Seeing that no one had any other comments, Boris nodded.
“From now and onwards, the people that it’s present here isn’t just a class, it’s a team, you will watch each other backs, winning or losing everything will be done as a team… but if you lose, I’m going to kick your asses, so I suggest you to stick to the winning part”.
Daimon noticed that the old man glared at him a couple of times while he spoke, which was understandable considering how he has been acting.
“Yeah, I get it, I will be responsible for them… tonight I’m going to punish that cute master of mine for not telling me about this beforehand”, he thought.
Boris left and Aliya took her students to the classroom that was next to the one they were currently at, the classes were left to the consideration of the teacher, they previously studied some basic theory about the magic core, so now Aliya wanted to give them a little introduction to potion brewing.
As soon as they entered, they saw that this classroom was different, it was more like a laboratory, there were no chairs instead of that there were tables for two or three people separated by a couple of meters each.
Daimon saw the many shelves filled with different ingredients, herbs and materials like glass flaks and magic ovens, everyone chose his work space, the little groups were basically the same, Leslie, Yvonne and Liliana in one table, Daimon and Aisha in another one and lastly Calvin who dragged Michael with him.
“We will be dealing with each other so don’t be a grumpy ass guy”, it’s what Calvin said to convince Michael of making team with him.
Aliya gave each team a big book with green cover on which was written, “Magic herbs and their usages for those below the mage lord realm”.
“That’s quite specific”, thought Daimon.
Aliya took a green herb from one of the shelves and the class started, she showed to everyone and asked.
“Do any of you recognize this herb?”.
Surprisingly the first one to answer was none other than Calvin.
“That is green river grass… it doesn’t have an effect by itself but it works as a catalyst for a lot of different potions”.
“Anyone else?”, asked Aliya before confirming or rejecting Calvin’s answer.
Yvonne doubted for a moment but she still spoke in a dubitative tone.
“It looks paler than green river grass, I think it’s a stalk of yellow swamp bush, something used in the concoction of poisons”.
Aliya smiled; she showed the base of the herb which also had a couple of little black spots to everyone.
“That’s correct Yvonne, the paler tone and these little black spots are the indicators of the yellow swamp bush, essentially, it’s also a catalyst… but it’s poisonous when ingested so the result of using it by mistake in one of the many potions that include green river grass, like one of the most commonly used, a healing potion it’s a strong stomach ache and muscle pain… followed by some internal bleeding”.
Calvin sighed, “Thanks to the heavens I don’t even have to cook my own food”, he thought.
Aliya returned the herb to the shelve and took out another one which was similar but the color was slightly darker and it didn’t have the little black spots on the base.
“You might be wondering why I used this specific herb as an example and the answer is quite simple, both the green river grass and the yellow swamp bush are easy to find, and they look alike, not only that but you can find them both near water bodies be it rivers, lakes, swamps etc. so in an emergency knowing the difference can save your life or kill you”.
“Open your books in the page ten, I will teach you how to do an easy emergency healing potion”.
Aisha opened the book, the page teen was a detailed description of the green river grass, but unlike the technical explanations mentioned in the book, the recipe for the potion Aliya mentioned wasn’t listed on it.
Aliya took out a little bottle full of a red liquid, she placed the contents of the bottle along with the green river grass in a small mortar, and began to mix them together using a pestle.
“This is something so you don’t see in the textbooks, by mixing the blood of a magic beast and the green river glass you get a solution which can be refined into a healing potion”.
Once the herb was properly integrated into the blood, she took a lighter that worked with mana stones from one of the shelves, and placed the now red and green paste in a flask on top of the lighter, the flame heated the flask and a few seconds later a reaction separated the contents of the flask in two different parts.
On the base of the flask the remains of the grass and the blood became a dark brown paste, while on top of that an orange liquid started to boil due to the heat generated by the lighter.
“Once the contests separate let it boil for two minutes and it’s ready, the paste is used to help external wounds stop bleeding and the liquid has the same effect as a normal healing potion… although the taste isn’t exactly the best, since Calvin gave a wrong answer, he will be one trying it”.
…
Calvin didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry, he just wanted to participate to impress the teacher and instead of that he now had to drink some shady potion he didn’t know of until a moment ago.
Still there was no point in complaining, he followed Aliya’s instructions and used a needle to make a little wound on his left hand, the wound was superficial but it was enough for the demonstration, he took a sip of the potion and the wound closed it immediately.
Contrary to what Calvin expected it didn’t taste that bad, it had a metallic taste probably due to the blood used on its preparation but nothing too horrible, not that he would like to drink it again if he was a given the choice though.
Everyone took notes of the elaboration while Liliana had a slightly confused expression on her face, something Aliya noticed.
“Do you have a question, Liliana?”, she asked.
The girl from the Risha family nodded.
“Yes, I get the part where this knowledge can save us in a critical situation, but why did you teach us this specific potion for the first class… mages tend to prioritize mana recovering potions over healing ones since a water or wood element mage is included in a team to take the role of healing others”.
Aliya smiled.
“This potion will be an advantage over your competitors of other classes, because on the inter academic tournament, you will only be allowed to bring a weapon of your choice and nothing else, the mana of a star ranked mage is quite limited and the enemy will always target the healer first, but now all of you became “healers” in a way”.
Daimon agreed with her, now they wouldn’t have to worry if the healer is eliminated from the equation, of course that is if there is green river grass near them, which is likely to happen since the locations chosen for the inter academic are always planets where jungles or forest can be easily found.
“Mm… is there a way t give it a better taste?”, asked Leslie after smelling the blood like scent of the potion.
Everyone with the exception of Calvin which still had the aftertaste found Leslie’s comment amusing, Aliya shook her head, she handed a portion of green river grass and a bottle of magic beast’s blood to each team.
“That is all for today take the books and practice making this potion at your rooms, the next class I will evaluate your results… and just in case I remind you to not mention this to anyone besides the presents here, this will be a potion exclusive to the elite class”.
Aliya waited for her students to leave before she drank a sip of the potion which hanged from her belt, Boris entered the room and saw her slightly pale face which made him sigh.
“Come on lass… go to rest at your room, I will take care of the rest for today”.
Now that the classes of today were over, Daimon and the others were free to do whatever they want until tomorrow morning, so of course Calvin suggested them to hang around together in the academic city near the campus.
“If no one has anything important to di, why don’t we go take a little walk in the city… the old man told us to get to know each other better anyway, what do you say Daimon?”.
Daimon felt his mother’s sharp gaze on him and he shrugged, “hanging around with friends after class sounds interesting… besides mom seems to enjoy interacting with those three”, he thought before answering.
“Fine, I don’t have anything to do for the time being, but just a couple of hours okay”, this time he gave Aisha some space to hang with the other girls of the class while he walked next to Calvin and Michael
Speaking of that the girls, Leslie immediately dragged Aisha to the conversation, Calvin laughed, he patted Daimon and Michael shoulders while pointing at the city.
“Come on ladies and gentlemen, the city waits for us!!!”.
It hasn’t even been 30 seconds since he let go of Aisha, and Daimon was already regretting his decision of walking next to Calvin, but seeing her mother happily talking with the other girls made him smile.
“We will be all going together anyway, and mom seems like this a lot… besides she and Aura will have a busy night later hahaha”.
Aisha felt her son’s slight hit gaze and she mentally laughed.
“Seems like my darling won’t let me sleep tonight… sigh the things a mother has to do ♥”.