Mission Hall

After Borne made a high-profile entrance into the Arcane Society and the president personally handled his membership, the entire society erupted.

Seeing their former "enemy" become one of their own felt a little awkward, but mostly it filled them with excitement and joy.

The members felt all sorts of things. The entire society spent the day immersed in a confusing mix of emotions.

Three whole years! The "Great Demon King" Borne had been hanging over the Arcane Society for three whole years!

Those three years had been the lowest point in the society's history. It had nearly become an ordinary club.

The damned thing was, defeating the Arcane Society had actually become an honor. Even a sinking ship had a few nails left in it, yet after the Enforcement Squad had put people in their place, "this cat or that dog" still went around chanting slogans and challenging the society.

What a joke!

But once Borne joined the Arcane Society, its members instantly walked taller whenever they went out, as if the society had returned to its peak.

Borne didn't have a specific position, but that didn't stop them from treating him as one of their own.

A few people had reservations or felt awkward about it, but amid the general good mood, they accepted it without complaint.

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

The president three years ago hadn't been able to beat him, either. After that, every president had done their best to avoid anything involving Borne. Borne had also remained "low-key," and they had all left each other alone.

Who would've thought this term's president would actually pull Borne into the society? That was some damn brilliant thinking.

People had already had plenty of objections when Lisper took office, since she wasn't the top-ranked student.

The current "top-ranked student" might not have been all that impressive, but they were still second in the academy!

A leader had to be able to strike back when someone picked on their underlings, not just rely on ganging up on them.

Lisper had taken office with the support of the previous president, who had overruled everyone's objections. She was strong and had a spellcasting bloodline, but she still wasn't the "top-ranked student," so people below her had always complained.

Now all that was gone. What "complaints"?

Sure enough, no one became president without being exceptional. The former president really had an eye for talent.

President Lisper was the GOAT!!!

The news soon spread throughout the academy.

At first, nobody believed it. The feud between Borne and the Arcane Society was known not only throughout Giles Academy, but beyond it.

How could it be possible?

But as time passed, more and more witnesses came forward: from the Arcane Society president finding Borne, to the two of them holding a "pleasant" conversation, to the list of members published by the society.

Wails soon rang out all across the academy.

The current top-ranked student wasn't the Arcane Society president—or, rather, the strongest few students weren't even in the society. With enough effort, people still had some hope of defeating it.

But now it was over. Borne Ioulaum had joined the Arcane Society, and the difficulty had jumped straight from hard to hell.

Borne still had at least two years before graduation. There was basically no hope for those two years.

After seeing Borne take on the entire Arcane Society by himself, no one dared claim they could beat the guy.

Keep in mind, three years ago the Arcane Society had been at its peak. Its president had been the top student in their year, and only the most outstanding students in each year could join. The Enforcement Squad also selected only the best. Anyone who wasn't strong enough couldn't get in. Otherwise, how could they have kept a bunch of unruly people in line?

And Borne had still beaten the entire society, almost without a scratch. That was right—at least a few hundred people had watched and witnessed the astonishing showdown between the Arcane Society president and Borne.

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

Borne Ioulaum was practically a demon god. With a hundred or more "Hands of the Demon God," no magic could stand a chance.

That was right: Borne's Mage Hand had been upgraded again, becoming the Hand of the Demon God!

People had also dug up the improved Mage Hand Borne had uploaded to the academy. He'd somehow made a cantrip more complicated than a third-circle spell. At the time, he'd renamed it Giant's Hand, but everyone thought that wasn't quite right, so they'd changed it to Hand of the Demon God.

Some students had learned it, too. Their hands weren't as solid as Borne's, but the spell's power really did rival a third-circle spell.

Even those who had learned it could cast only two or three at most. Borne had nearly a hundred, and it didn't even seem like he'd reached his limit. It was just unfair.

Anyone who had studied the spell Borne had uploaded had basically given up on challenging him. Most people were still worrying about learning magic, while this guy had already started improving it—and not just with a simple tweak, either. He'd completely reconstructed the spell.

The crazy part was that the record was from three years ago!

The Arcane Society was now at one of its weakest points in history, which was why people had thought they might be able to reproduce the "miracle."

People could still be heard chanting slogans, but most were just talking big. As for actually doing anything, forget it...

