High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 385: Chapter 54 Potion and a Stack of Documents_1

After the Magic Potion class ended, Zheng Qing didn’t immediately leave the classroom with his classmates.

He hesitated in the corridor, holding ”Standard Potion: First Year College”, frequently peeking into the classroom at the Potionology professor.

Professor Li was answering difficult questions from a few eager young wizards about today’s lesson.

Finally, after the last student left, the professor noticed the young wizard standing in the doorway.

”Zheng Qing?” Carrying his teaching materials, he walked out of the classroom, asking with an air of surprise: ”Did you have trouble understanding anything from today’s lesson? Although your base is quite weak, I think with Xiao Xiao’s help, you should be able to keep up with the class, right...”

The candidness of his words was a bit harsh.

Zheng Qing was taken aback, almost forgetting the question he had wanted to ask.

The young wizard opened his mouth, closed it again, repeated this three times, and finally managed to ask the question he had in mind.

”No problem, Professor,” Zheng Qing politely denied, ”Your lecture today was very enlightening... I didn’t have any difficulty understanding it.”

”That’s good, as long as you understand,” Professor Li appeared very satisfied, nodded a few times but looked puzzled: ”So, why did you wait at the door...?”

”Well, I’ve been having a bit of a headache lately... I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been too busy with the hunting party preparation.” The young wizard lowered his head, shyly adding, ”Isn’t it the start of October now? I was thinking I might want to take a potion before the full moon, so... Professor Yao told me I needed to come to you to pick up relevant rewards...”

”A headache? A potion?” Professor Li paused for a moment and then his face cleared, ”Oh... it’s the shape-shifting potion Old Yao mentioned before!”

Zheng Qing nodded rapidly, flashing a simple smile.

”You could have just said you were here for the shape-shifting potion,” the professor shook his head, guiding the young wizard to the staircase: ”Well, now is just the time to take the potion during the final stages of the lunar month... follow me to my office. There are several documents you need to sign.”

Zheng Qing’s face turned pale all of a sudden.

Even though he was already mentally prepared, he still felt dismayed when he heard this heartbreaking news.

Professor Li Qihuang’s office was known as a forbidden place for students.

Not because the Potionology professor setup any lethal devices there, but because his office was a place where ’ordinary wizards’ couldn’t bear to stay.

Perhaps it was because the professor often left his potion-making cauldron and half-dried herbs in the office; perhaps it was because he kept an open wooden barrel filled with pickled herring next to the cabinets; or maybe it was just because the ventilation in his office was broken.

The Potionology professor’s office was always filled with an odd smell.

It was like a mix of damp cellar air, rotten vegetation, fish, and top it off, a few pounds of pungent formaldehyde.

Almost all the students believed that Professor Li Qihuang had no sense of smell.

That his nose was just a decoration.

”Or... I could wait for you in the laboratory?” The young wizard suggested with a weak voice.

”The laboratory?” Professor Li turned around in surprise, looking at the young wizard, ”Why should we go to the laboratory?”

Zheng Qing was also taken aback.

”Don’t we need to make potions in the lab?” He still hoped he could stay as far as possible from the dreadful office, desperately arguing, ”I could start the fire for you... warm up the cauldron, or help you clean up the flasks and test tubes with alcohol...”

”What a hard-working young man,” Professor Li chuckled, patted Zheng Qing’s shoulder and said encouragingly but firmly denied, ”But you’ve got it wrong... My office has ready-to-use shape-shifting potions, you just need to sign a few documents and then you can get them... This is not a hundred years ago, we do not need to personally brew such standard potions.”

Zheng Qing’s vision blurred, and he stumbled on the stairs.

...

...

The professors seemed to be able to use certain convenient spells in the stairwell of the teaching building, for instance turn a corner and there’s the office, open a door and they could shift to where they wanted to go.

Professor Li was no exception.

Following the professor into the office, Zheng Qing tried to hold his breath, but after a minute, realized the strange smell seemed to infiltrate into his lungs through his skin.

It was inescapable.

What frightened him even more was that after just two minutes in the office, he seemed to have gotten used to the smell.

If he went back reeking of this smell, even his own house elf might stay away from him. The young spell caster wailed in his heart, imagining a scene of the gypsy witch clutching her nose and fleeing in horror only made him even more desperate.

”Here, sign this ’Special Potion Application Form’,” Professor Li searched his desk for a moment, then pulled out a stack of papers, ”Also these - ’First College Outstanding Student Subsidy Scheme’ ’Merlin Medal Recipient Favorable Policy’ and ’Professor Joint Meeting Emergency Decree’... Yes, just sign these first, indicating that you have read these documents.”

”Then these - ’Thought Field Simulation Authorization’ ’Surface Cell Retention Authorization’ ’Blood Retention Authorization’ - these are the physiological backups you need according to regulations of First College when using potions.”

”Finally, ’Wizards’ Alliance Registered Shape-shifting Spell User Registry’ and ’Shape-shifting Potion User Declaration’... This is a legal process, so this needs a signature as well.”

Zheng Qing was dizzy with the strange names being thrown at him. He simply pinched his nose, took the quill, and nearly closed his eyes when he signed his name at the blank spaces on the lower right corners of the documents.

Professor Li seemed to be stunned for a moment.

”Uh... even though I appreciate your trust in me, but I must tell you that was rather reckless,” hesitated for a second, then warned, ”Never sign any documents without reading them thoroughly... Didn’t your guardian warn you about the danger of magic contracts?”

Zheng Qing was taken aback.

He quickly nodded, and then shook his head rapidly.

”No, I don’t have a guardian in The Magical World.” He refuted and then confessed, ”But I know not to randomly sign magic contracts... Are these documents classed as magic contracts?”

”Any document that needs a signature is a contract... the only difference is the extent of their compulsory enforcement.” Professor Li put away the documents, put them in a bag made from parchment, and then stuffed them into the drawer of the desk, ”Remember not to be so casual next time...”

After speaking, he lifted his head, rubbed his hands, his eyes wandering between the glass cabinets on both sides of the desk.

”Lastly... the shape-shifting potion.”

He murmured while squinting at the small inscriptions on the cabinet, starting to determine which one was the shape-shifting potion.