Chapter 310 310 - Failing Over and Over Again
Chapter 310 310 - Failing Over and Over Again
Aiden was now in front of the cauldron, currently asking himself what he needed to do next.
'Alright, I put the Manatrum then I wait a little for it to burn,' Aiden thought as he was currently trying to remember everything that David had shown them one hour ago.
It was a little blurry in his mind, however, he tried his hardest and he was able to remember every single step of what he had done.
That's why Aiden took the water bucket in his hands when he noticed that the Manatrum had completely burned inside the cauldron, revealing what seemed to be blue paste at the bottom of it.
'Ok, now the water,' Aiden thought as he dumped all the water inside it without a single moment of hesitation.
As he did so, all the blue paste at the bottom started to mix in with the water which became dark blue.
Without wasting another second, he started to mix it all together, slowly but surely.
"I need to keep that exact color," Aiden muttered as he didn't know how to mix the concoction that he was making at the moment.
It was all random, in fact, not a single movement out of him was calculated. Everything was done by intuition remembering how the director of the Magic Academy had acted.
He remembered the movements vaguely and Aiden was in the process of copying them to the best of his abilities.
"Are you okay, Aiden?" Garestsa asked as she found the time to talk to Aiden.
It seemed that most of her earlier stress had disappeared if she was able to do something like that at the moment.
Aiden had to admit that she had an advantage as she had the basics down contrary to him, so all of this would obviously be extremely simple.
'Does she really think that I can answer her right now,' Aiden thought as he was arriving at the most important part of this potion-making process.
The ending… the moment where Aiden would need to stop completely. If he went over the exact mixing time, then the potion wouldn't be successful.
Sure, this potion was extremely fast to make, but that also meant that it was the best time to practice this skill.
Aiden needed to figure out a way to get that timing right 100% of the time.
There was no way to tell at the moment, or at least, Aiden had no idea of the method since he hadn't been told any tricks.
At the moment, everything revolved around luck and that wasn't something that he appreciated at all.
He needed consistency, he needed something that would make sure that he would never fail.
Would he be able to get such a thing?
Aiden wasn't sure, however, he sure hoped so.
"Do you need help?" Garestsa continued asking as she noticed that he wasn't answering at all.
Aiden hearing her offering realized what was happening.
She had already succeeded and she was currently wondering if Aiden needed her help to complete his potions because it was taking too long.
'If she finished, doesn't that mean that I need to stop mixing it?' Aiden thought as he knew that they had basically started around the same time.
That's why Aiden stopped all his movements, looking at the color of his potion, praying that it wouldn't change color.
He wanted it to stay that same dark blue color, he hoped with all of his heart that it would.
However, as a few seconds passed the color slowly started getting darker. It started from the sides of it, and it slowly made its way toward the middle of the cauldron, before it turned completely black.
"Oh, you failed!" Garestsa said, feeling somewhat bad.
However, she had to admit that it felt kind of good to beat Aiden in one single thing.
He was always so much better than her, so she had to admit that it was a great sensation that she hoped she would be able to feel again.
Nonetheless, she wouldn't straight up ridicule him, she would help to the best of her abilities that was what she was trying to do.
"Do you need help?" She asked as Aiden was able to see that her potion was perfect.
He could see that glimmer of a blue color and from that, he was able to tell that it was good enough.
"Of course, I don't. Just let me try again," Aiden shouted, stubbornly.
It was already a known fact that Aiden wasn't extremely happy about that sort of stuff.
He couldn't accept that feeling of failing something and asking for help, he hadn't done it and the past, and he would try his best so that it wouldn't happen now.
Garestsa hearing how angry Aiden was, slowly walked back giving him enough space.
'Just how do I figure this out? What is the trick at the end, how was she able to get it on her first try? There has to be something that I'm seeing here,' Aiden thought as he knew that potion-making simply couldn't rely on luck, that wouldn't make any sense at all.
Aiden thought for a bit and decided to try again as he flew up in the air to go and get another water bucket ready.
A few seconds later, he was back in front of the cauldron with a determined look in his eyes.
He would try his absolute best to succeed this time even if he still had zero idea of how to find that perfect timing.
***
A few moments later, after his second attempt, there was a big pool of black water right in front of Aiden's face.
There was no doubt about it, he had failed again.
This time, Garestsa once again got closer to him with the same idea in mind. She wanted to help him.
However, before she could even say a single word, Aiden interrupted her.
"No, I don't want your help!"
Then, he flew back up in the air toward the usual lake where he would be getting his water.
He came back in front of the cauldrons and repeated the process.
'I don't care how many times I need, I will figure it out,' Aiden thought as he threw another plant of Manatrum in there followed by the water.
He waited for a little bit before mixing, and… mixed.
But, the end result was the same, the color was still purely black.
"Are you sure you don't want any help?" Garestsa asked, as she had already spotted Aiden's problem, and she knew the way that he could fix it.
It wasn't anything that would be hard to correct, which was why Garestsa couldn't understand why Aiden was so stubborn about doing those things by himself.
'Should I?' Aiden thought, as he did the same things every single time, not able to spot even the slightest mistake.
He knew that his problem was at the end when he needed to stop mixing at a precise moment.
However, he never knew when to stop, which was a big problem.
"Sure, you can help me. Just a sec, I'll go get water again," Aiden said as he flew up before shortly coming back.