Stranded

Harbos originally intended to take Fran back to Crescent Bay during this time at Number Nine Floating City.

However, just before they were about to set off, an emergency alarm sounded on Number Nine Floating City, forcing the two to remain on the Number Nine Floating City.

Fran knew exactly what had happened, but she pretended to be very curious and unaware of the current situation.

Harbos is a member of the Alliance Council, so after such a major event, it's natural that he, as a member of the Alliance Council, would be notified to attend a meeting.

Finally, after Fran waited a whole day on the Number Nine Floating City, Harbos, who left early and returned late, brought her definite news.

"Number Three Floating City has been attacked. We are currently identifying the Attackers. The Casualties on Number Three Floating City are extremely severe."

This was within Fran's expectations. After all, when she looked at the scene in the Star Gazing Art, she saw that Gods had unleashed their attacks, which were about to hit the Number Three Floating City, but the three Mage Tower did not react at all, and she didn't know what they were doing.

Under these circumstances, whether the Number Three Floating City still exists is unknown.

"Number Three Floating City has now crashed onto the mainland, still deep within the Alliance's territory. Emergency Repair Team and Medical Team have arrived."

"The casualties are relatively good. Those Attackers weren't specifically targeting the residents up there, but rather the entire Number Three Floating City."

"However, despite this, over a hundred lives were still lost in the Number Three Floating City. This is only what has been confirmed; the exact number is still being carefully verified."

Upon hearing this news, Fran's lips twitched, but she remained silent.

Fran could have informed Nathanael about this through Nathanael Communication Channel, even if Nathanael was destined to only react when the attack reached the Number Three Floating City, it might have reduced casualties.

However, Fran ultimately did not do so, because she felt that doing so might not reduce casualties much. After all, an unprepared Number Three Floating City is different from a Number Three Floating City that has completed the evacuation of its inhabitants.

Secondly, even Nathanael might not believe her story. If someone told Fran that the Deity were about to Divine Descent upon Number Three Floating City in a group, she herself wouldn't believe it.

Thirdly, she didn't know what was so special about the Alliance's Communication Device; she could easily guess that these Communication Device were a product used by the Alliance to control communications.

This can be seen from the fact that the Alchemy School of the Number Nine Floating City was able to directly cut off all communication lines, which shows that this Communication Device was truly not pure.

It's highly likely that Fran's location while using the Communication Device during the call will be monitored and reported. If Fran runs to Number Nine Floating City and suddenly uses the communication device, she might end up getting herself into trouble.

Taking all the factors into consideration, Fran still did not inform anyone in advance that the Number Three Floating City would crash.

Even though she felt that the lives lost in Number Three Floating City were somewhat innocent and made her feel a little reluctant, she ultimately did not do so.

"So what does the Alliance plan to do now?" Fran asked curiously.

Harbos's face was ashen. He already had the answer to this question, after all, Nathanael had been furious at the time, chasing after those Proxy of the Deity, but Nathanael had ultimately failed to catch them.

However, recognizing who these people are and whether any Deity were involved is a very simple matter.

The reason why the Alliance has not yet been informed of the Attackers's identity is that the procedures there have not been completed, and the Council has objections to the steps to be announced, so the discussion has not yet ended.

However, it's only a matter of time before the situation is made public.

"The Attackers are 99% likely from those Deity Sect, and those Deity themselves took action."

Fran feigned surprise, then continued to ask:

"So what does the Alliance plan to do about these Deity Sect now?"

This is a difficult question to answer, because this matter seems to be a secret of the Council and cannot be given to a low-level mage.

However, Fran was Harbos's prized disciple, and he valued Fran highly, as evidenced by his use of all available resources to search for her after Fran disappearance.

Moreover, this is also related to where Fran plans to go next.

"Many things are under discussion. Some advocate immediately purging the Deity Worshippers around the Alliance, while others advocate forming Expeditionary Army for retaliation. These are all within the scope of the Council's discussion, and no result has been reached yet."

"And there is one thing everyone agrees on: to put the attack on the Lohan Archipelago on the agenda immediately."

"If you're going to the Lohan Archipelago now, you'll need to be aware of this."

This was certainly not because Harbos thought the war on the Lohan Archipelago would be very intense and Fran needed to be careful, but rather a reminder that if Fran wanted to go, the window of opportunity would be very small.

A second-tier Second Order Mage for a few years— the Battle Mage Corps must be crazy to send such a mage to the Battlefield.

However, the impact of the Number Three Floating City incident is not limited to this aspect. Harbos also said before that this would put the attack on the Lohan Archipelago on the agenda.

