Chapter 494 - 313: Giving Soron the Graduate Student Shock (2)

Chapter 494: Chapter 313: Giving Soron the Graduate Student Shock (2)

"Just an honorary position, to lend some prestige to Hogwarts. But I do recommend you become a professor for real. Hogwarts is going to implement a completely new system for teachers and students."

"What do you mean? What kind of new system could there be for teachers and students?"

In Soron’s view, teaching apprentices was always a thankless task.

In Feilin’s traditional process of training Mages, apprentices just did simple chores, similar to the work of servants. A "student," on the other hand, held a status akin to a successor.

Traditional Mages were usually very cautious about accepting students. It was a lifetime responsibility, akin to the idea of "once a teacher, always a father figure."

The emergence of a Mage School that offered public classes was already a huge step forward.

But in Zog’s eyes, it still wasn’t advanced enough.

"You know about the advisor system at the research institutes, right?" Zog asked.

"I’ve heard of it. It seems to be one advisor responsible for a group of students, leading them in some projects and whatnot until they graduate." Soron didn’t know much about the research institutes.

"So why can’t Mages adopt a system like that? A professor recruits a batch of Mage postgraduate students. Just like how apprentices do menial tasks in a Mage Tower, these postgraduate Mages, under the professor’s guidance, will do more advanced menial tasks."

Then, Zog started explaining what "vertical projects" and "horizontal projects" were.

He went on about how postgraduates wanting holidays must not want to graduate, and how they should be toiling away in the lab 24/7.

And how a professor could use their name to take on jobs worth thousands of Gold Coins, then toss a few Silver Coins to the students who actually did the work, who would then be eternally grateful.

But in the end, you still had to guide the postgraduates in publishing a substantial thesis to help them graduate properly. That way, you’d still be a good advisor...

Soron’s eyes grew wider and wider as he listened, several lines creasing his forehead.

"But... can you trust students like that?"

The implication was that in the past, Mages who assisted their masters with research were strongly bound to them, often through nearly unbreakable Magic Contracts.

If you were recruiting postgraduates every year, the cost of High Level Magic Contracts would be too high to be feasible.

Even Zog only used Contracts on important individuals.

So without the constraint of a Contract, could you trust these postgraduates, who you only work with for a few years, to conduct important experiments?

"Of course. You’re a community of shared interests. The students get a three percent cut of the profit, and you get ninety-seven percent. But you can’t just act like that three percent is nothing! Besides, they also need this learning opportunity. You can think of it as a merchant guild."

"A merchant guild?"

"Yes, and the professor is the boss of the guild."

After all, it’s nothing new for postgraduate students to call their advisor "boss."

"And the students are your employees. If you run your research group like a merchant guild, it all starts to make sense. The only difference is that a guild relies mainly on paying wages, while an advisor relies on graduation requirements."

Soron looked as if he was beginning to understand everything.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "So, in other words, being a professor is almost pure profit for me."

"More or less."

"But will I be despised by my peers?"

Soron, a good Mage who cared deeply about his reputation.

"Don’t worry, I’ll take the heat." Zog wasn’t bothered by adding another stain to his reputation. "Besides, it probably won’t be long before your peers are joining you."

In his original plan, he had intended to wait until Hogwarts was up and running before persuading these honorary Mage professors to embrace the postgraduate education system.

But since Soron had come to him today, he was the perfect person to start with.

Soron agonized over it for a long time. The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was a solid idea.

’Under my brilliant leadership, and with a group of outstanding postgraduate students to assist me, I’m bound to achieve great things.’

’When that time comes, the position of Chairman will rotate, and it might just be my turn this year!’

"Since you’ve invited me so sincerely, Zog, it would be rude of me to refuse."

"Stop pretending. You’re obviously dying to do it," Zog exposed him without mercy.

"Hahaha..."

Soron let out a forced laugh to ease the awkwardness.

"I’m off, I’m off. Contact me when the school opens."

