117 The Faker

Alchem Town, a few years ago…

Atop the hill, the young apprentices of the alchemist masters were leaving a huge building.

It was the institute where they're taught of alchemy.

Allen walked separate amongst the many other people. Attempting not to be seen by anyone.

However, it failed as a few other of the other apprentices came over and blocked his way.

"Umm, excuse me." The young Allen said with his seemingly immutable emotionless tone.

"We won't move. We want to talk to you now." One of the male apprentices commanded.

"…"

"Are you listening?" The same apprentice questioned.

Allen: "Yes."

"You have been failing all of the tests when it comes to concocting pills or elixirs. Even the most basic ones like creating poison out of the Liquid Silver, which is ridiculous! A non-apprentice of a master can even do that! Is your master even teaching you anything?" The same male apprentice said a sentence after sentence of criticism.

"He did master all of what was written in the books, but when it comes to really taking it in action. You are worse that those weaklings down the hill." A girl among the group added.

"Eiden, maybe because his master had something in his head. You know, there are rumors that Sir Samuel has taken a liking on young boys." Another one of them also added.

"Bwahaha…"

"Pfft…"

"Maybe he was being taught something else, hahahaha…!"

Sneers and laughter came all around from the group.

"Stop it." Eiden deepened his voice.

The whole carnival of laughter paused from his words. After which, he glanced at the person who brought up the topic about Samuel, "There is not yet a single proof that he is like that. That kind of statement can get you into trouble. Don't bring up that rumor ever again."

The person who was reprimanded had beads of sweat all over his face, he shouted with fervor, "I will not bring that up again, Chief!"

As Eiden settled down the issue, he looked back at Allen with the same strict countenance, "Allen, remember this, I am going to request the masters to put up a special concocting test to you by next week; if you aren't able to pass it, you will be losing your apprenticeship privileges and be demoted. If you did too bad, do not expect to remain in the Alchem Town." The Alchem Town he was referring to was the organization, not the town itself.

Just after Eiden finished what was he saying, another apprentice approached them and placed his hands over Allen's shoulder.

"Are you done speaking, Eiden?" That apprentice asked, who was none other than Gavin.

"Are you going to protect him again, Gavin? You shouldn't defend an obvious failure when it comes these matters." Eiden asked back.

"Stop hiding behind Gavin's clout you coward of a failure!" The same apprentice who brought up the rumor about Samuel shouted.

"Airein!" Gavin called out loudly.

All of the other apprentices that came with Eiden faltered in their countenances. That one shout of a name seemed like a beast has been summoned.

From the other leaving apprentices in the other part of the hill, a figure dashed out of them and closed down on Eiden's group.

"Run!" All but Eiden sprinted away from the location, before the dashing figure even arrived.

The figure arrived afterwards. It was Airein. She then asked, "What is it, Senior Brother?"

"Nothing, they already left." Gavin replied.

"Gavin." Eiden said, "IF, that friend of yours doesn't improve before that special test next week. He will be removed from apprenticeship. It's quite a disgrace to be seen by other alchemist organizations to have any single direct apprentice who doesn't know how to concoct."

"Removed, or he could be designated to the scribes' advisory group. The second one is uglier than the first." Eiden walked away from them after the last warning.

"Huff…" Gavin breathed in deeply, "I am going to teach you again."

"You already tried to teach me many times, Senior Brother. I didn't improve anyway." Allen replied.

"We'll try it again. I won't let you get kicked out, more so moved to that rotten advisory group." He patted Allen's shoulders.

"That group?" Airein shivered.

***

Back to the present...

Weak breathing, fatigued body, dizzy head.

Those were Allen's current condition while his whole body was covered in his own blood underwater.

A portion of his clothes were tattered into pieces, specially the back part.

The parts of the leather armor, if not flattened, had rips present on them.

Meanwhile, his right eye was now fully exposed when the strap of the eyepatch was destroyed on impact to the raging waters after he was thrown away by the soundwave.

'My healing ability can't catch up with my injuries.' With dim eyes, he searched around him for anything useful.

However, what he could only see were the shredded pieces and remaining parts of the vines continuously sinking downwards.

