Gavi, faced with Helos’s questioning gaze, simply tilted her head quietly.
Her half-painted face showed no emotion under the moonlight of the night, though the light points in her eye sockets seemed to flicker once.
Then, she slowly spread open her hands and gently shook her head.
Although she couldn’t speak, this gesture clearly expressed her stance—she couldn’t help Helos make this decision either.
“Knew I couldn’t count on you.”
Helos curled her lips helplessly and muttered under her breath.
But she also understood in her heart that such an important decision concerning her future life at the Academy ultimately had to be made by herself.
She glanced at the sky. The sun had already set, and even the moon had appeared in the night sky.
That explosion and Eleanor’s lecture had drained all her energy.
Helos sighed, stood up from the bench, and patted the dust off her uniform.
“Ah, forget it, I’ll stop thinking about it.”
She stretched with a big yawn, moved her somewhat stiff neck, and decided to return to the dormitory first.
Whatever it was, it could wait until after she filled her stomach.
She also needed to figure out how to give Gavi’s body some maintenance later.
Helos trudged back to the dormitory with somewhat weary steps.
As soon as she pushed open the door, a strong smell of some kind of scorched ore hit her face, making her unable to hold back several sneezes.
“Cough, cough… Agatha! What dangerous experiment are you conducting in the room again! Be careful, don’t blow it up!”
Helos waved her hand to fan away the pungent smoke in front of her and called out irritably towards the tightly closed door of the neighboring room.
No sooner had her words fallen than the door to Agatha’s room next door was pushed open with a loud bang.
“Oh! Sisi, you’re back!”
Agatha, like a wild dog catching a scent, immediately came up from her own “explosion workshop.”
Her hair was still as messy as a bird’s nest, with a few inexplicable black stains on her face, but her crimson eyes were shining brightly.
With a cheeky expression, she mysteriously leaned in close to Helos, lowered her voice, and asked in a tone both excited and gossipy:
“Hey! Sisi! I heard all about it! That earth-shattering big explosion at the Testing Grounds today… that was your doing, right?”
Helos’s heart gave a sudden jolt.
Looking into Agatha’s eyes, filled with “thirst for knowledge” and the “spirit of gossip,” she felt her head ache.
She had just dealt with the Dean and her sister; did she have to go through it again as soon as she returned to the dorm?
“Your news is way too fast, isn’t it?”
Helos helplessly raised her hand to cover her face and vaguely “mm-hmm” through her fingers, acknowledging her words.
“Wow! I knew it!”
Agatha excitedly clapped her hands, her face instantly blooming with the ecstasy of finding a kindred spirit.
“Such great power! Definitely not something those magic department fools could pull off! Tell me quickly, how exactly did you do it?”
“What materials did you use? What was the detonation principle? Does it share similarities with the ‘liquid explosives’ I mentioned to you…”
“Stop, stop, stop! It was just an alchemy item from that book!”
Seeing Agatha about to fall back into her fanatical research mode, Helos immediately cut her off.
She really didn’t want to revisit the experience of nearly shattering the academy barrier.
A thought struck Helos, and she decided to immediately change the subject. She asked casually:
“By the way, Agatha, are you a member of the ‘alchemy association’?”
“Huh? What’s that? A club in the Academy?”
This question indeed hit Agatha’s sweet spot.
As soon as she heard “alchemy association,” she immediately put the explosion matter aside.
Her eyes instantly lit up, as if a floodgate had opened. She enthusiastically pulled Helos to sit on the sofa in the living room and began to talk nonstop.
“You don’t know about the alchemy association? It’s the most high-end organization in our comprehensive research academy!”
Agatha’s tone was full of pride.
“Although in recent years, with the rise of the neighboring magic department, our association has declined quite a bit and our funding is pitifully small, the people gathered here are definitely the most talented in alchemy in the entire academy!”
“Our association’s headquarters is located in the underground workshop of the Smelting Center. That place has the academy’s top alchemy equipment and the rarest material reserves!”
Agatha grew more and more excited as she spoke, her crimson eyes glowing.
“Many good things that can’t be bought outside are only available for association members to use!”
“And, our association’s instructor—it’s Professor Graham! He’s a certified senior alchemist. Although he usually looks a bit unkempt… his understanding of alchemy is absolutely master-level!”
