Hi EzraKiteck!
Thank you so much for playing our Game and also thank you for taking the time to write this awesome feedback!
I will differently improve on the "not working" responses, that's a good point. I try to shift them more into a hint system because if you try something wrong, may a hint in the right direction is a good idea. Especially while trying to combine items.
Also, visually occupying the professor is a good idea. As far as I can tell he was very busy while you were outside of the screen :)
So, you are right, for me as a creator of this logic it´s always hard to rate how logical this would be for other players, so thank you again for your constructive feedback will try to improve there!