Tick.

Tick. 

Tick. 

The time was ticking.

Drew decided to take a rather conservative approach to this. The goal wasn't the show-off and make a high raking regiment. It was just to make one with above a 50% success rate. Drew took notice of this and decided to not get ahead of himself like the other volunteers. The Burn Healing Regiment Drew decided to make was called Iceberg, a Low E-Rank ointment-type regiment. It wasn't too flashy and it was perfect for him to use for this assessment. The main herb used in Iceberg is the Glacier Fig, an edible herb that can be found at virtually every grocery store. It is often used in ointments to treat burns, pills to help reduce fevers, and cold drinks. 

Besides the Glacier Fig, there were some other essential ingredients: mineral oil, ceresin, lanolin alcohol, panthenol, glycerin, and bisabolol. All of which could be found in Aqua*hor.  

Drew dropped in the chunks of carefully measured glycerin into a porcelain crucible, turning on the gas stove. While they melted, Drew placed the Glacier Fig in the transparent box-shaped Otrio stove and injected it with his own Otrio. The Glacier Fig floating above the stove, its round bulb shape slowly turning into a light blue blob of fluid. So far his control was smooth. 

Take your time. 

Was the hint Keith gave to the volunteers. The words replied in Drew's head as he turned his attention to the temperature on the crucible. 

270 degrees Celcius.

Twenty degrees away from the boiling point. 

After checking the temperature, Drew focused back on the Glacier Fig which had fully transformed into a darker blue fluid. 

>>>

Otrio herbs were different than normal plants. Normal plants would burn upon making contact with high heat while Otrio herbs would liquify instead. Additionally, Otrio plants could not be processed by normal machinery but only the delicate control of an Otrio user. On top of that, the effects of Otrio herbs were much stronger than normal plants. This phenomenon was a result of these herbs were made from Otrio itself. The physical form that the herbs take on is a result of a large accumulation of Otrio and the property of that Otrio over time.

By having one inject their Otrio into a herb, they are interfering with the Otrio structure of that herb thus causing the Otrio particles within that herb to separate. As such, the herb losses its solid shape and converts itself into a liquid form. From there, one can utilize their Otrio to vibrate the Otrio particles of the herb to generate heat similar to that of a microwave. An Otrio stove basically acts as the microwave shell while the Otrio from the user acts as the microwaves.

The user can also control the intensity of the 'microwaves' to achieve the desired temperature. However, unlike a machine, a person is not consistent. Thus, intense concentration is required for the Otrio user to stay in control. Those who have high Otrio control are not that common.

They have a special name: Espers. 

Espers are similar to Casters but they don't require equipment to stabilize their Otrio control nor do they require a medium to cast. On top of that, their casted attack can last longer than a few seconds. Take Wan for example. Though Wan can cast without a medium, it's not sustainable. Therefore, she requires one, such as a staff, to allow her casting to last longer and more stable. Drew and the others are also not considered Espers for the same reason. For instance, Drew's shortsword and shield act as mediums. As for Elias, it is his pistols. Furthermore, there are quite a few Abilities that distinguish Espers from Casters. The most common one being [Telekinesis]. 

Now here's the question: Why can Drew do Alchemy without high Otrio control nor a medium? 

No, he has a medium. The medium he's using to help stabilize his Otrio is the Otrio stove.  

>>>

Once the Glacier Fig fluid turned the desired color, Drew transferred the liquid from the stove into a flask. 

Boom. 

A loud explosion followed by a dark cloud of smoke erupted in the laboratory. 

"What just happened?" A voice said from the area where the smoke was. "I'm pretty sure I did this correctly. What the hell is going on?" 

Poof. 

Another cloud of smoke emerged from another part of the lab. 

"Huh, why did the powder burn?" 

Take your time...no way?! 

Crack. Crack. 

"I knew it," Drew muttered to himself quickly picking up the flask with the Glacier Fig liquid. 

Quickly, Drew poured the liquid out of the flask into another crucible. 

Shatter. 

The last drop of Glacier Fig liquid made it into the crucible just as the body of the glass flask shattered, the shards falling onto the ground beneath Drew's legs. 

Faulty equipment. That's what this test was about. 

