For a moment, when Patch woke up, he thought he was still in Ellianora’s house. He imagined hot porridge and the adorable Olive smiling at him. Instead, he woke up in the cramped, dark room he rented in the Alchemist Guild. It had already been three days since Olive and her sister were reunited. It had been as long since he stayed at that house.

It was somewhat lonely.

Patch shook away his melancholy feeling and visited the washroom. He drew some water with the pump and washed his face.

Wake up. This is the last day.

One more test… he had passed all the others. Just one more and he would become an official Alchemist.

The official Alchemist test took place over six days. One the first day, one had to demonstrate their knowledge of ingredients. On the second day, they had to separate poisonous and non-poisonous ingredients. One mistake here would disqualify them. On day three, their knowledge of medicines was tested, and they had to list the ingredients for several medicines the test proctors would provide. On day four, they had to compound a medicine in front of the proctors with ingredients they would be provided. Finally, yesterday, he had to demonstrate all the alchemy skills he knew. In Patch’s case, those were , , , , and .

Today, on the final day, if the proctors found his skills satisfactory, they would guide him in advancing his skills. If he failed at this stage, he could only blame his own lack of talent.

Patch wasn't sure how these skills were supposed to unify, and he didn't know which ones he was missing. He did know that apprentice Alchemists with six skill slots were quickly and easily taken in by the Guild, so he suspected he needed six skills in order to advance. He would have to juggle the last skill. Patch hoped dearly that he could pull it off.

The appointed time arrived, and Patch entered a room in the back of the Alchemist Guild.

“Patch Everen?” the aging examiners confirmed.

“Yes, sirs.” The half elf stood up straighter due to nervousness.

“Please use these materials to chill a solution.”

“Yes.”

Patch looked at the materials he was provided. They were exceedingly simple. There was water, salt, a mixing glass, a stirring rod, and a lump of ice--presumably conjured by magic.

Patch mixed the salt into the water and stirred until it dissolved, then he broke the ice into smaller chunks and placed them all around the mixing glass to chill it evenly. Several minutes passed. The voice of the gods echoed.

[[Conditions met. acquired.]]

“I've obtained ,” Patch informed the examiners.

“Good. You don't have enough skill slots to embed it, so request the gods to unify the skill .”

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Benevolent gods, can I please unify the skill ?

[[Request is valid. First level skills , , , and have been manually unified into second level skill .]]

“I’ve obtained ,” Patch informed the examiners.

“What are your current skills?”

Dear gods, please show me my skills.

[[Request is valid. User’s current skills are , , and .]]

Patch told the examiners his skills.

“Request Mix to be re-listed.”

[[Request is valid. Previous skill has been re-listed.]]

[[Conditions met. Set completion has caused skills , , and to unify into skill set .”

So that’s what the secret was! Patch was stunned. The skills all need to be embedded to form a skill set. I never would have guessed had to be used twice!

[[Conditions met. Acquiring new skill set has changed the user’s stats. Focus up, Dexterity up, Judgement up.]]

“I’ve obtained the skill set.”

“Your current skills?”

“ and .”

“Request and to be re-listed.”

… What? Again?

[[Conditions met. Set completion has caused skills , , and to unify into skill set .]]

[[Conditions met. Acquiring new skill set has changed the user’s stats. Focus up, Patience up, Judgement up.]]

“What?! Such a thing…!”

The examiner saw fit to dispel the half elf’s confusion. “When multiple skill sets can be made from a person’s skills, the spirits simply choose the one that person has a greater affinity for. It doesn't mean that there are no other possible combinations.”

Ah… to think there was something like this. Hidden knowledge like this is exactly why people join guilds in the first place. I had no idea…

“Now then, skill sets will naturally try to remain isolated. Request that and be unified.”

[[Request is valid. Skill sets and have unified into third level skill .]]

“I've obtained .” And now four of my skill slots are free for new things.

“Then congratulations, you've become an official, one-star Alchemist. You can now purchase the appropriate level skills from the guild and accept higher level requests. Take this tag to the receptionists and they will update your guild card.”

“Thank you!”

“No, it's always a pleasure to see new Alchemists rising up. By the way, please remember that is a skill, not a spell. If you have raw materials, you can produce anything you have knowledge about, but without materials you can do nothing.”

“Thank you, sir, I’ll keep it in mind.”

***

Meanwhile, at the Mage Guild, Elianora approached the receptionists at the counter.

As expected, I’m not a genius like Fiara who can learn magic without any resources.

“How much does it cost for the obtainment method and spell pattern of ?” Elly asked.

“The obtainment method is twenty silver coins and the spell pattern is thirty silver coins.”

“Expensive!”

The receptionist made an awkward face. “It's a spell for up and coming two-star Mages: of course it’s expensive.”

“Eh? Weren't you in that adventurer party that went missing two weeks ago?”

““Eh?””

Both Elianora and the receptionist looked back. There was a moderately attractive woman with dark, braided hair and freckles.

“Um… you are…?”

“Oh! Sorry!” The woman bowed her head. “My name is Mei. I'm a receptionist at the Adventurer guild, and a one-star Mage. That half elf in your party came by asking us to send out a search party.”

“A-ah… Sorry about that. We reported our mission completion two days ago, so isn't it fine?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Geez, I didn't work that day, so I've been worrying, you know? How did you take so long to kill a couple of Kobolds?”

“Ah… that’s…”

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Ah! No, um… There were some powerful Monsters around, so we got delayed.” Elianora quickly turned back to the Mage Guild receptionist. “I don't have the money on me now, so I'll come back later, okay?”

She left the guild quickly while Mei watched with a confused expression.