials, there were generally only one or two different kinds.
After all, with their level of knowledge, it was difficult to determine what the core material corresponding to a certain Ultimate Move was.
What Dark prepared was Magic Beast Hair and [Shuckle] Brand Cow Grass Juice.
What Diana prepared was a piece of what was said to be a claw—the fingertip slice—of some bear-type magical beast.
And what Rose prepared was a shell of a small shellfish classified as a "Mirage."
That shell was dotted with colorful crystalline bodies, capable of emitting light under the sun's illumination.
During the preparation phase, Dark couldn't help but use the advantage of the back row to observe other students' materials.
He was relatively interested in Emma, but Emma's sitting posture was very upright, and from his angle, he could only see a patch of brilliant golden light.
This reminded Dark of the Christmas gift Emma had given him—that ancient gold coin!
"Where on earth did she find so many ancient gold coins?"
Dark had black lines all over his face.
Even "pay-to-win" shouldn't be done like this, right?
...
Dark withdrew his gaze from Emma and naturally looked at Robert and Virt, who were also in the back row.
Since the two seemed to have suddenly grown up in the last two weeks and no longer pulled pranks in class, they had indeed saved up some credits.
Although they were still stretched thin, they finally managed to scrape together enough materials for this experiment class.
Dark glanced briefly and saw a pile of mechanical parts placed on Robert's desk; he didn't know what skill he wanted to extract.
While on Virt's desktop, there was a small bottle of dark red liquid, which seemed to be specially concocted blood?
It was a bit incomprehensible.
...
"Each has their own path, I guess."
Dark shook his head and immediately concentrated his attention on the preparation for the experiment.
The refinement of the [Ultimate Move Card] involved three most core transmutation circles.
The function of the first was "Identification."
The function of the second was "Reading."
The function of the third was "Reconstruction."
These three core transmutation circles were all adjusted by Professor Kazel, special transmutation circles specifically for "Ultimate Moves."
They had no numbers and had not even been publicly released.
Most students did not realize the preciousness of these few transmutation circles.
They just followed the steps Professor Kazel wrote on the blackboard and began to make them little by little.
Starting from boiling magic potions and processing materials, although mistakes inevitably appeared midway, it was much smoother than the refinement experiments of the last semester.
In the final analysis, students who could enroll in St. Marian's Academy were all above the baseline in terms of magical talent.
Even a simpleton like Diana possessed very high magic power talent.
And a simpleton like Robert was actually very good in terms of compatibility between body and magic power.
Applied to magic guide experiments, this meant the conduction efficiency of magic power was higher than that of ordinary people.
As for a talented individual like Virt who was good at everything, there was no need to mention him.
Professor Kazel patrolled back and forth in the classroom, nodding with satisfaction.
The students' growth was visible to the naked eye, and as a professor, he also felt a sense of accomplishment.
Not long after, he arrived at Dark's side.
He had only sobered up after noon yesterday.
Subsequently, he recalled Dark's visit.
The thought that he had actually sold the Magic Beast hair to a student at the price of 1000 credits a strand made Professor Kazel want to cover his head.
Headache!
In the past, he had taken pride in his special skill of remaining sober after getting drunk.
Now, he wished he was the type who would just collapse after getting drunk...
Although this price of 1000 credits per strand was the market price—and often a price with no supply—he was a professor after all, and selling to students usually came with a discount.
Basically, 1000 credits could sell for three strands!
But sold goods were like spilt water; they couldn't be taken back.
So he was already thinking about how to return the 2000 credits Dark had overpaid.
"What does he need?"
Professor Kazel couldn't help but stop beside Dark.
In his eyes, Dark's talent in magic guide experiments was very high—or rather, his alchemy talent was very high!
If it were the previous era, he would definitely have taken him in as an alchemy apprentice.
But in this current era, alchemy had already become the past. Sometimes when he thought about it, he felt it was better not to lead young people astray.
It was fine to teach foundational things like [Nether God Art].
If he taught too many things from other complex systems, it might lead to a situation where the tail becomes too big to wag.
Because between different systems, conflicts existed in certain core concepts.
When he changed professions from an Alchemist to a Magister back then, he had spent a lot of effort to reverse his cognition.
...
Since when it started, he didn't know.
Dark no longer felt constrained by the fact that Professor Kazel was standing behind him observing.
His operations were steady as always. When encountering inevitable errors, he could correct them in time; the more than sixfold basic materials gave him the leeway to redo.
In about ten minutes, his desktop was filled with various materials, held in various dishes, beakers, petri dishes, and test tubes.
This time, he still extravagantly used a blank Magic Guide Card costing 50 credits.
In the next ten minutes.
That blank Magic Guide Card was smeared with various materials, stacked layer by layer until it was half a finger high.
He inscribed the No. 7 Transmutation Circle on top of the materials, then tapped the center of the array with a magic pen, pressing down bit by bit.
That whole stack of materials was gradually refined, merging bit by bit into the Magic Guide Card.
By the time this process ended, a layer of fine, dense sweat beads had already coated Dark's forehead.
He put down the magic pen, took the towel from the side, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then began the next step—inscribing the three most core transmutation circles!
These three transmutation circles had to be drawn in one go, and the requirement for precise control of magic power was not low.
Many students would meet their Waterloo in this part.
But for Dark, whose magic power level rose with the days, this didn't pose much difficulty.
Mere half a minute later.
The three transmutation circles were perfectly inscribed.
Immediately after, he injected magic power to activate them.
Three magnificent light arrays popped up instantly!
[Identification]
[Reading]
[Reconstruction]
[Oo○]
Dark took out the Magic Guide Card of [Magic Beast (Ditto)]. Just as he was about to place it on [Identification], a sudden blessing of spiritual understanding hit him, and he whispered to Ditto:
"Can you repeatedly recall the feel when transforming in your head?"
"Ba chi???"
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