"I refuse to believe that they are immune!"
Felix quickly started another attempt. This time, he raised the potency a little bit.
He stopped caring about its effect on the mixture and simply wanted to go all out on those lifeforms.
Unfortunately, nothing much changed. The poison had been completely ineffective against them.
Still, Felix didn't give up on using poison. So, he started creating other inducements and noting anything unusual that happened.
This kept on going for days until he had reached a hundred attempts with no visible results.
Hell, he even cheated and used other elements that weren't in his arsenal just to see if those little f*ckers were killable!
Unsurprisingly, not a single element worked against them.
In the end, he finally accepted the conclusion that those lifeforms were immortal!
"How the hell did Lady Sphinx manage to affect them?" Felix scratched his head in complete bewilderment.
He already used sand element as well but to no avail.
Lady Sphinx was as silent as a scarecrow, not giving him even a tiny hint.
Meanwhile, Asna and the other primogenitors were spending time playing cards, not giving a shit about Felix's dilemma.
"Think, think, think, since Lady Sphinx was able to affect them, it means that they are not immorta…Wait a second." Felix's eyes widened after a sudden realization hit him.
"She said that she 'affected' them but not actually kill them! So, why the f*ck am I trying to kill them?"
Only now did Felix remember that his main target wasn't to kill the lifeforms but to increase the success chance of concocting the potion!
If those lifeforms turned out to be immortals, then, he simply needed to hinder them, trap them, or something like that!
If he managed to pull it off, he would be able to swiftly create a massive protection dome by utilizing his supersonic mode!
A protection dome big enough to save more than 20% of the mixture!
Seeing him finally gain small enlightenment in his experiments had put a faint smile on Lady Sphinx's lips.
Still, she remained silent, leaving Felix to his own devices.
"Good, good, good, now I just need to create an inducement that could have such an effect." Enlivened, Felix was back to the drawing board.
He knew that it was going to be difficult, but he would rather take such a difficulty any day than continue trying to kill those immortal lifeforms!
***
Days went by like the wind of autumn, the current season on the campus.
Some trees were brown while some had their leaves stripped away by the wind.
On the campus, the starting of autumn meant the start of another semester!
That's why, the campus was as lively as ever with old students coming back from their holiday and new students, looking at everything in awe.
Under a giant maple tree, Naima and Karry could be seen sitting near each other with worried expressions.
"Don't tell me that Felix is not going to make it to the 3rd semester with us." Naima said while dialing Felix's number nervously.
Alas, it kept ringing and ringing, yet no response.
"Just give up, he wasn't fit to be a potioneer in the first place." Karry sighed, "How could he be one when he is constantly focusing on other matters like training for his games and such?"
Naima wanted to deny her claim but she knew that Karry was right. In the end, she let out a long exhale and stopped dialing him.
"I hope at least he doesn't drop out or get expelled." Naima murmured to herself, "It was fun hanging out with him."
Ding Ding Ding!
Abruptly, the bell resounded loudly on the campus, forcing the witches to head back to their classes.
In a short while, Naima and Karry reached their newest classroom. It was noticeable bigger but witches within it were fewer.
That's because a handful of them failed to pass the practical exam.
They were simply unlucky in their concoction since it was impossible for them to have a 100% success rate no matter what they did.
It might seem unfair that they were kicked out of the elite classroom and sent back to the regular classes, but in the witches' world, luck was a must-have.
That's because most high-ranked potioneer never surpass 5% success chance in rank 4+ potions!
Speaking about luck, Felix could be seen standing with his hands folded in front of a cauldron. He appeared to be praying like a devoted priest.
His eyes were showing signs of exhaustion and desperation as he kept staring inside the cauldron.
Precisely, he was focusing on a condensed layer of amber-colored mist surrounding the mixture in the middle.
Suddenly, the dark reaction appeared out of nowhere on the corners of the mixture.
The moment Felix saw that dark substance had touched the amber-colored mist, his breath was frozen and his heartbeats started to accelerate rapidly.
Then, everything came to a halt the instant Felix noticed that the speed of the dark substance was slowed a tiny bit.
If Felix wasn't familiar with the dark substance movement in the past two weeks, he wouldn't have noticed the drop in speed at all!
That's how negligible it was!
Yet, Felix's eyes couldn't help but get red and a bit watery after seeing it, feeling too emotional to let out a single sound.
'I did it. I actually did it.' Even though the results were right before him, Felix was still in complete disbelief.
Who could blame him?
In the past two weeks, he was spending 20 hours a day to create the perfect inducement that could slow down those lifeforms while at the same time not affecting the mixture in any form!
Thousands of inducements were created in this hellish journey. Each inducement was unique to the other due to their potency!
