Review and an Unexpected Discovery

The sun shone brightly, illuminating every brick and stone of the Floating City; a gentle breeze stirred, causing only fallen leaves to sway.

Because the Floating City is located above most of the clouds, the glaring sunlight can be easily seen in the Floating City during the day.

However, the mages did not raise the Floating City above the clouds to suffer. The Construct School specially installed cooling devices for each Floating City, and these devices also blocked some of the sunlight through the central Mage Tower.

Fran was in a good mood today because she learned that the Magic Duel tomorrow had been approved by the mages, and the staff also said that there should be a group of mages waiting for their duel opponents.

Those mages have played against almost everyone in their skill level. According to the avoidance principle, such matches will not be played again in the short term.

In other words, after a one-day break, Fran will be able to engage in Magic Duel for at least several more days in a row.

A happy Fran used the Sky Dragon rune to fly very fast over the Floating City, arriving almost instantly in front of a large, three-story detached building.

The building has sharp angles and a completely white exterior, without a single stain. At the very top facing the road, there is an icon of a staff.

This is the Alliance's office in Number Nine Floating City.

Fran strode in and immediately introduced herself to the apprentice in charge of greeting guests.

"Lai of the Alchemy School, winner of the Silver Alchemy Award."

She was concise and to the point. The apprentice lived on Number Nine Floating City, so he naturally had a lot of understanding of the various awards of the Alchemy School. Therefore, he immediately got up and welcomed Fran inside.

The apprentice led Fran to a high-ranking mage who wore a purple robe with a light blue ribbon around his chest.

Fran had no interest in getting to know so many mages, so she simply took out the materials she had prepared from her small bag and handed them to the other party.

"I want the Alliance to expedite the approval process for these applications, and to obtain special approval for the construction of my equipment throughout the entire Number Nine Floating City, that's all."

Upon hearing that Fran had won the Silver Alchemy Award, the mage naturally dared not be negligent. There were regulations within the Alliance that, within reasonable limits, should give preferential treatment to the winners of these important awards.

This is written into the Alliance's regulations.

Of course, before granting the preferential treatment, it is necessary to confirm whether Fran's preferential treatment quota has been used up.

He instructed his apprentices to entertain the distinguished guest, then went into the communications room, dialed a special number, and after a short while, a report on the mage ' Lai's ' application to the Alliance was printed out two minutes later.

He looked directly at the top, where a rating was displayed. Based on the rating, they would determine the extent of the preferential treatment. Fran's rating was '70', which, for an award of the Silver Alchemy Award level, meant that she hadn't used any of the benefits that came with the award.

Or perhaps the mage contributed to the Alliance through some means, achieving better results and increasing the score, but not exceeding the initial score of the award itself.

Because the special application record previously submitted by the mage ' Lai ' also came along, he concluded that Fran belonged to the latter category.

He hadn't looked at Fran's applications in detail yet, but as long as they didn't violate any regulations, applications to build some equipment in the Floating City should be approved quickly.

But when he glanced at the record of ' Lai's ' applications as usual, his pupils suddenly contracted, because there was an application for territory occupation written there.

When ' Lai ' applied, he was only First Order Mage. In principle, even Second Order Mage would not have been approved. However, because of the Silver Alchemy Award, it was still approved.

Furthermore, on the territory he applied to occupy, he directly wrote down the region number represented by the Antir Region. He was very familiar with this number because he also knew that Territory Mage might be an important future development trend for the Alliance.

That's why he noted down the region code of Antir Region and the size of the area that the region code represented.

He could see Antir's district number, not because of Iris's mistake.

Iris had promised Fran that she would use some means to change the identity of ' Lai ' as the applicant for the occupation of the Antir Region.

Aside from a few Fourth Order Mage and Legendary, very few mages can access this hidden option.

Of course, such operations could easily have been overlooked; although she modified all public and most private Profile.

However, there was one place she couldn't access at all, and she didn't even know there was a Profile there. This was a special statistical archive used by the Alliance to record the awards and contributions of individual mages.

This system is independent of the Alliance system. Apart from mages within the Alliance system, almost no one knows that it also keeps a Profile. Even the information of the winner of the Gold Alchemy Award is recorded in it.

"Isn't the Antir Region the experimental area mentioned in that Territory Mage's Paper?"

He also knew the current situation in the Antir Region. Although it had been occupied by the Alliance, the Alliance had set up checkpoints on all major routes to prevent any mages from going there.

