Chapter 29 - Rugged Future
By pretending to be an expert for more than an hour, Zwei had calmly extracted plenty of information from Shaq regarding the magic academy industry's current situation. In exchange for the information, he had casually handed Shaq a crystal shard before sending the latter away.
However, when Zwei saw Shaq's delight at obtaining one of the expendable crystal shards, he could not help pitying the man somewhat. At the same time, this had also further validated Shaq's mention of the scarcity of magical materials and magic items in the current world of magic.
Meanwhile, although the crystal shards' drop-rate wasn't very high, if Zwei raided the Night Forest's Depths, he could get at least one shard per day. After all, there were plenty of goblin spellcasters in that dungeon. Despite the low drop-rate, some of them were bound to drop a shard. However, based on Shaq's explanation, these crystal shards could sell for at least ten standard gold coins on the market. Even then, the demand would far outstrip the supply.
In other words, so long as Zwei could properly make use of the items the Trial Gate's dungeons produced, he could definitely become a tycoon among magicians!
In addition to this, Zwei had found out another piece of interesting news: the Seven Luminaries Mage Association would be hosting the Magic Academy Evaluation Summit in another half-year.
So long as a magic academy passed this evaluation, it would go from an unknown magic academy to a teaching institution accredited by the association. It would instantly join the ranks of the 137 celebrity academies. In addition, recognized academies would gain the right to issue recommendation certificates for participation in the Magician Promotion Test, as well as many other benefits. Hence, the evaluation summit was a popular event among all magic academies.
However, the evaluation summit's criteria were relatively high. Out of the numerous summits held thus far, even the one with the most liberal standards had chosen only 220 magic academies out of nearly 2,000 applications that year. Moreover, nearly 100 of the selected academies had their qualifications revoked the next year.
In addition, if a magic academy wished to participate in the summit, it first had to have at least an Advanced Magician for a dean and three Intermediate Magicians for teachers. Also, the academy had to teach the three basic subjects of Magic, Alchemy, and Magic History.
The total number of Advanced Magicians on the mainland did not exceed 3,000. From this, one could see just how high the evaluation summit's standards were.
"Another half-year, huh…"
For ordinary people, it was almost impossible to grow from an Apprentice Magician to an Advanced Magician within half a year. However, Zwei was an exception because he had the system's recently constructed Teaching Block.
As soon as the Teaching Block's construction was completed, Zwei could feel the benefits it brought: both the mana or elementals surrounding him had grown much more active. This was why he had suddenly driven Shaq out of his tower—it would be troublesome if the other party discovered this change.
However, facts had proven that his worries were unnecessary.
When it was almost noon, Zwei exited meditation. And as he looked at his meditation results, he could not help nodding in satisfaction.
From what he read before, the Teaching Block increased the meditation effects of the academy's students and improved their memory and spellcasting success rates.
After driving Shaq away, Zwei had meditated for only another hour or so. However, the results he achieved were as if he had meditated for over two hours. This was the Teaching Block's power!
When Alyssa came over to deliver his lunch and attend classes, Zwei promptly gave her a student ID. After experimenting, he discovered that the Teaching Block's effects would activate for Alyssa only when she was in the same room as he was or within ten meters of him if they were outdoors.
However, although the Teaching Block's range was limited, its effects were ridiculously good. Alyssa had just perceived the existence of mana recently. Originally, she needed to struggle a lot to exert control over her mana, but in the Teaching Block's Active Mana state, she could easily control her mana. It was a pity that Grade 1 students enjoyed only the Active Mana buff.
As for why Zwei didn't promote Alyssa to a Grade 2 student, he was too damn poor. When he looked at the upgrade cost of 30 Money resources and his remaining stockpile of 20 Money resources, he could only curse the system for being stingy and lament his inability.
In any case, with the Teaching Block's help, Zwei was confident he could become an Advanced Magician within half a year, even if the endeavor was basically a fantasy for ordinary magicians. The part that stumped him was how he would find three Intermediate Magicians to serve as his academy's teachers.
Obviously, with his current self, he would have more success if he tried to promote Alyssa to Intermediate Magician within half a year than if he recruited some random stranger. And with the Magic Academy System's various building effects, achieving this goal wouldn't necessarily be impossible, either.
With this thought, his goal of "recruiting three Intermediate Magicians within half a year" transformed into "finding two other students as talented as Alyssa and nurturing them into Intermediate Magicians within half a year."
Did the difficulty just increase severalfold?! Is this the so-called "digging a hole for oneself"? Zwei sighed and opened the Magic Academy System.
In reality, he didn't have to rush. Even if he couldn't make it to this year's summit, he could still participate next year. However, he couldn't help feeling a vague sense of urgency that prompted him to establish his magic academy as soon as possible.
Nothing much had changed with the Magic Academy System. The only difference was the addition of a five-story building on the Academy Construction panel. Seen from above, the Teaching Block looked like a U-shaped building. The Teaching Block's standard appearance, however, shattered Zwei's hope for some sort of fantasy building; he could not help feeling a little disappointed.
Truthfully, the fact that the teaching block of this magical world looked almost identical to the teaching blocks in his previous world was already plenty shocking. Nevertheless, Zwei found the Teaching Block's appearance bland and underwhelming.
Meanwhile, as Zwei had already used up today's dungeon raiding opportunity, he didn't have anything he needed to do in the Magic Academy System. Just as he was about to exit the system, however, he turned to the Achievement panel on a whim.
Interestingly enough, a new achievement had appeared on the panel. This time, the achievement came in the form of a silver medal.
…
Achievement: Pull a Fast One
Achievement Level: Silver Medal
Unlocking Condition: Successfully trick an Apprentice Magician and make them think you are a lofty senior!
Achievement Points: 100
…
I actually got 100 achievement points in one go?! Zwei felt dizzy as he looked at this pie that had abruptly fallen from the sky. He even pinched his cheeks to verify whether he was dreaming. Once he confirmed he was awake, he became ecstatic.
With a total of 170 achievement points, he could already exchange for plenty of good items.
However, Zwei quickly calmed down as he fixed his gaze on an item in the Achievement Store.
…
[Trial Gate]
Achievement Building
Increases the number of free dungeon access to three per day.
Required Achievement Points: 220
…
Zwei knew that his greatest asset currently wasn't the two buildings in his magic academy but the countless treasures inside the Trial Gate's dungeons. If he could raid dungeons three times a day for free, his strength would increase much more rapidly!
Due to this reason, he had to acquire this Achievement Building first, before all else!
"Fifty points to go… It's a pity those frightened grunts didn't give me any points."
For a time, Zwei racked his brains to figure out how he could acquire more achievement points.