Chapter 1293: Hake's Promotion, The Arrival of Apprentices

Regarding this, Luo Zi remained silent, his head lowered, his eyeballs rolling around; he was uncertain whether "Maikade" was testing him or had truly just asked prematurely by accident.

Yet, Luo Zi hesitated on how to answer; as it concerned his future prospects and fate, for a Spellcaster, deciding whether to go back on his word was not a difficult choice to make.

It was just that Luo Zi did not want to do so; having spent this time together, he had already been won over by the knowledge and bearing of this so-called "newcomer" Maikade, and he was unwilling to speak perfunctory or even deceitful words.

After some thought, Luo Zi ultimately followed his heart's most honest choice: "Sir, I need to consider this matter seriously, but I can guarantee one thing: I will absolutely not become your enemy."

"Very well, tell me your choice after you complete your promotion!"

Xia Duo did not force the other party to make a choice on the spot; in fact, he felt Luo Zi's answer was already quite sincere. If it were a petty person, they might have agreed readily now, only to flip their stance immediately afterward.

Furthermore, what he needed was a collaborator willing to cooperate sincerely and proactively, not someone passively coerced by the situation.

If Luo Zi were unwilling, he truly would not do anything to him, he would just be a bit disappointed.

Currently, if half of the fourteen Assistant Researchers in the Laboratory agreed, Xia Duo would wake up laughing in his sleep, because that would mean at least twenty-eight Advanced Mages would follow his arrangements to conduct the research he specified.

Of course, the more people who agreed, the more advantageous it would be for him.

Ideally, there could be at most 14*(1+3)+3 = 59 Advanced Mages conducting various research under his arrangement.

This was simply fantastic!

It was foreseeable that once he left this Projection Plane, Xia Duo would not have such good research conditions for a very long time in the future.

Time flew by.

Two days later, Hake successfully advanced to Arcanist, and combined with his existing experience in at least three projects with "Good" ratings, his application for the rank of Level 1 Researcher was soon approved by the higher-ups.

Hake Laboratory was thus established!

On the same day, Xia Duo proposed an outsourcing plan to Hake Laboratory for the project "Improvement and Expansion of the Teleportation Spell Response Mechanism Based on Magic Web Background Fluctuation," which Hake gladly accepted.

Meanwhile, Xia Duo's own preparations for the trial production of the Spell Chip were also fully ready.

Just that day, after reaching the outsourcing agreement with Hake Laboratory, Xia Duo suddenly received a notice from the Management Center saying that a batch of New Apprentices needed to be received by Maikade Laboratory.

These so-called Apprentices were actually all Official Mages.

Most were low-rank Mages, with a minority already being Intermediate Mages, and each of them had upgraded using methods similar to the Tower of Time's Ascension Trial; they were not just spellcasting tools who only understood individual spells of their relevant ring level.

Every laboratory in the Research Institute was assigned a certain number of Apprentices; if any of them could become Advanced Mages or Arcanists, the Researcher would receive corresponding point rewards.

These Apprentices had already been screened during their time at the Magic Academy, and being able to enter the Research Institute meant they were all the best among their peers.

Assigned to various laboratories, besides acting as de facto Spell Batteries, they sometimes also offered constructive opinions on the laboratory's projects.

It could be said that almost no laboratory would welcome Apprentices, though Assistant Researchers might not be too welcoming, as it would occupy too much of their time to guide the Apprentices without receiving fair compensation from the Official Researchers.

But here at Xia Duo's, he was not very welcoming of the Apprentices' arrival.

The projects he currently arranged for the laboratory staff were quite strenuous to complete even for Advanced Mages, let alone with the additional conditions from above, making them even harder to finish easily.

If he didn't follow up on the project progress and provide frequent guidance, he really doubted that these projects would all end up unfinished, one and all.

With Apprentices arriving, the Assistant Researchers would be distracted and their precious time would be wasted, which was very hard for Xia Duo to accept.

Perhaps these Apprentices might be helpful to the projects, but the possibility was not high, and simply acting as Spell Batteries could not make up for the losses they brought.

Xia Duo highly suspected that some Level 1 Researchers who opposed him were making trouble, because calculating the time, it was not yet time for the Magic Academy to graduate.

The most obvious evidence was that, also being a newly established laboratory, Hake Laboratory was not assigned any Apprentices.

Only Xia Duo was assigned them, which made it hard for him not to make associations; if they hadn't graduated early and been admitted early, would those Apprentices have appeared?

Moreover, he also had doubts about the quality of the Apprentices; if they ended up giving him some dregs, resulting in a very low proportion of Advanced Mages, that would be another troublesome matter.

Yet Xia Duo couldn't say anything to oppose it, because these systems were reasonable and fair, more in line with the overall interests of the Empire Remnants, and supported by everyone; the higher-ups would not allow him to oppose them.

At the same time, Xia Duo himself couldn't find a reason to oppose it; was he supposed to say he was worried the Apprentices would affect the progress of the laboratory's projects?

Others were affected too; why didn't they say anything?

This would make his situation even more difficult, and if things went poorly, some people might again bring up a review of his rank Permission Level.

"Why is it so hard for me!"

After grumbling to himself, Xia Duo could only let Luo Zi lead the people back from the Management Center; there were twelve people in total, arranged according to the normal number for a laboratory.

Otherwise, following the ratio of one Advanced Mage to three Apprentices, if dozens of people were sent over, the laboratory wouldn't be able to work anymore and would just be babysitting.

One must know that although Maikade Laboratory now had over a dozen Assistant Researchers, they would also be promoted and would leave.

When the time came for dozens of Apprentices to be piled into the laboratory, all needing Xia Duo to lead them, the scene was truly enough to make him feel physically and mentally exhausted just thinking about it.

Comparing it like this, it seemed these twelve Apprentices were not so hard to accept after all!

Before long, Luo Zi led the twelve youths back, nine men and three women; Xia Duo waved his hand and arranged for them to observe various project groups, deciding to just leave them be for the short term.

As long as they didn't interfere with the project progress, he would just treat them as twelve new potted plants added to the laboratory.

After doing this, Xia Duo finally looked at the Apprentice files Luo Zi brought back; although they were early graduates and early admissions, at least they hadn't brought him any dregs.

Among these twelve, four had passed the Intermediate Assessment, and while the remaining eight hadn't passed the Intermediate Assessment, they were only a few points short.

If this were at the Tower of Time, they could now fully complete their upgrade through the Ascension Trial and become Intermediate Mages.

Barring any accidents, in two or three years at the fastest, or three or four years at the slowest, these twelve people would all be able to become Advanced Mages.