216 - 224

Chapter 216: The Task

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

When Lucien put the ring on the middle finger of his right hand, he suddenly felt greatly refreshed, as if his body was cleansed by clear spring and the wounds in his soul were healed. The power of the ring was so great that, for a moment, Lucien thought that he got a significant upgrade in both his sorcerer circle and knight level.

Clearly, this level seven perfect rank ring was specially designed for him. Lucien, as quite a money-lover, could not hide the smile on his face. He knew that, with Element, upgrading to the third circle would probably only take him two to three years, and with the help of some potions, hopefully, he could become a middle-rank sorcerer before twenty.

Although Lucien was smart, regarding the gift in spiritual power, he was still not close to the geniuses. Therefore, if he had no other assistances but just only the book, Astrology and Magic Elements, it might take him at least twenty to thirty years to get to a middle-rank level, and that'd be already very lucky of him, if he refused to use some vicious magic rites to change his body and soul.

However, with the statistics and mathematical knowledge saved in his spirit library, Lucien would find it way easier when he needed to analyze some complex magic models involving curves and spheres, thus there'd be a lower requirement on the spiritual power needed to build the middle-rank models. In this case, ten years should be enough for Lucien to move a step forward. But now Lucien had Brook Meditation, the ring, many kinds of potions, lots of arcana points and his own research interests, so he was confident that one or two years later he should be able to fly in the sky as a middle-rank sorcerer.

Of course, every attempt to upgrade came with risks, and the risks were even greater when sorcerers needed to move forward to senior rank, archmage or even legendary archmage level. In the worst scenario, a sorcerer might die from it.

Lucien knew that a magic ring like Elements must be worth at least hundreds of thousands of Thales or arcana points, which could easily buy out a busy city together with its surrounding towns and villages. While the Will of Elements and Holm Royal Magic Academy were being very generous, in comparison, the Congress of Magic seemed to be a bit cheap.

Staring at the ring, lots of thoughts flashed through Lucien's mind. He knew that many other prizes following Holm Crown prize also awarded their winners with great level seven perfect rank magic items: necklaces or amulets from Immortal Throne award; medals from Silver Moon award and Ice & Snow award; crowns and other headdresses from Sorcerer Laurel; staffs from Arcana Staff award… Lucien wondered how would it be if he could win all of them…

After realizing he was grinning like an idiot, he cleared his throat a bit and tried to calm down.

Morris knew what Lucien was thinking just now when he was staring at the ring. No one knew better than him, the ring maker, how valuable this ring was. Fortunately, technically speaking, there should be only one winner of Holm Crown prize every ten years.

After the award ceremony, most arcanists left the main hall within five minutes, as they could not wait to do experiments following Lucien's suggestion.

When Lucien was about to go back to Allyn with Lazar, Gaston and a beautiful lady walked to him.

"Evans, would you like to join us, the Will of Elements?" asked Gaston directly.

That was exactly what Lucien wanted, so he also answered directly, "I'm more than willing to."

Gaston nodded with satisfaction, and then he took a glance at Morris.

Morris laughed, and then he reached out his right hand to Lucien, "Welcome, Evans. As a gift for you, later you can go to the headquarter of the Will of Elements, Holm Royal Magic Tower, to pick up any magic items, potions or ingredients within two thousand arcana points in total."

For low-rank sorcerers, gifts worth of only fifty to two hundred arcana points were often given. However, despite the fact that Lucien had not updated his arcana badge, in everyone's eyes, he was already a level four arcanist who was the winner of Holm Crown prize!

After shaking hands with Morris, Lucien asked, "Any tasks or responsibilities coming with the gifts?"

Morris adjusted his purple robe a bit and smiled, "Yes, there are some. We protect our members, and we also want our members to make their contributions. But if you feel that some tasks are too risky, at a certain cost, you can replace those with something else. For you, Evans, we'll protect you as much as we can, and you only need to focus on your research so far."

"Thanks a lot, Mr. Morris." Lucien nodded. After a second thought, Lucien stopped himself from showing the president the Holm Crown ring from Natasha.

"Work hard, Evans." Morris patted Lucien's shoulder, "Well, you can go and get your gifts from Holm Royal Magic Tower now, and Florencia will tell you what task you'll be given next."

Morris looked down at the ring on Lucien's hand, and then he left the hall with Gaston, leaving Lucien alone to deal with the mature and charming lady, Florencia.

Florencia smiled, and her green eyes glanced at Lucien from head to toe, "Good-looking, elegant, polite, smart, decent, humble, famous. What a dream lover you are, Evans. Honestly speaking, Lucien, I'd love to have a date with you."

Lucien was embarrassed, or say, he was a bit scared.

Florencia was amused, "What a young man. No worries, I'm married. But you definitely need to learn more about women."

Lucien put on am embarrassed smile.

"You're a level four arcanist now, Lucien," Florencia got more serious, "and according to the regulation of the Congress, you gotta leave Douglas, unless you want to be the school master. And you know what? Having a Holm Crown prize winner working in a school is definitely a piece of surprising news."

Compared to the mainland, newspaper industry here was very well-developed.

"I don't mind working in a school at all," answered Lucien, feeling a bit emotional.

"Anyway, I have a task for you right now, Lucien," Florencia said seriously. "Don't blame me for pushing you. If I don't get you occupied first, you never know what tasks those nasties would give you in order to give you a hard time."

"What is it, Ms. Florencia?" Lucien got serious as well.

"Relax… It's a simple task." Florencia smiled charmingly, "Malfurion, a legendary druid and also the elder of the druids from Stroop Forest in the east, is visiting Allyn for a research program which is jointly set up by them and the Congress. The Elder has devoted his life to guarding the forests and lands, and what these druids have been trying to do is to help those poor farmers who have worked hard their whole life just to survive. They tried to use their magic power to increase the productivity of their lands, however, Malfurion's only got less than a thousand druid apprentices, so his power is far from being enough. They've tried their best, but they couldn't even save the farmers from one single country."

"Despite the fact that their power's not enough, they're doing kind things, for sure." Lucien nodded.

Florencia agreed, "That's right. Therefore, they want to find a way together with us to see whether we can turn their magic power into some kind of alchemical items that could consistently increase the productivity of lands and could be produced relatively easily."

"It doesn't sound like an easy job like you just said." Lucien frowned.

"No, it is not. What we need to do is to analyze those druids' magic, understand the power, then simplify and popularize them, and this requires profound arcana understanding. But as Mr. Fernando Brastar, Ms. Hathaway and Mr. Vicente Miranda are taking the lead, and Mr. Raventi and Mr. Gaston are also involved, even if the project fails in the end, you won't be blamed."

Druids' power was very different from that of the Church and the Congress of Magic, which seemed to strangely sit in between the two. The congress had been trying to study it for years, and now this was a great opportunity. So of course, great emphasis was put on the project, and that was why the three grand arcanists took the lead together.

Lucien knew that what he needed to do with this task was to learn something new, and probably he could take advantage of this great opportunity to create some new spells out of the druids' unique magic.

"I'll get the task from Task Zone as soon as possible after I finish handling the things from school."

"Great." Florencia nodded, "It took me quite a bit of effort to put you in there. If you hadn't won Holm Crown prize, those stubborn druids wouldn't have accepted you."

At this time, Raventi walked to them. He quickly pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Lucien, "Evans, here's my book list for you. Read those books, and enhance your knowledge foundation of arcana."

Lucien took a glance at it, and saw that there were at least forty to fifty books on it.

Before Lucien managed to say anything, Raventi took out a thick pile of test paper, "Evans, I've heard about your way of teaching, and I appreciate it. These are the exercises that I have collected, and they're suitable to you. Take them, and finish them carefully."

Lucien's eyes suddenly opened wide. What a karma…

…

Soon afterwards, all the groups, arcanists, pastors and even important nobles in Holm heard the news that there was another winner of Holm Crown prize.

Lucien was the twenty-sixth winner of Holm Crown prize in the past two hundred seventy years, and, of course, he received lots of attention.

Chapter 217: In Holm Royal Magic Tower

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

On the top floor of a magic tower in Allyn.

Rogerio released a long sigh, "Holm Crown prize… What a young man… The youngest winner ever…"

As he was saying, Rogerio's hand gently touched his neck, as if there was an imaginary amulet hanging there. He had been striving for Immortal Throne award for many years, but it turned out that his talent was more in magic than in arcana.

"On the shoulder of giants… shoulder of giants…" Adol, the undead, was right now sitting on the couch with a glass of wine in his hand, "Maybe this was even out of Professor's great expectation, and maybe he was still working on synthesizing life ingredients, hoping that he could win both Holm Crown prize and Immortal Throne award. Ha, will you guys recognize his findings?"

Looking from behind, no one could tell that Adol was actually not alive.

They had investigated Richardson, the only sorcerer who was still below senior-rank from the previous Holm Crown prize winners, and they were certain that he was not Professor.

"Depends on whether Professor, this giant, will still be alive at that time." Rogerio sneered, "Besides, Felipe has made a considerable progress."

Then he called someone in and said, "keep a close eye on Lucien Evans X, the same level we have on Larry, Timothy and Ulysses. Always keep me informed."

Now, Lucien was drawing the attention of the Hand of Paleness because of himself, not because of Professor. Therefore, he was actually safer now, as the Hand of Paleness would not just kill a genius full of potential for no important reasons, and the highest council would not allow something like this to happen as well.

"And, tell that person… to continue to look for Professor." Rogerio added, "We've promised him the rite, Lich Convert, and we always keep our words."

Sitting on the couch, Adol sneered, "Stupid humans…"

…

In the dark cold winter night, the lights on both sides of the street looked darker than usual.

Breaking through the thin layer of snow on the ground, a coach slowly stopped in front of Holm Royal Magic Tower, the highest building in Noble District.

