The Alchemy School's Project

On the sixth floor of the Mage Tower, in a large, enclosed room.

Philip, Second Order Mage, is an alchemist who came to the Alchemy School Northern Lands Society about twenty years ago, both to deal with the internal ostracism within the Alchemy School and to pursue higher-level spells.

He originally thought that after arriving at the Northern Lands Society, he wouldn't have to deal with anything too difficult. He came to the Northern Lands Society to focus on studying magic.

Now, looking at the eight mages in front of him and the three apprentices he had brought, his head began to ache.

He had originally anticipated that about three other mages would send people to his project, and including the three apprentices he himself had brought from the academy, that was already a large number.

However, to his surprise, the number of participants was more than double what he had anticipated, and unusually, there were more mages than apprentices.

Master Philip is now filled with regret. He regrets why he went to do something else and put the project aside.

Now, his project doesn't have much work to do at all. How can he meet the requirements of the mentors behind these mages and ensure that these mages get practice?

He also knew that the large number of people involved in this project was purely coincidental.

It's all Harbos's fault for publishing that article at the Northern Lands Society, making the Northern Lands Society famous throughout the entire the Alliance.

Those without connections want to come to the Northern Lands Society, a place with lower promotion thresholds, to develop their careers; those with connections are sent here by their mentors to gather intelligence.

As far as Philip knew, there were seven mages who entered the Northern Lands Society for the first time yesterday alone, something he had never dared to imagine before.

Three even reached that number early this morning; at this rate, today's record will be broken again.

And it is clear that this number will continue to increase over the next month or so, until the hype surrounding the Northern Lands Society fades.

Philip looked at the eight mages, who were still holding the letters they had sent him.

Two of them were introduced by the Society President of the Northern Lands Society, which was something I certainly couldn't refuse.

Three of the letters of introduction were written by his former friends in the Alliance. He knew, of course, that it was his friends' idea. Introducing one person would be fine, but so many? It was probably arranged by some High-Order Mage.

One of them was a current friend of his, and the other was introduced by Second Order Mage, so he couldn't very well refuse them.

As for the remaining two, he couldn't touch them either; these two were sent over from the Alliance's University Association.

One was the Yobner Society of the Elemental School, and the other was the Ocean Society of the Transmutation School. Just by looking at the insignia on their robes, he knew he would find it hard to refuse.

Although he readily agreed when the other two approached him, he felt that bringing two more people was a small matter.

I wish he had refused on the spot, but I blame myself for being so impulsive that I agreed without even thinking.

The atmosphere was very quiet. The eight monks below looked at him expectantly, while his three apprentices hesitated, glancing at him and then at the eight monks.

Philip sighed and said:

"Welcome to the project I'm hosting..."

"I must remind you here that any operation of these Spell Apparatus must be carried out only after informing me. Do not use them without my permission."

"Don't easily reveal the specifics of this project to outsiders; you wouldn't want to know the consequences."

"Just follow my orders and do what needs to be done. Don't do anything unnecessary, okay?!"

The monks below all nodded in unison, indicating that they understood.

Philip didn't believe the mages' actions at all, but he could only hope they wouldn't be too curious.

"Next, I'll tell you what I'm going to do!"

Philip was very reluctant to reveal the project he was researching; as a mage, he strongly believed that research was a very private matter.

But in order to teach these monks, he had to reveal what he was researching.

"The Alchemy School has a material called White Star Sand, which can be refined by a second-tier Alchemy School mage through a very complicated process."

"Later, someone invented a device that allowed even an apprentice to extract a little bit of White Star Sand."

"However, although this method produces White Star Sand that is easy to operate, the overall yield is much lower than the previous method."

"Using the same quality of raw materials, White Star Sand former produces ten times the output of the latter."

"Therefore, the focus of our project is on how to increase the output of the latter method."

Philip looked around at the eight mages, but even now, he still couldn't come up with a reasonable way to allocate all the work.

His eyes darted around, and he finally came up with a solution: he didn't actually need to involve them all in the work; he could just teach them.

In other words, even though they are still in their own project teams, he could teach them right here, like an apprentice.

There's no need to involve them all in his upcoming experiments; in terms of actual work, these mages might not be as efficient as his three apprentices.

Philip tapped the table, whispered a few words in the ears of the three apprentices, and told them to go and move something.

He himself slowly spoke:

"Listen up, I reckon many of you haven't even been exposed to the Alchemy School of thought. Rushing into this project might slow down the entire project's progress."

"Alright, I'll have you all do a small experiment. My requirement is that you record all your actions and accurately describe them..."

The three apprentices huffed and puffed as they carried over eight Spell Apparatus, each about the size of a rice cooker.

The mages present recognized at a glance that this was the Spell Apparatus they were going to use for their experiment, but...

These Spell Apparatus were covered in dust, and almost every one of them had some cracks, making them look like broken pieces.

"This is a small-scale White Star Sand refining device, specifically designed for mages to directly extract White Star Sand when it is in short supply."

"These devices are all usable by apprentices, so you don't need to worry."

"Later, I will have these apprentices give each of you the same quality of raw materials. You don't have to... um... you can compete to see who can refine the most White Star Sand in the end, and I will give a reward."

He was about to say that there was no need to compete, but after thinking about it, he said it anyway, saying that it was a good thing for these mages to spend their energy on this.

At this moment, Fran, one of the mages, raised her hand:

"Could we renovate these 'old' devices?"

Philip raised an eyebrow, surprised that a mage would be so bold as to directly modify the device.

"Of course, but if it's broken, we won't replace it."

Let these mages tinker with these abandoned devices in the warehouse for now; who cares how they do it?