Touch of Fate

Chapter 111: An Explosive Lesson

After an hour of tedious repetition, the Chanting class finally came to an end. Once the other students started packing up and getting ready to leave, Aine seized the opportunity to continue her interrogation.

"Alright, spill it! What's your secret? Did you make a deal with the dark powers? Do you have a fire-related bloodline ability? Are you secretly an immortal?" She launched a series of questions as he rose from his seat and moved to stand by the window, which he proceeded to open.

They were on the third floor, so it was a roughly 10m drop to the courtyard below. He turned to look at the red head who had pursued him up to this point. "I can assure you, none of those guess are true. I'm simply a fast learner."

She gritted her teeth, unleashing a slight growl in the back of her throat and took a step forward.

Looking alarmed, Rebecca grabbed onto her friend, as if to hold her back. "Aine...I think he answered your question...Let's just forget this and get ready for our next class."

"You don't understand! What he did this morning should be impossible. That level of control over multiple elements is something that takes decades to master. And he had the gall to treat it like a damned street performance!" She was practically yelling by the end of her statement.

Mike felt she had a point. His cheats had given him an immensely unfair advantage compared to the other people in this world, but then again life wasn't fair. He suspected that Aine, for all her protestation, probably came from a prestigious background. One that had given her a substantial advantage in life. There was nothing inherently wrong with that, but to decry the same in another person was the very definition of hypocrisy.

Honestly, Mike didn't feel like dealing with the situation, especially since he had be in the Science Department in less than thirty minutes, so he chose the alternative. "Believe me or don't believe me, I don't care either way. I don't owe you anything. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another class to attend." He hoped up onto the window sill, and before anyone could react, stepped out into open air.

He heard a few gasps and a feminine scream as he started falling. Using a short blast of Air Magic, he killed his momentum a few feet off the ground, landed softly, and started walking towards the other side of the University. He ignored the stares this garnered from the few students still in the courtyard and at the windows of his classroom, and went about his business.

The Science Department turned out to be a slightly chaotic mishmash of buildings of different sizes and shapes, several of which seemed to have no real purpose. Not really sure where to go, he flagged down a student dressed in the flowing blue uniform of the department for directions. Following the young man's instructions, Mike eventually located the Alchemy building near the middle of the haphazard collection of structures.

Checking in at what was nominally the front desk, but in actuality was a repurposed janitor's closet with a stressed out student attempting to complete his 'life's work' involving a miraculous new kind of soap, Mike finally arrived at his classroom. Opening the door, he had a flashback to the old chemistry lab at his high school.

The harsh smell of chemicals hit his nostrils first, but it was also mixed with some herbal scents. The room itself was laid out in a rectangular fashion, with lockers and cabinets filled with a plethora of unusual devices and materials. A trio of large cauldron-like devices were set up in one corner. Two dozen bare wooden tables filled the center space, with a pair of high stools positioned near each, evidently serving as the work space for the student alchemists.

A majority of the tables were already taken up by students in the Science Department uniform, but Mike saw a few people from the Magic Department, and even once from the Martial Arts Department. With a start, he realized that he recognized her.

Lily, the woman with a tendency to experiment explosively, was sitting alone at a table, working on a project. Since none of the other students had any materials, Mike could only assume she was using things she'd brought from home.

He heard a whispered conversation from a few nearby students who were watching Lily with a trace of concern.

"Who is that?"

"You haven't heard of her? She's pretty famous in the department. Despite being an accomplished Martial Arts student, she takes this introductory Alchemy class every quarter."

"Really? Why?"

"I've heard that she says 'this way there aren't any distractions from her research.' Of course, you can expect that kind of reasoning from the Exploding Princess."

"Is that really what they call her?"

"Well, she's some kind of high noble from Dovistan, and is obsessed with Alchemy, despite not being very good at it. Pretty much all of her experiments end in failure, and fair number of them...."

"Explode?"

"Exactly."

Lily appeared to not hear the conversation, as she gently poured the contents of a metal vial onto a dull, black rock in the center of a dish. As the stream of brilliant orange liquid hit the rock, it created an audible hiss, which had nearby students cringing.

