Mission Hall

When Borne walked into the Arcane Society with such high profile, and the president personally handled his membership registration, the entire Arcane Society exploded.

Seeing their former "enemy" become one of their own was a bit awkward, but it brought far more excitement and joy.

Every kind of emotion was present, and the entire Arcane Society spent the day immersed in this complex, bittersweet atmosphere.

Three whole years! Borne, that "Great Demon King," had been suppressing the Arcane Society for three whole years!

These three years could be considered the lowest point in the history of the Arcane Society; it had nearly fallen to the level of an ordinary club.

The shitty part was that clearing the Arcane Society had actually become a badge of honor. Even a rotting ship still has three pounds of nails, but after being put in their place by the Enforcement Squad, every "Tom, Dick, and Harry" was shouting slogans all day about challenging the Arcane Society.

It was simply absurd!

However, the moment Borne joined the Arcane Society, the members suddenly stood taller, as if the Arcane Society had returned to its peak.

Although Borne held no specific position, that didn't stop them from considering him one of their own.

The few who held grudges or felt awkward still accepted it calmly amidst the overall joyful atmosphere.

What else could they do? They couldn't beat him.

Even the president from three years ago couldn't beat him, and every subsequent president had tried their best to avoid matters involving Borne. Borne had also remained very "low-key," and everyone had lived in peace.

Who would have thought this current president would actually pull Borne in? It was just so damn clever.

Originally, there had been quite a bit of grumbling when Lisper took office, because Lisper was not the top student.

Although the current "top student" was a bit watered down, they were still second in the academy!

A leader needs to be able to fight back when their subordinates are bullied, not just rely on mob tactics.

Lisper was only able to take office thanks to the support of the previous president, overcoming all opposition. Although her strength was decent and she possessed a spellcasting bloodline, she wasn't the "top student," so the people below always had complaints.

Now, those were gone. Where would any "complaints" come from?

As expected, those who can become president are never simple; the previous president truly had a keen eye for talent.

President Lisper is the GOAT!!!

The news quickly spread throughout the entire academy.

At first, no one believed it. The grievances between Borne and the Arcane Society were known not just throughout Giles Academy, but even to the outside world.

How could it be!

But as time passed, with various witnesses—from the Arcane Society president finding Borne, to the two having a "pleasant" conversation, to the membership list published by the Arcane Society—the truth became clear.

For a time, wails of despair echoed throughout the academy.

Originally, the current top student was not the president of the Arcane Society, or rather, the strongest few were not in the Arcane Society, so with enough effort, there was still some hope of clearing it.

Now it was over. Borne Ioulaum had joined the Arcane Society; this damn difficulty had jumped straight from Hard to Hell mode.

Borne would not graduate for at least another two years, and there was basically no hope for these next two years.

After witnessing Borne solo the Arcane Society, no one dared to claim they could beat this guy.

One must know that three years ago, the Arcane Society was at its peak. The president was the grade's top student, everyone who could enter the Arcane Society was among the most outstanding in their grade, and the Enforcement Squad was the cream of the crop—those without enough strength couldn't even get in, otherwise, how could they suppress a group of unruly rebels?

Yet, Borne had punched his way through the Arcane Society, and he did it in an almost "unscathed" state. Yes, there were at least several hundred people watching at the time who witnessed the earth-shattering duel between the Arcane Society president and Borne.

(The Arcane Society president was being beaten one-sidedly.)

Borne Ioulaum was like a demon god; with hundreds of "Hand of the Demon God" spells, any magic cast against him had to kneel.

Yes, Borne's [Mage Hand] had been upgraded again, becoming the Hand of the Demon God!

The modified [Mage Hand] that Borne uploaded to the academy had also been dug up by others. He had taken a 0-level spell and made it more complex than a 3rd-level spell. Borne had named it [Giant's Hand] at the time, but everyone felt that didn't fit the reality and changed it directly to [Hand of the Demon God].

However, there were students who learned it; although it wasn't as solid as Borne's, its power was indeed comparable to a 3rd-level spell.

Even if they learned it, they could only release two or three at most. Like Borne, who could manifest nearly a hundred without seemingly reaching his limit, it was simply cheating.

As long as one had studied the spell structure Borne uploaded, they basically extinguished any thoughts of challenging him. Most people were still feeling anxious about practicing basic magic, while this guy had already started modifying it—and not just simple modifications, but a complete reconstruction of the magic.

The key was that those were records from three years ago!

The Arcane Society's strength was currently at its lowest in history, which was why everyone had the idea of replicating the "miracle."

