Chapter 40: Applied-Problem Practice, Part One

Chapter 40: Application Problem Training (Part I)

The next day.

The morning general alchemy lecture concluded. The afternoon was reserved for specialized alchemy courses. Anjouer was in the oil-based alchemy zone studying her craft, while Zax walked alone into the poison alchemy zone.

"Professor, I am here."

Kurov set down the wordless book in his hands and spoke to his only student. "There is a military report from Rosak Province on the desk. Take a look; it concerns you."

Zax paused, walked to the desk, picked up the two-finger-wide envelope, and poured out a stack of documents wrapped in a stiff leather cover. The signature on the cover was a name he recognized:

Lieutenant Wilson, First Clerk, Piek Citadel.

Wilson was a middle-aged man with a scar on his face. Zax’s first meeting with him had been in a high-end tavern. That day, Audrey had worn a rare, slit-hem dress.

*I wonder how the circus business is doing lately...*

Several images flashed before Zax’s eyes. The nostalgic expression lasted only a few seconds before he steadied his mind to read the military report.

The Piek Citadel had gathered its forces, thoroughly swept the bandits within its territory, and then crossed the border to push southward. The south of the kingdom held no other nations, only the Great Wilderness, endless forests, and mountains. The army’s primary enemies were the bandit factions that had long been entrenched there. Thirteen bandit strongholds and a sizable slave town had been destroyed.

The opening and middle sections of the report detailed the casualties and spoils of each battle. The latter half listed the sins and ultimate fates of every criminal involved.

The parents of the body Zax now inhabited had died roughly two and a half years ago during a bandit raid. The perpetrators were a leader from the slave town and his three bandit squads; all of them had been sent to the guillotine.

Seeing the contents of the page, Zax’s expression stiffened, his thoughts churning.

*This... is this... avenging me?*

If the "real" Zax were here, would he be weeping? Would he shed tears of joy and then kneel to pray for his deceased parents?

*No, no. If the real "Zax" hadn’t been replaced by me, he would have died in that cellar long ago, let alone entered the Starry Night Academy...*

Zax was at a loss for how to react. He gripped the military report tightly, his fingertips turning white and his hands trembling slightly. He could only mechanically read the text describing the culprits’ punishment over and over again, his mind becoming a tangled knot that tightened with every repetition.

Kurov’s voice echoed in the quiet alchemy room:

"Seventy years ago, in my first year at the academy, my mentor was Dean Beatrice. She handed me an envelope and whispered, 'The army of Sburiel Province has avenged you.' I had the exact same reaction as you when I heard the news."

Kurov walked from the soft sofa to the desk and sat down, addressing his student, whose expression remained complex.

"How similar you are to me back then..."

"Ahem."

He gave a light cough and shifted the topic. "Let us return to business. Do not let time be wasted on sorrow or other emotions; doing so has a negative impact on the spiritual ocean."

Zax stuffed the military report back into the envelope, rubbed his stiff cheeks vigorously, and looked up at his mentor.

"Professor, what is it?"

"The final exam for the general courses is in one month. How are your preparations?"

Kurov gestured to the chair opposite him, signaling for Zax to sit.

Zax knew his extraordinary memory was common knowledge throughout the academy, so he saw no need to hide it and replied directly: "I have memorized every knowledge point in all twenty-five textbooks."

"That alone is not enough." Kurov shook his head slowly. "The final exam is different from the usual classroom quizzes. It is not just multiple-choice questions; there are application problems that involve practical alchemy experience. You have talent and insight in poison alchemy, but that does not mean the same applies to other branches."

Zax remained silent, staring at his mentor. Since the professor had brought this up, he must have already devised a countermeasure. After all, exams were not merely a contest among students.

Within the Starry Night Academy, the base income of every professor came from Lady Starry Night. The professors cultivated mages for her alchemy school, and in return, she provided them with funds and material support. If professors wanted to earn more resources, they had to rely on the mage apprentices they cultivated.

Therefore, exams at the academy were also linked to the additional income each mentor could earn. The better a student performed, the higher their alchemy proficiency—which meant they would receive more teaching resources at the academy and have a higher chance of becoming a mage apprentice in the future.

