Capítulo 42: Chapter 42: Apologize

"This is called the Lotus Lith Limited Enhancement Pill, or 3LEP for short."

"Ah! That's the pill that Annie reviewed last night! That's what I was talking about!"

"It… it looks expensive."

"It's not! I wanted to buy one last night, but it quickly sold out even before the video ended! How did the instructor manage to get one!?"

"Ahem… Annie is a friend."

"What!?"

"Quiet down, quiet down!"

Try as Instructor Ken might, but none of his students were actually shutting their mouths as they just continued to talk about the pill on their own. But after a few seconds, the instructor just suddenly clapped his hands, releasing some of his lith as a Spirit Master and just causing all the students to finally quiet down.

"Good," Instructor Ken nodded in satisfaction as everyone was finally looking at him, "As I said, this pill is called the 3LEP — and it has the effect of temporarily increasing one's level, not just one's stage, but an entire level."

"But… wasn't there already a pill like that?" One of the students raised their hand.

"There was, it was produced by the Azure Pill sect," Instructor Ken smiled while nodding his head several times, "But it has since been banned due to its dangerous and deadly side effects. And as I said — this pill revolutionizes and changes everything we know about Pill Refining. Its effects may have been done before by another sect…

…but it hasn't been done before with absolutely no side effects."

"What!?" And once again, the students started making noises; their whispers, soon turned into full-on gasps of shock. This time, however, Instructor Ken just let them gossip and talk to each other — only stopping them after a good few minutes.

"So, do I still need to say how incredible that is?" Instructor Ken then raised the pill in the air with both of his hands, almost as if treating it like some sort of treasure, "And the one who co-created this pill is an alumni of this very Academy, it would not be an exaggeration to say that she might have even been standing where you are right now."

"W… woah," everyone then turned to look at where they were standing — all except for Lucian who was just listening to what everyone was saying.

"...Mr. Lucian?" And perhaps, Emilia was also an exception as she was actually looking at Lucian instead, "You're… smiling?"

"I was?" Lucian blinked a couple of times as he quickly touched his lips, "I did not notice, Ms. Emilia."

"W—"

"This is a work of art, the new standard!" Instructor Ken's voice became louder by the second as he left his workbench and started walking around the class; the students' eyes, all staring at the pill in his hand, "This sort of pill is almost akin to magic, but do not be mistaken, my dear students…

…the creation of this pill probably took years and years of effort."

Lucian could really only glance at the instructor as he heard that — it took Lucian 2 hours to make it, and that already included the time he had to scoop out the feces of one of the test subjects.

"Oh, what wonderful minds gave birth to this…" Instructor Ken finally returned to his workbench as he carefully placed the pill on the desk, "...This is very valuable — but I will let all of you smell it; just please, do not taste it or swallow it, or even touch it. It's still mine. Workbench 1, you and your partner go first."

Instructor Ken then stepped to the side as he gestured to his students to proceed to his desk.

"What… what do we do with it?" The students on the workbench near the instructors could really only look at each other as they carefully approached their instructor's desk; their eyes, slightly being blinded by the pill just resting on it.

"Tell me what you think the ingredients are, or even just the main ingredient," Instructor Ken connected his phone to the projector of the laboratory, and as he did so — an image of a woman appeared on the whiteboard; her hair was dyed white, almost silver, and her cheeks were incredibly rosy.

"That's… That's PillAddictAnnie!"

"Holy crap, is it really her!? Wait, is this—"

[Hello guys!]

"Oh my god, it's a video call!"

[Instructor Ken, thanks for having me. I hope my cousin is not too annoying for you guys?]

"Pft…"

"Woah, she's your cousin!? You have a famous cousin, Instructor!?"

"Annie, please…" Instructor Ken could really only pinch the bridge of his nose before placing the phone right on his workbench and in front of the pill and the students who were currently analyzing the pill,

"...As all of you may know, Annie is somewhat of an Alchemist herself."

[I'm… not really licensed,] Annie started waving her hands while chuckling softly.

"And yet she is actually considered a genius by many — she just hasn't bothered taking the exams," Instructor Ken, "And I know some of you watch her videos and know what she is best—"

"Reverse-engineering pills!"

[Pft…]

"That's right…" Instructor Ken sighed while shaking his head, "...Annie has actually already reverse-engineered the pill."

[No! No,] Annie quickly started shaking her head, [I just know the basic composition, if I try to recreate it, I will fail a hundred out of a hundred times.]

"Be that as it may, she knows the basic ingredients," Instructor Ken then gestured to the students of Workbench 1, who had been smelling the pill for almost an entire minute now, "So, you two — what's your assessment?"

"Uhm…" One of the students raised his hand, "...Dark chocolate?"

"Pft!"

[Aw, guys. Don't laugh — his guess is actually somewhat, well… valid. But wrong.]

"White chocolate!?" The partner said.

[Pft… no,] and Annie could really only cover her mouth to laugh.

"Get out of here! You're embarrassing me!" Instructor Ken jokingly kicked his students as he pointed at the students of Workbench 2, "You two, and please use what I taught you."

"Uhm… is it a 100-year-old Ginseng?"

[Hmm, close.]

"The leaf of a Spirit Bamboo?"

[Somewhat closer…?]

"A Lightning Oxen's balls!"

[Well…]

"A 20-year-old breast milk!"

[That's… well, actually…]

"I swear, have I taught all of you nothing!?" Instructor Ken wanted to strangle his students there as their answers seemed to be getting worse than the last student, "Ugh, next is Workbench—Oh…

…Emilia and the new student."

"Let's go, Mr. Lucian," Emilia excitedly gestured to Lucian to follow her before she waved her hand at Annie, who just smiled and waved back. Emilia then just lightly sniffed the pill before just immediately giving her guess,

"It smells similar to cake."

[That's… not an ingredient,] Annie softly chuckled, [All of you are actually already quite close to it.]

"Hm," Emilia just shrugged before stepping to the side and making way for Lucian, who just very gently waved his hand above the pill so he could smell it.

[Oh, that's very elegant,] Annie once again giggled.

"He's our new student," Instructor Ken also chuckled, "It's alright, you can take a guess — there's no wrong answers and—"

"Sugar," Lucian then answered as he just took a step back, "It was used to coat the outer layer of the pill."

[W…That's right.]

"Woah!" All the students just started looking at each other. But after a few seconds, one of them just raised her voice.

"Ah! That's not fair! He just guessed it because Ms. Annie already gave a clue! Chocolate, cake — it's sugar!"

"That's right!"

"Everyone, calm down," Instructor Ken then quickly gestured to his students to quiet down, "It doesn't change the fact that he guessed it right. But since you already guessed one right, do you want to try again? Another ingredient you noticed when you smelled it? I'll give you another extra credit if you do."

"Okay," Lucian glanced at Instructor Ken before looking at the phone, "Poop, Ms. Video Lady."

[T…]

"W…what?" Instructor Ken's eye started to twitch.

"There is poop in it, Mr. Instructor."

"You…" Instructor Ken's teeth started to show, "A…

…Apologize to Annie right now, or I will fail you on your very first day!"