Now, while you could still hear the slogans, most were just empty talk; as for actual action, forget it...

Borne was unaware of the changes in the outside world, and even if he knew, he wouldn't care.

In his view, Giles Academy was just an ivory tower.

The academic atmosphere and research highly promoted by the dean and the upper echelons drove the development of arcane civilization. As graduates left, one class after another, and entered the government, military, and other sectors, they were slowly influencing Netheril.

At seventeen or eighteen, one's mind is at its most active and inspiration is most abundant. At this time, a person's thinking has not yet solidified, and all sorts of whimsical ideas emerge.

"As expected, none of those who can become president of the Arcane Society are simple!"

After just casually scanning some materials, Borne discovered many novel theories and even secret techniques from various families.

It stood to reason; to become president of the Arcane Society in just five years, one must have the support of some family. Commoners certainly had outstanding talents, but without resources, it was all for nothing.

With his strength at its current level, Borne already had a vague feeling.

Next, it was time to determine his path of magic!

It was just like choosing a major before getting into university in his past life.

Looking at the rows of notes and research materials on the bookshelves, many of the magical concepts within them seemed whimsical by current standards, but who could say how many of these ideas would be realized hundreds of years from now!

Fifteen days later.

Borne set down the materials in his hand; they had already been recorded by the chip, accessible to him whenever he wished to review them.

Although Borne spent most of his time flipping through books, he would still extract certain fragments to contemplate.

"What a brilliant era. Just from this, one can imagine the later glory of the Nether civilization."

"...Perhaps it is precisely in this atmosphere that Arcanists slowly lose their reverence for the gods."

From arrogance, toward decay...

"If not for my identity as a transmigrator, having seen through history, perhaps I too would have been influenced by this atmosphere and become arrogant and conceited!"

Borne sighed softly and returned the materials to their original places.

"Arcane arts and spells appear the same, both called magic, but there is a huge gap in the understanding of the arts themselves."

"Just analyzing a spell model is a tedious task; it is difficult enough to fully grasp them, let alone invent and create one's own magic."

"The higher the level of the spell, the more precise and complex its structure! For a normal mid-level mage, three to four months is the bare minimum to learn a 4th-circle spell!"

And that was just the learning phase; afterward, one had to go through constant practice and attempts, enduring countless failures before finally mastering the spell.

During this period, the amount of magical materials and items consumed just for experiments was staggering!

Moreover, it was often accompanied by the risk of backlash from spell failure.

As the help provided by the chip system grew, Borne became increasingly cautious, knowing he could not expose the secret of the chip.

The function of the system chip was not just deduction and calculation; the database also needed to be filled. The chip's deductions were not conjured out of thin air; they required a massive amount of data to support them.

Borne had a flash of inspiration and tried to use the chip to directly deduce a 4th-circle spell to promote himself to a mid-level Arcanist, only to find that not only was there a lack of sufficient data, but the processing power was also insufficient, nearly causing the system to crash.

Fortunately, the material of this chip system was special, and its main energy source was Borne's own mana. While it wouldn't "fry the motherboard," it would still get hot when the processing was overloaded.

For every circle added to a spell model, the difficulty of analysis and calculation increased geometrically; upgrading the algorithm had to be put on the agenda.

Looking at the 4th-circle spell model stuck in limbo, Borne twitched the corner of his mouth.

"It seems I still need to take a trip to the academy library to exchange for some magic."

Borne took out his credit card to check.

2647.

Sigh...

Borrowing the Nether Scroll cost a huge amount of credits, and exchanging for high-level spell templates also required credits.

Ordinary materials were no longer of much use; only knowledge involving the transcendent could help him, and that part also required credits!

These credits were yet another major shortfall!

Fortunately, he had collected quite a bit of material from the Arcane Society laboratory this time, and he could submit a few more papers.

Over the next few days, Borne spent his time upgrading the system logic while frantically submitting papers—ten to twenty a day. Generally, seven out of ten would be accepted.

Not only was he prolific, but his acceptance rate was shockingly high, leaving the other members of the Arcane Society stunned. They had to understand that for them, getting a single paper accepted was cause for celebration for ten days or half a month; Borne's relentless submission rate was simply unimaginable.

Out of politeness, Lisper did not inspect Borne's papers, but she still couldn't help asking how he did it. As for the other members of the Arcane Society, they had long since been unable to restrain themselves.

They were all professionals with hearing better than ordinary people, and Borne had been a focus of attention for a long time. Seeing him being so "prolific," they were already itching to learn, quietly edging closer to "steal some experience."