Before conducting any experiment, one must check whether all their equipment was in good condition. Failure to check could result in the experiment's failure. That's why Keith gave everyone an hour. To verify whether the equipment was in good condition or not. Drew found it quite fishy that Keith would give them such a large amount of time just to create one Burn Healing Regiment. Drew and everyone else made the fatal flaw of assuming all the equipment was in good condition before the assessment. However, one can never assume that everything was okay. In the real world, anything could happen even something as simple as this. 

"What a fool I was for not seeing this earlier," Drew scoffed as he got up to clean up the glass. 

They must've tampered with at least one piece of equipment on everyone's workspace. Those other two must've had their stoves messed with. Drew observed while disposing of the glass shards. 

Drew returned to his workspace and dumped the other ingredients into his crucible filled with melted glycerin. Luckily, only a couple of containers had been tampered with so Drew took care of them immediately. There was still half an hour remaining but just in case, Drew prepared another set of ingredients. It never hurts to be too careful. Plus, Iceberg doesn't take that long to make so if anything else got messed up now, there wouldn't be much of an issue for Drew to make another batch.

While pouring the warm Glacier Fig fluid into his crucible and turning down the intensity of the flame of his gas burner, the sound of glass-breaking screams erupting, and minor explosions could be heard from other workspaces. It seems other people had begun to realize the purpose of the test. Some immediately disposing their faulty equipment before continuing. A few of the volunteers who had concocted higher-ranked regiments had all the fruits of their labor flush down the drain in an instance. Due to their confidence in their regiments, they hadn't even considered a backup plan. With time ticking away, volunteers scrambled to the materials table, grabbing whatever was remaining in order to concoct something within the twenty minutes remaining.   

With the Glacier Fig incorporated into the glycerin-based mixture, Drew pulled out a small blue jade container and poured the hot liquid into it using tongs, a necessary step for retaining the Glacier Fig's effects. From there, he put on the lid of the jade container before submerging it in a bath of dry ice to speed up the cooling process. With ten minutes remaining and only three required to cool the Iceberg balm, Drew was in a comfortable spot. 

Waiting, Drew noticed that some volunteers had already submitted their regiments to Keith and Mina. Seems they had already figured out the purpose of the test earlier.

Three minutes passed and Drew removed the blue jade container from the dry ice bath. The contents had successfully solidified to a snow-white balm. Without hesitation, Drew submitted his regiment. He was the twenty-second person to do so. After placing Iceberg on the submission table, a testing machine integrated underneath it scanned the regiment. Within seconds, he received the results. 

"Congratulations, Drew Li," Keith said in his stiff voice, though Drew could tell he was genuinely happy. "You have successfully created the Low E-Rank Iceberg Regiment with a 100% success rate. You have passed the test. You may leave and we'll see you tomorrow at this exact location." 

Drew smiled.

"Thank you." 

>>>

As soon as the last person left, Keith immediately pulled up the results on the screen of the table. 

"Out of the forty-seven volunteers, forty passed the test. The rest-" 

"Crumbled." Rika chuckled while Keith briefed her on the results. "Seems like they couldn't handle the pressure after having their work wasted. Well, in the real world, one must be cautious. A slight mishap and everything can go south. There were some who were cautious from the beginning and others who managed to adapt to the situation. This test was to see where everyone fell. Of course, there were those bound not to pass. It just meant that they were not quite ready to face the reality of being an Alchemist."  

"What a demon you are, Rika." 

"Back attcha, Keith," Rika said leaning against the table with all the regiments. "Without your careful tampering with the equipment, this couldn't have been executed more perfectly." 

"I can see why you were fired by Heartman. Behind that cheery facade of yours, you're too cunning. You might've just taken over the Heartman Foundation alone." Keith continued scrolling through the data. 

"Nah," She laughed. "It's because I spilled coffee on that prick, Sai Heartman, in the first month. It was a complete accident! Wait, I didn't tell you?!" 

Keith shook his head. Though he remained impassive, his face could be seen twitching slightly, but Rika wasn’t sure if he was going to laugh or get angry. Perhaps both. His hand remained motionless but only for a brief second, as if shocked the revelation. 

