Chapter 193. The Alchemy School’s Project
On the sixth floor of the Mage Tower, inside a large room that had been cordoned off,
Second-Tier Mage Philip was a mage of the Alchemy School. About twenty years ago, he had co to the Northern Society, partly to escape the exclusion he faced within the Alchemy School, and partly to pursue spells of a higher tier.
Originally, he had thought that after arriving at the Northern Society, he would no longer have to deal with matters that left him utterly troubled.
He had co to the Northern Society precisely so he could devote himself to researching spells.
Now, however, as he looked at the eight mages before him and the three apprentices under his supervision, his head began to ache.
He had originally expected that the other mages would stuff perhaps three people into his project.
Counting the three apprentices he had brought over from the academy, that would already have been quite a large group.
But he had never expected that the final number would be more than double what he had anticipated, and that there would even be the rare situation in which there were more mages than apprentices.
Mage Philip now regretted it deeply. He regretted why he had gone off to deal with sothing else and left this project sitting idle.
Now things were splendid indeed. There was hardly that much work in his project to begin with, so how was he supposed to satisfy the expectations of the ntors behind these mages and give them enough practice?
In truth, he also knew that the reason this project had so many people in it now was entirely due to coincidence.
It was all because that Habos had published that paper in the Northern Society, making the Northern Society famous throughout the entire Alliance.
Those without backing wanted to co to the Northern Society to develop themselves, since the promotion threshold here was relatively low. As for those with backing, they had been sent here by the ntors behind them to gather information.
As far as Philip knew, just yesterday alone, there had been a full seven mages entering the Northern Society for the first ti. In the past, that would have been unthinkable.
There had even been three more who arrived at dawn today. At this rate, today would probably break yesterday’s record again.
And clearly, this number would continue to rise over the next month or so, until the Northern Society’s current wave of popularity finally faded.
Philip looked toward the eight mages, still holding the letters of introduction that had brought them here.
Two of them had been introduced by the Northern Society’s Society President. Those, naturally, could not be refused.
Three had co through letters written by old friends of his back in the Alliance. Of course he knew those letters could not possibly have co solely from his friends’ own intentions.
Introducing one person would have been one thing, but this many? Most likely so high-tier mage had arranged it behind the scenes.
One had been introduced by one of his current friends, another Second-Tier Mage. He was not in a good position to refuse that person either.
As for the remaining two, those were even more untouchable.
Those two had co all the way from the Alliance’s greater societies.
One was from the Joberna Society of the Elental School, and the other was from the Ocean Society of the Modification School.
Just by looking at the insignias on their robes, he knew they were not people he could easily refuse.
Though, when those last two had approached him, he had agreed at once. At the ti, he had felt that taking two more people would be no big matter.
If only he had refused them on the spot. But he could only bla that brief lapse in judgnt of his at the ti, when he had agreed without even thinking.
The atmosphere in the room was extrely quiet. The eight mages below stared at him eagerly, while his three apprentices looked at him hesitantly, then at the eight mages.
Philip let out a sigh and said,
“Welco to the project under my direction...”
“Let remind you all here: if you wish to operate any of these spell devices, inform before doing so. Do not use them privately.”
“Do not casually reveal the specifics of this project to outsiders. The consequences are not sothing you would wish to know.”
“You are to follow my orders and do the corresponding work. Do not do anything extra. Understood?!”
The mages below all nodded in unison to show that they understood.
Philip did not believe their obedient gestures in the slightest, but all he could do was hope that their curiosity would not beco too excessive.
“Next, let explain what I am trying to do!”
Philip was extrely unwilling to speak aloud about the project he was researching. As a mage, he firmly believed that research was an intensely private matter.
But in order to teach these mages, he had no choice but to explain what he was working on.
“The Alchemy School has a material called White Star Sand. A Second-Tier Mage of the Alchemy School can refine it through an exceedingly cumberso series of steps.”
“Later, soone invented a device that allows even an apprentice to refine a little White Star Sand from it.”
“However, although this thod is easy to operate, its total output is far lower than that of the earlier thod.”
“With the sa mass of raw materials consud, the output of White Star Sand from the forr thod is ten tis that of the latter.”
“So the focus of our project is how to improve the yield of the latter thod.”
Philip swept his gaze across the eight mages. Even now, he still had not thought of any reasonable way to distribute all the work.
His eyes shifted, and he finally ca up with a solution: in truth, he did not need all of them to participate in the actual work. He only needed to teach them.
In other words, although they would all still remain in his project group, he could simply instruct them here just as though he were teaching apprentices.
There was no need for them all to take part in his experints from here on out. If it ca down to actual labor, these mages might not even work as efficiently as the three apprentices he had brought with him.
Philip tapped on the table, then leaned close to his three apprentices and quietly instructed them to go fetch sothing.
He himself then slowly began to speak.
“Listen carefully. I suspect many of you have never had any contact at all with the content of the Alchemy School. If you join this project rashly, you may only slow the entire project down.”
“So, here is what we will do. I will have each of you conduct a small experint. My requirent is that you record every operation you perform and describe your actions accurately—”
The three apprentices ca over grunting with effort, carrying eight spell devices roughly the size of rice cookers.
The mages present only needed a single glance to know that these were likely the spell devices they would be using in the experint, except...
These spell devices were covered in dust, and nearly every one of them bore cracks. They looked practically like scrap.
“This is a Small White Star Sand Refining Device. It was specially made so that mages could refine White Star Sand directly when they were in urgent need of it.”
“Even apprentices can use these devices, so there is no need to worry.”
“In a mont, these apprentices will each give you the sa mass of raw materials. You do not need to... ah... you may compete a little and see who can refine the greatest amount of White Star Sand in the end. I will give a reward.”
He had originally wanted to say that there was no need to compete, but after thinking it over, he still said it aloud. It would not be a bad thing if these mages could exhaust their energy on that instead.
At that mont, Fulan, who was among the mages, raised her hand.
“May I ask whether we are allowed to modify these ‘worn-out’ devices?”
Philip raised his brows. He had not expected a mage to be so bold as to think directly of modifying the device.
“Of course you may, but if it breaks, it will not be replaced.”
Let these mages tinker around with these discarded devices from the storeroom first. As for how they did it, what did it matter to him?
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