Chapter 262 : Chapter 262
Chapter 262. You Can Even Exchange for This!?
Fulan looked at it several more times before finally realizing that she had not misread it. Those things were written right there on the exchange list in front of her, without the slightest mistake.
“Is this real?”
Fulan found it hard to believe. Hadn’t they said there were no advancement methods here in the Battle Mage Corps?
So why was one here now?
After thinking it over, Fulan understood why a third-tier advancement method had appeared here. It was the Modification School that had placed a third-tier advancement method here.
No matter how dull Fulan might be, even she could tell that something was deeply off about this move from the Modification School.
Were these still the same schools she knew, the ones that clutched their knowledge so tightly?
How had it come to this? How were they now willing to place advancement knowledge here?
If the Modification School was serious about putting this kind of knowledge on the exchange list, Fulan did not even dare imagine how great a storm it would stir within the Alliance.
Simply opening up the knowledge of modification surgery here at the Northern Society was already enough to shock people.
The impact of this news would be far greater than the shock Habos’s paper had brought.
What Habos had given all mages was an academic shock. It had shown them that things could be done this way.
But what the Modification School was doing now would send an earthshaking message to the entire Alliance: the Modification School was going to stand on the side of the Northern Society.
Most likely, what followed would be the Modification School supporting some of the things the Northern Society advocated, or trying to gain something through this.
For the entire Alliance, this would amount to nothing less than a political earthquake.
With burning eyes, Fulan looked at this “Song of the Deep Sea.” Exchanging for it required 25,000 Battle Merits.
A normal first-tier spell exchange, meanwhile, started at 100 Battle Merits and went up to at most 1,000.
That was not very good news for Fulan. She did not know how many Battle Merits she currently had in her account, nor whether she had enough to exchange for everything she wanted.
All she knew was that the mission to deal with the undead creatures had only given her 1,200 Battle Merits, which was enough for only a few spells.
With nervous anticipation, she went to one of the counters and first requested a Battle Merit inquiry.
While the staff member searched through the records, Nora spoke up beside her.
“You completed an outside mission, so it should at least be enough to exchange for two spells, right? Then I’d suggest Great Fireball at the very least. That spell is useful no matter when...”
Nora was still enthusiastically recommending spells to Fulan. Fulan merely gave a brief response, while keeping all her attention fixed on the staff member handling the inquiry.
After some time, the staff member finally returned, carrying a handwritten slip of paper.
“You currently have 31,200 Battle Merits in total. Is there anything you would like to exchange for?”
Even the staff member sounded shocked as he spoke. Perhaps he had simply never seen so many Battle Merits before. Most mages exchanged whatever they could as soon as they got any. No one let that many accumulate.
Fulan, however, knew that this was the reward she had received after obtaining that box, and it immediately put her at ease. She had known it would earn her a large amount of Battle Merits.
But after seeing the exchange requirement for “Song of the Deep Sea,” she had not been able to look away from it, afraid that she might have been awarded only 20,000 Battle Merits. That would have been miserable.
Fortunately, the rewards here were handed out generously. They did not deliberately tailor the reward to fall just short of whatever you wanted to exchange for.
The moment the staff member announced how many Battle Merits Fulan had, Nora beside her fell into a strange silence and looked at Fulan with drooping eyes.
Her eyes seemed to be saying: “You have that many points and you still wanted my recommendation? Why not just buy all of it?!”
At that point, Fulan had no choice but to explain herself first.
“I got lucky. The destination of that large-scale operation happened to be Snow Bear Territory, where I was carrying out my mission. I just happened to discover the operation’s target there, so I reported it along the way. I never expected to be rewarded with this many Battle Merits.”
What answered Fulan was a look from Nora that seemed unsure what expression she ought to wear. Nora was beginning to suspect that Fulan had not called her over to discuss what spells to exchange for at all, but rather to show off in front of her.
Fulan merely turned her head slightly, glanced at Nora once, then immediately said to the staff member:
“I want to exchange for that Song of the Deep Sea, the one from the Modification School.”
Nora had not looked closely through the exchange catalogue, so she had no idea such a thing was in it. She asked curiously:
“What are you exchanging that for? It’s something from the Modification School. You don’t know the Modification School’s techniques, and outside the Modification School, no one can really...”
Across the entire Alliance, the Modification School’s organ-modification techniques were among the best-protected bodies of knowledge in existence.
If you were not part of the Modification School, then there was absolutely no way you would know that craft.
Other schools, such as the Elemental School and other long-established schools, had inevitably had some of their knowledge leak outward over the course of their long histories.
But the Modification School had existed for less than a hundred years, so its protection of knowledge naturally far surpassed that of the other schools’ mages.
And to some extent, the techniques of the other schools all shared something in common. For example, everyone cast spells. What difference did it make how exactly one cast them?
But the Modification School’s way of casting spells was radically different. It actually made use of various monster parts and specially cultivated organs to strengthen oneself. It was simply too strange.
