52: Chapter 0052 Practice

The accumulated snow had melted, and the color of Gray Mist Mountain Town changed from vast white to withered yellow...

Few plants could remain lush after the cold, heavy snow; everything became bare, as if they had suffered a defeat.

It was the same for the students at Gray Mist Mountain Academy upon hearing the news of the final exam—their eyes dimmed, looking as if their parents had just died.

This was because the provincial unified examination was too unfavorable for the remote Gray Mist Mountain Town.

As the bottom-dweller in Monte Province's education System year after year, Gray Mist Mountain Academy was subject to upward averaging, resulting in increasingly poor resource allocation.

Instructor Felina, who had been teaching at the academy for nearly two years, was also extremely dissatisfied and helpless about this situation.

This time, she naturally hoped her little man could soar to the heavens and restore some face for the academy.

After listening to Instructor Felina's introduction to the exam details, filled with encouragement and hope, Li Size also felt a sense of anticipation, determined to vindicate his small town:

Even a mountain village boy can rise up!

When the papers for the first subject, Common Knowledge Theory, were handed out, Li Size truly felt some pressure.

These questions were obscure and difficult; the examination experts were simply inhuman!

Damn it!

What is the name of the Wizard who first discovered that the number of 'Wizards Hand' could be increased?

Which plane is he from?

What is the maximum number of 'Wizards Hand' that can be increased to?

What kind of nonsense questions are these?

We are just small students from the Nuwa Plane who are not yet Apprentices.

Are you sure you want me to worry about matters outside our plane? Isn't this ambition too lofty?

Ghost-Face Vine is extremely difficult to propagate. In which season should it be grafted onto which Magic Plant?

What measures can be taken to increase the propagation rate by how much?

I—am—going—to—die!

Even a Wizard Apprentice who specializes in Magic Plant research might not get all of these right!

Li Size wiped his face. No wonder his memory from his past life showed he only scored 40. It seemed getting 40 points was already pretty good!

I really don't know how the high-scoring students in Gele City and other cities managed to score so high?

Are they attending the same school? Could their textbooks be different?

If it weren't for 'Pay-to-Win' Analysis, Li Size felt he would have completely bombed the test. Thankfully...

Through 'Pay-to-Win' Analysis, all the Materials within these courses were transmitted directly into his brain...

He activated the knowledge information from the Analysis to check; the academy professors' lectures did indeed cover this content.

However, it was usually buried in especially hard-to-notice footnotes and extended knowledge sections.

In that case, these examination experts weren't technically exceeding the syllabus.

They were just too cunning!

They definitely don't have any kids taking the exam!

With 'Pay-to-Win' as a safety net, getting 100 points on this Common Knowledge Theory exam was guaranteed.

Instructor Felina had mentioned that no one had ever scored 100 points in previous years.

Li Size hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should artificially lower his score so as not to appear too much like a Prodigy.

After thinking for a moment, Li Size decided against suppressing his score.

What if someone actually scored 100 points this year? If he lowered his score, he might miss out by just a few points!

Li Size was determined to obtain the special meditation method of Monte Province.

These special meditation methods were the foundation of every organization, something one shouldn't even dream of normally.

Li Size had not seen anything similar in the merit points exchange manual from the Internal Affairs Department, nor in Gelia's police bureau exchange manual.

Of course, it was also possible that their status wasn't high enough.

But this only proved how rare such things were.

If Heaven offers it, refusing it is inviting disaster!

Monte Province's final provincial unified exam was scheduled for three days.

The first day was the Common Knowledge Theory exam, the second day was the Practical exam, and the third day was the Combat exam.

After the theory exam on the first day, the entire academy felt dejected, like defeated dogs hanging their heads.

It was rumored that when Aunt Mary proctored the exam, she was so enraged by the paper that she threw her thermos cup out on the spot.

She smashed the classroom window and immediately threatened to abandon her post to go to the Provincial Department and fight the question-setting team!

It was too hard for her as the Director of the Wizard Common Knowledge Teaching Office:

These exam questions get trickier every year. Is there any hope for this year's year-end bonus?

It's so hard!

On the second day, when the proctoring teachers dispatched from the Provincial Department announced the questions for the Practical exam...

Li Size felt as if he heard the wails echoing above the entire academy:

1. Select the raw Materials needed to create six types of inferior potions from 100 different Materials: inferior defense potion, inferior healing powder, inferior vitality potion, inferior agility potion, inferior strength potion, and inferior mental clarity potion.

2. Process the above raw Materials before potion refinement.

3. Select the necessary tool combination for refining the above potions.

4. Choose any two to refine.

Was this really designed for humans to take?

Li Size saw several people unable to resist and quit the exam immediately.

