Special Invitation

Iris received a very important job in the entire Floating City, but that doesn't mean Fran received one too.

According to Iris, this job is too important, and she needs to prepare and receive the specific work details first, so she can't bring Fran along to work directly.

At this point, Fran only needs to complete the task that Iris had given her before: to scatter the small devices throughout the Floating City.

When Iris needs more manpower later, she can call Fran over.

Finally, Iris warned Fran not to cause any trouble, and that she would soon have Fran work for her.

Fran couldn't be more eager to work for Iris, because there she could obtain the relevant flight records and parameters of the Floating City's power system.

Even without asking anyone else, Fran could calculate the exact flight speed of the entire Floating City and obtain firsthand information.

This almost answers half the question for her: whether the future is as she envisions, and whether the Alchemy School intend to use Floating City to attack the Sky Dragon.

Or perhaps having Iris stock up on fuel and perform maintenance tasks would be enough to indicate that something big is about to happen.

And given Iris's current enthusiasm for finding things for her to do, she'll definitely recruit Fran eventually, so Fran just needs to wait.

Before leaving, Iris took her small laboratory with Fran, leaving only an empty hall in Fran's house.

Fran was tidying up the house a bit, and was just about to look into Promotion Method her Profession, when someone handed her a banquet invitation from outside the door.

Fran was quite surprised to learn that the invitation was delivered by a messenger from the Alliance.

Those of high status in Floating City usually send apprentices to show off their prestige; the level and rank of the apprentices can even reflect the mage's status.

For Fran, this was the first time someone had sent the Alliance messenger with an invitation to a banquet, and it was probably a rare occurrence, perhaps even one that hadn't happened more than a few times in the past decade, on the Number Nine Floating City.

Even if someone is extremely poor and can't afford to support apprentices, they can still come and deliver the goods themselves, right?

But today someone actually sent a messenger from the Alliance to deliver an invitation to the banquet, which made Fran take another look.

However, at first glance, Fran sensed that this invitation was different from others.

A standard banquet invitation will include the location of the banquet, the time of entry, and the name of the inviter. A few special banquets will also specify the purpose of the banquet.

The invitation clearly states that an academic exchange banquet will be held on the third floor of the Silver-Scale Manor, where award winners will share their experiences.

She needs to arrive at 7 a. m. tomorrow. The invitation specifically states that the banquet is scheduled at a unified time so that all monks can hear the experiences of the high-level award winners.

If it were here, that would be one thing, since Fran is doing very little based on the experience of those mages, and she is unlikely to go there.

However, two special seals were also stamped on it.

A document identified the recipient of the prestigious award as the All-Forms Mage Award winner of the Transmutation School.

One of them was a special variant of the Transmutation School's icon, Fran didn't recognize. Below the seal, in red ink, were written:

"Master Lai, the Transmutation School really likes your Paper; we think it's a shoo-in for this year's Gold Alchemy Award..."

We look forward to your arrival.

Fran tapped the table with her finger, looking at the distinctive symbol of the Transmutation School. She thought it might be an important identifier within the Transmutation School.

She still remembered the unusual actions taken by the Transmutation School at the Northern Lands Society, and her [Song of the Deep Sea] transformation sequence was derived from that collaboration with the Transmutation School.

Furthermore, she later learned from Iris that the Chief of the Transmutation School seemed to highly regard her paper, "Mathematical Analysis of Fireball."

The Transmutation School even published a new analysis on this topic, and their collaboration with the Northern Lands Society was largely due to this reason.

Fran knew that Iris would never reveal Fran's background to anyone else; the Transmutation School probably only knew the name ' Lai ' and nothing else.

This time, she did a lot of big things on the Number Nine Floating City, and the news naturally reached the Transmutation School after a few days.

The current Chief of the Transmutation School may be unable to leave due to preparations for matters related to the Ocean, but sending some students and disciples to communicate with her is perfectly fine.

Fran guessed that was the reason; it was probably because the Transmutation School sent someone over to try and communicate with her.

So, should she go or not?

Fran blinked, thinking this was a potentially beneficial academic exchange conference.

Unless the Chief of the Transmutation School comes in person, separated by a disciple, she won't suffer any loss.

Conversely, those mages from the Transmutation School probably came with good intentions, wanting to get closer to Fran.

Fran also lacked knowledge of higher-level Transmutation School. After completing the [Song of the Deep Sea] modification sequence, she didn't know how to proceed.

[Blurry Shell] allows her to adapt to all the organs inserted into her body and gain more abilities.

