Chapter 136
Rewards
The competition season concluded, and Ares Institute from the city of Erel once again emerged as the number 1 institute. This time, they achieved the top rank without any doubts or criticisms. The point difference between 1st place and the subsequent ranks was vast. It wasn’t just the combat competitions; Ellie also won numerous awards in the potion-concocting contests.
She earned enough points from the competitions to complete her first year, with some points left over. She would wait until her final harvest was done to exchange these surplus points for items she desired from the institution. However, her outstanding performance also earned her special rewards beyond the competition prizes.
The first reward she received for winning 1st place was a set of level 3 potion refining equipment. This potion refining equipment was incredibly expensive and not easy to come by, even in the Hestia or Gaia Kingdoms.
Its outstanding feature was that as long as this potion refining equipment was used, it would almost increase the quality of the potion by 1 whole level. For instance, if a level 1-star potion with an 8-point quality rating was concocted using this equipment, the quality would immediately rise to a level 9-star. Essentially, it was a cheat tool that purified the residual toxins in the herbs.
When she received this prize, people from the Gaia Kingdom and the Hestia Kingdom came to purchase it, but Ellie didn’t want to give it to them. She didn’t intend to use it herself either. This potion cauldron was more suitable for Professor Medik, who worked tirelessly. So, Ellie decided to give the potion refining equipment to her professor.
Although Professor Medik didn’t want any gift from his student, this potion cauldron would indeed help him significantly. At the very least, it would make his work much faster because high-level potion concocting required the purification of high-grade herbs. Sometimes, Professor Medik’s potion concocting failed frequently, wasting a lot of time. But with this potion cauldron, he would be able to make any potion with greater success.
Its limitation was that it couldn’t extract herbs above level 4; it could only handle up to level 3. Concocting level 4 potions and above was extremely rare and people hardly concocted this kind of potion anyway. If it really needed to be concocted, it often required a priest’s assistance.
It’s similar to the potions made in the royal palace from Tezetrons, which required extensive processes because they needed to find lower-level herbs to concoct with Tezetrons. If only Tezetrons were used, the purity would be much higher, as it was a highly valuable level 6 herb.
In summary, this potion concocting equipment was extremely beneficial and suitable for Professor Medik. Therefore, he couldn’t refuse it and would have to find a gift for his student in the future.
Another reward from winning the competition was a "Level 3 1-Hour Memory-enhancing Potion." Ellie intended to keep this high-quality potion for herself.
Normally, Ellie had a good memory. If the material was straightforward, she could remember it perfectly. However, there were some things that even her excellent memory couldn’t handle, such as the various magic spell books. Although she understood them, she couldn’t remember everything and needed extensive practice to retain it all.
In fact, Ellie wanted to use the potion to learn botanic elemental magic. However, there was barely any material available on botanic elemental magic, as no one could truly teach it, and there were no remaining books. Even searching through different levels yielded no results, leaving only traces of old equipment. So, she decided to use the potion for something else. If she needed it in the future, she could just buy it.
This level 3 potion wasn’t exceptionally rare, but its price was too high for an ordinary student. Moreover, fewer than 10 doses were produced each year, requiring advance reservations.
Ellie’s next important goal was to learn something she felt her normal memory wouldn’t suffice for: "knowledge of runes." There were only 24 basic runes, but the methods of using and arranging them were incredibly complex.
If it were just arranging 1-3 runes, she might manage to memorize it with difficulty, which would take about 10 years to master. However, the more runes used, the greater their power, meaning that understanding only 1-3 runes was just basic knowledge with minimal impact.
Similar to the book the Setter family had previously given her as a reward for helping their eldest young lord, it was a "high-level magical tome that served as a template for creating various magic scrolls." This book was highly complex and intricate, which was why it was considered high-level, not intermediate or low-level!
She still kept it to this day. Creating magic scrolls required an exceptional memory. A minor mistake could ruin the circuit of the magic scroll. Ellie had tried to memorize it but found it impossible to remember it all accurately.
The difficulty lied in the similarities and complex positioning. Even using a single rune required memorizing its position on the magic scroll and arranging the magic circles correctly. This complexity could take more than 20 years to fully master. However, with the potion she had acquired by chance, Ellie could spend 1 hour memorizing the pattern of runes using up to 4 characters. She might only manage half of it, but it would still be a functional rune!
Ellie’s goal was to master a 6-character rune pattern, but it was too difficult for her at the moment. Creating a 6-character rune required level 6 proficiency, while she was only at level 3. She would soon reach level 4, which would enable her to create level 4 magic scrolls.
Thus, it was a learning process for the future. For 1 to 3 runes, she selectively learned some and it was something that had no benefit right now, such as the "1-rune magic scroll with a 14-pattern of fire point" or the "1-rune magic scroll with a 32-pattern of creating wind gust."
All these were merely magic scrolls for daily use. Additionally, these runes were best created by users of the corresponding elemental powers. For a user of botanic power like Ellie, it was more practical to learn botanic runes. Otherwise, she would have to purchase magical crystals of the corresponding elements obtained from hunting beasts, which would be too expensive to be worthwhile!
