Chapter 52: Assessment Task (Please keep reading, please add to favorites, and please recommend!)

Chapter 52

Lynn had lunch with Remy and Yara.

During the meal, Remy was visibly distracted, clearly struck by the news that Lynn had already become a Level 2 Wizard Apprentice.

Lynn, however, remained nonchalant and did not pay it much mind.

He noticed that when Remy first saw him return, his eyes had indeed shone with joy, but upon learning of his achievements, he had become somewhat despondent.

This complex mindset perfectly embodied the old saying: "You fear your brother will suffer, but you also fear your brother will drive a luxury car."

Remy's contradictory feelings were not hard to understand; he hoped for his friend's success, yet could not help feeling a sense of inadequacy due to the other's achievements.

"If he knew I was actually already a Level 3 Wizard Apprentice, he would probably have a complete breakdown..."

Lynn thought to himself, but he had no intention of deliberately provoking Remy.

From Remy's behavior, it was clear there was no malice; he was just an ordinary person who would rejoice at a friend's return and feel a twinge of jealousy at a friend's success.

After the lunch break, Lynn followed Yara and Remy along the garden paths toward the core area of the Potion Garden.

Along the way, Lynn naturally gathered some information regarding the tasks for Level 3 Wizard Apprentices.

He thought to himself that if the opportunity arose, he wouldn't mind revealing his true strength to bypass many tedious assessments.

After all, the gains from the Crucible War had caused his strength to advance by leaps and bounds, and since there was a traceable reason for this progress, it wouldn't necessarily invite too much suspicion.

However, Remy and Yara were completely unaware of this. To them, a Level 3 Wizard Apprentice was still an unreachable realm, making it unnecessary to know the details, so Lynn dropped the matter.

As they approached the core area of the Potion Garden, the towering complex of buildings appeared like a continuous castle, magnificent and mysterious.

Remy and Yara led Lynn to the assessment site, which was the very place where they had worked in the core area after passing their own assessments.

To Lynn's surprise, the assessment site was not an independent room.

On the contrary, in the spacious hall on the first floor of the core area, an inconspicuous corner held a rectangular cyan stone platform.

Apprentices wearing wizard robes hurried past from time to time; they occasionally cast curious glances his way, but quickly returned to their own business.

"Is it here?"

Lynn asked curiously, his gaze sweeping across the bustling hall.

Conducting an assessment in such a public setting was quite unexpected.

This design was almost incomprehensible; the mere psychological pressure would be enough to make many apprentices lose their nerve.

Remy and Yara nodded, clearly long accustomed to this arrangement.

When they took their assessments, they had also completed their tasks under the watchful eyes of others, with every step of their operation feeling like walking on thin ice. The external gaze undoubtedly made the process more tense.

Lynn said no more and pressed his palm against the cyan stone.

In the next instant, the stone emitted a soft light and began to slowly transform.

The cyan block gradually rose and unfolded into an operating station, upon which various tools for refining potions were neatly arranged.

In the very center of the station was a small screen displaying the options for the assessment task.

Lynn scanned them briefly and, confirming that none of the tasks on the screen were related to Level 3 Wizard Apprentices, he selected a Level 2 apprentice task.

"Flowing Potion."

"Venus, Goddess of Love."

"Overnight Spring."

Among the options, Lynn chose the simplest one, "Overnight Spring," without hesitation.

As for how he knew it was the simplest, it was naturally because it was the cheapest...

"Please swipe your card!"

Prompt text appeared on the screen.

Lynn couldn't help but lament; not only did he have to perform the assessment himself, but he also had to pay for the materials out of his own pocket.

He had previously experienced the strange sensation of "taking out a loan to go to work," and now he had to pay for an assessment—it was truly full of the Crucible's unique brand of "care."

Fortunately, however, the prices of these materials were not too expensive.

"Overnight Spring" only required 1.5 points. With a wave of his hand, Lynn swiped his card to purchase it.

He had accumulated a significant amount of points. Although he had left the Potion Garden due to his participation in the Crucible War, his salary had never been interrupted.

This was perhaps a form of compensation from the Crucible for battlefield apprentices.

Moreover, after selling the magic stone of that white-haired Level 2 Wizard Apprentice, he now had over two hundred points on hand; paying a mere 1.5 points was trivial.

Once the card swipe was complete, a small opening on the operating station slowly opened, and a complete set of potion materials rose from within, laid out neatly on the surface.

"Good luck, Lynn!"

Remy and Yara stood to the side, cheering him on.

Lynn nodded slightly and picked up the materials one by one, while quickly recalling the detailed information regarding "Overnight Spring" in his mind.

In *Introductory Processing of Potionology*, there was a detailed description of this potion.

It was not an aphrodisiac, but a healing medicine that could stop bleeding, relieve pain, and effectively mitigate the erosion of energy factors on the body.

"Two petals of Spring Wildflower, five grams of Little Flower Fairy tooth powder, two Killer Bee wings, and..."

Lynn organized the materials one by one, took a deep breath, and began to focus on the configuration of the potion.

"How many attempts will he need to succeed?"

Remy watched Lynn, recalling his own assessment experience.

Although one's level in potionology could not improve drastically in a short period, sometimes luck could play a crucial role.

Remy himself had been favored by the Goddess of Luck, successfully configuring the required potion to enter the core area of the Potion Garden.

However, a question remained in Remy's mind

"The difficulty of Level 2 Wizard Apprentice tasks is higher; does that mean one needs to utilize energy factors when configuring the potion?"

Beside him, Yara was clearly also thinking, silently watching Lynn's operations.

At the operating station, Lynn was fully concentrated.

He had long since memorized the contents of *Introductory Processing of Potionology*; the theoretical part was no problem at all.

However, potionology was a discipline where both practice and theory were indispensable.

Though Lynn was confident, he could not help but feel a trace of uncertainty regarding the actual results of his first attempt at refining.

"First, the grinding of the materials..."

Lynn knew that the true difficulty of "Overnight Spring" lay in the subsequent stage of introducing energy factors.

However, the current basic operations did not require energy factors; they could be completed solely through physical dexterity and mental observation.

The key was to use mental strength to observe the subtle changes occurring in the materials during the grinding process.

After all, no two leaves in this world are exactly alike, and the tutorials in books were not one hundred percent applicable.

At this moment, the mental strength of a wizard apprentice became particularly important.

Only by combining the recipe, experience, and meticulous observation of the materials' state could one successfully harmonize the ideal potion effect in practice.

Lynn's movements were steady and skillful, his mental strength acting like an invisible net, tightly capturing every minute change.

(End of Chapter)