Borne knew little about the changes outside, and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared.

To him, Giles Academy was an ivory tower.

The academy's leadership strongly encouraged academic debate and research, driving the development of arcane civilization. Generation after generation of graduates went on to join the government, the military, and other fields, gradually shaping Netheril.

At seventeen or eighteen, people were at their most intellectually active and full of inspiration. Their minds weren't set yet, and they came up with all kinds of wild ideas.

"Sure enough, no one who becomes president of the Arcane Society is simple!"

Just by skimming some materials, Borne had come across many novel theories, even secret techniques from various families.

That made sense. Anyone who became president of the Arcane Society in just five years must have had support from some family. There were certainly talented commoners, but talent was useless without resources.

At Borne's current level of strength, he had a vague sense of what lay ahead.

The next step was to choose his path in magic!

It was like choosing a major before entering college in his previous life.

Looking at the rows of notes and research materials on the shelves, he saw that many of their magical ideas seemed wildly imaginative by current standards. But who could say how many of them would come true in a few hundred years?

Fifteen days later.

Borne put down the materials in his hands. The Chip had already recorded them, so he could review them whenever he wanted.

Although he spent most of his time flipping through books, he still picked out passages now and then to think about.

"What a brilliant era. Just looking at this, you can imagine how glorious Netheril's civilization will become later on."

"...Maybe it was precisely this atmosphere that slowly made the Arcanists lose their reverence for the gods."

From arrogance to ruin...

"If I weren't a transmigrator who knew how history turned out, maybe this atmosphere would've influenced me, too, and made me arrogant and conceited."

Borne sighed softly and returned the materials to their place.

"Arcane magic and spellcasting magic look the same and are both called magic, but there's a huge gap between them in how they understand spells."

"Just analyzing a spell model is a tedious task, and fully understanding one is difficult. Inventing your own magic is even harder."

"The higher the spell's circle, the more precise and complex its construction! Learning a fourth-circle spell takes a normal intermediate mage at least three or four months."

And that was only the learning stage. Afterward, they had to practice and experiment over and over, failing countless times before they could master the spell.

How many magical materials and items did they have to burn through just for those experiments?

And there was always the risk of a failed spell backfiring.

As the help from the Chip's system grew, Borne became increasingly cautious. He couldn't let anyone discover the secret of the Chip.

The System Chip didn't just help with simulations and calculations; its database also needed to be filled. Its simulations didn't come from thin air. They relied on a vast amount of data.

Borne had suddenly gotten the idea of having the Chip directly simulate a fourth-circle spell so he could become an intermediate Arcanist. That was when he discovered that not only did he lack enough data, but the system didn't have enough processing power, either. It had nearly crashed.

Fortunately, the Chip was made from unusual materials, and its main power source was Borne's magic. It wouldn't "burn out the motherboard," but it would still heat up when overloaded.

The difficulty of analyzing and calculating a spell model increased geometrically with every circle. Upgrading the algorithm had to be put on the agenda, too.

Looking at the fourth-circle spell model stuck on the screen, Borne's mouth twitched.

"Looks like I'll have to take a trip to the academy library and exchange some points for spells."

Borne took out his point card and checked it.

2647.

Sigh...

Borrowing the Nether Scrolls cost a large number of points, and exchanging for advanced spell templates cost points, too.

Ordinary materials weren't much use anymore. Only material involving supernatural knowledge could help him, and that cost points, too!

Points were yet another huge expense!

Fortunately, he'd collected plenty of materials from the Arcane Society's research room this time, and he could submit some papers as well.

Over the next few days, Borne upgraded the system's logic while furiously submitting papers, sending in ten or twenty every day. About seven out of every ten were accepted.

Not only was his output incredible, but his acceptance rate was astonishing, too. The other members of the Arcane Society were stunned. They were usually thrilled if even one of their papers got accepted, but Borne was submitting papers like they cost nothing. It was unbelievable.

Out of courtesy, Lisper hadn't read Borne's papers, but she couldn't help asking how he did it. The other members of the Arcane Society had long since been unable to hold back.

They were all professionals, so their hearing was better than ordinary people's. Besides, everyone had been keeping an eye on Borne. Seeing him so "productive," they'd been itching to find out how, and one by one, they quietly edged closer, hoping to "pick up a few tricks."

