As Ning waited for 6 pm to arrive, a few more newer alchemists came and sat next to him in the waiting area, as they were also going to take part in the upcoming grading test.
Ning felt a little embarrassed when he saw that the people taking grading test were actually mostly little kinds who weren't even 15.
The kids would turn to look at him curiously, wondering if he was there to take a test as well.
Finally, it was 6 pm, and the people taking the tests started getting called in. Ning walked in to see a small room with a bunch of open furnaces on the ground.
Soon, a lady walked in and handed a pouch of ingredients as well as a recipe. They all had to now make a pill that was at least 10% or Grade 1 in quality.
Ning quickly opened up the bag to see the ingredients and found out that they were all simple ingredients that everyone would know about.
He quickly took out his weird looking cauldron and started making his pills. The recipe was quite simple and he wasted no time with the pills.
Within a a few minutes of starting the pill, he was done with it and handed the pill to the lady. The lady had a weird apparatus to test the pill's grade.
She quickly checked it and found out that his half-assed attempts at making the pills had resulted in grade 5 pills.
Soon, everyone was done with making their pills and it was time for the practical test.
This time, the people would go into the test room one by one and answer the questions of 3 grade 1 examiners. It was finally Ning's turn to enter.
When he went in, the testers were a little surprised but quickly started asking questions. The questions were so easy that Ning could answer it even if he didn't have any knowledge from the system.
He freely answered the questions and walked out proud. Without question, he had passed the 1st grade, and was now officially an alchemist.
He was then handed a badge that he could wear or simply carry around to show his identity as an Alchemist. Ning looked at the badge and saw a few things written.
"So, it's like an official identity card for me, except instead of me being a citizen, it says I'm an alchemist," Ning thought. He walked over to the registrar and started to ask him some more questions.
"Now that I'm a grade 1 alchemist, can I join the guild?" Ning asked.
"Yes. You can take a test anytime starting tomorrow," the registrar said.
"Thank you." Finally Ning returned back to the academy and went straight to his sleeping quarters. He decided to go for the guild member registration a few days later once his grade was high. So, he could do nothing but wait for now.
Tomorrow morning, he got up from his bed and went back to his classes once again. He needed to choose what he had to do for his classes today, so he decided to go with normal questions and answers segment since he would have new students and he didn't want to immediately start boring lectures.
Once he set the topic for the day, he went to his class. He stayed there for a few minute, hoping he would get some students.
For the first few minutes, only 2 or 3 students came, leading him to be a little disappointed. However, right before the class was to start, the students started appearing in droves.
Ning started counting them walk in, and by the time they stopped coming in, he was happily surprised.
'600 students,' he thought with a smile. While he wanted more, realistically, he was expecting way less. So, 600 was more than enough students for him.
"Thank you all for coming to my classes. For today, I will be answering any questions you guys might have. If you do, please raise your hands," Ning said.
Almost all the students in the class raised hand. Ning smiled and said, "Alright, I will get to all of you one by one. If any of the other students end up asking the questions you were going to ask, please put your hands down."
With that, he asked the first student what his question was. The students asked questions without hesitation, and Ning answered them all without having to think for even a while at all.
The students were surprised how well versed Ning was in every topic. Each question he got, it was as if he was a teacher that specified in that portion of alchemy and knew it better than most people.
However, given how many different questions there were, that was impossible.
"What is the use of the Melon Groove Vine in the Spirit Hallucination pill, teacher Ning? I have tried to understand the content of the pill and from what I can gather, the remaining ingredients in that pill can bring forth the same effect. Yet, every single recipe I have tried to find tells me to put it in," a student asked.
"Oh, that's because the Melon Groove Vine has a special liquid inside it that contains trace amounts of Yin energy. You need that yin energy to bring out the darkness within the pill."
"Spirit Hallucination pill can also be made without the vine, but if you do that, the person will simply hallucinate something random. However, if you put in the vine, the person is guaranteed to hallucinate a nightmare, and that is the purpose of the pill," Ning explained.
The student was satisfied with the answer and sat down. Reya was on the front seat, constantly scribbling down stuff onto her notepad to remember it. Nilo was at the end of the room looking at Ning with awe at how good his teaching skills were.
Needless to say, the rest of the students were also very impressed with the class today.. So, overall, the first proper class of Ning was a total success.