This means that the Council's focus will be partly on the Battle Mage Corps, which will inevitably suppress the political decision-making ability of the Command Council and also suppress the currently powerful Territory Mage Working Group.

With the Alliance under attack, the most interesting topic for all mages was how to retaliate, not the future of the Alliance.

Perhaps one day in the future, the Territory Mage will shine again, but certainly not now.

The current the Alliance has no intention of expanding outwards or occupying the lands of other factions; they only want to stand high in the sky and unleash spells upon others.

This would cause the work of Territory Mage to lose the attention of all School, even if other School still had a sliver of hope at this point.

Your work in White Dragon Port will probably end soon.

"Isn't the assessment supposed to be in six months?"

"The various School no longer care, and the Command Council will not allow this project to continue to distract them, so this project will soon come to an end."

"I think that after you go back, the Command Council will hold a temporary assessment, and all the School will agree to it, then the meeting will end directly, so that the Territory Mage Working Group will no longer occupy their discussion space."

Fran scratched her head. Although she didn't quite agree, she also believed Harbos's words to some extent; such a thing could really happen.

"To be honest, I still don't know what you're going to do at the Ocean."

Harbos squinted and suddenly asked the question, but Fran was already prepared.

She raised an eyebrow and continued:

"I want to verify what I've been thinking... something that can only be verified at Ocean, and it's related to research."

Fran didn't say it directly, but if Harbos pressed her for details, she would tell him why she was going there.

This was something she had wanted to do ever since she encountered the juvenile Deep Sea Golden Dragon in the Northern Territory: to hunt down Adult Form Deep Sea Golden Dragon.

She obtained her ' Aether Manipulation ' from the Deep Sea Golden Dragon. She didn't know why this Dragonkin could manipulate Aether, but what she had to do was find out why.

She already knew that the Aether was being controlled by the Deep Sea Golden Dragon, and she could deduce the secret of the Deep Sea Golden Dragon's control over the Aether from the result.

This is a very significant achievement for the Alliance, but it's a pity that Fran has already received the Gold Alchemy Award, so winning another one wouldn't make much difference.

Nevertheless, she still had to write the Paper, because the Arcane Mage Award takes into account all of an individual's achievements. If she could finish the Paper, she might receive the Arcane Mage Award sooner.

"You have a research project that requires you to go to the Ocean?" Harbos blinked.

"Yes."

"Very good, then go ahead. Remember to be careful and don't get involved in dangerous things."

Harbos didn't press Fran about what she was going to the Ocean to research; research was a private matter for every the Alliance mage, and he didn't feel comfortable asking.

"Take your time. If you want to do a small study, go ahead."

He subconsciously assumed that what Fran was talking about was just a small research project, perhaps simply a way to confirm a theorem that had long been accepted as true by mages across the Ocean.

This is normal. Some monks will always have doubts about things they have already researched, and then want to verify them. Sometimes they even actually find something out.

He believed that Fran's trip to the Ocean was similar.

Furthermore, what could Fran, a mage of the Forge School, possibly research? He knew Fran had won the Gold Alchemy Award, but wasn't that obtained through research on Fireball? Overall, it still fell within the scope of the Elemental School.

The Territory Mage's Paper was quite surprising; no one would have imagined that such a Paper would come from the hands of a mage from a subordinate School of the Elemental School.

This later Paper can be considered a work of inspiration for Fran, but how many times can a mage have such a burst of inspiration?

History is full of examples of authors who wrote Paper that influenced the entire the Alliance, only to have their subsequent Paper turn out to be utterly worthless and nonsensical.

So Harbos didn't care what experiments Fran did at the Ocean. Let her go. It just so happened that it was close to a military zone, where there were more rules, which would help him keep an eye on Fran.

Of course, Harbos had this idea probably because he didn't know how Fran had actually won the Gold Alchemy Award.

While Fran was qualified at the time, what truly swayed the committee's decision was her extensive Paper on Alchemy School, which virtually sealed her victory.

And clearly, even Harbos, who at most reads the Paper of the Elemental School, might not know this.

If he knew, he would probably think that Fran was on the other side of the Ocean and had some kind of wicked plan.

"When can we go back to White Dragon Port?" Fran suddenly asked.

"It'll probably be in three days. Although the state of emergency will be lifted at Number Nine Floating City tomorrow, we need to get to Crescent Bay first; there's no way to go directly to White Dragon Port."

"Crescent Bay is a strategically important military location, so we'll naturally have to wait a bit longer, but we should be able to get there in three days."

Fran nodded, looking very obedient. Harbos even thought that Fran's trip to the Ocean wouldn't cause any trouble.