Ushering In The Internet Era In The Magical World

Chapter 38: Pioneer and Leader

Dorothy was a little jealous of Aileen.

No, she was very, very, very jealous!

The non-toxic mallow was a new species that was able to thrive without any magic interference!

It was an accomplishment worthy enough to be recorded into the wood-spirit magic history books.

Not even her grandfather had achieved such accomplishments and yet it was done by a mage apprentice.

It would have been fine with her if Aileen's accomplishment were the fruit of her own research.

But Dorothy knew that all of it was established based on Mister Ajaf's theories. The spiral-leaf and broadleaf mallows were even developed by Mister Ajaf himself. So, why did Aileen get to take all the credit?

Dorothy felt that it was very unfair!

She was suffering from a strong sense of defeat!

Having been born into a magical clan and with her early influences, she had displayed exceptional talent for magic since she was a teenager.

Her attainments in wood-spirit magic were even the best among her peers.

Her instructor, Mister Tyrone, had even commented once that Dorothy's wood-spirit magic attainments had already reached the level of an actual mage, or even greater than that.

She grew up as the center of attention and had always felt she was gifted and special! The center of Felix!

She liked Delois mostly because he was the best among his peers.

But all of this had been snatched from her by a peasant-born, tan and skinny Aileen. She had even become one of the most dazzling women in Felix, no, in the whole Queville Empire. So, how was she going to regain her psychological balance?

The huge psychological blow made her toss and turn for the entire night, unable to sleep a wink.

Hence, she decided to get up and go to her grandfather's laboratory.

She knew Grandpa had to be awake.

Ever since her grandfather had joined Ajaf's laboratory, he had almost given up on sleeping altogether. Instead, he used meditation as a replacement.

Just as she had expected, he grandfather was cultivating a fruit tree when she arrived at the laboratory. A grimoire was hovering next to him and a glass brush was recording the data for the magical experiment.

"What's up?"

Dorman didn't even turn around as he continued to maintain the hastening magic and record the experiment's data with the Mage's Hand.

"I-I don't understand. Why did Mister Ajaf give Aileen the credit for the non-toxic mallow? She's just an assistant." Dorothy went straight to the point.

"The non-toxic mallow was indeed cultivated by Aileen. How could you say it was given to her?"

"But the two mutated spiral-leaf and broadleaf types were indeed cultivated by Mister Ajaf."

Dorothy's agitated tone of voice made Dorman stop his magic.

He turned around and saw the anger and dissatisfaction on his granddaughter's face. "I don't understand. This is an achievement that would be recorded into the history books. Why would Mister Ajaf give it to a mage apprentice?"

Dorman kept silent for a while before saying, "Because he is Ajaf."

"Huh?" Dorothy was taken aback. She had no idea what was the meaning of her grandfather's words at all.

"Only a true academic would focus on academic research and not care about fame and fortune. The wood-spirit magic has existed for so many years and all wood-spirit mages would use magic to interfere with the plants' growth instinctively when studying plants. Nobody had ever thought of not using magic. Only Ajaf thought of forgoing the use of magic."

Dorman pointed to the fruit tree in front of him. "Do you know what this is?"

"Rosehip."

"Yes, and no. I have separated the characteristics of this rosehip and developed it into a seedless rose hip. Then, the seedlings went through the process of mutagenesis in the microgravity glass box in the Forest of Magic. And now, this rosehip tree is already a brand new species, theoretically."

As he spoke, Dorman increased the effect of the hastening magic, and the rosehips immediately grew right in front of their eyes until they were 2-3 times bigger than normal.

Dorothy widened her eyes in shock as she said excitedly, "Grandpa, y-y-you have created a miracle!"

"Miracle?" Dorman shook his head and he didn't look surprised. Instead, there was a hint of complexity in his eyes, "No. There will be plenty of such miracles in the future, and even a normal person will be able to create this miracle! A miracle that continues to happen would no longer be seen as a miracle."

Dorothy was stunned. "H-how could that be possible?"

"Nothing is impossible. The person who created the real miracle is Ajaf!"

Dorman didn't explain to her that the "Time Rain Farm" was currently being built as he continued, "You shouldn't be caring about how famous Aileen is now. Remember, fame without ability would only become a burden. What you should be doing now is to learn more about Ajaf's theoretical knowledge and cultivate brand new plants, or even magical plants to prove your value so that Ajaf may notice you!"

Dorman paused before speaking gravely, "Because from now on, Ajaf is going to be the pioneer and leader of the Queville Empire's wood-spirit magic!"

Dorothy felt her scalp become numb as soon as she heard that; she had an expression of disbelief.

Before she could digest this shocking news, her grandfather suddenly frowned and activated the Internet Ring to summon the Internet's illusory scroll as if having been alerted.

He furrowed his brows even tighter after he swiftly read through it.

After a while, he waved his hand to turn the illusory scroll toward his granddaughter Dorothy, and said, "See? This is the Aileen that you're not convinced with. She's a lot smarter than you thought. No wonder Ajaf favors her!"

Dorothy looked at the scroll which showed Aileen's personal space.

After she read what Aileen wrote, her expression alternated between shame, shock, disbelief, admiration All kinds of emotions flooded her bosom.

She suddenly realized that Aileen was going to be her greatest rival in her life!

This lass was really smooth.

Yu Sheng'an smiled and shook his head after he read Aileen's announcement. A hint of admiration flashed through his eyes.

As the leader of the crops research team, of course he wouldn't take away the research results of his subordinates. Even when the spiral-leaf and broadleaf mallows were developed by the mutagenesis he had supervised, he still wouldn't stoop to stealing Aileen's credit.

However, he didn't expect that Aileen would push the credit back to him.

It was possible that Aileen had done that to protect herself from being the target of jealous people; or she might really have believed that she didn't deserve the credit and fame. All of this proved that she was indeed a very nice girl.

The former proved that she was street smart

The latter proved that she was humble and down-to-earth.

No matter why she had done so, Yu Sheng'an was still very satisfied with her. He even began to consider letting her take charge of the research team.

Yu Sheng'an had already considered taking the backseat on the crops research when he asked Dandell for the "Time Rain Farm."

On the one hand, the crop research had basically set up a complete procedure.

Separate different plant traits first, followed by oriented breeding of homozygotes with different traits. Then, with the help of microgravity and the magic concentration environment, create the mutagenesis for the plants before finally screening out the suitable finished products.

Frankly speaking, even an ordinary person could take part in that standard procedure. That was one of the reasons why he had built the "Time Rain Farm."

With this standard procedure in place, it no longer mattered whether he was present to oversee the operations or not.

He only needed to ensure the quality of the finished products.

On the other hand, he would have time to do other things.

For example, learn magic and seek out the other deities to form an alliance to fight against the Five Main Righteous Deities!

Honestly speaking, the reason why he had spent so much time cultivating the cropsapart from making sure that the people of the Queville Empire had enough food and maintaining the numbers of his usersit actually involved a set of aggressive expansion strategies.

This would be one of his weapons against the Five Main Righteous Deities.

War didn't have to be fought with just flesh and blood alone. Economic warfare was, in fact, the most deadly, brutal and cruel form of battle!