After Roland saw Verlina off and turned his attention specifically to the Magic Network, he discovered that news of his "heroic intervention" had brought the school into the public eye again, sparking heated discussion.
Strategic Deduction had gained momentum and begun a positive feedback loop.
How to apply the Strategic Command runeword, understand and use Strategic Deduction, build models, analyze, calculate, and employ the associated metamagic techniques.
All these topics had begun attracting considerable interest.
Something like this had an extremely broad range of applications.
But papers focused on proving results, and registering those results with the network only required publishing a standard model.
Without widespread discussion, new spells were actually obscure, difficult to understand, and hardly worth the effort.
Outside the Seris School, outside the Runes School, even outside the Mage Towers and Atrelin's system of Arcana...
Most other mages had no reason to go out of their way to tackle it.
"All this free publicity has saved us the trouble of promoting it."
Roland chuckled.
"Perhaps demand for training and certification will surge after the new year."
But matters like these no longer required him, the school's leader, to handle them personally.
Other things occupied more of his thoughts now.
"The year's almost over. As for next year's plans...
There should only be two things left.
First, win the Arcane Star Award.
Then advance to the seventh rank!
The former will lay the foundation for my Seris School's full-fledged success and provide another step toward greater renown.
And the latter...
Will mean transcending mortality and truly surpassing the human species!"
As Roland considered this, his expression gradually grew serious.
Both matters were important.
The former meant fame and fortune, recognition for his achievements, and standing.
By the standards of Blue Star in his previous life, it would surpass