Chapter 201: Recommendation |
“Hm?” When Alaric kept reading downward, the direction this paper took completely caught him off guard.
He had not expected the mathematical analysis in the title to be real. But it was not what he had imagined, where someone simply used one or two equations to calculate Fireball.
The paper first defined a mathematical method, then went on and on explaining what that mathematical method was like, even giving two examples.
Gradually, Alaric’s expression became more and more focused. The reason was simple: he was starting to struggle to keep up with the pace of the paper.
The mathematical expressions listed above were not something he could understand with a casual glance.
He had to concentrate in order to understand those formulas. Otherwise, after one or two lines, he would no longer be able to follow what the author was actually talking about.
As a reviewer, he was also a First-Tier Mage. His thinking speed far surpassed that of an ordinary person.
Yet when he encountered something utterly unheard-of like this, he felt as though his brain were about to catch fire.
Especially those numbers. They drove his mind into a frenzy of calculations. Sometimes when his result differed from the one derived in the paper, he had to check carefully to see where he had gone wrong.
If anyone else had been there, they would have seen that a high intensity of Mental Power had gathered inside Alaric’s head and was surging wildly within it.
His legs began trembling involuntarily, and even his breathing grew heavier.
A few drops of sweat slid down his forehead. When he distracted himself long enough to wipe them away, he suddenly realized that he had been immersed in it for a very long time.
“Haaah—!” Alaric gasped for breath, unable to endure such intense analysis. Those numbers made his head feel as though it were on the verge of exploding.
“I can’t do this anymore. I need a break!” Alaric told himself.
He closed his eyes, yet still felt as though those numbers were floating before his eyelids. His mind refused to calm down for a long time.
Only after his breathing gradually steadied did his whole body finally begin to recover.
Pressing against his taut temples, he still could not believe what kind of paper he had just encountered.
“What kind of person even writes something like this?! What was the point of coming up with such boring nonsense?!”
After venting a little of his frustration, he followed the paper’s argument and continued reading.
He had already finished the part on the derivation of those mathematical formulas. Now the writing shifted and moved into the stage of analyzing Fireball.
He watched as the author used those earlier formulas to very quickly analyze the mana input of Fireball and the size of its power.
Yet this time, his brain utterly failed to enter the same state, nor did his Mental Power circulate through his mind.
Because this was different from the earlier explanation of Calculus. When Fulan wrote this section, she had genuinely been thinking through it herself.
And while thinking it through, she had naturally omitted some of the more tedious steps without even realizing it.
Although Fulan was not any sort of mathematical genius, the experience from her previous life, combined with the long years of study since she had come to this magical world, still placed her well above Alaric, who had not even been exposed to Calculus for half a day.
Now Alaric found himself utterly unable to understand it. How had it already progressed to this point? Why could this part be handled that way? And where had this number come from?
All of it filled him with confusion, and these thoughts kept flashing through his mind, completely stalling his reasoning.
He moved his gaze back upward, checked it carefully twice, and only then came to a sudden realization. So that was how it worked!
But when he returned to the original section and continued reading, the spark went out. No matter what he did, he could not rediscover that sudden flash of understanding.
That left him feeling inexplicably irritable and deeply uncomfortable. In the end, he chose to simply give up. After carefully reading the conclusion of the paper, he dealt with the rest of it perfunctorily.
“Whatever. I’m not one of the people responsible for recommendations anyway. Let the people over at the featured sections worry about it.”
Alaric stamped the paper with the mark of approval. But when he prepared to write his comments on it, he got stuck.
Honestly, although the mathematics in it had left even a First-Tier Mage like him drenched in sweat, even now he still did not think the paper had much practical use.
No matter how one looked at it, Fireball was only a spell an apprentice could learn. What was the point of researching something like that?
Even if you lowered its mana loss as much as possible, a First-Tier Mage could still cast over fifty Fireballs in a minute. And besides, quite a few First-Tier spells were stronger than fifty Fireballs the moment they were cast.
So in Alaric’s eyes, this was a paper with little practical value. Though it had indeed involved a great deal of research, that was all.
“That’s that.” As before, although Alaric also had the authority to forward a good paper he reviewed to the featured editors, sparing them the trouble of digging through papers themselves, this one, in his eyes, was merely a paper that barely passed. It did not count as any major achievement.
Alaric reached out once more toward the pending review area. But the paper he picked up this time was different from Fulan’s. It bore the Northern Society’s special emblem.
Alaric recognized that emblem. It was the Northern Society’s internal review transfer paper. Such papers were allowed to cut the line and had to be reviewed with priority.
When reviewing papers submitted on this type of paper, one only needed to check for problems in the writing itself. The moment a paper arrived on one of these sheets, that already proved its academic value.
Alaric spread the paper open and laid it on the desk, then began reading it carefully.
“A breakthrough has been made in the Alchemy School’s extraction of the Second-Tier material White Star Sand.”
He had to admit, after reading the previous paper with its densely packed numbers and mathematical symbols, merely looking at ordinary text on the page already made him feel much better.
Alaric’s eyes lit up. After reading it carefully, he lightly slapped the desk.
“The society has actually produced another heavyweight achievement like this!”
The entire paper was explained in very simple terms. It described the discovery of a method that could greatly increase the output of White Star Sand extraction, while also producing many additional byproducts. There was no especially profound theory involved.
Although it clearly could not compare to the shock Habos’s paper had brought to the Alliance, this paper alone was enough to shake the very floor beneath the Alchemy School.
After reading it through once more and confirming there were no problems, Alaric wrote down his approval.
“Right, I should also recommend this paper to those friends handling the featured sections.”
“Snowflake Selections, Fallen Leaf Selections, Alchemy Studies Selections...”
Alaric copied the paper’s title and paper number several times, writing them all onto a sheet of paper. Later, it would be delivered to the people in charge of those featured sections.
Then the tip of his pen paused, as though he had just remembered something.
“Oh, right. Send that other paper to him too.”
On the slip meant for Fallen Leaf Selections, he added the paper number for “A Mathematical Analysis of Fireball.”
The person in charge of Fallen Leaf Selections was his friend. He absolutely had to let his friend see this remarkable paper.