A Major Breakthrough

After the magical device stopped, Philip excitedly lifted the lid and saw what was inside.

A jumble of odds and ends was scattered inside; Philip had never seen so many things in the magical device used to Refining White Star Sand.

After he had simply categorized these items, his trembling hand released a spell to measure their weight.

"Oh my god! It's actually true--"

Philip almost jumped up, but he suppressed the urge because the other mages were still watching.

Among the group of mages, Nora watched the excited Philip with a smile. She already knew that Fran's device was truly effective, after all, she had witnessed it being used with her own eyes.

Meanwhile, Leo, standing to the side, looked at the scene before him with a complicated expression. He had never expected that Fran's use of the Soul-Repelling Copper would actually be so useful.

Even a fool could have guessed that such a high output would attract the attention of the Alchemy School, and that such a significant discovery would be made under Fran's name.

"This is Soul-Repelling Copper, isn't it?! How did you even think of using this metal?"

Philip also recognized the layer of Soul-Repelling Copper on the outside of the magical device and was curious as to why Fran would use this metal, and how she could have thought of using it.

"Because I sensed a spirit."

"Spiritual entity?"

Philip asked in surprise, as if he had thought of something?

"That's right, because I know Necromancy School, I sensed spirits when I used this magical device."

"That's when I thought of the essence of alchemy, which is to 'steal' what we need from matter. So I thought of using Soul-Repelling Copper."

Philip calmed himself down and continued:

"A good guess. It's actually Necromancy School spirit? I've never thought of that before."

Philip was speaking from the heart. He genuinely hadn't expected the Necromancy School ' spirits to exist. Even in the Northern Lands Society, where various School could freely exchange ideas, he had only learned useful spells from other School without delving into their underlying mechanisms.

For example, in this case, he possesses a spell that allows him to control corpses, which is somewhat related to spirits, but he would never use this spell to detect spirits under such circumstances.

"Does she have some Talent for necromancy? Is she very sensitive to spirits?" This was the only explanation Philip could think of, and he offered Fran a possible explanation.

"A spirit!" Leo suddenly realized why Fran had added a layer of Soul-Repelling Copper —it was to block spirits.

At this moment, he felt only regret. He was a member of the Necromancy School, but unlike Fran, he hadn't directly focused this feeling on the spirit.

Looking back now, he had a vague feeling when he used that magical device, but he ignored it, thinking it was just an illusion.

Looking back now, that was definitely the feeling he had when he discovered a spirit.

He now deeply regrets not discovering the spirit like Fran did; he think that the one standing there might actually be him...

Such a work, even if it comes from another School, is enough to earn one high praise within a new academic society after joining University Association.

"Very good, I will put your name first. With this achievement, we will most likely win the Silver Alchemy Award."

Philip said happily that he was overjoyed to have won an award after just one hard day's work.

Although he was in charge of the project, and his name should logically be listed first, he knew better than anyone that he could only do this if he had a general grasp of the direction and Fran had figured it out through trial and error.

He knew better than anyone that Iris, the Society President of the Northern Lands Society who introduced Fran, was a Fourth Order Mage, and he dared not put his own name at the top of the list under these circumstances.

As for the Silver Alchemy Award, it is an award given within an Alchemy School to those who have achieved significant results in alchemy.

The White Star Sand refined in this project is a second-tier material, used in many second-tier spells, and therefore corresponds to the Silver Alchemy Award.

He was certain that his achievements were more than enough to win next year's Silver Alchemy Award; however, he didn't know if the judging committee would create any obstacles for him because he was a member of the Northern Lands Society.

Regardless, this is a very important achievement.

At the start of the project, he only planned to increase the output of this magical device slightly; it wouldn't need to reach the output of ancient alchemy to be considered a good result.

Now, not only has the production of White Star Sand been greatly increased, but many by-products have also been produced, and it has been confirmed that Grey Ghost Iron may contain spirits. These are all excellent directions.

This achievement could be considered the best of Philip's life.

Fran smiled, agreed a few times, and then discussed with Philip how to write this finding into Paper.

As a major achievement in Alchemy School, she was certain that once the Paper was published, she would immediately accumulate enough Contribution Points to exchange for the second-tier Promotion Method.

Even Philip's three apprentices knew how important this achievement was and happily celebrated.

The project they were working on yielded results, although their names were clearly unlikely to appear on the Paper.

This is also a rule of the academy. In the eyes of the bigwigs in the Alliance, although apprentices can sometimes provide good ideas, they are ultimately just ideas until they reach the level of a mage. It is still up to the mage to perfect them.

Even the other mages cast envious glances; they truly hadn't expected that a mage who had just arrived with them could make such a significant discovery.

Even Dylan looked at Fran with admiration. Before coming to this project, he had heard from Iris that Fran had created two spells during her apprenticeship and had great magical Talent.

Now it seems that Fran is truly Talent, especially in the study of Talent, a Talent that Dylan lacks. He sighed softly.

He's fine when repeating what others have done, and he rarely makes mistakes. But if you ask him to do something creative, he really has no ideas.

He clenched and unclenched his fist; he decided to abandon the path of focusing solely on research, unlike Fran.

I'll talk to my mentor and ask her to introduce me to the Battle Mage Corps of the Northern Lands Society, so I can practice my combat skills while also studying magic.