A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 255 High-Level Alchemist

"Alright, young man, do a good job. If you do well, I'll give you an extra piece of refined gold to help you recover."

Jiang Shuzhou drew a big discus for Murphy without hesitation.

"Brother, is it true?"

Seeing Jiang Shuzhou's attitude, Murphy realized that he had really been joking earlier, and he finally felt relieved.

"It might be true."

In response, Jiang Shuzhou patted Malphite's broad shoulder with his mage's hand as a sign of encouragement.

He then gave Murphy a map of Melver and told him to find the airship to Hamlet's territory himself.

The reason I gave Murphy a map was mainly to prevent him from getting lost. After all, talking to this guy always gave me the feeling that he might have some intellectual problems.

But Murphy has intellectual problems, which isn't a big deal. After all, it's easier to fool someone who's an idiot. Besides, as long as Murphy is good at building, why should an engineer care about so many things?

After seeing Murphy off, Jiang Shuzhou sat in the lab, took out a large stack of magic papers, and prepared to write his thesis.

His hopes of becoming a high-level alchemist rest entirely on this.

The certification for high-level alchemists differs from that for mid-level alchemists.

Any mage capable of creating mid-level alchemical artifacts can be certified as a mid-level alchemist.

Take Jiang Shuzhou for example. He created the Dissolving Love when he was at a low level. Although theoretically it is a low-level potion, Jiang Shuzhou was the inventor, so its level was raised by one level.

This is why Jiang Shuzhou became a mid-level alchemist directly, without needing certification.

When one reaches the advanced level of alchemy, one needs to create alchemical artifacts and write papers.

But this was not a problem for Jiang Shuzhou at all.

He possesses a vast amount of research findings, more than enough to qualify him as a high-level alchemist.

With the sound of pen nib scratching against paper, page after page of papers were written by Jiang Shuzhou. In the end, he quickly produced more than a dozen papers.

The vast majority of the authors are Jiang Shuzhou himself.

There was only one exception.

"A New Type of Nutrient Solution: A Study of Hamlet's Nutrient Solution" by Seth Hamlet.

Jiang Shuzhou himself is the second author.

Seth Hamlet gave his life for the birth of the League, so Jiang Shuzhou naturally cannot strip him of his title as inventor, otherwise wouldn't that be academic theft?

I won't list myself as the first author on anything I didn't research; I still have a sense of shame.

However, Seth himself is gone, and Jiang Shuzhou inherited his legacy from the underworld, so the patent for this thing belongs to Jiang Shuzhou.

But in the end, Seth still left something for posterity. Perhaps his physical body is gone forever, but his spirit will live on forever.

In any case, when people use this nutrient solution, they will always remember that it came from Seth Hamlet, an alchemist of an old era.

Death is not scary; what is scary is being forgotten.

After packing the envelope containing the manuscripts, Jiang Shuzhou prepared to see his students.

Although he still holds the title of professor, everyone knows that Jiang Shuzhou's departure is only a matter of time.

"You've arrived?"

Jess looked dejected.

Unexpectedly, they were on the same starting line back then, but now, just a year later, the other person has become someone he looks up to.

"It's not that bad. Young man, you're so young. I think you have a lot of potential. Maybe in ten years you can even advance to a higher level. Just work hard and earn more money."

Jiang Shuzhou said with a smile.

Jess rolled his eyes upon hearing this. Good grief, he just advanced in rank and he's already showing off.

"Then I would like to offer my congratulations to High Mage Navis."

Jess said sarcastically.

"Hey, it's nothing, just lucky. I just accidentally advanced. I was hoping to wait for you."

Jiang Shuzhou, shameless as ever, readily agreed.

"Alright, let's get down to business. I'm going to take up a diplomatic post and won't be at the academy for a long time. The only chance you'll see me is probably in the newspapers."

"So you'll have to take more responsibility for these students, but don't worry about the courses. Booker will teach my part; just use him like a beast of burden."

Booker's current strength is somewhat lagging behind Jiang Shuzhou's, but it has the potential to grow, and it was originally a high-level creature, only it has degenerated due to not replenishing its energy for too long.

It won't be long before it re-evolves, so Jiang Shuzhou plans to leave Booker here for a while, let it attend classes, and take it to the library to supplement its knowledge.

This is equivalent to Jiang Shuzhou learning it.

Of course, there's another reason for keeping Booker.

Jiang Shuzhou wants to recruit a mage to do the work.

Right now, Jiang Shuzhou's favorite is Katniss. This girl is resilient enough and has a strong learning ability. She is very talented in both magic and alchemy, making her perfect material to be a workhorse.

My family is dirt poor, and we don't have many good options. It would be a waste for me to be a teacher here.

Jiang Shuzhou happened to have a job, so employment was guaranteed.

"Jace, call Katniss over later, I need to talk to her."

Jess nodded, then prepared to leave.

"Wait a minute, I have something to do."

"What is it?"

Jess was completely confused.

Jiang Shuzhou took out a notebook and handed it to Jess.

"These are my tips for promotion. I'm giving them to you so that future promotions will be easier."

Then Jiang Shuzhou patted Jess on the shoulder and said with a smile.

"Young man, if you work hard, you can be just as awesome as me someday."

"Come on, look at you pretending."

Jess put away his notebook and said with a smile.

Then he turned and left.

"One last thing."

"What is it?"

"I hope to see you again someday, on equal footing."

"Yes."

Jess quickly left.

Soon after, Katniss arrived.

Where's Jayce?

Jiang Shuzhou asked.

"Professor Jess called me away and then went straight into the lab."

Katniss explained.

"Doesn't this guy know the importance of work-life balance?"

Jiang Shuzhou originally wanted to celebrate with Jess, but after thinking about it, he decided against it.

The two sides had a good relationship, but at most they were fairly good friends, far from being that kind of relationship.

Jess probably couldn't accept it either.

"Sigh, it's over again."

"professor?"

Katniss asked, puzzled.

"It's nothing, just a job offer, I don't know if you'd be interested?"

"What kind of job?"

"To be my beast of burden... cough cough, no, to be the chief mage of my territory."

"The benefits are excellent, and there are many adorable animals."

"Are those little animals really cute?"

"What are you saying? They're definitely cute, and they won't attack you anyway, so why do you care so much?"

Katniss thought for a moment.

"Could I look at the specifics of the compensation package?"

Jiang Shuzhou nodded and tossed down a thick contract.

"Take your time reading. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me, and I'll answer them."