I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic Academy - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Group Project (2)

Time flew by, and several weeks passed.

“Baek Yu-seol. What did I tell you? Don’t use materials you aren’t supposed to.”

He was boiling mad! Professor Maizen Tyren had directed his attention to the antidote on my experiment table.

“To improve the results, I slightly modified the professor’s recipe.”

“……What?”

“Take a look at this. When I substituted red iodine juice for tomato sauce, the detoxification effect was nearly doubled…”

“You are…….”

Maizen checked the antidote I’d made, biting his lip as if looking for something to say and shouted.

“Why do you come to school if you’re just going to do whatever you want?”

He really had a point, but my goal was to hurt Professor Maizen Tyren’s feelings, and I had no intention of changing my mind.

This was because the boss of [Episode 8 ‘Erosion of Black Evil’], which would occur later, was Professor Maizen Tyren.

The fourth episode hadn’t even begun yet… but I needed to prepare ahead of time. After all, he was an exceedingly powerful and dangerous boss.

[Maizen Tyren]

* Progression of Black Magic Erosion: 21%

(Inferiority, Jealousy) Black Demon Contractor

Professor of Alchemy

Episode 8 Boss

Black magic confirmed

Maizen was one of the villains who became a black demon after being unable to overcome his negative feelings.

If the ‘Black Magic Erosion,’ in which emotions are gradually dyed black, exceeded 90%, he would completely transform into a black demon.

I could tell because of the copper glasses, but there was no way to prove it, so I couldn’t report it to the Black Demon Slayers, who hunted down and executed wizards consumed by black magic.

Therefore, I purposefully provoked him. That way, I was able to rapidly raise the professor’s erosion level. Once it reached 50%, the effect would be noticeable but not too dangerous, and I could call the Black Demon Slayers.

If it was just normal black magic erosion, there might be a way to reverse it before it was too late.

There were numerous ways to undo the black horse erosion until it reached 70%, such as drugs, magic, or voluntarily awakening.

But he was a ‘black demon contractor’. He himself made a pact with the Black Demon, a wizard who threw his own body into darkness.

He had already the seeds of a black demon planted in his body, and it was already impossible to get rid of them.

However, he wasn’t just going to become a Black Demon, he was also going to turn into a boss who threatened Stella with an ability that affected other students and turned them into Black Demons.

To avoid that, I was trying to draw attention to myself, intending to minimize collateral damage.

Of course, it was a futile hope.

However, in his episode, many characters were seriously injured, and in the worst-case scenario, there could be a ‘bad ending’ right away, so I decided to give it my all to prevent it.

“……Your attitude hasn’t changed. Expect to get low grades in alchemy.”

In some ways, the professor’s decision to bring up grading issues was natural. What else could the professor do if the student was disobedient?

Still, my grades were good in all other subjects, and my goal was to graduate without academic warnings, so getting poor grades in alchemy wasn’t a big deal.

Wait, if you thought of it that way, I wouldn’t get grades anyway, so why should I do alchemy assignments?

‘Oh, I could use that time for other things.’

But things did not go as planned.

“A practice test will be held next week. ‘D Vitality Potion’ is the name of the drug you will create. You can make it quickly if you combine all of your previous knowledge, but it’s difficult to make alone because there are many materials and the process is complicated. As a result, we’ll conduct this hands-on test in groups of four. From now on, let’s form a group with a friend who shares your interests.”

I couldn’t help but be perplexed by Professor Maizen’s words.

Group Project. One of the greatest punishments a professor could inflict. But there was another reason for my dismay.

‘A group assignment…? Was there such a thing in the game?’

There wasn’t. No matter how much I thought. Perhaps it was because the game had to progress quickly, trivial stories such as group tasks were not explained.

Was this the difference between the game and reality?

‘Is there anything like this in the original novel?’

I secretly stared at the Fuleim, but that dissatisfied expression made her thoughts completely unreadable.

‘Oh, why a group assignment…’

As I glanced around, the students slowly averted my gaze.

“Giggle. Isn’t that bastard doing it alone?”

“Ah, maybe. After all, he hardly has any friends.”

I heard a low sneer. They were students of Jeremy’s faction. After beating Morso in the practice the other day, their jeers became even more severe, and even Professor Maizen started to bully me using his personal network, which made me feel even more outspoken.

Even if the professor and the Crown Prince group were pissed, no one would come to me first.

The students began to form their own groups, and while they were busily wandering around, I had nowhere to go.

“The groups are almost done.”

About ten minutes later, Professor Maizen said. A total of 11 groups were completed. And 4 people were left behind.

“The students who were unable to form a group, come here.”

‘Phew.’

As I slowly moved to the desk located at the back, the students without friends like me gathered.

The remaining students were Kasahun, a boy with brown hair full of freckles, Maliwan, a boy with chubby hair, Eisel and I. Thinking about it, Eisel didn’t have any friends either.

The death of Eisel’s father, Archduke Isaac Morph, wasn’t widely known among the public.

Rumors that Isaac Morph, a descendant of the great Morph, who was once a hero to wizards, betrayed the magic world and turned to the Black Demons, spread all over the world.

Of course, it was a false rumor, but no one was able to uncover the truth, and in the end, Eisel was firmly branded as a ‘traitor’s child’.

It was only natural that there were no people around her.

‘The other two… well, it’s just their personalities.’

I had no idea who that boy named Kasahun was. If you looked at his attitude, he seemed to be noble, but he must have been bullied for not letting go of the personality that he possessed after entering Stella.

