Preparations Before the Floating City

The Northern Lands Society, the top floor of the Mage Tower.

Fran was now sitting in a new, small room. Iris had specially designated a new room for her on the top floor, squeezing out the space that was originally the living room.

After handing the Paper to Iris, for Fran's safety, Iris did not allow Fran to go out and find a place to rest.

She instructed Fran to stay on the top floor of the Mage Tower and not to go out unless absolutely necessary.

Fran leaned back in her soft chair, looking at the two books in front of her.

One was the Alliance's investigation report, which, thanks to Iris's efforts, received the Alliance's approval in just six days.

The report used extremely exaggerated language, stating explicitly that "this is the most orderly and vibrant region the Investigator has ever seen since it was occupied by the Alliance."

Furthermore, the Investigator rated all indicators as 'excellent,' which was naturally due to Iris's influence.

Otherwise, Fran could understand that the two aspects of 'ability to mobilize labor force' and 'social order' were excellent.

Fran herself couldn't believe that she could also get excellent ratings in both 'Available Regional Resources' and 'Transportation Infrastructure'.

However, none of that is the key point. The most crucial item is the last one in the report.

"This operation to occupy the Antir Region employed a new method, and the Elan mage became the first recipient of this new Profession."

"This will open up new possibilities for the future of our the Alliance."

"Let us praise the mage who completed this experiment."

"Let us praise the full possibilities that magic can offer to mages."

"Let us praise the new hope that the Alliance will bring to the entire continent."

Fran covered the report upside down and took out a letter from the pages. It was from Elan and had arrived with the report.

"The president of the Northern Lands Society has entrusted a Third Order Mage to protect me, so you don't need to worry."

"Everything is fine in the territory. The projects you arranged should continue smoothly. There's no need for anyone else to interfere."

"My hiding was done in a hurry, please understand why I wrote this letter this way."

The letters Elan sent were short, but Fran could understand them.

As the new Territory Mage, Elan should ideally stay within the territory, a sentiment shared by Iris. Therefore, she found a Third Order Mage to protect him.

Fran, who led the experiment, was kept on the top floor of the Mage Tower by Iris to prevent other mages from taking any action.

When can we go to the Floating City?

Fran was getting a little bored here. During this time, she could only practice spells, but she couldn't practice those spells with a large range.

Otherwise, if she were to damage anything here, she could certainly afford to pay for it, but it would be difficult to explain to Iris.

Furthermore, Iris forbade her from conducting any alchemical experiments here, saying that the environment in her room was too special and it was best not to do so.

Once Iris has resolved her issues and returned, she will be taken directly to the Floating City to lay low for a while.

The Northern Lands Society is currently in complete chaos; you could bump into any mage at the entrance of the Mage Tower and they might just be a Third Order Mage.

The second groundbreaking Paper aroused the interest of many monks, which was completely unimaginable before, because they were also unaware of any groundbreaking achievements School.

But now that there's a second chapter, the High-Order Mage are even more curious about this place. Even if they think it's just good luck that only two chapters have been published, they still come here to take a look.

Under these circumstances, Fran herself dared not go out, fearing that if she did, those mages would discover her using unknown methods.

Furthermore, there are far too many mages using the Mana Communication System, and some even want to 'test' the system.

"I can't watch it again..."

Fran put down the receiver with some regret; the Mana Communication System was practically unusable now.

The burden on the Mana Communication System was already nearing its limit due to Harbos's previous Paper.

Now, a large number of mages have flooded into the Northern Lands Society in a short period of time, directly exceeding the capacity of the Mana Communication System.

The Mana Communication System had to periodically refuse access to everyone in order to alleviate the pressure.

Even if High-Order Mage attempted to break through this Mana Communication System, they would still need Contribution Points to view the Paper on it.

Although spending a hundred Gold Coin allows you to access other mages' reading boards to view their Paper, and even post your own Paper to earn Contribution Points.

However, this was still too slow for High-Order Mage, and they were reluctant to spend money to buy Contribution Points, so they came up with a crooked idea.

Fran didn't know if anyone was playing the 'cracked version' yet, but one thing she was certain of was that Iris was already preparing a brand new Mana Communication System.

After all, the current Mana Communication System is clearly insufficient to meet the normal needs of the Northern Lands Society, and it's time to replace it with a new system.

Fran had some ideas for this new system, but she didn't want to build one herself; her basic knowledge of hardware wasn't advanced enough for that.

