Asking the Author

At the top of the Mage Tower, Iris sat in a chair, looking at the documents in front of her with a relaxed expression.

She's currently looking at the Northern Lands Society's tax revenue for this month; the mages from other parts of the Alliance have made her incredibly wealthy this month.

Furthermore, due to the connections made by many other School, she also received some gifts, resulting in her receiving far more this month than ever before.

"Once the news of Harbos winning the Master of Elements Award spreads next month, more mages should come. And we can also promote Fran's award; after all, that guy used a pseudonym..."

The more Iris looked at the report, the happier she became. She had managed to bring the Northern Lands Society to where it was today, and it had finally succeeded twelve years ago by securing a mission from an outsourced Battle Mage Corps.

This transformed the Battle Mage Corps from a resource-consuming burden into an asset that could barely generate monthly profits, successfully turning the Northern Lands Society a loss-making entity into a profitable one.

Now, since Harbos's Paper was published, her Northern Lands Society can finally be considered a valuable asset; before that, it was a money-losing proposition.

"Everything has been arranged. I'll take some time recently to write a Paper on another School..."

There's a reason why Fran was able to see so many of Iris's Paper on the Northern Lands Society's Mana Communication System.

During one of her Miracle Alchemy attempts, she miraculously created an extraordinary Wonder Item, Wonder Item allowed her to reach the level of Fourth Order Mage so quickly.

As a price for using this Wonder Item, or rather, as a consequence of its Wonder Item function, Iris developed the habit of writing very basic Paper.

When she established the Northern Lands Society, she was also influenced by this, because within the Alchemy School, the basics had already been studied by others, and she had to put in a lot of effort just to find a direction that had not been studied by others.

But things changed after the establishment of the Northern Lands Society. She could even slightly modify the Paper from within the Northern Lands Society Alchemy School and post them there...

Furthermore, she could research the names of other School and conduct some less in-depth studies, which made writing these Paper a breeze for her, and she didn't have to worry about not having a direction to research.

However, this is only part of the reason. The biggest reason is that she wanted to create a place where knowledge from various School could be freely exchanged, which was the path she chose.

That being said, every year when she saw the financial situation of the Northern Lands Society, her heart ached. There was nothing she could do; her Northern Lands Society simply didn't have any way to make a profit.

Fran had never paid taxes. Back in the City of Apprentices, the administrators there were certainly not so foolish as to want to tax an apprentice like Fran, who had no background and lived off her monthly apprentice allowance.

Furthermore, later on, Fran mostly used Elan's channels for both selling and buying goods, so Elan naturally didn't want to pay so much tax...

After Fran arrived at the Northern Lands Society, as a disciple of Harbos, her status was special. Iris specifically had her name removed from the tax list to avoid arousing suspicion.

This is why Fran has never paid any "society fees" to the Northern Lands Society.

"Knock knock knock!" Fran knocked on the door of the room. Iris didn't even look up, but she knew it was Fran who had come to see her.

She was somewhat puzzled, wondering what Fran had come here for at this time.

Come in.

Fran entered the room, holding a stack of freshly printed Paper. She walked to the table and slowly asked:

"Society President... could you explain your Paper to me in detail? There are some parts I don't quite understand?"

Iris raised her head and looked at the Paper in Fran's hand. As soon as she saw Paper title, she scratched her head and then suddenly realized what it meant.

"Oh! You're also planning how to advance to the second tier, right?"

She pointed to the book in Fran's hand, "Promotion Method to the Second-Tier Profession Specialized Mage."

Fran gave an embarrassed smile. Of course, she couldn't say that she was already at the second tier, so she said instead:

"Yes, but there are some parts of this Paper that I... don't understand. Could you explain them to me..."

Now it was Iris's turn to feel embarrassed; she knew exactly what her mindset was when she wrote this Paper.

At that time, she had just bought the Mana Communication System and spent a lot of effort installing it in the Mage Tower, but it was practically useless...

In her anger, she spent just over two hours writing the Paper and then posted it directly to the Mana Communication System.

Although she wrote this Paper somewhat hastily, she can guarantee that Paper contains almost entirely genuine and substantial information.

Because she herself used this method to advance to the second tier.

She also knew why Fran had come to ask her about the contents of this Paper, because it was the most suitable method for a mage from a newly established School to advance to the second tier.