The coachman opened the door of the coach and said politely, with a dim yellow light in his hand, "Mr. Evans, Mr. Lazar, we've arrived."

Although he was just a common man, as someone who had been hired by Holm Royal Magic Academy for a long time, he respected sorcerers a lot.

Lucien took a deep breath and refreshed himself.

As soon as they entered the magic tower, an elegant, middle-aged man greeted them, "Good Evening. I am the steward of Holm Royal Magic Academy, and my name's Rodham. According to Mr. Morris, I will be helping you find what you need here, Mr. Evans. By the way, will you be staying for the night?"

The middle-aged man's blond hair was of pompadour style, and he looked rather well-mannered.

Because of the deeply rooted relationship between Holm Royal Magic Academy and the royal families such as the Hoffenberg family, in this place, there was a strong sense of hierarchy.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Rodham." Lucien nodded slightly, "Could you please show me the section where those magic items are? I need a magic robe. And yes, if there's any spare rooms, my friend and I will be staying here tonight."

"I am honored to be at your service," Rodham responded, with his left hand resting on his chest. "As the winner of Holm Crown prize, Mr. Evans, you've automatically become our honored member here. Later I will provide you with documents, and feel free to enjoy anything we have here."

As it was already eight at night, the whole magic tower was very quiet, thus the sound of the footsteps from Rodham, Lucien and Lazar sounded quite loud.

At this time, a group of people walked downstairs from the second floor. The elder man taking the lead, who was wearing a crimson double-breasted suit and black cloak, looked very familiar to Lucien, as his silvery-gray eyes were identical to Natasha's, and he even looked like the male version of her. However, this man looked skinny, pale and sick, and this was totally different from the princess in Aalto, who always had a healthy glow on her cheeks.

On both his cloak and his suit, there was a fuchsia-colored coat of arms. Surrounded by lines representing cloud and mist, the crown supported by a sceptre and a sword looked sacred. Lucien could tell at his first glance that this was from the Hoffenberg family, the royal family of Holm.

Half step away behind the elder man, there was a middle-aged man with brown hair. His elegant long suit burst at the seams because of his weight. With a black leather bag under his armpit, there was a flattering smile on his chubby face.

"Your Highness," Rodham saluted the elder man respectfully.

This elder man was the only prince in Holm, Duke of Edenbo, Patrick Hoffenberg, Meredith's elder brother and Natasha's uncle.

Lazar and Lucien bowed slightly, but not as respectfully as what Rodham did. There was no very strict manner of hierarchy between nobles and sorcerers, unless for the sorcerers who worked for the nobles.

Patrick slightly nodded. Just when he was about to continue to walk toward the gate, he saw the shining, light purple ring on Lucien's right hand. Then he asked in his harsh voice, as if he was sick, "Holm Crown ring? Are you Mr. Lucien Evans?"

The reason why the Hoffenberg family was the most influential one in Holm, a country overtly supporting the development of magic, was directly related to the fact that many of the Hoffenberg family members were influential sorcerers and arcanists, even grand arcanists. Therefore, Patrick certainly would not miss the chance to get to know the most recent Holm Crown prize winner.

"Yes, I am." Lucien smiled, "It's my pleasure to have my name remembered by Your Highness."

Patrick nodded with satisfaction, "It seems that the name, Lucien Evans, can be heard everywhere in recent years. One is a great musician, and one is a genius sorcerer, the youngest winner of Holm Crown prize." After a slight pause, he asked, "Are you going to join the research project with the druids?"

"That's right." Lucien did not know why Patrick asked him about this.

"Good." said Patrick, "They've decided to use the town called Sariva to be the pilot land for the project, and the small town belongs to our family. Although it's a pretty poor area there, worry not, I'll have the town officials entertain you well."

Suddenly, Patrick's words were interrupted by his severe coughing. His cough was so bad that it looked like he was out of breath. Patrick did not get any better until he hurriedly swallowed the light green magic potion from a small bottle.

Lucien did not feel a hundred percent comfortable with Patrick's sudden enthusiasm, but he still responded politely, "Thank you very much, Your Highness."

Patrick now looked better. He slightly raised his hand and said, "The royal family's glory also comes from the support of sorcerers."

After chatting casually for some short time, obviously, Patrick was not feeling that great, so he needed to leave. Before that, he said in a low voice, "Natasha sent me a letter, and in the letter, there was a latest work from the talented musician, Moonlight Sonata…"

Lucien was a bit surprised. He wondered if Patrick was already aware of who he was. However, he was sort of expecting this after winning the Holm Crown prize, as he was drawing so much attention, and Lucien never underestimated the Church's and the Congress' ability to gather information. Now, he only hoped that Natasha would keep her words and take care of his family.

Lucien felt that it was time to write a letter to Natasha, now that he had got rid of the close watch from the Hand of Paleness.

After Patrick left, surprisingly, the fat, middle-aged man came back for Lucien. He said to Lucien with his face wreathed with smiles, "You're Mr. Evans! What a pleasure for me seeing you here today. I'm sure that you'll definitely be a senior-rank sorcerer some day. By the way, I'm Arthur Doyle, president of Union Bank of Holm Mining, a baron."

Lucien could imagine that this man had some important nobles supporting him, or a common baron would never have the chance to become the president of Union Bank of Holm Mining.

After chatting a bit, Arthur sighed with emotion, "Young sorcerers are definitely more open-minded. Our bank has always been interested in developing new routes for the magic steam train, especially these several heading toward the harbour, but our proposal has never been approved by the Affair Committee. I sincerely hope that a young and talented sorcerer like you can join Affair Committee in the close future, so we can work together toward something."

As he was saying, he handed his business card to Lucien.

Lucien'a attitude toward Arthur was not clear. He was neither enthusiastic nor cold. After Arthur left, Lazar sighed, "You're someone important now, Evans."

"I'm not important to them. It is the possible benefit that they could gain from me that is important to them." Lucien smiled but shook his head.

Then, led by Rodham, Lucien and Lazar walked upstairs.

…

A magic steam train was running at its full speed on the open plain. The druids in the train were looking out the window with their eyes and mouths wide open.

Among those druids, some of them were good-looking elves, some were humans, and some were dwarves or from other races.

"Beyond imagination! This alchemical product…" Many druids exclaimed. The alchemical product that they were talking about was the train.

However, a pretty elven-looking man among them looked rather pissed off and he said to his friend in a low voice, "Those bastards… Railways and trains like this are destroying the balances in mother nature. The land's crying, and the dead plants are cursing. Misfortune shall befall them!"

The young elf girl nodded, "That's right. I don't understand why the grand elder insists to work with those vicious people. He just wouldn't listen even when all the other elders are disagreeing with him."

Chapter 218: Demiplanes Warehouse

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

At the end of the corridor on the thirteenth floor of Holm Royal Magic Tower, there was a heavy, gray iron door. When Rodham started the gear and opened it, Lucien could see nothing clear in the shadows behind.

"This place is co-owned by the Will of Elements and Holm Royal Magic Academy, half and half," Lazar said to Lucien. "I heard that Her Excellency Hathaway's magic tower is in this demiplane as well."

As a member of the Will of Elements, Lazar had been here before.

Even though Lucien tried to see through the mist with his sharp sight from the power of his Blessing, he still could not identify anything there.

"Please, Mr. Evans," said Rodham very respectfully pointing the way. Obviously, he was very well-trained.

Lucien nodded, and then he walked through the gate.

A starry sky was hiding behind the thick mist, and through the transparent crystal ceiling, the light of the stars lit up the very spacious warehouse, which spread out as far as Lucien's eyes could see.

However, there was nothing there, until Lucien, Lazar and Rodham took a step forward, as the warehouse seemed to come to life.

"Rodham, what do you come here for?" A cold and emotionless voice came to them from every corner of the warehouse, making the whole atmosphere of this place serious and suffocating, as if horrible punishment for them would immediately arrive if Rodham said something wrong.

Rodham took out a piece of mysterious-looking badge drawn with signs of elements from the ancient magic empire, "Mr. Ziderman, this badge's from Morris, and it contains his order to you. At the same time, I believe that you can easily recognize the ring on Mr. Evans's right hand, from Holm Crown prize."

"Oh?" responded the cold voice, and the badge in Rodham's hand disappeared all of a sudden. Lucien had no idea how Ziderman did this, but it seemed that doing anything in this warehouse was just a piece of cake for him.

Honestly speaking, Lucien, with his spiritual library and all the knowledge from Earth, sometimes had less respect toward sorcerers here, however, at this time, he suddenly found himself witnessing what was happening here in this warehouse in awe. Lucien knew that he was still new to magic, and he should never be arrogant and self-satisfied.

But, for sure, Lucien would still continue to work on turning knowledge from the Earth into arcana and magic, because, after all, this was what he was good at, and only idiots would give up their advantages. At the same time, Lucien wanted to study soul, mentality and spiritual power as well, in order to be a qualified sorcerer.

"The badge has been verified. Now, Mr. Evans, you can choose anything here including potions, materials, magic items, magic circles, precious books, etc. worth of less than two thousand arcana points." As Ziderman was explaining, the star light gradually revealed rows and rows of shelving units with numbers. And on those units, there were countless items, and among them, some were plain-looking, and some were dazzling and shining with dream-like gloss…

Lucien felt even more excited than when he was in Maskelyne's alchemical lab, as in the lab there were only magic materials and ingredients.

Under Lazar and Rodham's guide, Lucien tried his best to calm down and first came in front of the shelving unit where countless magic robes, cloaks and hats were.

"Davey's Robe (duplicate): Duplicate of Davey Rodel's legend level magic robe, level nine high rank; Reduces buffering time of spell casting by three seconds, provides the wearer with level of defence as level six radiant knight, and increases the wearer's spell resistance level to ninth circle. Prerequisite: The wearer's spiritual power shall be at least of the level of seventh circle, or one would turn into an idiot.

