Preparations and Planning

Philly paused for a moment before turning around, showing little reaction to Fran's arrival.

For her, Fran had only asked her to help with some experiments for the first few days, and then just left her there.

During this time, although she could still see Fran often, every time Fran talked to her, it was all about work details and coordinating tasks. Fran did nothing like having heart-to-heart talks or teaching her anything.

Even now, she has some doubts about Fran's motives for getting her out of the Felistin Family, wondering if she intends to do something illegal or disorderly.

But Fran hasn't done anything yet, which confuses Philly.

"Philly, how's work lately? Have you encountered any difficulties?" Fran began by saying some pleasantries.

Philly responded weakly:

"It's alright." That was the end of her sentence; she didn't say anything more.

Fran maintained her smile and continued:

"Very good, it seems I made the right decision to bring you here to work."

Philly glanced at Fran but didn't refute her, while Fran quickly stated the purpose of her visit.

"However, Philly, now we need to get down to business, which is the main task of getting you out of the Felistin Family."

Philly's eyes widened. She seemed to know what Fran was referring to. If she wasn't mistaken, it must be what Fran had said before... something she had requested, something about Fran teaching her.

Now that Fran has brought this up, does that mean Fran is going to start teaching her not to continue working here?

"I was a bit busy before, but I've finally found some free time, so I can give you some guidance..."

This wasn't because Fran suddenly found some free time; she still hadn't resolved her Magic Duel and the Propulsion Department's issues. It was just that Fran realized now that she needed to prepare for what was to come.

And this requires Philly's involvement.

"I have a rather important project coming up after I get the Gold Alchemy Award, so I'd like to take you with me. Since the project is underway, I can offer you some guidance."

This was a plan Fran had made long ago: to take Philly to a large-scale public project. Although Fran hadn't decided on the project yet, she was going to participate anyway.

Otherwise, if ' Lai ' mage had free time with Philly during the Main Tournament of the Champion Mage Challenge, people would start to suspect her.

While it wouldn't necessarily lead to suspicion that the mage ' Lai ' impersonated Philly to participate in the Champion Mage Main Tournament, the mage ' Lai ' would still be suspected of conspiring with others to do so.

She had to take Philly with her to participate in large-scale projects, which Fran already had a basic understanding of.

For example, the Alchemy School often has academic exchanges with other Alchemist or goes to search for lost alchemical formulas, and she can take Philly with her when they do.

She will then use her [Blurry Shell] ability to create a clone to participate in the Main Tournament of the Champion Mage Challenge.

She had even found Magic Creature that could grant her the ability to create clones; she only needed a little more time to obtain the organ that would allow her to create Magic Creature.

"And there is one more thing that we can do right now."

Fran smiled and slowly said:

"I need someone to help me summarize the experimental data for my current experiment. Can you help me?"

Philly didn't answer immediately. Instead, she loosened her folded sleeves before continuing:

"Okay, I'm willing to help."

This might seem like a request for Philly's consent, but in reality, Philly had no chance of refusing.

When most monks take on the apprenticeship of another Formal Mage, they treat the Formal Mage as an assistant, assigning all the rough and tiring work to this assistant.

Even those who, due to their elders' connections, ended up working under another mage, still had to perform this basic data processing work.

Fran nodded in satisfaction, and then said:

"Then I will give you all the experimental data. Just leave it here when you're done in your spare time. I'll come and pick it up from time to time."

The second task was for Fran to prepare for winning the Gold Alchemy Award.

She had been tempted since she learned from Iris that more Paper papers could influence the outcome of the Gold Alchemy Award.

After all, the Gold Alchemy Award, as the highest award of a School, not only symbolizes honor, but the Alliance also allocates a considerable amount of resources to the winners of these highest awards.

Moreover, for Fran, no amount of attention could compare to that Paper on the Territory Mage. Just publishing a few more Paper and winning the Gold Alchemy Award was well worth it.

Faced with this matter, she didn't need to hide so much. After all, according to the Alliance's rules, winning awards meant receiving more resources, and she was still counting on...

