Chapter 14

Everyone's eyes were attracted to the past. I saw an apprentice fall to the ground, the workbench was a mess, and all kinds of metal fragments splashed everywhere.

He didn't seem to be using gold to shape, but some kind of hard and unstable metal, which underwent terrible deformation under the guidance of out-of-control mental power, and even shattered.

What was even more terrifying was that some of the splashed metal fragments were actually directly embedded into the apprentice's arms and face!

Those fragments didn't stop on the surface, but like living things, they "grew" and "fused" into the flesh bit by bit amidst his painful screams.

Obviously, this reckless apprentice unconsciously endowed it with some kind of attribute of eroding flesh and blood during the alchemy process.

Mentor Clark's face sank instantly, and he walked over quickly, but didn't rescue him immediately.

He looked coldly at the apprentice rolling and wailing on the ground, as well as those metal fragments that were eroding into his flesh, and a mocking smile appeared on his face.

"Heh, stupid." Mentor Clark's voice was as cold as ice, "How many times have I emphasized, strictly follow the safety operation regulations! It is not allowed to use unknown or unstable materials in basic practice! Even more not allowed to try dangerous alchemy processes without authorization!"

He swept over the apprentices around who were scared pale:

"Every year there are such idiots who rely on a little cleverness and courage, thinking they can reach the sky in one step. This is the end of unqualified shape control! Unqualified mental power control, guiding wrong energy, will only create monsters that hurt others and themselves!"

"As for you..." Clark turned to look at the apprentice still wailing on the ground, "For causing serious damage to the laboratory plus medical expenses, a total of 15 credits will be deducted, and if you don't pay it back within the next month, there will be plenty of wizards who want one more experimental subject!"

After saying that, without seeing Mentor Clark make any movements, two protrusions appeared on the silver-white metal wall next to him.

Two groups of silver-white metal fell to the ground like liquid, and accompanied by distortion and change, they quickly turned into two humanoid golems.

"Take this idiot for treatment!"

Hearing Clark's order, the red light in the eyes of the two golems lit up, grabbing the apprentice's hands and feet on the ground, completely ignoring his twisting, and forcibly carried him away from the laboratory.

During the struggle, the metal on the apprentice's body would occasionally come into contact with the golem's body and be broken, and bright red blood flowed out from the broken metal surface.

It was very clear that the degree of fusion between this metal and the apprentice's flesh and blood far exceeded imagination.

And this scene, like a head-on blow, completely shattered the romantic fantasies that all apprentices might have about alchemy.

Alchemy was also a kind of sorcery, not just mystery and knowledge, but a rigorous and dangerous discipline.

"Before the next class, I want to see you be able to skillfully shape gold!"

The first alchemy class ended in shock and the homework assigned by the mentor.

After class, the apprentices left the laboratory with their respective deformed gold blocks and heavy hearts.

Jie Ming, holding his ugly gold cube, suddenly had an idea and stood in front of the experimental table, falling into deep thought.

"I heard that the father of that unlucky guy is also an alchemy wizard; he has always shown that he knows alchemy very well, so although he chose potion studies, he still planned to make a weapon to make people look at him with admiration." Amy popped out from the side at some point.

"... Didn't expect the consequences to be so scary."

Jie Ming came back to his senses and glanced at Amy: "What are you going to do next?"

"Nothing special, definitely going back to continue practicing alchemy... what about you?"

"About the same, do you know any good ways to earn credits?"

"If it were those old apprentices, there would be quite a few methods, whether it is selling potions, selling weapons, solving commissions, or submitting academic achievements, all can get credit rewards."

Amy spread her hands: "But if it's us now... we can only go to the alchemy workshop to do coolie work to get credits. Why? Do you want to buy something?"

"Have an idea, maybe need to rent a laboratory." Jie Ming didn't cover up his purpose.

He had many secrets, and for the sake of insurance, he must rent a laboratory to ensure privacy.

And renting a laboratory like this certainly couldn't be hidden from others.

"Although I don't think you are the type who can't distinguish between importance, I still have to remind you that if it's just simply using gold to practice alchemy, it's enough in the dormitory." Amy reminded.

Jie Ming shook his head: "No, just have some ideas that need to be confirmed."

"Wow, worthy of being the genius of our alchemy department this batch, I am very optimistic about you!" Amy smiled and patted his shoulder.

She didn't seem to have any intention of getting to the bottom of it; after all, in the wizarding world, "knowledge" and "inspiration" were quite valuable things.

Frowning and thinking for a while, Amy then put forward her own idea: "If it's a regular laboratory, don't even think about it, that price is completely sky-high, but... if it's just a short-term temporary rental, there are quite a few low-level laboratories that can be rented."

"From the perspective of cost-effectiveness, this kind of low-level laboratory is very inappropriate, but if it's just for short-term use, it's quite suitable for us apprentices."

"Oh? Where can I find this thing?" Jie Ming became interested.

"There is a task area in the lobby on the first floor of every school, you can go there to see, those are all laboratories certified by the academy, and the safety degree is relatively high."

"Thanks."

After bidding farewell to Amy, Jie Ming went straight to the lobby on the first floor of the alchemy workshop.

Before, he had discovered that there were many machines that looked like ATMs on the wall of the lobby; he had come a bit early at that time, so there weren't many people, but now looking at it again, there were already queues in front of those machines.

Jie Ming saw a huge notice board on the wall, with all kinds of tasks and credits listed densely on it.

This was the workshop's daily operation mode, and apprentices needed to exchange for workshop credits by completing designated simple tasks.

There were many types of tasks, but most required a certain amount of knowledge.

For example, Jie Ming had several tasks in front of him; one was to configure cleaning solutions for the laboratory, which required a certain amount of basic potion knowledge.

Manufacturing standard-sized quartz containers required fine alchemy skills.

Charging some magic energy equipment required mastering basic energy conduction knowledge...

Besides that, there were almost no tasks that didn't require instructions, and even for these tasks, the rewards were quite meager.

Jie Ming looked at those tasks that could only earn a dozen credits a month and frowned:

"It seems that relying on doing these ordinary tasks to get credits is simply not enough... better go see how much it costs to rent a laboratory for a short term."