Davey Rodel: Although it is only a duplicate, it is still very valuable. The person who is able to offer enough (worth ten million arcana points or a duchy or a principality) shall deserve it."

Davey Rodel was a member of the Highest Council.

Lucien's eyes could not move away from this black magic robe of the ancient magic empire style. This was the best magic robe he had ever seen! Reducing buffering time of spell casting by three seconds meant that one could keep casting spells under sixth circle without any stop, so the wearer could slay his or her enemy like a powerful storm. This was definitely a robe that most sorcerers would dream to have!

However, the price was beyond Lucien's imagination. According to what Lucien knew, even the Violet family could only have a total income of eight hundred thousand Thales a year, and this robe was worth ten million arcana points.

At this time, Lucien saw another level seven magic robe which could reflect long-range and single-target attacks. However, he could not afford it either.

After quite a while, he finally found two that might suit him: one was called Nymph and the other Transformation. Other ones were either too expensive or they were not what Lucien wanted.

Lucien checked Nymph, which worth a thousand and five hundred points, enchanted with two magic effects, Gloss and Charm, and it could provide the wearer with level of defence as a level three knight.

"The wearer, no matter male or female, would be super charming, and this charm can go beyond gender. Lots of great discounts would be given to the wearer, and even free gifts! Caution, pursuers can be crazy!"

Lucien trembled a bit after reading this, and quickly put it down. Then he picked up the robe called Transformation:

"Level three middle rank magic robe, enchanted with Transformation, giving wearer's level of defence as a level two knight and magic resistance as a third circle sorcerer. The wearer can transform into a mouse, an owl and a troll once a day for each.

Assunção Philip: the body transforms, not the heart."

This robe was worth a thousand nine hundred and sixty arcana points, and it was more expensive than other robes of the same level. However, Lucien still chose it, as he knew nothing about transformation, and he felt he was not making any progresses in studying Transformation. Despite the fact that Lucien did know a bit about Anatomy, which was the prerequisite for studying Transformation, Lucien was still having a hard time in understanding how Transformation worked.

Lucien had the feeling that this robe could be very helpful for him at some point in the future.

After telling Ziderman and Rodham his choice, Lucien cast Identification and left his spiritual power imprint in the robe, then put the robe on. After concentrating his spiritual power on the robe, Lucien turned the robe into a decent, black suit and a pair of leather shoes.

Using the rest of the forty arcana points, Lucien bought ten bottles of a dark-purple potion named Florencia's Elixir. He planned to take one bottle for each of the following ten months to better handle the greatly improved speed of him doing meditation with the ring, Element.

So far, two thousand arcana points were gone. When Lucien was about to leave with Lazar and Rodham, Ziderman said to him, "Mr. Evans, as the winner of Holm Crown prize, and a member of honor of Holm Royal Magic Academy, you're provided with a free gift, a book."

Then, a book with fine cover appeared in Lucien's hand: Matching Magic Items, by Florencia Ranka Constantine.

Lucien leafed through the book quickly. The book was about how to prevent two magic items from affecting each other when they were too close. For example, if Lucien wanted to have a ring on each of his ten fingers, he needed to arrange them properly, or put buffering rings between the rings which did not agree with each other to mitigate the conflict. However, those were always expensive, and that was why most sorcerers only wore up to two rings on one hand.

After taking one more look at the warehouse, Lucien left the place with Lazar and Rodham.

…

Early the next morning, Hexagram Station.

Wearing the long double-breasted suits of the same style, Lucien and Lazar were waiting for the train on the platform, with their hands in their pockets.

Whistling, the dark blue train slowly stopped in front of them.

A decently dressed middle-aged man got off the train. After staring at Lucien for a second, he quickly walked away together with other people.

Lucien and Lazar got on the train and picked two seats beside the window.

…

After leaving the platform, the middle-aged man walked even faster. When he entered a quiet and remote valley, he took out a scroll and put his face against it.

Divine light came out from the scroll, and the man looked in great pain, but he did not make a sound. When the light disappeared, there was a transparent piece of "paper" in his hands, and Lucien's picture was on it!

The divine spell pulled out his memory and depicted what he saw!

Then, the man went to a remote church with the piece of paper. Sitting on the chair in the front, he started praying silently.

After that, he walked out of the church, but he left the piece of paper on his seat.

A pastor walked out and took it.

The paper was delivered at various levels and finally sent to Philibell, the cardinal of Holm parish.

"Lucien Evans X, the most recent winner of Holm Crown prize, looks quite young." He murmured.

Then, he turned to the other cardinals and the leader of the Inquisition, "Improve his level to 'To Be Wiped Out'. When there's a chance, send the night watchers to finish him, and I'll soon send the information to the Bright Hall."

Although Lucien was the winner of Holm Crown prize, he was not powerful and influential enough to be on the Cleansing List. Even Felipe, the winner of Immortal Throne award, did not get on the Cleansing List until he humiliated the Church right in the face.

"Your wish is our will," said Giendon humbly. "But I'm afraid finding a chance like this is not easy. First, a promising sorcerer like him would not leave Allyn easily, and second, most middle-rank night watchers would be killed by his ring, unless we can send really good ones. But if this was the case, the Will of Elements and the congress would take their bitter revenge for sure. If there's a chance, I want to apply for using the holy relic."

The power of Holm parish was way greater than that of Violet parish, or they would have been wiped out by the congress long ago. They had enough power to resist until they could open the portal to have support from the Holy City.

Philibell nodded and sighed, "The congress never lacks young talents, even in the most recent years. We're lucky that the popes have all been putting emphasis on improving the foundation of divine spells, so we're not falling that behind."

Hearing that, the several cardinals and the leader of the Inquisition all nodded with some emotion. They felt both concerned and lucky.

…

Allyn, on the thirty-fifth floor of the headquarter of the Congress of Magic.

Nineteen out of the twenty-four members of the Highest Council, all the seven grand arcanists, and eight out of the eleven legendary archmages were present.

"According to the information provided by Malfurion, several druid elders won't work with us. So, among those druids who are visiting Allyn, some are actually from Nature Rebellion, who want to disturb our project. As some of them are actually from the royal elf family, Malfurion could only pretend that he knows nothing about it, and he wants us to handle this," said an old man with white hair and clear blue eyes. The old man was tall and still in good shape, and was wearing black suit and a bow tie.

"President Douglas, you called us here just for this?"

The one who was speaking aggressively was a short, elegant-looking old man wearing a bright red robe. His hair was a mix of black and white, and his red pupils were bright and sharp.

Chapter 219: Lucien's Research Group

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"Am I gonna just leave those little druids alone to let them destroy our research?! Am I that stupid in your eyes, Douglas?!" Lord of Storm yelled at President Douglas furiously. Meanwhile, all the archmages present slightly leaned backwards in their chair, trying to stay away from Lord of Storm's howling.

Douglas, however, remained rather calm. Obviously, he was very used to it, and he comforted Lord of Storm, smiling, "Fernando, your major task when working with Hathaway and Vicente is to cooperate with Malfurion to reveal and understand the secrets of the power of nature. And I'm sure that everyone here is willing to assist you."

The names of many ancient sorcerers who established the Congress of Magic with Douglas had gradually faded away due to the development of arcana, and right now only five of them were still here. The rest of the six grand arcanists were more or less juniors in Douglas's eyes, and two of them could even be regarded as his students.

Brook, a middle-aged gentleman wearing a wig and a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles, Oliver Constantine, an elegant middle-aged man with black hair and eyes, and Hellen Price, a beautiful, elf-looking lady, all nodded slightly. No matter how they competed with each other most of the time and whether they could get along well together, right now, they were all willing to offer their help, as they knew how important this project was.

If they could reveal the secret of nature magic, they would be one step closer to cracking the secret of divine power. Once all the sorcerers could cast divine spells, most pastors, cardinals and knights would not be able to believe in their faith anymore. They would either be devoured by holy light, or lose all their power.

Nothing was more important than this to the Congress of Magic!

"Besides, Fernando, you think those druids from Nature Rebellion are the only ones who wants to interrupt our project? You think they would not report this to the Church secretly? Soon, you'll be facing the great pressure from both Nature Rebellion and the Church, but I want you all to stay focused on the project, and this is why I want to eliminate this hidden danger for you right now in advance."

It was obvious now that the true intention of the president asking them to come here was to discuss how to prevent the Church from ruining their project. The topic about the druids from Nature Rebellion was just today's appetizer.

"I see… President Douglas, I am to blame. Although Philibell has been quite restrained, there are always things that are out of his control." After understanding Douglas' plan, Fernando admitted his fault straightforward.

Across the round table sat a middle-aged, pale man wearing black cloak. He looked so skinny that it seemed that there was only a layer of skin covering his skeleton. In the man's eyes, two clusters of dark-red flame were flickering.

He said in a low voice, "You never put much thought into things other than arcana and magic, Old Psychopath. I think we should secretly marginalize those incooperative druids by assigning them to famous arcanists who are actually not gonna be really involved in the project."

Being called his monicker, Old Psychopath, Fernando did not really mind, "That's why you never dare discuss mathematic and arcana problems with me, Vicente…"

"How famous do you think the arcanists should be, Mr. Vicente?" asked another legendary archmage, Klaus, who tried not to let the situation embarrass Vicente.

After taking a glance at Hathaway, who was sitting there silently like a statue, Vicente answered, "The recent winner of Immortal Throne award and the youngest winner of Holm Crown prize should be enough. Felipe's busy with his recent experiments, so he would not be really involved. As for Lucien Evans from the Will of Elements, he's not yet capable of analyzing divine spells. Mrs. Florencia introduced him to the project only hoping that he could learn something from it. However, their reputation should be persuasive enough for those druids."

