Specialized Mage

In Antir's Royal Capital, Fran stood beside the ruins of the Royal Palace, gazing at the buildings undergoing demolition.

The demolition of the Royal Palace was progressing smoothly at this time. Half of the Royal Palace had been demolished, and now, looking at the Royal Palace from the outside, one could see that it was a dilapidated Royal Palace full of pits and craters.

Fran could not only see the Royal Palace being physically demolished, but she could also see that the area above the Royal Palace, where the throne once stood, had faded somewhat.

The throne was originally attractive to the Territory Mage, who is now Fran.

Especially now that Fran's territory is expanding rapidly.

Fran could sense something floating above the Royal Palace, drawing her toward it.

Once she entered the Royal Palace, she could feel that as long as she sat on the Royal Palace, that allure would be satisfied.

Although Fran now has the means to ascend the throne of Antir, she has not chosen to do so.

This is because the new system she established in Antir was quite different from the previous feudal kingdoms; there were no more knights. Could the throne still function as effectively as before?

According to Antir tradition, the King of Antir is the King of Knights of Antir.

If the throne of Antir is recognized by all the people of Antir.

They consider themselves Antir and believe they are ruled by the Knight King of Antir, which is why the Antir throne was established.

Fran believed that this was how a throne was formed, at least that's how the throne of Antir was formed.

Therefore, after she stripped away his foundation as a knight, taking the throne of Antir would have been an extremely foolish choice.

Even now, there are already signs that Antir's throne is about to crumble.

The current number of Antir Knights is less than half of what it was at its peak.

This reaction, in Fran's view of the throne, gave her a strange feeling that if she were to sit on it, the throne would collapse.

Since she couldn't get on it, Fran had no choice but to destroy it.

It seems that the palace was also part of the symbol of the Royal Palace, and as the Royal Palace was gradually demolished, the cracks in the throne became more and more serious.

"And the Alliance..."

Fran turned her gaze to the application, which now displayed outward features resembling those of a throne.

Unlike her, Fran didn't feel any attraction; instead, she could sense a faint power emanating from it.

"If a small region like Antir can support a throne, then the much larger the Alliance..."

While the Alliance has not yet found a way to leverage the widespread perception that a large portion of the population identifies as members of the Alliance, this does not mean that such a perception does not exist.

Fran's Territory Mage Profession can take advantage of this knowledge; she has already had Anna and Aila spread the name of the Alliance.

Once this news spreads, Fran will be able to leverage the Alliance's name with Antir.

It's worth noting that the throne of Antir can greatly enhance the power of a second-tier knight; what would the effect be if it were the title of the Alliance?

However, Fran will probably only get a higher bonus than Antir's original throne bonus, allowing her to advance the Territory Mage Profession to Tier 3 a few years less.

After all, even if this were to become the Alliance territory, Antir's level of development and the quality of its population still need improvement.

"It's time to do something else."

Fran went inside the small house, which she had long since converted into a small laboratory.

Of course, calling it a laboratory is really just putting together a few long tables and placing all the magical materials on the side; that's how you call it a laboratory.

Fran went to the small chair next to the long table, sat down, and cleared the space in front of her.

What she needs to do now is to advance her Order Forge School mage to the second level.

A [Steam Concerto] spell model appeared in her hand. This time, instead of directly casting it on herself to increase her proficiency as she usually did during practice, she didn't do so.

This time, she began to maintain the spell continuously, recalling the Promotion Method to the rank of Specialized Mage.

She imprinted the spell model in her mind, and her Mental Power began to flow skillfully along the lines of the spell model.

Following Iris's instructions, once your Mental Power can circulate through the spell model you've drawn in your mind once every ten seconds, and maintain this speed for about a hundred times, you can advance to the next level.

The speed at which Mental Power flows through a particular spell depends almost entirely on your mastery of that spell.

Fran had only recently upgraded this spell to the Extraordinary Level, which already met the requirements for advancement to Specialized Mage.

Fran took three seconds to circulate her Mental Power for the first time, and she did not feel any change.

The tenth flow of Mental Power took her three and a half seconds, and by then the Mental Power attached to the spell model began to become viscous.

The fiftieth flow of Mental Power took her four seconds. At this moment, the Mental Power attached to the spell model seemed to be covered by a transparent shell.

The hundredth flow of Mental Power was exceptionally difficult; it took Fran more than five seconds, and her Mental Power had almost completely covered her original skeletal frame.

According to the information she had learned, if she stopped now, she could advance to the rank of Specialized Mage.

However, Fran's Mental Power continued to circulate again and again, and the time required increased with each passing moment.

