10 Chapter 10: The First Tes (1/2)
Nadran looked through the test.The questions were relatively straightforward, but difficult to answer perfectly.Each question contained nothing but a picture of a particular herb.The goal was to name the herb, then describe everything you can about the herb: Its distinguishing characteristics, attribute, its most common uses, whether the picture was of a mutant variety of the herb, its natural habitat and prerequisites for formation.The more you can describe about it and what it does, the better your score.Of course, this excludes obvious things that aren't unique to the herb, like 'it's a plant' or 'you can make pills with it.'
To Nadran, this was not that challenging.He had previously struggled with creating sigils, but that was largely due to an incomprehension of how the sigil's patterns were formed and linked together.Alchemy, on the other hand, seemed to make perfect sense.He could easily understand how different herbs formed, and how they interacted with each other when combined made perfect sense to him.Thus, he had been able to memorize a huge quantity of information on herbs in a very short amount of time.It helped that he already had a baseline familiarity with a lot of them due to having picked them himself in the past.
Nadran was still concerned though.Some of the herbs were somewhat unfamiliar to him, and he was unable to immediately remember all of their properties.He quickly did the ones he knew well, then focused on the less familiar ones.[Purple-leaf Fern.Let's see, it is found in swamps with a large amount of void energy.So, its attribute is obviously void.Its maturation time… hm, most fern-type herbs take approximately 3 months to mature.Void energy should slow down its pace of growth though… it's probably 4 months.Based off the picture, I can assume that the edges of the fern are sharp, like a blade.This kind of herb should be most useful in…]
In this manner, Nadran went through all of the questions, writing down vast amounts of information.Half an hour later, almost everyone had finished writing and had finished their tests in.There was one exception, though.A young man wearing commoner clothing was still diligently working on his test, writing down page after page of information.
Naturally, this attracted a fair amount of attention.The last person to hand in their test had handed in their test nearly 5 minutes ago before immediately falling asleep, but Nadran was still writing.Zosal looked over at him, thinking that Nadran was trying to show off again.[Just because you write a lot doesn't mean you will get a higher score.What could you possibly be doing?Writing a treatise on your favorite type of sandwich?Hurry up and finish so that I can laugh at you when you fail.]
As if on cue, Nadran placed down his pen at this moment and picked up his papers, stacking them neatly before bringing them to the instructor.He then returned to his desk, took out the book he had been reading before the exam, and continued reading.
Nadran ignored the strange glances that were being sent his way as the teachers went into a back room to begin scoring the tests.He couldn't be bothered to try to interact with other people, and he would much rather be reading a book.After all, books were less likely to hurt him than people.
Nadran read for about half an hour while he was waiting, trying to block out Zosal's loud voice as he bragged about how he would definitely be in the top 3 for the test, and that the test was actually incredibly easy for someone as talented as him.Nadran couldn't care less what nonsense he was spouting, but it was making it harder for him to read with all the noise.[Sure, sure, you're a super special talented noble who's perfect in every way.Can you shut up now?]Nadran didn't say this aloud, but the idea of doing so was rather tempting.
Soon, the lead instructor walked out of the back room, a piece of paper held in his hand.”I will now list the names of those who passed the exam.If your name is on the list, you are eligible to participate in the second phase of the alchemy apprentice test.”
Having reached the point they were waiting, for, everyone reacted differently.Some watched on nervously, others smiled carelessly as though they were already assured of their success, some looked on intently.Nadran glanced up from the book he was reading and began paying attention.
”A total of 117 people have passed.They are, in ascending order…”The instructor said as he began listing names.The looks of relief of those whose names were listed was evident; it was incredibly difficult to join Mirror Dragon Academy through attainments in alchemy, and doing so resulted in you becoming an alchemy apprentice.Thus, even passing the first round was something worthy of praise.
Meanwhile, Zosal calmly listened to the list of names with a smile.He couldn't be bothered to learn the name of the young man he had been disparaging, but he was well connected in the world of alchemy, and he knew the names of almost everyone in the room.While there were over 500 people in the room, any one of them had some degree of fame for themselves, or at the very least, from their family name.Zosal knew the names of all the people who had been listed so far, and that was all he needed to know to be sure that the person who had insulted him had not passed.[If such a poor figure without backing could ever pass, it would only be in the bottom rankings.The bottom 30 rankings have already been listed, there is no way he passed.]Zosal turned and smirked victoriously toward Nadran, who completely ignored him.This made Zosal even more unhappy.[Let's see if you can keep that attitude when you realize you didn't pass,] he thought vindictively.
Zosal, like so many sigil users, was one to very easily hold a grudge.In this world, where status and ranking were everything, anything that could be considered a sleight to one's perceived status or ranking was a grave offense that could not be easily forgiven.While not everyone thinks like this, it is still prevalent enough that 3 out of every 4 people will act this way.This was not a wholesome or harmonious attitude, but it was also a reason that so many of these people succeeded and became strong.After all, they were often willing to put in the work to make the offending party suffer, even if they had to train hard and become strong enough to crush the other underfoot.
Nadran calmly waited, drumming his fingers against the desk.Zosal took this as a sign of nervousness, but in truth, Nadran simply had a song stuck in his head, and was tapping the desk to the beat of the song.[Meloden isn't an obsidian-ranked musician for nothing.I'm still hearing his music in my head weeks after his performance,] Nadran thought with a smile, listening for the sound of his name being called by the instructor.
Recognizing several last names, Nadran gave a wry smile.[It's actually kind of ridiculous how many nobles there are in this city alone,] he thought.In truth, there were dozens of noble families, and each one was incredibly extensive, with hundreds of people in each family.Even if you were the son of the brother of the cousin twice removed of the grandson of the family head, you were still considered a noble.It also seemed, at least to Nadran, that being insufferable was a genetic trait of nobles.
[I wonder how well I'll rank,] Nadran thought idly, his thoughts shifting as the list entered the top 30.[Probably not that well; I wasn't able to figure much out about the fifth herb that they showed.I had never even heard of it, and I had to make inferences on its properties from the picture alone, which isn't the best way of judging an herb.Well, I guess this just shows that I still have a lot of work to do to become a proper alchemist.Plus, I still plan on becoming a powerful sigil user.If I can't defend myself properly, being an alchemist won't save me from a powerful cultivator, and in the end, sigils are still the core metric of power within this world.Both take a lot of time to improve, though… It seems I really don't have any time to waste with pointless endeavors, I still have so much I still need to do.]