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Annick, Heidi, Layria, and Katrina exchanged a look between each other, having no idea whether their teacher’s true intention was to praise their fast advancement or to criticize their arrogance. They got a bit nervous and did not reply.

Yet Sprint, the apprentice who was always the most confident one among them all, nodded confidently. "Under your teaching, our math and magic analysis level is no inferior to that of the low-rank sorcerers now, Sir. The requirement for our spiritual power level is thus lowered. We’ll try advancing in a few months. We’ve talked to a few low-rank sorcerers and they all agreed."

When mentioning Lucien’s way of teaching, Sprint’s heart twitched a bit. Memories of the high piles of test papers and exercise books still lingered around in his brain.

Lucien paced leisurely and said casually, "In the Ancient Magic Empire, barely one out of a hundred apprentices could become a real sorcerer. Ever since the establishment of the Congress, in spite of the multiple developments and perfection of arcana and teaching methods, we still only have three to four students in a senior apprentice class who can finally make it."

Annick and Layria’s face flushed, and the words of apologies almost burst out from their mouths. While Sprint, Heidi, and Katrina felt that they were wronged and were about to explain.

Lucien waved his hands and continued. "But you all are different. You’re relatively talented, and plus my strict teaching, you have a relatively solid foundation for further studying math and magic. Ha, this is how a large amount of exercise and practice can help you. Also, you guys have been working in the most advanced institution, and all the studies you have been exposed to in every single day are only available on the journals to most people, and those are studies that most low-rank arcanists find very challenging to understand. In this case, if any of you fail to promote, it is surely because of your own inattention and carelessness, not because you are not ready. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Sir!" the apprentices all grinned. They realized that their teacher was encouraging them!

During the long journey of studying magic, to become a real sorcerer was the first biggest challenge to these cubs. Although they were quite confident, there must still be worries and anxiety deep in their hearts. These apprentices had seen their peers failed promotion, and this must have left negative impacts on their young mind, further strengthening their worries.

Now that Lucien had analyzed their strengths for them, he relieved their fear and gave them lots of hope to succeed.

After encouraging his students, Lucien smiled and said, "so, what about the studies you guys are working on recently?"

Sprint answered first, as always. He said in frustration, "Sir, you asked us to study gas discharge to figure out its causes. But as soon as we discovered cathode ray and electron, Mr. Brook found the answer from lightning between clouds: It is the free electrons that caused gas discharge. So we lost our direction and have to go back to study cathode ray and electron to see what we can find here in this new field."

Brook’s experiment was very simple but extremely risky. Only a legendary arcanist could manage to do so. Even he himself would have to resurrect from prepared methods if anything went wrong. Therefore, the apprentices lost their precious opportunity and could only watch Brook publish the paper.

"Cathode ray and electron are related to the inner structure of an electron. Studying them will help you guys step into the real microworld. Even if Mr. Brook hadn’t found the answer, I would still suggest you go for this direction. This is a brand new realm, a vault full of treasures. Within reaches, you can find things that are totally inconceivable in the past." Lucien spoke seriously, like a real teacher.

Heidi and Sprint nodded enthusiastically. For countless times in the past, it had been proved that it was the bold pioneers who got the biggest gains when a new field was discovered, while the cowards were left with nothing but regret.

"Sir, can we also study cathode ray and electron, apart from the low-temperature studies?" Katrina asked anxiously.

In the experiment of charcoal’s absorption of air under low temperatures, Katrina and Layria helped Jerome a lot as his main assistants. However, because it was a project assigned by Lucien, Lucien was unquestionably the first author, followed by Jerome who conducted the experiment. As apprentices, they could not even have their names put on it. At that time, they could only watch their teachers gaining lots of citation credits and patent use income, as they were not yet formal arcanists.

But Lucien was quite generous to the apprentices. Although he could not give any arcana credits to them, since it was the rule of the Congress, Lucien gave them a proportion of arcana points from selling the patent of creating vacuum using low-temperature charcoal. Although it was not a lot for Lucien who, after all, had a dragon as "pet", Katrina and Layria quickly saved up enough points for buying the magic potion they needed and could now afford their own experiment materials.

Therefore, Katrina was full of passion facing the brand new realm of atom. She hoped that she could win the highest award in this certain field like Mr. Evans and Ms. Isabella, and fulfill her dreams.

"Of course. In your spare time, you all can do whatever experiments you’re interested in. You can use the magic circles and alchemical circles in the institution as well." Lucien nodded.

