On the twentieth day of training, the students completed their regular training and waited for the teacher to disclose what they would be trained on today.

It was long since the teacher did not speak, his mind was so preoccupied with something that he was disconnected from his surroundings.

'Teacher, teacher. What are we going to do today? Half an hour has already passed as we have been waiting.'

'Ah, has half an hour really passed? I have a good idea for today. I'm going to take you to the lab and teach you some basics that you need to understand.'

He did not even realize much time has passed, and then an idea came to his head: it is different from the usual but it will help them understand some basics in other disciplines.

'The lab? Guys, we're going to be visiting the lab today.'

Eric jumped out of joy and returned to the others to inform them with the news. Maximus got up and asked them to follow him; he wanted to walk contrary to his habit. His students returned to the building they visited last time, the main facility for education. Maximus showed his gold card and was allowed to enter after verifying its authenticity. The monumental building was divided into two sections, an educational section where students learned and a professors and research section where Maximus and his students went.

Among the laboratories, Maximus entered one of them. It was a lab for an old colleague, Emily. She was focused on reading notes she had written earlier concerning a previous experiment about her research topic, and after hearing the door open, she turned and looked at them sideways. An unwanted inconvenience came and she is in the midst of her research that she has been in for several months.

'The lab is busy right now, we don't allow guests. Please leave.'

'I'd like you to lend me the lab for a while; we won't bother you, Emily.'

'How do you know my name? Hey, that voice! Is that you, Maximus?'

Emily was very surprised after hearing this tone, the face is very different but the sound is the same. She approached and examined him carefully in order to understand why the difference or change was drastic.

'It has been a long time, how is your current research? Need help? I can check the results and suggest a solution.'

'Why did you change your appearance? Was there something that changed you?'

'Something like that... Will you allow then?'

'Since it's you, do whatever you want so just be careful not to break anything.'

After Maximus got permission from Emily, he decided to introduce her to them before he got to the main topic.

'Come here, my students, this is Emily and she is an old colleague whom I worked together with.'

'What about Mr. Mark and Ederson?'

'Have you met them before?'

'Once before, when we visited this building.'

'Damn, is that why they knew I'm here? Let go of this, watch what I am going to do and remember what I am saying well.'

'Clear, master.'

Everyone stood in line listening to Maximus' explanation carefully who had taken a few bottles from the shelf containing liquids of different colors.

'In the lab, we work with many materials including plants, animal organs and parts, rocks and chemicals. Each has uses and the combination gives specific results.'

'On what basis is it done? How do you know what to use and what not to use?'

Aliana asked about the heart of the matter directly, exactly what Maximus was willing to hear from them.

'Amazing question, this is done either on the therapeutic and chemical properties of the plant. Let's give an example of a mana potion.'

He made the potion float in front of him to explain more comfortably, then indicated the potion and then to the rest of the room.

'Mana is present in everything, in solids and in living organisms, to make mana potions we generally use mana stones after grinding and crushing them into a fine powder. Does anyone know why?'

'Cost divided by efficiency, I think; mana stones are cheaper than other things and contain more mana so they are an economic component as I know.'

Dante raised his hand and answered the question posed by Maximus with a smile and then asked another question.

'Well done, so what is the goal of alchemists?'

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

'Two goals are likely, firstly to expand the circle of knowledge concerning chemistry and secondly to improve the efficiency of already manufactured products to reduce cost and increase production.' Dante answered the tricky question after he thought for a moment.

'You discovered the trick in the question then. There are two goals as he said, not one.'

Maximus went on to explain the basics of ingredient selection and dosing methods and taught them about the most important potions they should know... Hours passed as they learned from him and Emily occasionally listened to their lesson, looking for lapses and errors in Maximus' speech. The funny thing is that she found nothing, and this was strange to her, as his specialty had nothing to do with chemistry, but his knowledge is not just generalities in chemistry, but even some deep knowledge in the field, and she remembered him telling her earlier that he could give her advice if she wanted.

Emily waited patiently for him to complete his lesson and ask him about his previous saying.

.........

After three hours of instruction, the students were dizzy from the huge amount of information provided in such a short period of time, but many of this information was reached with their own conclusions and will not be forgotten so easily.

