With the help of the tower spirit, the sorcerers who arrived first opened the closed door, revealing the view in the room to Samantha and Rachel.
It was a clean and tidy library. Every book was neatly placed without the slightest mess. The papers on the desk had been divided into a few piles. Even the draft papers were folded neatly. Every other detail and every corner fully reflected the personality of Havin, the master, who was so serious that he was almost morbidly obsessive.
On the chair behind the desk, Havin was sitting quietly. His body was covered in a layer of translucent ice. Even in the fiery temperature of July, the ice did not melt at all. Instead, it turned the air around into frost.
Inside the ice, Havin was sitting very straight. He was wearing the standard attire of a Tower sorcerer with a gray pointed hat and a loose robe. Together with the arcana badges on his chest, he looked as solemn as if he were attending the award ceremony of 'Evans Prize in Arcana' or 'Arcana Scepter'.
His face was pale, with vague confusion, desperation, and relief in his rigid face. He was holding a glass of red wine in his hands, as if he would stand up and welcome everybody at any moment. However, his eyes were empty and lifeless.
"This is indeed the way that Havin would choose to die. Clean, refreshing, and elegant …" Rachel said to Samantha in a low voice.
They both knew Havin. After all, they were both Sixth Circle arcanists of the Tower who had the potential to become Sixth Circle arcanists. They competed and encouraged each other, and their relationship was quite harmonious. Therefore, they understood Havin's personality. But now, the two of them were already high-level arcanists and mages, but Havin ended his life with ice magic. It had to be said that they were the epitome of the times.
Thinking about her hesitation, confusion, and frustration recently, Samantha said with mixed feelings, "In fact, Havin would've advanced into the senior rank in another ten years … However desperate he was, he should not give up easily. If it were me, I would live on and see how the world of arcana would develop and whether or not our failure was worthwhile …"
"Havin had severe OCD and depression in the first place. I've been trying to construct corresponding hormone spells to help him, but it's a pity …" Rachel talked about herself, her teacher, and Lucien Evans. Evans put forward some concepts.
In the past, although such psychological problems could be dealt with by magic, the effect was only temporary. For example, with the spells such as Mechanized Mind, unless a sorcerer was willing to abandon normal feelings and cast such spells for a long time, the problem could not be "completely solved". Therefore, there were quite a few ancient sorcerers who were extreme or crazy!
As a good friend, Samantha was no stranger to the arcana development in psychology. She nodded and said, "Other than the help of magic, we also need daily counseling. However, we lack basic theories in psychotherapy, and it is impossible to gather the bits and pieces we have learned into a complete system."
As they talked, they walked into Havin's room. As Havin's friends and as senior-rank sorcerers, the other arcanists all agreed that they had the authority to deal with the matter.
Thanks to Havin's "good habit", Rachel and Samantha did not spend much time looking for it. They easily found an unsealed letter on the desk.
The paper inside the letter had a faint scent of books and was folded into a square shape.
Rachel was not careless. After checking carefully, she opened the letter and read the content on it softly.
"… The debates in the past have exhausted me. I can't imagine that the foundation of the entire school of astrology will be overturned. No, it's the loss of the certainty of the entire material world … I keep arguing and debating with others, but things are developing in the opposite direction …"
"… Thinking back to the rapid development of arcana in the past few years, I feel deeply confused. What we are afraid of and fighting against with all our might right now is the product of the theories that we were happy and satisfied with before. How ridiculous is that …"
"… My brain is constantly thinking about all kinds of difficult and even contradictory problems. I can't get a second of peace, but my thinking can't solve any problems. I'm very tired, very tired, and I want to end this life …"
"… I made a cowardly decision. I don't think I can catch up with the development of arcana, nor can I accept such a development. I hope that I can return to the golden age of determinism in my 'dream' …"
After reading the letter that was brimming with exhaustion, desperation, and confusion, Rachel suddenly felt the same. Except for the few arcanists, most of the arcanists probably had similar feelings, only to different extents.
"Havin … Well …" She meant to say something, but it turned into a sigh in the end.
All the sorcerers who came were caught in silence, as if they were mourning for Havin and themselves.
Samantha moved her eyes away from Havin's body and looked out of the window. The sun at noon in July was so brilliant and dazzling.
Time went by one second after another. Rachel cleared her throat and was ready to make arrangements. At this moment, a sorcerer from the Tower came over from the lift with a thick book in his hands. "'Nature' has released a special issue called 'Basics of Mathematics'!"
There was obvious delight in his voice. After only a brief reading, he seemed to have seen a well-structured temple of mathematics.
"'Basics of Mathematics'?" Samantha asked back subconsciously.
The sorcerer from the Tower replied in delight, "Yes, Mr. Evans' answers to many current mathematical questions. Through those answers, he has constructed a dense, well-founded mathematical system! "
That was the only answer he could give, because before he read it carefully, he suddenly noticed what was going on in the library. "Ha … What happened to Havin?"
