High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 91: Chapter 15: Putting Pen to Paper_1

Professor Zhang is known as Zhang Huaigu.

As a young and beautiful lecturer, this name seemed a bit old-fashioned and boring. But since it was given by her elders, she had no choice but to put up with it.

As an outstanding student of the Class of 2000 in the first university, Zhang Huaigu obtained the certificate of registered wizard in her junior year. Before she could graduate, the Institute of Runes at the university extended an olive branch to her—a chance for postgraduate study.

For the graduates of the first university, staying on campus means a stable and familiar working environment, the opportunity to stay at the forefront of the latest research in the wizard world and to learn more profound and secret magic knowledge.

But at the same time, staying on campus meant poverty.

Without extraordinary talent, a registered wizard who has graduated for less than ten years would find it difficult to have their own laboratory at the first university.

Without a laboratory, you won’t get recognized projects from the school.

Without projects, there would be no project funding.

And you wouldn’t be able to continue conducting magic experiments.

The knowledge of wizards is costly. That is a widespread perception in the wizard world.

However, for Zhang Huaigu, who was an excellent student in both middle school and college, this feeling was less pronounced. In her conception, buying the latest wizard robe from Cloud Think Boutique or the new Bologna law book from the Shangyuan Bookstore was already a significant luxury.

As for lab equipment and experimental supplies, isn’t it all available for free?

It was not until she graduated from university and started preparing materials for the wizard advancement ritual that Miss Zhang Huaigu realized how costly a wizard’s knowledge can be.

A dozen infusion successful stable state talismans, friendly price of ten jade coins!

A hundred grams of secret technique roasted frog liver dry grinding powder, friendly price of thirty jade coins!

A small bottle of ten-milliliter dragon spit grass extract, friendly price of a hundred jade coins! One has to know, this is extraction from the saliva of dragon kinds like Jiao Long.

For outstanding graduates of the first university, they can actually make all these magic consumables.

But for wizards who are preparing for the advancement ceremony, these magic consumables must be purchased.

Not to mention the entire set of ritual materials ranging in the tens of thousands, if all were to be prepared by the wizard, it would take tens of years; even many consumables’ time-effectiveness puts a stop to the path of self-preparation.

Take an infusion successful stable state talisman for example.

According to the certification standards of the Wizard Alliance, an infusion talisman with a validity of more than one year can already be circulated in the market; those with a validity of more than three years but less than five years are premium goods that are in short supply; those with a validity of over five years belong to strategic goods, merchants without corresponding licenses and qualifications have no right to sell them, products of masters capable of making such talismans are bought back at high prices by the Wizard Alliance.

Even Zhang Huaigu, who excels in the field of talismans, can’t ensure that each of her talismans achieves a successful infusion, let alone a validity of more than one year.

And in the wizard advancement ceremony, thousands of talismans are used.

For most wizards, the only hope is to purchase them.

Zhang Huaigu is no exception.

In order to see a wider wizarding world, she must advance.

To prepare for the advancement ceremony, she must buy these materials.

So she needs money.

For a novice in a research institute, it is already the limit to be able to assist those big shots in the magic world. Many powerful wizards are worried about the funding for experiments, let alone sponsoring a young novice wizard in pursuing her ambition which brings much profit.

Hence, with the help of her teachers and the recommendation of the Institute of Runes, Zhang Huaigu, who had not long left the teaching building, returned to the classroom as a dignified lecturer of the talisman class.

Only this time, she stood on the podium.

And her rank was just a lecturer.

In the teacher ranking system of the first university, a lecturer is only one level higher than an assistant and is the lowest rank among teachers.

Above the lecturer, there are associate professors, professors, tenured professors, and grand professors.

But for Zhang Huaigu, who had just graduated, the salary of a lecturer was already quite generous.

This was only because her mentor in the institute was the deputy director, thus she had this opportunity.

Every time she thought about this, Lecturer Zhang Huaigu would be filled with resentment.

She blamed herself for focusing too much on her talisman research in college and neglected to learn other skills. As a result, those field teams did not dare to accept her, considering that she could become a burden.

But the income from outdoor work is so high!

The smirk on Sima Yangyun’s face appeared again before Lecturer Zhang’s eyes. That girl had only completed two field missions, yet she already obtained the wealth required for her advancement ceremony.

I can do it too!

Lecturer Zhang rubbed her furrowed brow and forced herself to perk up.

For every eligible batch of students she teaches, she gets a corresponding bonus. She calculated it again last night—if she can train all the freshmen in her three current classes to be qualified, she would be free!

Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but sweep her eyes over the classroom again.

The new students were busily writing, drawing runes from their minds.

Lecturer Zhang looked at those small faces screwed up in concentration and a faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

Familiar atmosphere, familiar feeling.

It seemed like just yesterday, she was also silently copying nearly a hundred talismans under the watchful gaze of her teacher and that stodgy old man was delighted. It was from then on that she could no longer tear herself away from this field.

At the back of the class, a new student also sighed with the same sentiment.

He may never be able to get away from the field of talismans forever.

Familiar runes, familiar ink fragrance.

It seemed like from the age of eight or nine, he has been dealing with these intricate drawings every day.

Opening the exam paper, Zheng Qing narrowed his eyes, revealing a faint smile on his face.

The paper only had one question:

Please silently write down the talismans you know (Note: No need to infuse mana).

Infusing mana is the last step for each talisman, which entails infusing mana into the drawn talisman.

There are two difficulties in talismans, one is to draw the runes, and the other is infusing mana.

Due to the differences in the feel of talisman paper and the level of mana control, everyone has a certain chance of failure when infusing mana. And if the mana infusion fails, the talisman paper will be pulverized at best, and at worst, the talisman will go out of control, usually resulting in an explosion.

There’s no need to infuse mana, Zheng Qing’s pressure eased a lot.

As for the talismans he knows? In a daze, Zheng Qing seemed to see that worn-out talisman scroll.

The talisman scroll that he had to practice every day since he was eight.

Zheng Qing remembered clearly, the whole scroll had three hundred and twenty-four pages, each page contained four runes, a total of one thousand two hundred and ninety-six talismans.

Shall he write them all down?

Zheng Qing took out his silver pocket watch and estimated the time.

Based on the pace of his previous practice, it would take about three and a half hours.

Maybe, there would be sufficient time.

He bit his lip, and his brush dipped in ink in the inkwell.