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Orianna couldn't help but turn her head to look out the window and laugh. Amid the half-elf's bewildered expression, she flicked the cup in her hand, and a teapot immediately appeared in the air, bubbling and filling a cup with tea.
She drank most of the glass in one gulp before stopping laughing, shaking her head and saying:
"Little one, are you a wild elf who just came out of some primeval forest? That answer isn't wrong, but it has a retro feel to it, like something from forty or fifty years ago."
Orianna didn't keep them in suspense any longer. She picked up her teacup, poured out the last bit of tea, and casually suspended the tea in mid-air, saying:
"Assuming that the floating tea is magic essence, when they come together they form a cloud of magic essence."
She took out a strainer from the dimensional gap, and with a gentle flick, sifted the tea in the air into tiny droplets.
"Someone used a strainer to sweep these magic particles, and they turned into small water droplets of roughly the same size, loosely arranged but with strong diffusion. However, this still closely resembles the natural distribution of magic particles. I call this kind of person the 'strainer school.'"
Orianna casually tossed the strainer back into the dimensional rift, then pulled out a spatula. She raised the spatula, sweeping the scattered water droplets in the air into clumps, and then said:
"Some people use a spatula to gather the magic essence into a ball, making it stable and powerful. In this case, the gathered magic essence will naturally tend to dissipate—it's a natural law, you know. I call these people the 'Spatula Faction.'"
Seeing the half-elf's somewhat confused expression, she suddenly exclaimed "Ah!" and said apologetically:
"Sorry, I forgot you're a good kid who doesn't go online."
Orianna shook her head, picked up the teacup, and manipulated the tea in mid-air to return to the cup.
"The last faction doesn't care about the form of magic essence; they treat it as their food, eating and drinking as they please, with the goal of strengthening themselves."
She finished her tea and said with a smile:
"This is the 'Teacup Faction,' so, Your Excellency Herold, which faction do you consider yourself to belong to?"
Just as Artemis was about to answer, she suddenly frowned slightly and began to think rapidly.
"Regardless of which faction I resemble, it doesn't mean I belong to that faction now. Lady Oriana has been famous for a long time, and even if she has no ill intentions, the power struggles behind her are extremely dangerous..."
The half-elf raised his head, smiled faintly, and said:
"I'm not a 'strainer faction' or a 'spatula faction'... I don't think I'm a 'teacup faction' for now either."
"I am a 'Latisist'."
……
……
"This is the list of tasks that are currently available."
Amber, carrying a thick book that was half her height, struggled to unfold it on the ground.
"so much?!"
Artemis snapped out of her conversation with Orianna and was taken aback when she saw the receptionist kneeling on the floor, turning the pages of a book.
“Hey, not at all,” April laughed and said, “This is just the quest list for a fifth-circle mage; the sixth-circle mage’s list is even bigger.”
The half-elf's eyes widened, and he instinctively bent down to look at the quest list.
"Searching for a suitable transparent material to be polished into a stargazing telescope. Magic refractive index requirements... Magic balance density requirements... Wow, such a serious and formal mission description! Is a high-ranking mage hoping to find their legendary path by observing the stars?"
"Huh? The quest has been cancelled... The reason is that the Mage Guild discovered the client was using the first-generation Stargazing Mirror to spy on a female mage taking a bath??"
She remained silent for a moment, shook her head to dispel the speechlessness in her heart, and continued reading.
"That must be just an isolated case, haha, I didn't expect to see something so strange right away... Hmm, this one should be more normal: soliciting non-irritating plant varieties of suitable size, ah, I know this one!"
"Size requirements: approximately 5 centimeters in diameter and 20 centimeters in length... What on earth is this competition for?!"
The half-elf rubbed his temples, let out a long breath, and suppressed the urge to complain as he continued watching.
"Looking for suitable plant varieties for the youth-enhancing hybridization of *Hymenochloa chinensis*... What kind of flower is this?!"
"For materials research purposes, I need to acquire a pair of discontinued 'Unbreakable' stockings, preferably at least three years old, to facilitate research on the material's wear curve... Hmm??"
"Invitation to collaborate on a spell development project. The goal was to create a spell that would make someone mentally impaired, a control-type spell? This task has also been cancelled because... the collaborator designed a spell that would make the user shout 'Mambo' upon use, and it was reported by a resident of Lundia who called himself the 'Mambo Poet'..."
"I don't understand it, I don't understand it at all..."
Artemis looked up at the magical crystal chandelier on the ceiling and sighed.
"If my older brother were here, he would feel very comfortable..."
"Ah, found it!"
The receptionist suddenly exclaimed, pointing to several tasks in the book:
"There are still a few association missions left. They must be relatively niche, so they haven't been claimed yet. Generally speaking, missions from the Mage Association give more contribution points, so they are hard to grab."
The half-elf snapped out of his daze and turned his gaze to the direction the receptionist was pointing.
[Travel to Senhai Territory to cultivate the following magical potions in a different location and record the process: Mama Ginseng, Hibiscus, Hua Zi...]
[Travel to Twin Gorges Territory to track down the unknown monsters and determine their species.]
[Travel to Dragonhorn Territory to trace the origins of this ritual magic: [Image]]
"Perhaps because the process of cultivating potions is very lengthy, tracking and identifying unknown monsters is a great test of a mage's knowledge, and tracing ritual magic is too dangerous, these tasks were all placed here after the mages tried them only occasionally."
