53 Apprentice Alchemist?

Arnin walked in front, while Akig followed him from behind silently. Arnin was flipping through the pages and looking through his information. No affinity test had been done, so he wasn't able to find Akig's talent, however Arnin knew he could figure it out soon. There were some other bits of information, however nothing too personal, just some family background, and the town that he came from.

Akig was silent through the whole trip. He knew that Arnin was busy figuring out some things, but he still felt extremely happy. Arnin had said so himself that he would make him strong, which made Akig glad. He knew that befriending Arnin was a good choice.

Half an hour later, both boys arrived at Arnin's house. Vilis was awake and jumping around. When he saw Arnin, his eyes glowed with happiness, however the sight of Akig made him whimper.

Vilis began to take some steps back, however a shadow suddenly appeared in front of him. Akig leapt towards Vilis's body and began to hug him extremely tightly.

"AH! Vilis, I haven't seen in you in so long! AHH! Marry me!" Arnin shook his head when he heard the things Akig said and saw the bear hug he gave to Vilis.

Arnin was still extremely surprised. Although Vilis wouldn't hurt his new caretaker, he was still try to escape, but Akig was too fast. Arnin couldn't believe that Akig had such speed, plus his strength was also very high.

Arnin began to ponder his new findings. There was a reason that Akig was not placed in the Moth group, but Arnin felt that he probably had some hidden talent that no one knew about. Plus, he had an abnormal love for beasts, which even made Arnin a little weirded out.

Akig continued to hug Vilis, and sometimes his hand would 'accidently' grab Vilis' butt. "Oh, how I love touching you, Vilis. Your fur is so beautiful, and you are such a cute beast." Akig said with a look of pleasure.

Arnin walked over to him and tapped his shoulder. "Akig, I'm going to go out and will be back at night. Take care of Vilis, and if he starts to feel bored, take him for a walk. If he gets hungry, then try to find some small animals for him. Don't kill anyone while I'm out." Arnin warned. He was alright with killing, but Akig was not strong enough to protect himself.

"As for you Vilis, don't kill Akig. Also, don't attack humans while I am out." Arnin gave his warnings and left the house. He needed to buy some things and read up on the different types of bodies in this world.

When Arnin was a Demon Lord, there were humans and other species that would have special types of bodies. The most common of these special bodies were the Yin and Yang bodies. They were common in the sense that one would be able to find at least one person in a group of a billion people with this type of body. The other special bodies would be hard to find even in a group of a hundred billion people, resulting in the Yin and Yang bodies being comparatively common.

Arnin had met many people with special bodies, and had even experimented on them to obtain special abilities. Although Yin and Yang were strong, they were not the strongest, and were actually quite limited. People with these body types would have to go to the route of Yin or Yang, meaning ice or fire. They would not be able to cultivate other elements, making them weaker than other people with special bodies..

He couldn't help but feel that Akig was a person with a special body. His likes and dislikes were extremely weird. Although there were many people who loved beasts, there was never anyone who acted like Akig. It looked as though he genuinely found Vilis to be extremely attractive. Plus, his speed and strength increased when he saw Vilis.

Arnin wanted to read about the different bodies found in this world to see whether Akig fell under one of the categories. If he did, then Arnin would have to make future plans for the boy.

As he walked quietly, Arnin first headed towards the library. He would grab some books, and then head over to the Alchemy department. He wanted to get some small glass bottles to collect a little bit of blood from Akig. He needed to test out his affinity.

Arnin quickly entered the library and asked the librarian at the front desk to lead him to where the books about special bodies were. Surk was not around because of the transfer, however that didn't bug Arnin. He was only in the library to borrow some books.

The person at the front desk this time was another young student who was around the age of eight or nine. He didn't know what special bodies were, so he wasn't able to help Arnin, but luckily there was an older student who did know a thing or two about them. He was able to find the bookshelves that had information about them on both the first and second floor.

Arnin borrowed a total of five books. That was all the first two floors had on the subject, which made Arnin a little bit annoyed. He placed the books inside the interspatial bag that hung on his waist.

He would only be able to keep the books for a month before having to return them, however if no one needed them, then Arnin could keep them for a longer time.

Finishing his business in the library, Arnin headed towards the Alchemy department. He remembered that it was next to the Medical department Kurse and Torne were staying at. He didn't see them yesterday, which probably meant that they were still recuperating.

Arnin thought of going to the Medical department, but only after he was done in the Alchemy department. He needed to get some small glass bottles, or even better, some jade vials. These things were helpful to him in the past, but he didn't know if they existed in Afloria, and he could only hope they did.

