Chapter 228 : Chapter 228
Chapter 228. The Affairs of the Modification School
To the east of the Magic Alliance lay a vast coastal region, and within one section of the sea stood the main headquarters of the Modification School.
The headquarters of this school, which wielded tremendous influence within the Alliance, was located there.
In the sea, there was a curved membrane that was not quite an arc, enclosing a small island submerged beneath the water.
That island stood in the sea like a floating city, suspended far above the seafloor below.
Inside that island was the place from which the Modification School governed the affairs of the entire school.
In a pitch-black room, with yellow-white glowing objects embedded in the walls, a certain matter was under discussion.
Vernon Chase was the First Seat of the Modification School. It was he who had broken away from the Necromancy School and, within only a few decades, built it into one of the Alliance’s major schools, earning it a seat on the Alliance Council.
“Teacher, the low-ranking people from White Dragon Harbor and the Church of the Goddess of the Currents are all heading toward the Northern Frontier. It looks like they’re searching for something. Shouldn’t we send people as well?”
Vernon thought for a moment, then gave a negative answer.
“There’s no need. We only need to hold our current territorial waters. Besides, we do not have as many low-tier forces as they do. We need those people to keep our experiments running...”
“If they want to do something, let them do it. As long as they don’t deploy Third-Tier Professionals, then we won’t move either.”
There was helplessness in his voice—the helplessness brought about by the school’s internal shortage of manpower.
In a matter like this, he could not ask the Alliance for help, because the various schools within the Alliance generally did not get along well with one another. Each had its own conflicts.
Only when they were faced with some major event that forced them to unite would they come together and form the power known as the “Magic Alliance.”
And when it came to matters of the sea, they were mostly conflicts and disputes between the Modification School and other forces.
Even if he called on the other schools, they would not pay him any attention.
Moreover, even though his enemies were making such a large move, not only was he personally unable to leave because of many important experiments, but most of the mages in his school were in the same situation.
The capable ones were all busy with experiments, while the incapable ones... he was afraid that if he sent them over, the other side would somehow turn it into a disaster for him.
So upon hearing that his enemies were stirring up trouble in the Northern Frontier, he could only choose to pretend not to see it. After all, the other side had not mobilized any Third-Tier forces.
“Should we send Cole instead? If I remember correctly, isn’t the Northern Society he went to located in the Northern Frontier? We could have him sabotage the objectives of both sides...”
Vernon’s disciple Scott said jokingly.
“Heh...” Vernon seemed to find it slightly amusing as well. “No need. Cole is still tasked with gathering intelligence on Elise’s side. If I have him handle this as well, he may not be able to manage both.”
Cole was naturally his disciple as well, so Vernon knew exactly how capable he was. He was nowhere near good enough to accomplish that task.
If Cole truly went to carry out such a mission, Vernon seriously suspected that the local lord would simply beat him to death.
“Ha!” Scott suddenly let out a startled cry as he touched his head.
“Cole just sent over the newly released featured papers from the Northern Society. Teacher, wait a moment. I’ll go print them out from the mana.”
Although the Mana Communication System was a newly emerging creation, and despite the fact that it saved a great amount of paper and possessed search capabilities far stronger than books, there was a reason it had not been promoted across all the schools of the Alliance.
Its inherent flaws aside, the greater issue was that although mana itself was not directly used by mages, the Modification School was capable of cultivating special organs designed specifically to invade the Mana Communication System and copy out the information stored within it.
That was also why those schools had not adopted the Mana Communication System on a large scale, because they knew that it was not only the Modification School that could do this. If other schools researched it a little, many of them could do the same.
Although the developers had been doing their best to study relevant defensive mechanisms, and had achieved a certain degree of success, distrust among the schools—combined with the constant iteration of invasive methods—meant that the system still could not win their confidence.
That was why, to this day, no Mana Communication System had been established within the Modification School itself.
Of course, the Northern Society’s Mana Communication System could not withstand their methods of intrusion.
That system was still an old version purchased by Elise, and their technology had already broken through that version long ago.
So that Cole could gather information there without having to painstakingly earn Points and then suffer through exchanging them for papers, they had installed that mana-invasion organ into him before he departed.
After a while, Scott returned. He was carrying a large stack of loose papers, which he set down on the table.
“Teacher, Cole says he still hasn’t found any trace of that disciple of Habos...”
“It’s fine. Elise definitely knows that a great many people are searching for that Fulan. She will certainly help Fulan conceal her identity, so it’s normal that Cole couldn’t find her.”
“I never had especially high hopes to begin with. I just treated it as trying our luck.”
When Vernon first learned that Habos had a disciple and had even placed her in the Northern Society, even as Habos’s enemy, he had wanted to call him an idiot.
What Habos was doing now was digging up the roots of the Elemental School. Placing that paper in the Northern Society had been an utterly stupid choice.
Originally, Habos could have steadily claimed both the Elemental School’s Elemental Master Award and the Arcane Mage Award granted by the Alliance.
Just one of those awards alone would have been enough to ensure a mage’s entry into the Alliance’s core and grant access to resources leading toward the Fifth Tier.
But for some reason, Habos had published that paper in the Northern Society instead, offending every single judge in one move.
Even so, some judges still upheld the principle that the achievement itself should come first, and insisted that Habos ought to receive those awards.
As a result, the judges were still arguing over the matter, debating whether the awards should be given to Habos at all.
Broadly speaking, the judges were currently split roughly four to six between those who supported Habos and those who opposed him.
A two-thirds agreement among the judges was required for the vote to pass, so the procedure had stalled there.
And at a time like this, if Habos’s disciple could not resist temptation and did something like accusing her own mentor, then perhaps some of those judges might switch sides under the weight of such accusations.
Of course, all of that depended on whether Fulan was willing. Right now, he had not even found her yet, so there was no question of using anything to tempt her.
“Well then, let’s take a look at what major works the Northern Society—now home to the paper of Habos that has stirred up the entire Alliance—has produced.”
Cole had marked all the papers recommended by the featured sections, and almost every paper bore some note from one featured publication or another.
For example, some papers had been recommended by several featured publications, while the paper on refining White Star Sand had notes showing that it had been recommended by most of the featured sections.
As for Fulan’s paper on Fireball, it only had the following written on it:
“Recommended on the cover of one featured publication; no recommendations from any others.”
After all, the editors in charge of the other featured publications had known nothing of this paper.
It was only when the paper was officially published today that they learned it existed, so naturally there had been no way for them to recommend it in advance.