However, [Blurry Shell] at most grants her more abilities on the basis of the same rank, and sometimes even requires paying the price of a temporary decrease in attributes to gain new abilities.

Therefore, [Blurry Shell] has no way to help her advance. If she wants to gain the knowledge to advance to the Fourth Order after the third tier, she will inevitably have to come into contact with the Transmutation School.

Although she knew that the Transmutation School was unlikely to give her a method to advance to the Fourth Order, considering that even within the Transmutation School, probably very few Third Order Mage knew the Promotion Method the Fourth Order.

But who could blame her for gaining the appreciation of that Chief? After all, that Chief was the founder of the Transmutation School, Fran even believed that some of the Fourth Order Promotion Method of the Transmutation School were created by this Chief.

A mage has the highest authority over the knowledge they create, and this is not hindered by the barriers between School.

"Iris didn't exactly tell me I couldn't interact too much with the Transmutation School, did she? She just told me to stay away from that Chief."

Fran raised an eyebrow and decided to attend the meeting anyway.

She twisted the invitation in her hand. If she intended to obtain some advanced modification knowledge from it, then her performance alone might not be enough.

Perhaps she should show something new, such as demonstrating enthusiasm for everything in the Transmutation School while showcasing her own reform achievements.

She is now at Tier 2, and can demonstrate that she has completed all the modifications in Sequences 1-5 of [Song of the Deep Sea], which is equivalent to a First Order Transmutation School mage.

It's just that some of the body's organs are not fully functional.

The next day, Fran went to participate in a Magic Duel in the afternoon. There's not much to say; she easily took down her opponent with two Enhanced Wind Blade and Greater Fireball.

This gave her her seventh 3-0 victory in the Preliminaries, bringing her Contribution Points points to 85.

This score is already quite high, because reaching 100 points or more is enough to enter the Preliminaries rounds and get a ranking, just like Harvey, Fran encountered before.

Reaching this score allows one to join any Battle Mage Corps and assume an important position without further assessment; it is a testament to one's strength.

That evening, Fran changed into a mage's robe, specifically the one from the Northern Lands Society, and entered the third floor of the Silver-Scale Manor five minutes before seven o'clock.

As a venue that frequently hosts banquets, the number of floors in the Silver-Scale Manor reflects the level of the banquets held.

Previously, the banquets Fran had attended were all on the first floor, but they had also extended to a small area on the second floor.

This academic exchange banquet, judging from its scale alone, is far superior to the banquets I've attended before, not to mention the presence of the winners of the Advanced Mage Award.

Therefore, this banquet can be held on the third floor.

Fran's arrival didn't elicit much of a reaction. Many people merely glanced at Fran's attire, showing a hint of curiosity, before turning their heads away.

Although they didn't know what kind of academy's attire it was, the focus of the banquet wasn't on the invited mages.

For them, the primary purpose of this banquet was either to hear the All-Forms Mage Award winner share his academic experience or to establish connections with the Transmutation School.

"What do you think the Transmutation School is doing here in Number Nine Floating City? It's quite far from the Ocean, and they even sent that newly appointed winner of the All-Forms Mage Award."

"I don't know. Maybe they want to talk to the higher-ups about a large-scale supply of some alchemical materials. But that doesn't make sense. Why hold an academic exchange meeting?! Why not just find someone directly?"

"Is it possible that the Transmutation School wants to selflessly pass on their knowledge of Transmutation Studies to us? I've heard that the Transmutation School has collaborated with the Northern Lands Society before..."

"No, I heard that the winner of the All-Forms Mage Award has a rather exaggerated surname, it's Felistin. Could it be that the Felistin Family sent them here to put out the fire...?"

"Impossible. The Felistin Family has branches in so many Floating City, why would they come to Number Nine Floating City...?"

While the monks were talking, a monk dressed in the robes of the Transmutation School walked to the central platform to welcome the guests and explain the evening's program.

At this moment, Xiya walked in from behind, and some of the invited Third Order Mage invited her to sit down with them.

But Xiya rejected them, and among the few Transmutation School mages, the half of them being Alchemy School, and the rest of the School, she found Fran's place.

She learned from the waiter that the monk Vernon had asked her to contact had arrived that evening.

Xiya stepped forward and asked Fran:

"Mage Lai, may I sit here?"

She pointed to the unique Transmutation School thought emblem on her chest, indicating that she had something to discuss with Fran.

Fran readily accepted and sat down with Xiya to listen to the academic exchange meeting held by the Transmutation School.