Exchange

The eight mages looked at each other, exchanging glances. Finally, Fran went up and chose a device with fewer cracks before the others followed.

Fran walked to a table to the side, and Dylan, who had also been introduced by Iris, followed her to the same table.

Dylan asked somewhat embarrassedly:

"Um, Fran, do you know Alchemy School Arts?"

As he spoke, he looked at Fran with expectant eyes, hoping Fran would give him a positive answer.

His mentor was from the Alchemy School, so he should logically be from the Alchemy School as well. However, the problem is that his Arts lies in another area, not in refining White Star Sand.

His question was actually meant to ask if Fran knew how to refine White Star Sand.

He personally really wanted to compete for the reward that Teacher Philip mentioned, but unfortunately, he genuinely didn't know how to refine White Star Sand.

As a monk who grew up in the Northern Lands Society, his greatest skill was learning from others.

In the academy where he received his apprenticeship, the teachers encouraged each apprentice to collaborate with others and to ask others for help in areas where they were not good at something.

Seeing Fran stride forward so quickly and efficiently to take the device, he guessed that her confidence stemmed from her knowledge of alchemy.

"Sorry! I don't know how." Fran said this with such confidence that one might wonder if they had misheard her.

Fran had wanted to learn Alchemy since her apprenticeship, but unfortunately there was a School in the world called the Alchemy School.

She could only learn a smattering of knowledge, not even enough to develop the Arts Alchemy onto Panel.

Whenever she thought of this, she was grateful that there were no schools of potion- School or Runology in the world, otherwise she wouldn't have needed to learn those two Arts.

"Huh?! You wouldn't..." Dylan hesitated, somewhat surprised by Fran's answer.

"Then why did you take it so fast?" Dylan silently complained to Fran in his mind, and then said:

"Then I'll study it on my own first, and I'll teach you when I've mastered it."

He was somewhat disappointed, but he rallied himself. After all, he was the only Alchemy School present, so he should have been the one to receive the reward.

He shouldn't have had any expectations of Fran in the first place, since Fran wasn't even from the Alchemy School. He just thought she was really capable because Fran was so decisive.

After Dylan left, Fran glanced at the several mages around her.

In fact, none of the mages present cared much about the reward that Philip mentioned. In their view, such a simple matter probably wouldn't have any good reward.

Moreover, which mage present didn't have a High-Order Mage as their mentor and support? The resources they could obtain from their mentors would definitely be much better than what Philip could squeeze out of them.

So they completely forgot about the kind of competition Philip mentioned, and only Dylan focused on it more intensely because of his competitive spirit.

The remaining mages gathered in twos and threes, discussing how to use this thing.

Only then did Fran carefully examine the apparatus she was going to use for the experiment and the specific steps involved.

This White Star Sand is extracted from a low-grade material called Grey Ghost Iron. Grey Ghost Iron is a natural mineral with ordinary yield, but the veins are often located in remote places, making transportation extremely inconvenient.

Fran could also sense Philip's headache; he was having trouble coordinating so many mages, which was why he had to resort to this tactic.

They treated all the mages like students in an academy, teaching them there. To this end, they even released some precious raw materials for them to practice with.

She looked at the three apprentices who were busy running around and jumping around with Philip, and shook her head.

Although she wanted to join in and learn more about the research process, she knew it was unlikely to happen now.

So she focused on studying the specific experimental procedures of this device.

"It's not difficult." After reading it, Fran came to the conclusion that it was indeed not difficult.

According to the tutorial, the entire experimental procedure involves throwing in the Grey Ghost Iron, sealing the lid, and using Mental Power to activate the device to convert the Grey Ghost Iron into White Star Sand.

This is a procedure that all apprentices can perform, but it still suffers from the same problem Philip mentioned earlier: low production volume.

After using this device and waiting for the process to complete, all that remains is White Star Sand, without any impurities.

This is also a magical device. If you put about 100 grams of Grey Ghost Iron in, only about 1 gram of White Star Sand will come out, while the ancient refining method will leave about 10 grams.

The key focus of this project is to investigate where the missing portion of White Star Sand went.

Based on Fran's experience from her previous life, the first thing that came to mind was the law of conservation of energy, although she didn't know if this law was absolute in this world.

This alchemical process, which directly eliminates mass without releasing heat, challenged her intuition. She had a feeling that the mass might have been transformed into something else.

However, she can only assume that this law is correct for now, so where does the excess mass go?

In an instant, two things came to mind: gas and spirits.

If the gas that appears is colorless and odorless, then it's normal for it to 'disappear'. Another possibility is the presence of spirits from the Necromancy School.

Fran herself wasn't very knowledgeable about this aspect. She hadn't learned any good spells in the Necromancy School and lacked understanding of spirits.

However, she also knew that the spirits of the Necromancy School could freely pass through all kinds of matter, except for certain spirit-like substances that they could not pass through.

If, during the transformation process, the portion of the Grey Ghost Iron that didn't turn into White Star Sand was converted into these substances, and in the ancient method there happens to be a process that affects these substances, then wouldn't the smaller portion of the yield be explained?

Fran doesn't know yet; she still needs to conduct an experiment first.

She grabbed one-tenth of the Grey Ghost Iron and placed it directly into the device.

Then she used Breathing Technique to cover the cracks and top of the device with Wind Element, using this Wind Element to resist the possible diffusion of gas inside.

As Fran manipulated the Wind Element, a pair of blue eyes looked at her, and on the other person's robes was a faintly engraved symbol of the Yobner Society.

However, Fran was so engrossed in her research that she didn't notice a gaze fixed on her; she still had another spell to cast on the device.

A necromancy spell flashed above the device. Fran had specifically disassembled the [Soul Creation] spell, and its current function was to provide feedback to her whenever any spiritual matter drifted by.