Chapter 439 - Being Given A Dreadful Mission.
"Deals?" Felix asked speechlessly.
"Yes, the potion is worth 45 billion SC." Lady Sphinx said, "Only I and Sage Witches can concoct it."
Felix drew a deep breath at the price. He expected that it would expensive since he never heard of a potion that could specifically awaken a targeted element but he didn't know it would be this much!
"45 billion SC is the market price for it but it goes for way higher than that." Lady Sphinx said calmly, "This potion rarely gets sold but traded with an item of an equal value. That's because it doesn't just awaken the lightning element but also increase your affinity of it by 30% at once."
"No wonder!" Felix exclaimed.
He understood that if the potion truly provided 30% affinity enhancement then its price was fully justifiable.
Although in his case that 30% was useless since he had Asna but for other users, they would need to spend at least need 30 billion SC for it!
It wasn't easy at all to increase affinity and people would jump on any item that was helping them increase it no matter how expensive it was.
This wasn't just for humans but for other races that were heavily reliant on elemental affinity as well.
"So, am I going to pay 45 billion for it?" Felix clutched his heart at the thought of it.
He just earned almost 50 billion from the game yet it was about to be spent almost entirely for a potion.
"Don't be silly." Lady Sphinx waved her hand and said calmly, "I don't need coins, I have more than enough to create a planet of them."
Tsk, Tsk...
Both Asna and the J?rmungandr clicked their tongues after hearing her brag like this. Unbothered, Lady Sphinx said, "What I want you to do is earn the potion."
Felix sighed in relief and asked,? "Oh? What should I do?"
"Not much." Lady Sphinx smiled faintly, "I simply want you to emerge as one of the top three scorers in the 1st semester in The Royal Witch Academy."
"Wait what?" Felix exclaimed in disbelief.
This was honestly the last thing he expected to hear since it was totally random. He expected that he would be hired as a janitor for her lab, an errand boy, or something like that to earn the potion.
But top 3 scorers? Why was she interested in that?
Upon seeing his puzzlement, Lady Sphinx said with a displeased tone, "With each generation, those witches are getting worse and worse in their potion mastery. When I first decided to teach them, most witches were capable of easily reaching Grandmaster rank and even Sage rank. But now?"
Lady Sphinx scoffed, "The majority of them are stuck as Potioneer Masters capable of concocting only Rank 3 potions. Only an exceptional few were able to reach Grandmaster. As for Sage? There are barely twenty of them alive in the entire empire."
"This is an embarrassment to my teaching standards as I haven't introduced the art of potion-making just to let them swim into the wealth those potions were bringing them!"
Felix might be a bit confused about some parts but he did understand other parts. Like the fact that Rank 3 witches were one of the wealthiest people in the entire Universe.
That's because they were capable of concocting rank 3 potions like Elemental Potion with a 30% to 60% success rate.
Rank 3 potions were best for the witches to earn money because they were expensive but also manageable to concoct, unlike rank 4/5 potions.
Those types of potions might be even more expensive but their materials were rare and most witches that were capable of concocting them had a 1% to 20% success rate.
As for rank 1/2 potions? They were the common ones like rejuvenation potions, pain relief potions...etc. They didn't have 3 billions+ prices.
Upon hearing Lady Sphinx's rant, Felix reasoned that witches seemed to pause their advancement to higher ranks after turning Master Potioneer due to the profits of rank 3 potions being the best.
With that being said, Felix still failed to see what's his role in all of this.
"It's simple." Lady Sphinx said, "If the newest generation of witches saw that a human is doing much better than them in the only thing they were truly good at, they would naturally work harder to prove themselves."
"being in the top three of the 1st semester would suddenly change the entire situation?" Felix was honestly at loss for words at her logic.
"Of course not." Lady Sphinx said nonchalantly, "That's why you will keep being in the top three in the rest of the semesters until you graduate. When you graduate, I want you to be a Master Potioneer, unlike the witches who could graduate only if they became Expert Potioneers."
"Cough, I think I might want to pay for the potion with coins." Felix said with a tingle of fear in his tone.
He should be afraid alright as Lady Sphinx was asking him to the do impossible while at the same time start a war against the witches in the Academy!
Felix doubted he could even become an Expert Potioneer in 6 semesters that span for three years even if he invested his entire time in potion-making!
If it was so easy, it wouldn't have been made into a graduation condition!
Yet, Lady Sphinx was telling him to go beyond that and become a Master Potioneer? What a joke!
"Sphinx, you should go easy on him." The J?rmungandr shook his head, "He will be using most of his time training his poison manipulation, combat senses, techniques, playing the games, and more. If Thor was awakened and decided to give up on his lightning manipulation, he would need to focus on that as well for a bit."
"Adding potion-making would merely make spread himself thin more than he already was." The J?rmungandr said.
"Elder..." Felix felt his eyes tear up a bit after receiving some support.
Since he wasn't inside the consciousness space, he didn't know if Lady Sphinx approved or not.
But a second later, she mentioned to the J?rmungandr, "Don't worry, I will feed him some potions that are going to greatly enhance his performance permanently."
"Oh? Like what?" Asna inquired for Felix.
"Photographic Memory Potion, Neuron Enhancement Potion, Veil of Trance, and a couple more that could easily make him absorb knowledge and also smarter." Lady Sphinx smiled, "With them, you would have an easier time studying and also concocting potions."
Felix's eyes brightened up in delight after hearing so. He was always afraid of not having a talent for potion-making.
That worried him since if he didn't pick it up quickly, he would waste too much time on it. A well-needed time that could have been used efficiently for other matters.
But with those potions, he would honestly be turned into a prodigy even if he was the dumbest person in the universe!
He understood that some of those potions exist and were sold for billions of SC but their effects weren't permanent as Lady Sphinx claimed.
Instead, their duration lasts from months to a year before wearing off and leaving the user to feel like a retard again.
That makes them want to use those potions over and over like they were addicted to their effects.
It was like taking that pill in the movie Limitless.
Felix had just got offered to take a pill that had permanent effects!
For that kind of potions, he didn't dare to imagine their prices since the potions had never landed in the market!
But if he had to give them a price, he would guess that their total would be around 200 billion SC!!
"But didn't you say that you don't gift stuff?" Felix wondered after reeling in his excitement.
"Of course, those potions are your rewards for reaching the top three of each semester. Each potion is counted for a semester." Lady Sphinx warned with a pretty smile, "So you better not disappoint me and get a lesser result. You won't like the outcome."
Felix gulped a mouthful in dread after remembering that he was literally going to be experimented on like a lab rat.
He was already in her hands and god knows what punishment she was going to give him if he failed his end of the bargain!
"I will try my best." He promised with a forced smile.
"You better." Lady Sphinx took a sip, "I want to see those little witches doubt if you are a witch in disguise."
"Hehe, Witch Felix." Asna giggled, "Makes me laugh just thinking about it."
"Then don't think of it." Felix said in annoyance.
He already expected that he would be getting a load of mockery after everyone starts addressing him, Witch Felix.
He honestly dreaded the thought.
'I should probably create a male version witch name to avoid having getting called a witch.' Instead of fretting about it, Felix started brainstorming some ideas.
He spent at least ten minutes eliminating a name after the other until he landed on one that pleased him.
The witcher!
'That has a nice ring to it.' Felix grinned faintly, 'I don't mind being called that at all.'