The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

Especially considering that Snape clearly disliked Ryze, the fact that Ryze was able to pass his test already proves Ryze's talent.

Although the others were initially unclear about the nature of Snape's test, they were all shocked to learn that Rhett, a first-year wizard, was also one of their competitors.

Slytherin's female prefect, Jemma Farley, looked at Rizz with curiosity.

She met Reese through Professor Barblin and even borrowed Alley from her a few times.

She knew that Ryze was the best young wizard this year, but she didn't expect Professor Snape to agree to let such a first-year wizard participate in this quest.

However, she was only somewhat curious about Ryze's potion-making talent.

After all, she was the top potion student in fifth grade, a Slytherin student, and also had the potion notes of the two original contestants from the upper grades, so it could be said that she had already secured a spot in the competition.

These people who signed up are also competing for the remaining two spots, so it won't affect her.

If Ryze's potion-making talent is truly remarkable, she wouldn't mind offering him some simple assistance.

Making friends with capable people and investing in talented individuals in advance are qualities that Slytherin students should possess.

She nodded to Ryze and then told him some things Snape had told her beforehand.

"Of the fourteen students here now, at least half will be eliminated before Christmas. By the end of the school year, there will probably only be three or four left. As the youngest contestant, I hope you can persevere to the end, and then you will have the chance to become the youngest potion maker in centuries."

Jemma Farley gave Riz a word of encouragement.

Although she didn't tell Rizzi one more, somewhat cruel truth.

That means even if you become one of the final three contestants, only one person will actually be the core player competing for the potion.

The remaining two contestants are just backup options to make up the numbers. Although they will also receive training, there will be differences in the intensity and resources. They just need to make sure they don't end up with the lowest scores.

And that core member will only be her, after all, as a Slytherin, she also needs to strive for some glory for herself.

She didn't think the other thirteen people here could compare to her.

Chapter 73: The Test of the Aphrodisiac

Even among older students, Snape still posed a significant threat.

The dozen or so people were chatting quietly with their acquaintances, exchanging their opinions on the upcoming event. But when Snape opened the office door and his black figure appeared in the room, the entire underground classroom fell silent.

Perhaps because his leg was still not fully healed, Snape did not leave the office after opening the door.

He glanced at the dozen or so students standing in the classroom, his gaze finally settling on Jemma Farley.

“Miss Farley, distribute this requirement. Anyone who fails to make it this morning, or fails five times, will be disqualified.”

Jemma Farley strode over, took a parchment from Snape's hand, and then Snape whispered a few words to her.

No one knows what they said, but their attitudes show how much Snape values ​​Gemma Farley.

Snape took out a few keys and handed them to Jemma Farley. He glanced one last time at Ryze, the shortest but also the most conspicuous among the group of fifteen- and sixteen-year-old boys and girls, said nothing, and closed the office door again.

Jemma Farley, carrying the parchment, walked to the edge of the wall and began to walk around the wall.

"Professor Snape has instructed us to finish brewing the love potion this morning. This is a sixth-year course. Anyone who lacks confidence in themselves can leave the classroom now."

Obviously, no one will leave at this time.

Even though they had never used aphrodisiacs before, they still had five chances, and they wouldn't give up on this opportunity easily.

They had inquired about this potion, the "Speedy Elixir," from older students before they arrived.

It is a highly prestigious competition, with more than half of the winners throughout history becoming Potions Masters.

At the same time, as long as they can pass the test, they will receive more intensive training, and many potion recipes and materials that they would not normally have access to will be made available to them.

Even if you are ultimately eliminated, the process of learning potion-making will be very helpful.

Seeing that no one had left, Jemma Farley copied the contents of the parchment onto the blackboard in the classroom.

The content isn't extensive; it mainly covers the main ingredients of the aphrodisiac and the general preparation method.

"Among the drugs for sixth graders, love potions are not very difficult to make, and in addition to these main ingredients, there are many variations in the auxiliary ingredients and brewing methods, so there are many love potions with different effects on the market."

"However, Professor Snape did not specify the effects of the love potion; he only wanted to see what kind of love potion you could brew based on your understanding of potions."

After she finished speaking, she turned to look at Ryze.

