It was the end of February.
The snow had begun to melt in Ozwarth.
Spring was soon to come.
So much had happened in the past month.
After the events with Rider and Soren, Rider thanks Drew for helping him fix his relationship with Soren. However, despite Drew finding out that Rider was a Puppeteer, Rider himself didn't feel comfortable talking about it with the others claiming that he needed more time. He was worried that their reactions might not be the same as Drew's, who seemed to not care about Rider being a Puppeteer. Drew reassured him, telling him that he could take his time. When he feels comfortable, he can tell the rest.
"But what if they hate me for it?"
Rider's childhood fear of being ridiculed made him feel reluctant.
"To be honest, I don't think they would care about you being a Puppeteer. Your Position is only one part of who you are. If they hate you for it then they aren't true friends but the longer you hide it the more grief and concern you cause for others."
As the words escaped his mouth, Drew frowned. He really should take his own advice but his situation was much more complicated than Rider's. Rider had already been expelled out of his family for being a Puppeteer but he had nothing to lose if he told the group truthfully about it. However, Rider was afraid of the judgmental looks he would receive from others since the Puppeteer Position was considered to be one of the most sinister in the galaxy besides Reviver. In the end, the choice was up to Rider to make, and if he chose not to, Drew promised Rider that he would keep it a secret.
More time passed, and before he knew it, Drew's fifty hours at the South Wall Hospital came to a close.
On the last day of the volunteer event, each volunteer received a bonus from the regiments the hospital sold. Drew received a total of 5000 Kalas as a bonus for his hard work. In addition, Mentors Rika and Keith told Drew privately that his experimental cooking technique helped them figure out the final piece in completing their research. As such, they cited him as a source in their final paper about the potential methods of mass-producing regiments. From this citation, Drew was awarded another 5000 Kalas. Furthermore, Drew was also awarded his E-Class certification because of his excellent performance.
“You kidding me right?” Drew asked in complete disbelief as Rika and Keith stood right beside him while taking a look at his holographic certificate.
Rika grinned, her smile touching the ends of her face.
“You were more than deserving of it. Congratulations, you’re officially an E-Rank Alchemist.”
“Congratulations.” Keith clapped.
“I’m at a loss for words-“
Despite his early certification, Drew did not have time to celebrate yet.
Drew was sitting at his desk of honor in the secret lab where he reviewed the recent data obtained from the experiments.
"Sir," One of the Alchemists called out to begin his report. "From our recent experiments, we have discovered that grinding up the stem of the Galigar Lotus and using it as a base for the extract nets us the highest success rate. Upon further experimentation these past few days, we have achieved a 60% success rate. However, we are still seeing problems with the intensity of the purification but we believe that once this problem is solved we can officially sell these regiments on the market."
Drew nodded his head.
So far there was steady progress and once again, the team had reached another bottleneck.
Again with the problem of the intensity of the purification. Drew said to himself in his mind. Judging from how quickly we were able to make it to this point, it can be assumed that Heartman has also reached this same success rate, potentially higher, but is withholding that regiment from the market. I guess because he figured that no one could decode his recipe fully until now. What a tricky bastard.
"Have you attempted to utilize any other stabilizing herbs yet?"
The Alchemist replied bluntly, "Sir, we are running trials as we speak. As of now, the success rate has remained unchanged."
"Good, keep me updated."
"Yes sir."
Time was ticking. Drew knew that all too well. There were only a couple of months left before Jay's mother would take her last breath, potentially even less knowing how quickly her condition is deteriorating. He had to figure out what was missing. He had figured out how to break through the 20% bottleneck but this one seemed to be more difficult. It wasn't hinting at him and he had no clues to go off of. This time, he actually hit a wall.
Drew sighed.
Maybe we're looking the wrong direction.
Nothing changed at the end of the day, and Drew was back at square one.
The thought of knowing something was off bothered him.
It annoyed him that he didn't know where to go.
And so, a week passed.
Drew had made zero progress.
>>>
It was now March, it was still cold but definitely warmer than the past three months.
Drew sat on a bench right outside of the Low-Class Dormitories watching some students throwing snowballs at each other. The cold powder scattered in all directions as Drew glanced up towards the sky, admiring the clarity of it. The pure light blue color it possessed devoid of clouds. Oh, how he wished his mind was as clear as the sky but all he could see were those same dark clouds and nothing else.
"Mr. Li." A familiar redhead popped into Drew's line of sight. The black ribbons on her headband swung from side to side as she plopped down right next to Drew on the bench.
"Princess," Drew replied. "What are you doing out and about?"
"We still sticking to formalities," Sylvia laughed crossing her legs together. "I told you there was no need for that back in January. Well, I'm just taking a breather from some homework. Work is ramping up again since Monthly Exams are over."
"Star really doesn't allow anyone to catch their breaths."
Sylvia nodded in agreement.
"They really don't. Anyways why are you here?"
"Relieve stress. I'm stuck on a problem I can't solve."
"What kind of problem?"
"Alchemy."
"Ah," Sylvia gasped. "Quite a conundrum you're in right now."
Drew folded his hands together, placing his elbows on his knees. His black combat boots dig into the snow causing a loud crunching sound to tickle his ears.