It took him around twenty minutes to reach the Alchemy department. When he got there, the first thing he noticed was the crowd of people gathering on the first floor. They were all either looking through the items, or purchasing them.

An alchemist was just as important as a Mark Master. Not only could the pills they make heal a person, they could also poison, or increase cultivation. To become an alchemist, one needed to be at around Essence Manifest - Hell, and have the element of fire as one of their mastered elements.

Fire was crucial since it would be used through the whole process of pill making. Arnin himself was an alchemist. He knew various jobs because of his incredibly long lifespan. He had to learn many things to survive and become the greatest Demon Lord in his universe.

'Will the Flames of Neutrality be able to make pills as well, or will I have to use normal alchemic flames?' Arnin used to use Supernova flames when creating pills. They had incredible power and were wonderful for making pills. The Flames of Neutrality were on a much higher tier, so Arnin began to wonder what effect would be created by these flames.

'I should first get myself some extra vials, and possibly a cauldron.' Arnin already had twenty Academic points, which were used as currency in the academy. Shops would still allow one to use gold and silver, since the department still needed to buy items from the outside, but the Academic points were worth more.

Arnin walked into the shop and began to look for the items he needed. He went to the section for bottles and found hundreds of different types. Some were made from glass, while others from stone, and there was a variety sizes. Arnin was even able to find the jade vials that he wanted. He looked for the small sized vials and grabbed ten. Arnin was feeling annoyed that he didn't have more space to buy a cauldron. Alchemy cauldrons were quite big, and there was no way it would be able to fit in the interspatial bag unless the latter was empty. The vials would fit perfectly, but not the cauldron.

He walked into the line and waited to check out his items. Five minutes later, Arnin was able to go to the front desk. He placed the jade vials on top of the counter and waited for the person to tell him the price.

The one who stood behind the desk was a gorgeous girl. She had chocolate brown hair and obsidian eyes. Her skin was slightly tanned, but that made her all the more beautiful. She had a wide smile as she greeted each person she served. When Arnin was in front of her, she was very professional and treated him the same as everyone else.

"Young man, is this all?" Surprisingly, the girl's voice was quite low pitched, however it still sounded very nice.

"This is all." Arnin nodded his head. He was interested in how this world practiced alchemy, but it would just be a waste of time for him to try and learn it. He was already highly skilled in alchemy, so there was no reason for him to try and learn a new method.

The girl nodded her head and asked for five gold. Arnin was extremely surprised. Jade vials were usually very cheap in his old world. Why were they so expensive here?

"Outside, these vials will sold for an extremely cheap price, but over here they will be much more expensive. I don't recommend buying them here, little kid." Just then, a lady walked out from behind a shelf. In her arms was a cauldron about the size of Vilis' head.

This woman was wearing a teacher's robe, however she was wearing the Green butterfly robe not the Moth teacher robe. It was the gorgeous teacher once again.

"Teacher, we met at the teacher lounge, remember?" Arnin didn't find her irritating, unlike Fae. Even though her beauty wasn't enough for Arnin to fall in love with her, it was enough to make him look twice.

"Yes, you were that boy who made Teacher Lod infuriated. Haha! You really are a funny one." The Teacher spoke with her soothing voice and her laughter caused many of the males in lines to blush, and have… reactions.

Arnin was thankful for the teacher's advice, but he needed to buy the vials. He had no time to go outside the academy to purchase vials.

"I will take the jade vials. I don't have gold, but I do have some academic points." Arnin really didn't have any money. He came from a poor background, and at most his parents would be able to lend him a couple silvers, but that was extremely rare. Plus, he had run away from his village, so he didn't have much.

"Alright then, you can use one academic point to purchase all of these vials, and you will also receive five gold as change." The tanned girl said with a smile.

"Why am I receiving five gold?" Arnin said that while grabbing the five gold and the jade vials. He didn't mind receiving money, more did not mean anything bad, but he was still confused.

"Seems like you are new here." The person who spoke up was the pretty teacher. Arnin nodded his head, so the teacher continued. "Well, academic points only work inside the academies, not outside, so all of the academies have set up an exchange rate for them. 1 Academic point equals to ten gold." Arnin nodded his head when he heard this.

He was still suprise that Academic points were worth so much. If one academic point could get him ten gold, then he would be able to allow his family to live comfortably with just around one hundred academic points. Such vast wealth.

