The Reply and Getting Ready

My dear disciple Fran:

I received your letter saying that you have changed your mind and are now willing to teach the disciples who have just entered the Forge School.

What I don't understand is why you left the Northern Lands Society and went to the Antir Region. A mage doesn't easily leave the place where mages gather.

However, I respect your choice. After all, according to Iris's feedback, you have made great progress in learning magic at the Northern Lands Society and even won the Silver Alchemy Award, an award that I have never received.

And it's time for you to start planning your advancement to the second tier. I heard from Iris that you've already consulted her about the Promotion Method for Specialized Mage.

That's good, because Specialized Mage is indeed a very convenient path for mages like us who have just established our School.

I think Iris should have taught you the important points to note; she advanced to the second tier using this method. I probably can't help you with this, since the spells I developed are quite different from the spells you created.

However, I think this might only take you a little time to complete and advance to become Second Order Mage.

Once you reach the second tier, you can come back to me. Although I can't reveal the advancement methods for the first two tiers due to the Elemental School, those School don't have such a complete path starting from the third tier. I can then share more of my own insights with you.

If you had agreed to go to the Yobner Society, I might have been able to pull some strings and let you refer to the Promotion Method of those Elemental School, but ultimately it all depends on yourself.

Regarding the apprentices, although saying this might negate their individual efforts, I personally feel the same way.

If you hadn't creatively explained to them how to manufacture 'firearms,' I don't think they would have achieved good results in their first assessment.

Of course, they also made some optimizations to those 'firearms' based on yours, which also reflects their own hard work.

That's a bit of a tangent. I'll make arrangements for these apprentices and bring them to you.

However, the situation in the Antir Region is tense right now, and I'm worried that if these apprentices are allowed to go on their own, they might get lost in the battle.

So I arranged for Elan to go to Antir together, and if all goes as expected, they will set off three days after this letter is sent.

Perhaps this letter will reach you first, since the Alliance messengers are quite fast.

I wish you a speedy advancement to the second tier and a return to the City of Apprentices.

--Harbos

Fran glanced at the date on the letter and realized it had been sent from the City of Apprentices exactly three days prior.

In other words, Elan and his apprentices probably set off around today.

"At this rate, it should arrive in five days if things go smoothly..."

Fran didn't think about how long it would take if she was slow, because that's how slow she was back then.

If she had continued at her slow pace, it would probably have taken her a month to see Elan and the apprentices.

"It's good that you can come. Finley will handle the reception then..."

Fran immediately made arrangements for how she should receive these people if they came, and she directly passed the question to Finley.

"There was a reply..."

Fran thought for a moment, staring at the letter in her hand, unable to bring herself to write it.

Generally, when Fran sends letters to Harbos, she usually includes the questions she wants to ask.

These questions concern both magic and Harbos's specialty— Foundry Studies.

Now, Fran was in a dilemma, not knowing what to write, not because she didn't know what questions to ask, but because she had too many questions.

Especially now that Fran has acquired the [Arcane Adept] trait, her mind starts conjuring up strange ideas whenever she thinks about spells.

These ideas are just ideas because most of them lack ideal conditions, much like a smooth surface when solving a high school physics problem.

Fran could ask Harbos about the feasibility of these ideas, but that would make the letter rather thick.

Fran's mind raced, and she remembered something she desperately needed to know.

That was a Spoils of War I obtained from the Trial of the Sun in the Spirit Realm —a third-tier material from a powerful third-tier Magic Creature called the Black Shadow Wolf.

After Fran got her hands on the claw, it just sat in a corner collecting dust. It wasn't that she forgot about it, but rather that she simply didn't know what to do with it.

Even the Sunflame couldn't deform this claw, let alone the Dragon Flame that Fran often used; they had no effect at all when sprayed on it.

Fran planned to ask Harbos in detail how to handle this material in her reply.

After finishing writing the letter briefly, Fran immediately handed it to the messenger and then turned back towards the lord's castle.

