Chapter 589: The Hidden Rules Behind the Spell Combat Tournament |
Locke continued returning to the reading room to review materials. It was very convenient to purchase various potion studies materials at the Feathered Serpent Pavilion.
It was truly a great place for potion studies wizards to research potions.
At the same time, he noticed that Wizard Kelt had already replied to him, so he used the Wish Lingzhi magical plant to open the interface.
Wizard Kelt sent him a message. 'The Student Affairs Office has always been the Council of Elders' territory. The Student Affairs manages student organizations and often uses this as an excuse to make things difficult for students from other factions. The worst off are those ordinary students who have no obvious faction affiliation. They might not even know what happened before being targeted.'
'The Council of Elders controls the Finance Department, Student Affairs Office, and Admissions Office—three major departments. They have the authority to manage finances, admissions, student scholarships, grants, dormitory assignments, etc. It's quite troublesome.'
'Moreover, the Council of Elders itself has most of the administrative power.'
'Our Academic Committee controls the Academic Affairs Department, Personnel Department, and Research Department. We dominate academic rules and personnel authority, along with various related powers.'
'The Executive Patrol Group mainly controls the Supervision Department and Security Department. They've always been more than adequate for self-preservation.'
'In any case, I'll go to the Student Affairs Office and talk to them, trade on my old face, and ask them not to target you. That should work.'
After a while, Wizard Kelt sent him another message. 'Don't worry. If there's any misunderstanding, I'll go apologize and it should be resolved.'
Locke was somewhat speechless. "Team leader, you're being too accommodating. Going to apologize?"
"That's not my style. Even if I'm not the one apologizing, having my supervisor apologize... this would also make people look down on my Eye Demon Wizard reputation."
"Moreover, if apologizing were useful, they wouldn't have deliberately targeted me in the first place."
Locke frowned, but since this matter already involved Second Circle wizards, there was no need for him to step forward.
He could only wait for his direct supervisor to resolve the matter for him.
However, right after Wizard Kelt sent him the message, someone else immediately messaged him.
It was clearly a message sent by Witch Yekaterina.
'I've already spoken to the Director of the Student Affairs Office about this matter. The issue has been resolved. Don't worry about it.'
The next moment, Locke saw that the First Circle vaporization wizard from the Student Affairs Office immediately sent him a message. 'Wizard Augustine, after verification by our Student Affairs Office, we discovered that we made a mistake earlier. Your two students have no record of missing classes. Please forgive us. This matter was our work error.'
...
Inside the Student Affairs Office in the Glazed Garden castle.
That First Circle crystallization stage wizard looked at the moon ring stage old director before him with curiosity. "Director, what exactly happened? Why did we stop targeting that Academic Committee wizard?"
The Student Affairs director gave him a look. "Don't keep making these small moves. Is this even useful? Moreover, this matter has a Throne wizard intervening."
"Golden Crown Mountain has unspoken rules—the interests of wizards at the Throne level and above cannot be touched. Once a Throne is involved, even in factional disputes, we can only compete in other forms. For example, through competitions."
That First Circle crystallization stage wizard's face paled. "The Academic Committee's Throne would actually intervene in such a small matter. I was just following the Council of Elders' orders, wanting to add a little trouble for him, to make things not so easy for him."
"But targeting him actually directly triggered Throne wizard intervention. He's very valued by that Throne."
The moon ring wizard snorted coldly, "In any case, stop quickly. If this triggers conflicts between Throne wizards again, causing another incident like the Landbridge and Golden Crown Mountain dispute, I can't bear that responsibility."
"Don't split off Golden Crown Mountain and the Dragon Blood Association again."
This moon ring wizard muttered in a low voice, "Even Golden Crown Mountain, if we keep splitting like this, no matter how thick the family foundation, it can't sustain it."
The seven major top forces of Cloud Marsh Wetland in the past weren't the current seven. At least three had been replaced in between.
The White Wizard Association of Cloud Marsh Wetland established a complete wizard organization advancement route.
Small wizard organizations could advance to small-medium based on the number of First Circle wizards cultivated and articles published, then advance to medium, then to medium-large.
Finally, they would advance to become one of the seven major large forces.
Golden Crown Mountain's seven top wizard academies were themselves in continuous competition for academic resources, while also having to guard against the hundreds of medium-scale wizard organizations catching up from behind.
If they split too much, they really might shorten the gap with those medium-large wizard academies and be caught up in a short time.
Cloud Marsh Wetland only had seven top academies, not because there were only seven excellent wizard academies, but because Cloud Marsh Wetland's ley line resources, magical tide distribution, and wizard secret realm distribution could only support seven major top forces.
Whoever occupied this position could secure more advantages.
Quinn Jol University had suffered heavy losses in the previous Chaos War, and recently the academic gap was rapidly being caught up by Little Repose Mountain.
The worst part was that Little Repose Mountain was created by a Third Circle Throne wizard who graduated from Quinn Jol University three thousand years ago. After developing for three thousand years, instead of disappearing, it had become increasingly prosperous.
It was currently Cloud Marsh Wetland's medium-large wizard academy most likely to replace one of the seven top academies.
The moon ring director said in a low voice, "I heard that Landbridge will also send wizard athletes to participate in this year's sports festival. Damn it, they try to challenge our Golden Crown Mountain every few years."
