They were staring at him so intensely and in such a weird way that it made Vincent feel discomfort, and he couldn't help but gaze back at the instructors and say, "What's wrong? Is there something on my face??"
Mr. Holmes, who liked saying no the said honestly, replied, "No, no, no, nothing is wrong with your face. It's just that I was shocked to see the dozens of recently purified herbs that had 75% to 99% percent of their impurities removed, and their qualities increased by a good enough margin. Did you do it all in merely minutes?"
Instructor Alex, on the other hand, stormed ahead and stopped once he reached Vincent.
He pointed at the dozen or so ingredients on his table and asked, "Did you purify all of them?"
All of the ingredients were mostly free of impurities. Vincent had purified them after Mr. Holmes left the class to get instructor Alex. By the time they returned to the class, he had successfully prepared around ten ingredients ready to get used in alchemy. The good thing was that Vincent left 5% to 25% impurities in them intentionally. He was sure that if he purified them perfectly, someone would become suspicious that he has something that lets him perform such a feat, or he might enter such blinding limelight that he would get crushed under its weight!
"Yes," Vincent replied confidently.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAlex was sure that he wasn't lying. He had lived half his life for alchemy and only reached his current level after making pills for fifteen years. Yet, the boy in front of him was already better at purifying herbs than him. Was this what they call talent?
No, Vincent wasn't talented.
Then, what about him being a genius?
Genius didn't cut him.
He was better than one!
Only the words born to become the king of the purifying process could define him.
"Can you purify one in front of me?" Alex asked while looking at Vincent. He wanted to see just how good his control over mana was and just what type of skill he was using to purify stuff so fast, so accurately, that it reached his level.
[Tenth, do you need help to fool him?] Blood asked.
It had many powerful alchemy techniques in its database. Just transferring one over to Vincent would allow him to hide the fact that he could see through ingredients and find out how many impurities there are and where they are without using advanced technology.
'Nope," Vincent replied.
He also had many tricks up his sleeves that he could use to fool instructor Alex and hide that he could locate the impurities inside of a herb. He didn't need Blood's help. More than that, there was no need to purify an ingredient in front of him. With just a few words, he could escape doing it.
"I would love to, but I am sorry." Vincent said, "You see, I am only an intermediate-level combatant with two energy channels opened. Because of purifying all these ingredients, I have run out of mana." Because he said these words with an honest expression on his pale, handsome face, it made the onlooker believe him.
Alex stared at him. Because of the special properties of his body, he could detect the energy radiation level of a person. Vincent's had dropped to zero, meaning he didn't even have any. That meant he wasn't purposely evading him, but because of a lack of energy, he couldn't help fulfill his request. Now, he could give him an energy restoration pill, but he didn't do so.
He had multiple reasons for that. The first was that it would be a waste. The second was that he didn't want to come off as too aggressive and force an alchemy prodigy to perform for his amusement. The last was that each pill contained impurities, and he didn't want to form poison into his student's throat, especially since the situation didn't call for it.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe would be teaching him for a good while. There ould be many chances to see the techniques of the prodigy and cover his own shortcomings.
"I guess it can't be helped then. Anyway, good work! You're the best one in your grade, the whole academy actually at purifying alchemy ingredients."
"Thank you, sir."
After saying those words to Vincent, Alex turned to the rest of the kids, looked at the ingredients on their tables, and after finding out that they were all far from completing the goal he gave them, he said the following words in a disappointed voice: "All of you should learn from your classmate here. Vincent had completed his task perfectly, yet some of you haven't even started. The best ones who had been learning alchemy for the last few weeks aren't even halfway towards the goal! I'm disappointed! Extremely disappointed! You guys aren't only failing yourself but also pulling the legs of this alchemy prodigy! Because of you all, he might not even get to learn the second step of alchemy as early as his peers, who are learning from other alchemy masters. Better try hard lest you destroy someone else future."
It sounded like he was taunting the students, but Vincent realized the whole other truth hidden behind the facade of aggression.
First off, instructor Alex intentionally used harsh words to demoralize and also motivate the students in the classroom.
Secondly, Vincent inferred from his words that he wouldn't be teaching them the next step of alchemy until 50% of their class completed the first goal.
That meant that Vincent needed to guide them to get on to learn more about Alchemy.
If he didn't do so, he would be wasting his time, something he didn't want to do.
Who knows how long it would take them to complete the first goal without the guidance of their teacher or him!
Instructor Alex simply threw his baggage on him and Mr. Holmes, who could only answer if someone asked him a question about a subject related to alchemy, and returned back to the other room to kick the bucket and sleep!