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Charlie, the other board member, made a simpler comment, "This creative paper has proved that human body electric current and brain waves can cause illusions. It is for sure a breakthrough. However, the paper still lacks solid support for wider application to cover more illusionary spells. Therefore, the importance of the paper remains to be further proved in the future. Twenty-five arcana credits and three hundred points are recommended to be given."

In the end, the document concluded, "Creative and groundbreaking. Worthy of detailed discussion. Well-organized and clearly presented. However, the application of the paper is relatively limited as it currently cannot cover the entire field of Illusion, and many key parts remain ambiguous. Twenty-eight credits and three hundred points are given as the award."

A smile appeared on Lucien’s face. Although it seemed that those board members did not really like his paper, as they did not give him many credits, the comments given by them were not bad. Lucien had found the right research direction, thus his paper was, of course, creative and was a breakthrough.

Eric slightly shook his head and said, "Those board members are just fusty. They don’t like yours and Ms. Isabella’s paper. They gave you the least credits within the standard. Normally speaking, your paper deserves at least forty to fifty arcana credits, but Ms. Isabella’s paper should get at least eighty."

"How many credits did Ms. Isabella get in the end?" asked Lucien. As he was prepared, Lucien was not angry. He was looking at getting more credits by other sorcerers’ future citation.

"Fifty... Those guys..." Eric lowered his voice, looking the same serious, "If Ms. Isabella wasn’t a senior-rank mage, probably they would give her forty."

Ms. Isabella was a member of Tower, a level six arcanist, and a seventh-circle sorcerer. Although Isabella specialized in Astrology and Illusion, she was still outside of the core group of Tower and had not been selected into Arcana Review Board. Rachel was her student.

"I see... It would be hard for Ms. Isabella to win the Laurel, then," Lucien commented casually.

Eric stared at Lucien with his light gray eyes and said to Lucien after making sure that he was not expecting to win the laurel, "So the number of Sorcerer Laurel winners have always been fewer than that of other awards. And most of the Laurel winners are the members from Family of Sorcerer, and their findings were all related to the three schools of magic from the ancient magic empire. But Ms. Isabella’s experiment is very well designed and sufficiently proved. If the Laurel is not going to be given to Ms. Isabella, this honor would become a joke."

Lucien realized that who could win the award was also of political concern. He could not help thinking how he could win the Laurel.

...

When Lucien got back home, he was told by Leo that he had a guest.

"Mr... Drummond?" Lucien was a bit confused. He could not remember the name.

Leo hurriedly reminded him in the low vice, "Mr. Drummond’s the chief editor of Arcana."

That was right. Lucien clapped his hands. As for every single arcanist who worked hard to publish his or her paper on Arcana, Drummond was a name that they had to remember. But Lucien was an exception. He did not have to worry about where to publish his papers.

"Why is he here? And Leo, how do you know him?" asked Lucien confused. Drummond was a level seven arcanist and an eighth-circle sorcerer, the chief editor of the famous journal, the winner of Arcana Sceptre prize. Why did Drummond come to visit him in person?

Leo answered as a very decent butler, "When I was working for Ivanovszki, I had to remember the names of all the important people to handle all kinds of stuff. So after I came to Allyn, I’ve collected some names, just in case."

"Thank you." Lucien was very satisfied.

When Lucien saw the chief editor, Drummond was wearing a dark vest and suit, holding a black stick. His black eyes were sharp and serious like the eyes of an eagle.

"The Lord of Storm once gave me some very useful suggestions in the field of Force Field, and his achievement in many arcana fields is incomparable. I’m sincerely glad for you that you can become his student, Lucien." Drummond tried to be closer to Lucien.

Lucien greeted Drummond and said, "Every morning I have to go through Mr. Fernando’s brainstorm. Every morning time seems to pass by very slowly."

It took Drummond a few seconds to figure out what brainstorm was. He smiled, "Not many people are willing to stay beside the Lord of Storm when discussing arcana and magic questions."

Lucien and Drummond walked into the living room. Lucien asked politely, "Mr. Drummond, it’s my great honor having you here. Honestly speaking, I did not recognize your name immediately as I never expected you to come and visit my place in person. I should be the one visiting you, sir."

