The Mysterious Black Magician

Outside the lab, they saw two tables arranged beside each other, and placed on top of it were the materials required for the test: a mortar, herbs of different kinds, a book with half-inch thickness was there too, a magic scroll and etcetera.

The scrolls were holding the power of the Beginner Tier Alchemy Skill, the 'Hand Of The Clumsy'. They must learn it first before the test begun.

"I'll give you 5 minutes to learn the technique in the scroll and another 10 minutes to review the book and study all the materials. After that, your test will start," after announcing it, Prof. Ronnie left and went inside the Alchemy's Little Garden(lab).

"Yes, Prof. Ronnie!"

"Yes, Teacher!"

Both of them shouted a reply.

Yman and Cinde took the piece of cloth which was folded on the table.. Then they matted it on the ground to which they sat in meditation posture. In front of them, they spread and laid the scrolls.

It was the second time that he would learn a technique from a magic scroll.

Just like the healing magic scroll, profound words were also visible on the alchemy skill scroll.

After dropping a tiny bit of blood from the hexagram logo on it, the words seemingly came to life as they shone and floated then twirled around them like snakes.

Golden energy then enveloped their body while the words spiraled around them.

The two closed their eyes and accepted the golden energy together with the profound words that seemed like Hieroglyphs of ancient Egyptians.

When the golden energy dissipates, the two opened their eyes. In front of them, the scroll became an empty scroll. The profound words that recently there, was now gone.

Yman closed and opened his hand, he could feel the technique running through from within, like it was there originally. He tried summoning a bit of mana. Crimson energy with a mix of gold played on his hand. He then waved it to get rid and decided to get up.

The two of them next studied the materials then read the books.

Cinde stared at Crimson and noticed something about him, "Hmm, as expected he's concentrating already," she muttered upon seeing his serious expression while fixedly staring at the book in his hands.

The white strands of his messy bangs were slightly dancing in the air when the slight gush of wind brushed his hair.

His eyes went from left to right, following every syllable of the words he was reading. Unbothered by his surrounding, he flipped another page of the book he was reading.

'So fast!' Cinder thought while staring at him. Just a few seconds that had passed he already flipped some of the pages.

"Uhm, Miss Ella, will Miss Cinde be okay?" Airi asked worriedly when she noticed that Cinde was wasting her time staring at the person beside her.

She wanted to have other members in the department, it was also the reason she was cheering the two of them to succeed.

Yet,

They noticed she was lost in thought. Although she was holding a book, her attention wasn't in there.

"Haha, I don't know what she's doing. That girl, she forgot the reason she was there," Rea laughed listlessly and sighed. "She needs a hard knock on her head," Rea added. Then she waited for a couple of seconds. Yet Cinde was still in a daze.

"Ahem, Cinde! Have you decided to quit?" Rea was not able to hold on and decided to call her and ask.

After hearing her, Cinde was flustered and quickly flipped the next page of the book without reading the first page. Then she awkwardly flipped back the previous page.

Rea and Airi were staring at her with blank faces. They wondered if she would be alright.

After 10 minutes, Ronnie came out from the Little Garden.

Rea secretly thought: "Cinde was in trouble."

"Oh, are you ready?" He asked immediately.

"Yes, Teacher!"

"Huh? Eh?"

Yman knitted his brows. "Are you okay?" He asked the girl beside him.

"Uh? Y-Yes!" She replied with a flush of redness on her face.

Yman wondered if she would be alright.

"Okay, let's start!" Prof. Ronnie declared. The first step is…" he then explained to them what they needed to do.

Yman and Cinder started by grinding the herbs using the mortar. Then add liquid to filter and separate the soluble from insoluble.

They do their work meticulously. The two continued for a couple or minutes until both of them finished their works.

Last thing they did was to fill the liquid into the bottle. Prof. Ronnie walked beside the table and took each of the bottles to check.

The bottle on Cinde's table, the measuring marks were barely crossed by the liquid's quantity in it.

While in Crimson's bottle the liquid quantity easily passed the marks.

"Okay, both of you passed the first round," said Prof. Ronnie with a satisfied nod. But he wondered how the girl able to do it. Maybe she was just lucky. Or perhaps a hidden talent?

In any case, the test has just started.

Rea and Airi sighed in relief while clapping their hands. Good thing that Prof. Ronnie went inside. She was able to replace the herbs in Cinde's table with a bigger one. She knew that the first round of the test would be the quantity measurement.

Yman didn't know whether to laugh or cry at them.

The next part was using their new technique the 'Hands of the Clumsy' to enhance the quality of the liquid. 

At this point, they needed good control of their mana. Which someone like Cinder had the advantage.

The Hands of the Clumsy was a spell that can enhance the quality of material.

'Sistela! He woke up his partner who was currently in sleeping mode.

When Sistela woke up, he explained to her the current situation.

<Let me handle it, partner!> she said.

The two then went into resonance. Cinde and the others were wondering what Crimson was planning to do with his Deity.

After their resonance, he let Sistela control his body. While he become the second person. Although Sistela was the one controlling his body, the others were unaware of it.

When they started lifting the glass of liquid, their hands exuded golden color and with the mix of their own mana. In Crimson's hand, it was a golden energy with the mix of crimson color.

They holding the glass in both hands, trying to enhance its quality.

They could see that the liquid inside was seemingly boiling.

After a couple of minutes, the dirty color of the liquid was starting turning bright-green. Until it was clear enough that one could see through from it.

Ronnie who was staring at the two the whole time, annouced: "Okay, that's enough!" He said after checking the time.

Yman and Cinde sighed and brushed their foreheads to get rid if the sweats on it.

Ronnie first slightly shook the glasses to check for the waste particles from it. Waste particles usually rose and floated for a couple of seconds so it was easy to distinguish if one was a well-enhance or not.

As expected, waste particles rose in the bottles of Cinde after Prof. Ronnie shook it.

However, he widened his eyes in astonishment when he noticed that in Crimson's bottle. It was so clear and so pure. Not even a little speck of waste particle was visible from it. Like it was done by a high tier spell the Gentle Hand.

<Hehe!> Sistela's victory grinned.