The smell of heated herbs mixed with the light aroma of magical incense burning in silver holders at the ends of the room.
It was the first alchemy class.
All the first-year Class S students were gathered there.
The alchemy lab was spacious, with a high ceiling and arched windows that let natural light flood the room.
The circular benches were organized into groups, each with cauldrons, labeled flasks, and ingredients.
In other academies, maybe this subject would be optional. But at Veyhart Academy, alchemy was mandatory for everyone.
Professor Maelis was a woman with a simple appearance, light brown hair tied in a practical bun, and an expression always attentive to details.
She walked calmly among the groups, observing every mixture they made and every ingredient they picked, as if nothing escaped her trained eyes.
Even after years of teaching, she still seemed more excited than the students themselves.
Anyone seeing her would certainly say she loved what she did.
And how could she not?
She was a commoner. A regular woman who had dedicated herself so much to alchemy that she earned the title of professor at the most prestigious magic academy on the continent.
A position so contested that not even noble titles guaranteed a spot. It took real talent, dedication, and undeniable recognition.
As she passed by the groups, Maelis approached two students.
"It's good, but don't forget to add a drop of distilled gray-herb. Without it, the catalyst won't stabilize."
At the next table, she stopped for a few seconds, observing the temperature of a solution being heated.
"The heat's too high. Lower it a bit before adding the mirror-root oil or you'll evaporate the ethereal traces."
Maelis was everywhere, guiding all the students. Helping anyone who needed it.
But that help didn't seem to reach a certain pair.
"Are you sure this is right?"
"I'm not sure either... but that's the ingredient listed in the book."
Marco and Kaen were together at one of the tables, trying to create what the professor had asked for.
An Elemental Purification Solution.
But they were clearly far from the expected result.
Their mixture had turned an intense orange color and was giving off a... suspicious smell.
"This looks like brick soup with rotten mushroom stink."
Kaen pulled back with a wrinkled nose.
He had played Chronos Realms for years. He had done countless alchemy-related quests in the game.
But clicking buttons to brew, craft, or fuse magic was very different from real life.
He knew items, ingredients, and recipes by heart. But applying everything with exact measurements, temperature control, and timing? If that existed in the game, the developer would've been hunted down.
Marco, completely focused, grabbed more of the light blue liquid called runic lotus essence and poured it into the cauldron.
PZZZHHHHH!
A thick smoke rose, and the mixture bubbled violently before splashing out.
"AAAAH! IT'S HOT!"
Marco dropped the enchanted spoon and started cleaning the mess with a cloth.
"You're really a beginner, Marco..."
"But you don't know what to do either!"
Yenne, at a nearby table, let out a small, contained laugh at the scene.
'Looks like he's bad at something after all.'
Kaen sighed.
"Just... get better."
While Marco was still cleaning up the mess, a young man approached their bench.
It was the professor's assistant.
Blond hair perfectly combed, clothes neat, a cold expression, and eyes that judged before saying a word.
He looked at the table, then at Marco and Kaen, with visible disdain.
"You're terrible at this."
His voice was dry, almost insulting.
"Ahm... s-sorry, professor."
Marco tried to apologize.
But he continued.
"The Academy's been really generous lately... looks like even commoners stumbling over simple potions can get a spot here."
Without waiting for an answer, he gave a few quick instructions, corrected the ingredient sequence, and walked away.
Marco stood still for a few seconds, then muttered:
"He definitely hates commoners like us."
"I'm not a commoner."
Marco turned his head slowly.
"Kaen... you're a commoner too."
"My soul is noble."
"And what does that even have to do with..."
Marco kept mumbling.
But Kaen wasn't listening anymore.
His mind had entered Chronos Realms story mode.
Right after the tutorial of the game, the first major story arc was called:
Blood of Gold, Soul of Glass.
An arc centered around alchemy, where an ambitious assistant tried to sabotage the professor who had trained him, all out of envy for her commoner origins.
Kaen remembered it clearly.
That was where the real problem started.
And he knew exactly who the center of it was.
Valtair, assistant professor to Maelis, was a walking bomb about to explode.
And Kaen knew the explosion was close.
====
It was 18:32 in the evening.
Kaen was in a place he wasn't a big fan of.
The Veyhart Academy library was enormous, with tall shelves reaching almost to the vaulted ceiling. The magical lighting was soft and yellowish.
The environment was silent, but the smell of old paper and dried potions hung in the air like a subtle mist.
He was in the Experimental Alchemy section.
An area less visited, filled with incomplete books, unfinished notes, and unverified recipes.
For anyone who wanted to get famous by completing an abandoned project, it was a goldmine.
But at the academy, no one had time to waste on something that wasn't mandatory.
His fingers ran along the book spines until they stopped on a specific one.
"Found you..."
Luckily, it had only taken him 43 minutes to find it.
The title and cover were identical to the one from the game.
"Inner Paths – Flow Rotations and Forgotten Elixirs."
The cover was simple, made of dark leather with silver details already a bit worn.
".."
"...."
Kaen was already sitting at one of the tables in the back, leaning like he could fall asleep at any moment.
Even though he didn't really like reading, he had no choice.
He had to read a lot during his years playing the game to master his favorite main.
When he opened the book, he noticed that many of the details mentioned in the game were still there. Exactly as he remembered.
That was the book he had only gotten after completing an almost useless quest, given by a random NPC living in a forgotten corner of the map, literally at the end of the world.
He still remembered the frustration.
The character evolution quest... only rewarded an old book.
And it was a quest with no fighting, just interacting with characters... For someone who loved PvE and PvP, doing missions with only dialogue was the same as being sentenced to death by boredom.
Back then, he almost deleted the item.
But over time, he discovered the real value of that book.
Flipping through a few more pages, his eyes stopped at the part he was looking for.
"Perfect..."
The title of the formula was written at the top of the page:
Internal Pulse Essence
A liquid mixture used to accelerate the flow of mana through the body for a short period. It increased the connection between the mind and magical conduction, allowing faster spell casting or physical techniques based on energy.
On that specific page, there was no mention of the ingredients, only the description of the effect and the preparation ritual.
But that wasn't a problem for Kaen.
He remembered every necessary ingredient by heart. After getting the book through the quest, he had to spend even more in-game money buying the ingredient list from a second NPC.
Just thinking about it made him irritated.
He had to grind through slow, boring quests to get the book... and then still pay for information that should have been included.
'Damned game...'
But something good came out of it.
By completing the quest 100%, he received a forgotten research scroll called "Stable Mana Bond."
It was a level 2 formula that, at first glance, seemed like just a stronger version of the internal flow potion.
But it wasn't temporary.
It gave a permanent increase to the efficiency of mana flow through the body. An effect so rare that most people didn't even believe it existed.
Of course... Kaen still didn't have everything needed to replicate it in the real world. For now, he would settle for making the temporary version.
And even if he would settle for the temporary one for now, he didn't intend to leave the permanent one behind.
That formula was a clear goal, and sooner or later, he would find a way to complete it — after all, he depended on it to evolve.
But now that he was there... maybe he could try replicating the simple recipe in the real world.
And he already knew exactly where he could find the ingredients.
At the end of the last class, Professor Maelis had mentioned that the next activity would be outdoors, in a field near the academy. The students would go out with her to collect natural ingredients and build their own alchemy kits based on the formulas they had learned.
It was the perfect opportunity.
Kaen didn't need much, just a few of the basic items that would be scattered around.
He would grab what he needed, without drawing attention.
And it wasn't like he was stealing from Veyhart's stock... he'd only take one or two ingredients.
Technically wrong? Yes.
But considering the chaos he knew was about to come, it was fair to call it an early compensation.