Chapter 1125: A Little Expert at Scamming Funding, A Successor for Miscellaneous Crystal Research

Over the past half year, a stack of parchment documents about half a person's height had accumulated; although the volume seemed significant, Xia Duo did not feel the slightest bit of impatience.

This was because these subsidy applications submitted for private research labs contained the experimental processes, frequencies, and material consumption situations for specific research topics.

Looking at these documents one by one, Xia Duo felt as if he were seeing the exploration processes of various researchers in these topics; among them were many highlights, which provided quite a harvest even for a Senior Arcanist like him.

But some clearly carried the nature of perfunctoriness, games, or deception, and Xia Duo shook his head repeatedly as he read them.

……

More than half an hour passed, and Xia Duo finally finished reading all the subsidy application documents from the last half year; he did not scrutinize the figures in detail—perhaps there were over-applications or concealed consumption, but that was understandable.

After all, in a place with strict audits like Earth, there were also instances of emergency spending, and it was not uncommon.

Currently, there were no real Mages working in the Audit Department of the Tower of Time, and Xia Duo was not prepared to pursue too much, but those with obvious problems in their research topics, research progress, or experimental processes had to be dealt with.

He handed the nearly twenty problematic application documents he had deliberately picked out to Supervisor Wen De Er of the Audit Department, and then gave instructions:

"For these three people: Mage Sanduer's 'Design of Quasi-3rd Circle Spells at the 1st Circle Level' topic has obvious loopholes in the experimental design principles. Given that the experimental records are relatively complete, only the subsequent subsidies for this topic will be cancelled, with no other penalties;

"Mage Shande's 'Exploration of Magic Practice in Cooking' topic is clearly ready for conclusion, yet from last November until now, he has still been applying for material subsidies. Forward my opinion to the Personnel Department and the Material Department to investigate the full story and recover three months of subsidy materials;

"Finally, Mage Daiwei's 'Materialization of Magic Web Strings' has a long-term, serious discrepancy between the experimental consumption and the experimental process submitted in the topic application report. Likewise, transfer this to the Personnel Department and the Material Department for investigation and demand the return of all subsidy materials."

"Yes!" Wen De Er replied respectfully.

Seeing this, Xia Duo prepared to leave. Having just read so many subsidy application documents, he remembered something that was now time to arrange.

"My Lord!"

Just as Xia Duo had stepped one foot out of the Audit Department's door, he was suddenly called back by Wen De Er's voice. He looked back and saw Wen De Er wearing an expression of wanting to say something but hesitating.

"Is there anything else?" Xia Duo asked.

"My Lord, the review of subsidy applications for private research labs in the Tower of Time is considered the core business of the Audit Department, but we are ordinary people after all. I worry that situations like today's will continue to happen in the future."

Wen De Er looked at the managers who had come with him from the Four Chambers of Commerce of Savile, his eyes looking quite helpless.

Was this complaining? Or was it claiming credit? Or was it asking for power and personnel?

It should be asking for personnel, but after Xia Duo thought about it carefully, this problem was truly difficult to solve!

The Audit Department had a heavy workload of miscellaneous affairs, and most New Mages were the elite of the academy-style training model; it was somewhat inappropriate to waste them in the Audit Department.

Furthermore, those New Mages were relatively young—in Xia Duo's view, they were not even adults yet! It was more suitable for them to continue their training and advanced studies rather than starting formal work too early.

On the contrary, many Intermediate Mages in the Tower of Time were quite old; if they lacked the confidence or ability to achieve Advanced Rank, it would be better for them to retire to the second line early, take on more miscellaneous affairs, and let the young people have more opportunities.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo came up with a plan and said to Wen De Er:

"I will give you the permission to issue invitations to any existing Intermediate Mage in the Tower of Time, inviting them to join the Audit Department. Of course, the premise is that they must possess basic auditing skills. For those who join, I will have Depake and Saixili discuss a substantial position allowance. I hope you can select people properly!"

At this stage, wanting formal Mages, especially Intermediate Mages, to serve in miscellaneous affairs for a long time was impossible without allowances, but compared to letting them run private research labs to cheat for funding, giving them some position allowances was more cost-effective.

At the same time, to avoid Intermediate Mages coming to an Audit Department that only had ordinary people and making it difficult for these ordinary people to work, Xia Duo also gave them a reassurance:

"You just need to act according to the regulations. As long as you are within the Tower of Time, you do not need to worry about suffering any harm. Even if you encounter an accident while away from the Tower of Time, I will investigate to the end; I will definitely not let those who have rendered meritorious service bleed and weep."

"Thank you for your care, My Lord. Wen De Er will definitely perform his duties faithfully and not let the Tower of Time suffer even the slightest bit of unexplained loss!"

"Wait for the notice in a few days!"

After saying this, Xia Duo left the Audit Department.

……

From the trip to the ruins of the Inosen Mage Tower, besides obtaining a vivid case of a Plane Domain—the ruins themselves—and some research notes on 【Genesis】, Xia Duo's most important gain was the technology of using Miscellaneous Crystals to replace Mithril.

Although the conditions for realizing this technology were very harsh, it was ultimately feasible; compared to 【Genesis】, which had no successful cases, it was already quite perfect.

It was just a pity that for Xia Duo, who had already mastered Mithril Refining Technology, this kind of technology was somewhat of a chicken rib. Plus, he had long since selected the Plane Domain as his main research direction for the future; although he was quite interested in this technology, he was not prepared to research it personally.

Having just read those subsidy application documents in the Audit Department, Xia Duo thought of a successor who could continue to research this technology of using Miscellaneous Crystals to replace Mithril—

Xiaolei!

This guy was considered a rather unique person in the Tower of Time, often tinkering with some strange little gadgets, such as small puppets that could talk and move, magic potions that could change a person's hair color upon drinking, rings with certain special lasting effects, and so on.

What impressed Xia Duo the most was the time Xiaolei turned himself into a small dog; fortunately, he managed to turn back in the end, otherwise it would have been too tragic.

Previously, during the wave of Intermediate Mages embracing the new system and establishing new types of private laboratories under the new system, Xiaolei had also logically established his own private laboratory and applied for a rather interesting new topic.

Just now, Xia Duo saw that his subsidy application document contained a detailed research process, with clear logic and organized structure; most importantly, it was very imaginative, which was rare and commendable.

In the subsidy application document he had called for last month, his topic, "Some Research on the Transformation from Orc Shaman Witchcraft to Arcane Magic Transformation Spells," had already reached its final stages.

In fact, the Arcane Magic version of 【Transformation】 had already been researched by him; only some derivative application tests and optimizations remained unfinished. If nothing unexpected happened, it would be within these next one or two months.

For the research on using Miscellaneous Crystals to replace Mithril, one must find someone trustworthy who was interested in this type of research and had the ability to research it; Xiaolei was undoubtedly such a person.