Mist Empire’s Rise: Fake Noble to Fog Queen

Chapter 352 Mist Empire’s Rise:- 350: The Legendary Dorm Monitor

"Yeah, it was him," Hessel said. "Wordsworth is a Puppeteer. He's really skilled at designing and controlling puppet joints and mechanical devices. Very talented too."

"A few nights ago he saw me revising the flying device blueprints. Not only did he point out several mistakes, he also helped me design control systems that could adjust the aircraft's flight dynamics."

"The mechanical birds I make can only fly fixed routes. But his mechanical birds avoid obstacles on their own. You just give them one command and they complete it themselves."

"When it comes to alchemy, Wordsworth is more talented than me."

This was something Hessel didn't want to admit, but had to.

She used to think alchemy was simple and didn't need much study. She could identify alchemical materials with her eyes closed and casually refine extremely pure metals.

Everyone around her only forged weapons like swords—boring and dull. But she liked crafting complex machinery, making more innovative things.

She'd thought that making a few flying birds and devices that sprayed water or fire made her a unique genius in the alchemy profession.

Then she met Luo Wei.

Luo Wei said there were flying devices in the world that could travel thousands of miles without magic, and gave her a pile of blueprints and alchemical secrets with strange symbols she'd never seen before.

That was the first time she doubted herself. Was she really that talented?

Why couldn't she make a passenger aircraft without magic runes and magic stones?

The second time she doubted herself was meeting Wordsworth.

Wordsworth had once been an ordinary human. After being captured by a Puppeteer, he was turned into a puppet.

After becoming a puppet, the Puppeteer kept him around. Through observation, he learned a lot of alchemical knowledge.

That evil Puppeteer never deliberately taught him anything. But just by picking up scraps and his own understanding, he could craft intricate mechanical puppets.

Hessel felt discouraged. "Luo Wei, I'm not an alchemy genius at all. I probably can't become a Mystical Smith. You should ask Wordsworth to help you craft flying devices that can go thousands of miles instead."

"Senpai, why would you think that?" Luo Wei quickly said. "Did you forget my prophecy? I said you could become a Mystical Smith, so you definitely can. Why put yourself down?"

"The undead senior is good at control system design. You're good at materials processing and mechanical equipment manufacturing. You're both geniuses—just different types."

"You're only seventeen and you've been studying alchemy for less than two years. The undead senior has been at the academy for thirteen years alone. Once you grow, you'll definitely be better than him!"

"You need to believe in yourself. You have talent in alchemy, interest, and hard work. Other people succeed with just one of those. You have all three—why worry about not succeeding?"

Comparing your weaknesses to others' strengths—of course you'd always lose.

In Luo Wei's view, Hessel was an all-around genius. Mechanics, materials, energy systems—she dabbled in everything. She especially excelled at making destructive weapons, like fire-breathing birds and exploding helicopters.

Wordsworth—she didn't know much about him, but Puppeteers were better at mechanical automation, or rather, machine intelligence design.

Different fields entirely. No comparison possible.

Together they could complement each other's weaknesses, forming a complete research team to collaborate on manufacturing large, high-precision complex machinery.

Luo Wei said to Hessel, "Your collaboration is a powerful alliance. Separately you're independent individuals. Senpai, in my heart, you're better than everyone else."

Hessel's eyes flickered. After a long moment, she hummed softly in agreement.

Luo Wei smiled faintly. "Let's go. Back to the dorms."

Puppets were interesting, sure, but they were expensive and complex, requiring tons of magic runes and magic stones. Commoners couldn't afford them, and she didn't need them.

For now, Hessel's skills better suited her current needs.

Of course, machines would eventually move toward intelligence.

Plus, Puppeteers actually had broad career prospects. Making puppets also required refining materials, researching mechanical principles, and preparing energy sources. Just the control systems alone could be used across all industries—an essential profession for later national development.

So she couldn't let either of these special talents slip away—Hessel or Wordsworth. Even if she didn't need them now, she had to hoard them for herself.

The two walked into the rose garden, circling along the wall to the castle corridor.

The castle doors were already closed. They could only climb into the dorms through the corridor.

Hessel's ten fingers gripped the brick gaps. Using hands and feet, she climbed up to the corridor in moments.

Luo Wei spread her wings and flew up light as a feather.

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"Good night, senpai. Rest well tonight."

"You too. Good night."

They said goodbye, turned back-to-back, and headed toward opposite ends of the corridor to their respective castle wings.

Luo Wei walked a few steps, then paused. She suddenly turned to look at Hessel's retreating back and called softly, "Senpai, wait!"

"Mm?" Hessel turned back. "What is it?"

"I have a few words I'd like you to pass on to the undead senior," Luo Wei said quietly. "On Demon Island in the North Sea, there's a small town where humans and undead live in harmony. There, he can freely bask in sunlight."

Hessel froze. "Demon Island..."

"Yes, Demon Island in the Demon Sea," Luo Wei said without changing expression. "I heard before that a mysterious person conquered the Demon Sea and became lord of Demon Island."

"That lord also issued sanctuary laws. Whether you're a non-human intelligent race or undead, you can live there."

Hessel: "I've heard that too, but what if it's a Church conspiracy?"

What if this was a trap set by the Church? Going there would be walking into a snare.

"It won't be," Luo Wei said firmly. "I have a friend who went to Demon Island. He said he personally saw Church Knights thrown into the sea by a high-level undead Archmage on the island. Demon Island absolutely has no connection to the Church."

"A high-level undead Archmage!" Hessel looked shocked.

All the high-level Archmages in the entire Western Plains added up didn't exceed ten fingers. Demon Island actually had a high-level undead Archmage!

"Your friend," Hessel couldn't help asking, "who is he? Did he really go to Demon Island?"

