A flash of surprise crossed his face at my rebuttal but he sneered "Very well, then tell me what would I get if I were to add powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" he said firmly.
"Draught of living death, a powerful potion of forced slumber so deep it could be likened to death itself." I said without issue.
"What are the differences between aconite, wolf's bane and monkshood?" he tried again.
"Same plant but different names." I answered casually.
"And where would I find a bezoar if I wished for one?" he asked finally.
"In the stomach of a goat, a cure for most poisons and always handy to have on hand just in case." I said without trouble.
"You must think yourself so clever for having memorized a single book. Unfortunately your so called mastery is insignificant in comparison to a true potion master, you'd do well to remember that in the future. Let us begin properly now." he said with an almost regretful glint in his eyes but chose not to continue making things difficult for me.
His quiz was a bit more difficult than the others as he actually wanted me to mentally simulate the brewing of the cure for boils potion.
He asked where I learned some of the little tricks I spoke of when speaking each step of the process. I explained that I had purposefully sought out the second hand copies of my textbooks with notes scrawled in the margins to learn from the experiences of my seniors. He actually seemed genuinely pleasantly surprised by this. He was still brutal with his criticism when I made a mistake no matter how tiny but he was also professional and would explain how to correct it right afterwards.-
Since I chose not to look at him through the bias of a child who wouldn't know better I noticed this detail and had to admit he got an unfair shake in the books. Yes he was absolutely a harsh and brutally blunt teacher. But he took his job of teaching extremely seriously as well because after his rebuke he'd tell you exactly how not to make that mistake again. Once you managed to stomach his personality you'd find he was actually an extremely good teacher. I ended up having to "rebrew" the potion three times before he found my "brewing" flawless and thus satisfactory.-
He left after telling me he'd arrange an appropriate book to add to my reading list. I was actually glad when Madam Pomphrey came to do her thing after that as my nerves were tense from the hard drill instructor vibes the guy gave off. I could handle it thanks to my previous life but I could definitely see how his mere presence could cause children to make mistakes. Finally things quieted down as I simply had no more professor visits until at least three days later. My recovery was going smoothly as well as while I still hurt quite a bit to move my hands the pain was easing up every time I awoke from my potion induced slumbers.-
(3rd person POV, One piece world)
"Why are we heading to this sky island anyways Marco?" A member of the Whitebeard pirates asked the second in command Marco curiously.
Marco was a relaxed looking man in a pair of floral shorts and a Hawaiian style shirt with tan skin and orange hair like a pineapples leaves.
"Pop's weird merchant guy wants the devil fruit the local big shot there has and Pops wants us to grab the sucker and bring him back for it." Marco said relaxed as he lounged in a chair on the deck of the ship.
"Can we trust this merchant person? Only Pops has ever seen him and even after the whole Teach and restoring Pops to health things I find it hard to trust someone I've never met." the crewmate said honestly.
"Don't need to trust him. Pops does and we trust Pops, that's all we need ya?" Marco said casually.
"Yeah I guess so. Still think the whole situation is nuts. Guy is apparently a wizard from another world who knows an unexplainable amount about our own and trades things with Pops from that world, others too eventually if Pops is right." the crewmate said scratching his head in confusion.
"The worlds a strange place sometimes but I'm not complaining in this case. Things have been extra smooth since Pops got his health back to it's peak ya?" Marco said with a lazy grin.
"Yeah, Kaido got a nasty shock in that last battle when Pops beat him down. Feels good not to have to keep giving up territory." the crewmate said with a grin.
"Would have been even nicer if that guy Morgans hadn't gotten the news of Pop's recovery. Might have even gotten back some of our old territory before the other Yonko shored up their defenses." Marco said with a slightly regretful tone.
These type of conversations weren't new in Whitebeards crew these days. The appearance of this mysterious merchant in contact with Whitebeard had changed everything. First Blackbeard was exposed and killed by Whitebeard after a long clash. That earned the merchant a tidy sum of gold and the devil fruit Blackbeard held as well as the old pirates trust. After that it was a few named weapons, haki and the unique physique people had in this world. In this exchange Whitebeard got that elixir that restored his bodies health to it's peak.-
For the Whitebeard pirates this alone was the greatest news ever and gave their crews slowly fading glory a second wind as with the old pirate taking the frontline again their hemorrhaging of territory was stopped. The world government elders themselves had even sent CP agents to find out how Whitebeard recovered so swiftly and obtain this resource for them. The elixir was long since gone though and even the residue of it had been taken care of as Marco tried to recreate it for a while but gave up when he simply couldn't make any progress.