With Krune's group caring little for the competition, the next day soon arrived.
Ruik decided to tag along with Krune once more to take a look. His reason was quite simple too.
"I understand almost nothing of both your side occupations, so I might as well go see the one the smells the best."
Medicinal herbs did have a pleasant smell when concocted properly. Since there were only geniuses this time around, Ruik wasn't wrong in saying that they would give quite a pleasant aroma.
Krune and the other felt like crying but had no tears.
Tiane, of course, followed Feifei instead. They bid their farewells and parted ways there.
After arriving in the Alchemist Competition site, Krune went directly to his working station, the 7359th one.
'Hum... It seems like everything I need is really here. Oh! The quality of the herbs listed in the system is quite high too, guess I can use more energy this time. There are a few types of cauldrons as well, this should be enough for me and everyone else to work.'
Suddenly, Krune noticed that a lot of the alchemists were looking in his direction. For a second, he thought that he had done something to catch everyone's attention again. But when he paid a little more attention, he noticed that they weren't looking at him, but the guy in the next workstation.
It turned out that Krune was placed right beside Kaio Tirenia, one of the Three alchemists in the Junior Competition at the Golden Stars level. Of course, Krune had no idea about who this guy was since he didn't pay attention to the commotion the day prior.
'Could he be someone famous?'
Still, Krune soon put those thoughts on the back of his mind.
'Whatever. If he can grab all the attention for himself, that will be for the best. I won't need to worry about having a lot of eyes on me anymore.'
Without Kaio knowing, he became Krune's scapegoat for the sake of his low profile life.
Alchemists arrived one by one, and soon, the place a full of them, and it didn't take long for the competition start time to come either. The place was enormous, and at the front, one could see the stage. Of course, because each alchemist needed a working station, a lot of them ended being way too far from it. To deal with this problem, several big monitors were put everywhere on the site.
Soon, an elder of the Solar System Alchemist Headquarters went up and started to talk.
"Welcome, everyone. My name is Palo Yiag, a member of the Solar System Alchemist Headquarters. I will be one of the examiners of our once in a 5 years Junior Alchemist Competition. I believe you all read the rules already, but I will talk a little about it just to keep the protocol."
"As you can see, we have way too many alchemists, 11238, to be more specific. Because of that, we need to first go through an elimination phase. In the end, only 1000 will remain."
"The first phase will be alchemist knowledge. Whats is the point of having talent if you don't even know what to do? That's what this test is for. Everyone should have a terminal in their own working stations, and there is where you will receive all the questions. It will go from knowledge about herbs all the way to concoction methods. The first 1000 best results will advance into the second phase."
Krune heard that, and his eyes lit up! He might not be the highest rank alchemist around here. Still, if they are talking about pure knowledge, he is confident of getting an excellent position in the end.
Palo then showed a serious face and said.
"I believe there is no need to tell that we are going to keep our Divine Senses on all of you. So if we get anyone cheating, you will be immediately eliminated and also expelled from the Alchemist Organization. Well, that is just the first part. As for what else we are going to do with the cheaters after that, I will keep it a secret so that they can enjoy the experience more thoroughly."
Some of the alchemists felt a chill on their backs. There had been one or another that really thought about trying something like using their communicators to find the answer. But with so many high-level Divine Senses around them, the majority immediately gave up the idea.
Palo then continued.
"The second phase consists of a simple task that all alchemists must go through. The medicinal properties extraction and impurities elimination. It is no secret that the better it is done, the easier it is for you to go through the synch of elements, energies, and everything else. Simply put, you can make a better pill if you can do this step well. We are going to select the first 100 with the best rates."
"The results will also be shown on all monitors and displays in the area, so those who failed in the first phase can stay and take a look if they want. This is not a competition only to find talents, but to spread the alchemy way too. I believe it will serve as a good experience for your future."
"The third and final phase should be quite obvious, though. Pill concoction! In the end, we are Alchemists, so pills are what we make. The one with the highest level pill will be obvious the winner. In case two or more alchemists make a pill of the same level, we will decide the winner according to the difficulty of concocting the pill. If they also selected the same pill, we will go into the pill elemental and energies synch rate."
Everyone just listened and made no questions, the Junior Alchemist competition had always been like this, so they were used to it. Krune, too, had read the information before he came, so he had no doubts either.
The examiners in the site then spread around to specific positions. That was obvious so that they could cover the entire competition with their Divine Senses and prevent other alchemists from cheating.
Once they were all in their positions, Palo, on the stage, started to talk again.
"Alright, the first phase will last eight hours. All that you guys need to do is to answer as many questions as possible. There are no multiple-choice ones, every single of them has to be answered with your own words. But don't worry, the sequence of questions is the same for every participant. We definitely put enough questions so that it will be impossible to answer all of them in just eight hours. But if by coincidence some of you start to jump all the problems, there will be a point where the sequence will reset to the first one, so pay attention to it."
"Lastly, every time a question is answered correctly, a point will be added to the participant who did that. Those points are being shown on the outside for the others through the network, so try your best to not shame our Solar System Alchemist Organization. There is no doubt that other Solar Systems' Alchemist Organizations will be looking into it as well."
This time, Krune didn't mind much it since both his appearance and name have been changed. According to Ramon, no one other than the Solar System Alchemist Headquarters that he is at the moment can find his identity.
Palo then sent a Divine Sense message to all the examiners on the site to see if they were ready. Soon after, he announced.
"The test starts now!"
Krune looked at the display in front of him and saw it coming to life. On the very top, there was a clock doing a countdown of eight hours. Krune ignored that and paid attention to the question in front of him.
-Talaka Herb is used for the Spiritual Flow Pill. What differences does it make in the pill's properties?-
'It can make improve the Flow trait. If done correctly, it can also be used as a catalyst for the other medicinal herbs in the concoction.'
Krune then answered in an easy to understand and fast way. He could have gone through a more detailed explanation, but this is also a run against time, so he had to save it. Krune was only making sure that the answer was correct and jumping to the next one.
-Once Uruk mineral is used during the Calm Mind Pill concoction, what advantages it brings to the final product?-
Krune pondered about the Uruk mineral for a second and made his answer.
Just like that, Krune and everyone else kept answering their questions. Not so surprisingly, there were one or two alchemists here and there that tried to cheat in the test. It went without saying that they were immediately disqualified and sent expelled straight away. Of course, that would be just the start of their nightmares. Once the others noticed those ones being caught, any idea of breaking the rules disappeared from their minds.
Krune, of course, didn't even notice that happening. It had nothing to do with him anyway, so he considered such events meaningless to be paid attention. At the moment, there was only him and the questions on the monitor in the front.
Krune didn't know, but the name 'Jolk' was becoming quite a trending topic between those watching the Alchemist Competition through the internet.