Ten days passed in a flash, and it was the day Professor Clark mentioned for class.
Jeming woke up especially early today, and after breakfast, he followed the enrollment handbook's directions toward the Alchemy Workshop.
The Nolun Academy's Alchemy Workshop is located in a relatively secluded corner of the campus. It doesn't have a striking appearance like a tower but is low and heavy, resembling a solid fortress rooted in the ground.
The exterior walls are made of a dark-colored rock, inscribed with basic runes.
Walking through the workshop doors, the interior space is spacious, filled with the scent of metals, minerals, plants, and various peculiar chemical reactions. It smells somewhat unusual but not overpowering.
Seeing that there was still time before the scheduled class, Jeming decided to stroll around inside.
The workshop's internal structure is complex, resembling a giant beehive composed of countless rooms and corridors of various sizes.
There are storage rooms for raw materials, high-temperature furnace areas, magic potion configuration zones filled with distillation equipment and test tubes, and numerous basic and advanced experiment areas.
The location for their first class is a spacious basic alchemy laboratory located on the east side of the workshop.
The entire laboratory is constructed with silver-white metal. Inside, there are dozens of sturdy workstations, each equipped with an adjustable magic energy lighting device, a fixed set of metal clamps, and an exhaust chimney.
Upon entering the basic alchemy laboratory, Jeming was somewhat surprised to find quite a few people inside.
However, judging by the badges on their robes, the real alchemy apprentices were only Jeming, Amy, and another male apprentice who appeared somewhat aloof.
The badges on others indicated they were apprentices from different disciplines. Jeming even saw the prodigious apprentice with ninth-level soul purity, who had been directly taken as a disciple by the Soul Element tutor during the aptitude test.
The other apprentices seemed equally surprised by the appearance of that prodigy, as a group of people were gathered around him.
Jeming didn't plan to join in and instead found a relatively quiet spot against the wall.
What puzzled him was that Amy was also here.
"You're not mingling with them?" Jeming's tone was somewhat surprised.
During the past few days, they occasionally exchanged a few words in the cafeteria. He confirmed that this girl was indeed a social expert.
No matter what the other person's personality was like, she could find a suitable way to communicate, making Jeming wonder at times if she had some related extraordinary power.
Amy greeted Jeming and, upon hearing his question, casually shrugged: "On the contrary, now isn't a good time for socializing. If I went over, I'd at most be a background figure."
Jeming nodded nonchalantly, as she was the expert in this field after all, and he truly had no standing to give advice:
"Speaking of, there are only three new alchemy series students in this batch, so what are all these others doing?"
"Of course, they came to learn alchemy too. But for them, it's just an elective. From what I know, aside from that Soul Element prodigy, the Augusta family's Miss with ninth-level talent and the Horn family's Young Master with eighth-level talent seem to have chosen to take other Logistics Element disciplines as electives too."
"They can even take electives…"
Jeming looked at the ninth-level soul purity prodigy, recalling Wizard Jack's words to him.
It seems that the Logistics Element truly is the orthodox choice in the Nolun Workshop. Even if these prodigies chose the Combat Element, they would still be assigned to the Logistics Element for further study.
Regarding the special treatment for these top-tier prodigies, Jeming understood it well. Though Wizard Jack mentioned that a wizard's talent isn't crucial, after experiencing the meditation method's basics, he knew having a good talent can make you excel in the initial stages.
In matters of cultivation, being fast at the start usually means being faster all the way, and few can truly have a comeback.
"I envy them. If only I could take courses from other disciplines too." Jeming remarked with a hint of longing.
Even though alchemy suits his needs well, including magic potion science or rune science would be even more fitting.
"You should know you can take electives if you want." Amy looked at Jeming: "Our alchemy courses happen once every five days, leaving the rest of the time free. As long as you complete the course tasks assigned by the teacher, you can use some points to learn from different disciplines."
"Oh? There's nothing mentioned about this in the enrollment handbook." Jeming's eyes lit up, "How many points does it cost to take electives from other courses?"
"Not much. I've heard every Logistics Element discipline's basic knowledge only costs five points, but teaching aids and the like must be purchased separately…"
Their conversation shortly ceased as, unbeknownst to them, Professor Clark had already arrived at the platform.
He still had that bald, monocle-wearing, and stern appearance, dressed in an alchemy robe that, though old, had been washed to a shine.
Seeing Clark arrive, the apprentices surrounding the ninth-level soul talent prodigy fell silent and quickly found their nearest lab benches to stand by, resembling a group of quails.
"Welcome to Alchemy, one of Nolun Academy's most stable and fundamental disciplines." Professor Clark spoke calmly, unbothered by the apprentices' reactions beneath him.
"Here, you will learn the core of alchemy — understanding, decomposition, and reconstruction."
"Understanding is the knowledge of material essence, analyzing its elemental composition and energy properties. Decomposition involves breaking down matter to its basic units. Reconstruction, guided by your will, uses spiritual power to direct energy and matter, reshaping it into new forms or imbuing new properties."
Professor Clark scanned each apprentice with a solemn tone: "Alchemy demands extremely high spiritual power. Your spiritual power is your strongest tool. The precision of spiritual power control determines the upper limit of your alchemy."
He walked to a small operation table next to the platform, upon which rested a large, irregular golden metal block.
"You should have already pre-studied basic alchemy, so let's not waste time. Today, our first lesson is basic shaping." Professor Clark stated calmly, "This is one of the most basic practices in alchemy, controlling the shape of objects with spiritual power. We will use gold for practice."
The mention of "gold" caused some apprentices to express surprise or excitement.
In the Mortal World, gold is a precious hard currency.
Professor Clark seemed to see through their thoughts and explained coldly: "In the Wizard World, gold is not rare. With mastery over several planes, we have countless ways to acquire this metal. Once your alchemy skills reach a certain level, you can even transform other materials into gold."
"Relative to other metals, gold's properties are stable and composition simple, making it easier to analyze with alchemy. Though it is more resistant to spiritual power, making it harder to control, this resistance means that even if you fail, it won't cause violent energy reactions, explosions, or toxic gas production—at most material damage or shape distortion. It's the most suitable practice material for beginners and the safest."