She went on and on listing various “internal benefits,” from priority use rights for rare materials, to being able to take on high-reward internal academy bounty tasks, to having the chance to participate in the professors’ secret research projects… It even made Helos feel a bit tempted.
Helos listened quietly until Agatha took a sip of water and paused slightly. Seizing the moment, she leisurely dropped a bombshell.
“Oh, really?”
Helos said with feigned calm. “That Professor Graham you mentioned, I think I’ve met him.”
“Pfft—cough, cough, cough!”
The water Agatha had just drunk nearly sprayed out.
“You… you met him? When?”
“Just now, when I came out of the Dean’s Office.”
Helos fished out the brass badge engraved with the pattern of a gear and a flask from her pocket and waved it in front of Agatha.
“He stopped me and said some things inviting me to join the association.”
Agatha’s eyes instantly lit up like two searchlights upon seeing the badge.
“Oh my god! The professor invited you personally?!”
Agatha excitedly grabbed Helos’s shoulders.
“Then what are you hesitating for?! You must join!”
Helos felt a bit dizzy from being shaken.
“I’m still considering it…”
“What’s there to consider?!”
Agatha’s tone was even more excited than Helos’s own.
“You absolutely should join the association! You have no idea how high Professor Graham’s standards are! Usually, those self-proclaimed genius students who want to join, he can’t even be bothered to look at them! Since he invited you personally, he definitely sees your talent!”
Agatha counted on her fingers, analyzing for her:
“Think about it, a new student’s alchemy item could cause such a massively powerful explosion—”
“Ahem,” Helos interrupted her guiltily, “that was just an accident…”
“Accidents are also part of one’s ability!”
Agatha waved her hand dismissively.
“Regardless, this proves you’re a very talented person! You’re absolutely born to do alchemy!”
Seeing that Helos still seemed hesitant, Agatha rolled her eyes and threw out another reason she couldn’t refuse.
“Besides,” Agatha lowered her voice, mysteriously pointing in the direction of Helos’s bedroom.
“Aren’t you still studying that ancient alchemy fragment? The things in it are so bizarre. Relying on yourself alone, blindly pondering in the dorm, the wasted time alone is enough to make you suffer.”
This statement precisely hit Helos’s sore spot.
“But,”
Agatha’s tone was full of temptation.
“If you join the alchemy association, it’s different! The association’s underground workshop has the most complete equipment, the rarest materials, and experts like Professor Graham presiding! Wouldn’t you get much greater help studying that ancient alchemy?”
“If you encounter any runes you don’t understand, or lack any rare materials, you can directly ask the teacher! Isn’t that a hundred times better than you working behind closed doors alone now?”
After hearing Agatha’s words, Helos was thoroughly convinced.
She had to admit that what Agatha said made a lot of sense.
Her current research was at a bottleneck, lacking materials, equipment, and guidance. And this alchemy association seemed to perfectly solve all her problems.
Helos pondered for a moment and finally made a decision.
Looking at Agatha, she nodded seriously:
“Alright, Agatha, you’re right. I’ve decided to join the alchemy association.”
“Great!”
Agatha excitedly clapped her hands together forcefully.
“Then we’ll go find the professor tomorrow! I’ll take you to our association’s secret base!”
Seeing her look even happier than herself, Helos couldn’t help but smile.
Perhaps joining this seemingly unreliable but “kindred spirit”-filled association was also a good choice.
Early the next morning, Helos, led by Agatha, once again walked through the academy’s streets.
This time, they didn’t head to the Main Castle, but went straight towards the “materials smelting center” with the huge chimney that Agatha had mentioned before.
The Smelting Center was a solid gray stone building. Just approaching it, one could feel a wave of scorching heat and the pungent smell of metal ores.
Agatha was obviously very familiar with the place. She led Helos and Gavi, bypassing the busy students and roaring magical furnaces in the front hall, arriving at an inconspicuous corner in the deepest part of the Smelting Center.
There, there was a hidden door.
Agatha took out her own brass badge and gently pressed it into a concealed groove in the wall.
Click—
Accompanied by the soft sound of mechanisms moving, the stone wall silently slid open, revealing a deep set of steps leading underground.
“Let’s go, Sisi!”
Agatha turned back and winked at her, taking the lead down the steps.
It’s nice that she has a friend