Chapter 204: Battle Mage

After Turning into a Girl, I Gained a Game Panel

“You want to become a battle mage too?”

At the top of the Mage Tower, Elise looked at Fran with a strange expression, clearly very surprised by this request.

“Yes. I have actually always believed that I have talent in combat as well, so I want to give it a try.”

That was a lie. In truth, Fran had once happened to run into Dylan and heard him talk about battle mages, which had greatly changed her impression of them.

“Didn’t you just achieve a result in that project? You could keep working as a researcher!”

Elise could not understand Fran’s decision. It was one thing for her own disciple to feel unsuited to being a researcher and want to try becoming a battle mage.

But how was it that Fran, who had just produced a major achievement, also wanted to go and try it?

Elise knew that on the very first day Fran had joined that project, she had already pushed it forward in ways no one had originally anticipated. That only made Elise trust Habos’s assessment even more.

She had originally planned that after some time had passed, she would call Fran over and have her participate in larger projects, giving her more opportunities for development.

But she had never imagined that before she could go looking for Fran, Fran would come looking for her first—and for something Elise had never once expected, namely a recommendation letter to become a battle mage.

Under normal circumstances, that alchemical achievement alone would have been enough to sustain someone for ten years.

Elise truly could not understand why Fran had suddenly decided at a time like this that she wanted to become a battle mage.

Even Philip, the mage in charge of that project, could rely on this result to secure at least five years of the highest-grade experimental support and might even be able to make a push toward becoming a Third-Tier Mage.

Given all that, Elise simply could not understand why Fran wanted to become a battle mage.

Fran looked at Elise with absolute determination in her eyes. She was set on becoming one.

In the past, she had held a somewhat stereotyped impression of battle mages, thinking they were nothing more than an upgraded version of a knight order.

But after hearing Dylan explain them, she had come to understand clearly that the two were fundamentally different. In every respect, battle mages were superior to knights.

Of course, the preferred recruits for a battle mage corps were definitely mages from the Sword Chant School.

Those mages had stronger physiques, and their spells were especially suited to combat.

But that did not mean mages from other schools were unsuited to becoming battle mages. Rather, each had their own strengths.

After countless years of refinement, the Alliance’s battle mages had already developed into an extraordinarily mature system.

Coordinated group spellcasting to increase the power of a single spell was only the foundation.

The Alliance’s battle mage corps not only possessed all kinds of group-coordination spells, but had also made tremendous optimizations in single-target spellcasting.

Take a simple example. If Dylan of the Alchemy School wanted to become a battle mage, then after entering through a recommendation letter, he would still need to undergo a series of training sessions before he could be considered a true battle mage.

His first lesson would be learning the instant-cast or enhanced versions of the spells he already knew. Such spells were unique to the battle mage corps and could not be learned anywhere else.

For example, when Fran had once been practicing the Harmonization Method, she had thought that if one’s Mental Power became strong enough, it might be possible to fuse two people together.

Dylan, then, could learn the spell designed specifically around that idea, [Forced Fusion]. When facing a knight, as long as his Mental Power was strong enough, he could directly merge the knight with the iron armor on his body...

There were many spells like that. It was just that a spell like [Forced Fusion] became much more powerful when backed by spell specialization in alchemy, so only mages of the Alchemy School would learn it.

Although these enhanced versions of spells increased mental exhaustion, caused harm to the body over time, and in some cases even required the assistance of Spell Rings to cast, the strength of the Alliance’s battle mages was not reflected in their spells alone.

The Alliance had a complete supply system for the battle mage corps.

Once you passed the assessment and joined a battle mage corps, the Alliance would issue you specialized equipment for every aspect of combat, including Spell Rings that assisted with casting, clothing with powerful resistance properties, and staffs designed to aid in battle.

And after receiving those things, there would even be specialists assigned to teach you the proper methods of combat so that you could get up to speed quickly.

It was precisely because of these powerful spells and the Alliance’s supply system that battle mages were so formidable.

That was just how powerful battle mages were. Under normal circumstances, entry required passing an assessment—in other words, the same battle mage corps Habos had mentioned to Fran earlier.

Without passing the assessment, it was impossible to get in.

But the battle mage corps in the Northern Society was an exception. Because of the exclusion imposed by the various schools, no famous battle mage corps was willing to station itself there.

Left with no other choice, Elise had created one herself.

Using the justification of establishing a battle mage corps, Elise had obtained the First-Tier and Second-Tier battle mage spells from the Alliance, and after that, she had not gone back to them again.

She knew those schools would certainly obstruct her, so she did not even hope that the Alliance would provide equipment and the like.

Even obtaining those spells had already cost her tremendous effort. As for equipment and supplies that required long-term deliveries, she had no hope of getting those at all.

So aside from registering her battle mage corps under the Alliance’s name, Elise had relied on the Alliance for nothing else.

Even when it came to the first people who became battle mages, Elise had spent a long time running around before she finally managed to talk people into taking on the role part-time.

Even the equipment had been produced within the Northern Society itself.

As a result, although the Northern Society’s battle mage corps was objectively inferior to other battle mage corps in terms of equipment and training, it also had various advantages.

For example, its specialized spells were still complete, and its structure differed from that of other battle mage corps.

Other battle mage corps consisted of dedicated combat personnel. Once you joined, you had a fixed term of service, and until that term ended, you could not do anything else.

But the battle mage corps of the Northern Society was different. Most of the people there were part-time, with very few full-time members.

For those who joined, their duties mostly amounted to standing a few shifts each month, while larger events required the temporary recruitment of more people.

Moreover, the entry threshold had been relaxed by an enormous margin, and the conditions of the assessment had also been loosened considerably.

Fran, however, did not need to take the assessment at all. After all, this battle mage corps had been built single-handedly by Elise.

Naturally, Elise’s authority within it was extremely great as well. As long as Elise nodded, Fran could join directly.

Elise felt her scalp tingle under Fran’s gaze. On top of that, after trying to persuade her a few times, she found that Fran remained completely unmoved. In the end, she could only say helplessly,

“Fine. Wait a moment. I’ll write you a recommendation letter right now.”