I made it to the top last week!
…
The Ferryman grinned, "The famous playwright in Sturk, Jaros Astar, has six popular operas." He did not pay much attention to the ferryman in front of him, because the ferryman was also a core member of the Congress of Magic in Sturk.
"Sorcerer?" Lucien asked curiously, thinking of his identity on the surface.
The Ferryman looked at Lucien and said respectfully, "Yes, he's a Shadow Tutor."
Lucien was a bit surprised, "A Shadow Tutor?"
In the ancient magic empire, only senior-rank sorcerers could be called a Shadow Tutor.
"Of course. Although I don't know Mr. Astar's specific level, there's no doubt that he's a senior-rank sorcerer. In fact, the Congress of Magic has a few other people like him in Sturk. They all have prominent identities, but they often go out and come back to Sturk in turns. " The Ferryman turned around and looked at the rippling water in front of him, "The Congress of Magic in Sturk is more powerful than you can imagine, but they're definitely not going to do anything for trivial matters."
"The more powerful the Congress is in Sturk, the safer I feel." Lucien replied humorously. Although Sturk was very important, there were already several senior-rank sorcerers in Sturk, which was enough to prove that Rhein described the Congress of Magic to be very powerful.
In the hustle and bustle on both sides of the street, the Ferryman flew across the water like an arrow and entered a quiet and beautiful district in Sturk.
…
The Ferryman stopped in front of a three-story villa with a large garden. Lucien and the Ferryman walked to the gate on the slippery stone steps.
"Mr. Tom, you're here." The guard at the gate obviously knew the Ferryman, so he opened the gate without asking any questions.
Lucien followed the Ferryman with a smile on his face. He did not expect that the Ferryman would give him such a common name, which reminded him of the poor cat.
Tom, the ferryman, said casually as he walked through the garden and lawn, "The more common a name is, the less likely it is to be noticed by others. For people like us who can't walk under the light, being noticed by others often means death. Haha, Mr. Evans, you are also very wise to use a common name, aren't you? "
"In fact, sometimes it's safer to be noticed and valued, like Mr. Astar." Lucien looked around the ordinary-looking villa and didn't find any traces of magic.
Meow. A tiger-striped cat with its tail erect proudly and elegantly crossed in front of the two people.
Suddenly, it said in a hoarse voice, "Astar told you to go to the second floor. He's studying arcana and doesn't have time to come down and greet you."
The cat spoke so suddenly that it almost gave Lucien a fright.
Tom answered a little fearfully, "Yes, Madam Mercedes."
Then, he introduced her to Lucien, "This is Mr. Astar's familiar, uh, partner, Lady Mercedes."
"Nice to meet you, Madam Mercedes." Lucien greeted her politely.
The tiger-striped cat snorted as a response and then walked into the garden unhurriedly.
When Lucien and Tom walked to the gate of the villa in silence, Lucien looked back and saw the tiger-striped cat jumping around, trying to catch a butterfly. It seemed that the cat was having a lot of fun, and there was no sign that it was using any magic.
"Sometimes, human beings can't enjoy happiness any more than animals," Tom said in a low voice and then pushed the wooden gate open.
Lucien turned around and smiled, "But the wealth of life is not just happiness."
…
The second floor was bright under the sunlight. However, when Lucien followed Tom through the corridor, he felt that the whole place was covered by shadows. The feeling came out of nowhere, and it seemed to be caused by the Sun's Corona that he was wearing.
When they came to a dark wooden door, Tom knocked on it gently, "Mr. Astar, we're here."
"Come in. The door's not locked. "A deep and hoarse voice came from the other side of the door.
Tom carefully pushed the door open and signaled Lucien to come in with him.
Lucien's first impression of the study was that there were a lot of paper balls scattered on the thick gray carpet. Then, he was surprised to see that there was a feather pen on the desk, which was not being held by anyone. The feather pen was writing rapidly on the white paper, and the feather pen was dipping into the ink bottle beside it.
"Where's Mr. Astar?" Lucien was a little shocked by the magical scene. He looked around, but all he saw was a bookshelf full of books of different styles. He did not see the Shadow Tutor.
Tom, who was standing next to Lucien, picked up the paper balls on the carpet and put them into the wastepaper basket.
Out of curiosity, Lucien picked up a paper ball like Tom did. Through the gaps between the paper balls, Lucien saw a lot of mathematical formulas and calculations.
Since peeping at other people's arcana research could lead to terrible consequences, Lucien did not unroll the paper but threw it into the wastepaper basket after a quick glance. Once again, he affirmed the fundamental role of mathematics in arcana research.
