Year Two

With the arrival of the new students, Borne was promoted to a second-year student.

Borne glanced at the new semester's course schedule and frowned.

Basic Magic Theory

Principles of Spellcasting

Introduction to Spell Sources

The curriculum was basically the same as the previous year, and the instructors were all old scholars (those with extensive magical knowledge but lower mana levels) and young teaching assistants who had remained at the academy.

Borne had attended a few times, but never went back afterward; the level was quite average, and more importantly, they only taught very, very basic knowledge.

To say nothing of Borne, these basics were things other noble children had already mastered before enrollment.

It was evident that the Dean had truly put his heart into narrowing the gap between the commoners and the nobility.

This year, there were over thirteen hundred new students, five hundred more than last year.

Last year, eight hundred students enrolled, half of whom were commoners; this year, the number of nobles remained the same, but the number of commoners had increased.

The commoners who managed to get in certainly had no issues with talent, but the problem lay in the information gap—literacy alone was enough to weed out ninety-nine percent of the applicants.

How many commoners could master Nether Script before enrollment, let alone the noble version?

For this reason, a new subject, Introduction to Magic Script, was added to the new student curriculum this year.

To put it bluntly, it was just teaching them how to read, and ten classes were opened, each one overflowing with students.

In the end, there was no other choice but to add three more classes to barely accommodate them, and the applicants were all commoners.

To accommodate the commoner class, the Dean had to lower the teaching difficulty several times.

This had also led to a year-by-year decline in the strength of the academy's graduates; the strongest student to graduate last year was the former president of the Arcane Society, who was also the only mid-level Arcanist.

Borne sighed inwardly; although he had long since ceased to have any expectations for the courses, seeing them in reality still felt grating.

Fortunately, the Lehman Trading Company was gradually getting on the right track, and now that it had established a firm footing, the general direction was controlled by Lehman, so Borne no longer needed to spend a large amount of energy on it.

For this reason, he decided to have a good talk with his grandfather.

Arriving at the familiar Wizard Tower, Borne waved his hand and directly instructed the Tower Spirit to send him to the floor where Count Ioulaum was located.

As the Vice Dean of Giles Academy, Count Ioulaum had an entire floor in the Wizard Tower, and most importantly, he possessed partial authority over the tower itself.

This was why the Count was basically always at the academy rather than at home, and the laboratory on the top floor of the manor was basically unused (it had been mostly emptied out by Borne).

Of course, the main reason was that the top-tier Nether devices were mostly housed in the Wizard Tower.

Looking at the various magical devices in his grandfather's laboratory, Borne's eyes lit up.

"Have some dignity, wipe that drool off."

Hearing the voice, Borne instinctively raised his hand, then immediately reacted and turned around to say.

"Grandfather!"

The person who arrived was none other than Count Ioulaum.

The two exchanged a few brief words, and Borne went straight to the point.

"You want to make an Ioun Stone yourself?"

Count Ioulaum's expression was serious as he said, "'Ioun Stones' are the pinnacle of Nether craftsmanship, and they are also the highest secret of Nether; even I cannot give one to you privately."

"High Yarrow Mutation Technique!"

"Hmm?"

"If I said... I would use the Magical Plant Mutation Technique to 'trade' for this, do you think it's feasible?"

"Done, it's a deal!"

Before Borne could finish, the Count had already made the decision.

Borne: ...

Seeing Borne's expression, the Count was overjoyed, "Don't worry, would your grandfather ever let you suffer a loss?"

Borne looked at him sideways, his expression practically screaming one word: Yes.

The Count was furious and really wanted to throw this brat out right then and there.

The Count was quite satisfied with Borne as his heir; if he had to find a flaw, it was that he was too opinionated and basically didn't need him to worry too much.

His arcane talent was astonishing, and when he lacked money, he founded a trading company himself, and the channels were also opened by him; although the outside world generally believed that the Count was operating behind the scenes, he had actually done nothing.

It was rare for his precious grandson to ask for something today, so even without the Magical Plant Mutation Technique as a trade, he would have gotten it for him.

Not to mention that in terms of practical value, it was hundreds of times higher than that so-called craft!

Being able to mutate High Yarrow meant that other varieties could also be mutated; even if the quality was much worse, it couldn't withstand the fact that it could be produced in large quantities.