"Clearly in the White Wizard Association's eyes, we've always been the same wizard academy due to the [Golden Crown Mountain-Landbridge Agreement]. It's just that Landbridge has complete independent autonomy."
"Besides this, the medium-large organizations in the Golden Crown Mountain district—Magic Pivot City, Eternal Glory Hall, Sandbank Tower, and that youngest Kungoding Academy will all send wizard athletes to participate in the competition. These people are coming aggressively, so at least I can't let the Student Affairs Office become the frontline of war between the Council of Elders and the Academic Committee..."
The moon ring wizard director said, "Give up targeting Locke Augustine."
"Rudolf Fischer."
The First Circle crystallization stage Rudolf Fischer made a sound of disapproval, but could only bow to the Student Affairs director.
Although the Fischer family did indeed occupy a very high position in the Council of Elders, this moon ring wizard before him was also a Council of Elders member, and moreover, a noble moon ring wizard.
He could only stop these small moves.
At the same time, he felt somewhat anxious. 'Locke Augustine is actually so valued by a Throne wizard. I need to remind my cousin Antoine Fischer.'
'He needs to be careful of this person in the spell combat competition.'
...
In the reading room at the Feathered Serpent Pavilion, Locke asked Witch Yekaterina with confusion. 'Teacher, why would the Council of Elders' wizards target me over a First Circle level spell combat competition?'
Soon, Witch Yekaterina gave him a reply. 'This involves the Council of Elders, Academic Committee, and Executive Patrol Group competing for the right to determine the wizard organization's development direction. To prevent disputes, besides establishing a specific institution Golden Crown Mountain Wizard Council to synthesize opinions from various laboratory heads and official wizards.'
'On specific major directions, we can still use wins and losses from certain competitions to resolve our points of disagreement.'
'For example, whichever wizard from the three factions can obtain the qualification for the Silent Grail competition can make their position advantageous and unconditionally pass some motions in the Golden Crown Mountain Wizard Council.'
'The Council of Elders has always wanted to develop the Evocation School, prioritizing resources for projects researching Evocation School magic fields, recruiting more Evocation School official wizards, and finding more wizard apprentices suitable for learning the Evocation School.'
'Our Academic Committee, on the other hand, leans toward bloodline studies and breeding.'
Locke sent a text message asking, 'Then, teacher, what discipline does the Executive Patrol Group want to develop?'
Witch Yekaterina said, "The Patrol Group side can generally only preserve itself. They rarely have moments of taking initiative. Our Academic Committee and the Council of Elders are Golden Crown Mountain's founding members. However, they recently wanted to push Golden Crown Mountain to develop from impractical academics toward alliances with various super-large shop alliances."
"But that approach was jointly resisted by us and the Council of Elders. For the Executive Patrol Group wizards, they hope more to produce results in a short time, using Golden Crown Mountain as a foundation for gaining fame and profit."
"But the Council of Elders and our Academic Committee hope more to see Golden Crown Mountain become some kind of academic benchmark in the future."
"Especially in the fields of bloodline studies and breeding." Witch Yekaterina said, "For instance, what Golden Crown Mountain is currently strongest in is actually the subdivided field within breeding—the cultivation field of peach-type magical plants."
"We've also always been strong in dragon bloodline modification and the body strengthening magic sub-direction of the Evocation School."
"Like the Council of Elders' subdivided field within the body strengthening magic sub-direction—Ripple Flow Force Magic."
"Although those people clearly live in the modern magic era but are almost turning themselves into magical family inheritances from the Era of Stars, Ripple Flow Force Magic has indeed progressed well recently. It occupies a leading and authoritative position in force magic within the Golden Crown Mountain district."
Yekaterina sent a message. 'The Council of Elders probably thinks your participation is unfair. They recently failed in their plan to pass a motion in the Golden Crown Mountain Wizard Council to prioritize campus bidding for Evocation School-related shop alliances to build a campus commercial street.'
'They were planning to rely on this spell combat competition to turn things around.'
'But you legitimately tested into our academy. Therefore, your participation completely meets the standards. You don't need to worry about this matter anymore. The Student Affairs Office won't trouble you about this anymore.'
Locke sent a message to Witch Yekaterina. 'Thank you, teacher, for resolving this trouble for me. By the way, teacher, I've already learned the Peach Bow Thorn Arrow magic.'
Witch Yekaterina instantly replied with a message. 'If that's the case, come to my office in one month. I'll let you choose an advanced meditation method.'
'Besides this, regarding your research work at the academy, I currently have new arrangements. In the future, you likely won't stay in Group 6 often. Your team in Group 6 can continue following you.'
'Also, after choosing the advanced meditation method, you should also consider what attack magic you'll choose as your Grand Magic. Generally speaking, unlike permanent defensive fields, wizards all choose one type of attack magic as their Grand Magic.'
Locke was stunned for a while by these few short sentences.
The information content was really too much.
Locke frowned. "Strange, wasn't I doing quite well with my work in Group 6? Why consider transferring me to another group? Wouldn't continuing the previous research be more beneficial for both teacher and me?"
"After all, I still don't understand what the teacher's ten-person project is actually researching. The distance between Third Circle wizards and me is really too vast."
"All along, I haven't even figured out the teacher's personality."