Arnin decided that even though he couldn't go to his family, that didn't mean he couldn't support them. Although he was the great Demon Lord who killed people like mosquitoes, and tortured people without even batting an eye, he did enjoy having a new family.

His family was killed right in front of him in the past in the most brutal way possible. He grew up in a terrible environment where he was betrayed and almost killed by people he truly trusted and cared about. Zhaik was all he had left, but even he began to become more formal and treated him more like a master than a friend.

Ashia and Florian were his new parents that had cared for him since his new birth, this allowed him to finally feel the warmth of a family after hundreds of millions of years. Nekaia was even more important because her memories seemed to be very similar to the massacre of the demons his family was victim to back then. Nekaia was the closest person to him in all of Afloria. If he could make their lives better with money, then he would make sure that he earned lots.

After deciding this, Arnin knew that he wanted to quickly begin earning lots of academic points. Missions, jobs, and competitions, all of these would get him the points he wanted.

Arnin took the things and nodded towards the tanned girl and the stunning teacher. Arnin wanted to begin creating marks as soon as possible. Since he didn't have a cultivation manual yet, he had to go back and make one.

He was decently knowledgeable on cultivation, plus he had received a dozen of mysterious books from Fae. He just needed to read them and create a manual. Once he did that, he could begin creating marks using the standard procedure.

As Arnin left the shop, the gorgeous teacher fell into deep thought. She quickly chased after Arnin.

"Hey, little kid." Arnin was lost in his own thoughts when he suddenly heard the soothing voice call out from behind. He looked at the person chasing him and couldn't help but scoff. Although he was somewhat thankful for her explanation, that didn't mean she could get over his head whenever she wanted.

"What do you want?" Arnin was in a rush to get started, so he looked at the teacher annoyingly.

The teacher was clearly very surprised by Arnin's quick change in temper. Just a while ago, he had a faint smile and was showing her some gratitude, and now he seemed to want her to get lost.

"Well, I have a proposition for you. I can feel some fiery essence around you, which probably means that your affinity is related to fire." The teacher was shocked when she first felt the essence. She knew that only Essence Manifest cultivators would be able to work with components, so how could an Orb Birth student give off such a feeling? She didn't understand, but she knew that Arnin was probably very talented, or was very skilled with fire at the very least, which was why she went to talk with him.

Arnin knew that the real reason people could detect the fire essence around him was because of the Neutrality seed inside of him. He wasn't able to prevent the seed from releasing tiny amounts of essence for others to detect since he wasn't in Essence Manifest yet.

"Since you have this affinity, you could probably become a great alchemist. What do you say? Want to try it out?" The Teacher looked at Arnin with some glittering eyes.

"Aren't you a Butterfly Teacher? What is your relation to the alchemy department? Plus, I am already a Mark master, I don't want to waste my time doing alchemy." Arnin was, of course, lying to her. He was going to begin practicing alchemy soon, since it would be able to provide him with pills which would benefit his cultivation. However, if he worked for the Alchemy department, would he receive anything, except for a few extra pills?

"Don't call me 'you', that is disrespectful. My name is Fasona, and yes, I am a Butterfly Teacher, but that doesn't mean I can't work in different departments. I am one of the alchemists in the Alchemy department." She acted calm on the outside, but was indeed incredibly shocked.

'Only Essence Manifest cultivators could become Mark Masters. How did he become one?' She didn't say this out loud and kept a calm face. Both alchemy and mark making were extremely high ranking jobs, but it was much harder to become a Mark Master, since one would have to use essence components to create stones and other cultivation materials. An Orb Birth cultivator could still do minor alchemy, however it could only be extremely easy items, like pastes and creams.

"Well, becoming one wouldn't be a problem. What can I gain from it?" Although he initially decided not to do it, but he suddenly had a thought. Alchemy could be a great way to temper his control over the Flames of Neutrality, and he might even be able to earn some extra academic points. Plus, he wanted to test out his Flames of Neutrality, so it really wouldn't be a loss for him to join.

"There are many benefits to becoming an alchemist here. You can earn academic points from what you make, and you gain extra if it sells. You will get incredible discounts on items. For example, if you were an alchemist, you would only have to pay a couple silver for those vials." Arnin listened with happiness. He wanted to make lots of academic points, both for him and for his family.

"I just told you that I am a Mark Master. I will be busy with cultivation and am forced to go to the Mark Master department to create marks. How will I get the time to work here?" Arnin knew that he was going to be forced to do many things in the Mark Master department, so he wanted to know whether he had to come into the alchemy department on certain days and work. He didn't mind doing that, but he would need to create a schedule for himself.

