Throne of Magical Arcana
chapter-184

Although most of the ancient ways of doing meditation had been proven innefective by arcana, many unique ancient magic spells were still popular among today’s sorcerers. Every time a sorcerer explored an old relic, except magic items or materials, he or she would always look forward to finding unique spells or magic rites. After all, the only standard for judging whether a magic spell was good or bad was to see if it was really useful.

In this regard, ancient spells were definitely not inferior to those contemporary ones. The possible difference might be that the requirement for learning a certain spell today was way lower than that of the ancient time. For example, a seventh or eighth circle spell in the past should probably be a fourth or fifth circle spell today.

Moreover, unique ancient spells could inspire arcanists as well. Many arcana research outcomes came from the studies of the old spells. Therefore, the congress was always quite generous in this case.

However, in the book, Astrology and Elements, only spells of third circle and above could be counted as unique spells, and Lucien was not there yet. Therefore, it was hard for him to pick out several not very important ones for submission. Currently, Lucien was planning on submitting the several spells that he created or improved on his own.

Among all these spells, Lucien saw the greatest value in the first circle spell, Charm Person, which included two versions: one targeting mages and one for knights. Before the congress came up with the theory with regards to brain wave and hormone, Lucien would not give them to the congress. Lucien felt that he might become an explorer in a new field by further studying the two spells, and then he might even become an expert in the school of Illusion or Necromancy.

As for Professor’s Oscillation Hand, Lucien could not touch it right now. Since if people knew that it was Lucien who first created his magic, it would not be difficult for them to realize that Lucien was the very Professor who caused all the messes in Aalto. Lucien did not want to submit anything with regards to discussing resonance before he got to a fifth circle sorcerer level.

In order to avoid the great impact on the school of Necromancy and on the belief of the Church, Lucien needed to keep carbamide synthesis to himself for now as well. As a beginner in this field, he could not take the risk to overthrow the two great powers. If he failed to be careful enough, those crazy necromancers and the Church would definitely try their very best to kill him.

Lucien heard about more than a dozen examples from Mr. Astar about arcanists using violence to solve academic disputes. After all, arcanists were still human beings, and they still had emotions and could still be impulsive.

That was why the congress had set quite a few small anti-magic circles into the walls of many discussion rooms.

From so many of the dangerous situations Lucien had been through, he came to the conclusion—a person should never overstretch himself.

"Then what about Bat Screaming…" Lucien thought to himself, thrumming the table unconsciously.

Lazar decided to leave Lucien alone for a bit. He understood how hard it could be for a sorcerer to yield to the demands of the congress.

Here came the steam whistle again, loud and sharp. The train gradually slowed down and finally stopped in front of the last station.

Somehow the station looked more creepy and gloomy than other ones.

A few people wearing black ancient magic robes came aboard. Some of them were caring big suitcases.

"Oh… Those necrophilia… I’d be willing to pay more if the train could skip Heidler." Lazar complained in a low voice. He seemed to be a bit nervous as well when he was complaining.

"Heidler…?" Lucien looked out confusedly, and surprisingly saw a space crack in the dust-haze.

The power of Sun’s Corona enabled Lucien to see the crack connecting this world and the World of Souls!

Lucien only found five or six space cracks like this when he was traveling across the continent. To his surprise, there was one more in Holm. No wonder there were so many necromancers here.

Lazar got a bit closer to Lucien and said in a low voice, "Soon after the congress had been established, these necrophilia noticed the strong power of death in Heidler, thus they moved the headquarter of the Hand of Paleness to this city. If you travel to Heidler… Well, I mean if… you’d see more undead creatures than living men. Some of the new undead species could even help the farmers and blacksmiths."

"Wow… That’s something." Lucien got a bit excited.

"..." Lazar did not know what to say.

When the necromancers got closer, both Lucien and Lazar got very surprised.

The man walking in the front was no one else but Felipe.

As usual, Felipe pocketed his hands in his black coat, and he still looked quite sick. When he was about to turn in the corner, he casually looked at the carriage where Lazar and Lucien were in.

Lazar hurriedly stood up, "Good afternoon, Mr. Felipe."

Although the congress had abandoned many bad traditions existing in the time of ancient magic empire, for example, apprentices’ personal bondage to sorcerers, the tradition for respecting a really powerful sorcerer remained. Although Lazar was from the Will of Elements, facing Felipe, a sorcerer whose both magic and arcana level were way higher than his own, Lazar still had to show his respect.

Felipe, however, did not care. He nodded casually and then walked into the next door carriage.

"Mr. Lazar, who is this man? He looks quite… powerful," asked Heidi. She was sitting on a soft chair behind Lucien.

It was such a relief for Lucien to see that Felipe did not act any differently. So Lucien also looked at Lazar like these curious apprentices.

