บท 108: Despair
Albert's trio was happily chatting in a corner inside the waiting room. Across them were the young apprentices who were looking at them as if they were a fish on a chopping board.
"Let's see how happy you can be once we take the top spots from you guys!"
Corey muttered to himself.
After a few more minutes, a staff member finally entered the room.
"Everyone, please follow me, the ingredients and all the crafting tools are already prepared for all of you in a separate room."
The staff member then walked out of the room into the pill-crafting examination room.
They arrived at the pill crafting examination room after just a few minutes of walking.
Upon entering, Albert's trio was mesmerized. This was the first time they saw a room as huge as this one!
There were at least a thousand crafting tables and the materials used to create each one were top quality.
In addition to this, there was a huge stage in front of the crafting tables. Old man Wayne was seated on the stage behind a long table.
Corey chuckled after seeing the mesmerized looks of Albert's trio.
"Hillbillies!" He thought to himself.
The staff member guided each examinee towards their assigned crafting tables and unfortunately for Albert's trio, they were assigned to the farthest crafting table.
Albert sneered after seeing such a setup.
He believes that they were deliberately assigned to the farthest crafting tables to give the young apprentices a better chance of submitting their pills first.
He didn't care too much about such cheap tricks though, what he cared about was the quality of the ingredients.
If their ingredients were tampered with, it would be hard for them to achieve first place.
"Hmm…These look alright…"
Fortunately for them, the headquarters of the alchemist association didn't have a single low-quality ingredient so they were safe from tampering schemes.
Once all of the examinees were at their respective tables, old man Wayne stood up.
"Since everyone is now ready, I believe we can start the third assessment. After you finish crafting your pills, you may present them to me for grading. You may begin!"
The examinees immediately started preparing the ingredients for the pill.
Of course, Albert's trio and the young apprentices also started their own ingredient preparation.
After just an hour, Albert's trio were already done with their ingredient preparation.
The young apprentices saw it however, they simply sneered.
"No matter how fast you complete your ingredient preparation, you need to slowly boil it for two hours. This is what you get for showing off and trying to create a difficult pill in an assessment."
Corey muttered to himself before getting back to work on his own pill.
Chris looked at the three of them and upon seeing that they were slowly boiling each ingredient, he sneered.
"I'm done with the most difficult part of my pill which is the ingredient preparation, in just another hour, I'll finish my pill."
Another hour passed.
"Hahahaha! I'm finally done with my pill!" Chris shouted in excitement.
"Silence! The other examinees are still making pills, don't distract them"
Old man Wayne was annoyed so he gave them a warning.
Chris gave old man Wayne an apologetic look before looking towards Corey and the other young apprentices.
Each one of them high-fived Chris for being able to complete his pill in just two and a quarter hours.
"Hahahaha! I knew I could count on you, Chris!"
"A truly well-deserved title of being the fastest!"
The young apprentices weren't stingy at all when it came to praising one of their own.
The reason why they didn't have to complete their pills too quickly is because once Chris submitted his pill, the physique decluttering pill, for grading, it would leave a lingering scent in the air which would reduce the purity of other pills incompatible with it.
However, the same goes for other pills, once a pill with incompatible properties gets quality-checked first, his pill would have a reduced purity.
That's why the young apprentices were so happy that Chris managed to finish first.
However, while they were celebrating, they heard some voices coming from the front of the stage.
"Hello, sir! Here's my pill, please check it…"
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
Upon hearing the voices, they immediately recognized that they were from Albert, Marie, and Charles.
Chris and the other young apprentices turned to look with a confused expression.
"W-Wha–?"
"N-NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! W-WAITTTTTTTT!!"
Chris immediately grabbed his pill and ran towards the stage with all his might. However, unfortunately for him, old man Wayne has already begun deconstructing the pill to check its quality.
A pleasant medicinal scent wafted through the air. However, for Chris, this scent was the smell of despair.
He was currently ranked 10th on the rankings and an unknown old man would take his place if he failed here.
Being pushed down to 11th place would mean that he would become a gold-ranked master alchemist instead of a platinum-ranked master alchemist.
If that happens, his master would surely disown him!
"Hmm…94% purity!" old man Wayne proclaimed.
After hearing old man Wayne's final verdict, Chris lost all hope as he knelt on the ground with a blank look on his face.
Corey and the other young apprentices on the other hand, although they were sad that they lost, their pills weren't incompatible with Albert's trio's pill so it wouldn't affect their rankings that much.
They even felt like laughing at Chris for looking like a stupid loser in the middle of the examination room.
He was getting too arrogant earlier so his pathetic look right now made them forget their anger towards Albert's trio.
"92% Purity!"
"91% Purity!"
After submitting their pills, Albert, Marie, and Charles turned to look at the young apprentices. They gave them an annoying smirk before being escorted out of the examination room by the staff members.
Corey gritted his teeth in anger but they couldn't do anything. They tried to mess with them during the last two assessments but they still lost.
They could only finish their pills and pray that they win against Albert's 94% purity pill.
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