“Your situation is special. Professor Snape said that before the end of this semester, you will not be required to brew potions for fifth graders or above. You can observe other people’s brewing process first, and then decide whether to try it.”

She paused here, then continued talking about Snape's demands on Ryze.

"But for every potion you can't brew, you need to write a paper over five feet long for it, and for every failed brewing, you need to write an additional one-foot summary of the reasons for the failure."

The older students standing nearby looked at Rizz with some pity.

They usually find it difficult to write assignments that are two or three feet long; their assignments are usually within one foot.

Penelope whispered to Reese that he could ask her if he didn't understand something.

However, Ryze didn't actually feel any pressure.

In his past life, when he read novels about how professors at Hogwarts calculated the length of assignments in feet, he subconsciously felt that the assignments were very long.

But after he realized that the length of an A4 sheet of paper (0.297 meters) was only 3 millimeters shorter than a foot (about 0.3 meters), he felt that the work of a few feet was actually not so bad.

Five feet is simply the size of a paper that is a little over five pages long. If written in normal size, each page would have at most four or five hundred words.

He also had Ai Li to help him with the writing, which basically only took an extra hour or two to organize the data.

Moreover, even if Snape didn't let him use Aery to help him, Ryze felt he probably wouldn't be able to write many papers anyway.

Ryze is now very confident in the Juicer rune.

Perhaps it would be a bit difficult for him to study the potion recipes for higher grades on his own now, since his basic skills haven't caught up yet.

But with so many older students making it in front of him, he could watch a few times and replicate it without much trouble.

Hermione was able to make a compound soup that would take a sixth grader to learn and require almost a month of preparation time to brew when she was only in her second year, so Ryze felt that she would have no problem doing it too.

The students present did not pay much attention to Rizz, the first-year wizard.

After all, they only had one morning to brew the aphrodisiac, and they didn't have much time to care about their younger rival.

The first to get moving was Jemma Farley, who had already mastered the regular potions for sixth and seventh graders at home. The only potions that took too long to master were ones she hadn't had time to learn yet.

After Jemma Farley took a document and started processing it at the potion station, the other students began their preparations one after another.

Rizzi stood between Jemma Farley and Penelope, watching them carefully process the materials he had not yet learned.

During the process, Jemma Farley was also able to briefly explain to Raz the techniques for handling these materials.

As the fifth-year potion master, she handled the materials with ease and could even talk to Ryze.

Penelope didn't have that luxury; she was completely focused when processing the materials, and her movements weren't as fluid as Jemma Farley's.

Only after processing a document will she pick it up and show it to Rezs what the processed document should look like.

The difference in their proficiency is quite noticeable.

After all, potions is a resource-intensive course, and you have to practice a lot to improve your grades.

Even though Hogwarts has its own herb garden and the Forbidden Forest has abundant resources, a significant portion of the expenses each year is still spent on purchasing materials for Potions class.

Although the potions brewed by the students could indeed be sold for money, the potions in the first five years of Hogwarts' textbooks had already had their prices driven down to the lowest possible level by generations of students.

Outside shops don't bother to buy them; it's the Ministry of Magic that comes every year to buy them at a low price, and then tries to find ways to reuse them or sell them to countries that use other potion textbooks.

Only potions made after sixth grade have a slight market, so it's very difficult to make money from potions during your school years, and it's even more difficult to become a potion master through self-study.

Jamie Farley must have come from a very well-off family, so she had enough money to practice in private.

In addition, as a Slytherin prefect, he occasionally received some guidance from Snape.

Most of the others, like Penelope and even Percy Weasley, come from families with modest means, and their families can't afford much money for their practice.

It could be said that they only had the opportunity to come into contact with the ingredients for these potions in the classroom.

Chapter 74: The Making of the Aphrodisiac

About fifteen minutes later, the first person failed to brew the soup. In the next hour or so, two or three more people failed to brew it. Fortunately, it was still early, and they had enough time to try again.

After waiting for an hour and a half, Jemma Farley became the first person to finish brewing the aphrodisiac.

Looking at the potion in the crucible, which shimmered like mother-of-pearl, with boiling steam rising in a spiral, this was a sign that the aphrodisiac had been successfully brewed.