The hissing stopped, and after a few seconds of silence, the room took a collective breath. Lily frowned, and started digging through a large satchel that was resting next to her on the table.

Mike decided that this was is cue to find his seat. He scanned the tables, but quickly realized that the class was almost entirely full. In fact there was only one stool remaining...the one next to Lily.

Sighing, he walked over and took his seat. He briefly considered introducing himself to his new table mate, but quickly forgot about it when the woman pulled a small pouch from her satchel. Opening it, she took a pinch of a grey powder and sprinkled it over the rock.

Nothing happened at first, and Mike was wondering if she might have failed, when there was a sudden flash of light as the rock burst into purple flames.

"No, that's not right....." Lily muttered under her breath, before going back to her satchel to hunt for something else. Mike noticed with some alarm that the flames were growing in intensity, and releasing a acrid smoke that began filling the classroom.

Deciding that he didn't want to end his first day at the University with a fire, he surreptitiously reached out with his mana and smothered the flames. Surprisingly, this left a small pile of grayish-purple dust. A little curious, Mike used Appraise on it.

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{Rubicon Powder}

Magic Material (Tier 1, Rank 5)

A substance used in Alchemical Formulae. Made from the crystallized venom of the Rubicon Snake, this powder has a large number of uses as a stabilizing agent in mixtures. It is also known to increase the production yield of recipes for antidotes and curatives.

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[Huh. I guess I must have helped somehow.]

He made sure to control his expression to avoid giving it away. Lily pulled out the desiccated foot of some chicken-like bird and was about to throw it into the dish when she noticed the powder had formed. She frowned, took a quick look around at her surroundings, before going back to examining the powder with a gleeful expression.

Not too long afterwords, the instructor arrived. She was a pudgy, middle-aged woman dressed in a slightly more elaborate version of the flowing robes that served as the Science Department uniform. With gray hair, and a round, friendly face, she felt more like a grandmother than a teacher. As soon as she entered the room, she noticed Lily, and visible deflated.

[I guess her reputation extends to the faculty as well.]

Regaining some of her vigor, the instructor walked to the front of the room and introduced herself with a warm, friendly voice. "Good afternoon, everyone, I am Instructor Agatha. We seem to have a full class this quarter, so we will need to work in pairs due to the lack of materials and equipment."

There was a near universal groan from the students.

"Now, now, there is no need for that. Just think of it as an opportunity to learn from your fellow students. Speaking of which, to save time, your seat mate will be your partner for the duration of the quarter. Please make sure to get along."

Mike had a sinking sensation as he glanced over at his new lab partner. Lily wasn't even paying attention to the teacher, and was instead loading her newly developed powder into a series of tubes. She only poured a small amount in each, before capping them off with small chunks of a cork-like substance. Leaving one open, she added in a silvery liquid that looked an awful lot like mercury in its elemental form. Once the two had mingled, it quickly began to create a light purple foam. She sealed the vial, and began shaking it vigorously.

He didn't need foresight to see where this was going, and so he quickly dived under the table. There was a resounding pop, and purple tinted goo splattered all over the classroom. Mike could tell that Lily had taken the brunt of the explosion, and the woman was now covered in the substance.

Rather than looking discouraged, she laughed loudly, before digging into her satchel and pulling out a battered notebook. As Mike righted his stool and sat down, he caught her quietly mumble along with her writing. "Mixture unstable, reacts explosively when forcibly mixed. Suspect additional stabilizing agent needed."

The instructor, who evidently had a great deal of experience with the explosive student, had taken shelter almost as quickly as Mike had. As she stood up from behind the podium, and look of uncharacteristic anger on her face, she yelled sternly. "Liliana, you know better than to experiment with dangerous mixtures this early in the class! At least wait until we've had a chance to distribute the safety equipment."

Her only answer was the sound of clinking bottles as Lily completely ignored the instructor while digging through her satchel again.

Mike wiped the purple goo off his section of the table, noticing that it was exceptionally sticky.

[I hate to say it, but I'm starting to miss Initiate Chanting. At least there, I didn't have to worry about exploding.]