"Sounds good. How do you feel, my teacher?" Brook, the very influential arcanist who put forward his own understanding of the form of spiritual power against Douglas, was, surprisingly, Douglas' student.

However, they seemed to be quite cold to each other. Some rumours about them seemed to be true.

Before Douglas nodded, Hathaway suddenly said to all of them, as her silvery-gray eyes looked around at all the sorcerers present, "Each of the two leads one group, in order to separate the druids who are not cooperative."

Douglas agreed, "That's even better. If everyone here agrees on this plan, we shall now move on to the next topic—how to prevent the Church from destroying our project."

…

Douglas, in Lucien's villa.

"Wow… It's only been several days, and our green hand teacher, Lucien Evans, has become the winner of Holm Crown prize… the youngest one!" Rock walked and jumped around Lucien excitedly, "How do you feel right now?! You're definitely the fastest one in history to become level four in arcana!"

Lucien was amused by Rock, feeling that he could become a good journalist, "I'm still the same, and the only change is that people now see me differently. If I take your project to the board now, maybe it can be approved."

Rock sighed emotionally, "Reputation and status… Wow… Lucien, if you want to develop any research proposals, I can share some of my ideas with you! Or I can be your helper!"

Jerome and Vilnia just ignored Rock's words but continued to stare at Lucien and his ring in an unbelievable way.

After quite a while, Vilnia said, "Now I feel that I have something to show off, as I've worked with the winner of Holm Crown prize for so long, but, at the same time, your story and the changes you've made are just miraculous."

She paused for a second, and then grinned, "It is the trend in Holm that a gentleman shall propose to a lady with a ring. You and your Holm Crown ring is definitely a combination that no ladies could say no to you."

At this time, Rock cut in, "By the way, some time ago, Beate and those guys complained to the school saying that you were always off from school, and you were not carrying your responsibility as a teacher, so they wanted you to be fired. But you know what? As soon as they arrived at the headmaster's office, that issue of Element arrived as well, hahaha…! When Beate heard that you had won Holm Crown prize, he dropped his favorite Colette porcelain cup on the ground. Lucien, I wish someday your research could just overthrow their belief…"

Rock was obviously very excited. When Lucien came back today, several teachers who did not like him all walked away when they were still far from Lucien.

"Lucien, who's this letter for? This's a thick one…" Jerome saw the envelop in Lucien's hand.

Lucien waved his left hand, "To a friend of mine."

Earlier he spent more than an hour writing this letter to Natasha. In this letter, he shared what he had seen and learned with her, and still some of his thoughts about music. Lucien also used secret codes and told Natasha that he had won his own Holm Crown ring, and part of the letter was also for Joel's family, especially his friend, John.

"To your sweetheart? I bet she must be very gentle and beautiful, or you wouldn't just ignore all the beauties here." Vilnia joked, "You're a level four arcanist and a first circle sorcerer now, and you can bring her here to live with you in Allyn."

Lucien admitted that Natasha was very beautiful, but talking about being gentle… Lucien just put on an awkward smile.

At this time, Annick, Sprint and the other apprentices arrived. They looked at Lucien very respectfully, "Mr. Evans, are you leaving soon?"

They were more than proud to be Mr. Evans' students!

Lucien smiled and nodded, "Yes, but I'm still in Allyn. If you guys and girls still want to study after me, you're welcome to my new place on Saturday."

Lucien had lots of homework from Mr. Raventi and now he felt quite eager to share this lovely feeling with his students.

"Really?" Annick was very surprised, and the other apprentices all grinned.

Under Mr. Evans' help, Chely was now catching up with her peers in the junior class, and even those smart apprentices such as Annick and Grant. Thus, many teachers started using Lucien's way of teaching and assigning students with lots of homework, which was driving many apprentices nuts.

Lucien nodded in a relaxed way and then he showed his perfect smile, "My test papers are all ready."

As if a lightning just struck them, all the apprentices' smiles froze.

…

On monday morning, Lucien's coach arrived at Sariva. According to the instruction, Lucien was going to meet his research group members here in Dragon Root Inn.

Wearing black top hat and a double-breasted suit, Lucien looked rather cultivated and elegant. On his chest, there was a four-star arcana badge and a two-circle magic badge.

Chapter 220: Different Ideas

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Before entering the inn, Lucien took off his magic badge and only kept his four-star arcana badge on his chest. Then he put on a pair of wire-rimmed glasses that he bought in Allyn for disguise. He felt concerned that Patrick Hoffenberg might have already recognized him, so he wanted to be more careful now. Better late than never.

The fine metal chain of the glasses was now hanging beside Lucien's somewhat angular face.

Adjusting his bow tie slightly, Lucien went into Dragon Root Inn confidently, in a steady pace.

…

Sunlight came into the inn through the windows. Everything looked quiet and radiant.

Two blond, beautiful elven druids, one male and one female, were right now sitting on the couch in the corner, waiting for the sorcerer from the Congress of Magic, and they were surrounded by several pretty elven guards and maids.

There were no other guests there, just the owner of the inn and servants.

"Brother, Lucien Evans, Elemental Order, is the youngest winner of Holm Crown prize, and also a level four arcanist. Then his magic power must be close to senior-rank. What shall we do?" asked the extremely beautiful female elf out of concern.

She did not expect that they would be separated from their teachers, and their whole plan of damaging the project was thus disturbed. Now they were allocated in a small group with a young and talented sorcerer, Lucien Evans, the winner of Holm Crown prize. Anything wrong that they wanted to do to the pilot land would be so clear and obvious under this arcanist's eyes.

In order to make sure that Lucien's fame was in its best use, Affairs Committee purposefully omitted Lucien's magic circle level when they provided the druids with Lucien's information. And they also gave Lucien a quite cool title, which came from several rounds of discussion: Elemental Order.

While Felipe did not need to hide his magic circle level, he also had a new title: Hand of Rehabilitation.

"Iristine, we'll be fine. First, we can be incooperative by offering him divine spell imprints with missing parts. Second, now that we're gonna be involved in the experiments, when we need to take down important data, we can just make 'mistakes' all the time. I mean, what do we know about arcana?" responded Arcelion, with a disgusted facial expression that showed his repulsion toward human beings, "Our main job is to waste time here, since other elders in the royal palace are still working on stopping the grand elder. Soon, we'll be going back into our clean and beautiful forests."

Iristine nodded and smiled, "Hope we can do something here for our nature. By the way, some of the inventions from human beings are actually not that bad. This couch feels pretty nice…"

Arcelion quickly got very serious, "Iristine, keep in mind that those couches are made from logs, from people cutting down trees which were still alive. I can almost hear those trees crying! Do not indulge yourself in degeneration! Nothing's better than sitting on real trees which are filled with vitality!"

Hearing her elder brother's scold, Iristine felt a bit upset. However, she still nodded seriously, "I won't forget all the gifts from mother nature."

Being resolute, she secretly clenched her fists. She would definitely stop human beings from destroying mother nature.

At this time, they noticed that a young man of medium height came in, wearing white shirt, dark waistcoat, a double-breasted suit and a black top hat. The wire-rimmed glasses made him look quite profound and elegant.

As a human being, this young man didn't look bad, and he actually appeared to be quite well-mannered. This was Iristine's and Arcelion's first impression about Lucien. Since they left the forest and came to human society, they were used to judging people's appearance first.

Soon, they noticed the light-purple ring on Lucien's right hand. They recognized that it was Holm Crown ring, as told by the congress.

Knowing that this young man was Lucien Evans, Arcelion and Iristine stood up together. As members from the elf royal family, they needed to keep their good manners. Besides, deep in their mind, Lucien's deterrent title and his reputation was also affecting them.

"Good morning. Princess Iristine and Prince Arcelion?" Lucien took off his top hat in a well-mannered way. He secretly felt grateful that the committee assigned him to this group, as the prince was of level four and the princess level three, and Lucien could easily handle them with his ring, Element.

As for their noble status, Lucien did not care at all. After all, he was not an elf.

Of course, the princess' and prince's guards were more powerful. According to the information provided by the committee, Anguster was a level seven magic archer, and Tirill was a level six elven knight.

In front of this arcanist, Princess Iristine and Prince Arcelion also greeted him using royal manner, "Yes, we're members of the royal palace of Trumanner. May I ask if you are Mr. Lucien Evans, Elemental Order?"

Hearing his own title, Lucien himself was quite surprised. Half a second later, he nodded and calmly sat down with the prince and princess, "We still need to wait for another two members to start our experiments and research. The land in southeast part of the town belongs to us. Part of it is fertile, and part is poor. Thus, we can conduct contrast experiments."

Arcelion and Iristine were not interested in Lucien's terminology at all. Instead, they started talking about arts with Lucien.

Lucien was of course not afraid of this topic. In general, they had a pretty good conversation, because Lucien purposefully guided their topic to music. Lucien actually learned quite a bit and was inspired from the the prince and princess talking about elven music. At the same time, Lucien's carefully structured understanding of music and profound feelings and emotions also touched Arcelion and Iristine.

"Among all you human beings, artists such as musicians, sculptor, playwrights… they're of the greatest value to the world. Arts is the best return to the generosity of mother nature." Arcelion was in a pretty good mood, as if he was talking to an artist, instead of the winner of Holm Crown prize and an authority in the school of Element.

Lucien slightly looked down at the arcana badge on his chest. He sighed with emotion in his mind, since the two noble elves really had some prejudice. For human beings, unlike elves who were born with magic tattoos, they needed to survive first, and thus human society needed so many different occupations to function properly.

When Lucien started getting a bit bored, two sorcerers came in. One was an elderly sorcerer wearing a black robe with a five-star arcana badge and a four-circle magic badge, and the other was of middle age, blond hair, whose arcana level was four, magic circle level three. They were the other two members of Lucien's experiment group, Mr. Tyrel and Mr. Urine.