April patted her knees, stood up, and said:
"In short, Lord Herod, as an elf, you should be very skilled in cultivating potions, so I recommend you..."
"I choose the third quest." The half-elf looked at the quest in Dragonhorn Territory, his finger tracing the photograph that looked somewhat like a sacrificial ritual, then looked up and said again:
"I choose this mission to Dragonhorn Territory."
……
……
After the half-elf left, Apo, carrying a heavy quest book, teleported to Orianna's room and spoke through the veil of a mayfly shell:
"Your Excellency Orianna, Lord Herod has accepted the mission to Dragonhorn Territory."
Behind the thin veil came the sound of a teaspoon stirring against the side of the cup. Orianna was silent for a moment, then picked up the cup and drank the entire cup of tea in one gulp, saying with distress:
"That's strange. Logically speaking, she hasn't received much elven education, so she shouldn't know much about these profound magical knowledge. How can she still be so confident in accepting the task of tracing back the ritual magic?"
April hesitated for a moment, then said:
"Sir Herold explained that she had some specific purpose, which concerned her apprentice, Mr. Latis."
"Latis?"
Orianna scratched her head, recalling the half-elf's reply, and couldn't help but say:
"Huh? She just showed off her affection in front of me?"
She shuddered, shook her hair-raising arms, rubbed her shoulders, and frowned as she said:
"I'm already this old, why should I have to suffer like this!"
……
……
"Ate has already dealt with the mage territory..."
Latis closed the door, yawned, and sat back down in his chair.
"I woke up at eight in the morning, but I went back to sleep and it's almost noon now..."
He shook his head and sighed:
"Eight o'clock might be Latis, but it's unlikely that Latis is eight o'clock..."
Setting aside his scattered thoughts, he began to plan his next goals in his magic notebook.
"First up is our annual Magic Network quest, they're all coming in high spirits... This will take up some of my time, but I don't necessarily have to follow the long process in the simulation. This isn't some game where you can't skip ahead, I can just hand over different tasks..."
Latis nodded and drew several lines after "Magic Network Annual Commission", assigning them to "Jennifer", "Gangan" and "Slingk" respectively.
He looked at the words "Gan Gan" and couldn't help but scratch his head.
"Although I highly doubt that this lucky guy would have survived even without my help, I really can't just gamble like this... We've been teammates for so long in the simulation, there's still some bond between us..."
"Give her this task, give her that task, and leave this one to me..."
After arranging the annual Magic Network commission, Latis nodded and closed his magic notebook.
"Alright! It's time for the much-anticipated moment to build your personal brand from scratch!"
He chuckled, rubbed his hands together, and retrieved the address of the unknown forum beacon from his consciousness.
"Right now I'm still a law-abiding citizen who hasn't been flagged as risky. If I transfer the risky content to the forum beacon, I won't be afraid of the cyber police checking my background anymore!"
He closed his eyes and, following the beacon address in his mind, began to direct his consciousness toward that location.
After carefully checking the address for a while, Latis suddenly opened his mouth and closed his eyes, shouting as he launched his soul link.
A few seconds later, the soul link that reflected back, symbolizing the correct address, engraved the corresponding beacon in his consciousness. From then on, he could directly connect to the forum beacon simply by touching this mark in his consciousness, which was very convenient.
"Phew... I finally managed to stuff my big link into your little beacon. Let me see, this is my future gathering place for fellow readers of Huangwen novels..."
The content of the forum beacon slowly materialized into recognizable symbolic information. Latis sensed the desolate forum beacon appearing in his consciousness and suddenly felt a sense of emptiness.
"Okay, the readers haven't arrived yet, so it's normal that there's nothing here... It's unrealistic to expect it to be like the 'Monster Hunter Bar' with a bunch of abstract readers and a bunch of random memes as soon as it arrives..."
He scratched his head, stared at the empty beacon for a few more seconds in melancholy, and then cheered himself up.
"Even if they are like-minded friends, you have to find them one by one... Come on, La, even if you can't become Lornezo and Mixianshan from another world, at least be Huaiyi-ge, right?"
Latis smiled humorously, then used his mind to inscribe several large characters directly above the main interface of the beacon.
"From today onwards, you'll be called 'Hand of the Mage'!"
With a wave of his hand, he quickly began drawing CAD engineering drawings.
"This section is designated as a 'Study Resources' area for uploading the main text of books and fanfiction written by fellow readers; this section is designated as a 'I Want It All' area for sharing and recommending different preferences; and this section is categorized as a 'NoFap Check-in' area for mutual encouragement and physical fitness..."
A dozen minutes later, Latis looked at the forum beacon, which was beginning to take shape, and nodded with a sense of accomplishment.
"Next, I'll change all my spell descriptions into mysterious links... Holy crap, why is this starting to resemble a simplified Chinese internet?"
Latis paused for a moment, pondered for a while, and drew a small area below the beacon name on the main interface. He thought of various forum rules and regulations, and was about to start writing when he suddenly felt that those serious rules didn't quite fit his style.
So he scratched his head, laughed, and wrote down what he thought was the most suitable prompt.
[Hand of the Mage]
Are you 18 years of age or older: Yes/No