Wizard: I Have a Nightmare World

These words caused an uproar in the room.

"Almost indistinguishable from the original? That means... he perfectly replicated that potion?"

An apprentice cried out, nearly dropping the glass rod in his hand.

"How is that possible? I analyzed that potion for ages, and I still don't fully understand which ingredients were used!"

The other apprentice shook his head in disbelief.

"Is he really a herbalist? Or could he be a legitimate wizard in disguise, here to take the exam?"

"Fool! How could a wizard possibly participate in the Potions Apprentice Exam!"

"..."

A murmur of conversation rose and fell around them, and all eyes were focused on Lynn, filled with a mixture of shock, doubt, jealousy, and confusion.

Lynn seemed not to hear their whispers, and simply stared calmly into the examiner's eyes.

"I simply followed the formula I had analyzed and completed it step by step."

The examiner stared at Lynn, repeated his words, and then suddenly laughed.

"You just finished it diligently?"

"Okay, you're very good."

Then, the examiner wrote a comment on the list in his hand, the handwriting of which was much longer than the comments of the previous few apprentices, and then turned to walk to the next worktable.

But after taking a few steps, he stopped, turned his head, and gave Lynn a meaningful look.

"I'm really looking forward to your performance in the third round."

Although this statement does not explicitly state anything, the expectation it implies is self-evident.

The apprentices around Lynn looked at him with even more complicated expressions, and a few even showed obvious hostility.

Lynn didn't take this hostility to heart at all.

He stood at his workbench, closed his eyes, and used the time to enter a meditative state to refresh himself.

The third round, where free allocation is the main event today.

In this round, candidates can freely choose the potion they want to concoct, and the final score is based on the potion's difficulty, quality, and creativity.

This round of weighting accounts for 50% of the total score.

In other words, no matter how well you perform in the first two rounds, if you falter in the third round, you may still fall out of the top ten.

If they perform well in the third round, even if their results in the first two rounds are mediocre, they may still be able to turn the tide.

Lynn had already planned for this.

He needs to concoct the "Boiling Blood Potion" in the third round, and he needs to concoct it to the perfect quality.

The half-hour break passed quickly.

When the examiner in black robes reappeared on stage, the atmosphere inside the tent was noticeably more tense than in the previous two rounds.

Because everyone knows that this round will determine the final fate.

"The third round, free adjustment."

"You have a quarter of an hour to freely choose which potion to prepare."

"The difficulty level, completion rate, and final quality of the preparation of the medicine will be the three evaluation criteria."

"Now, let's begin!"

The examiner in black robes remained emotionless, and as soon as he finished speaking, the apprentices inside the tent immediately began to move.

Someone took out materials that had been prepared in advance from their package, clearly indicating that it was premeditated.

Some people hesitated at the worktable, unable to decide which medicine to prepare.

Some people have already started handling the materials; although their movements are clumsy, at least they are not intimidated.

At this moment, Lynn slowly took out a small cloth bag from his pocket and spread it out on the worktable.

The cloth bag contained the materials he had accumulated during his repeated practice in the cultivation room.

Dragon's Beard Grass, Bloodthorn Flower, Iron Bone Ginseng, Blue Core Grass, Heart-Burning Stone Powder, and a small bottle of snake saliva liquid.

These materials were all obtained for him by Harvey through the apothecary's channels, and they were of excellent quality.

Lynn picked up the dragon's beard grass and began to process it.

His movements were unhurried and deliberate, each cut steady and precise, as if he were not preparing a potion but creating a work of art.

The dragon's beard grass was cut into equal-length pieces at his fingertips and then dried in a low-temperature oven until the leaves became brittle and fragile.

He then put the dried dragon whisker grass into the grinder and began grinding.

Meanwhile, the other apprentices inside the tent also showed off their hidden skills.

Some people choose the challenging-to-use energizing potion, while others opt for the more potent "Berserk Potion."