"Awesome! Thank you, Mr. Evans!" Layria cheered. "In the past two to three months, we haven’t made any substantial progress in studying cryogenic materials, only collected some more data. It can be boring sometimes..."

"Studies on alchemical materials require repeated experiments and extensive collections of data. Thus, it is one of the most time-consuming projects and requires lots of patience. Don’t think about making a huge achievement right away, but don’t underestimate your work either. Every single experiment can be vital for your future finding. In the future. Your finding can be significant in popularizing level one and two alchemical items and lowering the price of high-rank items. You may win the Holm Crown prize because of it," said Lucien.

After chatting with most of his students, Lucien looked at Annick, the young man who was always quiet and shy. "What are you working on recently? You’ve got a direction?"

Annick’s face slightly flushed. "Mr. Evans, I’ve been studying electron as well. Since free electrons are the cause of gas discharge, I wonder if the electric current is caused by electrons as well."

"Interesting. Go on." Lucien slowed down his pace and walked with Annick side by side. The other apprentices were also looking at Annick curiously.

It was a rare experience for Annick to attract so much attention, so he got a bit nervous. "I’ve been trying to design an experiment to prove it, but my knowledge in Electromagnetics is too shallow, so I could not find a way out. I-I then turned to some of the books by Mr. Brook, including Electromagnetics and his most recent papers, and his paper discussing the surprising result of the photoelectric effect experiment inspired me."

"So you’ve figured this out?" Asked Lucien, feeling a bit amused. Obviously, Brook had great faith in his quantum theory, which had been forgotten by most arcanists. Right now most arcanists were directly using the thermal radiance equation without giving any thoughts to why it works.

Annick hurriedly shook his head. "No, no... There’s no way that I can figure out something that has been able to bother Mr. Brook for so long. I was inspired because the paper showed that, when casting a certain frequency of light on a piece of metal, there were electric currents. As a piece of metal itself does not carry any electricity, and light cannot be converted into electric currents, then what created the currents?

"If it’s like what I assumed... that an electric current is related to electrons, does it mean that the projection of light makes the piece of metal carry electrons? If the answer is yes, does it prove, from the other way around, that an electron is part of the inner structure of an atom?" Explained Annick.

"Good, very good. A very daring hypothesis..." Lucien was generous with his compliments, "So the next step is to prove it. You will need a carefully-designed experiment to show that the photoelectric effect produces electrons."

Hearing the encouraging words, Annick’s face turned into a red, ripe apple. He nodded hard. "I... I’ll try my best."

Annick was not afraid of Mr. Evans stealing his idea, as Mr. Evans was always surrounded by the highest awards in different fields: He had won Holm Crown prize and Immortal Throne, and he was going to win Arcana Scepter.

There was no way that a teacher like Mr. Evans would steal his student’s idea.

Also, as Mr. Evans was present, the rest of the apprentices would not dare to put their hands upon it, unless Annick invited them, or he gave up upon the project on his own.

The rest of the apprentices more or less envied and had some dark thoughts flashing past. But seeing Mr. Evans’s warm smile, they quickly drove the dark thoughts away.

"Soon you’ll all be real sorcerers..." Lucien paused a bit on purpose, and continued when the apprentices’ face lit up, "... but don’t think that you do not need to study hard anymore after that. On the contrary, more profound knowledge is waiting for you. To get you all more prepared for the future study after becoming sorcerers, I’ve prepared many sets of calculus and math analysis exercises."

The lovely smile on the apprentices’ face suddenly disappeared.

"Also, I will turn the contents from the school of Electromagnetics, Light-darkness, Force Field, Thermodynamics, Element, Alchemy, Illusion, Astrology, Transformation, Necromancy into basic modules and exercises. So you guys can learn better," said Lucien.

Summoning was not Lucien’s strength, and he was not planning on delving into it any sooner.

The apprentices were now very dispirited. Heidi murmured to herself,

"May I’m not in a hurry to promote..."

......

After the apprentices left, Lucien’s villa had a new visitor.

"Mr. Evans, my teacher, Mr. Douglas, wants to invite you to his demiplane to talk about artificial planets," said the young man not even in his thirties.

He had the typical black hair and blue eyes of Holms and was wearing a monocle. The young man with fine features looked gracious and gentle, but the badges in front of his chest clearly showed that he was a level-six arcanist and eighth circle sorcerer, as well as the member of the Affair Committee.

Is it about to begin?

Lucien has some unreal feeling in his mind.