Two hours later...
Felix had finished his external manipulation training and now was practicing his close combat against Jörmungandr who was fighting him with a single hand.
The practice was purely about martial arts and techniques without elemental abilities.
Hence, Felix kept receiving a beat down after another without making Jörmungandr move even a step away.
By the time he was done, the evening had already arrived. Felix excused himself and teleported back to his house in Vamdarohm.
He changed to decent clothes and sent a message to Naima, asking her if everyone was gathered in her room yet.
Upon receiving approval, Felix used her room's link to teleport.
...
Felix's body got reconstructed right next to a comfy couch that was taken by Karry and Naomi.
Meanwhile, Naima and a couple more witches were seated on other couches around a square-shaped glass table.
The moment Felix opened his eyes, he smiled faintly and greeted, "Good evening ladies."
"Felix!"
"You finally showed up after three months."
"It's been such a long time since we saw you."
The girls sure were surprised by his sudden appearance, making him realize that Naima probably didn't inform him about his participation.
One by one, they stood up and went to give him a quick hug as it had been three months and almost two weeks since they saw him.
"Sorry, teacher Dalilia was stricter than I expected as she didn't allow me to enter UVR for long."
Felix concocted a bullshit excuse to save himself from getting grilled on why he ignored their calls or meetings in the past three months.
"Aha, I hope you learned something at least." Naomi said with a cute smile, "If you are still having difficulty with some lessons, just point it out."
"That's why I am here." Felix sighed, "Teacher Dalilia didn't teach me the materials that will be in the final exams."
The girls raised their eyebrows in surprise and exclaimed, "You can't be serious?"
Felix extended his hands helplessly and said, "I need to practice all potions that we have been taught if I want to pass the exams."
"What about the theoretical?" Karry asked with a worried tone, "There are tens of books that you must read in less than 20 days."
Felix waved his hand, "I have that settled."
"I don't know how you did it, but if it's practical exams, those 20 days are more than enough to practice them enough to secure a C+." Karry sighed in relief and said, "It's not high but you won't fail."
'C+? I will probably get killed if I showed Lady Sphinx such a garbage mark.' Felix's eyelids twitched after hearing so.
Lady Sphinx nodded her head in agreement without lifting her head from her book.
Felix sat on a chair and said, "You girls carry on your preparation, I will be studying on my own until you finish."
Naima and the rest nodded their heads and continued their preparation from where they left it.
Although they wanted to help out Felix, it didn't mean that they would put him as a priority and ignore their own marks.
Every witch in the Royal Academy had been in the top ten of her elementary school.
This meant they were competitive as hell and they wouldn't accept any less than being in the top ten.
Naima and the rest of Felix's classmates were all aiming not just to be in the top ten of their class but in the entire semester, overtopping hundreds of witches!
They knew that wasn't going to be easy at all...Hell, it would be on the border of impossibility since, in a such heated and tight-knotted competition, a tiny mistake could drop a witch straight from top ten to top 50!
Felix was trying to clutch the top three in this competition with multiple disadvantages that he possessed...It just didn't seem doable!
'20 days, 6 potions, 80% elimination rate.' Felix thought with a frown, 'My memory could help me with the recipe and steps but nothing could help me reach a 95%+ elimination rate in those 20 days.'
That's truly the only dilemma that was stopping him from getting to the top.
'If I used the usual methods, I will probably improve my mental control only slightly in those 20 days. That isn't even close. I need to find another way.'
Felix contemplated while listening to the girls' chatter as they observed Naima. She was concocting a potion with prepared materials.
Beside her was a screen that was showing the microscopic world and the creepy-looking microorganisms getting turned into ash by an orange wave that passed on them like a tide.
With a flip here and there, Naima had finished killing 95% of the microorganisms before the materials had melted off completely.
Instead of continuing the concoction, Naima waved her hand and the cauldron had been gotten rid of.
"You innate trait is truly amazing when it comes to dealing with those microorganisms." A witch said with an envious tone.
Other witches nodded their heads in agreement as they also wanted to have one just like it.
Who could blame them?
Naima's innate trait allows her to heat her mental energy on a microscopic level, making it ten times easier to deal with those microorganisms.
In fact, she might be already better than Lara when it comes to this exact part.
"It's alright." Naima smiled bitterly, "It could have been better if it was useful to concoct rank 2 potions."
"At least it is helpful in your concoction."
"Yes, I will trade with you any day with mine."
Seeing them arguing about their innate traits made Felix pretty depressed. He knew that it was already difficult to deal with the disadvantages that he had.
Now, he needs to compete with witches that possess innate traits that were too good for potion concoction.
'If only I had an innate trait, this exam would have been much...Hmm? Wait a second!'
Felix's pupil suddenly enlarged while his breaths quickened at an absurd idea that came up in his mind just now.
Somewhat excited and hopeful, Felix interrupted the girls' chatter with a rushed question, "May I know what could be used in the exams and what is banned?"
"Hmm? You mean to help us in the exams?" Naima tilted her head in confusion as she inquired.
"Yes!"
"Well, that's easy, you have potions, substances, asking for help through the Queen, accessing the network, using invisible holograms, eating or drinking anything that could help your performance 7 days before the exams, and someone telling you what to do in by accessing your consciousness space...Uhmm, I think that's it?" Naima said.
The girls approved on her list.
"So anything external is banned?" Felix grinned faintly and asked again, "How about internal?"
The girls didn't know where he was going with this but still answered him, "Anything internal can be used since it belongs to us and it's stupid to forbid witches from using their own advantages in the concoction. That's why innate traits are allowed."
"Thank you ladies, that's all I wanted to know." Felix stood up and gave them a slight nod and said, "Let's meet later on as I have something important to do right now."
"Huh? Wai..."
Before Naima could finish, Felix was already gone, leaving the girls to look at each other in bafflement.
"This moron is going to fail if he keeps wasting time like this!" Naima grumbled while crossing her arms.
The other witches could only shake their heads at Felix's antics and return to their preparation.
They would be happy to help him out study but they were not going to chase him down and forcefully teach him.
While they were thinking that he was messing around, Felix was actually...Really, messing around!
He was in his UVR's room, standing before a complete potion-making station.
On the table before him was the Marmador Grass that was used to create the catalyst of the rejuvenation potion.
Soon, Felix's white pupil had enlarged to the corners, allowing the emergence of another reversed red triangle pupil.
Then, he looked at the grass and zoomed on it with his Quantum Vision, entering the microscopic world in an instant.
After spotting those microorganisms wiggling around, Felix grinned faintly and called in his mind, 'Queen, please charge me with electricity.'
Szlzlzlzlz!
Felix's body immediately transformed into an uncounterable lightning beacon with electrical charges being emitted everywhere!
Since he was standing one meter away from the table and the grass, the electrical charges didn't touch either of them.
However, his eyes were feeding him a completely different image than before.
The microorganisms had been slowed down in his eyes just like everything else after his passive *lightning-quick reflexes* had activated on its own!!!
With a thrilled expression, Felix immediately utilized his mental energy to obliterate all of the microorganisms that were in his line of sight!
Tens of thousands of them kept exploding akin to balloons one by one!
Felix had ended up finishing an entire side in under one second when he usually takes at least 10 seconds to get it done!
Without delaying any further, Felix turned the grass to other sides and dealt with the microorganism infections on them as well.
In total, he killed more than 97% in under 5 seconds!!!
In a single moment, he had gone from having difficulty eliminating more than 80% in under 30 seconds to obliterating most of those microorganisms in less than 5 seconds!
Felix didn't know if he should feel happy at having his dilemma getting fixed so easily or slap the shit out of himself for missing such an obvious solution!