Drake scoffed, "So you are just an illiterate country bum who even got a silver mask just because you threw dust in Master Triton's eyes."
"Drake!" Shania's expression turned firm as she continued, "You can't insult your fellow mates no matter which place or family they are coming from. What example are you showing to the kids? Apologize now!"
Damien raised his hand and said in a low voice, "Don't worry about it, Senior Shania." He then looked at Drake and said in a sarcastic tone, "Why don't we let the kids decide whom they want as the teacher? They already tagged your teaching as scary and boring. Now let them see mine, and we will see. Are you up for it, Drake?"
Drake clenched his fists, but he didn't want to give up that easily and said, "Why not!"
"I will be the judge of it then." An elegant voice sounded from the side, and Damien saw Triton coming over.
"Master Triton!" Drake gave a slight bow and said with a flattering smile, "There is no need for you to waste your time because of me. I will gladly give away my position to Damien."
'Huh? What's with this dude?' Damien couldn't understand the 180-degree change in his attitude.
Triton shook his head, "Of course. I won't be wasting my time as I also want to know if Damien is up to the task. Even if the kids think he is good, it won't matter till I think it's alright."
"Yep, yep, me too." Yara Haley came rushing in a while, dragging some people along with her.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})'What, why does it look like we are going to have a huge audience…' Damien couldn't believe how things ended up like this from something trivial.
"Let's continue this in the class," Triton said as he walked towards a small building with a well-lit room that looked humble, without any grandiose.
There were only wooden benches, and all the children took seats quickly, some of them excited to see how Damien was going to teach.
"Come, Talia. Let Damien teach while we watch." Yara Haley said as she motioned at Valentina to come to her.
Valentina looked at Damien, and he nodded at her. She jumped towards Yara Haley, who took a seat at one of the backbenches along with Triton and Shania.
Damien clapped, "Okay, so tell me what you guys think alchemy is about?"
One of the girls raised her hand and said in a confident tone, "Alchemy is the refining of plants, minerals, and other substances into medicinal pills & elixirs."
Damien nodded, and another boy raised his hand and said, "It is the study of medicinal herbs to make miracle pills which are taken to breakthrough, heal wounds or poisons, and much more!"
Damien motioned with his hands, "Okay, what you guys said is correct, but it's something we all can read in the books and learn. However, is that enough to truly understand what alchemy means? Just because we learn bookish knowledge doesn't mean we can understand that knowledge. Maybe some can and some can't. I am sure some of you will find it boring to study the names and properties of medicinal herbs or even trying to read a medicinal formula of a pill."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})He continued, "But hey, that's not how you should approach alchemy or be it any other field. You learn them by using your own two hands. And I am not talking about concocting pills. Before all that, we should learn to recognize herbs just through smell instead of remembering how it looks or based on its properties. There is no need to bore yourself with bookish knowledge when you can make use of just your nose and touch to learn these things. Let me show you an example."
Damien flicked his hand, and over fifty different pills floated in the air and gave each of the children one each. Soon after that, some herbs in over fifty small trays appeared, and he also distributed them to each one of them.
He instructed, "Now smell the pill in your hand and guess which herb was used to concoct it. There would be five herbs in each of the trays I had given you, and one of them is the right one. I will give you all a single minute. Of course, more than one herb was used to concoct the pill. But out of the five herbs I had given you all, one of them was used as an ingredient."
Everyone placed the pills near their noses and started sniffing them.
Damien saw them all sniffing the pills like puppies and chuckled. He said, "Okay. Now that you have got a good sense of its smell try smelling each of the herbs and see which herbs seem similar in smell."
"I got it! It is this herb!" One of the boys raised his hand, holding the herb.
Within a few moments, many hands started popping up, and they all each had a herb in their hand as they showed it off to Damien.
Damien gave an approving nod as he clapped, "Well done! You all guessed the correct one. Now that was easy, right?"
