Ushering In The Internet Era In The Magical World

The Forest of Magic at the edge of the Felix School of Magic looked even more quiet and secluded at night. The bright moon cast long shadows of the tall palatial buildings.

Two figures appeared at the doors of the Forest of Magic, seemingly out of nowhere.

They were Dorman and Dorothy.

After the investigations done in the day, Dorman decided to join Ajaf's magical experiment.

"Thump, thump…"

The thick doors opened silently just as he started to knock.

Dorman straightened himself and walked in with his head held high. Dorothy followed after her grandfather closely.

The two of them walked around the screen wall and down the spiral staircase into the basement.

Dorman narrowed his eyes to survey that uniquely-styled magical laboratory and was even more assured of his guess.

—Ajaf wasn't from the Empire. He was most probably a wood-spirit mage who had been recruited by Dandell from another country.

Right then, Ajaf and his assistant Aileen were observing something in front of the microgravity glass box.

Dorman didn't mind Ajaf's slight.

That is, because his attention had been completely absorbed by the plants dancing crazily in the glass box.

Even with all his knowledge and experience, he had never seen plants in such a weird scenario.

Dorman approached Yu Sheng'an and placed his hand over his chest. "Felix School of Magic's wood-spirit magic instructor, Dorman, greets Mister Ajaf."

"What's up?"

Yu Sheng'an's gaze was fixated on the glass box, often taking notes with his finger, which were written on an illusory parchment hovering in front of him.

However, his assistant Aileen was staring at the instructor in amazement. She had obviously recognized him already.

Dorman went straight to the point with a very humble attitude. "I've heard Mister's magical experiment is extraordinary and I wish to be a part of it. I hope Mister will allow me to join."

Yu Sheng'an stopped his recording and looked over.

He glanced at Dorothy first, which terrified her and caused her to lower her head. Then, he said to Dorman, "I've heard of Mister Dorman's illustrious name for a long time! My experiment doesn't need advanced magic; you would be doing the same miscellaneous stuff the mage apprentices are handling if you decide to join us. Are you sure you still want to?"

Dorman was taken aback before he quickly replied, "Of course."

"Don't be so fast to agree. You would have to sign a confidentiality contract if you want to take part in the experiments. Apart from that, your magic attainment is too high so you would have to sign an additional non-competition agreement."

"Non-competition agreement?" Dorman was confused.

"The rough idea is that you can continue to study the things that I come up with but you cannot tell others or sell them for profit. Can you understand me if I say it like this?"

"What is Mister's field of research, if I may ask?" Dorman looked utterly shocked.

"Crops." Yu Sheng'an was getting impatient. "All right, quickly decide if you want to join. Don't waste my time!"

Everyone was stunned after hearing that.

They didn't expect Yu Sheng'an would act so rudely towards Dorman.

After a moment of silence, Dorman clenched his teeth and said, "All right!"

Yu Sheng'an nodded and dug out two blank contract documents from the spatial ring. He used magic as a pen to swiftly write down two contracts and passed them to Dorman.

Dorman read the terms closely to make sure there weren't any traps before he signed the contracts.

"Sir, are you studying them through the night?" Dorman asked curiously. He was more relaxed after signing the contracts.

"I still have some things that need to be done. Come, let's add each other as friends first and I'll send you the observation report."

Yu Sheng'an turned on the Internet to add Dorman as friend as he continued to order, "Later, statistically classify the different traits of similar plants in that row of glass boxes."

Dorman, who was in the midst adding him as a friend, was puzzled. "Different traits? What does that mean?"

"You don't understand?" Yu Sheng'an asked instinctively before saying impatiently, "Never mind. Aileen, explain this to him.

"After you classify them, keep all the seeds. Take out the glass boxes and use ordinary soil to accelerate their growth in order to get the 2nd-generation seeds. Remember to hasten the growth of the plants with the same traits by themselves. Let them self-breed to cultivate homozygotes so that they can be used as our genetically stable seed bank. Ask Aileen if you have any questions."

Yu Sheng'an left as soon as he handed out the assignments. He went to get himself busy with other matters.

However, Dorman looked as if he had just been struck by lightning!

All those terms which he didn't understand at all made him feel as if that was his first time coming in contact with wood-spirit magic.

His initial superiority complex had been completely crushed to bits by Yu Sheng'an's words.

Dorothy even widened her eyes and shook with excitement.