The other sorcerers briefly told him what happened and Havin's last words. He said regretfully, "I should've come earlier. If Havin had read 'Basics of Mathematics', his passion for mathematics would've been rekindled. A while ago, I had similar confusion and frustration, but now, those feelings cannot extinguish my passion for mathematics. We don't know that there are so many things that we can do! "
Hearing that he was exaggerating, Samantha and Rachel couldn't help but ask for the books that he bought for other people from his magic pouch. They simply browsed through them in Havin's library.
Although they did not have the time to look at the specific derivation process, Lucien's proposal or redefinition of some of the mathematical concepts in number theory, set, group, domain, topology, and other mathematical fields were refreshing to them. It seemed that the scattered and random research in the past had become an inseparable whole, connected by blood and flesh.
Many of the contents in the book were not beyond their knowledge, because it was based on the current studies in mathematics and further explained. The new concepts proposed in the book were not difficult to understand either. Not only did it have a rigorous logical deduction process, but it also happened to hit the difficulties that the arcanists of the Tower were currently faced with.
Reading the book, Samantha, Rachel, and the rest of them seemed to see new directions in mathematics taking shape and an unusually broad world!
"Before, Mr. Evans often said that mathematics should not rely on arcana and magic, and it should not only serve to solve their problems. It should be an independent theory based on rigorous deduction and has its own problems. We cannot ignore them just because they are not useful to us." Rachel suddenly said with mixed feelings, "I remember those words very clearly, and I feel that they are very reasonable. However, I still neglected a lot of problems in my practical studies. Now, I completely understand what they mean."
Her previous sorrow, confusion, and confusion were gone. She seemed to be rather energetic, as if her passion had been reignited.
Samantha also had mixed feelings. "Before, when we applied the scattered mathematical knowledge to solve problems, although we eventually achieved our purpose, we always felt that it was obscure and difficult, as if there were invisible walls around us that were blocking our efforts. But now, those walls are gone …"
"Yes. Mr. Evans also elaborated on axiomatics deeply and proposed a complete axiom system for Tower Geometry." An arcanist introduced the latter part of the book. Although Lucien proposed the axiomatic concept a long time ago, and the arcanists had studied and applied it in practice, after seeing the axiom system for Tower Geometry, he still vaguely felt that the fundamental view of mathematics seemed to have changed.
In the heated discussion, Samantha suddenly stood up and copied a copy of the book in her hand to Havin, before she ignited it with fire.
"With 'Basics of Mathematics' as your companion, your world after your death will definitely be full of colors," she said in a low voice.
The other arcanists fell silent too. They all had mixed feelings that 'Basics of Mathematics' was released at this moment.
After dealing with Havin's funeral, Rachel, Samantha and the rest of them left his room one after another. In the meantime, the arcanists seized the time to continue reading. "'The Conundrums in Current Mathematical Studies'?"
"… Can any even number greater than 2 be written as the sum of two prime numbers?" He was caught in thought after reading the title.
"A four-color problem?" Another arcanist turned to the next page.
Hearing that, Samantha and Rachel looked at each other and hurried to read the rest of the book.
For a moment, the corridor was crowded with arcanists who looked like statues. They were mumbling something nonstop in confusion and frustration.
After a long time, the footsteps woke Samantha and Rachel up. Then, they saw the dizziness in each other's eyes.
Therefore, Rachel chuckled. "Those questions are truly terrifying. They seem simple at first, but they can't be more difficult after you think deeper …"
"So, even Mr. Evans is stumped." Samantha put on a rare smile.
"The last question. Barber's Paradox?" Rachel read the last few pages. "… A barber in a small town promised that he would only cut the hair of all the people in the town who did not cut their own hair after something happened. Should he cut his own hair? What's the problem? "
"This …" Samantha pondered for a moment before the book in her hand fell to the ground with a thud.
Dum, dum, dum. The other arcanists who heard Rachel's words also dropped their books in shock.
This was a famous paradox about set theory. At the current level of research, this meant that set theory was shaken, and set theory was the foundation of the field of mathematics. Therefore, it could be said that this paradox made people doubt the validity of the basic structure of the entire field of mathematics!
"We were just overjoyed by the perfection of the set theory, and now we have to face the horror and desperation that comes with it …" An arcanist said something similar to Havin's last words.
… …
Iristine and Nodanielle wandered around Allyn. They saw a lot of arcanists studying leisurely and diligently under the shade of the trees.
"How hardworking. No wonder the Congress of Magic has developed so quickly." Iristine remarked with mixed feelings. Then, she looked at one of the young sorcerers curiously. "What's he reading?"
"Mathematics … Basics …" Nodanielle identified the words one by one with her keen eyesight.
"Mathematics …" Iristine nodded. She was about to turn around and leave, when Nodanielle added in confusion, "A red cross has been drawn on the few words, and there are other handwritten words below …"
Iristine was even more curious. "What words?"
Nodanielle identified them carefully again. "Demon … Book …"
"The Book of Demons?" Iristine repeated in confusion.
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