Chapter 514: Master
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Yes, he was not just trying to discuss pharmaceutics with Felic, and Wilkinson could obviously tell what Balbo meant. Balbo seemed to be sure that Felic could answer all the questions.
“It turns out there was no mysterious master at all. Felic was the pharmaceutics Master,” Wilkinson muttered to himself.
Wilkinson did not doubt the abilities of the young President Felic; the letter that he read today was the best answer for his question.
Just as Wilkinson was deep in thought, his friends scurried towards the room, only to see that he was staring blankly out of the window. Someone stepped forth to pat Wilkinson on his shoulder, and asked, “Wilkinson, what’s wrong? Why are you so deep in thought?”
Wilkinson finally snapped out of his trance and stared at his peers, wondering how he should talk to them about it. He did not wish to lose the learning opportunity in a moment of anger. However, he couldn’t let them read the letter. Hence, he folded it, and said, “It’s a letter from Teacher to Master Felic!”
“Wait… Wait, what did you say? Master Felic!?”
President Felic was the only Felic they knew. How could he be a Master!?!
They all thought that there was something wrong with their ears. They glanced at the letter immediately. If it’d been something else, they would have long snatched it away to take a look. However, it was a letter from Teacher Balbo, and it would be inappropriate for them to look at it since they were not Teacher Balbo’s students—unlike Wilkinson.
“Yes, Teacher Balbo said in the letter that although President Felic has not registered with our Pharmacist Guild, his accomplishments in pharmacy have definitely reached the Master level…” Wilkinson said in a shaky voice, clearly yet to recover from the shock.
Upon hearing Wilkinson’s words, the expressions on the faces of several pharmacists suddenly became sullen, and their eyes slowly began to widen together with their mouths. It was as if their jaws were about to dislocate.
What a joke. No one would be able to keep calm after hearing such news. It could be said that a pharmaceutics Master was the highest position in the world of Anril. Even Legendary powerhouses would have to be polite and courteous to him.
“He…” they said in a shaky voice. “Could it be… real? That President Felic… He’s only 20 years old. How could he be a pharmaceutics Master?”
It was unbelievable and beyond their imagination. If he were an intermediate pharmacist at 20, he would be a genius. However, if he were a Master, it would be absolutely incredible. However, the truth was that he was indeed a 20-year-old pharmaceutics Master!
Pharmaceutics Master!
The news soon spread amongst the 35 pharmacists, all of whom could not believe their ears. However, they felt excited and overjoyed after recovering from the immense shock.
They spent the past few days concocting an advanced potion, after which Lin Li answered Wilkinson’s questions. After two lectures by Lin Li, they had completely begun admiring and respecting him. At this point, they finally understood Balbo’s reasons for sending them there. They knew that Balbo had their best interests at heart when he decided to send them there. They finally knew that the training program would be beneficial to them.
Wilkinson held onto the crumpled letter and handed it to Lin Li with a heavy heart. The rest finally got reminded of their tasks. However, things were different this time. They were much more hardworking because they all knew how precious the advice of a Master was.
“President Felic, this is a letter that Teacher wanted me to give you, but because… of some reasons, I only managed to give it to you now. I’m very sorry,” Wilkinson said with an awkward expression on his face. He had no idea how he should explain the delay in handing the letter over to him. He couldn’t possibly say that he had forgotten about it because of how frustrated he was.
However, Lin Li was not bothered by the appearance of the letter. Anyway, there was no magical seal on the envelope, and it was clearly not an important letter. “Thank you.” He thanked Wilkinson and put the letter away before asking, “Is President Balbo doing well? It has been some time since I left Alanna.”
“Oh, yes, President Balbo is doing well.” Lin Li did not talk about the appearance of the letter, so Wilkinson finally heaved a sigh of relief. After all, he knew that he was not just facing the President of a guild of magic. In fact, he was facing a pharmaceutics Master. It was inevitable for him to feel stressed.
Lin Li was just asking about Balbo out of courtesy. After all, he ought to ask about Balbo since he had asked his student to bring a letter to him. After speaking to Lin Li for a while, Wilkinson still did not dismiss himself. Noticing that Wilkinson seemed to want to say something, Lin Li asked, “What’s the matter, Pharmacist Wilkinson? Is there something else you have to say?”
“Ah, it’s just…” Wilkinson decided to forgo his pride. Staring at Lin Li enthusiastically, he said, “President Felic, I’d like to know when I can receive a lecture from you again.”
It seemed Balbo’s letter had given him plenty of help. Lin Li smiled, and said, “You guys should know that the potions that you’re making now are to be used in Black Clouds Town’s defense system. Hence, the proper lessons will begin after the potions are ready.”
Wilkinson was rather disappointed with the answer. However, after giving it some thought, he felt that it would only be right for him to run errands for Lin Li since the latter was teaching them for free. It wouldn’t be appropriate for him to make Lin Li put off his work for the sake of teaching them. In that case, if they were to finish concocting the potions earlier, they would get to receive his teachings sooner. The thought of it made him feel excited again. He hurriedly bade Lin Li goodbye and excused himself.