"Not a single word in the three years I've known you." He replied continuing to scroll. "Though that is a rather stupid reason to get fired. Didn't realize they could be so arrogant and stupid for a startup. What a shame. How they could lose someone so talented? " 

"Pft, thank you for your kind words.” Rika smiled rolling her eyes, “Yet, I still remain bitter." 

"Why so? Isn’t the damn bastard dead?" Keith asked clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. 

Rika scoffed. A wry smile plastered onto her face. 

"Well, I wanted to one day tell that asshole that he should've regretted firing me. I can't now because he's dead and it's not like I could resurrect him to scream that into his face." 

 Keith laughed. 

"So it seems we both have our grudges with the Heartmans. Well, the Heartmans are heartless.” 

It was quite rare for Keith to express any sort of emotion. Not that he couldn’t but he just seemed to have a hard time doing so. This rare laughter was something Rika had only seen a couple of times. Cracking a joke? Even more so. Other than that, Keith was always serious about his work. Plowing ahead with it as he steps closer and closer to his goal. Rika knew that Keith held resentment towards the Heartmans but she wasn't sure of the reason. The Heartmans had made quite a number of enemies in their existence so it wouldn't be too unusual for people to hold some form of hatred towards them. 

From the looks of it, Keith holds a grudge against someone in the Heartman Family who is still alive. No wonder why he works so hard to get promoted. Even though I started a year earlier, Keith managed to reach the same level in less than half a year. Just how determined is he? 

There was a brief moment of silence between the two when suddenly, Rika's eyes fixated on the small blue jade container resting on top of the submissions table.  

“There was only one person who made an ointment-type regiment," Rika observed breaking the silence. 

"Yeah. Most volunteers choose a liquid or pill-type regiment." Keith nodded, glancing down at Drew's regiment. "Iceberg, what a simple yet interesting choice." 

Rika smirked. 

"And it turns out it was made by your’s truly, toilet paper kid.  Speaking of which, I took a look at the kid's profile. He's an F-Rank Alchemist but I'm assuming he's prepping for his E-Rank Certification Exam." 

"Why I think he's already qualified to be one." Keith shrugged as he picked up Drew's regiment. Out of all the regiments he had seen so far from the assessment, Iceberg certainly made it into his top five. 

Rika took a look at the regiment. It was certainly an excellent Iceberg regiment. There couldn't be a single flaw found with it, not even a speck of dust on the cold surface of the crystal white balm. 

"If I didn't know this was made by an F-Rank Alchemist, I would've automatically assumed it would've been made by someone who is at least D-Rank. To create something so methodically at his Rank with the given amount of time, I don't think I could've confidently accomplished that either. He's definitely one of the more skilled volunteers we have here. I wonder who taught him?” 

Keith remained emotionless but he was also curious. 

"Let’s think about that later for now let’s focus on the task at hand. About what you said earlier, I agree. Ranking means nothing," Keith said. "Ability speaks more than a title. Senior Rika-" 

Hearing Keith addressing her formally, Rika shot up from her leaning position. She knew he meant business. 

"I'm considering adding him to the list of candidates for direct E-Rank Certification." 

"How many others are on there?" 

"Two.” Keith replied. “ He’s certainly skilled, however, I wouldn't say he is outstanding. This is only the first day, there will be many more opportunities for us to observe him. As of now, he's just a consideration." 

"Geez," Rika pouted. "You're so mean~"

"Are there any candidates that perk your interest?" 

Rika placed a finger under her chin, thinking carefully. 

"Aside from him, there are a few others. I think the one the intrigues me the most is that Unicron, Soren Khan." 

"Oh, the young master of the Khan Family. We have quite a few of their branch family members here. Why do you say that?" 

Rika smiled tossing a skinny vile to Keith sitting on the corner of the table. 

"Take a look at his regiment." 

Keith observed the vile. The purple liquid inside it squirreling around so violently a small vortex had formed. 

Keith for the first time removed his glasses. Pinching the bridge of his nose, a burst of maniacal laughter escaped his mouth. Wind and Fire Otrio has escaped from the Djinn's (basically a genie or jinn of you want to say that) body, causing a hot wind to blow throughout the lab. His blue Alchemist coat fluttering violently in the wind. The test tubes and vials at the workstations rattling together. 

"It seems this year's volunteers are rather fierce. How exciting."