However, in terms of software, Fran dares to say that it is absolutely ahead of the entire world.

The most important thing is to install keyword search on the system, or adopt a tag system, or even search by the latest publication time, which is better than the current system that can only search by serial number and full title.

Of course, we'll probably have to wait until we get to the Floating City to discuss that. Iris will probably buy a set there while she's there.

She can offer some suggestions later.

Unable to access the Paper through the Mana Communication System, Fran could only turn her gaze to the book on her left.

This is the Northern Lands Society's "Snowflake Selection," which includes Fran's article, "A New Method of Utilizing Territory - How Territory Mage Enhance Their Mental Power," as well as the names of Fran and Elan.

This time she was honest and didn't use any pseudonyms. According to Iris, the risks associated with this Paper couldn't be mitigated by a fake name.

Similarly, the benefits of using one's original name are far greater than those of not using it.

Such an extremely important Paper would bring great benefits simply by being included in the Alliance's Profile.

At the same time, Snowflake Selection also devoted a large portion of the page to explaining the excellence of this achievement, and pointed out one point very directly.

"If nothing unexpected happens this year, the Amber Law Award of the Law School will definitely be awarded to this Paper in three months."

"If the Amber Law Award hadn't been awarded to this Paper, the prestige of the Amber Law Award would have been significantly lowered."

"The Amber Law Award needs to award the prize to this Paper to prove its own level."

"As for the Arcane Mage Award, that's uncertain. Right now, it's even debatable whether another Paper from our Northern Lands Society will receive the award."

"Arcane Mage Award..."

Fran repeated the term aloud; it wasn't the first time she'd seen this award.

Every time she heard the name Arcane Mage, she wondered if it had any connection to the Arcane Mage Profession on her Panel.

She had never found out why the award was called that, and when she asked Iris, she only looked embarrassed; she really didn't know why it was called that.

"Then the Alliance must also have Arcane Mage Profession, right? But it seems that academic achievements are required for promotion, or for some other reason, the Alliance has kept the news under wraps."

Fran guessed based on the information she currently had.

At the same time, she summoned the Panel again and looked at it, noticing that the Panel had changed because of her writing the Paper on Territory Mage.

[Profession: Arcane Mage (Two Stars)...]

[Attributes: Constitution 40.8, Spirit 60.0]

[Arts: None]

[Trait: Arcane Sensitivity (You are more sensitive to things that might optimize your spells, and your casting speed is increased when casting spells that you have extensively modified.)]

Her Arcane Mage Profession appears to have been promoted because she produced more academic achievements.

She didn't feel anything when she was promoted, but after glancing at the Panel occasionally, she discovered that she had been Profession.

Her Mental Power had reached a very comfortable integer position, and just for this integer, she didn't want to look for any more second-tier Profession.

There's also a reason for not continuing: the improvement from a second-tier Profession isn't significant.

It's time for her to shift her focus to the third tier.

The Arts panel remains unchanged; this Profession upgrade doesn't grant her any spells.

The original Arcane Adept remains unchanged, but an additional Arcane Sensitivity has been added.

The earlier descriptions were somewhat abstract, and she had to figure them out herself through trial and error, but Fran quickly understood the later descriptions.

She unleashed [Steam Concerto] directly, successfully casting the spell in less than two seconds.

"It increased casting speed by approximately 30%."

"However, it seems that only spells I develop or significantly modify will work."

Next, Fran tried other spells and found that none of the spells she knew, except for those she created herself, met the requirements.

Fran searched the Northern Lands Society for information about [Elemental Regression], which she obtained through her advancement Elite Mage, and was almost ready to ask Harbos directly, but she couldn't find a single clue.

"These spell models are basically optimized to the extreme; even I find it difficult to modify them."

"I would make significant revisions myself, unless..."

Suddenly, Fran had an idea. She increased the spell model consumption of [Enhanced Wind Blade] to 150% of her Mental Power, and then condensed it in her palm in less than a second.

"Major revisions don't mean you can't make reverse revisions..."

Fran herself found her actions somewhat outrageous, and what was even more outrageous was the Arcane Mage Profession.

As long as a spell has its own style, it can be cast with superior skill.

Just as Fran was engrossed in modifying the existing spells, a familiar voice came from outside the door.

"Fran, come out quickly, I'll take you to the Floating City right now."

That was Iris's voice.