"Yes!!" They all nodded enthusiastically with beaming smiles.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Alright, now within ten minutes, I want you all to pass around those pills in a circular fashion for fifty-two times. And by the end of those fifty-two cycles, each one of you should have smelled every single pill I gave you and identified the respective herbs. I have also marked the pills based on the effect they have. For example, pills marked 'C' would mean that they are used for curing ailments or healing injuries; pills marked 'B' would mean breakthrough pills and…
Damien explained what each marking meant and continued, "If you all complete within ten minutes and correctly guess the herbs when I ask you, all of you will get a surprise present. And start! I am counting!"
All the children quickly started sniffing their pills and tried to correctly guess the herbs as fast as they could. Some of the faster ones pestered the ones beside them to quickly pass them as they all wanted to finish guessing fifty-one herbs before the time ended.
Damien knew it would hardly take a few seconds to smell the pill and guess the herb. The only challenge was that they had to smell each pill and guess the right herb properly. But to do that, they would have to imprint the scent of each pill and the herb in their minds.
Within a few minutes, they raised their hands as they finished passing around the tray fifty-two times.
Damien smiled, "Well done, that was a bit faster than I expected. Now, most of you must know the scent of these fifty-two pills by now. Here's the final challenge then."
Damien flicked his hand, and all the pills and herbs on the children's tables floated towards him. They all disappeared into his soul space, and a new set of fifty-two trays appeared with fifty-two pills each inside them.
At the same time, fifty-two herbs appeared in the air, and he distributed the herbs and pill trays to each of the children.
"Now your final challenge is to smell the herb and pick the right pill out of the tray."
Triton and the others were surprised why Damien would have so many pills with him and wondered if his obsession with alchemy had gone beyond their level of understanding.
All the children smelled the herb in their hand, and within a few moments, they took a single pill among the fifty-two pills in the tray.
They all held both of their hands in the air as they showed the pill and the herb to Damien.
His gaze passed through every single one of them, and they all looked at him anxiously, hoping that they picked the right pill.
Damien sighed as he shook his head, "Well…
Most of the kids became tenser, thinking whether they got it wrong as they heard him sigh.
"...you all got the right pill! Not even a single one of you got it wrong. Well done!" Damien said with a pleased smile.
"Yay!!!!" Excited shouts filled the whole classroom, and even Triton inadvertently smiled slightly, seeing how excited the kids were.
"And that is not the best part. The pills I gave you were all Rank 3 Pills. Even without much fundamental knowledge in alchemy, you all now have enough knowledge to recognize fifty-two Rank 3 Pills just by their smell. You don't even have to look at them. And you could also even tell for what purpose each of those fifty-two herbs is used for, like whether they are used for concocting breakthroughs or healing pills and so on. You may not know the names of the pills or the herbs now. But the next time when you see their names along with the pill and herbs, you wouldn't find it difficult at all to learn them or find it boring either. They would all come automatically to you and even make sense."
The kids had shocked expressions on their faces as they learned that they just learned to identify fifty-two Rank 3 Pills! Not even Rank 1 or Rank 2 pills, and they hardly even had any knowledge about Rank 1 Pills.
All they knew was basic knowledge of alchemy. They weren't able to correctly identify all Rank 1 herbs.
They never expected it to be so easy to identify Rank 3 Pills, nor did they expect it would be so much fun to learn alchemy through these activities.
They all felt proud of themselves, and most even had the notion that they could be geniuses in alchemy as long as they learned under Damien.
Shania and Yara Haley had astonished looks as they saw how Damien, within just a couple of minutes, taught everyone to identify fifty-two types of Rank 3 Pills.
They never thought that one could easily teach these things as Damien did by giving them activities or challenges.
But Triton was the most impressed as a faint smile was still present on his face and felt that he had never seen an alchemy teacher as good as Damien.
Despite being so young, he was so knowledgeable and knew how to teach, which was not something he had ever seen in another youngster.
Even not all experienced teachers would be as good as Damien, he thought. He could only imagine how much interest Damien had in alchemy.
Valentina proudly huffed as she gazed at Damien with sparkling eyes. She was so happy that Damien was able to impress everyone and gain their recognition.
But in contrast to everyone's expression and mood, one particular man was sitting in the side with a blackened expression.
