Reaching for the Stars

Chapter Twenty-Three

My heart was beating a little fast, unsure if I would suddenly mess this up, I knew I couldn't mention any of the other potions I had made, it was still rather unbelievable to have brewed two different potions of two different grades in one night, with only having a demonstration for one of them it was almost too unreal to be true. Little did they know while only one day might have passed here, I had ten days in my spatial world to work on them.

So, once I take a deep breath to calm myself, and finish setting up my equipment, I go grab the ingredients I need, thankful that they were organized the exact same way. After grabbing the six ingredients that made this qualified to be an intermediate level potion, three ingredients and under made it a beginner level potion, up to seven made it an intermediate, let alone the dozen ingredients that could be in an advanced potion.

Under the heavy gazes of everyone in the room, I calmly process all the ingredients and brew the Medium-Grade Shield potion, even though a part of me wonders if advancing this quickly is truly a smart move, I've already gotten to this point now, and I refused to mess up this potion when I knew how to do it correctly. It isn't long before I have a completed potion in front of me, I take the glass bottle and calmly hand it over to Professor Takeshi.

The entire class seems to hold their breath as they wait for Professor Takeshi to test it, he takes a sniff of it and looks at me calmly, I worry that maybe I messed up somehow, but I am sure I made that healing potion flawlessly. "I understand what you mean, Finius, you may go now, she will be joining my class from now on." Professor Kresmir looks extremely pleased as he nods farewell to me and quickly leaves the classroom, leaving me in here with all these second years who are giving me looks.

Looks that I am not sure are friendly or not. "Don't just stand there, return to your desk. You did interrupt a lesson that I have to finish, you are just in time though, I haven't yet started the making the potion, though I suppose if I did then you would have likely made me restart with this interruption." I quickly go back to my desk, ignoring the smirks of some of the other students.

"Now as I was saying, the Aura Concealment potion is notoriously hard to brew because three of the ingredients have properties that repel each other, add too much of one, or too little of another and you'll get a failed potion or more likely with this potion an explosion." I watch attentively how he processes the ingredients, thankful to see there are no extra skills I need to learn to do that at least.

Though as I watch him add in the powders and liquids waiting for a precise amount of time between each addition, signified by a change in the potion's color, I know this will be nothing like anything I've ever tried to brew before. When he is done a white potion is left, except it wasn't just white it had an iridescent shimmer to it that made it change color depending on the lighting and angle it was looked at. The other students quickly begin working on the potion, taking ingredients from a box on their tables that I do not have. I stand there for a moment, unsure what to do, and it is only when someone clears their throat next to me that I realize I have been internally panicking slightly.

"Professor Takeshi usually makes a prepared box of ingredients for us so we can begin work straight away, here, I'll show you what to grab." I look at the kind stranger not sure if I should trust him or not, but as he grabs a tray from a shelf I hadn't even known was under the desk, I relax slightly, following him as he leads me through the herb storage and grabs the ingredients I'll need. He was rather handsome, with black hair, pale skin, and blue eyes, seemingly refined, I knew he must be from some rich family, but his attitude didn't seem to have any of the arrogance I had come to associate with people that grew up in a rich family.

"I'm Andreas by the way, excellent work with the healing potion, that one took me a week to prepare properly, it must have been hard to have Professor Kresmir as a first-year teacher, I heard he's a perfectionist, doesn't let anything below level ten purity pass. I'm glad I never had him, I would have been failed in the first four months, it took me a long time to grasp the basics of herbalism, even now I'm still shocked I didn't die in the entrance test." I wanted to be uncaring towards him, but it had been so long since I had seen a friendly face like this, and even though his taller height intimidated me slightly, he was being friendly, so I decided to put in at least a little effort as well.