After introducing themselves, Tyrel said loudly, "I was rushing earlier, and I haven't had breakfast yet. Can I have something to eat first? Honestly I cannot work with an empty stomach."

Arcelion was more than happy with anything that could waste their time, "Of course. Iristine and I also did not eat earlier. Why don't we have something to eat together? What do you think, Mr. Evans?"

Lucien nodded. Knowing that they were trying to waste time, he also wanted to keep the prince and princess occupied to prevent them from disturbing other groups' research.

…

In the dining room of the inn, Lucien was cutting his sausage, while Tyrel and Urine were working on their medium-rare steaks, which were quite bloody.

Iristine could not stand this anymore. She put down her knife and fork and said in an offended way, "Why you human beings need to harm lives to meet your own desire? Cattle, goats, chicken… They shall be our friends! Mother nature has been enough tolerant with you human beings!"

Arcelion also looked pretty annoyed.

Although Tyrel and Urine felt that the two elves were being quite rude, they still put down their knife and fork.

Lucien slowly swallowed down a piece of sausage and took a glance at the fruits in Iristine's and Arcelion's plates. Then he said slowly, "Why you elves need to harm lives to meet your own desire? Did the plants do anything wrong? Why you pick off their fruits, their offsprings? According to the school of Necromancy and the Church, plants are lives as well. Don't you think so?"

"You…! Mr. Evans, I thought you were different. I thought you were an artist whose heart was filled with love. However, I'm wrong. You are still a vicious sorcerer! Enjoy your bloody breakfast! Don't talk to us about the project until all of you are done with your bloody breakfast!" Iristine angrily left the table with Arcelion.

"Good for you, Mr. Evans." Tyrel grinned, "Although you look rather gentle, you are good at satire. And I cannot believe how hypocritical they are."

"We do need to protect nature, but we also need to survive," said Lucien seriously, and then he smiled. "Anything that prevents me from eating meat is heresy."

To be honest, Lucien did fantasy before that he might have a beautiful relationship with an elf lady here in this world, but now it looked way less likely to happen.

"I like what you said. Anything that prevents me from eating meat is heresy!" Tyrel put a big chuck of meat in his mouth and chewed it hard.

Lucien wiped the corner of his mouth gently. He knew clear that both Tyrel and Urine could not really be called arcanists, and their badges were all fake. Tyrel was, in fact, a level three arcanist, sixth-circle sorcerer, while Urine was a level two arcanist, fifth circle sorcerer. They were sorcerers who specialized more in fighting. And their true task here was to deal with the prince and princess' guards.

Lucien took a sip of water and thought to himself, "Two elven druids who do not want to work with us, plus two sorcerers who like fighting, plus me, a level four arcanist who's actually unworthy of the title… What a group…"

Chapter 221: Wasting Each Other's Time

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Vermillion

Dragon Root Inn, inside a large room that was temporarily outfitted as a magic lab.

"Mr. Evans, these are the two level three divine spells you asked for, the 'Growing Brambles' and the 'Harvest Spring'," Iristine spoke in a cold tone. She handed two pieces of a dried yellow paper over to Lucien. The paper looked old but elegant.

The elf paper was made of the elven tree bark that naturally dropped to the ground. It was a specialty of the elves and the elven paper was one of the best materials for high-level magic scrolls.

The two druids were part of the Nature Rebellion Sect and they were members of the Elf's Royal Palace. "Bumpkin" Lucien was quite surprised to see them using expensive materials as if it was nothing.

Lucien grabbed the two pieces of paper with the divine spells recorded on them and noticed that the three-dimensional imprints were complicated. It seemed like some of the imprints were broken and there was something missing. The supernatural model was unbalanced and the whole thing was a bit strange. He scrunched his eyebrows and said, "Prince Arcelion and Princess Iristine, I think the imprints of the two divine spells are incomplete. You'd better be honest if you are here to cooperate."

"Cooperate? We're here to ruin your plan!" Iristine cursed in her mind.

"Mr. Evans, we're druids, not mages, and our superior power is a gift from the mother nature. You'll be able to detect the mind of nature and construct the divine spell model from your memory if you love the nature and you're willing to protect her. We have never and will never learn to analyze and draw the imprints of the divine spells. This is the best we can do," she responded with a cold but gentle smile on face.

Arcelion was satisfied with his young sister's explanation.

"If you want to view the complete version of the divine imprints, we can try to craft a divine power item and show you the divine spell directly. However, the mind of nature forms a barrier that will destroy the content inside as soon as you try to analyze the item. Mr. Evans, do you have the ability to keep the divine imprints safe while passing through nature's barrier?" he added in an arrogant tone.

Arcelion was telling the truth. The Congress of Magic had confiscated many items that were infused with divine power, but they were still having trouble studying the mystery of the divine magic. One of the reasons was that most of the senior-level sorcerers could not stabilize the structures inside the divine imprints while bypassing the divine barrier.

Only the grand arcanist had such abilities, however, they realized that they would have to rely on the mysterious power after eliminating the divine barrier and studying the structures of the divine imprints. The mysterious power had not yet been studied and analyzed, that was why the druids' spells were so important during the procedure.

Lucien had a level nine divine item, Sun's Corona, however, the only way to activate its divine spell was by using the mentality mark left by Maskelyne and he had never found a way to analyze the divine item's divine imprints. He noticed that the two druids were not willing to cooperate and spoke in a tone that was usually used by the crazed alchemists, "Alright, I will try to analyze part of the imprints with Mr. Tyrel and Mr. Urine."

"There'll be no point for us to stay here if Mr. Evans already has the plan in mind. We'll go check the land research team and the other research teams' situations. We need the information for our future experiment." Although Arcelion was an arrogant man from the royal palace, he had some talent on finding himself ridiculous excuses.

Lucien pushed his wire-rimmed glasses slightly. "That's impossible. You need to cast the divine spells while we're doing the analysis, as we need to observe and learn the spells with our own eyes. Otherwise, we won't be able to complete the procedure. You're here to help us, right?"

Arcelion and Iristine could not reveal their true intention before the druid elders from the Elf's Royal Palace and the Nature Rebellion Sect gave them the next order. They were here to ruin Lucien's plan, however, they did not want to give the Congress of Magic the excuse to arrest them. Also, the Elf's Royal Palace would not want to be put in the wrong just for such a boring reason.

The two druids looked a bit disappointed, but they still responded, "Yes, we're here to help you, but there'll be nothing we can do when you're analyzing the spells. Do you want us to just sit here and watch?"

"Well, you can take a nap, pray to the mind of nature, have a short conversation, or read the books I brought here. Anyway, you need to stay here so we can find you when we need assistance." Lucien tried to imitate the expression of an arcanist that focused only on his experiments. "If you really need something to do while waiting, I have some basic math problems. What do you say?"

The math problems were designed to help Annick and Sprint train their minds.

Arcelion and Iristine looked at the thick pile of paper in Lucien's hand for a moment. The complicated numbers and formulas on the paper were like a curse to them, as the druids learned from the mind of nature and thus the numbers would give them headaches.

"Mr. Elemental Order is a true gentleman when we're not discussing the arcane power and the meat dishes. He's humorous, handsome, knowledgeable, and polite. Also, he's artistic and calm, the man is more attractive than most of the male elves. However, the gentleman will become a greedy devil if there is either arcane power or a meat dish involved, a devil that is hated by everyone!" Iristine sighed with mixed emotions, her first impression of Lucien was good, however, the man's different standards of treating different things were making things worse.

…

Tyrel looked at the complicated divine imprints as Iristine and Arcelion sat down in the corner of the lab with the elf guards, and he quickly communicated with Lucien using the Messaging Spell, "Those models give me headaches. I'm counting on you!"

The short-ranged messaging spell was categorized as the second circle, however, it became an apprentice-level spell after being improved by many arcanists. It could deliver the message to the target within ten meters using a special energy.

Urine's voice echoed in Lucien's ears at the same time with the help of the Messaging Spell, he was also not happy with the physics and the mathematics involved in the analysis of the divine spell.

The two combat maniacs started looking at the divine imprints after sending messages to Lucien, and although it looked like they were writing with the quills, they were just drawing the beautiful winter scenes.

"Well, it seems like I'll be the only one working." Lucien lost all the hope for the arcane research team. He took out a pile of white paper and started to solve the basic physics and mathematical problems given to him by Raventi.

Lucien had never put too much time into the high-level mathematics so it was a great opportunity for him to learn from Raventi. The Congress of Magic was studying the complex variables functions and it was the subject people studied during the middle part of the 19th century on Earth, but still such functions already exceeded the abilities of most people.

Besides the sealed books in his spirit library, Lucien only knew a little more than the Congress about the mathematics, such as linear algebra, the axiomatic system, and the mathematical conjectures with no answers.

The application of mathematics in this world showed the spirit of exploratory practice and magic application. That was the reason why they did not spend too much time on studying the mathematical conjectures and number theory. Lucien planned to write all the famous mathematical conjectures and publish them after he was promoted in the Congress of Magic, so the arcanists in this world could take their time and enjoy the mathematical problems.

Iristine and Arcelion looked at Lucien's handsome face and felt satisfied while watching the young man moving the quill with a serious expression on his face. "No matter how smart you are, it's impossible for you to finish the analysis procedure in a short duration without the complete version of the divine imprints. "

The two druids were happy that their plan worked. They hated to waste their precious time here but they liked watching Lucien suffer.

Time passed, and Lucien suddenly opened his mouth, "Prince Arcelion, please cast the Growing Brambles."

Arcelion's expression turned serious and he quickly cast the level three divine spell, creating green brambles that looked like barbed wires, which covered the laboratory's floor. The glinting brambles could probably break the defense of a knight easily.

