Chapter 18
Translator: uly
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Hong Yu-hwa (2)
On Wednesdays, the academy curriculum shifts toward nurturing healthy personal hobbies.
Students have the freedom to dive into elective studies like alchemy, advanced reading, culinary arts, or even ancient history.
I let out a bored yawn as I made my way toward the alchemy lecture hall, my mind already calculating the day's potential gains.
‘The only familiar faces I’ll have to deal with here are Hong Yu-hwa and Seo Ga-yeon.’
Kim Seo-hyun, predictably, had joined the cooking club. Part of his reasoning was his endless appetite for tasty meals and snacks, but there was a deeper trauma involved—he had once been trapped in a starvation-scenario dungeon as a child and vowed to be able to enjoy good food no matter where he was.
‘It sounds a bit ridiculous when you say it out loud, but...’
Everyone in this school has their own specific, obsessive pursuits, after all.
Kim Ara spent her time lost in books, Erhil Merhen practiced the meditative tea ceremony, and under normal circumstances, Hong Yu-hwa would have followed Kim Seo-hyun to the cooking club like a shadow. But now, she was trailing me to alchemy instead.
And then there was Seo Ga-yeon. She had enrolled in this elective because she’d heard rumors that alchemy was versatile enough to generate a steady stream of income. Her family wasn’t exactly well-off, and she needed a way to support them.
‘There are a few other, more "heroic" reasons she's here too, but...’
The Korea Hero Academy strongly encouraged these creative hobbies, going so far as to provide students with high-quality, professional-grade materials for their experiments.
Dr-r-rk.
The moment I slid the heavy door open, dozens of gazes focused on me. Among the crowd, two particularly intense stares stood out from the rest.
Hong Yu-hwa was watching me from a front-row seat, her eyes narrow. Beside the podium stood Song Ra-hee, the Demon Slayer Witch, chatting intimately with the alchemy professor. Song Ra-hee was famous not just as a combat mage, but as a witch with profound, ancestral knowledge of alchemical arts.
“Sorry. I’m a little late.”
“It’s perfectly fine, Seo-ha. We were just about to begin the introduction anyway.”
The alchemy professor welcomed me with a warm, encouraging smile. However, I noticed something interesting sitting right in front of her on the desk: several black, vinyl-like scales.
‘I didn’t think she’d actually claim every single one of them.’
I had handed over some of the Shadow Snake’s hide during the transfer, but it looked like she had claimed the rest of the scales for her own research. I absolutely cannot let myself be scouted as a graduate student here. I made a silent vow to keep a low profile as I scanned the room for a seat.
There were plenty of open spots, but I deliberately chose the one directly next to Seo Ga-yeon.
“Hey.”
“Uh, huh? Oh... hey, Seo-ha.”
Seo Ga-yeon greeted me in a visible fluster, her cheeks pink.
“You decided to try your hand at alchemy too?”
“Y-yeah. I heard it’s very useful in... um... all sorts of practical ways.”
Seo Ga-yeon said this while casting a wary, intimidated glance at the professors at the front.
“We’ll be learning the core fundamentals of alchemy today. We’re starting with the most basic necessity for any hero: potions,” the professor announced with a kind smile.
“Does anyone here happen to know what specific potion I am about to demonstrate?”
“A paralysis antidote,” Hong Yu-hwa answered instantly.
“Correct.”
The alchemy professor beamed at Yu-hwa’s quick response.
“When you are facing monsters in the field, many possess paralysis venom. Every year, countless hero trainees die to common goblins or giant spiders simply because they underestimate the lethality of a single bite.”
The mood in the room sank noticeably at the mention of student fatalities.
“That is why today, we are crafting paralysis antidotes. If you can successfully create an antidote that I am satisfied with, you may spend the rest of the class experimenting with other materials as you please. Oh, and feel free to use as many academy-provided materials as you need.”
The professor’s words made the students’ eyes light up with greed for rare herbs. But I knew that was a blatant trap. Creating a potion that would satisfy a veteran alchemy professor was an incredibly high bar for a freshman.
“Can I ask a question, Professor?” I raised my hand.
“Of course, Seo-ha.”
“Which specific recipe should we be following for the antidote?”
“Just use any ingredients you can find that possess detoxifying properties. The method is entirely up to you,” she said with a cryptic, beaming smile.
A few of the more knowledgeable students finally caught on to the difficulty of the task, their faces turning pale. They realized she was testing their theoretical knowledge of herb compatibility, not just their brewing skill.
“Oh, and I’ll be handing out the standard student alchemy kits now. They’re free to use, so don't be afraid to get them dirty.”
As the assistants rushed in to distribute the heavy boxes, I stayed in my seat.
“I’m good. I already have my own kit.”
As I pulled out my high-tier Gold-rank kit, the alchemy professor’s eyes sparkled with professional interest.
“Oh my... how did a student manage to get their hands on a kit of that caliber? Only Diamond-rank contributors and above are supposed to be able to purchase those from the guild...”
“I just got lucky with an early contribution,” I said simply.
“Luck is a vital skill in the world of alchemy. You’re Lee Seo-ha, the top student, right? I didn’t think someone with your combat rank would be into the fine arts of brewing, but I’m delighted to be proven wrong.”
She added that she would be "keeping a very close eye" on my progress today. A cold chill ran down my spine. In this academy, when a professor said they’d keep an eye on you, it was often the first step toward a lifelong sentence in grad school.
“Hey, you.”
I heard Hong Yu-hwa’s sharp, commanding voice. She had walked over to my station before I even noticed her move.
“Are you actually confident in your alchemical skills?”
“Yeah, reasonably so.”
