High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 911: Chapter 259 ’Wand

At First University, when mentioning ”Magic Wand,” people’s first reaction was not the slender, small wooden stick that helped wizards release magic. Instead, it was a student society with a long history and a high reputation, as well as the review publication sponsored by this society.

The ”Magic Wand” society was established by Mackey Wood, the student union president of First University, over a hundred years ago.

From its inception, the society adhered to the principles of ”silence” and ”neutrality,” never commenting on any events that occurred on campus nor taking sides in any disputes within the school.

Undoubtedly, this choice was not beneficial for the society’s growth and development—as far as organizations are concerned, having a clear stance is crucial for the development of the organization. People are easily influenced by certain opinions and tend to favor the viewpoints they like. An organization without opinions would only be a loose group without cohesion.

Therefore, the ”Magic Wand,” accustomed to maintaining silence on major and minor issues of the Club Union, found it hard to attract the vibrant young wizards at the university. Students preferred to follow societies that were vocal and decisive in their actions.

However, from another perspective, a ”neutral” stance was a perfectly suitable choice for the Magic Wand.

On one hand, the interwoven forces of various long-standing large and small societies in First University, especially led by the Jiuyou Academy ”Holy Will” and the Alpha Academy Blood Friends Club, controlled a significant portion of the school’s talented students. This caused them to suppress any up-and-coming societies that aspired to their status. This was the concept of monopoly and hegemony.

In short, any society that could potentially develop into a third major entity would face joint attacks from ”Will” and ”Blood Friends.”

Thus, the Magic Wand chose a low-profile development strategy, which effectively avoided the risk of suppression.

On the other hand, precisely because there were too many societies in First University with ”stances” and ”biases,” it was hard for people to believe that members of other societies would speak from an impartial perspective. Even the Club Union, which served as a glue for many societies, couldn’t reduce everyone’s prejudices. Often, the mediation meetings held by the Club Union more closely resembled large-scale bickering scenes.

By choosing neutrality, the Magic Wand naturally won ”fairness.” Public opinion inherently endowed the society with an objective stance. This made it easy for the Magic Wand’s statements to gain the approval of the vast majority of students.

For this reason, after prolonged observation, the Professor Joint Conference at First University handed over the nomination, preliminary review, and final publication of ”Arcana” to the ”Magic Wand,” while the conference only retained the re-examination and final review of the ”Arcana” list. The official reasoning was to better train students’ practical skills, but privately, many students believed that the professors were simply tired of being cornered in the office buildings demanding justice every year after ”Arcana” was published, and thus, they tossed this hot potato away.

The Magic Wand handled this hot potato quite well.

They even used ”Arcana” as a basis to create a more widely covered review publication and named this publication after the society.

This is the ”Magic Wand,” well-known within First University and even famous throughout the wizard world.

Besides publishing the ”Arcana” list every January, ”Magic Wand” also regularly released rankings related to hunting competitions such as First University hunting team ratings, Hunters ratings, hunting team manager ratings; in addition, Alchemy, Runes, Formations, Magic Scripts, Divination, Magic Potions, Beast Taming, and other specialties each had their place within ”Magic Wand.”

”Magic Wand” not only timely pushed the latest discoveries and progress in the above specialties, but it also occasionally showcased outstanding professionals and invited authoritative figures in the relevant fields for commentary.

Due to its rigorous publication and neutral stance, various major and minor organizations, including the Mage Alliance Ranking Review Committee, First University Professor’s Joint Meeting, and the First University Student Association, have indexed ”Magic Wand” and acknowledged its professional level.

Although Zheng Qing had only remembered the ”Arcana” list published every New Year’s Day after being reminded by Doctor Xiao, he was not unfamiliar with ’Magic Wand’—whether as a club or as a journal.

Zheng Qing was familiar with the Club ’Magic Wand’ because of the invitation incident at the beginning of the school year.

Due to its fame, many freshmen had searched for ways to join the ’Magic Wand’ club at the beginning of the school year, but all had returned empty-handed.

Only later did Zheng Qing learn that unlike other student clubs at the First University, ’Magic Wand’ had no tradition of open recruitment. After school started each September, they did not even send out invitations to any students.

It was said that the number of members in Magic Wand had always been fixed. Moreover, every member of Magic Wand was directly recommended by a professor. Only when a senior student graduated and left a vacant spot could a junior student have the opportunity to fill it.

Various rumors were rampant, making the truth even more elusive.

The strict recruitment system and the mysteriously low-profile style made this already famous club even more notable over the years. Many students believed that if Magic Wand did not adhere to its principle of ’low profile, practicality, and strict neutrality,’ the landscape of club power at First University would not be a duel but a tripartite power struggle.

The relationship between Zheng Qing and the journal ”Magic Wand” was related to his impressive performance after the Basic Runes class at the beginning of the school year.

Because he had successfully recited all the Basic Runes in the diagnostic test of the Basic Runes class, ”Magic Wand” had once featured him as a rising star in the Runes section—a matter for which Xin Fat Man had teased Zheng Qing for a week.

Later, after Zheng Qing received the Merlin Medal, ”Magic Wand” had contacted him trying to do an exclusive interview, but as Zheng Qing had reservations about that medal, and he did not like to be in the limelight, he ultimately declined the invitation from ”Magic Wand.”

At this moment, hearing his companions from the Absolution Hunting Team mentioning this familiar yet strange term, Zheng Qing felt somewhat dazed.

It was only then that he suddenly realized that he had been at this Wizard University for quite some time. It was almost half a year since he first heard the terms ’Magic Wand’ and ’Arcana.’

Time truly flew by.

”Wow! Who is this?!” a slightly exaggerated voice rang out beside Zheng Qing, interrupting his thoughts, ”Isn’t this the same Xiangrui who made off with over forty jade coins from us using only five gold beans last time!”

Zheng Qing came to his senses, and a pair of familiar blue-green eyes appeared in his view.

Little John Neville, holding his notebook and betting slips, was enthusiastically greeting a few young Hunters from the Absolution Hunting Team, paying particular attention to Xiao Xiao, ”How about it, Doctor, would you like to buy a few more stakes today?”