SRS 37

Even if a slime’s attack power was low, it was the type that trapped its target, so it became dangerous the moment someone relaxed. Fortunately, once Groups 2 and 3 joined forces with Suhyeok, they easily defeated it.

Yohan felt relieved as the creature sagged into a blob, melted, and disappeared with a burnt smell.

“Thanks, Yohan!”

“I won’t forget this favor!”

“Tch… they’re helping you because you’re weak.”

“Kitty, this is when you say thank you.”

“Suhyeok! If you ever need help, tell me! If it’s gathering ingredients, I’ll help any time!”

The students from the other groups treated Yohan and Suhyeok like heroes as they returned toward Group 1 after treating the last person.

“We didn’t even do much, but it feels like returning to one’s hometown wearing brocade robes.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a saying.”

Suhyeok said it was something positive while he guided the exhausted Yohan back toward Group 1. Their groupmates had already gathered all the herbs and were waiting for them.

“Sorry we’re late.”

“It’s fine. You were helping the others. We saw you.”

“What did they do to get caught by a mutated slime? You don’t see those often on the back mountain.”

“Right.”

Yohan smiled, grateful that friends who had been so competitive earlier accepted it so easily. He thought, at least they’re still good people.

Then one student suddenly shuddered, rubbed his arms, and lowered his voice.

“Do you think Professor Will released it? This isn’t even a mutated slime zone.”

“…Now that you mention it, I did hear that Professor Will manages the back mountain.”

“……”

The reasoning grew more believable, and Group 1 fell silent. Yohan remembered the gentle smile Professor Will wore even after knocking down upperclassmen and closed his mouth. He wanted to defend him, but Will had done too many outrageous things for that to be convincing. It was possible that he did it.

“…Let’s be more careful going back than when we came.”

Suhyeok spoke warily.

“Yes.”

“…Right.”

“Check all directions!”

The Group 1 students marched back in tight formation, spinning around and watching every angle.

“You’re early. I was waiting. Now, let’s see the potion you decided on and the ingredients you brought.”

When they returned to the lecture room, Professor Will greeted them. The senior students lying on the floor were in exactly the same condition as when the class had left.

Yohan checked his wristwatch. It had been 48 minutes since they stepped out.

“…It really might be the professor.”

Suhyeok checked the time after him and muttered quietly. Yohan nodded before he realized it.

Soon Groups 2 and 3 arrived and stared at Will with annoyance. Since they had been the ones directly attacked by slimes, they must have reasoned it out even faster than Group 1 and had reached the same conclusion.

“Professor, we saw something strange on the back mountain.”

A student from Group 2 stepped forward, quietly demanding an explanation. She was the one with light brown hair that turned golden in sunlight, who always had to rein Kitty in.

Was it Melissa?

While Yohan tried to recall her name, Melissa started explaining what happened with the mutated slime. Will placed his hand on his cheek and looked worried.

“Oh dear. I didn’t expect a mutated slime to appear. Is anyone hurt?”

“……”

His tone sounded insincere. Yohan wasn’t the only one who noticed. All the students stared at him with suspicion. The elf professor hummed, then laughed brightly.

“You caught me. I thought it would be good for you to develop teamwork while completing the assignment, so I released one or two. Was it a useful experience?”

“……”

“Why don’t you just release a hydra nex….”

“Shh, shh! Kitty!”

Group 2 shut Kitty up before he could finish. Yohan looked at Kitty, who had the roughest mouth among the beastmen, then silently agreed with him. The elf professor’s words were so absurd that it wouldn’t be surprising if he released a phoenix next time.

Since the grace period was over and he couldn’t drop Herbology anymore, Yohan regained his calm and offered the ingredients to Will.

“Professor, please check the ingredients.”

He politely hid the wish that the professor would stop talking nonsense and continue the lesson. Will finally checked the ingredients and potion name, then handed them extra components.

“Oh my, Group 3 brought one wrong ingredient. But it’s fine. The point of today’s lesson is to practice so this won’t happen in real situations. I’ll lend you my ingredients this time, but be careful next time.”

Yohan felt his heart drop.

There’s a next time?

His gaze drifted to the upperclassmen on the floor. They seemed even more pitiful now.

