Speculations About the Future

After Fran was assigned work by Iris, she did not work until late at night because of what her superior Iris, had said.

"No rush. There's still some time before the deadline, and Roderick hasn't been pressuring me, so you can go rest after working until 2 AM."

Fran raised an eyebrow, watching Iris leave her house at one in the morning.

Fran didn't sleep all night; she was still in the small laboratory left by Iris, testing the small device she needed to build.

Upon hearing the words "Sky Dragon, "Fran became extremely alert.

She tried to examine the document with black borders, but found no clues whatsoever. The black borders were completely unprocessable, as if they had blended into the text.

Therefore, Fran could only focus her clues on the small device that Iris had given her to make.

If Fran's first impression came to mind, this thing was like a Small Component of a large device, which would play a crucial role in detecting and transmitting information.

This is a sensitive sensor, and it detects something that Fran cannot understand at all.

Following the above method, she first needs to create a coating that heats up and gradually turns blue when it encounters [■■■■]. The change is very small, so the testing equipment needs to be very sensitive and unaffected by interference.

She spent some time making the coating for testing purposes. She began testing it, using elemental magic, [Heart of Quicksand], the Siren's Voice, the Sky Dragon's rune to activate the fluctuations, and Sunflame, but none of these produced the slightest reaction.

Finally, Fran remembered the pearl bracelet on her left wrist. To be on the safe side, she sent the material to the Spirit Realm Spirit Realm and had a pearl there glow.

"Still not working. Isn't this supposed to test Divine Power?"

Fran looked at the slightly dull pearl and felt a pang of heartache, thinking it was a bit of a waste.

But now that she had arrived in the Spirit Realm, she conducted a more thorough test on the coating, using all the spells she could muster.

Of these, only one divine spell, [Sacred Binding Word], elicited a reaction from her, but the reaction was not quite what she had expected.

As she watched the originally white paint gradually turn black and continue to shrink, she knew that she had accidentally created a new effect.

Fran sighed at this, thankfully she had specifically divided the paint into four parts beforehand, so if this part was gone, there were still other parts.

Next, she used her Telekinetic Hand to pick up a portion and quickly walked into the Divine Temple where the Divine Statue was located.

This time, she did not inform the Lord of Radiance beforehand; it was only after she arrived at the Divine Temple that she began to contact Lord of Radiance in a special way.

A minute later, the Divine Statue of the Lord of Radiance lit up, and a familiar voice came from inside the Divine Statue.

"What's wrong, Fran? Why are you looking for me at this hour?"

Fran didn't pay attention to Him immediately, but instead looked at the paint. She noticed that the white on the paint had faded a bit. Fran brought it closer to herself and didn't feel much heat.

The Alchemy School want to use this to find the Deity, so are they looking for the Sky Dragon? Fran wondered.

"Help me conduct an experiment," Fran said slowly, gesturing towards the Divine Statue.

What are you trying to do?

The Lord of Radiance was quite puzzled by Fran's current behavior. She found it strange to see Fran walking around the Divine Temple with a white, mud-like object in her hand.

Fran finally stopped near the Divine Statue, because she could feel the warmth there.

"Fran, can you tell me what you're doing first?"

The voice of the Lord of Radiance kept ringing in Fran's ears. Fran glanced at the white mud on her hand and saw that the white had not yet faded and was showing blue. So she casually replied.

"I'm doing this to test a material; I want to see if it can sense the arrival of Deity."

"Um?"

This elicited a surprised exclamation from the Lord of Radiance, who then uttered a message that made Fran want to immediately discard the White Clay.

"Why are you making things so complicated? I can point you to some better materials."

Fran blinked and asked:

"You know about these materials that can sense the Deity?"

Then, she heard the voice of the Lord of Radiance.

"Of course I don't know, but my Divine Power will find it."

Fran frowned and asked:

"Why is it Divine Power again? Using Divine Power for such a trivial matter is just too much..."

"No, Fran, you're mistaken. This time, using my Divine Power will only consume a tiny bit. In just one minute, I can cast even more into the Astral Realm."

"The reason I only need so little is because I'm searching for this material, and this material for testing Deity has become connected to me."

Fran fell silent, her brows relaxing. She knew that the Lord of Radiance always emphasized one principle when using Divine Power: connection.

The Radiance Domain is growing ever larger, and it's even named "Radiance" directly—isn't that a connection to the Lord of Radiance?