Upon hearing Fran's arrangement, Philly's lips twitched. She had thought Fran would take her away from the project and back to the small house to focus on data processing.

Unexpectedly, Fran still included her in the project, but increased her workload and made her take over the work she originally did here.

"All right."

Seeing Philly's listless appearance, Fran blinked and decided to offer her something tangible to motivate Philly.

"Philly, after you finish processing that data, you've worked very hard on this project. I'll give you a gift later."

"A gift?" Philly remembered the 'big gift' Fran had given her last time, and her expression turned strange.

Although his research Paper won a prestigious top prize, and a Legendary commented on Paper, it couldn't be better.

However, the Paper was submitted without Philly even having read Paper once.

Seeing the full text of the Paper, even in a special issue, was a really strange feeling, and she also knew that Fran must have had her own reasons for adding her name.

She couldn't very well say that she included her name because she participated in data processing, could she? Even if that were acceptable, why not include the reviewers' names as well? She felt that their contributions to the Paper's publication were roughly equal.

"You're not going to put my name on your Paper again, are you? I belong to the Elemental School; what use is Paper from your Alchemy School?"

"No, of course not. I've already used a gift like that before, and using it again would be a bit unoriginal."

Fran blinked and answered.

Her next Paper was intended to garner her the Gold Alchemy Award, so there was no reason for her to continue including Philly's name and attract even more attention.

Furthermore, if Philly's name were added, Fran felt that Iris would begin to doubt her motives for bringing Philly along.

Even if Fran doesn't know that the orders to suppress Felistin have almost disappeared, why would they post a notice telling all the mages that they're no longer suppressing Felistin?

Furthermore, Fran doesn't usually attend banquets; she always goes with a specific purpose in mind, so naturally none of her friends told her about this.

Her only relatively reliable source of information is Iris, who is currently busy in the Propulsion Department and has no time to pay attention to these things.

Fran knew that there was nothing wrong with it, and it was best not to casually put other people's names on things.

"The reward I'm giving you this time is also related to Paper paper; hopefully, this will give you a useful direction."

"A useful direction?"

When Philly heard Fran say that and saw her serious expression, she actually felt a little expectant.

For many researchers, a good research direction is equivalent to a good Paper.

However, this kind of path is something that most mages can only hope to encounter by chance.

Logically speaking, even Fourth Order Mage wouldn't dare claim they could offer their students a promising direction, as they themselves sometimes need that direction.

But ' Lai ' is different. Philly has witnessed his Talent in research: a nominee for the Gold Alchemy Award, a winner of the Silver Alchemy Award, and a recipient of two Golden Hourglass Award, as well as Legendary accolades.

All of this demonstrates ' Lai's' extraordinary Talent as a researcher.

Those academic luminaries who had received various awards were renowned researchers that Philly had heard of.

And ' Lai ' was the most accomplished and most promising researcher that Philly had ever met.

Philly was inclined to believe her in this regard.

"Can you really give me a useful direction?!" Philly's mouth dropped open as she repeated it again.

"Of course, after all, this is academic research in the field of Elemental School. What would an Alchemy School like me need achievements in this area for?"

Philly rolled her eyes at Fran, because that statement clearly implied that Philly also possessed two Alchemy School Paper.

"Then I'm really looking forward to it."

Philly straightened her eyes and spoke slowly.

What Fran drew was certainly not some vague, unrealistic promise; she herself did have some research interests in the field of Elemental School.

She possesses the spell [Elemental Regression], which can synergize with the three Elemental Conversion, and can be of considerable value to the study of Elemental Storm.

She also possesses the ruler and compass construction methods used by the Elemental School when advancing to Elite Mage, which can enhance the Mental Power efficiency of such mages after their advancement.

She could even find some difficult math problems for Philly to prove, and then let Philly use any spell to demonstrate them, thus creating a decent Paper.

Even though these directions are somewhat inferior to the results Fran has already published, they are still invaluable for Philly.