Shards of glass along with pills were floating about almost everywhere from the spot which Allen plunged into water towards his current position.

His belt was now devoid of jars of pills and vials of elixirs, the only remains of their existence were the shards spread out from his location.

As for the contents of the potions, they mixed with water after their containers broke.

Looking somewhere a bit above him, he spotted his sword.

Setting his sight on the weapon, he moved his right hand towards it.

But what it seemed like a hand's reach away, was in fact much further than that.

His eyesight further dimmed and dimmed, his body became number as he sank even deeper, and his senses became duller and he finally passed out.

***

-BOOM-

Late at night, an explosion occurred in the basement of Gavin's quarters.

What used to be a furnace was now blown into pieces, as black as charcoal. The other remaining bits smashed to the walls, other alchemical tools, creating cracks all over them.

"Good thing no sounds can go out of the basement. This would've woken up everyone." Gavin commented as he stood himself up from the rubble of the other tools around him.

"Are you alright, Allen?" He looked at the kid who was standing still in front of the furnace. Nearly all of the front of his body was blackened due to the explosion. There were bits of the furnaces beside him on the floor. If he weren't an internal energy practitioner or a magician instead, his body would've been injured by the power of the explosion and the shrapnel of the furnace.

"I failed again." Allen said. "How many times have I failed?"

"Si-…" Gavin was about to say more than six-hundred times, but he held back his tongue; instead, he approached Allen and sat in front of him on the floor. Allen also sat on the floor afterwards.

"Let's do this tomorrow again. It's bad for adepts to stay up at night. That also goes to internal energy practitioners like you." Gavin said.

"The test will be held tomorrow." Allen answered back.

"It is?!" The other was caught off guard. He placed his hand on his chin and thought of a solution.

"Go back to your quarters. I'll think of a solution." Gavin said.

"Okay." Allen nodded, walked upstairs, and left Gavin's personal quarters.

"Is this really the only way." An idea entered his mind, but he hesitated on doing it.

…

The next morning, Allen was called straight to a certain alchemist master's abode where he would take the test.

In the abode's basement. The master guided Allen down here.

The boy was given a list of pills and potions that he should concoct, after which the master added, "I'll return at sunset to check on your results." Without saying anything else, the master left the basement, and locked it from the outside.

Allen glanced at the list. He knew to himself, there was not a single thing he could concoct on the list. Nevertheless, he couldn't feel any worry about it, as he was literally emotionless. He approached the wall of the basement and sat down with his back facing it and sat there blankly.

Suddenly, he turned his head towards a certain spot. He sensed that there was an abrupt change in the mana around it.

In a blink of an eye, Gavin appeared there. He stabilized his senses and looked around him. As soon as he saw Allen, he knew that he was at the right place, "Haha! Sneaking on my master's notes paid off. That teleportation spell is so costly, phew."

"Why are you just sitting there? Come on, I'll concoct the pills and potions for you." Gavin approached Allen and urged him to stand up.

"Isn't this cheating?" Allen said.

"I don't care! Come on now, give me that list and pass me all the ingredients I say!"

…

Several hours passed. The sun has set.

The sound of the door of the basement being unlocked from the outside could be heard. With a click, it opened, and the alchemist master walked down the stairs and spotted Allen sitting by the wall, alone in the basement.

On a table which used to be empty, there was now several bottles of pills and potions on it.

In one glance, the master knew these were the end products. He took out a metal stick with inscriptions and approached them. Spotting the list of concoctions that he requested on the table, he counted them all and determined there was not any single deduction of number. He then checked all of the concoctions by first, smelling them, after that, when it came to the pills, he swallowed one to know its potency, then on the potions or elixirs, he first placed the metal stick, which glowed according to their medicinal strength, and also drank a few drops.

Finishing testing them all, he looked over at Allen with a weird face, "I expected you to have a lower quality of products. These ones are on the level of Gavin's concoctions! Maybe the initial rumor about you being his equal is correct, you only needed to be pressured to improve like this."

"Tomorrow, I will report that you have passed. Congratulations." He calmly said.

Unknowingly, what he consumed was born out not of true skill, but of a trick that would never be found out by anyone else, other than a few people in the future.