Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems-Chapter 144: B-Grade Article, 50 Contribution Points

The next day, at Lilith's Cottage's Central Academy Library located on the west side of the port city, a massive building that wasn't an alchemical cottage.
The entire structure was antique in style, not the stone architecture typical of the southeastern quadrant, but a seven-story wooden building stacked like a tower.
Its core was supported by a high-level magical plant, the [Tower of Babel Tree].
The tree's canopy supported the library's various auxiliary rooms, giving Lilith's Cottage's public library a distinctive character.
On the first floor of the library.
A dwarven scholar sitting in a chair had a completely different tranquil temperament from alchemists. Wearing plain glasses, he was reading through a book thicker than a brick, his fingers thin and withered like bones, revealing the joints beneath his skin.
Besides this dwarven scholar, the library had many other staff members, all appearing rather scholarly.
There was even a halfling-born formal wizard specializing in general studies who was on the first floor, leading his students in learning about and explaining the library's history.
Locke entered the library, bowed to the distant halfling formal wizard, then quickly walked toward the first floor's supervisor, the dwarven scholar.
The public library was a type of public building within Lilith's Cottage, and also the headquarters, teaching and research base, for general studies scholars within Lilith's Cottage.
So-called general studies was a sub-direction of divination school general magic for wizards.
Wizards studying this magical category had two ultimate certification goals: one was obtaining a general studies doctorate certification to become a well-read general studies scholar working in the library system.
The second was abandoning the general studies doctorate certification to become an appraiser, following the path of appraiser's assistant, appraiser, senior appraiser.
But this would mean leaving the library system, distancing themselves from academy leadership and association subsidies, taking the path of self-reliance.
General studies was, in a sense, a highly specialized magical category with very narrow application fields.
So it could only be found in larger wizard academies in the southeastern quadrant, and their available job positions were extremely limited, with most people living on White Wizard Association subsidies.
However, some senior appraisers lived quite comfortably.
Locke approached the first-class wizard apprentice, dwarf Orr, saying, "Scholar Orr, what score did my article from six days ago receive?"
Dwarf Orr's eyes brightened when he saw Locke approaching. "Potion Master Augustine, you've come. If you hadn't come, I was planning to send you a letter."
"Potion Master Augustine, the article you submitted six days ago has been cross-reviewed by three general studies doctors (first-class wizard apprentices), with an evaluation score of 71 points. Classification grade: B-level."
"You can receive 50 contribution points."
Dwarf Orr held a yellow envelope with his thin, bone-like fingers and handed it to Locke. "You don't need to come in person in the future. You potion masters are very busy, I'll arrange for library servants to deliver letters."
"You were just promoted to first-class wizard apprentice recently, right? Didn't expect you to publish an article scoring over 70 points so quickly."
Dwarf Orr's eyes flickered with a cunning gleam. "Moreover, you must have a high-level vampire prisoner, otherwise you couldn't have written that article."
"How enviable. From that vampire, you should be able to publish five or six more related articles. As long as they reach over 60 points, C-level, you can get 20 contribution points."
"Even just accumulating them by publishing several articles could exchange for quite a few resources."
Dwarven scholar Orr showed Locke a benevolent smile. "Your article was very interesting. I enjoy reading vampire-related articles, but unfortunately such articles are limited in number and rarely researched."
"I hope you can publish several more. Oh right, does the academy know you captured a vampire?"
Locke nodded slightly in gratitude. "Thank you. I'll try to be faster. Scholar Orr, I placed that vampire in my wizard mentor's magical creature breeding room."
Dwarven scholar Orr nodded knowingly. "A formal wizard's collection, that makes sense."
"You can keep that vampire for your own research then."
Within the library system, first-class wizard apprentices publishing articles didn't need to rely heavily on their wizard mentors, since the library system had many general studies doctors and general studies-oriented wizard apprentices.
General studies meant learning everything and understanding a bit of everything. They couldn't do hands-on work, but their evaluations and critiques were quite professional.
The greatest value of these general studies scholars was preserving knowledge and heritage for the academy, recording various achievements within the academy, auditing these achievements, and categorizing them by grade.
Additionally, these general studies wizards could use divination school spells.
When recording things within the library's interior or querying certain knowledge, their services were needed.
The library's internal materials were vast, without using divination spells, it would be very difficult to find the specific knowledge one needed.
The academy's article grading system was divided into S-level (90-100 points), A-level (80-89 points), B-level (70-79 points), C-level (60-69 points), and D-level (below 60 points).
The contribution points obtainable within the same grade were similar. Score classifications within the same grade were only to help querying wizards understand the reliability of these materials and the excellence of research methods.
So scores were mainly for personal reference. If one cared about the magical resources and credentials obtained, the article's grade was most important.
S-level represented breakthrough achievements with revolutionary potential and very high citation rates. These were currently basically unrelated to him, all formal wizard-level things.
A-level represented important research achievements with substantial breakthroughs in existing theory/technology.
If Locke dared to publicize his Memory Ointment formula and several magical plant breeding methods, those articles should all be this grade, only receiving lower scores because they were apprentice-level materials.
B-level used qualified research methods but had limited innovation, articles with some highlights that were relatively useful as reference materials.
Locke initially thought his submitted article couldn't be evaluated as B-level, but unexpectedly it still received B-level rating.
Probably because the academy was currently engaged in wizard war with Blood Curse Court.
C-level was relatively basic research with slight practical value, but articles without much significant impact.
As for D-level, these were articles without any rewards, serving only to enrich the library with no other significant purpose. Such articles were also the most numerous in the library.
Because many first-class wizard apprentices, when continuously publishing articles, couldn't guarantee quality and sometimes relied entirely on luck, only to be identified by general studies wizards as padded articles.
Then they became materials merely enriching the library's book count.
This grading system was similar across academy libraries throughout the southeastern quadrant and White Wizard Association libraries.
However, Association libraries were stricter than academy libraries. Basically, Association library material grades would automatically rise one level when brought to academy libraries.
For example, Association library B-level articles would generally be half a grade higher in better academy libraries, but would be A-level articles in lesser academy libraries.
Locke opened the envelope and saw congratulations from academy library scholars and the 50 contribution point reward.
Locke momentarily fell into a daze. 'Yuri went to the mortal realm and worked hard for several months to earn just 20 contribution points, while I casually published an article and earned 50 contribution points.'
'Dean Tongus and the others spent a lifetime there, leading my group with Patty and Kode, and only obtained 15 contribution points...'
'So publishing articles is the fastest way to earn contribution points.'
Locke sighed with emotion but on second thought, that wasn't quite right. Everyone knew publishing articles was the fastest way to obtain contribution points.
The problem was that not everyone had the ability to publish high-scoring articles, most people could only publish inferior articles scoring below 60 points.