High-Level Mage Banquet

At the site of the Mana Communication System project, Fran is discussing the next steps with Forrest.

"Mage Lai, the Northern Lands Society is pressuring me now, do you want to go...?"

"You can leave the work here to me. It's basically done now, but we still need to communicate with the Northern Lands Society."

Forrest suggested slowly.

Fran's funding added 30,000 Gold Coin to the project, and she also offered many suggestions, making her a key participant in the project now.

However, Forrest's initial purpose in coming to Number Nine Floating City was actually to sell a new Mana Communication System to Iris and, incidentally, to raise money.

Although the project is now basically flush with cash, they can't afford to miss out on making money from Iris's side; who would complain about not having enough money?

Moreover, their original purpose in undertaking this project was to sell the Mana Communication System to others in exchange for funds.

Fran's lips curved into a smile. Although it felt a little awkward for someone as close to Iris as her to make this deal with Iris, Fran felt that this opportunity was just right.

"That's no problem. I'm very familiar with the people at the Northern Lands Society. I can handle this. You don't need to come."

Seeing Fran's reaction, Forrest had nothing to say. He didn't think Fran was going to take a cut, since Fran was providing both funding and technology; there was no reason for her to do so.

"Oh, right, isn't there a High-Order Mage banquet tonight?"

"Yes, what's wrong?" Forrest asked curiously. What did this have to do with what they were talking about?

Fran chuckled softly:

"Inform the Northern Lands Society that we will discuss the specific purchase plan with them at tonight's High-Order Mage Banquet."

"This... Lai Ray, do you have permission to participate?" Forrest asked hesitantly.

In his view, this was not a good choice, after all, it was a banquet for High-Order Mage within the Alchemy School, and such banquets generally did not invite mages from other School like himself.

Although Fran is an Alchemy School, she is clearly not very much associated with the term "High-Order Mage."

"Don't worry, I'm qualified to participate, and I know the Society President, so you can leave everything to me."

"Alright then, just remember to specify the maximum speed of the system we can currently manufacture..."

Currently, due to a shortage of manpower, the project certainly cannot build a system with full transmission speed, which may not satisfy Iris.

After all, the Northern Lands Society's current Mana Communication System is most lacking in transmission speed, and with a large influx of mages, Iris naturally hopes to solve this problem once and for all.

However, Fran also knew that the reason why the Northern Lands Society's Mana Communication System crashed every half hour was mostly due to those High-Order Mage who wanted to exploit the loopholes.

They used various magic-related devices to severely block the transmission channels, which is why security is so urgent. If things were done properly, those High-Order Mage wouldn't have bothered with all sorts of attempts.

Fran has a new solution: simply blacklist any terminals attempting high-capacity transmissions, thus preventing them from connecting to the Mana Communication System.

Although it's simple, Fran believes that this method will definitely reduce transmission pressure significantly.

Furthermore, it seems she can also reach a new collaboration with Iris, such as increasing the price of additional terminals, which would significantly boost terminal sales.

"Don't worry, I've already memorized the entire project's status..."

In the afternoon, Fran went to participate in the Magic Duel she had booked; this was her third Magic Duel.

As expected, Fran won, easily taking 5 points with a score of 3-0.

Fran won the first two matches very easily with her Greater Fireball; her opponents didn't even have time to activate their shields because she cast the spell too quickly.

But just like in her second Magic Duel, by the third round her opponent was really going all out, knowing that Fran's casting speed was just too fast, making it impossible for her to activate her shield.

So the opponent chose to start running, using some apprentice-level spells to increase speed, and narrowly dodged the first fireball thanks to his rich combat experience, before trying to start casting a counterattack.

Fran responded with another Greater Fireball. At 3.6 seconds, the second Greater Fireball hit the area around the opponent. The impact of the fireball explosion prevented the opponent from focusing on Channeling Spell.

Since the opponent didn't activate a shield, Fran secured the victory in the third round after casting her third Fireball.

Her casting speed was simply too fast, unless those people possessed Spell Ring capable of instant casting.

However, Magic Duel generally don't wear First Order shield Spell Ring, as their effect is too minimal, and second-tier Spell Ring require Spell Crystal that even Fran hasn't been able to find.