Mage apprentices, as the name suggests, are merely apprentices; they must pay a price to acquire knowledge. It was only because the Starry Night Academy was generous that they allowed apprentices to learn first and pay tuition later. Before becoming full-fledged mages, every apprentice had to give back to their mentor. After the Starry Night Academy established the Mage Guild, apprentices had to hand over a portion of the rewards from every bounty mission they completed to their respective mentors.

Kurov had not yet set such rules, but mentors in other alchemy branches had already published their commission rates within their departments. For example, the Department of Potion Alchemy, which had the largest number of students, was divided into two disciplines: Healing and Supplements, and Functional Potions. The professor of functional potions, Dean Beatrice, provided functional potions to every student who went on bounty missions. She took 1% to 5% of the mission reward as a commission. The more apprentices a mentor had, the more generous the total commission, and the more resources they could draw from outside the academy.

Kurov had originally had three students, but he had driven two away, leaving only Zax. The extra income he could earn in the future was pitifully small. Yet, he himself seemed entirely uninterested in this income; he never appeared to be worrying about money.

*Could it be that he knows he cannot compete, so he has chosen to lie flat permanently?*

Kurov had never spoken of this, and Zax had never asked, assuming that everyone had different pursuits—perhaps the professor simply liked to huddle on his soft sofa and meditate.

Under his student’s gaze, Kurov stroked his beard for a moment before saying, "In this afternoon’s class, we will not study new toxins, nor will we identify compound toxins. You have mastered the practical operations and identification methods of poison alchemy quite well. It is time to supplement your practical training in other branches."

He summoned several books from the shelf, making them float above the desk. "Are you sure you have memorized these?"

Zax scanned the titles on the covers:
*Essentials of Potion Alchemy Operations*
*Healing, Supplements, and Human Anatomy*
*Guide to Oil Identification*

These three books were textbooks for the general course exams.

"I am sure I have memorized them all."

"Then let us start with oil-based alchemy. Give me a hand; let’s move the poison bottles further away."

Kurov stood up from his chair and, while walking toward the storage rack, rolled his sleeves up to his elbows.

*[When refining toxins and poisons, one cannot use spells, nor can one delegate the work to elemental servants.]*

This was what Kurov had strictly warned him about in the very first lesson. Furthermore, whenever toxins were involved, Kurov was extremely cautious. He refused to use magic to move the poison bottles, preferring to carry them with his hands or on a small cart, moving with the utmost care.

It took the two of them half an hour to clear a small area. Then, Kurov stepped into the storage room, manipulated a leather case to float out, and placed it on the desk.

"The scent of oils is hard to wash away; once it stains you, it will linger for a very, very long time. You must be careful."

He opened the lid of the case and counted the oil bottles inside. "Smell them one by one and see how many of these thirty oils you can identify."

The basic textbooks for oil-based alchemy were *Complete Compendium of Oils*, *Guide to Oil Identification*, and *The Blending of Oils*. There were thirty types of oils encountered at the apprentice level, all of which were highly volatile. Their rate of evaporation increased when exposed to light and heat. They required amber or green glass bottles to protect them from light, and some even had to be stored in specially made, completely opaque leather pouches or iron canisters. Unless the oil was poured out, its color and liquid form could not be seen, so the best way to identify them was by scent.

Zax had learned the knowledge of identifying oils in his oil-based alchemy class. The teacher for that subject was Professor Zhuolong—an elderly, balding white-haired man who usually wore round-rimmed glasses. He was a humorous person who loved to joke with his students. In his first class, he had poked fun at the scent of oil that always clung to him, calling himself a walking oil box. However, jokes aside, Professor Zhuolong was very serious in class. It took him over three months to detail all thirty common oils.

Zax had memorized the scents of these common oils in class, so identifying them now was a breeze. Although he could cast a detection spell on the bottles to learn their contents, he still honestly pried open each stopper, took a sniff, pretended to think for a few seconds, and then stated the name of the oil.

