Chapter 257 : Chapter 257
Chapter 257. The Essence of Tier
“All right. Thank you, Society President.”
Fulan had originally wanted to argue a little against Elise’s mistaken understanding of mathematics, but Elise had immediately followed it with words of genuine concern, so Fulan no longer felt it appropriate to argue.
She could only thank her, then begin thinking over what Elise had just said.
She had heard it very clearly: the First Seat of the Modification School had set his sights on her. To be more precise, he had set his sights on the paper in her hands.
Even before this paper had been published, she might already have drawn his attention because of her status as Habos’s disciple.
It was simply obvious that the First Seat of the Modification School had recognized the value of that paper and was therefore taking her even more seriously.
Under such uncertain circumstances, she really did need to hide herself well. Ideally, she should not expose herself at all.
“Um, Society President, what exactly is this ‘Aether’ you mentioned earlier?”
Fulan remembered the abrupt, seemingly unprompted question Elise had asked at the very beginning.
Seeing the interest practically spilling across Fulan’s face, Elise rubbed her chin for a while before saying,
“The Mana Communication System probably doesn’t have anything on it. If you’re interested, come here again after some time, and I’ll get some materials from the Alchemy School for you.”
But immediately afterward, she grew a little curious as well.
“Who did you learn your mathematics from?”
That was the part Elise found especially strange. Since Fulan had clearly never studied under a mage of the Alchemy School, where had her mathematical ability come from?
Even Elise had to admit that without a fairly high degree of mathematical attainment, it would have been impossible to produce a paper like that.
“I learned it from a book. Those books had related material in them...”
“Oh.”
Only when Elise merely acknowledged it with a simple response, showing that she understood, did Fulan’s tightly wound nerves finally relax.
It seemed Elise had absolutely no interest in asking which book the knowledge had come from.
If she really had demanded that book, Fulan would not have been able to produce it any time soon.
She could have copied down the contents of the books from her previous life and written them into a book to use as a disguise, but that would have been far too troublesome.
Elise thought for a moment, then said,
“All right. There should be nothing else. You may go now. If anything comes up, you can come find me.”
“All right. Thank you, Society President.”
---
After going downstairs, Fulan thought that since she was here already, she might as well head straight to the first floor of the Mage Tower, find a seat, and take out the Mana Receiver Tablet.
She intended to obtain the advancement method for Second-Tier Mages while she was at it. That way, she would not need to make another trip later.
She opened the Mana Communication System and immediately saw the account name she had registered—“Laiyi.” Beside the name was a string of numbers.
【Points: 313】
Other than that, there were no numbers displayed anywhere else. There was no list of papers published under her account, nor any detailed breakdown showing where those Points had come from.
It simply displayed Fulan’s total Points in the most barebones way possible.
Even more outrageous was the fact that if Fulan wanted to view her own paper on the Mana Communication System, she had to spend Points to buy it before it would even show up in the system.
Fulan stared at her Points for quite a while and saw that the number did not continue increasing, so she guessed that perhaps it worked on a settlement system, where the Points would only be calculated and issued at a specific time.
Not bothering with that for now, she directly selected the work mentioned in that volume of Selections, “Some Thoughts on the Advancement of Second-Tier Elite Mages,” and paid fifty Points for it. Then she glanced around. No one was sitting near her.
Only then did she steady her mind and focus her attention on it.
【The essence of Tier is a leap in the level of life. This is a law of the world, difficult to alter. It is the world itself that determines that those of a higher Tier must possess abilities in every aspect far superior to those of a lower Tier. This is beyond dispute.】
【Of course, aside from the First Tier, which merely raises one’s various attributes beyond the reach of ordinary people, the higher Tiers are not simply improvements in raw attributes.】
【For example, the Third Tier is a major threshold for all Professionals. Once you cross it, you become a noteworthy figure even on the scale of the entire continent.】
【One of the reasons for this is that when you advance to the Third Tier, your life-form undergoes a direct transformation, making it so that you no longer need to rely on a physical body to survive.】
【Even if a Third-Tier Mage’s physical body is destroyed, they will not die. Nor will they become the sort of spirit form found in the Necromancy School. Instead, they can survive in the form of a mental power aggregate.】
【This is the elevation in the level of life brought by Tier. And in the process of advancing to the Second Tier, there is likewise an initial transformation of one’s life level...】
As Fulan read the text, she suddenly thought of the most powerful spell in her possession—Blood of the Furnace.
That spell could now kill even a Second-Tier Professional with ease, which showed just how terrifying its destructive power truly was.
And judging from the explanation here, it seemed that Blood of the Furnace would no longer be all that effective against Third-Tier Professionals, because they could survive even without their bodies.
But then Fulan thought of one method of using Blood of the Furnace that she had never yet succeeded in carrying out—that was the shaping step after converting something into liquid.
