Another World’s Versatile Crafting Master c1-1074, page 308
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.
Chapter 515 - Getting Poached
Wilkinson waved behind and gestured to his peers that he had succeeded in getting Master Felic to answer their question. However, he ended up being despised by his peers who kept saying that the questions was impossible to solve. There were barely any pharmacists who could answer such a question.
However, Lin Li's words gave everyone a great shock, including Wilkinson.
"Enough, this question is interesting. There happens to be some time now. I shall tell you guys about this.
Lin Li ignored their reactions and instead turned around to walk towards the rostrum. He then wrote down the solution while saying, "In order to solve this problem, we'd have to apply intermediate pharmaceutics knowledge. However, it's good for you low-level pharmacists to take a look."
Staring at Lin Li who was scribbling on the blackboard, Wilkinson and the rest fell speechless. They finally realized that the pharmaceutics Master Lin Li did not belong to the same world as them at all.
Ever since then, the young pharmacists were dumbfounded, and they began to see President Felic as Master Felic. No one felt awkward about addressing a junior using an honorific term. In fact, they genuinely began to admire him.
Three months flew by.
A young pharmacist was dripping some transparent liquid into a crystal cup using a pipette. All of a sudden, silvery fumes of smoke and glitter filled the air while the transparent liquid in the crystal cup turned silver, resembling mercury.
"We've succeeded!" The young pharmacist gently placed the crystal cup down and jumped for joy in excitement.
The successful concoction of an advanced potion meant that the young pharmacist was far more experienced than senior pharmacists. However, he was the 22nd pharmacist who had successfully advanced to a senior rank.
After three months of learning under Lin Li, the 35 pharmacists experienced major changes. The first were Wilkinson and five other intermediate pharmacists, who advanced within less than a month. The rest was not lagging behind, either. They advanced rapidly from low-level to senior pharmacists. Their speed was in fact unprecedented.
So far, 20 out of the 35 young pharmacists had already reached the level of senior pharmacists, while Wilkinson, Balbo's proud disciple, had already internalized all of the advanced pharmaceutics knowledge. He would become a Master soon.
Although it'd only been more than three months since the Syer Bandits had been eradicated, the reconstruction of Black Clouds Town was the only thing that followed. However, the factions of the Breezy Plains did not stop paying attention to the Tower of Dusk. After all, the Tower of Dusk was an important faction related to the Malfa Family.
Hence, the news of there being a group of senior pharmacists at the Tower of Dusk began to spread. It was so astonishing that no one could accept it calmly.
An Archmage could still be affected by some factions, like the Adventurer Emendas, who got recruited by the Malfa Family. However, a senior pharmacist was rarely recruited, unless by an extraordinary and powerful authority like the Supreme Council. Similarly, a pharmaceutics Guru would rarely be recruited unless by the Pharmacist Guild.
Hence, to most of the powerful authorities, senior pharmacists could be said to be their limit when it came to recruitment. Every one of them was an invaluable treasure. There were more than 20 senior pharmacists in the Tower of Dusk, so everyone in the Breezy Plains was jealous and envious of the Tower of Dusk.
The mercenary corps were only a small group in the Breezy Plains, but their leader, Ona, was very ambitious. He was also famous for a period of time during the establishment of the Tower of Dusk. Although he was just the leader of less than 200 mercenaries, he still managed to instruct some of his subordinates to pay attention to the Tower of Dusk.
Actually, the mercenary corps did have some comments and opinions of their own about Ona wasting humanitarian and monetary resources. After all, there were less than 200 members in the corp, and they were perhaps only a little bit stronger than the Adventurers in the Breezy Plains. What would the situation of the Tower of Dusk have to do with such a small faction?
However, Ona had a different opinion. He felt that the Tower of Dusk had to be rather powerful since it could grow so rapidly within a short period of time. Even if Ona did not gain any benefits, it would be advantageous to his mercenary corps if he could find out the secrets behind their development.
It was the day of receiving the news, and just like in the past, Ona was in the middle of a swordsmanship routine in the backyard. Later on, he wiped his sweat and picked up an intel report that he had received just now. After examining the seal on it, he tore the envelope open and pulled out the letter inside. His wrist vibrated a little, and the letter was removed from the envelope. He then sat on the chair and picked up the cup of tea that he had prepared beforehand.
He then immediately snorted with laughter!
He spat his tea out at the same time, but, fortunately, he had taken the intel report away in time. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to read it anymore. After coughing a few times, he finally got a grip on himself and shifted his gaze onto the intel report.
"Damn it, do these two jerks think that their tasks are too easy? How dare they crack such a joke with me?" Ona stared at the intel report, which contained news of the Tower of Dusk recruiting 20-odd pharmacists. There were plenty of factions in the Breezy Plains which were looking to recruit a senior pharmacist. Although the Tower of Dusk had gotten associated with the Malfa Family, the Malfa Family did not have that many senior pharmacists.
"Leader, what's wrong?" his subordinate asked upon seeing his leader spitting the tea out.
Ona threw the report onto the table with a wave. "Damn it, seems like those two rascals have to be dismissed. How dare they give me such absurd intel?"
The subordinate glanced at the report on the table, after which his expression turned a little peculiar.
Feeling a little displeased, Ona rebuked, "What's wrong? If there's something you have to say, say it. Stop acting so weird."
"Leader, this… this intel is real," said the subordinate.
"Really? How did you find out?" Ona asked with a frown.
"Leader, the news of there being 20-odd senior pharmacists in the Tower of Dusk has spread all around the Breezy Plains. I have a friend—"
Ona dismissed his subordinate angrily with a sullen expression, after which he gritted his teeth and turned around to leave. How infuriating. I sent people to keep an eye, and yet I received the news two days later than everyone else. Why should I even keep them around!?
However, after getting angry, Ona remembered the content of the intelligence report. How could he let the Tower of Dusk keep all 20 senior pharmacists? He worked hard for the development of the mercenary corps, but it turned out he still wasn't as lucky as others.
Ona suddenly remembered that he had a childhood friend who was now the chairman of a business association. He recalled chatting with him a while ago and talking about his self-made fortune and success. The friend said that he sold one fruit for the price of two fruits, and then sold two fruits for the price of four fruits. However, he revealed in the end that he could achieve all he had because he inherited the legacy of an elder.
Luck had to be the trick for the rapid rise of the Tower of Twilight. Otherwise, how could they have gotten the favor of the Malfa Family with a small organization that they had just established? Ona suddenly felt a little discouraged, for he realized that there were many things that could not be achieved just by putting in effort. The development that he wanted for his team would be a huge leap for them; unfortunately, an insignificant organization like theirs could not afford to even hope for a senior pharmacist, not to mention 20 or so of them.
In fact, after the news broke, there were plenty of leaders of minor factions who had the same idea as Ona. They had worked hard to do everything they could for the development of their factions, but even after many years of hard work, they still could not be compared with others. No one would be able to stay calm under such circ.u.mstances. Plenty of people began cussing their hearts out and lamenting about their plight.
