Ashton could see most of the class make weird expressions upon hearing what Kakaroff had to say. The threat of punishment was making them work even harder. But simple hard work was not going to make any difference in potion-making. Suddenly Anna’s hand shot up in the air. She had finished making her potion. 

“Finally someone did something.” Kakaroff sighed and rushed over to her table, “Step aside! How am I supposed to take a look if you keep hovering over me?”

He then proceeded to drop an azure gemstone inside Anna’s pot. There was a string attached to the stone using which Kakaroff pulled the stone back. The gemstone had only been inside Anna’s pot for a second and yet its colour had changed from blue to green and parts of it appeared to have decayed. 

“It’s too toxic. It would appear you being the brat you are, forgot to purify the Aconite root before putting it in the potion.” Kakaroff shook his head, “If someone had drunk this potion, it would’ve killed them in mere seconds. Stop being so careless. Start over again or find a way to purify this potion!”

As soon as Ashton heard the professor say that, he just like the rest of them realised the mistake all of them had made. In the rush of brewing the potion before everyone else, all of them had screwed up. 

‘Damn it! There’s not a single step included in the recipe telling us to purify the damn thing!’ 

Ashton re-read the recipe twice and sure enough, there wasn’t a single mention of purifying the Aconite before using it. Instead, it was mentioned in the list of ingredients that they had to use purified Aconite in the first place. 

‘Fuck! We all got played by the professor!’

All of them had assumed the Aconite was purified since it was provided by the professor and there was not a single mention of how they could have purified the aconite themselves. But that wasn’t the case. Even Ashton’s [Detection skill] had been fooled. 

It was no wonder that neither of their potions was looking as they were supposed to. Upon completion, the potion was supposed to have a blue hue. Something that Ashton was complaining about. But all of their potions had turned green, which symbolised that the potion was highly toxic. 

‘There has to be a way to purify aconite after being added to the potion…’

While the others had given up getting the reward and continued brewing their toxic potion, Ashton gave up on stirring his potion and started looking for ways he could have taken the toxicity of the potion away or at least reduce it somehow. However, he was short on time, just like the others were. 

‘Come on, come on… there has to be something that could help.’

Ashton was madly flipping through the pages of the potion course e-book that was fed into their watches. But to no avail. There were way too many potion recipes that could have the answer he was looking for. But the constraint of time did not allow him to take a deep dive into the potions and look for answers. 

“Twenty minutes remaining.” Kakaroff reminded them while his eyes were fixated on Ashton, ‘Looks like the kid has figured out what he has to do. He just needs to find a suitable ingredient. If he can find out what it is within five minutes, he should be able to make the concoction. If not… well then too bad. All of them would have to suffer.’

‘Shit… what would I do even if I found an ingredient and it wasn’t in the room itself? Fck this book.’

Ashton hastily closed the book as a realisation dawned upon him. He could not waste time trying to look for an ingredient mentioned in the book only to realise it wasn’t even available to them.

As a result, he decided to use [Detection] to search through entire cupboards filled with ingredients. In hopes of finding something useful. 

The rest of the students were a bit weirded out upon seeing him running all over the room. But little did they know they should have started running after him as well. Time was running out and there were too many ingredients to search. 

However, luck was on Ashton’s side as in his fifth attempt he finally found what he had been looking for. 

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Item: Seed of Fiery Sunflower

Type: Potion ingredient/ Medicinal herb

> Can be easily confused with Licorice seed based on appearance. 

> Can be used to absorb most poisons including the poison from Aconite.

Rarity: Uncommon

Description:

A small pebble-like mass that is usually found at the centre of the mutated sunflower also known as Fiery Sunflower. Can be used raw to cleanse a body or a liquid by absorbing the poison within them. 

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“Yes!” Ashton quickly grabbed two of them and rushed over to his station. But not before secretly slipping one of them into Anna’s potion.

“Present the potion to the professor for a re-evaluation once the greenish colour disappears. It should take about fifteen minutes for that. Also, consider this thanks for helping me out after the first round of exams.”

“Thanks…” Anna mumbled absentmindedly watching Ashton retreat. 

Ashton quickly dropped the seed inside his own concoction and began stirring it rapidly. As he had expected, the greenish colour of the potion soon began disappearing and within minutes, it turned blue. 

Ashton did not even need to call Kakaroff to check the potion. The dwarf rushed over to check it himself. He did the same thing again and to everyone’s surprise this time the colour of the gemstone remained unchanged. 

“Wonderful… ahem, I meant it’s passable. The potion can e consumed without having any side effects. Though it barely made the cut.” That’s all Kakaroff said before heading back to his seat. 

[Potion Brewing proficiency: 100%]

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You have earned a new title: [Novice Brewer]

Potions brewed by you now have a 5% chance to impart additional effects. 

Continue brewing more potions to upgrade this title and its related effects.

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“That was fun….” Ashton mumbled before wiping the sweat off of his forehead.