Lynn glanced over and noticed that some other people had chosen the same [Boiled Blood Potion] as him, which made him raise an eyebrow slightly.

It seems he wasn't the only one who found out about the Bloodvine Wizard, nor was he the only one trying to attract the wizard's attention with the [Boiling Blood Potion].

Lynn looked away and focused on the work at hand.

He has competitors, but he's not afraid!

Because he had an unparalleled advantage over everyone else present when it came to the recipe for the [Boiling Blood Potion].

Hundreds of practice sessions in the nightmare world and countless productions in the real world have etched every detail of the potion into his muscle memory.

Time passed by, second by second.

Fifteen minutes later, people inside the tent began to finish preparing the ingredients.

Some people looked at their finished products with joy, while others were dejected, clearly disappointed with the results.

Among the apprentices who also chose to concoct the "Boiling Blood Potion," two of them completed their work one after another.

One of the patients' liquid was darker in color, indicating that a mistake had occurred during the spark activation process of the heartstone powder.

The other person's medicine was bright in color, but a layer of fine impurities floated on the surface, indicating that the final filtration was not thorough enough.

Lynn ignored all external distractions; his entire focus was on the beaker in his hand.

At this moment, he is taking the most crucial step: mixing the activated heartstone powder with snake saliva and then actively adding it to the medicinal liquid.

His hands were steady, his eyes were calm and unwavering, and the speed at which he tilted the object was just right, neither too fast nor too slow.

When the last drop of the mixture fell into the beaker, the liquid in the beaker boiled violently, and a large number of dense bubbles emerged.

Lynn didn't panic when he saw this. Instead, he picked up a glass and started stirring it at a steady pace, keeping a close eye on the color changes of the liquid.

Deep red...dark red...bright red...crimson red...then, when it was stirred for the thirty-seventh time, a faint silvery-white halo suddenly appeared on the surface of the liquid.

The halo was initially faint, but as Lynn continued to stir it, it grew brighter and brighter, eventually enveloping the entire vial of potion in a soft glow.

This is a sign of perfect quality!

The tent suddenly fell silent.

All the busy apprentices, the examiners inspecting the finished products, and even the guards maintaining order at the door all stopped what they were doing and turned their eyes to the vial of potion in Lynn's hand that emitted a silvery-white halo.

"That's...perfect quality?!"

An apprentice muttered to himself, his voice filled with disbelief.

"How is this possible?! The free-mixing process can produce perfect quality? And it's even a Blood Boiling Potion?"

"Where did this monster come from?!"

The examiner in black robes strode to Lynn's worktable, picked up the vial of medicine, examined it several times, and finally took a deep breath, speaking in an extremely solemn tone:

"Number 37, Lynn!"

"【Boiling Blood Potion】, perfect quality!"

"Difficulty level: 8; Completion level: 10; Quality level: 10!"

Overall score...9.3!

9:30!

A collective gasp of cold air erupted from inside the tent.

It's worth noting that the best score ever achieved in the free-mixing section of the Potions Apprentice Assessment was only 9.5.

That record has stood for a full fifty years.

However, just as the scores were announced, a hoarse and deep voice rang out from outside the tent.

"etc!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw the tent entrance being lifted by a withered hand. A gaunt figure dressed in a dark red thorn robe slowly walked in, supported by two assistants.

Bloodvine Wizard!

He walked in, went straight to Lynn's worktable, picked up the vial of [Boiled Blood Potion] that shimmered with a silvery-white halo, and stared at it quietly for a long time.

Then he turned his head and looked at Lynn.

"Did you concoct this potion yourself?"

"I asked the Bloodvine Wizard."

"That's right."

Lynn answered without hesitation.

The Bloodvine Wizard stared at Lynn for a long time, his eyes, burning with a candlelight-like light, seemed to see right through him.

The tent was deathly silent; everyone held their breath, waiting for the next words from the formally appointed wizard.