"I think you're attracted by the fact that this method only requires one spell to advance, right?"

Fran nodded; she was indeed right to think that way, because she wasn't sure that the spells she created were all structurally independent.

No one can control this matter. Normal School spells are gradually optimized through the long-term efforts of the entire School. She doesn't have the time or energy, nor does she have any help. Now she can only rely on herself.

In her Paper, Iris mentions that Fran was drawn to this second-tier Promotion Method that only required one spell.

"To advance to the second tier using this method, you only need to practice one spell to a very high level before you can attempt it."

"A mage who advances through this method will primarily exhibit the characteristics of their Order in the spells they use to advance."

"Higher versions of this spell, as well as adjacent similar spells, can receive this bonus, and this bonus is higher than that of other types of mages..."

Simply put, this Promotion Method only requires you to master a spell to its fullest extent, and then you can advance in rank...

Fran estimated that she would need to train this spell to the point where it would be displayed as Extraordinary Level on her Panel before she could possibly meet the requirements.

This requirement is relatively simple for Fran. Putting aside the spells she created, they are basically all at least at the proficiency level as shown on the Panel. The two spells she created earlier were like that.

Because Fran has Panel, she is least afraid of practicing magic; as long as she practices magic, Fran will not lose to anyone.

However, some parts of Iris's Paper were quite vague, and she had to check them carefully.

"Yes, I actually already have some ideas, but you wrote in your Paper that not all spells can serve as the foundation for advancing to a specialization spell, which is why I came to you specifically."

"This point... is indeed something I forgot to include in more detail. The Northern Lands Society has been around for so many years, hasn't anyone noticed the error in this Paper and come to me to point it out?"

Fran smiled. Indeed, very few people in the Northern Lands Society were willing to pursue the path of Specialized Mage, as evidenced by the fact that she could only find this one Paper on Specialized Mage by Iris.

Other mages either follow the path of Elite Mage or pursue their own School's exclusive path, but Fran's Forge School is stuck here, unable to make any progress at all.

"Actually, there's not much to it in choosing spells. Just remember to choose spells with more complex structures and that incorporate more elements of your School."

Seeing that Fran was still somewhat puzzled after hearing this, Iris chuckled and continued:

"Let me give you an example. In the Elemental School, spells like Fireball are absolutely useless, including Greater Fireball and Flame Ray. They're not very effective because they only encompass a single element, which makes them extremely difficult to utilize..."

"Even the Flame School, which has always relied on fire Fire Element as its primary source of magic, has never succeeded in this method of advancing to Specialized Mage using a single element."

"And spells that can encompass more elements, like [Elemental Bomb], allow you to freely choose which elements to enhance..."

"Specialized Mage means specializing in a particular area based on your existing knowledge; it doesn't mean you have to abandon other areas of knowledge."

"This is my personal opinion, because that's what I thought at the time, which is why it took me some time to advance to Second Order Mage."

"By the way, the Arts I used when I advanced was Miracle Alchemy..."

After listening, Fran lowered her head and fell into deep thought.

She understood what Iris meant: the spells she created had to be as compatible as possible with the knowledge she used, and then specialize in a particular area from that perspective.

Having reached this point, Fran had a clear idea. She now felt that the [Hydraulic Power] spell she had developed the day before yesterday was unlikely to serve as the foundation for Specialized Mage.

She had to go back to the beginning, to the moment she created the Steam Engine.

Since she finished building it, she hasn't even used the [Tool Enchantment] spell because of its various drawbacks.

Prolonged casting time can cause overheating, and the conversion efficiency of Mental Power is not as high as directly using [Mental Power]. To empower the body through this spell, one must imagine a complex structure...

The numerous drawbacks almost led her to abandon the spell.

But now she remembered it again, because she thought that if she could develop a more complete spell, she could use the structure of the Steam Engine as a First Order spell.

This spell can definitely serve as the foundation for her advancement to Second Order Mage.

"Thank you, Society President, I have an idea."

"Then go back and study it slowly. These things can't be rushed... Mages like you who have just established a new School usually need three or four years to advance to the second tier."

The process of School going from nothing to something is like going from apprentice to First Order. However, going from First Order to second rank is much simpler because there are many additional promotion conditions for mages at this stage. As long as these conditions are met, one can basically take advantage of the situation to advance to second rank.

Iris has always believed that Fran's advancement to the second tier is only a matter of time.