But I knew the boy named Maliwan well enough. He was not a major character and played absolutely no part in the story, but I did remember him being quite good at alchemy later on.

I greeted as brightly as possible.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Baek Yu-seol.”

Then the two boys grew even more gloomy.

That made me once again aware of the circumstances.

There was no point in trying hard because the group would get a lot of deductions just because it had me. They must have been working hard for their own grades, but in the end, they stepped on shit.

‘How do I do this…….’

When the awkward atmosphere that I hated the most came out, I became frustrated. However, unexpectedly, the atmosphere was relieved by Eisel.

“Will you two be frustrated during the whole project? Please give your full name or something. Everyone knows my name, right?”

The two boys nodded awkwardly.

“Oh, it’s so annoying. Are you acting like losers because of your grades? As long as you guys do it well, it’ll be good anyway, so why not stop worrying about it?”

“…what do you think you know? Our group is already dead. Let each of us work on our own and finish it.”

Kasahun bluntly refuted, but Eisel only snorted

“You have the personality to give up before even trying. How did you even get into Stella?”

“What, what?”

“I know having this guy in the group is very annoying, right?”

I’m sorry about that.

“But it doesn’t matter. After all, at least three alchemists from the Alchemy Department come to examine the alchemy practice test. Professor Maizen cannot arbitrarily ruin our grades.”

“Oh….”

I had no idea. The other boys looked surprised, too, and Eisel flicked her own light blue hair behind her back as if proud of herself.

In fact, I believe I read somewhere that ‘information’ was the most important thing to Eisel, who had lost everything.

As Kasahun became silent, the quiet boy named Maliwan slowly opened his mouth.

“Well then… are we doing our homework properly?”

“Do I have to say it twice?”

“I’m glad… I wanted to make this…”

“I’m glad you’re motivated.”

And then she looked at me for no reason. What? If I stayed still, I wasn’t motivated? I was watching you guys work hard. As a brother.

“Hmm, then how are we going to gather the ingredients?”

“Of course, each of us has to get some.”

Alchemy materials were difficult to procure, and the processing was also quite complicated. It was a lot of work, and as such tasks would need to be divided between the team members.

“Then…What ingredients do we need?”

Now, I thought about pretending to know it, so I searched for the ingredients of ‘D Vitality Potion’ with copper glasses, but Eisel opened her mouth first.

“Twenty cut tails of fire-mane lizard, 300ml of iodine solution, 7g of pure silver, 10g of fairy grass, pine needles…….”

The ingredients’ names flew out of her mouth. Unlike me, who had to search for it, she had it all memorized.

Indeed, one of the characteristics of Eisel was [Versatility].

Whether it was magic, alchemy, politics, business or stocks, she was a woman who was good at everything. In a sense, she was more impressive than Mayu-Seong and Haewon-ryang.

“Honestly, these are ingredients that are not difficult to find in Arcanium’s market. You’ll all be able to get them, right?”

The boys nodded their heads, but they seemed wary of what they would be asked to get.

Because among those materials some were difficult to obtain even in Arcanium.

“Then, first of all, who’s going to get the fire-mane lizard’s tails?”

This was the ‘monster corpse’ category.

No matter how hard I memorized the textbook, it was difficult to find out which material was better or not when actually obtaining a monster corpse. It was a material that everyone was reluctant to get because they had to take responsibility if the quality of the finished product deteriorated.

I raised my hand without hesitation.

“I’ll get it.”

Eisel narrowed her eyes questioning my confidence.

“You know that monster corpses are the most important thing in alchemy, right?”

“Of course.”

“…to be so confident means something. Can I trust you?”

“It’s no problem.”

Eisel nodded her head reluctantly.

Wow, this little girl doesn’t trust people.

Obviously, it was true that selecting materials was difficult. If it wasn’t for the analysis function of the copper glasses, I wouldn’t be able to pick them out easily.

But in truth, I didn’t plan to use the glasses.

‘It’s a fire-mane lizard. I guess I’ll just have to catch it myself.’

I was thinking of a direct delivery.

Meanwhile, Professor Maizen Tyren went to see a certain student.

“Herick. Will you send this note to the first-year C group alchemy students?”

Maizen Tyren handed the note to a student named Herick. The content of the note was nothing special.

[Notice. Please note that the practice test assignment is changed from ‘D Vitality Potion’ to ‘Tyren Point Potion’.]

A very simple statement about changing the subject of this exam. The new assignment, the Tyren Point Potion, was a vitality supplement developed by Professor Maizen Tyren, whose concocting method the students would be able to easily practice with available materials.

“… except for Group 12.”

“Yes?”

At Maizen’s words, Herick looked puzzled for a moment, then smiled.

He immediately realized that Baek Yu-seol and Eisel belonged to group 12.

“Huh, of course.”

Herick was a student of the Jeremy faction, so he quickly recognized Maizen’s intentions.

‘With this, they will thoroughly fail the exam.’

The practical test was unconditionally supervised by a professional alchemist from the ‘Alchemy Tower’.

Since Stella was not a professional alchemist training institution, it was intended to easily open an avenue for transfer or employment after graduation if a student with outstanding talent in alchemy was seen in the school.

Thinking about it positively, it was a chance that could give alchemist wings in his career, but…

On the other hand, if you looked ugly in front of them, it meant that your path as an alchemist was more likely to be blocked.

‘Yes, your alchemy is amazing. But if you are a student, you should behave like a student.’

‘This will be a lesson that thoroughly teaches you that no matter how good a student is, he is only playing in the palm of the professor’s hand.’

– – – End of Chapter – – –

Translator’s Note:

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