A Major Event (Part One)

In the shallow sea east of the Alliance, in an area where there is a significant amount of magical fluctuation, lies the underwater island of the Transmutation School.

At this time, the island is very close to the sea surface, and the protective shield at the very top, used to isolate seawater and maintain oxygen, is only ten meters above the sea surface.

This makes the island much brighter than before. Keep in mind that the island used to be hundreds of meters above the sea, and the lighting conditions were far from ideal.

The reason the island has risen to such a high place is because today, the Transmutation School is going to announce the winner of the triennial All-Forms Mage Award.

In the large hall in the middle of the island, figures dressed in the Alliance mage robes were densely packed, their heads bobbing, almost filling the entire hall.

"So many monks from other School have come this year..."

"Do those monks understand the knowledge of our Transmutation School?"

"I dare say those mages probably don't even know how to make an incision to quickly open up a body..."

At the scene, many monks from the Transmutation School gathered together, and they were slightly dissatisfied that so many monks from other School were present at the award ceremony.

In the past, during award ceremonies, although the entire hall was packed with people, each person still had at least one person's width of space around them.

But this time was different; they were so crowded that their chests were almost touching each other, and there was hardly any room to put their feet down in the entire hall.

In this situation, it's normal for them to be dissatisfied with the other monks.

"I heard it's because the Alliance wants to shift its focus to the Ocean, and right now the only organization with a presence on the Ocean is the Transmutation School..."

"Other School are here to take this opportunity to have a chat, right...?"

"There are way too many people! I feel like there are more mages from other School than from our Transmutation School."

"Exactly, with so many people, why won't the flight ban be lifted, leaving us all crammed here..."

The only reason flying is still prohibited here is that there are many viewing platforms above the main hall. If the monks were allowed to fly, what would the distinguished guests on the platforms think?

On the highest platform above the main hall, Vernon changed into an exquisite black-gray robe, the special attire of the School's Chief.

He usually doesn't wear it because the outfit is too restrictive.

Elijah, standing to the side, gazed curiously down below, and frowned when he saw the crowded scene below.

"Why did your Transmutation School build this place so small? Did you not provide the Construct School with enough funding?"

Vernon merely glanced at Elijah, turned his head, and casually said:

"I will expand the Construct School later, and more and more mages will come."

Vernon then stopped talking, which left Elijah was trying to start a conversation, to twitch his sleeves and continue.

"Has your Transmutation School decided who will win this year's All-Forms Mage Award? I'd like to know too."

Elijah opened his eyes wide, his tone filled with curiosity.

He was genuinely curious about what kind of achievements would be awarded for the highest prize of this other School.

He also knew that the All-Forms Mage Award directly announced the final winners, without any nomination process.

Vernon must have already decided on the winners before the awards ceremony.

So Elijah now wants Vernon to give him a little spoiler.

After a moment's thought, Vernon turned his head to the other side.

"Xiya, explain it to Elijah."

He looked at the girl beside him, who was wearing a long purple-black robe.

The girl had beautiful, smooth silver hair that draped over her shoulders, and a light blue ring hung on the pale index finger of her right hand.

Upon hearing Vernon's instructions, Xiya's eyes widened, her gray pupils dilating slightly; she was somewhat nervous.

"OK."

She was Vernon's student, Vernon naturally recruited many apprentices in the process of developing his Transmutation School.

At the beginning of the School's development, like the original Harbos, he had to do most of the work himself.

Of course, he is no longer required to teach, but Vernon still retains this habit.

Scott was a First Order Mage whom he greatly admired, which is why he kept him by his side to help him with his work.

Xiya, on the other hand, was another surprise. She was one of Vernon's twelfth group of disciples, and Vernon had only given her some instruction.

However, Xiya was the most promising of these apprentices. Without much help from Vernon, she actually advanced to the Third Order Mage on her own.

This is truly remarkable, considering that Vernon hasn't trained many Third Order Mage yet, and a large portion of the Third Order Mage in the School are converted from other School.

Xiya was completely unprepared, but she still gritted her teeth and explained it to Elijah.

"The recipient of this year's All-Forms Mage Award should be Ruge Felistin, for his achievements..."

Before Xiya could finish speaking, Elijah interrupted as if he had heard something incredible.

"Felistin... the Felistin Family seems to be getting quite attention lately... Vernon, have you ever considered marrying a woman who's two hundred years younger than you...?"

Vernon slowly turned around, glared at Elijah, and then spoke.

"Elijah, you should be polite. Don't interrupt before Xiya has finished introducing you."

Xiya waited until Vernon's gaze returned before continuing.