"Good, that's what I need." Lucien nodded with a blank expression on his face. He turned around and started solving the problems again.

Several minutes later, Lucien's emotionless voice echoed in the room again.

"Princess Iristine, please cast the Harvest Spring."

"Sure."

The divine wave was released in the room again.

…

"Prince Arcelion, please cast the Harvest Spring."

…

"Princess Iristine, please cast the Growing Brambles again."

…

The divine waves were released again and again after Lucien requested.

"Mr. Evans, how's your analysis? It's lunchtime. Did you learn anything about the divine spells?" Arcelion stood up and asked, sounding tired. Although they used their fatigue as excuses, they could still cast the divine spells dozens of times before lunchtime.

Lucien grabbed the white paper and responded in a serious tone, "Sorry, the divine imprints are incomplete, and my analysis is not progressing well."

Arcelion and Iristine were cheering in mind but they still forced a smile on face. "It's fine, Mr. Evans. The first step is the hardest, take your time."

"Sure, let's have lunch, then." Lucien was trying his best to keep the blank expression on his face. He had already solved a whole paper of problems and it was the perfect time for some tasty dishes.

Tyrel and Urine were almost dozing off but they jumped out of the room like rabbits after hearing about lunch.

"Wait, Mr. Evans, please return the two pieces of elven paper to us. We believe that you already memorized the divine imprints." Iristine would never let this sorcerer have their precious materials.

Lucien looked a bit disappointed after hearing her request.

…

Three days later, Iristine and Arcelion were forced to stay in the laboratory upon Lucien's request, however, they heard that the other research teams already started doing experiments on the land. They were getting suspicious and decided to talk to Lucien.

The man's analysis still hadn't progressed anything. It seemed like he was just messing with the prince and the princess.

Chapter 222: Lucien's Wish

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Iristine was wearing a beautiful dress with leaf patterns, however, she looked very cold when she talked to Lucien, "Mr. Evans, are you making any progresses with analyzing Growing Brambles and Harvest Spring? The other groups now are all ahead of us, and they have all started planting real crops. What are we doing now? Come on, you're the winner of Holm Crown prize, Elemental Order!"

Tyrel and Urine got alert. They were not sure whether the prince and princess would use this as an excuse to leave this research group.

Lucien slightly pushed his wire-rimmed glasses upwards and answered seriously, "Princess Iristine, the reason why we're making slow progress is that the imprints of the divine spells provided by you are incomplete. Maybe the druids in other groups are more gifted in arcana, and thus they could draw the imprints better. Do you think that's the case?"

Lucien was using sarcasm with a serious look.

"…Still, as a winner of Holm Crown prize, you should be better than this!" After being quite speechless for a few seconds, Arcelion insisted.

The last thing Lucien wanted to do now was to completely piss them off, so he put back his piles of paper with the mathematic exercises and answered, "Of course I've made some progresses, and parts of the principles are now clear to me. For Growing Brambles, the spell stimulates the inner structure of a plant and the divine power turns itself into the several elements that are needed by the plant to grow fast. As for Harvest Spring, although it follows the same principles of Growing Brambles, Harvest Spring makes plants extract too much nutrition from the soil too fast. In other words, Growing Brambles requires more power from your Heart of Nature, while Harvest Spring requires less but it damages the soil. However, again, because the imprints are not complete, I cannot know what these extracted elements are."

"… You've learned this much?" Hearing Lucien's words, Iristine and Arcelion were very surprised. They could not believe that it took this arcanist only three days to make such progress with incomplete imprints.

"I'm the winner of Holm Crown prize." Lucien smiled.

Of course what Lucien just said was not his own research outcome. As his task was just to waste the prince and the princess' time, Lucien was provided with all the information figured out by other groups. On the second day after the druids arrived, the three grand arcanists and the senior-rank arcanists had already figured out the principles of most of the elementary divine spells, and now they were working on analyzing the so-called mind of nature to see what it was, what it consisted of, why druids could use it and why it brought them divine spells.

This was a tough job. Thus, Malfurion's request was completely assigned to other senior-rank and middle-rank sorcerers.

According to the provided information, Lucien was certain that ordinary plants in this world still needed nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to grow, but the situation with magic plants was for sure more complicated.

"Why you did not tell us earlier, Mr. Evans?" Arcelion did not know how to respond to Lucien's words, so he hurriedly changed the direction of their conversation.

"I just figured this out last night." Lucien put on a confused look, "I did not have the time to inform you two. Soon we'll be working in the fields to do some more experiments, trying to see what elements those grains need to absorb in order to grow better."

Lucien took the advantage of the fact that the imprints provided were not complete. Of course, Lucien would not tell them that he actually knew which elements were needed, as conducting real planting experiments was the best way to waste their time.

Now Iristine and Arcelion were less doubtful toward Lucien's work, so they followed Lucien to the land to the east of the town.

Lucien marked a small piece of land and asked, "Mr. Tyrel and Urine, please measure the amount of elements contained in the soil here."

Since both Tyrel and Urine were sorcerers who were better at fighting, they did not have built-in magic structures in their souls for spells for measurement. So they needed to chant the spell and used refined elements as components to assist their casting. Thus, it took them almost two hours to record all the element contained in the soil.

"Because so far we've only identified sixty-seven kinds of elements, there might be missing ones that are actually required by grains like oats or wheat." Lucien clarified the precondition of the experiment to the prince and the princess, and then he asked the farmers to seed oats following their years of practice.

After the farmers's job was done, in the cold wind, Lucien said to the two elf druids, "Please cast Harvest Spring to let the oats grow ripe."

A streak of green light came out from Iristine and the light covered the land. Soon, seedlings grew out from the just seeded oats. As the prince and the princess took turns to cast Harvest Spring for two rounds, within ten minutes, the oats on this piece of land had a really good harvest!

For apprentice druids, they needed to cast their apprentice-level spell for at least a month to achieve something like this.

"Mr. Tyrel and Mr. Urine, please measure the amount of elements contained in the soil now," said Lucien. As the leader of the experiment group, Lucien didn't need to do the work himself.

Watching Tyrel and Urine being busy with measuring the soil, Iristine said in a slightly confused way, "I understand that human beings need to hunt animals to feed themselves, but what I don't understand is, now that you people know how to grow grains and vegetables, why human beings are still killing animals for their meat? And in many cases human beings are killing animals not to feed, but just for fun, which is such a horrible thing to do."

Seeing that Lucien did not respond, she said to him seriously, "Mr. Evans, you've got enough money to buy bread, vegetables and fruits, so why do you still want to eat meat? So many animals could have survived if more people refused to eat meat."

Lucien answered casually, "Firstly, human beings and elves are physically different. We need meat. Secondly, if there are any animals dying out, please tell me, and I'll try my best to protect the species. Thirdly, most animals we're eating right now are from farms, not the wild. We raise them in order to eat them."

Iristine was not really following Lucien, but she knew that there was just no chance for her to change this arcanist's mind.

"You human beings just won't give up your desires," she said.

Lucien did not fight back, but stared at the good oats in front of him. As so many people in this world were still starving, Lucien believed that surviving and growing was their current priority.

Lucien had a pretty good impression of Malfurion, the druid's grand elder. In Lucien's mind, Malfurion's effort toward increasing the production of crops was definitely admirable, which was just like how the Church overthrew the ancient magic empire which slaved people back in the days.

Even though Lucien was very careful with his every step and always wanted to protect himself first, he still wanted to make a contribution to Malfurion's great work to save more people in this world.

Moreover, when more underclass people could benefit from the power of magic, the ruling of the Church would be shaken for sure, which in turn was good for sorcerers themselves as well.

Since Lucien arrived in this world, he experienced all kinds of inconvenience in his life here compared to his original modernized lifestyle. If he was capable, of course Lucien would like to advance the development of human society here.

"Mr. Evans, there is less nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the soil," Tyrel and Urine reported.

Lucien came back to reality from his ambitious wishes and then nodded. "Then, we gather materials which contain those elements for further alchemical product design and the simplification of the magic structures. What we also need to do is to divide this field into sections, so we can look at how those elements make a difference to the crops."

The other groups were doing the same thing now. Lucien wondered who could first figure out the secret of fertilizers.

Making basic fertilizers was simple. Treating phosphorite with sulfuric acid could do the job, and the congress was already capable of producing sulfuric acid in a steady volume with magic circles. However, it was not easy to understand why sulfuric acid plus phosphorite could work here. Without theoretical support, Lucien did not think that they could achieve a significant progress any time soon.

There were still other ways to improve yield in crops, such as irrigation system and cross-breeding. However, the former was already on the Congress' agenda, while the knowledge involved to produce cross-breedings was still very challenging to Lucien. Furthermore, he was also not sure whether cross-breeding technique worked the same here in this world where magic plants and creatures also existed. Much more work needed to be done in this field.

…

The Bright Hall in Lance, the Holy City.

A knight in a whole set of silvery-white armour was kneeling on one knee, "Your Holiness, the Congress of Magic is right now attempting to intrude on the realms of God, reaching their filthy hands to the holy truth of the world. So hereby I venture to make the request: we shall start the Second War of Dawn! We shall declare a full-scale war against the Congress of Magic!"

Chapter 223: Unexpected Change

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Vermillion

When the knight that was kneeling on one knee and holding a helmet in his arms declared war against the Congress of Magic as he thought the realm of the God was defiled, the rest of the Episcopal Conference members were drawing crosses in front of their chests. They shouted, "We shall purify these evil sorcerers with the holy light and force them to repent while crawling under God's feet. The realm of the God shall not be explored by the mortals!"

The pope had a serious expression and was holding a platinum scepter in hand and the Holy Crown was on his head. The leader of the Ascetics named Varantine was wearing a short linen robe, he noticed the pope's situation and stepped forward.

