An unforeseen event long anticipated

Earlier, inside the Black Mage Tower of Number Three Floating City.

Nathaniel, the leader of the Elementalists, was enjoying a rare moment of leisure in his chair. As the leader of the Elementalists and an important figure in the Alliance, he was usually extremely busy.

Moreover, there are still many things that require his decision, and when he makes a decision, he must carefully understand the situation of various supplies before he can finalize the decision.

For example, just before today, he spent two days reviewing a Battle Mage Corps's intention to purchase a large number of High-Concentration Element Bottle.

It is said that these elemental vials were to be sent to the Alchemy School as basic materials for Alchemy Device, which would then be used to fight the enemies of the Lohan Archipelago.

Nathanael remained cautious about this, because these High-Concentration Element Bottle were controlled items by the Alliance, and it was easy to create powerful Alchemy Device using them as raw materials.

His first question was what the Battle Mage Corps had used the Elemental Bottles they purchased in the previous fiscal year for.

Then it was discovered that during the operation at White Dragon Port, in order to save trouble, the leader of the Tower Battle Mage Corps threw away a large number of finished items, and even said in the report that if you have these things, you might as well use them.

He was furious about this, because these High-Concentration Element Bottle were all manually collected by the mages of the Elemental School. In fact, due to the tedious and inefficient process, the Elemental School had to allocate funds every year to subsidize the production of these element bottles.

So, he was just thrown away like a firecracker by the leader of that Tower Battle Mage Corps?

What are all these mages for if the Battle Mage Corps doesn't even bother to fight in a place where a single Third Order Professional isn't willing to step out and put up any resistance? And yet these mages aren't willing to take any risks whatsoever.

So when Nathanael wanted to compile a record of his past adventures—risking great danger to rescue the Alliance mages in the Aksai Empire —and send it to the Battle Mage Corps to refute the actions of the Tower Battle Mage Corps leader.

He was quite surprised to find that the Tower Battle Mage Corps no longer had this unit. Didn't they just capture White Dragon Port four months ago? There hadn't been any recent battles, so how could the Tower Battle Mage Corps have suffered casualties out of thin air?

At this point, Nathanael could not make a decision easily. After sending people to Crescent Bay to investigate the specific situation,

Nathanael was also quite surprised to discover that the proposal to disband the Tower Battle Mage Corps was actually put forward by their Elemental School, but he had no idea about it.

After another investigation, it was discovered that this was done at the behest of Arthur, the former chief's younger brother and now the fifth seat of the Elementalist School; in fact, strictly speaking, the order originated from him.

Because this matter was related to the work of the Territory Mage, when he sent Arthur there, he directly delegated most of the decision-making power to Arthur...

This back-and-forth process wasted a lot of administrative resources and took about a day and a half, but still did not provide him with sufficient basis for making a decision.

Nathanael's assistant suddenly remembered that a batch of High-Concentration Element Bottle had been released in Crescent Bay for exchange, originally intended for mages in need to redeem them.

Of course, there are qualifications required to exchange for this item; without holding a position within the Battle Mage Corps, you can forget about getting it.

Moreover, this batch of goods was delivered six months ago, and based on the previous consumption rate, it should last for about three years.

Even if the quantity of this shipment is limited, the Battle Mage Corps could easily use some of it, right? Or they could simply circulate it internally. Why are they demanding so many High-Concentration Element Bottle this time?

Meanwhile, the Battle Mage Corps's Exchange Office reported another exchange record to Nathanael, showing that a Gold Coin had purchased these High-Concentration Element Bottle instead of using the cheaper Battle Merit.

Because the offer was so high, the person in charge of the Exchange Office got the idea to do something crooked. It was extremely rare to be able to exchange such a large amount of Gold Coin, so he released all the stock.

Nathanael is now too lazy to send anyone to find the mage who made the exchange, because he's afraid that it will all end up back on him after going around in circles.

Because of a problem with the printing system at the Exchange Office, the Fran Forge School's logo couldn't be engraved. So the person in charge had to plead with Fran to have the Elemental School's logo engraved on.

After all, the Forge School is still a very small School, and strictly speaking, it has not yet reached the point of breaking away from the Elemental School. This approach has its merits.

This is also because many newly established School, when their early rules and regulations were not yet perfect, used the name of the main School to lead the group, which was actually quite understandable.

Nathanael lost all interest the moment he saw the symbol of the Elemental School.

"Forget it, we've already allocated enough elemental vials to the Battle Mage Corps. If they don't appreciate them, we shouldn't give them any more."

"I refuse to believe that the Battle Mage Corps couldn't conquer the Lohan Archipelago without these High-Concentration Element Bottle..."

This matter had been on his mind for two days, and he really didn't want to investigate any further.

"By the way, how's the matter with ' Philly ' going?"

Nathanael was referring to revising ' Philly's' Profile and, if possible, sending this young Philly to participate in some important projects to broaden her horizons.

Nathanael was busy, as was his assistant. He blinked and said somewhat awkwardly:

"We've changed the Profile, but it seems there's a problem with ' Philly ' herself."

Nathanael frowned, turned his head sharply, and asked with great concern:

"What went wrong? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

' Philly ' was a young mage he had his eye on; he was counting on her to become Fourth Order and the future of the Elemental School.

