Chapter 20: Anonymous Masterpiece

The mission detection center of Plane Nuolun Academy was located in the deepest part of the tenth underground floor of the academy.

There was no sunlight all year round, only the cold light emitted by magic energy lamps.

Countless complex magic instruments were working, emitting low humming sounds, and the air was filled with the strange odor of mixed materials, even richer and more complex than the odor in the laboratory.

This was one of the busiest areas in the entire workshop.

As part of a wizard organization that ruled multiple planes, Plane Nuolun Academy also had several small planes under its command.

Coupled with the wizards coming out of the academy constantly attacking new planes, the academy received a massive amount of new materials from various planes and channels every day.

These materials needed to undergo strict testing to determine their properties, grades, and potential uses.

The testing process was exceptionally detailed and cumbersome. Different materials needed to undergo dozens or even hundreds of tests such as physical strength, energy conduction, elemental erosion, chemical reaction, stability, and curse resistance.

Even though the wizards here were busy without stopping, the detection queue was often so long that it made people despair.

Because of the lack of manpower, even if wizards often protested about this, they still couldn't alleviate this problem.

Today, the wizard in charge of isolation material testing—an elderly man with gray hair and wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, jokingly called "Resistance Barrier" by his peers, a first-level official wizard—was sitting at his detection bench as usual.

His job was to put various new isolation material samples sent over into specific magic instruments and run a fixed set of detection processes.

This job was boring and dull. Most mature materials produced by high-tier wizards would go directly to higher-level testing or be sent directly to the research department.

What he handled here were mostly new things researched by low-tier wizards or apprentices. These materials were often full of various unrealistic delusions, and the quality was uneven.

"White iron-based isolation material? Heh, another 'new isolation material'." He habitually picked up a sample bottle with a special number, saw the simple label on it, and couldn't help but laugh contemptuously.

The bottle contained a few pieces of material that looked very inconspicuous, like ordinary white iron with a layer of gold powder coated on the surface.

He was already used to this kind of thing.

These newcomers always thought that by randomly finding some ores that looked special, or randomly matching alchemy materials, they could tinker with some earth-shattering new invention.

And they also carefully covered up the specific names of the materials, for fear that others would steal their "exclusive formula."

"Naive." The old wizard shook his head in his heart.

Not to mention that this work had the restrictions of the academy contract, no one would dare to covet these research results at all.

As official wizards, they had a broader vision and deeper knowledge. The things these apprentices tinkered with looked like crude toys made by children in their eyes, and there was no need to steal the technology at all.

Those so-called "formulas" might be full of errors in their eyes, and even contain basic alchemy common sense errors.

Although he was slandering in his heart, he still honestly put one of the material samples into a large detection instrument and started the standard detection process.

This was the rigor belonging to a wizard cultivated by years of experiments. Even when facing a hopeless result, he would still follow the process.

The instrument started to run, the runes lit up, and energy fluctuations scanned the inside of the material.

"Start basic test, anti-physical impact... blunt impact... grade, inferior..."

Listening to the sound from the instrument, the old wizard lowered his head and recorded the detection results as usual, without even raising his head.

Not long after, a series of physical resistance tests came to an end, and the final detection result appeared on the instrument screen.

【Anti-physical impact strength: Inferior】

"As expected."

He curled his lips and put the material into another instrument to continue testing.

"Anti-energy impact strength..."

【Anti-energy impact strength: Inferior】

"Ha! Sure enough." Seeing that the first two results were both inferior, the old wizard's expectation value completely returned to zero.

In fact, he already had a premonition when he saw the specific structure of this material. It was obvious that the only thing that could truly work was the golden substance on top, and the remaining basic structure relied entirely on white iron to support it.

Originally, he still had expectations for the energy resistance of this thing, but now it seemed he had thought too much.

The physical energy resistance was not high, indicating that the basic structure and energy conduction mode of this thing must have problems.

Unless it could have amazing performance in anti-erosion, this material would definitely be judged as waste.

"Next is the anti-erosion test... first is elemental erosion resistance..." He pressed the button and started the next round of testing.

Under the premise that physical and energy resistance were both inferior, wanting to turn the tables in anti-erosion required at least the level of a first-ring official wizard to barely count as "usable."

And wanting to attract attention required reaching the level of a second-ring or even third-ring wizard.

But this requirement was quite harsh even for official wizards, and it was almost impossible to achieve for materials researched by apprentices.

However, just as he was waiting for the result with this thought, the detection instrument made a slight but crisp prompt sound.

The result was out.

【Anti-elemental erosion: Excellent! Assessment: Equivalent to the level of a third-ring official wizard!】

I don't know if it was an illusion, but the voice broadcast by the instrument seemed a bit impassioned.

The old wizard's hand shook violently, almost dropping the recording board in his hand to the ground!

"What?!" He raised his head abruptly and looked at the screen of the detection instrument in disbelief.

Excellent? Third-ring level?!

He rubbed his eyes, thinking he had misread it.

He had been engaged in this detection work for decades, had seen countless materials, and had also tested some research results of official wizards.

Third-ring wizard-level elemental erosion resistance, even the works of most second-level wizards might not be able to reach it!

And this, was actually a material detection result where even the submitter's name was simply labeled, and it looked like scrap white iron?!

Just this one result, even if all other tests were inferior, this material was enough to attract the attention of official wizards!

However, his shock was still a bit early.

"Anti-corrosion..." The new detection result jumped out immediately after.

【Anti-spiritual erosion: Extremely Excellent! Assessment: Equivalent to the level of a fourth-ring official wizard!】

【Anti-mind control: Extremely Excellent! Assessment: Equivalent to the level of a fourth-ring official wizard!】

【Anti-corrosion: Extremely Excellent! Assessment: Assessment exceeds the current instrument range! Suggest upgrading detection!】

【Anti-curse: Extremely Excellent! Assessment: Assessment exceeds the current instrument range! Suggest upgrading detection!】

... ===== CHAPTER 21 =====