The mission detection center of Nolun Academy is located at the deepest part of the tenth floor underground.
Here, sunlight is absent all year round, only the cold glow of magic energy lamps illuminates the place.
Countless complex magical instruments are at work, emitting a low humming sound, and the air is filled with a peculiar odor from a mixture of various materials, more intense and varied than that of a laboratory.
This is one of the busiest areas of the entire workshop.
As part of a wizard organization that rules over multiple planes, Nolun Academy also has several small planes under its jurisdiction.
Additionally, with wizards from the academy constantly attacking new planes, the academy receives a massive influx of new materials from various planes and channels every day.
These materials require rigorous testing to determine their properties, levels, and potential uses.
The testing process is exceedingly detailed and cumbersome, with different materials needing to undergo dozens or even hundreds of tests such as physical strength, energy conduction, elemental erosion, chemical reactions, stability, curse resistance, etc.
Even with the non-stop busy work of the wizards here, the testing queue often extends to a despairing length.
Due to a lack of manpower, even with frequent protests from the wizards, the issue remains unresolved.
Today, the wizard responsible for testing insulation materials—an elder with graying hair and wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, jokingly called the "Resistance Barrier" by his peers, a First Level Official Wizard—is sitting at his testing station as usual.
His job is to place various new insulation material samples into specific magical instruments and run a set of fixed testing procedures.
The work is monotonous and tedious; most of the mature materials produced by high level wizards are sent directly to higher-level testing or directly to the research department.
The ones he deals with are mostly new things researched by low level wizards or apprentices. These materials often brim with impractical fantasies and vary greatly in quality.
"White Iron Base Insulation Material? Hah, another 'new insulation material'." He habitually picked up a specially numbered sample bottle, saw the crude label on it, and couldn't help but chuckle with disdain.
Inside the bottle are pieces that look very inconspicuous, like ordinary white iron coated with a layer of gold powder.
He was already used to such things.
These newcomers always think they can create some groundbreaking new invention by randomly finding some seemingly special minerals or casually combining some alchemy materials.
They also carefully conceal the specific names of the materials, afraid that others will steal their "exclusive recipes."
"Naïve," the old wizard shook his head internally.
Not to mention that this work is subject to the academy's contract limitations; no one would dare covet these research results.
As official wizards, they have broader horizons and deeper knowledge, and the things these apprentices concoct look like crude toys made by children, with no need to steal technology.
Those so-called "recipes" could be full of errors in their eyes, even containing fundamental alchemy knowledge mistakes.
Though he grumbled internally, he still dutifully placed a sample of the materials into a large testing instrument and started the standard testing procedure.
It was the meticulous nature cultivated through years of experimentation as a wizard; even when facing hopeless results, he still adhered to the process.
The instrument began to operate, runes lit up, energy waves scanning inside the material.
"Beginning basic test, resistance to physical impact... blunt instrument impact... level, inferior..."
Listening to the sounds from the instrument, the old wizard habitually recorded the test results without looking up.
Soon, a series of physical resistance tests came to an end, and the final testing result appeared on the instrument screen.
[Resistance to Physical Impact: Inferior]
"As expected."
He curled his lips, placed the material in another instrument to continue testing.
"Resistance to Energy Impact..."
[Resistance to Energy Impact: Inferior]
"Ha! As expected." Seeing the first two results were both inferior, the old wizard's expectations completely dwindled to nothing.
In fact, when he saw the specific structure of this material, he already had some premonition; it was obvious that the only thing working was the golden substance above, with the rest of the basic structure relying entirely on the white iron.
Initially, he had hoped for the energy resistance of this thing, but now it seemed he was thinking too much.
With low physical and energy resistance, it indicates there's definitely a problem with the basic structure and energy conduction mode of this thing.
Unless it shows a stunning performance in resistance to erosion, this material is bound to be deemed as scrap.
"Next is the erosion resistance test... starting with elemental erosion resistance..." He pressed a button to start the next round of tests.
Under the premise of having inferior physical and energy resistance, achieving a turnaround in erosion resistance requires at least reaching the level of a First-Ring Official Wizard to be barely considered "usable."
Drawing attention requires reaching the level of a Second Ring or even Third Ring Wizard.
But this requirement is exceptionally harsh even for Official Wizards, and almost impossible for materials developed by apprentices.
However, just as he awaited the results with this mindset, the testing instrument emitted a subtle but crisp alert sound.
The results were out.
[Resistance to Elemental Erosion: Superior! Assessment: Equivalent to Third-Ring Official Wizard Level!]
Whether it was a misconception or not, the instrument's reporting voice seemed somewhat enthusiastic.
The wizard's hand shook violently, almost dropping the recording board to the ground!
"What?!" He abruptly lifted his head, looking incredulously at the testing instrument's screen.
Superior? Third-Ring Level?!
He rubbed his eyes, thinking he had seen it wrong.
Having worked in this testing job for decades, he had seen countless materials and tested some research results of official wizards.
The elemental erosion resistance of a Third-Ring Wizard level, even most Second Level Wizard creations might not reach it!
And this, remarkably, is the testing result of material labeled with a crude submitter name, looking like a junk of white iron?!
Just this one result, even if all other tests were inferior, this material would still draw the attention of Official Wizards!
Yet, his shock was premature.
"Corrosion resistance..." A new test result quickly emerged.
[Resistance to Mental Erosion: Extreme Superior! Assessment: Equivalent to Fourth-Ring Official Wizard Level!]
[Resistance to Mental Control: Extreme Superior! Assessment: Equivalent to Fourth-Ring Official Wizard Level!]
[Resistance to Corrosion: Extreme Superior! Assessment: Assessed beyond current instrument range! Suggest upgrading detection!]
[Resistance to Curse: Extreme Superior! Assessment: Assessed beyond current instrument range! Suggest upgrading detection!]
...