If she did not shape those red liquids, they would return to their original state. The only difference was that living beings would die outright during the conversion process.
But now Fulan realized what the true purpose of “shaping” was—it was to kill Third-Tier Professionals.
If those Third-Tier Professionals would not die easily even after their bodies were destroyed, then she could simply reshape their bodies into something else, or perhaps reshape the mental power aggregates that allowed them to continue existing.
Fulan could more or less guess that this was a spell Habos had developed specifically to kill Third-Tier Professionals.
Most likely, once she reached the stage where she could fully cast this spell, if she encountered a Third-Tier Professional, she would be able to turn both their mind and body into red liquid, then mold it into a mound of earth.
That was the true use of Blood of the Furnace. It was only that, until now, she had merely been using the spell to convert living beings, never having touched the higher level of what it could do.
But even knowing that now was of no practical use to her.
Even after reaching the Second Tier, she estimated that she might perhaps be able to use the Spell Ring at the cost of a huge amount of mental power to achieve the true effect of Blood of the Furnace. Right now, she found it difficult even to move those red liquids slightly from one place to another.
And at present, she was still only a little mage preparing to advance to the Second Tier. If she truly met a Third-Tier Professional now, she probably would not be able to cast much of anything before dying.
She continued reading and soon saw that the author had moved on to describing the characteristics of Second-Tier Professionals.
【A normal Second-Tier Professional is very likely to possess the following traits:
1. The techniques they can use, including Combat Techniques and spells, can all be released in enhanced form. This enhancement consumes certain resources.
2. Many fatal wounds become far less important, though only certain kinds of fatal wounds—such as being cut in half at the waist, or having one’s neck severed, so long as the heart, brain, and other major organs are not damaged.
3. Their vigor becomes much more abundant than it was at the First Tier, and many things become vastly more efficient at this stage. For example, they may sleep for the same amount of time as before, but the period during which they remain mentally vigorous will be at least three times longer than before...】
Only after discussing the characteristics of Second-Tier Professionals did the paper finally reach the part about how to advance.
【If one wishes to advance to become a Second-Tier Professional, then aside from a few cases involving bloodline factors or the influence of Extraordinary items, the simplest and best method is through profession advancement.】
【After thousands of years of refinement, profession advancement methods can be used reliably at least up through advancement to the Fourth Tier. By the time one reaches advancement to the Second Tier, this method has become extremely stable.】
【Put simply, so long as you possess a Second-Tier profession, that counts as having advanced.】
【But how are we supposed to obtain one? That is the key point of this paper.】
【Note: In theory, even if you have not yet reached a formal Tier, so long as you meet the requirements for a Second-Tier profession, you can still be considered a Second-Tier Professional.
However, this method carries enormous hidden dangers. The specific risks vary depending on the profession involved, and the problems do not concern only subsequent advancement.】
【Therefore, the existing methods on the continent all involve directly upgrading the profession one obtained when advancing to the First Tier, or changing one’s profession at the First Tier and then pursuing the corresponding advancement.】
【Every Second-Tier profession must correspond to a First-Tier profession. That is the safest method...】
At that point, Fulan suddenly remembered one profession advancement method that was still hanging on her panel: the profession called Sunflame Knight.
Fulan frowned. The description of Sunflame Knight on the panel carried two stars, which meant that in the panel’s eyes, it was a Second-Tier profession.
According to the explanation in this paper, did that mean Sunflame Knight was a profession that could no longer be advanced into anywhere on the continent?
But after thinking about it for a few moments, she gave up on the question. What did the continent’s circumstances have to do with her panel? By now, she even suspected that if some profession had disappeared from the continent entirely, then so long as Fulan fulfilled the exact requirements, she would still be able to obtain that profession.
She continued reading, and only then did she finally reach the section introducing the concrete method of advancement.
【This paper provides a relatively mainstream advancement method for mages, namely the advancement of the Elite Mage profession at the Second Tier.】
【If a mage wishes to advance—excluding those of the Sword Chant School—and thus advance on the basis of their original School, then they must satisfy the following conditions.
1. They must become proficient in three spells corresponding to the specializations obtained upon advancement within their own School. (Those without specializations should refer to the section on obtaining them.)
2. After fulfilling the first condition, they must use their mental power to construct a spell structure in their mind, using at least three spells as the foundation. (This requires a certain amount of mental power. If your mental power is insufficient, and you have no method of increasing it, then you may as well give up on this advancement method.)
3. They must possess a certain degree of understanding of the spells of their own School. (If you are a researcher and have published several papers within your own School, then you should already satisfy this requirement.)
Note: If you still cannot satisfy the third requirement, I suggest reading more papers from your own School. Perhaps you do not need to write your understanding into articles, yet can still genuinely understand those spells. This understanding only matters so long as it is real.
After completing the three conditions above, your School Mage profession will become the corresponding Elite (School) Mage profession.】