This shows just how precious the Blood of the Furnace Spell Ring that Harbos gave Fran was. It was Spell Crystal that could instantly cast Third-Order Spell. If Fran hadn't already had one, Fran would have seriously doubted whether such a thing even existed.

She's essentially exploited an information gap. If someone wants to deal with her and manages to get their hands on a First Order shield Spell Ring, they could probably hold their own against her for a while.

However, she won't encounter any of the mages she's fought for at least two weeks, so she still has a long time to easily win matches with her Greater Fireball.

After spending a little time having her duel request re-uploaded by the staff, Fran went to Iris's residence; she was going to accompany Iris to the High-Order Mage Banquet.

This time, Fran went to the banquet at 7 PM, not at her usual time (before 8 PM).

"That's strange. Why does Number Nine Floating City set the end time for all banquets at 10 PM? I remember a long time ago a banquet could go on until the early hours of the morning... or at least until midnight..."

Like Fran, Iris didn't seem to enjoy socializing much; this was the first banquet she had attended since arriving in the Floating City.

Iris, on the other hand, questioned the unusual end time of the banquet. When she saw the time marked on the sign, she initially thought it was a mistake by someone.

"That's strange. When I reached the Fourth Order, I used to go in at nine or ten o'clock, but now I have to go in at seven o'clock."

However, she didn't dwell on it too much, since she always went in with people of similar status, which meant that most Fourth Order Mage went in around the same time.

This time, the time at eight o'clock was naturally reserved for the legendary Legendary who might appear at the banquet, as well as some Fourth Order Mage with seats.

The High-Order Mage Banquet seemed no different from the other banquets Fran had attended before; mostly, apprentices served as waiters, carefully checking invitations at the entrance.

Fran was somewhat disappointed that there wasn't First Order Mage guarding the gate as she had imagined; she had thought that the mages at higher tiers would provide some special assistance.

The banquet was held in the main building of the Alchemy School, the ' Aether Palace,' a large, bright blue building.

This time, Iris didn't wear the robes of the Northern Lands Society; she obediently changed into a mage's robe from the Alchemy School, and Fran had to change into one as well.

Several Third Order Mage had already arrived here before they did.

When Iris entered the hall, she instantly attracted the attention of most people. Their gazes were calm, making it impossible to discern their true emotions in observing Iris arrival.

Ignoring the stares, Iris continued searching through the crowd until she found the mages she had anticipated.

"Master Landon, member of the Academic Oversight Committee, excuse me, but my junior needs to explain something to you..."

"The deputy editor of Gray Gold Selections, Fabian, this Mage Lai would like to share her insights on the Felistin Family with you..."

"Rena Reina of the Floating City Real Estate Department, it was just an accident that my student attracted the attention of Legendary..."

"Yes, getting involved with the Felistin Family was also an accident."

Iris, with Fran in front of the members of the important departments of the Alchemy School, made her repeat to these mages what she had said to Iris.

Fran could only repeat herself to these mages again and again, then leave amidst their complicated gazes, and find the next mage.

Finally, Iris looked around and, finding no mages she needed to communicate with, turned to Fran and said:

"Lai, now it's time to take you to meet the head of the Miracle Alchemy lineage, who is also my mentor."

Fran blinked, said nothing, and then nodded to indicate her agreement.

Iris led Fran out of the hall and skillfully walked down the corridor to a large door decorated with intricate gold patterns.

Iris knocked lightly three times on the door, then, ignoring the response from inside, pushed the door open and went in.

Then she stopped where she was, because there were other people in Roderick's room now.

Two figures, a man and a woman, dressed in the robes of Alchemy School, turned their gazes upon hearing the commotion.

When Roderick saw that it was Iris walked in, the surprise on his face instantly turned into understanding, and then he frowned slightly.

"I'm sorry to bother you." Iris apologized somewhat awkwardly. She was used to Roderick not having many people visiting him, so she would just push the door open and walk in when she came to see Roderick.

"It's alright, we're about to leave too." After saying this, the male mage walked out with the female mage. As they passed Fran, he glanced at her briefly before walking into the corridor without any hesitation.