"A special meeting chaired by a legendary wizard is absolutely not simple."

"Moreover, having the big wizards from the other four academies and the School Works Committee present, of course, it’s not simple... So I think the ’secret weapon’ rumor is definitely not groundless!"

"Having the assistants in the assistant team do ’small tasks,’ is the school crazy? I bet if the ’Beta Town Post’ knew about this, they’d be sarcastic for a whole week!"

"What’s your small task? Talisman painting? Or flirting with a female demon?"

A few companions were noisily talking all at once, even though there were only three people, yet it gave Zheng Qing the feeling of falling into a flock of ducks, to the point where he couldn’t hear anything clear—except for the last two words ’female demon.’

Noticing the young assistant’s irritable gaze, Zhang Ji Xin quickly raised both hands.

"Just joking, just a joke." He put on a smiling face and repeated another question he had asked: "I just wanted to ask, what is your small task?"

"Talisman painting," Zheng Qing snorted, adding irritably: "...using fish skin paper, on the talisman board."

Xiao Xiao nodded slightly, pondering: "Fish skin paper is a mild magical material that can be melted into many magical materials without producing new impurities. That is to say, the talismans that Brother Qing draws will definitely be ’plated’ onto other things in the future—like a weapon—using the talisman board as the strongest evidence. Because talismans drawn on the talisman board will have many fine holes, which are pores for the flow of magic power..."

"There is no ’they,’ only ’me’!"

Zheng Qing couldn’t hold back anymore and interrupted the doctor’s long-winded explanation, slightly emphasizing, "I only know my task is to draw talismans on fish skin paper. What other assistants do, I really don’t know!"

"Are your tasks distributed separately?" The fat wizard summoned a soap bubble, poking at it with his greasy fingers, looking curiously at Zheng Qing.

"Individually." The young assistant solemnly added: "Distributed one by one face to face, in a barrier, so you can’t see what tasks others have."

"This makes it even more suspicious."

Even Zhang Ji Xin, who wasn’t very sensitive to such matters, detected something unusual: "Even a lab task under normal circumstances doesn’t require this level of secrecy... Not to mention, there’s a legendary wizard supervising beside."

"It’s hard to imagine how those wizards from the North District could be connected to any ’secret weapon.’" The fat wizard took out a handkerchief to wipe his fingers, muttering: "Just look at their performance in class... without strong magic power, everything is twice the effort for half the result."

This semester, the young wizards of Astronomy Class 08-1 volunteered to help freshmen from the preparatory class of the Edge Academy to adapt to the learning environment of the First University, so they have a good understanding of the new students from that new academy.

Listening to the analysis of his companions, Zheng Qing inexplicably recalled a conversation between him and Hilda—at the time, he asked Hilda ’why does the Edge Academy want to build a secret weapon,’ and Hilda’s answer was ’don’t want to know.’

’Don’t want to know’ and ’don’t know’ are two completely different concepts.

It’s a pity that the assistant from the practice class was no longer around, unable to answer the confusion that just arose. Thinking of the word ’clarify,’ Zheng Qing couldn’t help but glance at Xiao Xiao.

The short warlock sensitively looked back.

"What?" he frowned and asked.

"Uh, just about the secret weapon rumor," Zheng Qing considered his words, trying to make his description more objective: "Why do you think the Edge Academy needs a ’secret weapon’?"

"Because it messes with other people’s cheese."

Before Xiao Xiao could speak, Xin Fat Man sneered out a very reasonable answer: "With the sudden addition of another chopstick to the magic resources originally distributed equally among the four academies, how can there be no backlash? The interests represented by an academy are too great... With only two big wizards, it’s hard for the Edge Academy to guard everything, hence they really need a ’secret weapon’ to serve as the foundation."

"Aren’t the other academy deans also at the big wizard level?" As soon as Zheng Qing rebutted, Old Yao’s sallow thin face popped into his mind, and he quickly added: "I mean, most deans and vice-deans are at the big wizard level... Alpha’s Professor Charles isn’t even a big wizard!"

This time, Zhang Ji Xin answered him.

The red-faced warlock rubbed his chin and shook his head: "That’s not the right way to put it. Although Alpha’s vice dean doesn’t seem impressive, do you know how many big wizards are in his family? From another perspective, the big wizard alumni that Alpha has occupy nearly a quarter of the seats at the Magic Alliance Conference, while the Edge Academy’s two big wizards are their only big wizards."

"Moreover, ’secret weapon’ doesn’t necessarily mean those dangerous weapons you imagine." Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, glanced at an empty seat elsewhere in the classroom, and added: "Remember the gemstone ring Nicholas wore on his hand? A poor-quality Philosopher’s Stone... If the Edge Academy finds a way to mass-produce these gem stones, it will free the Northern District Wizards from reliance on frogs, which will bring a qualitative leap in the strength of the Northern District Wizard Group."

"But I think what’s more lacking for Edge Academy now is high-end combat power. Even one legendary would..."

"Old Yao is coming!"

The shout of the stick figure drawing disrupted the noisy atmosphere in the classroom, and in almost an instant, everyone shut their mouths and quickly fled to their seats.

Although Old Yao is always good-tempered and has been everyone’s counselor for nearly two years, the title of legendary wizard still leaves these young wizards in awe.

Soon, the classroom door was pushed open as usual.

Old Yao strode in briskly, swiftly followed by Jiang Yu, who was running to catch up with him, carrying a big stack of assignments as always.

"Before the class meeting, let me address a few things."

The professor didn’t waste any words, put down the lecture notes in hand, and looked around: "Now it’s already the third week after the start of school, nearly a month, but I’ve noticed there are still students who haven’t recovered from the holiday memories, going about their days in a daze! Look at your assignments, one after another, even if you directly copied the handouts for your post-lecture mini-essays, you still made mistakes! Someone even mixed up the assignments from the Talisman Drawing class with those from the Magic Script class!... Missing the holidays so much, need me to throw you back two months ago to experience the winter break again?"

A legendary wizard has the power to do that.

Of course, everyone also knew Old Yao was joking, and the room was immediately filled with insincere, cooperative laughter.