It's even possible that the Divine Power cast by the Lord of Radiance didn't actually decrease, but rather that the connection increased and the consumption was greatly reduced.

Even Fran's use of Divine Power power must adhere to the principle of connection; she can only use her Divine Power to fulfill wishes that are relatively similar to those she desires.

Now that she knew this, Fran asked the Lord of Radiance to help her see if there was any way to enhance the sensitivity of the materials.

While it might not be useful when submitting it to the Alchemy School, it's worth trying to obtain this excellent coating for testing the Deity.

The Lord of Radiance's eyes flashed, and then He revealed the clue He had obtained.

"Attack this paint with the Sacred Binding Word until it turns gray."

Fran's face stiffened; she hadn't expected this method at all. She asked hesitantly.

"Will this really work?"

The Lord of Radiance grew somewhat impatient and said to Fran:

"Do not question the information obtained through Divine Power. This is something closely related to me, Deity, so naturally I will arrive at the best solution."

Fran hesitated for a moment, but still began to try, using the Sacred Binding Word again, and a word that was hard to understand came from her mouth.

This time, she paid special attention to the changes in the white clay, and stopped when it turned from white to gray.

A miracle occurred: this time, the plaster erupted with tremendous heat when it approached the Divine Statue, even slightly affecting the Telekinetic Hand.

Moreover, Fran could easily see that a light blue color quickly emerged on the plaster and slowly deepened.

This contrasts sharply with the previous white paint's lack of responsiveness and slow change.

Why would this happen? Fran already had a guess in her mind.

She estimated that the mages had devised numerous countermeasures against the Deity, and this substance capable of detecting the presence of Deity was probably the limit they could find.

However, even with such a substance, it is still somewhat insensitive in detecting whether Deity has arrived.

At this moment, when Fran uses the Sacred Binding Word to 'destroy' or 'transform' it into gray, at this perfect value, its original performance is instantly greatly enhanced.

Sometimes, finding excellent materials is like this: a simple process can yield a product with ideal performance.

However, this simple solution is often impossible to come up with even after racking your brains if you don't know it beforehand.

After bidding farewell to the Lord of Radiance, Fran took the spoils she had gained from the accident and went to her room in the Spirit Realm.

Holding the muddy substance that had turned back to gray, she began to think about what she should do.

Based on the information she has gathered so far, it seems that the Alchemy School is eager to take action against a Deity, and this Deity is most likely the Sky Dragon.

The information Iris told her, along with the images she had seen using Star Gazing Art, all pointed to a connection between the Sky Dragon and Number Nine Floating City.

Furthermore, the Alliance seems to have anticipated the arrival of the Sky Dragon and is preparing for it. Is it planning to take advantage of this opportunity to attack the Sky Dragon?

Although she didn't know why the Alliance knew this, Fran didn't need to know why.

She wanted to know why the Sky Dragon would want to come to the vicinity of Number Nine Floating City. It couldn't possibly be someone who's used to loitering near their home and just wants to wander around, could it?

The chances are slim. Fran thinks the Sky Dragon must know it can't get too close to the mages' Floating City; it would be too dangerous for a Deity in the Material Realm.

Was the Sky Dragon investigating near Number Nine Floating City because it wanted to prevent the Alliance from learning about something?

Fran thought this was unlikely. Number Nine Floating City was located in the heart of the Alliance. In terms of distance, it would be more worthwhile to investigate the Floating City closer to the coast.

Moreover, the Sky Dragon came to the heart of the Alliance only because it was overfed; it came easily, but it won't be so easy for it to leave.

Just then, a very bold idea popped into Fran's mind: there was no reason for the Sky Dragon to come near Number Nine Floating City.

Why not go from Number Nine Floating City to where the Sky Dragon is located?

Fran thought this idea made a lot of sense. It was possible that the mages sensed what the Deity were planning and decided to strike first, allowing the Number Nine Floating City to launch a surprise attack.

Many mages in the Alliance now know that the Alliance is going to take action against the Ocean, and has even deployed two Floating City, but they don't know that this is related to the ' Ancient ' realm in the Spirit Realm. Many mages only think that this is a temporary strategic shift by the Alliance.

"We need to find a way to verify this hypothesis. Has the Floating City moved? What is its speed? Where is the Cult of the Sky Dragon's Floating Isle? This way, we can deduce when the Alchemy School plans to move and when they will encounter that Sky Dragon."