The president couldn't help but cover her face at the sight.

How embarrassing...

Watching the credits continuously rolling in, Borne was in a great mood. He had no intention of hiding his high-profile "credit farming."

"Everything has a technique. People have preferences, and reviewers are no different. As long as you analyze their personality, preferences, magical leanings, and what research they have conducted, and then write according to their style, even if there is no actual content, the chance of acceptance is very high..."

"Of course, it would be even better if you could know what research the reviewer is currently conducting. Even if the whole paper is nonsense, as long as you can justify it in the end, it might still pass..."

"Of course, this is just one method; it doesn't work on all reviewers."

"There is another method, which is to manipulate the content. Some people like to write long-winded papers, wanting to cram all their viewpoints into one. This in itself goes against human nature, yet many people love to do it."

"Break the content apart. Divide each topic into several points, and then divide those points into several sub-points. Isn't it great to pad out eight or ten papers? Even if they don't all pass, some will..."

"...The viewpoints proposed in the papers are actually quite normal, but you shouldn't always try to force your own views on the reader. That is mental rape..."

Blah, blah, blah...

Borne talked eloquently.

The surroundings fell completely silent for a moment. Everyone looked at Borne in disbelief, their worldviews instantly shattered.

Those who could enter the Arcane Society were certainly not lacking in aptitude, and with the powerful mental strength and active thinking of spellcasters, they immediately realized that what Borne said was correct.

It was just so damn reasonable. Why hadn't they thought of it before? For a moment, there were countless people thinking about rushing back to dig out previously rejected manuscripts and revise them.

Having finished his output, Borne was quite satisfied with the reaction of those around him and calmly took a sip of barley tea.

Thinking of all the things from his past life, his Huaxia was not only number one in test-taking techniques, but its skill in padding papers was also unrivaled on the Blue Star. Even for the same argument, they could give you eighteen different ways to pad it out.

What I just spouted was merely the tip of the iceberg, stuff already rotting on the forums, but here at Giles Academy, it was a complete dimensional strike.

The seeds have been sown, and now it is just a matter of waiting for the harvest.

At this moment, a system prompt echoed in Borne's mind.

Ding! 4th-Circle Spell simulation #9557 complete. Current progress: 27.3212%. Rune conflicts: 12,754. Anomalous nodes: 3,122,143...

While killing time writing papers, Borne hadn't been idle; he had taken the opportunity to upgrade the system and optimize its algorithms.

Simulating a 4th-Circle spell all at once demanded too much hardware computing power, so Borne had opted for a segmented approach instead.

Although it was a bit more troublesome, it was at least sustainable.

"System, how much time is still required?"

"Beep! Estimated remaining time: 16,231 hours."

"Damn... nearly two years?"

This is only the 4th-Circle, and it already takes this long—what about the 5th or 6th, or even higher-tier magic!

Although the chip system only served as an auxiliary tool to rapidly advance experimental progress, the sheer scale of the calculations made Borne question his existence.

Sometimes, Borne even wondered if becoming a Great Arcanist was something a human could actually achieve.

Or perhaps they weren't human at all, but some kind of humanoid supercomputer?!

Arcane Society, first floor.

In the span of a month, this place had been converted into a quest hall.

As for the name, it was naturally Borne's suggestion: keep it simple and easy to understand, none of that fancy, flowery nonsense.

In the center of the hall stood a massive task board plastered with quest lists, where students could claim tasks based on their corresponding numbers.

Although off-campus quests had not yet officially opened, on-campus quests were already underway.

The previous practice of having mentors or administrative staff hand out tasks had been abolished, with the Arcane Society now handling all assignments uniformly. To ensure fairness and transparency, mentors took turns standing guard here.

This method of task distribution had its pros and cons, but overall, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks, as it largely prevented "cushy jobs" from being monopolized by the same people for long periods.

Quests within the academy were generally simple, ranging from tending to plants to assisting with magical experiments or searching for magical materials.

Quest rewards consisted of points, gold coins, or material resources.

Of course, the most sought-after position was that of an experimental assistant!

For instance, being an experimental assistant to the Dean or Vice Dean not only provided exposure to high-level experiments but also offered perks that were overflowing.

Naturally, "experimental assistant" did not include being the subject of research. The academy strictly prohibited human experimentation, even on corpses, and Borne felt this rule was fantastic; regardless of what might happen later, at least for now, "humans" still possessed dignity.

Of course, other humanoid races were not covered by this protection.