He was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something. He turned back and asked, looking a little puzzled, "I might be wrong about this, and my words may be a bit crude, but I still have to ask."

"What?"

"If the work of a postgraduate student is just as you described, then what’s the difference between them and a beast of burden?"

Soron sincerely asked a very profound question.

"Uh, the title is different."

Zog answered honestly.

Although postgraduate students were often joked about as doing the work of beasts of burden, they weren’t actual beasts of burden.

The students produced by postgraduate education might not be comparable to the successor-level Mages from the traditional master-apprentice system, but it had an absolute advantage in quantity and efficiency. It also wouldn’t stop the elites among them from achieving even greater heights.

In Feilin, being a postgraduate student should still be quite prestigious, conferring both ability and social status.

As for when postgraduate students would become actual beasts of burden...

That would be the day they became a dime a dozen, of course...

Hogwarts became famous faster than Zog had expected. The first book in the series wasn’t even finished, yet some people had already set their sights on it as a goal.

Zog went online to check. The news that Hogwarts School was real was still only circulating among the readers.

The traffic on the school’s official website wasn’t too high yet.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was expected to be completed within the week. The novel itself was only a little over two hundred thousand characters long, and Zog had already slowed his update speed, waiting for the hype to build.

After finishing the first book, Zog planned to wait a short while before starting the serialization of the second book, *The Chamber of Secrets*.

In the meantime, he would arrange for the publication of the first book in physical form.

Physical books in Feilin didn’t actually have much more influence than web novels.

The reason was simple: the literacy rate wasn’t high enough yet.

Right now, there was no way to sell physical books in large volumes; the only path was to make them high-end, premium products.

Therefore, Zog had no intention of printing the physical copies of Harry Potter on cheap paper.

He would go all out on making it a premium product, aiming for a collector’s edition.

Top-tier paper quality, print quality, and illustrations. The cover would be designed to look like a Magic Book from the novel, and he’d make several different versions.

Especially Hagrid’s book that bites people.

’Oh, Zog absolutely loved that idea.’

Unfortunately, it didn’t appear in the first book, but that didn’t matter. He could start designing it now.

In any case, once it was all produced, a single book would sell to fans for several dozen Silver Coins, at least.

This was an outrageous price. A few dozen Silver Coins was enough to cover a poor family’s living expenses for a year in a small town.

Fortunately, books in Feilin were already something of a luxury item, with a few Silver Coins being a common price. So multiplying that by a few times for a collector’s edition wasn’t too outlandish.

’Fans, right? How could they show off their status as fans without a massively inflated price?’

As for the version truly aimed at the masses, that would be the audiobook recording, which would begin alongside the physical book production.

There was no barrier to entry for listening to a book.

And then there was preparing for the Shadow of Evil adaptation. Zog didn’t plan to direct the Harry Potter series himself; he’d just hand it over to the studios. They were quite skilled by now.

The actors were a slight problem. They needed to find child actors, and the schedule would be tight. Once they filmed one movie, they’d have to film the rest back-to-back.

Otherwise, with how fast children grow, any slight delay would make them no longer match their characters’ appearances.

Using the Transformation Technique on people still going through puberty to maintain their appearance for an entire filming period wasn’t a good idea, either.

Zog returned to his terminal. He decided to finish writing the rest of the first book today, then release it gradually so he could take a few days off.

Just as Zog was typing furiously on his keyboard, the sound of a cheering crowd suddenly erupted from outside.

’What’s going on?’

Zog walked curiously to the window. Outside, a celebratory crowd was growing larger and larger. They had joyful smiles on their faces and were singing hymns of victory.

’Is it some special holiday today?’

As far as Zog could recall, today wasn’t a holiday. He never missed a holiday, because every festival was a good excuse to sell something.

After listening for a moment, he understood.

Just a moment ago, the Villain Kingdom had announced a ceasefire.

They called it a ceasefire, but the countless people following the war unanimously agreed that they had lost.

The hymns the people were singing celebrated the victory of the Augustine City State.