Besides the memory-enhancing potion, there were rewards given for her other rank. However, those items weren’t particularly noteworthy, like a durable level 2 furnace that wouldn’t explode even if the potion inside did, and some herbs and potions she wasn’t particularly interested in.
The gift from the acting director, on the other hand, was something Ellie had been seeking for a long time. Although it seemed like a modest gift, as it was requested from Professor Medik, it made Ellie very happy.
"I present to the scholarship student Ellie these 10 magic scrolls. You know how valuable these magic scrolls are, right? Typically, a student receives 1 at the start and another upon leveling up. The opportunity to form a bond with the plant is incredibly rare. Without leveling up or some special circumstances, it’s nearly impossible for the plant in the spirit to agree to form a bond."
"But because you are a genius in potion concocting, the only 1 we have, I’m giving you these magic scrolls as a special exception. Whenever you want to take a chance or reward yourself with a bit of fun, you can use these magic scrolls."
"I’m giving you 10 chances. I hope you use them wisely. And of course, once you’ve used them all, you can request 1 more of magic scroll from your professor upon your next promotion, as per your rights."
The acting director spoke sincerely. No botanic elemental student would pass up the chance to receive these magic scrolls, even if they knew it might not benefit them much. It was still an opportunity.
Professor Medik, hearing this from the acting director for the first time, couldn’t help but shake his head. The runes he had worked so hard to obtain were being given as rewards for his student to use for fun? How amusing indeed.
With Medik’s own experience, he viewed forming a bond as a significant event. Even if some students felt dissatisfied and wanted 10 more chances, if they were not accepted the first time, they wouldn’t be accepted the next time either.
As the acting director mentioned, it would likely be a toy to reward oneself. At the very least, it could provide some fun. If one day, a student performed well and wanted to try their luck, they could do so.
Just like Medik in the past, when he won a potion-concocting award, he received a similar special privilege, but he only got 5 scrolls. The first thing he did upon receiving them was to use them quickly, eager to bond with different plants, but he wasn’t accepted.
He used the second scroll after leveling up, but again, no plant wanted to bond with him. He used the third scroll after successfully concocting a level 2 potion for the first time, but was still not accepted. The 4th and 5th scrolls were similarly wasted. Nevertheless, it provided him with the opportunity to experiment; otherwise, he would have always wondered if he was suitable for a new bond, which turned out to be just his misconception.
He looked at his student, whose eyes sparkled with excitement. Even for Ellie...there was no way she would be able to form a bond with a plant anytime soon.
Even though he thought that way, Medik had learned to keep quiet and think to himself as Lucien had advised earlier. Letting the kids have some hope might benefit them, encouraging them to train seriously. For Ellie to keep practicing until she could become a teaching assistant, Medik would do anything, even if it made him uncomfortable and he wanted to speak out...
Unknowingly, after getting to know Lucien and becoming closer, Medik had gradually become much more amiable, a fact vouched for by his sole student, Ellie!
"Alright, you’ve received your reward. If you perform as well next year, I’ll reward you again," the acting director winked at Medik.
With such tempting rewards, he didn’t believe Ellie wouldn’t try harder. Afterward, he’d have to leave more tasks to Medik.
It was evident that even this professor thought Ellie would use them all up within the next year, or at least half of them in the remaining few months of this year. Well...attempting to form a bond was like gambling, and it wasn’t surprising for botanical students to have hope.
Ellie understood the intention behind the gesture, but she didn’t reveal how confident she was. She would make good use of the 10 magic scrolls. However, she was aware of the downside of having too many bonded plants.
Currently, she only had the little Purple Mushroom, which absorbed and consumed the life force of what Ellie hunted, making it grow rapidly. However, in the future, if she had more bonded plants, it would mean another plant competing for food, slowing their growth. Alternatively...Ellie would have to work harder.
"I understand, Professor."
"Good, then keep it up," the acting director laughed happily. Who would have thought that in the year he was acting director, unexpected rewards would come about, and achievements at this level would surely make the returning director happy.
Ellie and Medik left the director’s office shortly afterward. Medik went off to continue finding a solution for his task, while Ellie intended to take a leisurely walk to relax before spending 1 hour using her memory-enhancing potion.
To maximize the potion’s effectiveness, Ellie planned to do just that. However, who would have thought that her leisurely walk would lead her to encounter the person she least wanted to see!
"Ellie..."
".................." As soon as she heard that familiar voice, her small eyes automatically rolled. It seemed this heroine was determined to be her nemesis forever.
"You must be surprised to see me walking around so happily, even though you stole my chance to earn points," the petite girl said happily.
Ellie then noticed a small beast in the girl’s hand. It wasn’t quite tame yet, but the chain around its neck prevented it from resisting Nara’s touch.
It seemed this little squirrel was the one Professor Lily had spent a fortune on to give to Nara...Although Ellie didn’t know the reason, it appeared the heroine still had some good luck on her side.
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