Finally, Fran completed her two hundredth cycle, at which point the time it took her to complete one cycle was just under 9 seconds.

She felt that if only the circulation speed was considered, she could continue, but the spell model itself was already running out of steam.

She tried to activate her Mental Power Mental Power, but it seemed to be welded to the spell model and couldn't move at all.

If she were to move, the entire spell model would likely collapse within a second, forcing her to start all over again.

"Two hundred times is the limit."

Fran noted this down. Without further hesitation, she stabilized her Mental Power, and then a new aura emanated from the spell model she had circulated two hundred times.

Fran seemed to hear some faint clicking sounds. She shook her head and adjusted to her renewed Mental Power.

"Now I'm considered a second-tier Specialized Mage of the Forge School."

Fran gently called out to the Panel, and the updated Panel reappeared before her eyes.

[Name: Fran]

[Profession: Specialized Mage (Forge) (Two Stars)...]

[Attributes: Constitution 40.5, Spirit 54.8]

[Arts: Steam Concerto (Exceptional) (Proficiency: 53178/100000)]

[Trait: Steam Concerto Specialization (All spells related to this spell gain a secondary bonus based on the Spirit attribute when cast, with a cap.)]

Perfect Mage (Your Mental Power has reached the maximum efficiency of Tier 2)

"I'm getting fewer and fewer attribute points to allocate. At this rate, I'll need to allocate at least two more second-tier Profession to raise my Spirit attribute to 60 points..."

Fran did a quick calculation of the attenuation and was not dissatisfied with it.

"The Steam Concerto spell directly granted over 50,000 proficiency points. Is this the bonus from Order?"

Fran immediately began her experiment. Based on her previous tests, the Steam Engine within Antir were now sufficient for her to fully benefit from the First Order bonus.

However, this spell increases constitution, which is a bit of a shame, otherwise Fran's Mental Power would probably be over 100 with the current boost.

Fran unleashed [Steam Concerto], and a long-lost roar exploded in her mind—the sound of Steam Engine in operation.

Because she had been busy with matters concerning the territory, she hadn't had time to work closely with those machines for a long time.

She carefully sensed the sensations transmitted by the spell.

"The spell is only supporting half of the Steam Engine; it's not fully charged yet..."

"If I use a portion of my Mental Power to maintain this spell, plus the conversion of Mental Power, my constitution can reach... 80 points!!"

Fran clicked her tongue; this number was indeed a bit high.

"Upgrading [Steam Concerto] to Tier 2 will give me a full 20 points of Constitution."

Even if Fran is just an ordinary Second Order Mage, she can become a hexagonal warrior after using this spell, since her stats will increase by twenty points.

For Formal Mage whose physique was in the single digits before promotion, this would directly grant them the physique of Physical Profession of the same level.

"The impact of Order advancement is truly powerful."

Of course, Fran is an exceptional case among exceptional cases; no one else can advance by circulating their mental model 200 times like she did.

Fran looked at the last updated trait, [Perfect Mage].

This trait was something she gained when she was promoted to an Elite Mage of the Elemental School last time.

The effect of this trait is that one unit of her Mental Power can be used as 1.1 to 1.2 units of Mental Power.

But now this trait has changed.

Fran quickly figured out the reason for the change.

When she was promoted to Elite Mage of the Elemental School last time, she did exceptionally well, truly a top student among top students. As a result, she received some rewards that others did not have, such as increased Mental Power efficiency.

And if she wasn't mistaken, the hundred extra spell models she circulated also had the same effect.

But the key point is that she estimates that after circulating the spell 130 times, it will have roughly the same effect as when she advances to Elite Mage.

It can also improve efficiency by a similar amount.

What she just did clearly surpassed the limits of all the respondents, reaching a level that no one could reach.

At least no one has so much Mental Power when advancing to the second tier.

This did not grant her more power; it merely pushed the effectiveness of her Mental Power to the limit of the second tier.

In the second tier, a single unit of Mental Power can only be divided into this many units at most.

"1.35 times."

Fran carefully measured the effectiveness of her Mental Power, and after receiving the result, she was stunned.

If we convert these values to ordinary Mental Power, and then add the final Territory Mage's Blessing...

Ultimately, her Mental Power is estimated to be equivalent to over 100 points of mental attribute.

Even though Fran hadn't tested the exact limits of third-tier Mental Power, she felt that this value was already incredibly close.

It's even possible that this has reached the Mental Power level of a Third Order Mage.

After all, she wasn't sure about the standard for converting Mental Power into power on the Panel; she just felt that it was probably possible.