216 The Task (2/2)

Lucien was embarrassed, or say, he was a bit scared.

Florencia was amused, ”What a young man. No worries, I’m married. But you definitely need to learn more about women.”

Lucien put on am embarrassed smile.

”You’re a level four arcanist now, Lucien,” Florencia got more serious, ”and according to the regulation of the Congress, you gotta leave Douglas, unless you want to be the school master. And you know what? Having a Holm Crown prize winner working in a school is definitely a piece of surprising news.”

Compared to the mainland, newspaper industry here was very well-developed.

”I don’t mind working in a school at all,” answered Lucien, feeling a bit emotional.

”Anyway, I have a task for you right now, Lucien,” Florencia said seriously. ”Don’t blame me for pushing you. If I don’t get you occupied first, you never know what tasks those nasties would give you in order to give you a hard time.”

”What is it, Ms. Florencia?” Lucien got serious as well.

”Relax… It’s a simple task.” Florencia smiled charmingly, ”Malfurion, a legendary druid and also the elder of the druids from Stroop Forest in the east, is visiting Allyn for a research program which is jointly set up by them and the Congress. The Elder has devoted his life to guarding the forests and lands, and what these druids have been trying to do is to help those poor farmers who have worked hard their whole life just to survive. They tried to use their magic power to increase the productivity of their lands, however, Malfurion’s only got less than a thousand druid apprentices, so his power is far from being enough. They’ve tried their best, but they couldn’t even save the farmers from one single country.”

”Despite the fact that their power’s not enough, they’re doing kind things, for sure.” Lucien nodded.

Florencia agreed, ”That’s right. Therefore, they want to find a way together with us to see whether we can turn their magic power into some kind of alchemical items that could consistently increase the productivity of lands and could be produced relatively easily.”

”It doesn’t sound like an easy job like you just said.” Lucien frowned.

”No, it is not. What we need to do is to analyze those druids’ magic, understand the power, then simplify and popularize them, and this requires profound arcana understanding. But as Mr. Fernando Brastar, Ms. Hathaway and Mr. Vicente Miranda are taking the lead, and Mr. Raventi and Mr. Gaston are also involved, even if the project fails in the end, you won’t be blamed.”

Druids’ power was very different from that of the Church and the Congress of Magic, which seemed to strangely sit in between the two. The congress had been trying to study it for years, and now this was a great opportunity. So of course, great emphasis was put on the project, and that was why the three grand arcanists took the lead together.

Lucien knew that what he needed to do with this task was to learn something new, and probably he could take advantage of this great opportunity to create some new spells out of the druids’ unique magic.

”I’ll get the task from Task Zone as soon as possible after I finish handling the things from school.”

”Great.” Florencia nodded, ”It took me quite a bit of effort to put you in there. If you hadn't won Holm Crown prize, those stubborn druids wouldn’t have accepted you.”

At this time, Raventi walked to them. He quickly pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Lucien, ”Evans, here’s my book list for you. Read those books, and enhance your knowledge foundation of arcana.”

Lucien took a glance at it, and saw that there were at least forty to fifty books on it.

Before Lucien managed to say anything, Raventi took out a thick pile of test paper, ”Evans, I’ve heard about your way of teaching, and I appreciate it. These are the exercises that I have collected, and they’re suitable to you. Take them, and finish them carefully.”

Lucien’s eyes suddenly opened wide. What a karma…

...

Soon afterwards, all the groups, arcanists, pastors and even important nobles in Holm heard the news that there was another winner of Holm Crown prize.

Lucien was the twenty-sixth winner of Holm Crown prize in the past two hundred seventy years, and, of course, he received lots of attention.