As if time stopped in the hall of the Sorcerer Administrative Department, Eric was lost for a few seconds. Eric finally regained his composure when some other sorcerers entered the hall and he hurriedly started reading the paper right in front him, on the counter.
He remembered this young man, Lucien Evans X, who just started studying arcana three months ago. Eric could not believe that it was this young man who developed this groundbreaking paper!
Furthermore, it seemed even more unrealistic that the extremely generous reward, three hundred credits and two thousand points, had been given to a level one arcanist, first circle sorcerer.
Both Cindy and Dona were also eager to see why their friend Lucien could gain such a reward.
Although Eric was really excited with the first half of the paper, he got confused with Lucien’s points claiming that the atomic weight of a few elements were mistakenly measured, and so did the two girls. It was not surprising that the data of some elements yielded by studies conducted many years ago might not be very accurate due to the limit of the techniques, but they could not believe that even the atomic weight of the lately discovered elements were also not right. After all, these newly discovered elements had been examined by many arcanists every time when a new measurement method came out.
"But Mr. Gaston and Mr. Overee made similar comments speaking highly of the paper…" Cindy said to Dona, "I mean… this kind of paper discussing the periodicity existing among elements could usually get one or two credits."
Cindy had been working here for almost two years, and she knew the standards.
"That’s right." Dona nodded, "Publishing a paper without having any decisive evidence supporting it… This is not the common practice of Element."
"Wait…" Eric turned the page and saw Lucien’s experiment report on how he reexamined the atomic weights of a few elements and proved the previous data wrong. Reading while nodding, Eric had to admit that this paper was of higher value than those which only talked about the authors’ assumptions.
However, Eric still could not figure out why three hundred credits should be given to this paper.
"The Features of A New Element Discovered Based on Periodic Table of Elements… from Woods, level four arcanist, forth circle sorcerer…" Cindy did not read Lucien’s paper as carefully as Eric. Out of curiosity, she took a glance at the second paper following Lucien’s, "What does this mean… Mr. Eric? A new element… discovered?"
"What?!" Eric was shocked, and he quickly found the paper from Woods. After reading the abstract, he fiercely grabbed another copy of Element with his shaking hand, and started to compare Woods’ paper to Lucien's.
Cindy and Dona could see that Mr. Eric’s face turned red as he was reading Mr. Woods’ paper, and the blue veins on his forehead were very distinct.
"How is it possible…" Eric slightly shook his head, "This is not a paper… it’s a prophecy…"
The great value of Lucien’s paper was further endorsed by Mr. Raventi’s finding of another new element and the papers reporting the corrected atomic weight of some elements from Lazar and a few other arcanists. Many authors put forward their assumptions and thoughts regarding why the data of some elements were mistakenly measured.
Turning the journal back to the periodic table page, Eric stared at the table for a long time, having no idea what to say.
Cindy and Dona, the two apprentices, could not understand the great meaning lying in this table, so they were less shocked when compared to Eric.
"The periodicity looks so amazing." Cindy was still quite excited, "It shares the similar beauty with that of Brook Equation, the Poem of Goddess."
Dona agreed, "Yes. I wonder if gods controlling everything like this really exist, or why there’s such beautiful periodicity in the world."
Although the power of the Church was suppressed by the Congress of Magic, it was still relatively influential among common people. The two common girls, one from a farmer’s family and the other from a small town, before they were selected as apprentices, were to some extent influenced by religion. However, after witnessing how amazing and powerful magic could be, religion never again worked the same way for them.
"No wonder those comments speak so highly of this paper, and such generous reward was given." Eric slowly calmed down and released a sigh, "Except for the paper from Mr. Brook demonstrating that light is a kind of electromagnetic wave which won him even more credits than this, I could only recall very few papers in recent years which can compete with Lucien’s paper. Even Mr. Donald’s paper putting forward that spectrum analysis can be used in discovering new elements and Lord of Storm’s paper on electromagnetic wave won them only about a hundred credits or something."
Most senior-rank arcanists never relied on winning credits from the board from their upgrade, and the way from which they could gain way more credits was citation. And this was why, in most cases, their arcana level was lower than their magic level, and only really influential and powerful arcanists could reach the balance between their arcana and magic level.
"Lucien…" Cindy paused a bit and then corrected herself, "Mr. Evans’ arcana level is now way above his magic level… Wow.. I remember that there are only eight people who were like this in the three-hundred-year history of the congress, and more than half of them are now grand arcanists or legendary archmages."