99.99% of them were absolutely useless! Only a handful of inducements gave Felix slight hints to creating the perfect inducement!
After all of that, he finally created it!
"Congratulations little thief. You finally touched the starting line. Something other witches failed to achieve in their entire lifetimes." Lady Sphinx said while clapping her hands slowly.
"Yes, yes, good job kiddo."
"Hehe, look at him tearing up."
"Can you start training your poison affinity now?"
Unfortunately for Felix, his mindboggling achievement was ruined by the other uncultured bunch, who didn't care about the art of potion-making at all.
They only wanted to see Felix train his body and go in fights.
Lady Sphinx gave them a death stare, making them continue playing their card game in silence.
"It truly feels good to be rewarded with some results finally." Felix wiped his eyes while smiling charmingly.
Anyone who saw him would know that he was in a really good mood.
"What are you going to name your inducement?" Intrigued, Lady Sphinx asked him.
Felix looked at what remained out of his amber-colored mist and smiled, "Quagmire, I believe Quagmire inducement will do the trick."
"A fitting name." Lady Sphinx complemented.
She had seen from the very start to the end how Felix struggled to reach the perfect potency and the perfect inducements combination to create it.
Lastly, the logic behind it.
At the start, Felix was merely slapping inducements and different potencies together randomly then expecting that one of them would affect those lifeforms.
When that failed, he began to think carefully about a plan. So, he started reading more about the dark reaction.
This time, he read books written for Grandmasters and Sages!
That's where he found out that the dark reaction happening in higher ranked potions was actually three times slower in consuming the mixture!
When he continued reading, he found out that the more complex bonds get, the harder it would be for the dark substance to consume them!
That's because those bonds needed to be broken apart first!
This finding blew his mind and gave him a major hint in the logic he used in his inducement!
If those little f*ckers were having difficulty with complex bonds, then he must create the most complex inducement ever made! Then, place it like a protective wall between it and the dark reaction!
Due to its bonds complexity, those little f*ckers would have a tougher time than usual in consuming them!
Thus, slowing their march successfully, allowing him more time to create the real protection dome by using his mental energy!
All of this wouldn't be possible if Felix didn't find out the method to use the inducement on the mixture without affecting it.
The method he used actually took a lot of time and effort even for him.
That's because he realized that the only way for him achieve his intended target, was by making his inducement to be non-reactive with anything.
So, when the inducement gets merged with the mixture, it wouldn't react with any material in the mixture.
Since the dark reaction literally consume everything no matter what, this didn't create any problems what's so ever.
Just like this, the Quagmire inducement was born!
However, Felix knew that it wasn't truly the perfect method since the inducement was in a mist form, making it impossible to protect the lower half of the mixture within the liquid.
So, this inducement would help him slow down the advancement of the dark reaction on the mixture's surface and sides but not underneath!
But, Felix wasn't too worried about this since he could easily focus on creating a protective dome that would save only what his inducement was protecting.
After all, he couldn't save the entire mixture so it was better to choose what to give up beforehand.
As Lady Sphinx mentioned, this was merely the start and he still needed years of effort to fully dominate the dark reaction like her!
Ring Ring!
Suddenly, Felix's bracelet alarm went off, breaking him from his jubilation.
"Shit, I am gonna miss the exams if I don't leave now!"
Luckily, the first day would be for the written exams. This would give him some time to practice concoction by using this method.
"Little Thief, to give you a better motivation, I will make an offer to you." Abruptly, Lady Sphinx said calmly.
"Hmm, offer?" Felix raised his eyebrows in surprise while getting dressed.
Asna and the rest all had their ears perked up from the cards table, interested in hearing her out as well.
Lady Sphinx smiled cunningly and said, "If you manage to concoct a 5 stars potion in the exams, I will consider graduating you early from the Academy and officially tutor you in the art of potion-making."
"You being for real?" Felix's eyes brightened up at the sound of her offer.
He always desired to be her student but he knew that it wasn't going to happen unless he really impressed Lady Sphinx.
"I don't crack jokes." Lady Sphinx ensured.
The chance was finally here! However, remembering the conditions of her offer made him start sweating a little bit.
"5 stars difficulty rank 2 potion is not going to be a walk in the park to concoct it." Felix smiled bitterly, "I only have one day to start working on it."
Knowing that Lady Sphinx hate hearing excuses, Felix stopped acting like a little b*tch and proclaimed sternly, "I will do my very best to live up to your expectations."
"I am looking forward to it." Lady Sphinx smiled faintly as she thought to herself, 'If he pulled it off, the witches will have no choice but to accept that a human is better than them.. Hopefully, this will push more younger witches to strive hard to surpass him.'
