Kroft

Biography

Choosing an apprentice

Kroft is a Rank 1 professor at Abyssal Bone Forest Academy whose laboratory specializes in Potioneering. He tests Leylin Farlier, accepts him as an apprentice, and brings him into a small teaching lineage alongside Bicky and Merlin. His initiation frames Magi as seekers of truth rather than merely wielders of dangerous spells, giving Leylin a professional identity and access to laboratory work. (Chapters 21–27)

Kroft teaches ingredient handling, formulation, energy neutralization, and the repeated practice required before recipes become reliable. He recognizes that Leylin's apparent success rate is unusual and permits him to brew Strength Potions for sale, while still emphasizing that resources and fundamentals constrain every Potioneering student. Unlike many academy professors, he does not casually turn apprentices into human experiments. (Chapters 24–40)

Formulas, warnings, and advancement choices

Kroft sells Leylin the ancient Azure Potion and Tears of Mary formulas. Azure Potion becomes an early spiritual-force aid after Leylin identifies substitute ingredients; Tears of Mary introduces soul research so difficult that Leylin spends years simplifying only part of it into Blood Vengeance Potion. Kroft also supplies expensive one-use preparations such as Howling Witch Potion, showing how Potioneering can imitate a spell at the cost of consumable materials. (Chapters 39–43, 102, 154–169)

During the academy war, Kroft cannot openly violate institutional agreements, but gives Leylin enough indirect information to recognize a dangerous family-backed mission. When Leylin returns as a Level 3 acolyte, Kroft explains the three requirements for official advancement—spiritual force, a defensive Rank 1 spell, and Grine Water—and how major factions monopolize the latter two. He lays out the academy bloodbath as the only contract-free route to those resources rather than pretending it is safe. (Chapters 40, 80–87)

After the competition Kroft proposes a safer family contract and accepts Leylin's refusal. He teaches him the principles of Branded Swordsmen and continues advising him without forcing dependence. The relationship ends when Leylin leaves the South Coast, but Leylin's later Potion Grandmaster knowledge grows from this foundation even after surpassing Kroft's technical level. (Chapters 98–101, 216, 318)

A peaceful end in a violent world

Centuries later Leylin learns that Kroft died naturally at Rank 1 and was buried behind the restored academy. Kroft never acquires a high-grade meditation technique or reaches Rank 2, so even mastery of Potioneering cannot overcome the limit of a Rank 1 lifespan. Leylin considers the peaceful death fortunate by Magus standards and remembers the professor's lessons rather than treating him as an obsolete early contact. (Chapters 670, 679–680, 1053)

Appearance and personality

Kroft is a white-haired, bespectacled man with the appearance of middle age. He is scholarly, measured, and capable of becoming absorbed in an active brew, but notices both technical talent and personal danger around his students.

He is pragmatic about the academy's lethal culture without embracing its worst cruelty. Kroft warns indirectly when contracts prevent open disclosure, offers safer advancement routes, and lets Leylin refuse binding terms. Pride in a gifted apprentice never becomes a demand to control that apprentice's future.

Magic, bloodline, and abilities

Rank 1 Magus and lifespan limit

Kroft is an official Rank 1 Magus. His status gives him a professor's laboratory, academy authority, and spellcasting far above acolytes, but he has no high-grade meditation inheritance and never reaches Rank 2. Potioneering can heal, strengthen, and extend practical capacity; it does not by itself remove rank bottlenecks or grant an unlimited lifespan. (Chapters 21–101, 680)

Potioneering Master

Kroft is a recognized Potioneering Master capable of brewing difficult formulas, evaluating ingredients, and teaching laboratory process. His work includes Strength Potions, Howling Witch Potion, Azure Potion, Tears of Mary, and medicines that neutralize hostile energies. A potion can reproduce a spell-like effect, but usually requires expensive materials and is consumed in one use. (Chapters 24–43, 102–169)

His expertise is below the later Potion Grandmaster level Leylin attains. Leylin defines that higher level by roughly thirty-percent success with high-grade potions and the ability to research new formulas. Kroft supplies the conceptual and procedural foundation, while the A.I. Chip, broader archives, and years of experimentation carry Leylin beyond it. (Chapters 154–318)

Herbalism, medicine, and laboratory practice

Kroft identifies magical herbs, treats injuries, operates experimental formations, and studies the neutralization of energy. He heals Leylin after the secret-plane competition and recognizes regenerative ingredients such as the Flourishing Flower. The corpus does not assign him a signature combat spell; his principal applications are professional and medical rather than frontline offense. (Chapters 24–101)

Formula instruction and Magus advancement knowledge

Kroft can assess brewing talent, structure apprentice work, and explain the political constraints around official-Magus advancement. He knows the need for spiritual force, a defensive Rank 1 model, and Grine Water, as well as the risks of contracts and the academy bloodbath. He also understands Branded Swordsmen as ancient warriors whose bodies carry alchemical spell formations. This knowledge supports student decisions but does not give Kroft access to every advanced inheritance he describes. (Chapters 80–101)

Relationships

• Leylin Farlier: Apprentice whose Potioneering foundation Kroft establishes.
• Merlin: Kroft's first outstanding Potioneering apprentice.
• Bicky: Another apprentice in Kroft's laboratory.

Items

Kroft's important possessions are laboratory tools, formula scrolls, and potion stocks. The ancient Azure Potion and Tears of Mary formulas are his most consequential contributions to Leylin's path.