Cindy now felt a bit nervous with directly calling Lucien’s name.
When someone was still of junior-rank, it was not very hard for him or her to gain a higher arcana level compared to the person’s magic level, as from time to time, a junior-rank mage might be able to publish some good papers and thus earn some credits. But Lucien’s case was still very rare, since his arcana level was now way above his magic level.
Among the eight people, now there were two grand arcanists and one legendary archmage, another one died from disease and two died in battle. The last two became mediocre later, and now they were just like everyone else.
Eric’s gray eyes looked around and finally stopped on Lucien’s paper again, "Now he’s a level four arcanist, and he did this within less than three months… What a young man."
It took Eric thirty years to become a level three arcanist.
Then there was an imperceptible smile on his face, "This young man won’t need to put an X behind his name anymore."
Headquarter of Arcana, chief-editor’s office.
Drummond, the chief-editor of Arcana, was not happy at all. Looking rather gloomy, he threw the latest issue of Element on the desk. The fact that Arcana did not seize the chance to publish the influential paper was humiliating to him, and also damaged the top reputation of the journal.
Drummond was a level seven arcanist who specialized in Force and Astrology. If he had not chosen Arcana, he would definitely be qualified enough to be a member of the Arcana Review Board.
Right now his anger was burning his guts. Although he knew that it was not really his mistake for missing this paper, Drummond completely lost his face when he ran into Gaston and Overee, who made fun of him and told him that the author actually came to the headquarter of Arcana in person to contribute his paper but was scolded away by the staff here!
"Who did this?" Drummond’s cold eyes looked around, "I asked… WHO, DID, THIS! If you were not certain about the value of a paper, you’re supposed to hand the paper to the special editors! Or to me!"
As the most influential journal, Arcana had good bonds with most senior-rank arcanists, who would become the journal’s special editors mentioned when there was a need, in order to avoid the chances of Arcana missing those really valuable papers as much as possible.
Under his watch, all the editors were very nervous. No one dared to speak a word.
After a while of silence, someone said in a low voice, "Not me…"
And more editors followed, "I didn’t see the paper…"
"Interesting…" Drummond sneered.
Behind the reception desk outside, Garvin’s face was as pale as a piece of paper.
Heidi shook her head a bit, "You could’ve just followed the rules and let him hand in his paper. One’s never supposed to do more than their job duties. Here, we strictly follow rules, as the more we do, the easier we make mistakes."
Garvin looked at Heidi confusedly. He never knew that Heidi was this familiar with office politics.
...
Standing in the Noble District of Rentato, there was a grand magic tower in the style of the Palace of Tria. On the facade the tower, golden words wrote:
Holm Royal Magic Academy.
On the ninth floor, more than ten senior arcanists from the Will of Element and Holm Royal Magic Academy gathered here in the early Monday morning.
After one became a senior arcanist or sorcerer, it went without saying that they could enter the higher level of their organization. However, only those authoritatives like Gaston and Overee who made great achievement in their own fields could become one of those who could actually make decisions.
Raventi arrived here from Rose Garden even earlier. Seeing that everyone was already there, he said to them aloud, energetically, "Ladies and gentlemen, after reading Evans’ paper and those papers supporting his findings, I think everyone agrees that Evans should be the winner of this year’s Holm Crown prize!"
"Well… not really…" frowned Morris Hoffenberg, the chairman of Holm Royal Magic Academy, the president of Holm branch of the Congress of Magic, one of the presidents of the Will of Elements, level eight arcanist, ninth circle sorcerer, "I mean… I’m not denying the importance and value of this finding, but, in my eyes, this finding does not come from a solid and profound foundation of arcana knowledge. It’s more like… an inspirational flash."
Some arcanists slightly nodded.
"Besides, Evans has just passed his basic arcana assessment. If he was awarded with Holm Crown prize, I’m afraid that this might have a negative impact on the reputation of the prize," added Morris.
Morris Hoffenber had silver-gray pupils which was something typical in the royal family of Holm, and his face profile looked somewhat like Natasha. He was a good-looking, middle-aged man.
Raventi definitely did not care. Staring at him, Raventi suddenly flared out, as he shouted, "Just an inspirational flash?! Morris, are you kidding me? Are you trying to say that all the arcanists who tried to find the law in the distribution of elements but failed are all idiots? Are you saying I’m an idiot, or Lord of Storm is?!"
Gaston and Overee grinned silently. Every time when they needed to argue for something, if they could get Raventi on their side, their job would get way easier, as they just needed to stand aside and watch Raventi snarling at other people.