The older sorcerers understood the implications of this matter and their eyes began to glow, what Viltz was suggesting to them was nothing other than a path to follow to improve both their life expectancy and their magical abilities.
Seeing how these sorcerers were behaving and especially the flame in the chancellor's eyes, Viltz secretly smiled.
While he could do this research alone, it would require a lot of time and a lot of test subjects and resources, although he didn't mind using people as test subjects, he knew that what was needed in this case were not just normal humans but sources that were hard to come by for someone like him at this time, so he would let this group of people do the more complicated work for him.
"Good, the first phase of the mana core plan is going smoothly, now i just have to wait for this group of people to research until they find a safe way to purify the chaos power in the body and leave only pure mana."
What Viltz wanted was to create a cultivation method for the mana core but when he tried to gather the chaos power in his body in one place to form a core he immediately noticed the instability of the chaos power, but he was not going to give up on his plan so easily so he came up with the idea of using this group of sorcerers.
The sorcerers began to argue among themselves and after five minutes they all stood up in unison and began to applaud.
"Wonderful, if your theory proves to be correct then we can make a great leap forward in magical advancement.
Your theory has really left me fascinated."
The chancellor praised with sincerity in his eyes.
Viltz bowed and withdrew along with his companions.
"Wow! I have to admit that your theory is really intriguing, how did you come up with something like that?" Sorel asked Viltz.
"Yes, it is a very interesting avenue of research but why did you tell it to the sorcerers of the brotherhood? Knowing you, you could have done research on something simpler and kept your findings and ideas to yourself."
Artaud asked Viltz, somewhat confused as he knew Viltz quite well and did not believe he was an altruist who would simply share his knowledge and ideas out of the simple goodness of his heart.
"You may not know this but there are certain unwritten rules in the brotherhood, although i only gave them a basic idea and path to follow, they are obligated to share with each other and with me all their findings on the subject.
I had been worried if only one or two members of the brotherhood would listen to my theories but since all the members are there, each one exerts an invisible pressure on the other and no one can hide anything from anyone else on the subject as it would be like breaking those rules.
Besides, i am too busy and this project requires a lot of time and resources, two things i don't have right now.
While i do my own thing, they will be in charge of turning the theory i just put forward into a reality that could make the brotherhood the undisputed powerhouse of the entire continent.
Even though we are apparently invincible with our spells, in reality we are just another faction and they know it, that's why they will do anything to increase their influence and my theory is the springboard they need to give that little push that will lead them to that increase.
I just have to wait for the results while i can focus on doing other things.
Artaud was amazed, even though he was older than Viltz by almost a decade, he had to admit that he was no match for Viltz when it came to scheming.
As Viltz was quietly discussing with his companions, he noticed a furtive glance directed at him from time to time.
Looking up, he found that beautiful blonde sorceress looking at him out of the corner of his eye.
Viltz smiled at her and nodded in her direction by way of greeting.
The sorceress quickly returned his greeting before looking away in embarrassment.
Artaud gave Viltz a big thumbs up which the latter chose to ignore.
After the sorcerers had spent about fifteen minutes arguing with each other, The Vice Chancellor stood up and spoke: "Next i will announce the results of this test, the top five will receive a bonus of 1000 gold coins which will increase by 100 coins for each rank.
I will be announcing from last place to first place."
"In last place is ..., in tenth place is ..., in seventh place is ...., In fifth place is Fringilla Vilgo, please step forward and receive your reward."
Fringilla walked over a little dejectedly and picked up a bag of coins from Vice Chancellor Mardin's hands, you could see in her look that she was somewhat disappointed in her rank.
"Fourth place goes to Sorel Degerlund."
Sorel stepped forward and received his prize of 1100 gold coins.
"Third place goes to Margarita Laux-Antille."
Margarita, who was glancing furtively at Viltz, was startled and hurried to collect her prize of 1200 gold coins.
"Second place goes to Yennefer of Vengerberg."
Yennefer frowned as she saw how she barely came in second place but still she reached over and grabbed her prize of 1300 gold coins, after receiving the prize you could see the dissatisfaction on her face which only grew as she saw Fringilla smirking at her.
Yennefer looked at Viltz with a look of little sympathy.
Viltz smiled softly at her, which only made her even angrier.
Chuckling to himself, Viltz looked away.
"And lastly in first place is Vilgefortz..., what was your surname Vilgefortz?".
"I don't have one, i'm an orphan."
Although the original Vilgefortz had Roggeveen as his surname, that was because he gave it to himself after fleeing the kingdom of Kovir and settling in the city of Roggeveen in the kingdom of Cidaris, where he made up the lie that he came from that city. As such, Viltz would not choose to take as his surname the name of a city that apparently had nothing to do with him.
"Uhm, well, as i was saying, in first place is sorcerer Vilgefortz."
The vice-chancellor laughed awkwardly before continuing to announce.
Viltz walked over and picked up a bag of 1400 gold coins and walked out along with his companions.
"Good! Let's get started with the second part of the event." The vice chancellor clapped his hands and the light forming the circle of light scattered everywhere, illuminating the entire room.
"Next we will perform the magical duels between the two academies.
The first duel will be between Margarita of Aretuza and Algernon of Ban Ard.
The other students moved away to the edges of the room, leaving only Margarita and Algernon in the center.
The two remained at their posts before Tissaia gave the signal for the fight to begin.
Five minutes later, a pitiful Algernon shuffled along with his companions as a flawless Margarita returned to her group without a wrinkle in her clothing.
The next bout, Artaud versus Fringilla.
Although Artaud gave as good as he got, Fringilla overpowered him with her cunning tactics and intricate illusions.
Next fight, Vilgefortz vs. Yennefer.