Seeing them, the president couldn't help covering her face.

How embarrassing...

Watching the points pour in, Borne was in a great mood. He'd never meant to hide the fact that he was racking up "points" so conspicuously.

"Everything has its tricks. People have their preferences, and reviewers are no different. If you look at their personalities, interests, magical specialties, and past research, then write in a style that suits them, your paper has a decent chance of getting accepted even if it has no real content..."

"Of course, it's even better if you know what the reviewer's been researching lately. Even if the whole paper is nonsense, as long as you can make it sound convincing in the end, it might still get through..."

"Of course, that's only one approach. It doesn't work with every reviewer."

"Another way is to play around with the content. Some people like to write long-winded papers, cramming in every opinion they have. That goes against human nature, but plenty of people still do it."

"Break the content up. Divide each subject into several points, then divide those points into smaller ones. You can stretch that into eight or ten papers. Even if they don't all get accepted, a few will..."

"...The ideas in the papers are perfectly ordinary. You just can't keep trying to force your own opinions on the reader. That's intellectual assault..."

And on and on...

Borne spoke eloquently.

The area around him fell completely silent. Everyone stared at Borne in disbelief, as if their entire worldview had shattered.

Anyone who could get into the Arcane Society was undoubtedly talented. Add in the fact that spellcasters had strong mental power and active minds, and they immediately knew Borne was right.

It made so much damn sense! How had they never thought of it before? Plenty of them were already thinking of rushing home to dig out their previously rejected papers and revise them.

After his lengthy lecture, Borne seemed satisfied with the reactions around him. He calmly took a sip of barley tea.

Thinking of his past life, the Chinese were the best in the world at exam strategies, and their paper-padding skills were unmatched on Blue Star. They could find eighteen ways to phrase the same argument.

What he'd just told them was only the tip of the iceberg. It had long since been discussed to death on the forums, but at Giles Academy, it was a complete dimensional strike.

He'd planted the seeds. Now all that remained was to wait for the harvest.

Just then, a system notification sounded in Borne's mind.

"Ding! Simulation 9,557 of the fourth-circle spell is complete. Current progress: 27.3212%. Conflicting runes: 12,754. Abnormal nodes: 3,122,143..."

While padding out papers, Borne hadn't been idle, either. He'd upgraded the system and optimized the algorithm along the way.

A one-shot simulation of a fourth-circle spell demanded too much processing power from the hardware, so Borne had decided to divide it into stages.

It was a bit of a hassle, but at least the system could keep up.

"System, how much longer will it take?"

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

"Seriously... nearly two years?"

And this was only a fourth-circle spell. How long would fifth- or sixth-circle spells take? What about advanced magic?

Although the Chip's system was only meant to help and could speed up progress alongside experiments, the enormous amount of computation still left Borne questioning his life choices.

Sometimes he even wondered whether becoming a Great Arcanist was really within human reach.

Or whether they were really human at all, rather than some kind of humanoid supercomputer?!

Arcane Society, first floor.

In the month since then, this place had been converted into a Mission Hall.

As for the name, of course it had been Borne's suggestion. No need for anything flashy. Keep it simple and clear.

A huge bulletin board stood in the middle of the hall, covered in task postings. Students could claim tasks by their listed numbers.

Off-campus tasks hadn't officially opened yet, but on-campus tasks had already begun.

The old system, in which mentors or supervisors assigned tasks, had been abolished. The Arcane Society now handled all task assignments, and mentors took turns supervising to ensure fairness and transparency.

This method of assigning tasks had its pros and cons, but overall, the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. It could go a long way toward preventing "cushy jobs" from being monopolized.

Most tasks within the academy were simple: tending flowers and plants, assisting with magic experiments, or finding magical materials.

The rewards were points, coins, or materials.

The most popular tasks were experimental assistant positions!

For example, assistant positions in the dean's or vice dean's experiments. They not only offered a chance to come into contact with advanced experiments, but also plenty of perks.

Of course, experimental assistants weren't test subjects. The academy strictly forbade experiments on humans, and even corpses were off-limits. Borne thought that rule was excellent. Whatever happened later, at least people still had their dignity for now.

Other humanoid races, of course, weren't protected.