When Wilkinson returned, he was immediately surrounded by his peers who kept probing about Master Felic and when the latter would start teaching them. Even though they were the pioneers of the Pharmacist Guild, they might not be able to receive a lecture from a Master.
Upon hearing Wilkinson’s answer, everyone immediately scurried back to their workstations. Just like what Wilkinson had thought, they were all eager about helping Master Felic complete the potions at the soonest so that they could receive his teachings as soon as possible.
Hope was the motivation that would spur humans to continue striving forwards. Hence, the pharmacists began to work rapidly with maximum efficiency.
About six days later, the potions that Lin Li had designed for Black Clouds Town’s defense system were completed. All of the potions were modified and made weaker, mainly because Lin Li did not intend to make the potions lethal, and instead just wanted to use them to deal with his enemies by incapacitating them. The poisonous potions had a high penetration rate and were extremely dangerous. However, the weakened versions would not cause too much harm to the residents of Black Clouds Town.
Once the potions were placed in the magic gears, the defense system of Black Clouds Town would finally be completed. The pharmacists’ jobs would then be to concoct some potions that were meant for sale. Of course, Lin Li did not forget about the promise that he had made earlier. He would arrange a two-hour lecture for them every day.
After all, Lin Li had to do his own tasks that were relatively important as well. It would be impossible for him to be a full-time teacher, and there was only a short period of time left before the deadline given by Tutankhamun arrived. It was hard for him to squeeze out two hours for lectures.
The two hours of lecture time was not to be belittled, for it was far more effective than the lessons they received in the Pharmacists Guild. However, the Masters were way too busy to lecture them.
Besides, Lin Li had more knowledge than most pharmacists did, and he also knew about plenty of techniques and theories that many other Masters, including Balbo, did not know about. Although the pharmacists had already deduced that Lin Li was a pharmaceutics Master, Lin Li was actually a pharmaceutics Guru.
Before the lessons officially began, the young pharmacists were feeling rather worried; most people tended to think that good things didn’t come cheap. Besides, the training program was free. No matter how capable Lin Li might be, or how much more knowledge he had compared to President Balbo, there would be no point if he refused to help.
However, the question that Lin Li gave them during the first lesson immediately cleared their doubts.
What was the most important thing to a pharmacist?
The formulae of potions.
The formulae of potions were mandatory, just like spells for mages. In order to master a formula, one would have to be familiar with the ingredients it required. If one only knew how to collect ingredients, they would forever perform just one task.
What Lin Li taught was the deduction of the medicinal properties through the analysis of the formula so as to allow one to thoroughly grasp the formula. In fact, that was also the method that he used to modify those banned formulas and weaken them. Through the medicinal deduction method, the pharmacist could not only discover the medicinal properties of the medicinal materials right from the beginning, but also understand the medicinal properties of various medicinal materials during the preparation process.
For these young pharmacists, the medicinal deduction method was definitely a precious piece of knowledge that could benefit them for life. Perhaps the effects were not too obvious for them yet, since they were not skilled enough for now. However, when they came into contact with advanced formulas later, (again) with this method, they would be able to understand them quicker and more thoroughly than others.
The pharmacists were skeptical about learning such advanced skills relatively early, and were also feeling ashamed about the worries that they had. Such valuable pharmacological knowledge might not be imparted or taught to them even by their own teacher. However, it now seemed to be normal knowledge that they were free to pick up.
As long as they mastered the method of deducing medicinal properties, the road to becoming senior pharmacists would be smooth sailing. Therefore, none of them felt aggrieved about having to prepare the potions for sale every day while they were studying. They would be willing to learn for 10 years if they could master the technique.
It was all just the beginning.
Everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses, including the pharmacists. However, the young pharmacists discovered that Lin Li seemed to be an expert at pharmaceutics and was not just dabbling in them.
As the lesson progressed, they began to learn about many theories and techniques that they had never heard of in the past, all of which gave them a new perspective of the world. However, the young pharmacists could not tell where the limit of Lin Li’s knowledge was.
There was even one time when the young pharmacists bet in private to see who could find questions that Master Felic couldn’t answer. If it were President Balbo and not Master Felic, they definitely wouldn’t dare to do so. However, this Master Felic was only 20 years old.
However, they were only intermediate-level paper pharmacists, and it was a tall order for them to find a problem that would stump Master Felic. Hence, after one of the lectures, Wilkinson came up with a question about the Hopper conjecture, a very famous problem in pharmacy, and decided to ask the young Master Felic about it.
Lin Li had not really studied the pharmaceutic theories of this world, nor did he have an accurate understanding of the standards of pharmacy there. He could only extrapolate them from what the pharmacists in Anril he had interacted with so far knew. Hence, how could he have known that Wilkinson had given him a well-known unresolved problem in the history of pharmacy in Anril? He simply thought that it was a problem that only intermediate pharmacists would encounter, and would at most just involve advanced pharmacology.
“Oh, this problem…” Lin Li murmured after looking at it.