How many spellcasters could this cultivate!

Why was the strength of the academy's graduates declining year by year? Wasn't it just a matter of resources!

There is no helping it; the Arcane Garden is only so large, and the number of students increases every year.

With too many monks and too little gruel, the quality is bound to decline.

The Count raised his hand and tapped his index finger, causing a scroll to materialize out of thin air and land in his grasp.

"Here, these are some of my insights and techniques from when I used to craft Ioun Stones. Take them and study them first; I can only provide the detailed crafting methods once His Excellency gives his consent."

With the item in hand, Borne slipped away immediately.

"That brat..."

After exiting the Wizard Tower, Borne toyed with the scroll in his hand, clearly in a good mood.

However, it wasn't long before he was blocked. Yes, even Borne hadn't expected someone to corner him inside the academy.

Did they not know his grandfather was the Dean?!

The ones who intercepted Borne were members of the Arcane Society.

A tall, thin blond youth spoke up.

"Kid, you weren't easy to find. Do you know how long we've been waiting here..."

"Fran! Have you forgotten what the President said!"

His companion interrupted the blond youth, then turned to Borne and said, "Apologies, Borne Ioulaum. My name is Rocky Nasif, and this is Fran Vanwick. We are members of the Arcane Society."

"State your business."

Borne asked with a sour expression.

"It is like this: our President would like to invite you to join our Arcane Society."

"Sorry, I'm not interested. If your President is sincere, have him come and speak to me himself."

"This..."

Rocky looked troubled, while the blond youth beside him had long since lost his patience; hearing Borne's words, he started to step forward.

"You brat, are you looking for—"

Rocky quickly reached out to stop Fran.

"Oh? So you want to throw hands, then..."

A pale blue oval-shaped magical barrier enveloped Borne, and around him appeared over a dozen weapons—blades, swords, and spears—condensed from pure mana.

After refining the Mage Hand through nearly a hundred versions, the spell's effects were no longer limited to the shape of a 'hand.'

The two of them were stunned by this display. It was Borne's first time testing this new iteration of the spell, and the results were quite good; unfortunately, the two opponents were too weak and were scared witless.

It seemed the actual combat effectiveness would have to wait for another time. He then cast Fly and left the scene, leaving the two of them in a state of disarray.

Seeing Borne fly away, the two let out a sigh of relief. Catching Rocky's gaze, Fran felt a faint sense of regret, though it was quickly replaced by the pride of his family.

The two walked in silence, returning to the Arcane Society to report to their President.

The new President was named Skolin Vanwick.

As the newly ascended President of the Arcane Society, he had to establish his authority in the shortest time possible.

He thought of the previous President's failed attempt to recruit Borne Ioulaum.

The Arcane Society was under the academy's leadership, possessing significant power in assisting with student management and access to information unknown to others.

This was exactly why so many students fought desperately to join the Arcane Society.

After listening to their report, Skolin roughly understood the situation. He hadn't expected that, in his caution to avoid mistakes, he had sent his own kin to assist in the persuasion, only for them to fail to help and nearly start a fight instead.

Skolin was speechless; if not for the presence of others, he would have loved to curse this blockhead.

"Fine, since he doesn't think much of us, let it be."

"President, that brat spoke wildly and even told you to go yourself..."

The blond youth grew more indignant the more he thought about it. As a member of the Vanwick family, he had never suffered such an insult. Seeing Skolin ready to drop it, he couldn't help but speak up.

Slap.

Skolin slammed the table and roared, "I said let it be! Did you not hear me?"

The blond youth jumped in fright. Seeing the President's fury, he shrank his head and dared not speak again.

"Rocky, you may leave. Fran, go report to the Enforcement Squad."

"Yes."

Rocky glanced at the blond youth and walked out first.

Seeing the outsider leave, the blond youth hurried forward to plead, "Cousin..."

As soon as he started, he saw Skolin's gloomy gaze. His heart tightened, and he immediately changed his tone, "Pr... President, can I not go to the Enforcement Squad?"

"What? Say that again!"

"Can I change to another... place? Uh, yes, I'm going right now!!!"

The members of the Arcane Society outside watched as the blond youth bolted out of the President's office and fled the scene.

Bang.

The President's door closed automatically, and the members of the Arcane Society went back to their own business.