"Well, we can figure something out with the Mark Master department once you become an alchemist. Before anything can really happen, you are going to need to pass the alchemy exam." Fasona spoke quickly. It would usually take a person dozens of years to become an alchemist, which was why she wanted Arnin to join the Alchemy department early, so that he could be trained until he could become an alchemist.

"Sure, when is the alchemy exam? What do I have to do and know?" Arnin remembered from his past life that an alchemist would have to know the names and properties of billions of different herbs. He assumed that it would similar here.

"Well, you will be taking an apprentice exam. Unlike the Mark Master exam, we have to have knowledge about various herbs. You probably don't even know ten, so you will have to take an exam to become an apprentice, and then learn from real alchemists for a while until you can take the official exam." Fasona was somewhat excited that Arnin showed great interest in the job. If she could get Arnin as her apprentice, then she would be able to make him a great alchemist in the future.

However, this was all based on whether Arnin was suitable to become an alchemist. She was hooked because of the fiery essence that she could feel from Arnin. Since she could feel it at such an young age, that meant Arnin would have a high attainment in controlling and absorbing fire and the fire component. Now it all just depended on him being able to understand the different herbs.

Arnin thought about it and nodded his head. It made sense that he couldn't do the alchemy exam yet. If he was not in Afloria, he could guarantee passing the alchemy test right away since he already knew about almost all the herbs in his universe, however Afloria might be different. That being said, the chance of them being different was very small, because throughout the universe, almost every planet had the same herbs. Sometimes the powers on the planet might be different, but the herbs tended to stay the same. He had a feeling that Alforia would be similar. There might be some new herbs, but most would be the similar to those he was familiar with in his past life.

"Alright, I will take the apprentice test then. What are the benefits for that?" Arnin would drop the idea and figure things out for himself if there were no benefits for being an apprentice. He could slowly figure out the different herbs through books and his own experiments.

"The benefits are mostly the same. You still get discounts, create some small items, and get academic points from those." Fasona smiled and explained. Arnin nodded his head.

"When is the test, and what should I know?" Arnin just wanted to pass the test and begin earning and practicing.

"Well, we could do the test any time you want. All we really need to do is an affinity test to see if you can use fire in the future, and you would also have to name around a hundred herbs and their properties. Here is a book that will tell you what herbs you need to know." Fasona handed Arnin a book. They didn't have to do the affinity test because Arnin exuded a fiery essence, so all they really needed to do was test Arnin's knowledge on the hundred herbs.

Arnin nodded his head and grabbed the book. This book was helpful to him whether he took the test or not. He would need to know the types of herbs sooner or later. Arnin opened up the first page and his eyes glittered.

Moon Flower - A flower that blooms only during a full moon. The flower is cold to the touch and has white petals. The pistil of the flower is a piece of soft ice that resembles the moon. Has high amounts of Yin energy and is used to create pills related to coldness and removal of Yang. Uncommon herb.

The first herb that Arnin saw was something he knew. This was a common herb that would be used to make simple heat removing pills, or cultivation pills for people who used the ice or water element.

He flipped to the next page and saw another herb. Solar Grass.

Solar Grass - This is a type of grass that grows in areas closest to the sun. It is a yellowish color, and feels extremely hot when touched. It has high Yang energy and is used to remove coldness from a person body, or to make fire cultivation pills. Uncommon herb.

Arnin continued to flip through the pages and gasped. The same! All of them were the same! Arnin was extremely happy that his luck was so high. If all of the other herbs were the same, then he could go straight to becoming an alchemist.

Arnin put the book down after looking at all of the herbs. He had a huge smile on his face, which Fasona found to be very weird.

"Is something wrong?" She couldn't help but ask. She was worried that Arnin would give up right after looking at the many herbs. Although it may sound easy, it would usually take a person a month or so to memorize the contents of the book, and that was only if they fully focused on the material.

"Nothing is wrong." Arnin continued to smile. He then walked back towards the alchemy department.

"Huh? Why are you going back?" Fasona asked. She thought Arnin had everything, so she was confused.

"I want to do the Alchemy apprentice test right now." Arnin turned his head and said with some confidence.

"What?" Fasona was at a lost for words. She rubbed her ears and made confused face which was so cute that it could cause any man watching to get aroused.

"I said, I am going to do the Apprentice Alchemy test." Arnin repeated, before turning around.