Discussion

Upon entering and reading the title of the booklet in Iris's hand, Fran understood why Iris had sent Dylan to fetch her.

It turned out that Iris had taken a liking to Fran's Paper, recognizing its value, which was why she couldn't wait to call Fran over.

Fran's Paper must have impressed Iris so much that she summoned her in such a hurry.

Iris remained expressionless, glancing at the booklet in her hand without any reaction. She casually asked:

"Is your name on the Mana Communication System ' Lai '?"

"Yes." Fran also noticed that Iris was acting strangely. Logically speaking, if she thought her Paper was good, she shouldn't be like this.

Iris closed the booklet and said something completely nonsensical.

Do you think Aether can be extracted using your mathematical methods?

Fran froze on the spot, unsure how to respond.

Firstly, her mathematical method above clearly states that this is only one type of analysis; in practice, other methods are still needed.

Moreover, Iris just mentioned ' Aether,' something Fran has known for less than a day, yet Iris is asking her about it directly.

This left her completely at a loss for words; she didn't know whether she knew Aether Aether or not.

What if this is a concept High-Order Mage can understand? Isn't it a bit inappropriate for her to bring it up now?

This problem put Fran in a very difficult position. It wasn't a question that could be quantitatively analyzed, but rather a question of the Choice, so she racked her brains for a long time without coming up with an answer.

Fortunately, it seemed that Iris never intended for Fran to answer this difficult question in the first place, Iris directly said:

"Fran, I think you should give up this idea of calculating with numbers; it's unrealistic."

"Even if you use this mathematical method to calculate the solution to the Fireball today, you've still created a very meaningful mathematical tool."

"But I think this is pointless."

"The spell structure for activating Fireball is very simple, so you only need to consider the condition of injecting Mental Power."

"But when you start researching advanced spells, you might encounter situations where improper preparation of materials leads to significant deviations in the casting process. How would you describe that problem then?"

"That's why I said you should give up on this part..."

Fran pondered for a while before she could barely piece together the thought process behind why Iris would say such a thing to her.

First of all, Iris absolutely does not agree with her method of using mathematics to analyze the Fireball, which can be seen from the opponent's expressionless face at the start of the game.

From Iris's words, she expressed her disapproval of mathematical methods and advised Fran to devote herself to other fields and stop worrying about this one.

At this moment, Fran truly understood why Iris had summoned her— Iris, acting as an elder, believed that Fran's path had no future and thus advised her to give up.

It's quite normal that many High-Order Mage have very different understandings of the same spell or the rules governing a particular spell.

Because once you reach the High-Order Mage level, advancement isn't just about learning ability; it often requires the ability to understand, recognize, and analyze.

Only in this way can high-level spells be cast, and it is precisely because of this that each mage's understanding is different.

Now, Iris strongly disagrees with her method of using mathematics to analyze magic, believing it to be utterly absurd, impossible, hopeless, and a completely wrong path.

This is normal. Even in Fran's previous life, any theorem considered important had been subject to much questioning, and its importance was based on its ability to withstand the vast majority of criticisms.

Therefore, Iris now completely rejects her own Paper and wants to stop researching this topic altogether.

Iris looked at Fran. To be honest, when she first heard about this Paper, she couldn't quite believe that Fran had written it.

As clearly stated in Fran 'Harbos description, Fran may have had many inspirations, but she lacked systematic researcher training and may not have known how to summarize her own findings.

While Iris could attribute the work of the mage Philip to the Refining White Star Sand, this work undeniably proves that Fran is indeed a qualified researcher; many researchers do not possess Fran's expressive ability in Paper.

But that's not important, because compared to something else, it's insignificant.

Generally speaking, Iris rarely looks at these selections, partly because they contain content for low-level mages, which seems somewhat disconnected from her own experience as a Fourth Order Mage.

High-Order Mage like her hold special exchange meetings to share their findings and insights.

Even though there were many monks who disapproved of her at the meeting, they still shared their insights at these exchange meetings.

At their stage, the only way to advance or become stronger is through frequent exchanges with other mages.

Even if the areas they control might never interact with each other, to be honest, in the eyes of these high-ranking officials, none of that matters. What matters is whether they can advance their own careers.

While occasionally glancing at these selections might provide her with new inspiration for her magical research, there was no need for that.

This Paper was recommended to him by Vernon, the Chief of the Transmutation School, who specifically asked him to take a look after Paper that he knew nothing about it.

This Paper's analysis was even written by Vernon himself, who specifically gave it to Iris.

Iris was initially puzzled by Vernon's overtures; why would you suddenly send someone here to say you're on my and Harbos's side?

Who would believe that?

However, Vernon's later actions made her truly realize that Vernon might be serious.

He not only stood up for them at several the Alliance meetings, but also suggested that the Battle Mage Corps of the Northern Lands Society help him retrieve the box.

These things left Iris completely baffled. She couldn't understand why Vernon had suddenly changed his mind. Wasn't he a staunch believer that School was necessary?

Why did they suddenly change their minds and side with them?

But it was only after Vernon said those words to her that Iris understood what had happened.

She guessed that Vernon was probably drawn to the research in the Paper, finding it valuable, but the content was too sensitive, so Vernon had to team up with Iris and the others.

Because mathematics involves the field of another School, namely Alchemy School.

For a long time, only a small number of Alchemy School of mages chose to use complex mathematics to guide their experiments.

This is a very niche school of thought within Alchemy School, because due to the lack of mathematical tools, many times those mages cannot find a good way to describe a certain phenomenon in their experiments.

Although this school of thought remains lukewarm to this day, it does indeed belong to the category of Alchemy School and is an integral part of Alchemy School.

Therefore, if Vernon wanted to study mathematics, he would most likely face direct resistance from the Alchemy School, making his research extremely difficult.

Otherwise, why hasn't mathematics in this world made significant progress after so many years? The Alchemy School also played a role in hindering this progress.

Getting back to the main point, mathematical research is a niche field within Alchemy School, and Iris happens not to be a mage who studies this area.

She remembered that when she was choosing a mentor, a mage who studied mathematics wanted to take her on, but she found mathematics too troublesome and felt it wasn't very useful, so she chose the art of Miracle Alchemy as her mentor.

She had heard her mentor talk about those Alchemy School studied mathematics.

"Those people actually dared to try to extract Aether; they're just delusional. You should know that we haven't even truly found ' Aether ' yet."

' Aether ' is a theory proposed by a Fifth Order mage of the Alchemy School.

He believed that there exists something called ' Aether ' in all matter in the Material Realm, which can freely transform all matter, and that all matter you see is transformed from ' Aether '.

"As long as we can refine pure Aether, even just a speck of powder, we can glimpse the essence of the Material Realm."

However, after the mage died, no one believed the theory anymore, because the other Alchemist thought it was too illogical.

Only Alchemy School study mathematics would stubbornly believe that ' Aether ' truly exists.

Previously, when Iris asked Fran about ' Aether,' she assumed Fran was taught by a sorcerer from an Alchemy School that studied mathematics.

But seeing Fran's reaction, her face full of confusion at the word ' Aether,' she didn't know what to say.

Iris put those thoughts aside for the time being; that was all she could say to dissuade Fran. Although she didn't approve of this approach, there was nothing she could do if Fran insisted on researching it.

She brought up something else.

"Your Paper has caught the eye of the Chief of the Transmutation School. If you don't want to cause any trouble, you'd better be careful when using this account."

"If possible, I suggest you use the Contribution Points above and then open a new account."

Fran's Paper had a significant impact; from now on, every time she publishes Paper, it will likely attract attention.

Given Fran's current situation, this kind of attention is actually not a good thing.