#171 - Chapter 171 Selection Test

Upon hearing the news about Sebastian, Councillor Jonathan could no longer sit still.

He immediately found Sean after his recovery check-up, gave him a few instructions, and left the hospital.

Time was precious, and he had to cherish every minute and second.

Sebastian found Doctor Pete and used a Memory Charm to make him forget everything that had happened in the past two days.

Afterward, he didn't linger but gave Regulus a few instructions before using Apparition to return to Swan Manor.

Having completed the new arrangement, Sebastian felt relaxed.

He went to the bedroom, had a good nap, and conserved his energy for teaching next week.

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At half past six on Monday evening, Sebastian didn't go home with Mia but slowly strolled towards a large classroom after dinner.

Tonight was the Alchemy Club's recruitment time, and he wanted to carefully select a few promising seedlings with talent in alchemy.

Unlike clubs for other subjects, Hogwarts hadn't officially established an Alchemy class, so Sebastian couldn't make selections based on grades.

To address this situation, Sebastian had announced the establishment of the Alchemy Club to the students at the opening feast.

Students interested in joining the Alchemy Club had to collect a book from him and then spend a week previewing it.

Tonight, he would conduct a selection test to choose the truly talented seedlings from these students.

At this moment, there were about thirty students in the selection classroom, sitting together in twos and threes, excitedly discussing tonight's selection test.

"Why are so few people here? I originally thought I would be competing with a lot of people; this is the Alchemy Club after all."

"Obviously, with this year's exam reforms, many people are worried about failing the exams, so they dare not take the time to participate in the club."

"Moreover, since everyone lacks an alchemy foundation, the professor took out this book and asked us to preview it within a week; this step alone has discouraged many people."

As he spoke, the student who made the statement held up the thin book in his hand to the surrounding students—"Baby Alchemy: How to Make Ten Interesting Magical Toys."

"In this way, everyone is standing on the same starting line. The professor is really interesting, asking us to preview such simple things."

"Yes, I was originally worried that it would be difficult, but I didn't expect it to be so simple. I finished memorizing all the content in the book in just three days."

Simple?

Hearing the students' discussion, Fred and George exchanged a smile, without commenting much on everyone's remarks.

They had also read that children's alchemy primer. The ten alchemy examples on it seemed simple, but each example contained layers of advanced alchemy knowledge, which was actually quite challenging.

Mastering everything in a week and making it by hand was definitely not an easy task.

They both had a premonition that tonight's recruitment activity would definitely not stop at the written test but would directly involve practical operation.

After all, for alchemy, theory and practice are two completely different things.

Even if you memorize the contents of the book perfectly, you will still encounter many unexpected difficulties and challenges when you actually start operating.

They guessed that the professor wanted to use this method to select the truly talented alchemists.

When Sebastian walked into the classroom, the students stopped discussing, and they looked at Sebastian with burning eyes, already eager to show off their skills.

Sebastian stood on the podium and went straight to the point: "I believe everyone has finished reading that alchemy primer."

"So, tonight, everyone needs to do it themselves and make the tenth example in the book—the toy carriage."

As he spoke, Sebastian stretched out his wand and gently waved it at his undetectable extension bag.

Suddenly, sets of alchemy tools flew out and landed accurately in each student's hands.

Then, he enlarged and widened the podium and placed a large amount of alchemy materials on it.

"The primer has already explained the required alchemy materials. Now, you need to come up and select the materials you need from here."

"After you have selected them, you can directly start making them."

"The deadline is 9:00 PM tonight. What are you waiting for? Start quickly."

Hearing this, the young wizards dared not neglect and stepped forward one after another, selecting materials according to the instructions in the book.

"Fred and George, this toy is too simple for you. Don't waste materials. Come over and help maintain order."

"From today on, you are the teaching assistants of the Alchemy Club."

"If anyone doesn't know how to use the alchemy tools later, you can go over and demonstrate it yourself."

The young wizards glanced at the twins, but couldn't say anything dissatisfied.

After all, the twins had already created the Marauder's Map, which was much more complex than the toys in the book.

They couldn't bother to envy the twins but seized the time to start selecting materials.

As soon as they started selecting, the young wizards' problems arose one after another.

Where is the beech wood?

These kinds of wood all look different. What's the difference?

Damn it, I only saw that the material formula included beech wood, but I didn't check what this kind of wood looks like specifically.

After finally selecting the wood, the young wizards were in trouble again.

Turning these woods into suitable shapes and sizes according to the data in the book was also a considerable challenge.

They used Cutting Charms, processing the wood bit by bit, shaping the wood into properly sized parts.

For the young wizards who were doing it for the first time, this was not a simple matter.

Fortunately, Sebastian provided enough materials, so the young wizards didn't have to worry about damaging the materials.

After finally processing the wood, the next step was to engrave magical runes on it.

There weren't many magical runes, only two, one for start and one for stop, and these two runes were very simple, with only a few strokes.

However, the young wizards holding the rune engraving knives were still in trouble.

Engraving magical runes on materials was a delicate matter. If you weren't careful, the magical runes would be wrong, and then the whole thing would need to be redone.

Next was to prepare the alchemy solution to make the magical runes truly effective.

Finally, all the parts were assembled to become a complete toy carriage.

Sebastian kept watching. This was a seemingly simple task, but in reality, it tested the students' patience and skills.

He found that the young wizards showed very different performances in this process.

Some young wizards had previewed it very well, and from the beginning of the material selection, they were in a state of ease, obviously having practiced in advance.

But more young wizards hadn't previewed it well enough, appearing a bit flustered and failing many times.

Some of them weren't discouraged. After each failure, they would patiently analyze the problem and try new methods.

While some young wizards were a little impetuous. With each failure, their emotions became more and more agitated, and finally, they even angrily threw the tools on the table and sat there staring at their works in a daze.

Time passed little by little, and Sebastian gradually selected suitable candidates in his heart.

Seeing that the time had reached 9:00 PM, Sebastian clapped his hands to attract the students' attention.

"Time's up. Next is the acceptance stage."

"Come on, students who are interested can come to the stage to show their results."

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