If he hadn't had the Analysis from 'Pay-to-Win,' he would have surely ended up with a single-digit score.

Li Size glanced at his depressed classmates around him; every one of them was crestfallen.

He felt that this final exam question wasn't obscure; identifying Materials was supposed to be a mandatory course.

But combining it with potion refinement was a bit excessive.

Could potion refinement be learned after just one or two explanations from the teacher?

It seemed last year's questions were slightly simpler: identifying metal Ores and refining black demonic iron alloy.

The year before that was selecting the correct Magic Monster for dissection and performing raw material collection and preservation treatment.

This year's questions were truly difficult!

With questions like these, students from big cities definitely had an advantage; they could more easily obtain these raw Materials for experimentation.

For example, outside Gele City were vast plantations specifically supplying raw Materials for refining such potions.

Li Size carefully examined the raw Materials; many decoys had been set up.

For instance, the raw Materials for inferior healing powder included the brains of one-year-old frogs and the stingers of wasps.

Well...

There were brains from four different age groups of frogs here, and stingers from wasps, honeybees, giant hornets, and solitary bees...

I wonder how many classmates will choose incorrectly and lose points?

Watching Li Size quickly and skillfully select the raw Materials for the six inferior potions from the hundred types and stack them into six piles.

Some classmates showed surprised looks, while others were in disbelief.

They secretly guessed: Is this guy completely guessing?

When Li Size processed the Materials according to standard procedure and prepared the tools for potion refinement...

In the dim Laboratory, Li Size was engaged in a dangerous gamble.

His hands moved among the Materials emitting a strange aura, finally resting on a bundle of withered Shadow Grass.

The leaves of these grasses were an unnatural, dark green, seemingly breathing faintly.

Every time his fingertips brushed past, the leaves would gently tremble, emitting a subtle hissing sound.

He took out a small silver knife carved with runes and carefully shaved off three leaves.

When the blade touched the stem, what oozed out was not sap, but a wisp of faint black mist that twisted and dissipated in the air.

Then, he took out a croaking toad eyeball from a sealed crystal jar.

The eyeball suddenly opened its pupil after being removed from the preservation fluid, flashing a strange red light.

The preparation work for the experimental tools resembled a mysterious ritual more than anything.

Li Size lit the obsidian alchemy furnace, and a faint blue flame immediately rose, yet it emitted no heat; instead, it caused the surrounding temperature to plummet.

He placed the moonstone mortar directly above the flame, and the mortar automatically suspended itself, beginning to rotate slowly.

Vessels of various Materials shimmered with different colored glints in his hands:

A crystal funnel that could automatically filter out Impurities, a silver stirring rod engraved with ancient runes, and a set of glass test tubes that changed color based on the nature of the liquid.

When the refinement began, Li Size first dropped the Shadow Grass leaves into the mortar.

The leaves turned into a bubbling black slime under the grinding, emitting a sickly sweet odor similar to rotting flowers.

When he added the toad eyeball, the mortar suddenly burst with dazzling purple sparks, the slime began to boil violently, and countless faces twisted in agony appeared on its surface.

Li Size quickly poured in the basic solvent, and the potion immediately turned a murky dark red, within which tiny black shadows seemed to swim.

He held his breath and, following the instructions parsed in his mind, began stirring the potion in a specific rhythm.

Each stir caused the potion's color to shift, from dark red to dark green, and then to an ominous deep purple.

A strange buzzing sound echoed in the Laboratory, and the shadows on the walls began to twist unnaturally, as if they had gained a life of their own.

Cold sweat beaded on Li Size's forehead, but his movements remained steady.

Because he knew that in this forbidden dance of potion refinement, any minute mistake could lead to catastrophic consequences.

These practiced, cautious movements stunned even the visiting teachers from the Provincial Department, who secretly asked the proctoring teacher from Gray Mist Mountain Academy:

'Is this guy really from your academy?

He seems to already be an Elementary Wizard Apprentice!'

That instructor also looked at Li Size doubtfully. He basically knew all the Wizard seeds of this grade level at the academy.

Li Size used to be a very ordinary and extremely low-key student; he hadn't seen him before. He shook his head and vaguely replied:

'Not in my class.'

The Provincial Department instructor looked at him suspiciously and was about to inquire further...

Suddenly, the energy particles in the air fluctuated and converged in one direction—someone had successfully refined the first inferior potion!

Everyone looked toward Li Size in unison. Even the non-apprentice students had felt a mysterious sensation just now; they knew Li Size had succeeded!

The students who had suspected him of randomly guessing were dumbfounded:

'He... he really did it!?'

The Provincial Department instructor curled his lip:

'Your Gray Mist Mountain Academy isn't being honest this time.

Tell me... how much money did you spend to hire this student temporarily?'