"Mmh," Drew nodded.
"Do you mind if I take a shot at it? I mean you could try to rephrase and all in a way I could understand it. Who knows I could give you some ideas."
"Sounds fine by me."
At this point in time, anything was worth trying.
"So here's the problem," Drew began. "Let's say you have a cup of hot water and you want to cool it down to the right temperature for a customer or to brew tea. You don't have a thermometer and only have one shot at getting it right. How can you ensure that the water achieves the correct temperature so that the customer is satisfied?"
"Since you said that you don't have a thermometer and that you only have one shot, that automatically eliminates some of my options."
"Yeah, a tricky question."
"It's tricky but I think you're overthinking it."
Drew glanced over at Sylvia who was knitting her brows together.
A moment later, Sylvia's expression changed to one of satisfaction. Her black ribbons swaying to her head motion.
"You're constrained by what's given in the problem. The answer is ridiculously simple, just give the customer the cup of hot water as well as a cup of cold water or ice. That way, the customer can regulate the temperature of water themselves and you won't have to face any backlash."
Drew's eyes widened.
This was it.
This was the last piece.
Now that Drew had rephrased the situation into simpler terms, everything started to make sense. All those Alchemy terms that filled his head messed with his thinking. It's as the saying goes: when you know too much you forget about the basics. If Drew had replaced all the complicated Alchemy variables with real-life, proven, simple examples, those answers could eventually provide a solution. It created an entirely new perspective! By rephrasing the question, Drew could create an analogy and use that analogy to generate a solution akin to the hot water example that he just gave to Sylvia. Sylvia's answer to his analogy gave him his answer to completing the Blood Otrio Regiment.
"Sylvia, thank you so much!" Drew said clasping Sylvia's hands. "I think I just figured out how to solve my problem."
Sylvia smiled, "Glad I could help."
As he was about to make a call to Gerald, Sylvia tugged on Drew's sleeve.
"One last thing," She continued. "If you ever have a problem like this, don't hesitate to ask me or the others for help. I've noticed you try to figure out things on your own but sometimes taking the opinions of others can be beneficial."
"For sure," Drew replied as Sylvia let go of his sleeve.
The clouds had finally dissipated from Drew's eyes. He could see clearly now the rain is gone (A/N: It's a song :P).
Rushing into the building, Drew dialed Gerald.
Not even a second later, Gerald picked up the call.
"Why hello there, Young Master," Gerald answered in his jolly tone.
"Gerald, we've been taking this project in the wrong direction."
"Please elaborate."
After telling Gerald his idea, Gerald couldn't help but marvel at Drew's genius.
Do you see this Master, Mistress? Your son is doing something incredible. Aren't you excited? Excited to see how far he'll go. Even if the Winter Family and the Night Family have perished, he's making both of them proud.
"Please forward Neilson my message and I'll be at the site ASAP."
"Affirmative. Have safe travels."
"You as well, Gerald."
Half an hour later, Drew was back in the lab. Surrounding him was a group of Alchemists, looking at him with anticipation. Every single one of them wonder what Drew, 'Snow', was going to say next. Silence fill the lab for minutes before Drew opened his mouth, the temperature of the room dropping an entire ten degrees.
"We've been trying to make one regiment to solve the Blood Otrio Poison but no one said we could create two. One that cleanses the poison from the channels while the other heals the channels after the cleansing. What we have now is only the first half of the solution. What we need to do now is create the second half."
An Alchemists raised his hand.
"How do you propose we do that?"
"I've already started that research. Out of all the regiments that exist on the market today, there are obviously hundreds of different regiments that are able to enhance the recovery of the Otrio channels. However," Drew paused pulling up a holographic diagram on his device. "Only about twenty of these are able to heal the Channels in one go and out of these, five have a seventy percent success rate or higher at curing the Otrio channels but none have even a ninety percent success rate or higher."
"So you're basically suggesting we reverse engineer these five regiments to figure out what they have in common and then formulate our own regiment from our findings."
"Bingo," Drew replied coldly in his classic Snow fashion.
The Alchemists couldn't help but be shocked. This was yet another nearly impossible task that Snow had given them. It was already a miracle for them to witness the creation of another Blood Otrio Regiment that had higher than a twenty percent success rate but Snow was asking them to create another regiment that had a near-perfect success rate. Inconceivable! However, despite the initial shock, the Alchemists held onto a shred of hope in their minds that it was possible. Snow had already accomplished the impossible twice. The first time they thought it was a fluke. The second time they realized it was skill. Then what about a third?
To the Alchemists, defying the odds a third time seemed absolutely possible. As long as they had Snow, even something with the slimmest chance of succeeding would be attainable. As such, the Alchemists, as much as they feared the task, believed that under Snow's leadership they could succeed.
"If I may ask, Boss." One female Alchemist's voice erupted from the crowd. "Is your brain on steroids?"
"It's not," Drew scoffed. "Just tea but what are you all dilly-dallying for, we've got work to do."
"Yes sir!"
There were less than two months remaining.
The sand running through the hourglass was not getting any slower.
thanks for the chapter