Kurov nodded with a smile. "Very good. It seems you have indeed memorized the knowledge of oil identification. Has Professor Zhuolong taught the book *The Blending of Oils* yet?"

Zax placed the last oil bottle back into the case, ensuring it was firmly seated in the foam groove. "Not yet. He only finished lecturing on the *Guide to Oil Identification* this morning."

Kurov calculated on his fingers, pondered for a few seconds, and said, "That old man is as shrewd as ever, finishing *The Blending of Oils* on the very last day before the exam. I will teach you this book in advance."

Hearing his mentor’s dig at Professor Zhuolong, Zax decided to act as if he hadn't heard it, staring blankly at the bottles and jars in the oil case.

"Have you memorized *The Blending of Oils* as well?" Seeing his student nod, Kurov continued, "The difficulty of oil-based alchemy lies in blending. Professor Zhuolong might set application problems related to blending on the exam. Students from other departments will likely find it hard to get full marks on this type of question. Hmm... let me think... he needs to make it difficult for students from other disciplines to score points, while avoiding being reprimanded by the Dean for making the questions too hard..."

Zax watched his pondering mentor and blinked, suddenly realizing he had a great advantage!

His poison alchemy department only had one student. This meant that among all the freshmen, he was the only one who could frequently refine toxins—well, as of tonight, there was Anjouer, too. If the exam Kurov set also included application problems related to refining poisons and identifying toxins, then he and Anjouer would score significantly higher than the others.

Of course, the application problems Kurov set wouldn’t be too difficult. The true purpose of such problems was to ensure that students who were meticulous and competent in their alchemy operations could achieve high scores, thereby distinguishing them from the rest. Every exam likely followed a similar logic.

Kurov patted his hands after a moment of thought. "Let’s start with the oil-based alchemy exam questions from previous years. It is impossible for Professor Zhuolong to set the exact same questions, but you can use past problems to practice and accumulate experience in blending."

He walked into the storage room again, retrieved a large case, rummaged through it, and brought out two pieces of wood of different materials.

"The lighter one is pine; the darker one is cedar. These are the most common building materials." Kurov pointed to the boards in turn. "Northern houses use pine because the air there is drier, and pine has better resistance to dryness. The air in Rosak Province is more humid, so they use cedar, which is less prone to mold and contains more moisture than pine."

Kurov held a board in each hand. "These two materials have a common flaw: they are not fireproof. We must use oil-based alchemy to solve this problem. Do you have any ideas?"

Zax instinctively looked at the fireproof oil in the box. Unlike the edible fireproof oil used in fire-breathing performances, the fireproof oil in the box could not be ingested, held in the mouth, or applied to the skin.

Kurov followed his student’s gaze. "Fireproof oil is too expensive, isn’t it? A single bottle costs as much as the lumber for half a house. In multiple-choice questions, you can choose fireproof oil as the answer. But in application problems, you will lose points for being impractical. Coating a ten-square-meter wooden cabin with fireproof oil would consume over a dozen bottles, with a total value exceeding twenty gold coins. It is not cost-effective. Do you have any other ideas?"

Zax scratched his cheek, racking his brain to recall knowledge from his previous life. Unfortunately, he was not a graduate of chemical engineering or materials science... the ideas surfacing in his mind were more like wild guesses. He struggled for a few minutes, eventually abandoning the attempt to use scientific methods, and shifted his attention back to alchemy and the oil case.

*The three elements of combustion: fuel, an oxidizer, and an ignition source or heat.* This was knowledge from *Foundations of Forging and Casting*, a basic textbook for the Mega-Construction discipline.

A wooden house was itself fuel, and its interior and exterior were filled with air, which acted as an oxidizer. Fireproof oil was not combustible itself; it prevented the protected wood from coming into direct contact with the air, effectively isolating the fuel from the oxidizer. At the same time, it had extremely low thermal conductivity, greatly delaying the transfer of flame heat to the protected wood.

The *Complete Compendium of Oils* stated that the refining process for fireproof oil extensively used raw materials related to the water element.

Zax nodded to himself, carefully recalling oils related to the water element, and reached for a glass bottle with a long, thin neck from the box.