With Vincent at the helm, the alchemy students quickly gained better control over their energy. They became good enough to purify 50% of impurities from the ingredients. It took them two weeks of training for four hours in the night and an hour in the morning to reach such a level.

When the news that nearly all of the students in his classroom had reached such a level spread across the academy, many instructors praised Alex, the alchemist. The headmaster even drank with him and gave him a few things. Alex, who was confused, had no choice but to get back to his class and witness their improvement for himself.

As it turned out, the students who were so clumsy that he didn't want to waste a single second of his life on them exceeded his expectations.

Just how did they become so good?

Why did nearly the entire class pass the test he set for them when he thought that only 3 to 7, including Vincent, would manage to hold on in the end?

Who was behind this great play?

It was at this moment that he saw Vincent beaming towards him.

That suspicious smile on Vincent's pale, handsome face made it too apparent to instructor Alex.

The one behind the improvement of the entire class was none other than Vincent, the boy born for alchemy!

'What an interesting guy!'

Instructor Alex smiled back.

'Theo sure has an eye for picking up treasures.'

Instructor Alex wasn't mad. He was somewhat happy. He believed in the term; the more, the merrier. Not to mention, no matter how good Vincent was, if the others didn't put any effort into improving themselves, they wouldn't have reached such a level in merely a few weeks. Such hard-working kids deserved to get taught by him.

He took the students to another classroom with many cauldrons, timers, etc.

Instructor Alex turned to the students and said with a generous smile, "Alright, it's time for you guys to learn alchemy for real."

Then, he walked up to the cauldron in the middle of the room.

He pointed at the cauldron with many inscription patterns and said, "As you all already know, this here is a high-tech cauldron. It has four inscriptions on it. The first one allows you to create fire. The second one will enable you to control how hot it gets, letting you control the temperature of the cauldron. The third one allows you to put mana into it. The fourth one will let you see what's happening inside this big copper pot. Of course, you will be expending mana to activate them. Now, I will give you a minute to remember which inscription does what before moving on to the next part."

One glance was enough for Vincent, and of course, many others. Vincent thought that he really was too lucky to be born in this era where technology has improved so much that anyone could learn alchemy.

In the past, only those people with fire ability and excellent control over their energy were able to do alchemy. But it all changed with the introduction of inscription patterns, as it made it possible for everyone to do alchemy. As long as they were willing to work their ass off and study like dogs, who bark at night, they would master it and start creating pills to earn wads of cash.

A minute later, not caring whether some students who were slow on the uptake had memorized the effects of the inscription by heart or not, instructor Alex moved to the best part of alchemy.

"The first you need to do is to open the lid and put ingredients inside of the cauldron. You can use your hands, but nearly all the alchemists use mana to perform such tasks."

He opened the lid not by using his hands but by using mana. It hovered in mid-air as one ingredient after another took flight and charged inside the cauldron, settling inside of it.

The lid closed, and instructor Alex proceeded to the next step.

"The second thing is to heat the cauldron to an appropriate temperature and melt the ingredients." While saying that, some mana surged out of him and charged into the fire-creating inscription, causing fire to manifest beneath and inside the cauldron, heating it up at an incredible phase.

"Remember, each ingredient has a different melting point. If you use more heat to melt it, the flame will also eat away at its medicinal essence!" Instructor Alex said, "The melting point of these four ingredients is on the holographic screen. Make sure to note them down. Better yet, memorize it by heart."

Suddenly, a holographic screen popped up, showing them what was happening inside it and also the melting point of each ingredient.

At the same time, wisps of fire roused up from the pit of the cauldron and enveloped the ingredients, melting their bodies and revealing their medicinal essence. Each had a different color.

"Mixing the medicinal essence into a solid form by using your mana is the last step of alchemy. The most important part of this step is the golden ratio. Without it, you will fail in creating a pill, elixir, potion, whatever you would like to create. If you don't know what it is, look up its definition on Wikipedia!"

Vincent knew that the golden ratio was the quantity of medicine essence required from each ingredient to be mixed into one to create a pill. So, he didn't need to look it up.

More mana surged out of Instructor Alex and entered the cauldron. It separated the medicinal essence of the four ingredients into different portions, enough to create more than a dozen pills. Then, it combined those parts to start making multiple pills. Under the energy pressure emitted by his mana, the various portions of medicinal essence that were in a gaseous state first turned into liquid, then solidified into the form of a pill.

Under the eyes of all the students present, the different portions of medicinal essence turned into pills!