Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 171 Chief's Personal Trial
On the top floor of the Sky Realm Magic Tower, there is a cramped room with no windows on all sides but filled with all kinds of books and piles of paper materials. It looks extremely crowded and messy, making it impossible to find a place to step.

The legendary wizard Soren Dawson, who was short in stature and had a funny red nose, was huddled on the only single sofa in the room, lost in thought as he looked at the ancient magic book in his hand.

As the only old-school research-oriented spellcaster among the three chiefs of the Federation, analyzing and deciphering the secret magical knowledge handed down by ancient wizards has been one of his main research focuses in recent years.

In the dark windowless room, there was only a magic stone lamp floating beside his ear for lighting. This lamp was quite strange. It always flexibly changed its lighting angle according to Dawson's sitting posture while reading, allowing Dawson to read in sufficient light no matter how he moved.

A strange, pupilless face suddenly appeared on the ceiling. It moved rapidly, a fawning expression on its face. "Mr. Dawson, your most beloved student is anxiously rushing to your study..."

Dawson was stunned for a moment, then asked in surprise, "Who? Is it Boers? Did he come back from Black Rock City?"

The smirk on the weird face froze for a moment, and after a mock cough, he slowly said, "Uh...it's your other student, the most diligent one...Hunter."

Dawson raised his hand and pinched his rosacea, and said "oh" with a tone of obvious disappointment, then lowered his head to look at the book again and stopped talking.

Half a minute later, there was indeed a sound of rapidly approaching footsteps outside the room. Someone whispered a few words to the waiter at the door, and then gently knocked on Dawson's door.

"Come in! Hunter, I know it's you..."

Hunter quietly pushed the door open and slipped in, then politely greeted his teacher.

Dawson, the old man, waved his hand without even looking up and asked casually, "Weren't you assigned to be in charge of document entry for the Spellcaster Forum? Why are you here with me when you're not busy in the secretarial office?"

Hunter pulled out a stack of documents from his pocket and handed them to his instructor with slightly trembling hands. He spoke as if he was suppressing his excitement, "Instructor... please take a look at this paper. It suddenly appeared in the Magic Encyclopedia's archives today while I was working at the Spellcaster Forum."

Huh? Suddenly? Dawson frowned, feeling something was amiss. A forum member was attempting to insert a paper directly into the published literature database without going through the federation's review? What did this mean?
He took the document and glanced through it quickly.

"Demon strengthening potion, church blood awakening ritual... application of liquid magic energy, hey! Wow!" Dawson, who was originally careless, quickly scanned the paper abstract that was obviously simplified and copied by Hunter, and suddenly an expression of surprise broke out on his face.

He read it again carefully as if to confirm it, then couldn't help but stand up from the sofa, glaring at his student and demanding, "Where's the full text of this paper? Did you bring it with you? Did you really attach the results of the control experiment and the corresponding experimental data?"

Hunter nodded quickly, took out the complete version of the paper from his pocket, and handed it back to his tutor.

Dawson glanced at him resentfully and muttered, "Couldn't you just give me the main text from the beginning? Why do you have to do all this nonsense..."

Hunter could only grimace and weep. Everyone knew his mentor, Sir Dawson, was the most impatient of the Federation's leaders. To avoid wasting his precious time reading papers that might be considered trash, he always compiled a summary and simplified the content of the documents he was given to review. Dawson spent a full half hour, sometimes flipping through them quickly, sometimes pausing to raise his hand and summon an old book with an old cover from the pile. It hovered in front of him, automatically unfolding its pages without a breeze, allowing him to compare the paper with the book.

"This paper is highly insightful and inquisitive...it is worth using as a reference for further in-depth analysis and research..."

Dawson snapped his fingers, closing the pile of reference books floating beside him and returning them to their original positions.

He held the thin paper of less than ten pages in his hand, his expression changing constantly.

Hunter had already silently memorized the comment he had just blurted out. This would most likely be one of the important comments that would need to be noted at the end of the article after the paper was published in the bulletin.

Dawson sighed softly. "Saras is right. We've always been too focused on our own magical endeavors, completely neglecting the research and exploration of other intelligent species around us. This is also the greatest flaw of our short-lived race—arrogance and conceit."

He quickly rolled up the paper and stuffed it into his arms. "Hunter, temporarily notify the other two members responsible for entering the forum documents to suppress the matter of this paper for the time being and not publicize it..."

Hunter was stunned. "Instructor, this paper...doesn't it need to go through the Academic Research Department?"

Dawson rolled his eyes at him. "You rushed over to me, aren't you planning on bypassing their review?"

He suddenly paused as he spoke, then pulled out the paper from his arms and opened it again, flipping through it. "Wait! Didn't you copy down the author's signature? Which member of the forum did it belong to?"

Hunter quickly said, "It's a high-level spellcaster named Kel'Thuzad. We don't have permission to view the forum's membership list, so we're not sure if he's a member. But I've already checked the list of high-level spellcasters registered with the Federation, and there's no relevant information on him..."

"Idiot, of course you can't find any information about him. Kel'Thuzad is just his nickname on the forum, not his real name at all!"

After saying this, without waiting for Hunter to explain further, he immediately left the study and headed to the advanced magic laboratory located on the middle floor of the Sky Domain Mage Tower, which was exclusively for the Chief of the Federation.

Hunter looked at his mentor eagerly, and Dawson couldn't help but soften his heart before leaving. "Forget it, you come with me. Let's go find Sarath and replicate the control experiment mentioned in this paper to verify his paper's results..."

A number of demons suitable for live experiments were sent to the Mage Tower in the Sky Realm, but due to the long transportation distance, in order to get them to Alayeh before their vitality was exhausted, the Federation had to use expensive transportation methods such as flying griffins. As a result, only spellcasters with higher status in the Federation were qualified to use demons as experimental subjects at will.

"Also, the blood-summoning instruments they repeatedly mentioned in their papers... We just happened to have seized a few of them. I think they're gathering dust in the Sky Domain treasury. Quickly send someone to deliver them to the lab!"

(End of this chapter)