She knew Ajaf wasn't simple!

In fact, as Aileen explained the "dominant and recessive gene theory" with a halting pace to the grandfather-and-granddaughter duo, a door to a whole new world seemed to have been opened up for them.

—Plants could also be studied from this perspective?

Dorman was so excited that his old face became flushed!

Little did he know that Aileen's emotions were even more complex.

She'd never imagined that one day the Empire's most accomplished wood-spirit mage instructor would be listening to her explanations and even asking her repeatedly when he was unable to understand certain parts.

It made her nervous; she glanced at Ajaf instinctively after explaining a few terms, afraid she might have explained the terms wrongly.

She, too, had just learned that knowledge from Ajaf not too long before.

She had been utterly shocked by them at that time.

Then, from looking at Dorman's attitude, that seemingly trivial knowledge was obviously far more important than she had initially thought.

It was just like the famous value debate in the magical community.

—Is the first magical engraving that humans learned more valuable or is forbidden magic more valuable?

The final commonly-accepted conclusion was, the first magical engraving was the most valuable.

Because, that had been the leap from zero to one!

The knowledge that Ajaf had taught her was just like the very first magical engraving. It might look simple, but in fact it could most likely be the cornerstone of profound knowledge.

In fact, Dorman had already recognized that point.

He asked Aileen to the point that she had no more answers for him before looking at Ajaf appreciatively. Then, he began to get himself busy just like the first time he had entered an instructor's laboratory when he was young. He looked even more agile than a young man.

At this moment, his entire heart was consumed by ecstasy!

That young man had indeed possessed mysterious wood-spirit magical knowledge. No wonder he was highly regarded by Dandell the Magical Deity.

He knew that such knowledge was extremely precious. It would depend on his performance if he wanted to gain access to it.

Just like he would only impart the most precious knowledge to the mage apprentices he liked the most.

They were busy at work for half the night.

Actually, Yu Sheng'an didn't have to work so hard. It was mainly because magic was so useful that even he became inspired.

Just imagine, one could witness how a seed sprouted and grew up; then it would blossom and bear fruit in front of his eyes as soon as he planted it.

With such efficiency, the goal was within reach.

Hence, Yu Sheng'an naturally wanted to complete it in one vigorous effort.

Honestly speaking, he would have continued with the research if he wasn't worried about Dorman and Aileen being unable to keep up with him.

However, he didn't know that neither Dorman nor Aileen rested after they left the underground laboratory and went back home.

Instead, they began to verify the "dominant and recessive genes theory" that Yu Sheng'an had imparted them in their respective sophisticated and crude laboratories.

Dorman was especially excited.

The theory that Yu Sheng'an imparted had inspired him and further clarified many of his research problems.

Therefore, he was naturally excited to a point that he had been unable to sleep, so he began to verify them.

As for Aileen, she was much calmer.

After all, she was just a mage apprentice; the knowledge she had been exposed to was not deep. Hence, she naturally wouldn't encounter as many problems.

She was mainly doing it for fun, just to amuse herself.

Since most of the main crops had been included in Ajaf's experiments, she decided to grow a commonly-seen wild vegetable—mallow.

Very few people in Willis City knew about it, but it was seen as a lifesaver in the rural areas.

Nobody knew how many farmers had depended on that cold-resistant plant to survive the harsh winter.

It was a fast-growing wild vegetable which reproduced quite rapidly. A new cluster would grow as soon as a bunch of it was cut off, and it wasn't picky about the lands that it grew on. The only shortcoming was that it tasted quite bitter and caused stomach ache and diarrhea if one were to eat too much of it.

Therefore, Aileen was considering whether she could isolate the traits and see how the different traits performed separately.

Frankly speaking, she was simply trying it out of curiosity, not giving it much thought.

She never expected that her unintentional experiment had quickly given her two kinds of mallow through hastened cultivation—white-flowered and red-flowered.

There was also a difference of wrinkled and round sub-types in both kinds.

Especially the wrinkled white-flowered mallow. When she tried it out… it actually didn't taste bitter!!!

Such discovery had shocked Aileen completely.

She turned on the Internet instantly and sent Ajaf a message, feeling extremely excited about her discovery. She felt just like a student who wanted to show her parents her excellent test results.

Only then did she realize the sun had just risen after she sent the message. She guessed Mister Ajaf was already fast asleep.

However, Ajaf replied to her as soon as she thought of that.