Chapter 114: potions competition second place
So they usually put on the complicated potions for test with cheap ingredients. The number is also small and easy to obtain. So if someone knows about this they can practice easily and have better understanding and mastery of making that specific potion.
Even if they news is not leaked they can still have better understanding because there are not many potions that need a short time, requires cheap and readily available materials in the market. As long as they are not stupid it is a done deal.
There are few bright ones in the group and most of them are in tension. The people in tension should be mostly ignorant and came here to participate in the competition properly. The bright faced people might be a little different in this matter.
Jack can say that these people with bright smiles might already know what the contents of the test are and are completely prepared for the test. Well Jack did not care. The fame here is not useful to him.
Instead he was thinking of getting more materials for his experiments on the magic cards. While he was thinking an hour passed by and the entry to the competition is closed. There are around 120 people present.
The first round was about to start. The participants are called forward to sit on different set of chairs. There is a big box that looked like a display box in jewelry stores with many ingredients floating separately in it.
The people are asked to identify the materials inside the display box. The time limit is one hour and the number of materials is 100. Each floating item has a number beside it and they have to write the number and name of the material.
Jack immediately wrote the list of hundred materials. His memory is good and he can identify easily. But the problem comes when actually brewing a potion. The process is harder than other areas. So Jack has to do things slowly.
After 10 minutes Jack handed over the list of identification to the examiner. Quickly an hour passed by and in the first round Jack actually came first. Snape did not smile because he did not think that reaching the first place in identifying is something great.
But in the 120 participants 70 people are directly removed. The top 50 were taken to their respective stands in the order of their rank in the first round. Jack naturally occupied the first potions making table.
He checked his equipment carefully as every other participant did. There are always unexpected thing so carefully checking the equipment and materials is the duty of the participant.
This is also a kind of test. It is like the hidden rules in the work place. You have to know what you are doing and you have to know your limits and your things are your responsibility. You have to make your own choices.
If something happened in the middle then the responsibility falls on the participant instead of the organizer. With that the second competition begins. It is to make a minor healing potion that can cure scars and burns along with minor injuries.
The process takes an hour for brewing this potion if it was done properly. The effects determine the winner in this care and the color of the potion gives the quality measurement from 1 to 10 based on the grading of the ministry of magic.
With that the winner of the competition is decided. Also only 10 people can move on to the next stage and final stage. The reason for this is the materials even though they are cheapest required for the third round potion are costly.
So they can only produce or procure 10 copies of materials. So, only top 10 have the right to participate in the third round of the competition. In the final stage only one person can win. Jack immediately took the ingredients and selected the good ones based on his knowledge.
After washing his cauldron he began to process the materials and started by heating water. In many cases the potions making is more like cooking. Jack is very good at cooking with delicate control.
He cleaned the materials namely red berry fruits, roots of water lilies...Then he put the things into the cauldron in the order of making the minor healing potion. If things went well he might make a better grade minor healing potion.
...…..
"Grulll…."
An hour passed quickly in the silent hall with only the sound of potions brewing. Many smells intertwined as the process of making this potion in various countries is different. Jack was silent during this time and did the work diligently.
One of the important things that a potions master should have is a nose that is sensitive but also stable enough to not to vomit because of the strange smell. If it is in modern day world they have gas masks and monitoring devices.
Some of the smells of the potions when making is so nauseating that one could not hold back from vomiting. But a small mistake can make the potion fail and explode. So it is that dangerous. One has to be cautious.
Finally after an hour the judges came over with equipment that can measure the quality of the minor healing potion. It was actually a glass tube with some liquid inside. When it was dipped into the potion, the liquid inside would raise up like the mercury in a thermometer.
Then it would show the rating. Jack got the first inspection and got the rating 9.4. Then the other 49 candidates were checked one after the other.
Well among them 19 of them has actually failed to either complete the potion or failed to even brew it properly. Jack came in the third place. There are two other people that scored 9.4 and 9.5
The person that scored 9.4 along with Jack has actually brewed the potion few moments earlier.
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