She also needed to explain the situation to Finley so that he could prepare to welcome the apprentices and Elan.

As for her, she will have to return to the Base Camp later to participate in the construction.

This is it.

At this moment, a well-equipped team appeared outside the mine. They were all armed and in neat formation. They looked at the rugged mine in the distance, somewhat bewildered.

"Wait, are you sure this is our mine? It doesn't look like it to me."

It's no wonder he couldn't see it; the mine had changed drastically. In addition to assigning suitable personnel to the original mine site, Fran had also arranged for people to work outside the mine.

This has led to a significant shift in the location of the fences, with many now located directly outside the mine. Furthermore, the miners' efficient mining activities have caused the entire mountain to cave inwards.

In addition, the walls at the mine entrance were also demolished; these walls, originally intended to facilitate the management of the miners, were now obstructing traffic.

Instead, the original gate was replaced by a long railway track, which was even extended to the mine for convenience.

This left the team somewhat bewildered. What was this thing? And where was the gate to our mine? Where had all the guards gone?

"Was this the last time you came here?"

A Knight Attendant asked the Knight Attendant who had brought them there.

The Knight Attendant scratched his head before managing to utter two sentences.

"Of course it wasn't like this last time. When I came last time, the main gate hadn't been completely demolished yet, and weren't there two Gray Robes here last time? Where are they now?"

The crowd looked at each other, somewhat confused by the situation. Just as someone was about to step forward and call for everyone to join the attack, a loud noise suddenly reached their ears.

The sound came from above the mine, and everyone was immediately startled, not knowing what it was.

The sound didn't stop there; it continued to emerge, growing more and more urgent, followed by faint metallic clanging.

Everyone froze, completely bewildered. Then, they saw a dark figure appear above the mine.

The figure was enormous, its entire body seemingly encased in metal, with white steam rising from its head. It resembled a round cylinder and was slowly descending.

This group of people clearly didn't know much about trains, so they directly regarded the train as a formidable enemy.

Despite the train's enormous size intimidating them, their usual chivalrous upbringing and training allowed them to charge forward without hesitation, launching an attack head-on against the train.

After a brief hesitation, they charged forward and launched an attack on the train.

A Knight Attendant noticed that the train was actually not moving very fast; its massive size made it appear rather slow.

So he went straight to the side of the train, gathered his strength in his hands, noticed the timing of the train's approach, and then unleashed his power, firing a Combat Technique straight at the front of the train.

The Knight Attendant was thinking about how to inflict maximum damage on the enemy. Based on his experience, when facing such a massive charging enemy, one should simply stand to the side, dodging the enemy's attacks while delivering a perfectly timed strike.

This allows you to exploit the opponent's momentum and cause more damage.

When he unleashed this Combat Technique, he felt that the timing of his strike was absolutely perfect.

If he were facing a wild boar now, it would be severely injured, if not killed, by this attack.

But it was clear that the train they were facing was not made of flesh and blood, but of solid steel.

The blades were bent the instant they collided. When Fran built this train, she used metal that had been forged in Dragon Flame, making it stronger than the fine iron weapons in the hands of these Knight Attendant.

His longsword had to be dropped immediately, the shock numbing his hand and forcing him to take two steps back before he gradually recovered.

"What kind of hardness is this...?"

As Profession, with his eyesight, he could see that the spot he had just attacked had only slightly dented in.

This was the result he obtained after using his Combat Technique. Even if it were a soldier wearing plate armor, he was confident that this strike would dent the enemy's plate armor, and the weaker enemy might faint on the spot.

Then he witnessed an unbelievable scene: behind him, several fearless guards stood directly on the train tracks.

They were immediately swept away by the train; some were thrown to the side, some were pinned in front of the train, and some were dragged under the train...

Just when they were at their wits' end, a voice came from behind them.

"Who are these people? They don't seem to be one of ours."

A little girl in a white robe asked the Gray Robes beside her.

"They're not one of ours; they seem to be from the River Valley Territory."

"Oh, then it needs to be dealt with."