"Mr. Felipe, a necromancer from the Hand of Paleness," said Lazar, and the smile on his face had disappeared, "He’s a genius, a level four arcanist and a fifth circle necromancer."

"I know him! I heard this name before! I think he’s the one who forced his way through the blockade line of the Church!" said Sprint excitedly as if Felipe was his idol, "Mr. Felipe is on the Cleansing List, as a middle-ranked sorcerer! Cool!"

All the apprentices in this carriage were now looking at the carriage next door out of great excitement, although they could see nothing. However, they had never been this close to a famous person.

"Well… Actually we have someone like Mr. Felipe in our group, the Will of Elements, as well. We call him ‘Professor’, and he is also on the list… only one place lower than Mr. Felipe." Lazar was trying to keep a good profile of the Will of Elements.

Hearing Lazar’s words, Lucien wondered how the Will of Elements could make sure that Professor was really their member.

So Lucien asked, "I’ve heard his name a few times, but is he from the Will of Elements?"

"That’s for sure. Mr. Felipe doesn’t seem to get along well with Mr. Professor. A while ago, our director Mr. Gaston found that Mr. Felipe was secretly investigating the sorcerers in our group. Mr. Gaston got pissed off and almost killed Felipe. This is probably the biggest news recently in the congress," answered Lazar.

Then Lazar took a glance at the next door carriage and even lowered his voice more, "Many arcanists who knew Mr. Felipe said that, after Mr. Felipe came back from his mission, he changed quite a bit. They said that he became calmer and less arrogant, and it seems like he’s doing some secretly experiments right now."

Lucien nodded and started analyzing. According to Lazar’s words, Lucien guessed that, although Felipe had told people that Professor was from the Will of Elements, he told no one else anything about carbamide synthesis, otherwise, the experiment from Professor would become the biggest news recently.

On the other hand, Lucien was quite sure that Felipe was trying to synthesize the ingredients for life himself.

Another apprentice, Catrina, seemed to be more interested in the mysterious Professor,

"Mr. Lazar, do you know Professor’s real name?"

"I don’t know," answered Lazar. "The grand arcanist, Hathaway, said that Mr. Professor was from the congress, but she did not mention specifically who was this mysterious Professor."

Lucien suddenly felt very embarrassed. When the directors of the Will of Elements found out that there was no such person called Professor in their group, they would definitely go to seek for the help of the higher level in the congress, which turned out to be Hathaway. Quite possibly, Hathaway had already found out who this Professor was based on the dates and the places he showed up, and Hathaway also cared for Natasha a lot.

However, for some kind of reasons, Hathaway did not expose the mysterious Professor.

At this time, Annick looked out of the window, and his mouth opened with surprise: "We’re… We’re flying!"

Lucien just noticed that the railway tracks were now off the ground, floating in mid-air and extending upwards, while the train was still on the tracks.

The forest, the fields, the manors and the city below grew smaller and smaller like ants.

"Anti-gravitation field. There is an anti-gravitation field on the tracks close to Allyn." Seeing Lucien turned around, Lazar answered him before Lucien asked the question, "You can only see something like this here around Allyn, or the congress would definitely go bankrupt."

The apprentices flocked to the window and watched the train speeding through the blue sky. A black spot in front of the train was getting bigger and bigger, and it turned out to be a huge city floating in the middle of the sky!

The city was built on a huge peak truncated from a mountain, with the tip floating downwards. On the very broad cross section which served as the land of this city, there were gardens, woods, streets, countless ordinary buildings, and many different kinds of magic pinnacles. The whole city was about half the size of Aalto.

This was the headquarter of the Congress of Magic, the Sky City, Allyn!

"That’s magnificent…"

"Wow…"

Seeing that the apprentices almost dropped their jaws out of the stunning view, Lazar smiled and said, "You folks will have plenty of opportunities to appreciate the city, and before that, the congress has an assessment for you, so then the congress can assign you to the appropriate schools in accordance with your arcana level and interest."

"Assessment? Why you never mentioned this earlier?" exclaimed Heidi and many other apprentices. Hurriedly, they sat back on their seats and opened their books to prepare.

Both Sprint and Katrina remained quite calm. Katrina said to Heidi, "You’ve been studying arcana for more than a month. Why are you panicking like this?"

"I’m not ready… not ready…" murmured Heidi while reading one of the books nervously.

The train slowed down and stopped at the platform locating on the fringe of Allyn.

At this time, the two beautiful girls wearing light blue uniform dresses came into the carriage, and each was holding a hard-cover notebook. They said to Lucien and Lazar respectfully, "Dear guests, please leave your valuable suggestions here to help improving our service."

Right now the magic steam train was still on its pilot run.

Lucien took over the notebook and the quill, and quickly wrote down two words. Then he passed the notebook to Lazar.

Lazar looked at the comment left by Lucien confusedly.

On the notebook, it was written, "Five stars!"