"Your Holiness, Knight Stone is the representative of all the devout believers. They're angry because God is defiled. Please don't worry, the herectics of the north will not attack us using this chance unless they already lost their face and no longer believe in the truth. However, their base will be destroyed and I think they'll also attack the Congress of Magic after the situation gets worse," Varantine suggested.

Varantine had short blonde hair and he was not wearing anything on his feet. There was a pair of energetic blue eyes over his thin cheeks.

Behind Varantine, there were more than ten episcopal bishops, three important members of the Inquisition, and the legendary knights including Stone. They were still trying to convince the pope, "Your Holiness, please give us the order and start the second War of Dawn. We need to gather our army for the Congress of Magic but the nobles are still needed at the Dark Mountain Range."

The pope, Benedict II, raised the holy scepter to the air. His voice was so deep that it sounded like he was speaking from the sky, "I'm glad that you're devout believers of God and I'm sure that God is pleased with the words you just said. However, I have one question for you, are you losing your faith in God? Do you really think the Congress of Magic can find out God's secrets? The mortals can never touch God's realm! Have you already forgotten what God told us?"

It almost looked like the pope's red cloak was dancing in the gentle wind, as he was surrounded by the intense holy aura that came with the holy light. The aura was so strong that it could not be contested by anything.

The members of the Episcopal Conference were not sure how they should answer the pope's question and they were trying to find out where their anger came from. They were angry because God was defiled and they were devout believers, however, they could not decline that fear was spreading in their minds. They were worried that the Congress of Magic could explore God's realm like exploring the world. They wanted to stop the Congress and strangle the sorcerer's plans in the cradle.

"It'll be a lie if I say that I'm not guilty. My ignorance blinded me from the truth. God is kind and fair, I shall confess myself and hope that God will forgive me." The members of the Episcopal Conference started repenting after a moment of silence.

Benedict II waited for them to finish repenting and opened his mouth, "The Congress of Magic will not be able to explore God's realm, however, we can't forgive them for what they have done. Varantine and Vaharall, take some ascetics and night watchers to aid Philibell in Holm. We shall eliminate the sorcerers and make them pay for what they have done!

"Also, you need to assist the druids and elves in Steloop Forest and make the sorcerers think that we're about to attack, so they can use the excuse to call back the druids that are working with the Congress of Magic."

"As you wish, Your Holiness." The leader of the ascetics, Varantine, and one of the three Inquisition's important members, Vaharall the Adjudicator, bowed to the pope at the same time.

The other members of the Episcopal Conference thought that the pope's order was reasonable, however, they had a strange feeling in mind. The incident was supposed to touch off the war and the balance of the land would be broken but the pope convinced them that they should focus on punishing the sorcerers who defiled God.

"It was a wise decision. We're strong but we're pressured by multiple organizations and the situation might get worse if we start the war without proper preparation. We should calm down and wait for the day to come." The members of Episcopal Conference had changed their thoughts, they drew the crosses in front of their chests and left the Bright Hall.

Benedict II lowered his scepter and returned to his reading room, where a cardinal was waiting for him. The cardinal stepped forward and questioned, "Your Holiness, the intel sent back by Bishop Philibell mentioned the information of the Holm Crown reward, the Congress of Magic and the druids' progression of the research on divine magic."

"Keep the intel safe, as we might need it later. We should focus on dealing with the incident for now." Benedict II waved his hand. It seemed like he was not concerned about the things that did not matter. That intel was not something that needed to be sent to all the Inquisitions, as was the Cleansing List.

The pope closed the door after the cardinal left, and then looked at the portraits of the previous popes with a blank expression on his face.

The name of the popes and the how long they had stayed in this world before returning to the arms of God were written under the portraits.

…

"Charles I, Saint Calendar year 350 – 572."

"Alfonsol, Saint Calendar year 387 – 633"

"Charles II, Saint Calendar year 408 – 686."

"Benedict I, Saint Calendar year 474 – 745."

"Gregory II, Saint Calendar year 548 – 796."

A hint of smile appeared on Benedict II's face and he muttered in a deep tone, "How can the mortals find the way to the secret of God?"

…

Saturday morning, the sun was still rising.

In a mansion beside the town Sariva, Felipe was doing some magic experiments with a serious expression on his face. Although he only visited the lab twice this week and did not stay there for the night, the man's incredible analysis skill still stopped the druids from trying to trick him. The druids could not find any excuse to interrupt the experiment so they had to change the data Felipe obtained. However, Felipe was not concerned about the progression of the experiment at all, as he was focusing on creating an important living substance from nonliving ones.

Felipe saw the colorless crystal forming in the low-temperature environment as the light appeared on the last alchemical circle.

He tried his best to calm down and started heating the translucent crystal. The crystal melted and was turned into liquid quickly. Also, the magic circle detected a gas with an irritating smell.

Felipe took one step back and cast the identifying spell, getting the result within seconds. The liquid was a fatty acid that he needed, and it was a substance that could only be found inside the bodies of living beings.

"There is no point in supporting the Human Vitality Theory anymore." Felipe forced a smile on his pale face. "I wonder how many old fellows in the organization will admit that they're wrong. They need to redefine the meaning of the living substance, otherwise, they'll have to accept this new finding. I guess I should be the one to publish the result so it'll be easier for the other necromancers to accept the change."

Felipe proved that the theory he had been supporting for more than 30 years was wrong and he had mixed emotions about this. He was happy, confused, sad, and excited at the same time. Professor successfully synthesized the urea and it was an eye-opening experience for him. The artificially synthesized urea changed his opinion on the theory and that was the reason why he decided to do an experiment himself.

A man wearing a long back robe knocked on the door of the laboratory softly.

"Who is it?" Felipe was startled by the noise and he questioned with confusion in his eyes.

A deep and hoarse voice came from the other side of the door, "It's me, Traquair."

"Mr. Traquair? Why are you here? It's still early in the morning," Felipe responded and he started unsealing the magic circle that locked the door.

Traquair was a sixth-ring necromancer from the Hand of Paleness, but his arcana level was just three, as he spent a long time trying to advance to the seventh ring. He was sent here to help Felipe deal with the druids.

Felipe suddenly realized something as he opened the door. He could feel that something terrifying was coming for him.

"Crap!"

Black tentacles that were formed by the power of death appeared in the laboratory, the sorcerers' souls would be tainted if they were touched by the tentacles, and they would no longer be able to cast the strongest spells they knew.

Also, mummies that were covered with black linen strips stood up in the sea of tentacles and they started charging toward Felipe.

…

In the Dragon Root Inn, Lucien was reading the report of the program. The questions the arcanists encountered when trying to simplify the procedure were listed on the paper. They described the unsolved problems that were stopping them from progressing without hiding anything. They would be able to obtain the arcane points after publishing their research results as long as the report was still here.

"The elements can be found in the feces and fertilizers used by the farmers but the result was not good enough. We'll have to keep a lot of animals if we want to get enough feces to mass produce the elements. However, the animals will consume a lot of food…

"The previous experiments proved that the plants need water and sunlight to grow, with the help of the divine spell analysis, we found out that they also need to absorb the elements from the soil. However, the mineral powder that was splashed on the soil was not effective."

…

After they finished analyzing the structure of the divine spells, the sorcerers started doing experiments with the help of the druids. However, the mineral powder of the elements that could be mass produced was useless, and they decided to do experiments on the alchemy products that contained those elements.

"With the foundation of the divine spells and the help from the druids, I think the arcanists will find the alchemy products they need sooner or later." Lucien put down the report and put on a coat. He wanted to go back to Allyn and teach the apprentices after the breakfast.

Lucien saw Iristine and Arcelion walking toward him with smiles on their faces as he opened the door.

"Mr. Evans, we're sorry that we can't help you with the experiment anymore. The elders from the royal palace ordered us to return to the forest immediately and we need to help defend the incoming attack from the Church." Arcelion bowed to Lucien elegantly as he already knew the background of the attack.

Lucien knew that it was not an emergency as the two druids did not look like they were in a hurry, so he smiled and responded, "It's fine. I already found the path after checking the data of the experiment."

"What?" Iristine and Arcelion were surprised. It was them who changed the data.

Lucien still had the smile on his face. "With the help of the substances that were soluble in water and the divine spell that helps the plant grow, the oats are doing very well. Also, I compared the result with the other research teams and eliminated some unreasonable data."

With the analysis result, Lucien easily found out that the data was changed by someone.

"Well…" The two druids looked a bit disappointed.

Lucien took out the thesis he finished a long time ago, called 'The Conclusion of Comparing the Data Obtained from the Oats that Were Fertilized by the Sulfuric Acid Infused with Phosphate Ore', and said, "I need to submit the report to the senior-level arcanists outside the mansion. Prince Arcelion and Princess Iristine, do you want to go with me?"

"Go ahead, we need to leave." Iristine looked tired. She wanted to destroy the thesis but she feared Lucien's power. Also, Tyrel and Urine already appeared on the other side of the hallway.

…

The carriage was slowly advancing on the bumpy road outside the town. It was winter, so the light from the rising sun had not yet brightened up the area.

Suddenly, Lucien noticed the heat coming from Sun's Corona on his chest and the Host Star of Destiny started warning him about an incoming attack.

Lucien had no time to think, he jumped out of the carriage and activated the fifth-circle spell Powerful Fire Shield contained within ring.

A dark shadow that was surrounded by some rotten gas appeared from the sky and hit Lucien's carriage hard. The iron strips and wooden planks on the carriage started decaying quickly.

"Huh? I didn't expect you to dodge the strike," a deep and hoarse voice echoed in the cloudy sky.

Chapter 224: Hit the Mark by a Fluke

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Having no time to think too much about it, Lucien instantly made a mirrored clone of himself and extended the cover of the fire shield to the clone as well. Careful as Lucien was, he even changed the side on which he wore the piece of monocle on the clone's face.