"Ruge Felistin's achievement is the development of a modification sequence for the third-tier Magic Creature Winged Dragon. He himself currently possesses the two pairs of wings of Winged Dragon..."

At this moment, a bulky mage, shrouded in a black robe, emerged from a small door in the main hall below. His appearance drew the attention of all the mages below.

Ruge walked onto the stage, swaying his bulky body. He pulled open the chains on his front, revealing something white and feather-like.

When the black robe was removed, his body seemed to be enveloped by the wings of a white bird. Ruge spread his wings, and the white began to spread upwards, higher and higher.

Many monks who were seeing this scene for the first time widened their eyes, because the white had spread to a height of five meters in the air.

Ruge's wingspan was over ten meters long, making it hard to believe that the wings had just wrapped around his body.

His position seemed somewhat off-center, as his right wing was spread too close to the wall.

Before anyone could see it, the white wings carved a black crack in the blue-green wall.

"Looks like you didn't pay the Construct School enough? They've even managed to create a crack in it..."

Elijah noticed this and joked.

"If I were to use a special metal that can withstand third-tier attacks, just filling one layer would cost me 600,000 Gold Coin..."

Vernon said bluntly, without even turning around.

Elijah's interest, however, did not wane in the slightest, and he continued to ask:

"By the way, your Transmutation School only needs to replace an organ with that of a Tier 3 Magic Creature to win the All-Forms Mage Award. Isn't that too easy?"

"You should know that the competition within our Law School this year has been extremely fierce, with several projects resulting in modifications to Fourth Order spells..."

Vernon opened his mouth, but didn't say anything, while Xiya spoke only after Vernon had been silent for a long time.

"Master Elijah, actually our Transmutation School also has Fourth Order Magic Creature organ transplants, but in the end, it was this Ruge who won the All-Forms Mage Award..."

This time, Elijah did not interrupt rashly, but continued to listen to Xiya had to say.

"However, the modification of Winged Dragon has always been a difficult problem that the Transmutation School has not been able to overcome. Modification of Dragonkin has always been very difficult before."

"Furthermore, many of those Fourth Order organ modifications are derived from similar Magic Creature with existing achievements, and the methods used lack originality."

"That's why the All-Forms Mage Award was given to Ruge."

Elijah smiled and then said.

"I understand. The way we modified those Fourth Order spells was the same; it was just a slight change of form, with no real new effects."

"The committee will never award these works when there are other groundbreaking achievements."

"Only when there is absolutely no other way will the committee award the prize to a lucky Fourth Order Mage, just because it's a Fourth Order spell."

There are two different levels of mages: those Fourth Order Mage possess the highest award of their School and those who don't. Therefore, many Fourth Order Mage rely on their high Order to produce some uninformative Paper in an attempt to win the award.

Of course, actually getting it is a low-probability event; otherwise, this situation would have been rectified long ago.

"By the way, it's a bit of a pity about the next winner of the All-Forms Mage Award. His surname Felistin, so he can't enter the Alliance Council. You know, recently the Council has been somewhat wary of the Felistin Family..."

Then, Elijah changed the subject and looked at Xiya.

"Xiya Shia, if you can win the All-Forms Mage Award, then I can recommend you to join the Alliance Council."

"Huh?" Xiya was a little confused. Although winning the All-Forms Mage Award and joining the Alliance Council as Third Order Mage was something every mage dreamed of, but...

"Thank you for your kindness, Master Elijah... I am still a long way from winning the All-Forms Mage Award."

That was all Xiya could say, even though she already had a relatively good direction in mind.

Elijah smiled, seemingly having finally asked enough questions, and fell silent.

Xiya breathed a sigh of relief, but her thoughts involuntarily drifted downwards.

She watched as Ruge put on the flower crown, and couldn't help but feel a little envious.

"I hope I can win the All-Forms Mage Award next time... no, the year after that."

Xiya already has a direction that is similar to Ruge's achievement, but she may not be able to win the All-Forms Mage Award like Ruge.

Although the All-Forms Mage Award recognizes all the achievements of past masters, the Alliance committee tends to prioritize achievements that appeared after the previous award ceremony.

Therefore, if you don't get it this time, it will be even more difficult next time.

Xiya learned from a friend that there was a brilliant research direction for the next cohort, but she couldn't understand why the friend wasn't keeping such important information a secret.

Of course, Xiya also had academic integrity and did not want to get into disputes with other mages.

"The Skull of the Believer..." Xiya lacked the confidence to compete with such an achievement, so she would have to give up next time; she would have to wait until at least the time after that.