It was only when Sienna thought that she was going to die did Meeli release her from her suffering. Unlike her usual good-natured and smiling attitude, the caretaker flashed a malevolent smile at the now-coughing girl before speaking up.
"Consider this your first and last warning, little girl. This is not a place where you can just mess around without suffering any consequences.
I did what I had to do to deal with a brat like you. I didn't stop you when you were interfering with the rest of the participants, did I?
The reason I didn't stop you was also the reason I interfered with your work. Had you surpassed my interference and would have still managed to succeed in the test, I would have considered you as one of the placeholders."
Meeli spun her wooden staff swiftly and floated in the air. She looked at all the failed participants with serious expressions before speaking up.
"True potioners are always ready for real-life experiences. You won't always find yourself in the safe environment of your potion labs. The real challenge and skill are when you can concoct potions on the fly-- in the blink of an eye and use them to overwhelm your opponents or change everything around you instantly.
They always regarded Master Minerva as a gifted potioner. Someone who could concoct potions from the most mundane of ingredients. She did that while avoiding all the apparatus and the cozy environments of the potion labs."
Not everybody knew about Minerva from the bygone era. So most of the participants were shocked when they heard that Minerva could concoct potions on the fly. They couldn't even comprehend the techniques involved for any potioner to achieve that.
"Well… she was a Sage ranker. At that level, I'm sure she could…"
Someone in the audience ignored Sienna's coughing noises and spoke up. It seemed that they were trying to make sense of Minerva's achievements.
"You are not getting it."
Meeli cut off the person's sentence abruptly and spoke up. She flew even higher and sat in the air with her legs folded, resting her wooden staff on them. She then rested her hands on her knees before speaking up.
"Master Minerva started her potioning career like any other ranker. She wasn't gifted in the field. Not really. With sheer determination, she rose through her ranks and overcame her difficulties.
Concoctions on the fly are nothing new. And at the Sage level, anybody could do it. There were a lot of examples of Sages who were not even potioners earlier in their lives managing to pull off such a feat just because they were in the Sage rank."
Meeli spoke and seemed to be taking a long breath. She fixed her eyes on the students and thought of something before addressing them.
"So taking dirt, grass, and other ranked or unranked ingredients and pairing them with mana is not impossible for Sages. But can you guys do the same thing while being a lower-ranked entity?
Do you know any potioners in your generation that could concoct potions while battling with their opponents? Do you know anybody from your generation who can concoct potions that are a rank or two above them? All while only being in the Ace or let's say Adept rank?"
Meeli smirked at the audience after speaking about her master's accomplishments. Her voice was laced with pride when she said that.
There was something special about Minerva, even among the Sages of old and recent times. Thus, Meeli did not shy away from letting the participants know who was the person that had created this intricate setup for them.
By this time, Sienna had stopped coughing and come to her senses. She knew better not to disturb Meeli in her speech this time. Her background as a scion of one of the biggest houses in the kingdom held no value inside Sage's separate dimension. With Meeli's actions, Sienna was made aware of this fact.
Meeli pursed her lips and looked at the void before voicing her thoughts.
"It is easy to label someone as a prodigy or a genius in their fields. By doing that, humans ignore the efforts it took for those personalities to reach where they reached.
Nothing is free in this world. Everything had a price. Expertise comes at a cost of sacrifices and hardships. Success comes at the cost of failing so many times that it might break you.
I'll be blunt: you young and naive rankers need to establish your foundations right now if you ever wish to see the world from its highest peaks.
My master wants someone who can become a future Sage to inherit her legacy. So of course she'd want them to be proficient in potion concoction while they are still a lower-ranked entity.
Her standards in looking for an inheritor may seem high and unattainable from your point of view. So I suggest you give up on trying to secure her legacy if you feel it's too much hassle. But I won't allow a mediocre ranker to get their hands on what belongs to my master. Do you guys understand?"
A unique mana pulse was generated from Meeli after she said what she had in her mind. That pulse told everyone that Meeli was not a normal human or halfling.
After that mana pulse was washed over the participants, they felt an extreme weight had been placed on their shoulders. Their minds made them feel like they were trapped in a terrible wind storm.
In the next moment, that pressure was dissolved. The pressure was only felt for a fraction of a second. But everyone was terrified of what Sage's remnant could do them in that fraction of time.
They refocused their gazes on Meeli who was floating motionlessly above them and heard her speak once again.
Before you can pull off what my master did, you need to show your worthwhile you are still in the Ace or Adept rank. Thus, the rules. I would revoke anyone's entrance in the separate dimension permanently if they question how my master has set up the rules."
Meeli said before looking at Sienna who had stood up and was looking at her with scared expressions on her face. She smirked at the scion of Slughorn before concluding.
"Being evil may look easy and tempting. But it has its own set of consequences. Don't try to walk on the path if you are not ready to face the repercussions of walking on it."