It was the second-circle spell, Mirror, and it was one of the three second-circle spells that Lucien actually had their structures built inside his soul. The other two were Mechanized Mind and Maskelyne's Acid Arrow.

As soon as his mirrored clone showed up, a green light ray hit the clone right in its chest and destroyed it instantly into pieces! Then the light ray did not just disappear but it reflected so fast that there was no way for Lucien to dodge, as the spell was cast by a sixth-circle sorcerer!

The green light directly hit the flame shield covering Lucien. The flames suddenly rose up and quickly broke down into red particles in the air.

The green light was a sixth-circle spell, Dissociation!

Lucien was lucky enough that his mirrored clone and flame shield gained him some time, so he managed to activate Fire Weaver's Bracelet barely in time, or he would have been dissociated into those floating particles already!

Nevertheless, Lucien's robe, Transformation, still got damaged. Strange blank patches appeared on his robe, as if they were taken away by an invisible eraser.

Lucien was in cold sweat. He could not imagine what would have happened to him without the protection of the three spells and the robe.

Furthermore, Lucien was lucky that his enemy's Dissociation spell was not as powerful as he thought. After all, the Flame Shield enchanted in the bracelet was only a second-circle spell, and thus Lucien thought that his robe would be completely ruined when the green light came to him directly.

Lucien had learned a lot from his past fights. Right now he remained quite calm and activated the power of his partly-damaged magic robe.

At this time, the necromancer summoned mummies that were wrapped in black and rotten-smelling bandages. After the mummies climbed up from the ground, they all rushed at Lucien, who was still surrounded by red flame particles.

Like real knights, these mummies moved very fast. Among those mummies which were immune to spells under fifth-circle and physical attack from grand knights and below, there were also ghasts, which could exert some necromantic spells.

However, after the mummies and ghasts tore apart the flame shield, there was nothing in there.

Lucien was gone!

Standing in the air, the necromancer wearing a hood was a bit surprised, but soon, with his spiritual power, he murmured to himself, "Umm… A hole in the ground… Mouse transformation…"

When the necromancer raised his hand, the ground started shaking violently, like an earthquake arrived.

Sixth-circle spell, Earth Shake!

The half-destroyed carriage swayed up and down together with the ground, and the coachman's rotten body was broken into pieces. The human who had been thrown over the coach from a great height was stilly lying there, seemingly completely dead.

While in the sophisticatedly constructed system of mouse holes under the ground, Lucien, who was right now a red-eyed mouse, felt the great power as the ground shook violently. Knowing that if he stayed there any longer he might be buried alive, Lucien had no chance but to go back to the surface.

As soon as Lucien dismissed the spell and returned to his human-being form, he was ready to activate his ring, Element, to try his very best to survive.

Lucien never expected that he could escape from the attack of a senior-rank sorcerer, so what he had been doing was to waste the necromancer's time, hoping that the senior-rank sorcerers and archmages of the Will of Elements nearby could notice what was going on here and came to rescue him.

However, as time went by, Lucien realized that at that moment they were probably too busy studying the Mind of Nature to pay attention to him.

At the same time, when Lucien came back to the ground, he finally recognized the man who was thrown on the coach and was right now lying beside the remaining pieces of the transport—it was Felipe from the Hand of Paleness! He was killed by another necromancer!

Lucien was shocked.

In the air, Traquair's eyes were shining with red light that pierced through the darkness under his hood. He was ready to cast Death Stare, a sixth-circle spell, on Lucien!

Just at the same time, a dim light shot out from Felipe's chest, and it immediately froze all the black mummies and ghasts within in fifty-meter radius. Then, the mummies and ghasts just exploded silently all at once!

The dark gas produced by the explosion then turned into a long sword covered with weird-looking eyes. Very swiftly, the sword directly hacked at Traquair.

Dark Sword, a seventh-circle spell enchanted in Felipe's Immortal Throne amulet! This spell could not only control the movement of the dead, but also collect the power of death, which could degrade the power of the one struck by the spell by one circle. Without some kind of special rites, the affected would never be able to recover from it!

Surprisingly, Felipe did not die. He was just pretending, and then he gave the enemy a totally unexpected strike at the most critical moment.

After the bitter fight with Felipe in the air, Traquair had already consumed all his protection spells. Felipe also used some spell which looked quite similar to Dark Sword before, so Traquair was not alert enough to avoid the attack.

The dark sword absorbed Traquair's power, and instantly, Traquair was turned into a fifth-circle, middle-ranked sorcerer. Thus, of course, he could not use Death Stare anymore.

Seizing the chance, Lucien immediately activated his ring, Element, and bright light burst out from it. Surrounding Traquair, a colourful swirl composed of black, blue, green, and golden particles showed up in the sky, and the swirl devoured Traquair in no time, tearing him apart.

Elemental Swirl, seventh-circle spell!

Lucien felt great pain from the finger which the ring was on, and the pain was so unbearable that his heart almost stopped, and all of his spiritual power dried out. Feeling extremely weak and tortured, he almost could not stand up.

This was the cost he needed to pay for casting that seventh-circle spell when the seal had not been removed yet.

Although Traquair was still struggling with casting all the defensive spells that he knew, his physical body was being torn into pieces, and so were the magic items he was wearing, as they were also composed of elements.

Both Elemental Swirl and Cracking (Advanced) could destroy magic items, but only the latter, a ninth-circle spell, could ruin legendary level items and the effect of the spell was not affected by one's defence level, as one could only rely on his or her own spiritual power and several unique senior-rank spells to fight against it.

However, the biggest difference between Elemental Swirl and Cracking (Advanced) was that the former could actually hurt one's physical body and soul, but the latter only worked with magic items and magic buffs.

Even so, before Traquair drew his last breath, he shouted at Felipe furiously, "You! The traitor of your belief! You can never overthrow Life Force Theory! GO TO HELL!!!"

The great pain drove Traquair crazy, and layers of black gas kept coming out from his body. As soon as his body and soul were completely destroyed by the swirl, a violent explosion burst forth from its center, targeting Felipe!

The Last Strike, a fifth-circle spell. When the caster was killed, his or her body would explode to attack the last defined target!

Immediately, flame and powerful blast waves devoured Felipe. Lucien, on the other side, was also thrown to the ground because of the great power.

When the air blast disappeared, Lucien tried hard to get up. He was about to mourn for Felipe, after all, they were fighting together just now, but then he saw a figure staggering and slowly standing up on the other side, through the heavy dust in the air.

"You're still alive?!" This was totally beyond Lucien's imagination. However, right now, he was also too weak to fight against Felipe.

Felipe, who was bleeding all over his body, and whose long coat was covered with holes and blood, said to Lucien, gasping, "Even if you died… I'd still be alive, Mr. Professor."

After witnessing how Lucien fought, and watching Lucien standing right in front of him, Felipe was quite sure that Lucien was the very Mr. Professor that he was looking for.

The fact that he was fooled by a first-circle sorcerer really pissed Felipe off. However, when he was about to cast spells to attack Lucien, he realized that his body was too weak to do anything right now from the backfire of using the amulet.

"I think you're dying, Mr. Felipe." Lucien neither admitted nor denied Felipe's words. Right now he had already got the support from the Will of Elements, he did not really care whether the Hand of Paleness could recognize him. Lucien continued, "Are you working on synthesizing ingredients for life? Is it why this guy tried to kill you? Hey… You just brought such a disaster to me."

Felipe sneered, "He's from the Hand of Paleness. He could not accept the fact that Life Force Theory has been overthrown, so he tried to kill me, and he wanted to kill you as well, because he wanted to make other people think that we killed each other. However, both of us know who he really should have been after! And by the way, I'm telling you… I've successfully synthesized an aliphatic acid. So I suggest you to hurriedly submit your paper about synthesizing carbamide to still get a couple of credits."

"Oh? Is that true? Then congratulations, Mr. Felipe, my dear student." Lucien smiled, "You've proved that I'm really a professor."

As both of them were too weak to fight, they were fighting using words.

"Although you're smart, you're still not even close to me, and you were just being lucky." Felipe curled up the corners of his mouth, "If Traquair hadn't got hurt by my senior-rank magic roll, his Dissociation would have killed you already!"

Although Felipe was saying so, he actually paid lots of attention to this guy who successfully fooled him before, when he was only a first-circle sorcerer!

Lucien shrugged, "Mr. Felipe, you're only a level-four arcanist as well, right? When I am in your age in the future, my level will be way higher than yours. The periodic table alone can bring me a lot of arcana credits each year, so I'm totally uninterested in publishing a paper in synthesizing life ingredients, you know…"

"Oh yeah… When you reach senior-rank, your progressing will slow down." Felipe retorted, "And I don't think the Will of Elements really values you that much. As far as I know, you're not a student of any senior-rank sorcerers or archmages?"

Lucien took a glance at the place where Traquair just exploded, "Nevetheless, the Will of Elements is still way better than a group where its members just kill each other. By the way, I thought your experiment producing life ingredients was confidential, wasn't it?"

Felipe's pale face looked serious. He murmured, "Other than Thanatos and Demigod-lich, there are only three people including Mr. Rogerio who know about my experiment. There's no way that they would leak the information… What's going on here?"

"Emmm… I'm not sure. Not really my business." Lucien wanted to laugh at Felipe, but the pain stopped him.

Felipe felt that his body, or say, the body he was using now, was close to falling apart. He thought for a few seconds and then said to Lucien, "I won't tell this to Thanatos… Mr. Professor, what about cooperating with each other for once?"

"For what?" Lucien asked.

"I'm gonna take my sweet revenge for what those old guys have done to me in the Hand of Paleness," answered Felipe fast. Of course, proud as Felipe was, he could not stand this.

"What can I get from it?" Lucien grinned a bit in pain.