"Of course it's true," Luo Wei said earnestly. "My friend is a lumber merchant. He went to Demon Island to sell lumber."

This statement sounded fine at first. But thinking carefully, Hessel fell silent.

What kind of people were Luo Wei's friends anyway? Selling lumber all the way to Demon Island—wasn't he afraid of dying?

That was one of the Western Plains' three great evil gathering places—the Demon Sea!

Whatever her thoughts, Hessel agreed on the surface. "Okay, I'll tell him."

Luo Wei: "Thanks."

The two said goodbye again, heading separately toward the elementary and intermediate dorm corridors.

Under the corridor, a pair of brown eyes watched the two girls enter the castle. Mercilessly, they picked up a quill pen and wrote down two names on papyrus.

Rushing through the academy gates right at the bell was one thing, but staying out late and sneaking up the corridor for a rendezvous—extremely bad influence. Three points deducted from year score!

Luo Wei didn't know she'd been caught red-handed by the dorm monitor. The year score she'd worked so hard to raise had just lost three more points. After returning to her room, she collapsed into bed and slept until dawn.

The closer to year-end evaluations, the more serious magic apprentices became in class.

Professor Mike's Magic Rune class was nicknamed by students as the "fastest hypnosis course." Usually in his classroom, students fell over in droves.

The occasional few who kept their necks propped up listening had mosquito coils spinning in their eyes.

Opposite to alchemy class's physical torture, Magic Rune class was unbeatable at destroying people's spirits and willpower. Even black magic sleep spells probably didn't work this fast.

But today, not a single student dozed off in Magic Rune class. Everyone sat up straight, eyes wide as bells, vowing to fight the sleep demon to the end.

This was harder than blacksmithing. Less than half an hour into class, everyone's faces showed painful, agonized expressions.

Magic Runes—even dogs wouldn't study this!

Fortunately, once they reached intermediate level, they could freely choose professions they liked. They just had to survive this year's evaluation...

Damn it!

What the hell was the geometric construction method for cubic equation roots?

Why draw it as geometry? Why use conic sections to find roots?

Could they just not draw these runes?!

Students in the classroom tore out their hair but couldn't draw it. They stared at the blank papyrus on their desks with bitter hatred.

Luo Wei, however, listened with great interest. What Professor Mike taught this lesson was using conic section intersections to find general geometric solutions for cubic equations—basically the most fundamental algebraic geometry.

Using conic curves to find cubic equation roots was a theory proposed by an eleventh-century Arab mathematician.

This world's algebraic development was a bit faster. Someone had actually researched the general solution method for cubic equations five hundred years early.

After class, Luo Wei walked to the podium and handed in the magic circle replication homework Professor Mike had assigned her last time.

"You finished it this quickly?" Professor Mike put down the class grade sheet.

Luo Wei nodded. "Professor, could you check it for me?"

"Of course." Professor Mike took her homework and began examining it carefully.

The blueprint not only had the replicated magic circle, but also breakdown diagrams. The small magic runes composing the circle had also been extracted, neatly drawn on another sheet of papyrus.

This was perfect homework. Professor Mike couldn't find any errors.

"Luo Wei, every time I think I won't be surprised by your progress anymore, you give me new surprises," Professor Mike sighed.

"You gave me the opportunity to progress," Luo Wei smiled in response. "With such an excellent teacher leading the way, how dare this student stop moving forward?"

Professor Mike joked, "If you keep progressing like this, we won't know who's whose teacher anymore."

"Then I'd have to live to a thousand years old," Luo Wei said with mock distress. "After all, the knowledge I need to learn from you is as numerous as the stars. Who knows when I'll finish learning it all."

"Hahaha," Professor Mike laughed heartily. "You're such a modest child!"

Luo Wei blinked. "You're also a modest professor!"

Professor Mike was tickled by her response and laughed cheerfully for quite a while.

After turning in her homework, Luo Wei asked curiously, "Professor, do you know which master invented the general solution method for cubic equations?"

"I can't be called a master," Professor Mike said with a smile. "This is a solution method I only recently discovered."

"So it was you!" Luo Wei looked at him with respect.

Though for modern people, solving a cubic equation was simple—any high schooler could do it—in the mathematically backward Middle Ages, this was a problem that had stumped mathematicians for hundreds of years.

Professor Mike was too low-key. With such high achievements, he didn't even mention his own name when teaching.

Actually, Professor Mike wasn't being modest. In this era, mathematical theory just wasn't valued.

No one researched such things. Even with new theoretical results, no one cared.

People were more concerned with who could draw the most powerful magic runes, not why runes had to be drawn that way, or whether they could find patterns in runes to create new ones.

Even Professor Mike himself didn't think he'd done anything remarkable. Aside from himself, few people could understand what he researched.

Years later when his manuscripts were lost, these theories would probably disappear completely, as if they'd never existed.

Fortunately, Luo Wei had come to this world.

She knew the value of these theories. She remembered the name Claude Mike. She would ensure his theories were passed down in this world.

After chatting with Professor Mike for a while, Luo Wei volunteered and got the job of helping him organize his manuscripts.

Professor Mike's manuscripts were scattered everywhere—some sent to friends, some at home, and some already damaged that he needed to rewrite.

Organizing the manuscripts wasn't urgent. Luo Wei first returned to her castle dorm, activated the teleportation array, and transported herself to Demon Island.

Over ten days had passed since her last visit. The island's small town hadn't changed much, except the temple's completion progress bar had grown a bit longer.

The town's "McAuley Malt Tavern" was open for business. It was lunchtime, and some island residents entered the tavern to buy food.

Those with money paid cash. Those without paid with labor—like giving undead baths or combing their wigs.

Luo Wei circled once above the town, then flew toward the cliff where Patrick often slacked off.

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