"Wait for a few minutes." The deep and hoarse voice came from every corner of the room. However, Lucien saw many silhouettes in the shadows between the curtain and the desk. The silhouettes formed the image of a gentle, black-haired man. At first glance, he looked like a young man in his twenties, but if he looked more carefully, he would think that he was in his forties.
The black-haired man was sitting on a recliner, engrossed in a book with a black hardcover cover. In the faint shadows around him, there seemed to be countless shadows of quills writing and calculating.
About ten minutes later, the quill on the desk stopped moving, and the shadow of the quill completely disappeared. The black-haired man closed the book and turned to Lucien and Tom, "Welcome, my new friends on the path of arcana and magic. I'm Astar. "
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Astar." When Lucien bowed, he saw the cover of the book clearly. On the cover of the book, there were two words with special meaning, "Arcana?"
Astar raised the book, "You've seen Arcana before?"
"The gentleman who told me where the Congress of Magic was showed me an issue of Arcana from many years ago." Lucien could not hold back his curiosity, "Mr. Astar, can I have a look at this issue of Arcana? Is this the latest issue of Arcana? "
Astar stood up from the deck chair and smiled gently, "You're studying the ancient magic system, so I'm afraid that you won't be able to understand the content of Arcana. And if you don't understand Arcana, you won't be able to understand the new magic ideas in Magic." Lucien pointed at another hardcover book with a six-pointed star on his desk, "However, you're the only sorcerer who has asked me to read Arcana in the past ten years. I'm very satisfied with your eagerness to learn. So, feel free to read it, but don't expect to understand it."
As he was talking, Astar handed the journal to Lucien, and then he looked at the ferryman, "Tom, how should I address this sorcerer?"
"He's Mr. Evans, a first-circle sorcerer." Tom always felt a bit awkward in front of Astar.
Lucien turned the page of Arcana, and the look on his face froze, because the first article was titled: A Complex Variable Function That Can Describe and Calculate Spiritual Force Field.
"The Congress of Magic has been studying complex variable functions for a long time?" Lucien was surprised that some of the books in the Library of the Soul were related to complex variable functions. However, Lucien was not a math major or a physics major, so it was very difficult for him to learn complex variable functions for a long time. Lucien also thought that the Congress of Magic was still at the stage of calculus in the late 18th century and the early 19th century, so he was not in a hurry to learn complex variable functions. "The Congress of Magic has entered the stage of comprehensive development of complex variable functions? It seems that I have to hurry up and learn … "
Complex variable functions were functions that took complex numbers as independent variables. Many achievements had been made in the study of them, such as the calculation of planar fields and Riemann surfaces. Later, Riemann constructed curved geometric spaces based on Non-Euclidean theory, which was a mathematical tool of Einstein's general theory of relativity, and was used to explain the relationship between gravity, time, and space.
Seeing Lucien's frozen face, Astar chuckled, "It's normal that you don't understand it. Ever since the grand arcanist, Mr. Brook, discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism and proposed the concept of electromagnetic field, many people in the Congress of Magic started to study all kinds of 'fields'. For example, when we cast spells and sense the surroundings, our spiritual power does not appear as individual lines, but as a spiritual force field. However, if we want to accurately calculate the strength of every point in the spiritual force field, we lack the mathematical tools, so complex variable functions were invented. "
"This is different from the appearance of complex variable functions on Earth. The requirement determines the result of mathematics. "Lucien thought to himself.
Astar continued, "The Shadow Field that I'm studying needs complex variable functions. Alright, I know you're dizzy from talking about the latest arcana knowledge with you. All in all, when you come to Allyn, Evans, the Congress will give you the basic books of arcana and magic, so that you can change from an ancient sorcerer to a modern one in two to three years. Of course, it's up to you to do that. I've seen many middle-rank sorcerers who studied ancient magic resist the current arcana and magic until they died of old age. "
"The Congress will give me the basic books for free?" Because of the Hand of Paleness, Lucien was very concerned about this kind of thing, and he was afraid that there might be some kind of request that he could not refuse.
"There's a small request, but I won't ask you to do anything dangerous. The Congress has always believed that sorcerers below middle-rank should focus on their studies, and the best way to repay the Congress is for you to grow up. "Astar said kindly," Tom, take Evans to the room on the third floor. "
After that, Astar looked at Lucien, "There are more than ten apprentices on the third floor who passed the test and were sent to me under the pretext of studying drama. They either have great spiritual power or great talent in arcana, and they'll go to the Kingdom of Holm with you. If you're not afraid of being embarrassed, you can learn the basics of arcana from them right now. "
After saying goodbye to Astar, Lucien and Tom went to the third floor. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you're welcome to come to qidian.com to vote. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