Maximus gave them permission to leave and do what they wanted for the rest of the day and he stayed in the lab.

'Finally they left. What has changed with you, Maximus?'

'I just got a few things and here I am. Nothing more, nothing less.'

Maximus tried to evade the answer in one way or another; it is not a topic that can be talked about absurdly but Emily, who has known him for several years, noticed there is missing information.

'Stop procrastinating, your specialty has nothing to do with chemistry and yet you have extensive knowledge of it. When did you learn chemistry? What are you hiding from me?'

'I learned it a while ago and I have my reasons that I don't want to disclose now. Except this I can help you with your research if you give me your papers.'

Emily hit her right hand on her research documents; she is seeing Maximus mocking her research, which she is toiling while trying to get a satisfactory result.

'My current research is not a joke; you can't just because you have knowledge of chemistry.'

'Just give me; it won't take more than half an hour and you won't lose anything on top of that.'

Maximus reached out asking for research papers from Emily, who slapped her palm on her forehead and found no adequate response to the situation.

'Take your time to read it; I won't be able to refuse potential help. Even though you may not even understand it.'

'I don't understand the subject? You want to make an antidote to black tulip poison. Good idea but your choice of ingredients is not entirely appropriate.'

She was surprised at how quickly he perceived the subject of the research even though there is not even a direct hint about the topic.

'You have a really sharp look, but finding a solution is really difficult. It's been two months and I haven't found an adequate solution to the side effects of the antidote, which is a major problem in my research.'

'Your fault is blending yellow magnolia flower and callacas root. This combination is the main cause of side effects.'

Emily found the problem but the solution was not within reach otherwise she would have found it several days ago.

'I realized this thing two weeks ago but removing one of the ingredients neutralizes the antidote. I tried replacing magnolia with other alternatives, the symptoms disappeared but the effectiveness was poor and there were no promising results.'

'Didn't you think about replacing the callacas root with another ingredient?'

'No ingredient can give a similar effect... Is there such an ingredient?'

'Of course there is not, but if you mix these two ingredients, it gives a close effect and without significant side effects.'

Emily's face was surprised and she thought over and over again but did not remember such information. She headed towards the bookshelf and began to flip the pages of reference books she relied on, Maximus pulled out another book and opened it on a certain page and showed it to her.

'Stop searching, take and read for yourself.'

Maximus did not search randomly between books and pages; he knew where the information was mentioned and gave it to her to verify herself.

'When the seeds of plant 01 are mixed with the liquid extracted from the bark of the tree 02, a callacas root-like effect is produced, with a success rate of approximately seventy percent of the cases experimented.'

She stared at Maximus, lowered her head to the book, and then lifted it up again, with expressions of astonishment on her face that became clearer as the seconds passed.

'I have not come across this information before, how did you know about it?'

'I have a broad culture, nothing more, and I have a way to raise the percentage to one hundred.'

'You're kidding, right?'

The previous tip that there was an alternative to the root of callacas was precious enough, but he would tell her something even the book did not say anything similar.

'I'm not kidding, you have to add a spoonful of cotton oil to the seeds before adding the bark extract and this ensures the success of the mix.'

'I'll try it now, give me a minute.'

Emily put the book on the table open on that page, brought the necessary ingredients from the shelves, and prepared the laboratory glassware for the experiment.

She followed the steps to prepare the ingredients before mixing them and the necessary heat, then prepared eight test tubes, dividing them into two groups, one for the recipe on the book and the other for the Maximus proposal.

After adding the detector to all the tubes, all the tubes showed a positive result, except for one tube, which was from the book's recipe set, which meant a success rate of 75 percent, similar to that mentioned in the book. Finding nothing to say, she turned in cold and exhausting expressions towards Maximus. It was as if her effort for months had been crushed in an hour.

'You're not making fun of me now? This is nonsense.'

'Since I helped you solve your problem, I'm leaving now. Good luck completing your research.'

Emily was happy to be able to get past the wall that had hindered her research for so long.

'... May safety accompany you; Visit me anytime you want, my lab is always open to you.'

Maximus waved his hand and went out and then closed the door behind him and kept walking and thought about what he would do next to get through the rest of the day...