The classroom at Beauxbatons, currently serving as a makeshift exam hall, felt completely different from the first round.
The air was heavy with silence, broken only by the scratching of quills against parchment and the occasional anxious intake of breath.
This second round was testing genuine, advanced alchemical knowledge.
Lucien unrolled his parchment, his eyes scanning the questions rapidly. His brow furrowed slightly.
Tough.
Not for him, though. The reason for his frown was the realization that this exam was going to be brutal for the vast majority of the other contestants.
Many of the concepts clearly went beyond standard school curriculums; some were even downright obscure.
Lucien dipped his quill, and the ink began to flow smoothly across the page.
Thanks to Nicolas Flamel's unreserved, personal mentoring—and the freedom to browse rare grimoires that had long since vanished from the outside world—the obstacles on this exam felt less like tests and more like interesting little puzzles designed to verify what he already knew.
However, the others in the room weren't nearly as composed.
Ryman felt his scalp prickle. The topics covered in the questions looked vaguely familiar, but actually trying to answer them felt like wading through mud.
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. If it's hard for me, it's hard for everyone, he told himself. Keep it steady, and I can still pull this off.
As he read through a particularly long question prompt, Ryman's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Given that the precision of runic etching directly impacts the activation efficiency of material properties: If etching runes onto crystallized Erumpent tears to achieve the goal of 'activating only the paralyzing properties while shielding against the warping toxicity,' please explain your choice of core runes, the etching sequence, and the runic traps to avoid."
Ryman almost smiled. Lucien had talked to him about this exact topic!
He remembered Lucien's theoretical points vividly. Once he organized his thoughts, Ryman began to write with confidence.
The clock ticked on.
Lucien's writing speed was steady and efficient; he hadn't hit a single roadblock.
His gaze landed on the final question of the exam. Roughly summarized, it asked: Attempt to propose a concept or line of thought, from an Alchemical perspective, to alleviate the pain and berserk symptoms of a werewolf's transformation during the full moon.
Lucien's quill paused.
This question wasn't really testing specific alchemical knowledge. It was a challenge that went way off the syllabus, designed to test a student's imagination, their understanding of complex magical creature issues, and their ability to innovate across different fields of magic.
Werewolves... a cursed demographic.
Very few were born that way; most were poor souls who had been bitten and infected.
The uncontrollable transformation on the full moon, the loss of reason, the bloodlust and fury—it didn't just cause the individual pain. It caused the entire Wizarding World to fear and reject them, trapping them in a vicious cycle of poverty and isolation.
The Wolfsbane Potion was a revolutionary breakthrough, invented by Damocles Belby, who had generously published the formula.
It allowed the drinker to maintain their human mind during the transformation—an undeniably great invention.
However, the brewing process was insanely complex, and the ingredients were exorbitant. There were very few potioneers capable of supplying it consistently.
For most werewolves struggling just to survive, Wolfsbane Potion was a luxury they simply couldn't dream of.
If they couldn't get the potion, they would lose control during the full moon. This reinforced society's prejudice, making it harder for werewolves to get jobs, which meant they couldn't afford the potion... and so the loop continued.
Lucien fell into deep thought. The "Emerald Tablet Fragment"—the magical artifact bound to him—had issued a quest to pay off a "loan" by selling alchemical items or potions of a certain value.
The Wolfsbane Potion would definitely count.
completely curing lycanthropy might be a distant dream, but what if he could modify the existing Wolfsbane formula or brewing process? If he could simplify the steps or reduce the strict requirements for the key ingredients, he could drastically lower the production cost and make it accessible to everyone...
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