Chapter 100: The Alchemist Beside Me

Rowlin could not help but stare. “There are other potion alchemists at Porter Academy too?”

Simoni said irritably, “What’s so strange about that? Everyone at Porter Academy is a mage. Among all those people, do you really think there wouldn’t be a few whose affinities suit alchemy?”

“Er... that’s true.” Rowlin smiled as well. Among the vast body of mages at Porter Academy, it was hardly anything to make a fuss over that a few potion alchemists had emerged.

Simoni went on, “Since our place is the largest alchemy shop in the imperial capital, Hertz City, quite a number of alchemists often come here to buy and sell alchemical goods. Among them are many from our academy. Aside from a few artifact alchemists and puppet alchemists, the rest are all potion alchemists.”

Rowlin nodded. From Misius, he had already learned that of the three branches of alchemy—potion alchemy, artifact alchemy, and puppet alchemy—potion alchemy was overwhelmingly dominant, while the other two were studied by far fewer people. The reason was simple enough: it all came down to their functions.

In artifact alchemy, when one’s alchemical skill was still rather low, one could only produce items of extremely modest value—low-conductivity staffs, crystal vials, alchemy stone platforms, and the like. But those high-conductivity staffs, space rings, magic rings, and other such highly valuable alchemical artifacts required at least seven-star alchemy to forge. Puppet alchemy was even more so; only at seven-star alchemy and above could one craft truly formidable puppets. Yet such advanced alchemical mastery was a realm the vast majority of people would never reach in an entire lifetime.

Moreover, there was another drawback to these alchemical items: most of them were nonconsumables, and their replacement cycle was extremely long. A staff or an alchemy stone platform, for instance, would last years after being bought, and as for a space ring, most people would be lucky to buy even one in their entire lives.

Potion alchemy was different. Its products—potions—were highly consumable items. Healing potions, antidotes, and the like were used up rapidly in practical application, and their value was high as well. In particular, certain potions that could improve one’s physique or prolong life were even more sought after.

All of these reasons together had established potion alchemy’s dominant position among the three great branches of alchemy.

What Simoni had just said—that the overwhelming majority of the academy’s students studying potion alchemy was perfectly normal—was indeed the case.

“Among these potion alchemists, I’m going to introduce four rather representative people to you. And among them are two whom you’re extremely familiar with,” Simoni said, taking a sip of the fruit wine the attendant had just brought over and smacking his lips.

Rowlin blinked. “People I’m familiar with? The people I’m familiar with are our dorm leader Maler and the others... oh, and Karina. But none of them are alchemists, are they?”

“Your way of thinking is wrong,” Simoni said, giving him a hint. “You need to think from the necessary conditions for becoming an alchemist!”

At that reminder, Rowlin’s eyes lit up. “One of the necessary conditions for an alchemist is that they must be a mage. Everyone at our academy meets that. So the second condition is fire affinity.”

Rowlin then thought of the people he knew from the fire-element class. There were indeed a few in that class with whom he got along fairly well, but if one were to call someone “extremely familiar,” then it had to be Trevis. Although their relationship was not exactly harmonious, there was no denying that among the fire-element students, he was one of the people Rowlin knew best.

“Could it be Trevis?” Rowlin asked tentatively. He remembered that fellow seemed to cultivate both fire and water. He was in the same fire class as Rowlin, and in the water class with Karina.

Simoni nodded with a smile. “Correct. He is indeed one of the people I wanted to introduce to you. He possesses both water and fire affinities. Water-element detection magic may not be as strong as our dark-element magic, but that does not stop him from becoming an alchemist. Heh, speaking of which, Trevis, you, and I were once called the ‘Three Outstanding Talents of the Academy.’ And now we share another thing in common—potion alchemy. So it turns out the three of us who enrolled together really do have some common traits.”

After that, Rowlin kept guessing who the other alchemist he knew so well might be, but after he named several fire-class students in succession, Simoni rejected every one of them. In the end, he could only spread his hands helplessly and admit, “Then I really can’t guess.”

Simoni gave a mysterious smile. “Heh, this person has met you far more often than he has met us. She is none other than Teacher Monroe!”

“Wha—Teacher Monroe!” Rowlin had truly not expected this voluptuous, stunningly beautiful teacher Monroe to also be an alchemist. This really was darkness beneath the lamplight. He had been thinking only among his fellow students and had completely overlooked Monroe, who was the fire-class teacher. Indeed, she could be counted among the people he was extremely familiar with.

Simoni had long since anticipated Rowlin’s expression. To make this fellow, who surpassed him steadily in both cultivation and potion alchemy, be so shocked, he felt a secret burst of satisfaction. “Besides Teacher Monroe, there are a few other teachers at our academy who are also alchemists. I won’t introduce them one by one. Aside from those two people you know, there are two more I think you’ll be quite interested in.”

“Oh?” Rowlin immediately pricked up his ears.

“The first one I’m going to introduce you to should be the most powerful alchemist in Porter Academy. She is the only daughter of His Majesty, Emperor Nicholas of the Europa Empire—Princess Nancy!”

“The imperial princess is also at Porter Academy?” Rowlin asked in surprise.

Simoni curled his lip. “Rowlin, you should know that Porter Academy is the best academy for mages on the Aragon Continent. Not only do people come from the Aragon Empire, tens of thousands of miles away, to study here—like Victoria and Bill—but even many from the Dark Alliance, which is hostile to our Light Alliance, come here as well. Take Gabaz from your dormitory, for example. So there’s nothing strange about an imperial princess coming to Porter Academy. I even heard that the royal family held a grand celebration when Princess Nancy entered Porter Academy!”

With Simoni’s explanation, Rowlin came to understand. Indeed, since its founding a thousand years ago, Porter Academy had attracted gifted magical talents from every stratum of the Aragon Continent. To be admitted to Porter Academy was a source of pride. Not to mention anything far away—wasn’t his own dorm leader, Maler, the son of the Empire’s Minister of Finance? Thinking of it now, there was truly nothing astonishing about an imperial princess studying at the same academy as himself.

“Rowlin, the last alchemist I’m about to introduce has deep ties with both of us!” A strange look appeared on Simoni’s face.

At that, Rowlin became interested as well, and listened closely.

“This alchemist is Anthony. You may not have heard of him, but his potion-alchemy teacher has been renowned in our academy for hundreds of years already—Thomas!”