Honestly, I figured no one in this world knew the "tools" better than me. People say a true craftsman doesn't care about his tools, but that's total bullshit. In alchemy, better equipment naturally yields exponentially better results.
“Do you want to make a bet?”
“A bet?” My interest was piqued.
Hong Yu-hwa was the granddaughter of the Crimson Tower lord, a girl of dazzling talent. And more importantly, I knew from the game that she had a massive soft spot for "suckers' bets" whenever her pride was on the line.
“What kind of bet?”
“We both make our best paralysis antidotes. Whoever the professor judges to be superior wins the wager.”
“And the prize for the winner?”
“...Hmm.” Hong Yu-hwa frowned, tapping her chin in thought.
“You name it. I don't know what a guy like you would even want. As long as it doesn’t exceed my current authority as an heir, I’ll make it happen,” she said haughtily.
I grinned, my mind already racing through a list of rare materials I needed from her family's tower.
“Sounds good. You’re on.”
“No backing out once we start.”
“In that case, should I be the one to score your results?” the alchemy professor interrupted, sneaking up behind us with an excited smile.
“Yes, please do, Professor.”
Hong Yu-hwa began confidently picking out her materials from the storage bins.
‘Not bad at all.’ Her choices were logical. If she brewed the antidote with those components, she’d likely score a solid C+. That was impressively high for a first-year student. Without me here, she would have aced this class without breaking a sweat.
I grabbed a basket and started selecting my own herbs, focusing on a specific synergy.
Blood Flower Grass (E+)
A vibrant, blood-colored herb.
: Contains high-potency poison components.
: Freshness Grade: Top Tier
Night Sound Flower (E+)
A dark-hued, nocturnal herb.
: Filled with chilling, unstable yin energy.
: Freshness Grade: Top Tier
Moonlight Flower (D+)
A rare herb that glows under the light of the moon.
: Contains complex poison components and dense yin energy.
: Freshness Grade: Top Tier
Blood Berry (F+)
A small, blood-colored variety of wild berry.
: Filled with potent, stimulating yang energy.
: Freshness Grade: Top Tier
Thanks to my Appraisal talent, I was able to cherry-pick only the most vibrant and fresh specimens from the bins. To a casual observer, my basket looked terrifying—every single herb I had chosen was traditionally used in high-level poison-making. But I knew that when combined in the correct sequence, they created a synergy that produced the perfect opposite effect.
Of course, if I made even one tiny error in the ratios, I would brew a deadly neurotoxin potent enough to kill everyone in the room with a single drop.
‘The "limb-collecting lady" would probably love this recipe,’ I thought, referencing a character I hadn’t even met yet in this timeline.
“...Wait, are those all poisonous herbs?”
“But look at his selection. He picked only the ones with top-tier freshness. He can't be a beginner if he's identifying quality like that.”
Professor Song Ra-hee and the alchemy professor were staring at my station with intense, scholarly curiosity.
I blocked out the noise and focused. I knew how these mechanics worked in the game, but I had to account for physical discrepancies in this real world. Still, I had accepted the wager because I had an ace up my sleeve: my Dexterity talent.
But I wasn't relying on raw coordination alone. I had also recently invested my hard-earned points into Alton's Secret Alchemy (B).
‘Hoo.’
As I touched the first herb, a flood of knowledge filled my mind—everything from the exact refining temperatures to hidden recipes for legendary miracle drugs.
‘It’s close enough to the game data.’
The refining methods felt instinctive. I ground the poisonous herbs in a marble mortar, creating a thick paste, and prepared my purified water. The moment I poured in the powders, a foul, sharp stench began to fill the workstation.
I followed the golden ratio: Blood Flower solution at 4 parts. Night Sound at 2 parts. Moonlight at 3 parts. Blood Berry at 1 part.
I added each element with surgical precision. Thick green smoke rose from the beaker, and slowly, the putrid stench began to fade, replaced by a clean, neutral scent.
“He’s neutralizing poison with poison. And he's doing it with just a basic kit? Incredible.”
“Did you see those ratios? He didn't even use a measuring tool for the final pour... he did it by feel.”
“One wrong step in that sequence and this whole floor would be a death trap.”
Ignoring the murmurs of the other students, I placed the finished antidote into the maturation device. This specific machine was designed to rapidly age alchemical mixtures, which was why it was so expensive. I waited.
Five minutes later, the potion shifted from a murky brown to a vibrant, clear yellow. I held the vial up to the light.
Appraisal.
Secret Antidote (A)
A crystal-clear yellow antidote. Consumption neutralizes all toxins below a certain grade and permanently builds biological resistance.
: Instantly neutralizes all B-grade or lower poisons currently in the system.
: Provides a 1-hour immunity to B-grade or lower poisons and permanently increases base poison resistance by a fixed percentage.
[Professors Song Ra-hee and Han Yun-bi are profoundly shocked by the quality of your antidote!]
[You have successfully created the world's finest freshman-tier antidote! An unbelievable achievement! 3,000P has been awarded!]
I was stunned as I read the pop-ups. The world's finest?
I remembered receiving Diamond rank when I first joined the alchemy guild boards. If this was their bar for excellence, should I be aiming for executive status next week?
‘Not that the rank itself matters much right now.’
If the world considered this the threshold for a legendary achievement, it meant racking up points would be even easier than I’d anticipated. I glanced up from the vial.
Professors Song Ra-hee and the alchemy professor were staring at me as if I had just turned lead into gold.
‘Anyone in this room can see that I’ve won the bet.’
Now, the only question remaining was: what exactly should I claim from Hong Yu-hwa as my prize?