Magus Sept smiled for a while before looking at the white-grey basic explosion potion and saying: “This basic explosion potion is not bad, though it has fatal flaws as the color is almost grey.”

Sweat trickled along Frasers forehead as Magus Sept said: “Unfortunately there is Nicholas who is way more talented than you.”

‘Does he expect me to kill Nicholas in order to kill the competition?’

“And no I do not expect you to kill Nicholas. As I forbid every Alchemy student of mine to even endanger Alchemy Seedling.” smiled Magus Sept as if reading Frasers mind.

‘How does he do that?’

“Even though you almost took one month to brew a single basic explosion potion, it’s still a major achievement. You can be considered one of the most talented students which I have ever taught in Alchemy. So I will reward you. How about dismissing your yearly tuition fee of ten magic crystals.” continued Magus Sept as he still had his calm smile on his lips.

Fraser could only agree with the last part as it doesn’t seemed like a question.

“Ah, before your go here is a magic key for the inner chambers of my Laboratory. It’s located in another section and only a few selected students are there. Go respect your seniors and ask them any questions you have. I want that my students will help each other.” said Magus before summoning one of those black balls or spirits and throwing Fraser a small stone with a rune carved in it.

The black spirit ball floated along the floor as Fraser quickly stepped out of the room leaving the other senior students behind.

Fraser followed the black spirit ball only to arrive at a closed door which opened as soon as Fraser held the magic key near it.

What awaited him was a huge hall. Decorated lavishly with crystals, glass and cushy looking furniture the huge hall looked like a high class lounge.

One group consisting of three people already sat on the different couches and talked.

As the door opened the three faces turned towards the entrance only to smile as they saw Fraser.

“A newcomer? Welcome to the inner chambers of Magus Sept. We always welcome another talented student in our group.” said a charming looking young man while holding his arms as if ready to embrace someone.

“Don’t scare him, most newcomers are mostly antisocial golems who only experience the debt and are not able to trust anyone.” said a young woman while hitting the young man.

One person from the group walked towards Fraser and whispered: “Ignore them, they are all nice people. I am Nicholas, nice to meet you. Mentor Sept should have given you enough magic crystals to pay off your debt. So naturally you are cautious.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

‘Wasn’t Nicholas that Alchemy Genius?’

“Aren’t you Nicholas the one who brewed a potion within the first days of his Alchemy career?” asked Fraser.

“Oh, someone is famous.” teased the young woman who also walked over to Fraser.

Rubbing his nose Nicholas with a red face while smiling and said: “I bet Mentor Sept again bragged about me.”

“Well I am Adrian and this young woman is Elise. You already know Nicholas our Genius so there is nothing much to say about him.” said the young man, introducing their group.

“What is your name?”

“My name is Fraser, nice to meet you.” replied Fraser.

After Fraser introduced himself he sat together with them and they began to talk. Apparently there are about 30 members of Magus Sept inner circle, but most of them are either outside on missions or experimenting.

“Young” students like these three are rare as mostly Magus Sept would take in one or two students every couple of years thus in most cases there would be an age gap between members of the inner circle.

This resulted in the question how old Magus Sept already was and according to rumors, at least from what the three students heard he was already more than 200 years old. What amazed Fraser was the fact that the three students also heard that Magus Sept was still in his prime.

So the four continued to exchange information. Why an exchange of information?

Because Elise simple threw out one of the biggest information.

There were two levels after Apprentice Level 3! Which were Apprentice Level 4 and 5. To receive the meditation Technique from them one had to ask Mentor Sept for another small flask with black substance.

Naturally Elise asked a question after simply throwing out such important information.

“So why did Mentor Sept let you joint the inner chambers?”

The two male members of the group didn’t exchanged information that much. Especially Nicholas who only talked about general stuff which wasn’t important and were mostly love dramas of friends or gossip about love.

‘The behavior of Nicholas can be explained, he is mostly young and is more interested in love. But why does Adrian who probably is the same age as Elise doesn’t exchange information? Is he jealous? I saw him throwing glances when Elise initiated body contact.’

Frasers theory soon got verified as he got to know that Elise entered the Howling Abyss Academy the same time with Adrian.

In order to appease the curiosity of Elise Fraser showed his white-grey basic explosion potion to the three people and explained with a fake voice which seemed to be embarrassed: “It’s not as good as it should be but I was able to create this.”

This quickly allowed Elise, Adrian and Nicholas to acknowledge him. There was a short moment when Fraser saw a mix of relief and pride on Nicholas face before it disappeared.

‘How the hell am I able to see what a mix between relief and pride is. I didn’t saw that many faces in my life.’

Fraser ignored the short face of Nicholas and the four continued to talk. Mainly Fraser and Elise talked and Nicholas and Adrian just added a few things.

After showing Elise why he got chosen by Magus Sept it appeared that Elise lost interest in Fraser thus asking less questions and answering more.

Fraser asked many questions, from spell models to the normal information of the Howling Abyss Academy.

Fraser didn’t dared to ask for free spell models as Elise told him that every spell model of the Howling Abyss Academy has to be bought with magic crystals. Most Spell models had a price of ten magic crystals which in the eye of Fraser seemed ridiculous expensive.

After all he had no magic crystal.

Though there was an interesting information about choosing spell models. Since there seemed to be not only offensive spell models but also defensive and supportive spell models which were either permanent like a certain earth element spell model which made your body as hard as stone or used just like offensive spells which meant using it and then awaiting the result.

With more information Fraser excused himself and walked away. Adrian, Nicholas and Elise suggested him doing tasks in the task hall of the Academy. Yet Fraser didn’t followed their advice.

It seemed to be dumb, yet Fraser knew that the suggestion of the three seniors were not done with heart. Instead it was the common answer for every Howling Abyss student.

After all neither of the three really had to do tasks in order to earn a lot of magic crystals. Except Adrian, but it was a completely different league compared to Fraser. As Adrian chose the path of Physical Magus, meaning strengthening his body to the peak.

Naturally this increased Adrian chance to survive a task of the Academy by a huge percentage.

Nicholas had his potions as he just had to create a couple in order to receive some magic crystals.

Elise had the easiest way to earn magic crystals as she was from a Magus Family who had three people being of the rank Magus in the family.

Being the daughter of a Magus shocked Fraser as he heard it but he calmed down pretty quickly.