In Lodris, the Apprentice City, inside a classroom at Cuilan Academy hanging a sign that read 'Current Course: Material Analysis for Potion Making'.
Many apprentices sat in their chairs, waiting for the grades of this course to be announced.
"I will now announce the results for this course."
On the lecture platform, a brown-haired female Teacher wearing a long robe that only exposed her arms and face held a sheet of paper.
"Those who passed this course include York, Asta..."
With every name read, an apprentice breathed a sigh of relief, their clenched hands gradually relaxing.
"That concludes the list of those who passed this course."
As soon as these words were spoken, many apprentices showed expressions of grief and regret, hating themselves for not studying hard enough to even pass the course.
"Isn't Teacher Rita's course usually easy to pass? Why didn't I pass!?"
"Relax, it's not one of those mandatory courses; it won't affect your graduation."
Two apprentices began to discuss in low voices below.
"Also, regarding those who performed excellently in this course, I regret to say there is only one... Student Furan, please come down."
The apprentices didn't react much to this because they hadn't really heard the name before; they merely whispered to their companions, asking who she was.
A girl with long black hair stood up and walked down, arriving before Teacher Rita.
"Furan... a perfect score in theory, a perfect score in practice... You are the first person in the ten-plus years I've taught this course to get a perfect score in both components. Can you tell me how you did it?"
Furan lowered her head slightly with great humility.
"It was just a coincidence that the exam covered parts I knew; if the questions had been a bit more obscure, I wouldn't have known them..."
In her heart, Furan knew very well that she achieved this score because she had spent a whole week grinding her proficiency, doing nothing else every day.
"Being able to take first place on your own is your talent," Rita smiled and continued.
"As a reward for you, I've decided to give you four points, and... the Harmony Method."
Saying this, Rita handed a silver piece of paper to Furan.
Furan was somewhat surprised. Each course awarded points to apprentices who achieved excellence; usually, if there were many people, each would only get 1 point.
A Teacher would only give 3 points or more if they were very satisfied; a score of 4 points like hers was something no Teacher gave out easily.
These points were used to exchange for precious knowledge; they were very rare and people often sought to buy them.
As for the Harmony Method, it was exactly the goal she had worked so hard for; any apprentice who achieved excellence in this course could obtain it.
Seemingly sensing her surprise, Rita continued with a smile.
"Once you've learned the Harmony Method, come find me. I will recommend you to join the Apothecary Association."
"Thank you, Teacher Rita..."
"Return to your seat; I have more to say."
When Furan returned to her chair, Rita tapped the table, signaling the still-discussing apprentices to be quiet.
"I will repeat the Academy Head's notice... Starting this year, all apprentices who cannot cast a Spell by the end of the year must participate in compulsory military service. Remember, all of you... Good, dismissed."
The group of apprentices left their seats, discussing as they walked.
"Military service? Is there a war somewhere?"
"Yes, I heard there's a civil war over in Antire. The Academy Head must have sold us apprentices for a good price."
"Oh god, why did we have to run into this mess in our year? I haven't even learned anything yet!"
"In previous years, three out of ten apprentices in the first year couldn't cast a Spell. With this policy to spur them on this year, there should be much fewer..."
...Furan followed the crowd of apprentices out of the classroom, turning down all social invitations to join various clubs and the like. She currently had life-threatening work to do.
She was also one of the apprentices who couldn't cast a Spell. If Rita knew, she might have deducted some of the points she gave her.
After all, going to the battlefield meant an uncertain fate; Rita certainly wouldn't invest in her.
She had transmigrated here eight nights ago. She hadn't inherited the original owner's Spell proficiency and had to use the remaining three months to catch up to a year's worth of others' proficiency.
Furan silently thought the word 'Panel' in her mind.
[Name: Furan
Class: None
Attributes: Constitution 0.8, Spiritual Power 1.4
Skills: Medicinal Material Identification (Proficient) (Proficiency: 1/10000): You can clearly identify the medicinal materials found in the compendium of basic medicinal materials.
Medicinal Material Processing (Proficient) (Proficiency: 13/10000): Your technique for processing medicinal materials is as if the compendium of basic medicinal materials was written based on your methods.
Magic Missile (Uninitiated) (Proficiency: 0/10): You don't know it at all.]
This was the golden finger that had transmigrated with Furan; its current function was to show her status.
And after she maxed out a proficiency level, it would unreasonably and directly improve her level in the related field, and it could be improved infinitely.
It had to be said, this kind of panel where effort yielded returns and the proficiency bar could be seen at all times was truly reassuring.
Even though she currently had no money and no professional skills, she had the confidence to complete the assessment and avoid that damned battlefield.
When apprentices enrolled, Cuilan Academy allowed each of them to choose one basic Spell, and the original body had chosen Magic Missile.
According to her residual memories, as long as the original body worked hard, she could basically learn this Spell before the end of the year.
But she had been screwed over by this world's Spell-learning mechanism upon arriving.
She originally thought that with this panel, learning a Spell would be a breeze.
However, learning Magic Missile required external items to assist; she couldn't learn it purely on her own.
It wasn't the kind of magic that could be learned just by mobilizing Spiritual Power or elements.
Magic Missile required something called a [Mana Stone] to assist in learning, according to the explanation sheet she had received.
It was because apprentices themselves did not possess magic power and needed external magic power to learn this Spell.
Of course, once you learned it, magic power would naturally be stored in your body, and you wouldn't need a [Mana Stone] for assistance anymore.
The [Mana Stone] the original body had bought with her monthly apprentice stipend wouldn't be enough for her to learn the Spell, based on her calculations.
That was why she had spent over a week ignoring everything else to focus solely on medicinal materials, which allowed her to get double perfect scores in the course.
This was the closest course test to her; the next test the original body had signed up for was a concentrated assessment two months away.
Fortunately, the panel's proficiency system was very effective, allowing her to directly secure the Harmony Method as a way to break the deadlock, as well as an unexpected surprise—4 points.
"That damned Academy Head, why did he have to push this policy now of all times, just when I arrived? It's making me so busy."
If it weren't for this, she could have just continued waiting for the monthly [Mana Stone] stipend; why would she need to bother with all this other stuff?