In the days following the assault on Fayz, the entire city of Greenville was on edge. A colossal black dragon crashing down was impossible to conceal, stirring widespread unease.
Despite the Council's swift clarification that the legendary wizard was attacked by unknown creatures within the magical ore mine and was currently stable, needing time to recover, rumors persisted and grew uncontrollably.
In Greenville, legendary wizards were the pinnacle, supreme figures! There had never been an instance of a legendary wizard being assaulted and gravely harmed.
This meant that the Wizard City, once perceived as utterly secure, might now be unsafe. Rumors even speculated that the appearance of powerful creatures in the magical ore mine heralded the apocalypse.
"Those Cult of Apocalypse wizards claim that when four planets align with the Silver Moon in the sky, apocalypse will arrive. Elemental torrents will engulf the entire continent, and the moon will fall from the sky..." Lydia vividly recounted the gossip she'd heard while out shopping.
"Ridiculous!" Elok interrupted before Lydia finished. "Didn't you hear what the professor said during the seminar a few days ago? The celestial bodies' orbits are stable; how could the moon suddenly fall?"
Jenny, Pierce, and the others treated it as a joke.
"You're right, Professor?" Elok turned to Lynn, grinning.
Lynn, deep in thought while jotting down titles, paused. "Unless someone's willing to use magic to pull down the moon, or unless our luck is at its nadir and a massive cosmic meteor or a wandering asteroid collides with the moon, knocking it off course and hurtling toward us…"
Elok and the others exchanged glances. Initially dismissing the talk of apocalypse as baseless, Lynn's serious analysis made it seem strangely plausible.
But Lynn quickly reassured, "Overall, the possibility is minuscule. Even a legendary wizard might not influence a celestial body at such a vast distance. As for an asteroid hitting the moon? Lower probability than a fire lion suddenly giving birth to a giant dragon."
Elok relaxed, nearly convinced that apocalypse wasn't imminent.
While the apprentices treated the apocalypse talk as a spectacle, Lynn sensed something amiss.
The legendary wizard Fayz, known for the 'Power of the Dragon,' had just been assaulted. The spreading apocalypse rumors in Greenville made Lynn suspect deliberate fear-mongering.
After all, apocalypse and salvation were the prime aspects of faith.
This had been confirmed numerous times in past lives.
This organization styled as a cult reminded Lynn of the clergy, but ordinarily, heretics should have been more at odds with the clergy than these wizards.
Shaking his head, Lynn thought that despite having platforms like the "Magic Daily," the Council's attention to public opinion was clearly insufficient. If someone dared spread such apocalypse talks in Iyeta Harbor, he would have dispatched people to capture and interrogate those responsible.
"Lynn, we've finally replicated it!" At that moment, Darren rushed out of the estate's small workshop covered in dust, his singed robe riddled with holes, yet his face beaming with joy. He held several transparent glass pieces in his hands.
The apprentices gathered eagerly. One of them picked up a glass piece, inspecting it closely, seemingly searching for something.
"This time, absolutely flawless!" Darren confidently stated. Overcoming days of struggles, they followed Lynn's methods, striving to create glass that previously contained many air bubbles inside.
Lynn took the glass Darren offered, examined it, nodded approvingly, and asked, "What about the paper I assigned you to make?"
"We're in the final stages of ironing and trimming. Tomorrow, at the latest, we'll have results!" Darren exclaimed ecstatically. The techniques Lynn imparted to them were nothing short of magical!
Those sheets, thinner and lighter than swan feathers, were made from commonplace wood! If Darren hadn't witnessed him turning sand and stones into glass, he wouldn't have believed it a jest.
Lynn then turned to Jenny and the others. "How's your grasp of the inscription magic I taught?"
"I can now record forty-one words in one go!" Elok boasted.
"I can manage only thirty-seven words," Pierce shook his head.
Both then looked at Jenny.
"Sixty-nine!" Jenny hesitated briefly before revealing.
Elok and Pierce were astonished; the difference was considerable. They were unaware their comrade had already become a certified wizard, thinking Jenny's prior display of power was aided by the alchemical apparatus "Magic Hand."
In reality, recording sixty-nine words in one go wasn't the limit for a young wizard, but rather around three hundred words or so.
"Excellent! With that in mind, you can start transcribing today!" Lynn handed over neatly arranged papers detailing the Theory of Universal Gravity and two advanced arithmetic books.
This inscription magic Lynn developed was a zero-tier spell, that even apprentices could use. It resembled moveable type printing; first, constructing corresponding templates in the mind, then imprinting magical marks on paper, parchment, or desks.
Each wizard skilled in inscription magic became a humanoid printing press, their computational prowess determining their output.
"Professor, the problems you set are incredibly challenging!" Elok flipped through a book titled "Advanced Arithmetics," pondered for a moment, and then scrunched up his face in consternation. One thought dominated his mind: Were these problems really solved by humans?
"A few days ago, an arithmetic grandmaster from the Society of Mystical Arts asked me to find a group of wizards exceptionally talented in mathematics to collectively solve a conundrum in the arithmetic. So, the problems I've set are meant to identify these individuals—naturally, they had to be difficult," Lynn explained.
Of course, this was an excuse. In reality, Lynn intended to leverage this pretext to recruit a batch of astonishingly talented wizards.