Holding the stick, Drummond said, "I just got the news from the board that you’ve got a breakthrough in studying the factors affecting hormone secretion, and you’ve introduced Electromagnetic Theory into the field of Illusion. By the way, hormone is the term put forward by Ms. Isabella to call the certain human body alchemical substances. I’ve read your paper, and I think your paper is of great value. I am here to invite you to publish your paper in our journal. The theme of our next month issue accords with your topic well. I think it’s better than sending you an invitation letter to express my sincerity, and also to apologize for what happened to your previous paper. I’ve fired the editor who rejected your contribution."

Arcana was the most well-known and reputed journal in the world of magic, and its chief editor came to Lucien in person for his paper! Drummond was treating Lucien like a grand arcanist or a legendary sorcerer! But, of course, apologizing for what happened last time was also part of the reason.

"No worries. Thank you very much, Mr. Drummond." Lucien and Drummond sat down on the couch in the living room. Lucien asked, "You mentioned the theme of the next month issue... Does Arcana have a theme?"

Before getting more information, Lucien would not say yes casually. Not to mention that Mr. Woods from Common Arcana was an old friend of his.

"Since Ms. Isabella’s paper passed the review, great controversy has been caused. In the past week, many senior-rank arcanists have developed papers or designed experiments to refute Ms. Isabella’s theory. So, in the next month’s issue, we have decided to give the most space to these papers. This was the theme. We’re hoping that your paper can achieve the expected outcome as your paper is the best support to Ms. Isabella’s theory," said Drummond sincerely.

"To achieve the expected outcome..." murmured Lucien. He soon realized what Drummond was talking about.

Lucien guessed that most members in the Highest Council were not happy with the fact that Illusion and some other schools of magic had never belonged to the system of arcana, which caused the barrier between the sorcerers from Family of Sorcerer and most arcanists. So they were using this as an opportunity to let Lucien’s paper become the solid support of Ms. Isabella’s theory, thus the conservatives could feel the pressure. If Isabella won the Laurel, arcana would win, as the sorcerers from Family of Sorcerer had to admit the fact that the arcana system could at least explain part of the school of Illusion.

Of course, Isabella’s paper itself was good enough to win the Laurel. This was the premise.

Lucien crossed his fingers and said in a low voice, "Mr. Drummond, Mr. Woods from Common Arcana has helped me a lot, and I’ve promised that I would first consider publishing my papers on Common Arcana first. I keep my words."

Lucien was expecting a better offer.

"Evans, Arcana Review Board is discussing something recently. It is totally unfair that publishing a paper on different levels of journals gives a sorcerer the same credits. Therefore, they are going to give each journal a corresponding coefficient. When deciding on future citation credits, a sorcerer can get more credits by weighting the base credit by the corresponding coefficient," answered Drummond, well prepared. "They’ve decided to evaluate each journal every five years based on the influence of all the papers published previously. The coefficient varies from one to three. Common Arcana is doing a good job these years, so the coefficient Common Arcana deserves shouldn’t be bad. But I have to say that Arcana currently still enjoys a higher reputation. Arcana credits are very important to sorcerers, and this is also the will of the highest council. I am sure that Mr. Woods will understand. Also, if you support us this time, we will always reserve a place on Arcana for you and your paper. We can negotiate the schedule."

Arcana only did this for people who were at least members of Arcana Review Board!

Lucien nodded. After all, this was part of the plan of the highest council. He smiled, "If Mr. Woods won’t blame me, I’m willing to publish my paper on Arcana."

Later, in Lucien and Drummond’s casual talk, Drummond said with pity, "If Ms. Isabella did not publish her paper before you, and if your paper was more precise, your paper would be the focus. If that was the case, you probably would become the second arcanist in the past hundred years who could win two highest prizes before reaching senior-rank. But you’re still young, so you still have a lot of potential, especially as the Lord of Storm’s student."

After Drummond left, Lucien went back to his study and continued to work on analyzing the fifth circle spell.