Chapter 85 : Chapter 85

Chapter 85. Advancement

Inside one of the rooms in Fran’s house.

Ever since the steam engine had been activated last time, it had been placed here and left untouched.

Fran placed her hand on the flywheel and gently rotated it a few times, feeling the amount of force required to turn it.

Then two different magical fluctuations began to emanate from her hand as she placed it firmly against the flywheel.

The two streams of magical energy surged rapidly before disappearing just as quickly. Fran lowered her hand.

A sound of mechanical movement followed.

The flywheel seemed to be acted upon by an invisible force and began spinning rapidly.

However, the force appeared to be only temporary. After a short while, the speed of the flywheel began to slow, and after rotating for a bit longer, it would eventually stop completely.

Watching the scene before her, Fran thought to herself: It is finally finished.

“I will call this spell Energy Conversion.”

For now, the spell could only convert pressurized gas with momentum into mechanical energy and release it outward. Fran had chosen the name simply for convenience.

However, if she continued researching the field of machinery in the future, she would certainly add more functions to the spell. Only then might the name truly live up to its meaning.

Fran glanced at the steam engine again and decided to let it run freely until it stopped on its own.

She had something more important to do.

Fran went down to the basement and cast Poison Mist once, then immediately canceled it to avoid inhaling the toxic cloud in the confined space.

[You have cast Poison Mist once. Poison Mist proficiency +3]

Fran silently summoned the panel and quickly looked at the attributes section.

[Attributes: Physique 3.0, Mental Power 3.5]

She had finally fulfilled all the requirements for advancing to a formal mage.

Now she could proceed with the advancement…

At that moment, Fran suddenly felt something like a thin membrane in front of her, as if she only needed to poke it to break through.

At first, she did nothing and made no attempt to interact with it. Naturally, nothing happened.

Then she released her Mental Power and directed it toward the membrane. With a slight push, the membrane dented inward slightly.

So advancement required personal confirmation.

She had originally thought that once the conditions were met, the advancement would occur automatically.

That was why she had carefully controlled the pace of her spell practice before, ensuring her Mental Power would not grow too quickly—she had been worried that she might advance before creating her second spell and miss out on gaining a specialization.

But now everything was prepared.

She had even asked Habos earlier if there was anything important to note after completing the three trials, just in case she overlooked something and suffered a major setback.

Habos had told her directly that once the three trials were completed, advancement would proceed without issue.

At least for advancing to a First-Tier Mage, there was no possibility of failure.

With that reassurance, Fran stopped hesitating.

She released her Mental Power with full force and pierced straight through the membrane.

Immediately afterward, she felt a powerful push, as though something were propelling her through the gap that had formed in the membrane.

She even had the strange sensation that her hand had touched the membrane itself before the force rapidly carried her forward.

When she opened her eyes again, Fran found that she was still standing in the same place.

The surrounding environment appeared completely unchanged.

Yet she could clearly feel the change within herself.

Her Mental Power had become extraordinarily vast and powerful—far beyond anything she had ever experienced before.

She could faintly perceive tiny dust particles scattered across the floor and the delicate grain patterns carved into the wooden door.

Of course, the most important thing was to check the panel.

There was no need to examine the skills section—there probably would not be any new entries there.

[Name: Fran

Profession: Formal Mage (Forge Furnace, Sword Chant) (One Star) … (omitted)

Attributes: Physique 3.0, Mental Power 9.1

Traits:

Steam Engine Spell Specialization (When you cast spells related to steam engines, the efficiency of energy conversion is increased and energy loss during conversion is reduced.)

Sword Chant Mage Specialization (When you use swordsmanship, spellcasting speed is slightly increased and spellcasting consumption is reduced.)

… (omitted)]

When Fran first saw the profession section, she was somewhat confused.

Why did her Formal Mage title have suffixes attached to it—and two different school names at that?

After reading the traits section, she finally understood.

The “Forge Furnace” designation most likely appeared because she had created the advancement method for the Forge Furnace School, so the panel automatically marked it with the school’s name.

It seemed to indicate that although all advanced practitioners were formally called mages, the advancement paths of different schools produced distinct branches—much like subdivisions within the same profession.

But why was the Sword Chant School also listed?

Fran had not advanced according to the Sword Chant School’s method. Yet she had even obtained a specialization that clearly belonged to that school.

“Advancement requires the knowledge of the school combined with the school’s spell system…”

She suddenly raised her head as realization struck.

The knowledge requirement of the Sword Chant School could likely be replaced with swordsmanship.

And the spell system requirement might only need Sword Dance to qualify.

Her Elven Swordsmanship had already reached Proficiency, and Sword Dance had long ago reached the Mastery level.

Naturally, she had fulfilled the advancement requirements as well.

“So the panel recognizes the advancement conditions of different schools, and as long as I meet them, I can be considered a mage of that school?”

No matter how she looked at it, this was good news.

By stacking advancement methods from multiple schools, she could increase her attributes.

She estimated that if she had advanced through only one school, her Mental Power would likely have been just over 7.

Instead, because two schools were counted together, it had risen to 9.1.

Moreover, she had obtained two specializations after advancing.

She had already expected that these specializations would appear under the traits section.

The description of the steam engine specialization was rather peculiar.

What did it mean to reduce energy loss during conversion?

Could this specialization actually improve the thermal efficiency of steam engines?

The specialization from the Sword Chant School, on the other hand, was easy to understand.

It essentially meant that when wielding a sword, her spells would receive additional bonuses.

“Wait… It seems like I might also meet the advancement requirements of the Alteration School!”

If her guess was correct, then Modification could count as the school’s knowledge requirement.

And she had already obtained several spells belonging to the Alteration School—she had simply been reluctant to practice them because they were somewhat underwhelming.

If she raised the proficiency of those spells, not only could she gain additional Mental Power through this new branch specialization…

She could also obtain an exclusive specialization from the Alteration School.

She knew that whether someone possessed a specialization was easy to detect.

Sometimes it could even be seen when someone cast a spell.

For the Alteration School in particular, the corpses they processed could reveal whether the person who handled them possessed the appropriate specialization.

Fran glanced at the body bag beside her and murmured to herself,

“Maybe I should cut out a section of the spine and take a closer look.”