It was enough to make one wonder how the Modification School had ever received school certification and been allowed to openly recruit apprentices within the Alliance.
When Fulan heard Nora’s attempt to dissuade her, she only gave her a polite smile before turning away and saying:
“I’m interested in it. Besides, I have so many Battle Merits that exchanging for one won’t really matter...”
Nora was left powerless to argue against that, because what Fulan said was indeed true. With such a massive amount of Battle Merits, she could probably even exchange for many second-tier spells.
The mistake Nora had made when advising Fulan was assuming that Fulan’s Battle Merits were limited. But with this many, Fulan might have enough to last well into the second tier and still have plenty left over. So what was the point of being that frugal?
And besides, Fulan no longer had to make a choice. She could simply buy every spell Nora had just recommended and avoid the dilemma entirely.
Fulan’s request made the staff member’s expression change. Only after confirming once more that she really did want to exchange for that item did he finally move.
“Please wait a moment. We need to process that item first. You will need to wait at least half an hour.”
The item that recorded the Song of the Deep Sea sequence modification method was still in their storeroom and had not even been unsealed yet.
Knowledge of that level was preserved under multiple layers of verification sealing. If someone wanted to exchange for it, they first had to contact the Modification School and receive permission before they could make a copy of the knowledge.
Although there was a complete process for passing it on to the exchanger, they had not prepared for this at all, so they still needed a great deal of time to get everything ready.
The two of them watched the staff member hurry toward the back door. Only then did Nora finally realize that something was wrong. She turned to Fulan and asked:
“What did you exchange for? Why is he acting like that?”
Nora’s heart was already trembling. Just from the grave look on that staff member’s face, she could tell that Fulan seemed to have exchanged for something extraordinary. But this was from the Modification School...
“This.”
Fulan picked up the exchange catalogue and pointed at one of the listed items. After Nora looked over, she directly lost the ability to speak.
Her face froze as if time itself had stopped on it, remaining rigid in that instant without the slightest sign that time was passing.
After a while, Nora finally came back to her senses. She spoke to Fulan slowly, one word at a time.
“You spent 25,000 Battle Merits on this. It might not even be useful. That much could have bought you an entire standard second-tier Battle Mage set...”
The further she got, the more agitated her tone became, as though Fulan had done something absolutely earthshaking.
What answered Nora was only a light, airy sentence.
“Don’t you think this Song of the Deep Sea is fascinating? This is something from the Modification School. Aside from this chance, when else would I ever have the opportunity to learn knowledge like this...”
Originally, Nora had wanted to say, “No matter how rare it is, if you can’t use it yourself, then what use is it?!”
But when she looked at Fulan’s expression, so excited that it did not seem fake at all, it truly seemed as though Fulan was genuinely interested in the thing.
At once, Nora lost all her strength and could only say:
“As long as you’re happy.”
---
At the headquarters of the Modification School, the island floating upon the sea now sat somewhat closer to the surface than before. On that island, countless busy figures could be seen hurrying back and forth.
Vernon, the Modification School’s First Seat, listened to the hurried footsteps of the mages outside and felt a faint sense of pleasure. Normally, these mages practically lived inside their laboratories, but now they had no choice but to come out and attend to something of great importance.
A knock sounded at Vernon’s door. Judging from the force and rhythm of the knocking, it came from his disciple Scott.
“Come in.”
Scott pushed open the door and walked in carrying a stack of papers. The moment he entered, he said in a heavy tone:
“Teacher, someone at the Northern Society has applied for the Song of the Deep Sea modification technique. As you instructed, I have already sent back approval.”
Vernon tapped the desk and said with some satisfaction:
“Oh! So someone has finally redeemed it. I wonder whether some mage just happened to have enough points on hand to exchange for it, or whether Elise fabricated some Battle Merits out of thin air and had someone exchange for it, so as to leave that method behind at the Northern Society...”
“But whatever the reason, I do not really care. Our goal was accomplished the moment we placed the Modification School’s knowledge at the Northern Society and let that knowledge spread outward...”
Vernon seemed to mutter to himself for a moment, then asked:
“By the way, what about that thing our rivals were all fighting over?”
“We have confirmed that it is a Deep-Sea Golden Dragon hatchling. It is currently being transported here from the Northern Society.”
“Ha!”
Vernon raised his brows and continued:
“No wonder they didn’t dare send any third-tier professionals to the Northern Frontier. So they were trying to keep us from learning what it actually was.”
If Vernon had known it was a Deep-Sea Golden Dragon hatchling, he certainly would have sent people to the Northern Frontier to fight for it.
But Vernon had not known, and the Modification School truly was short on manpower. The other side might not understand that, but he genuinely had not dared to transfer more personnel to the Northern Frontier.
Vernon then asked:
“And what about Habos’s award evaluation?”
Scott froze for a moment before placing the stack of papers in his hands onto Vernon’s desk.
“These are the judges’ opinions regarding the award. The situation can only be described as neither good nor bad.”