“Not bad,” Jama Farley turned to look at Reiz beside her, picked up a clean stirring stick, dipped it in a little drug and dripped it into the container. “Do you want to smell it? The aphrodisiac will emit a scent that a person subconsciously likes the most. And since the drug hasn’t taken effect yet, if you drink a small amount, the side effects won’t be very noticeable.”

Jamie Farley even shared with Ritz the taste of the unactivated aphrodisiac, indicating that she had tasted it privately before.

Similar to compound potions that can transform one into another, aphrodisiacs also require a part of the corresponding person to be added to the potion to be considered complete; hair, nails, blood, or even worse things can be added.

The biggest difference between the two is that compound decoctions cannot turn into dead people or animals.

Aphrodisiacs, on the other hand, can cause people to develop a crazy obsession with the dead, including non-human beings.

In addition, the face of a person who drinks the love potion will become paler than before, so for an experienced wizard, it is relatively easy to tell whether a person has been drugged.

As she explained, she handed the container to Ryze.

Rizzo leaned over and carefully sniffed it.

Yes, it tastes very familiar, but it's been a long time since I've tasted fried rice with eggs.

I really miss it.

But let's forget about tasting it.

Jemma Farley only said that although the aphrodisiac had not yet taken effect, drinking it would still have some side effects.

It's fine to try it secretly when you're alone, but with so many people watching, he's really worried about what bad side effects might occur after he tastes it.

Seeing that Rizzi didn't seem inclined to try it, Jemma Farley was slightly disappointed.

Few people know that if nothing is added to the love potion, it can actually be called a narcissistic drug, which will make the person who drinks it extremely confident and narcissistic.

She was genuinely curious to see what Ryze, this overly composed young man, would be like after drinking the love potion and becoming narcissistic.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the potion table, Penelope, who was a few minutes slower, also finished brewing the aphrodisiac.

She turned to look at Jemma Farley, who was still trying to coax Ryze into trying the aphrodisiac: "Alright, Jemma, stop teasing Ryze. The more you do that, the less likely he is to fall for it."

As she said this, Penelope also took a little bit of the aphrodisiac and handed it to Reese, so that Reese could see the difference between the two of their potions.

Rizzi took a look.

Jamie Farley's aphrodisiac has a clean smell; it only smells like fried rice.

Penelope's medicine, however, had a much more complicated taste.

Fried rice, chicken soup, and even the oat milk I had this morning.

Rizzi carefully smelled the aroma inside and sensed a mixed, eclectic scent.

He truthfully expressed his feelings, and Penelope spread her hands towards Gemma Farley: "I still can't compare to you."

Penelope sighed and then began to explain to Rez.

Although they all successfully produced qualified aphrodisiacs, the aphrodisiac with only a single scent was obviously more effective, not only with a stronger infatuation effect but also with a longer duration of effect.

Most aphrodisiacs only last for a few days, but the one she has could last for ten days to half a month.

“However, the stronger the aphrodisiac, the greater the side effects. Normally, the aphrodisiacs commonly found on the market are the kind made by Penelope,” Jamie Farley added.

However, since she is currently demonstrating her potion-making skills, the stronger the potion, the better.

Rizz nodded, then continued to recall the differences in the methods the two used to concoct the aphrodisiac.

By this time, he was confident that he could replicate Penelope's method to concoct the aphrodisiac.

However, he was not in a hurry, and instead continued to check on the potion-making progress of several other people.

Percy Weasley's progress was slower than Penelope's, and the potions he brewed seemed to be less effective.

Not only was the taste less distinct, but it was also more mixed. If Penelope's potion could last for more than three days, his would probably only last for one or two days.

However, compared to others, Percy Weasley's potion seems to be quite good, after all, he succeeded on his first try.

If he were to brew it again, he would definitely be able to brew an even more effective aphrodisiac.

Having observed the situation, Ryze had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

Among the fourth and fifth year students at Hogwarts, Gemma Farley had the highest potion-making skills.

Then, Penelope and one of the Hufflepuff prefects, although significantly inferior to Gemma Farley, could still keep up with her and could be considered part of the first tier.

As for Percy and those who successfully brewed the potion on their first try, but whose potion effects were only so-so, they belong to the second tier.