And at this moment, a hint of resentment and dissatisfaction flashed in his eyes as he looked at his assistant, and he even began to wonder why the assistant's behavior was so strange.

The assistant hadn't thought that far ahead, and simply said slowly:

"' Philly ' has disappeared. We haven't been able to find her anywhere. She wasn't at the Champion Mage Parade that night."

"Was it those Mage Family who did this? They deserve to die! I should have agreed to the proposal from the Necromancy School's Chief that banned the Mage Family system..."

The Necromancy School's Chief must have instilled some kind of philosophy in Nathanael, because Nathanael, as if under pressure, firmly shifted the blame onto the Mage Family.

The assistant's face darkened; he almost couldn't hold back anymore, but he still forced himself to continue explaining:

"No, Chief. According to the information gathered by the Investigator, that mage ' Philly ' left on her own, using the Alliance flight. She's already on Number Nine Floating City."

"But strangely, no trace of ' Philly ' has been found at Number Nine Floating City. Investigator have now begun investigating that flight."

Nathanael remained silent for a moment, sensing something was amiss after hearing about this unusual situation.

"And Chief, I must remind you that, according to the information returned by the Investigator, that contestant ' Philly ' is using the identity of Felistin Family Member, with a First Order Order, and is only twenty years old this year."

"That ' Philly ' really left the Number Nine Floating City not long ago, following a Second Order Mage, and has been missing ever since. It's said that she'll be notified to return after the Champion Mage Challenge ends."

"Based on identification and photos, it can be confirmed that the ' Philly ' we saw last time is a member of the Felistin Family. She looks the same and her age doesn't seem to have changed."

"So, the ' Philly ' I saw, is there something wrong with her?"

Nathanael wasn't stupid; with so much supporting evidence, he naturally wouldn't insist on his own opinion anymore.

"But if she's a Tier 3 Profession, what use is she in the Champion Mage Challenge?"

"If she's a second-tier Spirit Realm Mage, why hasn't she advanced yet, instead of risking joining the Alliance..."

Nathanael frowned, wondering what the ' Philly ' he had seen was thinking.

She possesses immense strength even at the second tier, yet she chooses to conceal her identity.

"Unless, she doesn't want to advance to the third tier based on her own status, or her status doesn't allow her to participate in this competition."

Although Nathanael had thought of this, he stopped there. He had no idea about the predicament of the identity ' Fran ' in the Alliance, or rather, he didn't know much about Harbos's disciple.

Therefore, his guess leaned towards the other side.

"Could it be that some mages in the Alliance don't have official identities because of suppression by the system or certain High-Order Mage, and therefore can only wear this disguise?"

If you think of the High-Order Mage in the Alliance in a darker light, this kind of thing is entirely possible. After all, Nathanael has actually witnessed it, but it's unlikely that they would have such a solution.

The assistant somewhat disagreed with Nathanael's idea.

"Chief, how many years ago was that? When I was born, the Alliance thoroughly investigated the issue of High-Order Mage arbitrarily depriving low-ranking mages of their freedom. At that time, many hundreds of apprentices under the jurisdiction of High-Order Mage were freed..."

"Besides, he's already Second Order Mage. If he wanted to find a Slave, he wouldn't need to have the Slave at such a high Order, would he?"

Nathanael waved his hand and continued:

"You don't understand. What if one of those Slave escaped, and that High-Order Mage wanted to wipe them out?"

The assistant admired Nathanael's imagination, finding it plausible, but wondered if the probability was too low.

"I don't care what her identity is, whether she's male or female, old or under ten years old. The fact that she performed two Elemental Conversion is undeniable."

"This is the strongest proof that she is Elemental School mage."

The assistant opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing. He knew that the Chief was going to protect that mage.

"Have the Investigator look into the mage who possessed the real ' Philly.' While there might be coincidences, it's highly likely that mage was also an accomplice; a thorough investigation is warranted..."

"By the way, aren't there all sorts of conflicting opinions about this matter out there?"

"Yes, everyone outside is talking about this right now..."

"Then put what I said in the newspaper; I think it will become a popular story."

Nathanael blinked, his assistant flinched, and then nodded emphatically.

Just then, a monk stumbled and fell in from outside the door, shouting loudly.

"Chief, we've lost contact with the outside world. We have no idea what's happening out there..."

Nathanael's smile vanished, replaced by a look of seriousness.

"This is no small matter..." He was completely unaware of this change and needed other mages to come and inform him.

He tried his best to communicate with the Mage Tower, but found that most of its functions seemed to be partially cut off, and he could not connect it no matter what he did.

He stood up straight, and his almost solidified Mental Power spread throughout the entire Mage Tower, only slightly breaking through one level, seemingly without encountering any obstacles.

Outside the Number Three Floating City, the Proxy of the Gods all used Divine Descent. The Divine Power Concealment Barrier they set up for these High-Order Mage was very effective, extremely effective. They almost exhausted their Divine Power before the mages inside even noticed.

The Black Mage Tower glowed with Magic Glow all by itself, appearing quite lonely.

Even some of the Deity who were deeply dissatisfied with the Stars couldn't help but utter a word at this moment.

"The Stars did a good job."