"Wait, I remember that the Paper by the Territory Mage came from the Northern Lands Society."

He spent more time than usual; normally he would only check for five minutes before going out to serve the monks.

But now he spent a full ten minutes searching for information about ' Lai ' in the room, and finally found out the society to which ' Lai ' belonged.

"The Northern Lands Society, that's it. And the timeline is clear too. That mage Lai, first won the Silver Alchemy Award, and then used that award to apply for the Antir Region..."

"Even if this mage Lai, didn't participate in the specific experiments conducted by the Territory Mage, he used an award to help other mages conduct experiments..."

"She definitely knows ' Fran,' the one who wrote the Paper on Territory Mage, and they might even be close."

His heart was pounding, and his brain was racing.

"I've realized this must have been an accident, otherwise that mage ' Lai ' who came from the Northern Lands Society would never have remained so obscure."

The obscurity he referred to meant that many mages were unaware that a mage named ' Lai ' had arrived at the Northern Lands Society.

Although ' Lai ' won the Golden Hourglass Award, even two of them, many mages didn't pay much attention to this.

Furthermore, although the researcher circle is vast, there are still quite a few mages within the administrator and Battle Mage Corps.

Compared to the latter two, the former is smaller in scale, after all, there are still thresholds for researchers, and those societies don't accept everyone.

Therefore, although ' Lai's' academic theoretical Paper were very successful, they could not be promoted in the latter two circles at all, because they could not understand them or had no intention of understanding them.

Instead of wasting time, managers should get to know more mages. If they can gain the favor of High-Order Mage, they can move to a place with better pay.

The mages of the Battle Mage Corps were busy improving their practical skills, and most of the Battle Mage from the Alchemy School even felt that the Champion Mage Challenge was much more interesting than the Gold Alchemy Award ceremony.

However, the Territory Mage's Paper was different; it contained no fancy theories, only experiments and an exploration of feasible paths.

The administrators are considering whether the Alliance's policies for managing the various territories will change in the future, and whether the newly occupied territories will still need mages like them who have been promoted through normal channels.

Battle Mage, on the other hand, took a liking to the new trait of Territory Mage, obtaining the Territory Blessing. It should be noted that the Territory Blessing is extremely overpowered at lower levels; obtaining one can make one capable of fighting three or four of the same level.

They were considering whether we needed to shift our focus, and whether Territory Mage would have an advantage in the future, even if the territory bonus only applied while staying within the territory—but that bonus was truly powerful!

Moreover, who can predict whether a method will be developed in the future that allows territories to provide remote buffs, enabling a Territory Mage to participate in the Champion Mage Preliminary Tournament based on the territory's blessing?

Therefore, if news of ' Lai ' and that the Territory Mage's Paper were to spread, the amount of attention it would receive would increase exponentially.

It wasn't just the researchers who wanted more details from ' Lai ' to refine their Paper.

The administrators and Battle Mage would also take this opportunity to carefully inquire of ' Lai ' about information that would benefit them.

He discovered this information by chance, and he could exchange it for at least 10,000 Gold Coin.

Of course, it's not sold to a single mage who needs the information. He can spread the word that he possesses crucial inside information about the Territory Mage's Paper, and sign All-Spirit Contract...

Now, he can already picture those ten thousand Gold Coin beckoning to him.

However, he quickly snapped out of his reverie, realizing that fifteen minutes had passed and it was time to greet the mage ' Lai '.

An apprentice was almost at the door, wondering why it hadn't been verified for the award of the mage ' Lai ' for so long.

"Sorry, there was a mistake during the verification process; some documents were printed incorrectly."

He quickly made up an excuse to cover up why he was so late.

He and the apprentice arrived at Fran's room. Upon seeing Fran, he immediately lowered his head, his heart still pounding, unable to look directly at Fran.

Although he knew his viewing procedure was completely legal, at most it would trigger regulations by leaking Fran's information, but it wouldn't result in severe punishment.

However, upon seeing Fran and the ten thousand Gold Coin he thought of, he couldn't help but feel a complex mix of shame, fear, and anticipation, which made him unable to look at Fran at all.

Fran, of course, couldn't possibly have some kind of supernatural ability to know that he was about to reveal something that might be bad for her, and then find an opportunity to kill him.

"Get these materials ready for me in three days at most, the sooner the better."

After stating her request, Fran left.