I need to be careful so I don’t get penalty points…

Using the seniors as a lesson, Yohan accepted the ingredients and gathered with his friends around the cauldron.

“Let’s begin.”

Following the brewing method, they crushed the Hera petals to extract the juice and poured in clean purified water. Yohan and Suhyeok handled this part.

The Mongwa leaves, another ingredient, had to be plucked, magically dried at high speed, then steeped thoroughly in boiling water. The mage students handled that part.

The process of grinding down the Sak horn and mixing it with giant dung to dry was handled by the other students, while the remaining students prepared the purified water that served as the base for every potion, heating it until it boiled.

Yohan watched the priests pray and the others carefully stir the water, then he handed them the prepared ingredients.

“Hera flower going in!”

“I’m putting in the Mongwa leaves!”

“Wait on the Sak horn! Those two need to mix first!”

The students in charge of mixing stirred the cauldron vigorously with a ladle. The transparent liquid slowly shifted into a pink tint.

“Good, this is it! Dump the rest of the ingredients in!”

When they poured the remaining ingredients in at the right moment, the pink liquid grew darker and soon turned red. It was the typical color of a recovery potion.

“Great, it’s going well. Next is the prayer from a mid grade or higher priest to raise the potion’s tier!”

“……”

The brewing steps had already reached their final stage. When they mentioned ‘mid grade priest’, everyone looked at Yohan, so he had no choice but to kneel.

Flash. Light flowed from the cauldron.

“It worked!”

The red potion glowed softly. The students’ faces brightened, knowing the glow meant success. Yohan dusted off his knees and watched as the finished potion was poured into a bottle.

“We’ve finished!”

“You’re fast. Let me check.”

Professor Will approached Group 1. The students proudly held out the finished potion.

“Hm.”

Will took the bottle and gently shook it. The Kasa’s Intermediate Potion shimmered beautifully as it swished in the bottle.

“Hmmm…”

“……?”

The potion seemed fine, yet the professor’s long hum made Group 1 tense. Yohan mentally reviewed the entire brewing process and blinked. There had been no mistakes.

If something went wrong, it would have been during purification or the final prayer, which meant…

Was it my fault?

Yohan’s pupils shook.

“Hmmmm.”

Just when Group 1 was getting really nervous, Will set the bottle down and smiled.

“It’s good. Very well made. But it looks stronger than the standard Kasa Intermediate Potion. If we had to name it, we’d call it Kasa Exceptional Intermediate Potion.”

“……!”

That was high praise.

“Wow!”

“We did it!”

“Yohan!”

Group 1 cheered in celebration, and hugged each other. Will briefly looked at Yohan. Yohan blinked while batting away Suhyeok’s hand messing up his hair.

“Hm.”

“…Why are you looking at me like that, Professor?”

“It’s nothing. It’s still too early. Yes. It’s quite early.”

Will muttered a few things Yohan couldn’t understand, nodded to himself, and went off to check Group 2’s potion.

What?

The ambiguous reaction left Yohan restless, and he shivered as something cold slithered up his spine. Then his excited friends dragged him away to give the potion to the injured senior.

“Mmm…”

Professor Will hadn’t been speaking empty words, because the Kasa Intermediate Potion worked far better than expected. The senior woke up much faster than anticipated, and Group 1 cheered.

Then something happened.

“Urgh!”

“Senior! Senior!”

“Damn it… his eyes flipped! It failed!”

Another senior who drank Group 3’s potion started foaming at the mouth.

“It’s a success!”

…It looks like a failure?

No matter how he saw it, this was obviously wrong, yet Melek shouted in joy. Ignoring everything, Melek cackled while looking between the fallen senior and the suspicious potion that was glowing with a green hue.

“With this…!”

“Melek made poison! Melek made poison!”

“Hey, his eyes are weird! Take it away from him!”

“Let go! With this… with this, I can finally deal with Professor Hegel…!”

The mention of the magic professor’s name made Yohan freeze. Now that he thought about it, he had heard that Melek had been arrogant toward Professor Hegel and became his errand slave.

…How much did he go through?

Yohan looked at Melek with pity. Fantasiademia was doing strange things to the students.