Last week, I pushed the list, please keep it~
………………………………………………………………………………
"The Ferryman" smiled and said, "Sturk's famous playwright Geros Astal is a scholar of six popular operas." He didn't care about the boatman rowing the pointed boat in front of him, because he was also the core member of the Magic Council in Sturk.
"Magician?" Lucian thought of his obvious identity and asked slightly curiously.
"Ferryman" looked at Lucian sideways, his tone full of respect: "Yes, he is a shadow mentor."
Lucian was a little surprised: "Tutor?"
In the ancient magic empire, those who could be called mentors were at least high-level magicians.
"Of course, although I don't know the specific level of Mr. Astar, he is undoubtedly a high-level magician. In fact, the council has several similar gentlemen in Sturk, they all have prominent identities on the surface, but they have been 'out' for a long time and take turns returning to Sturk." The ferryman turned his head to look at the rippling canal water in front of him, "The council has more strength in Sturk than you think, but strong people like them will definitely not take action for trivial matters."
"The stronger the council is in Sturk, the more secure I feel." Lucian replied humorously, although Sturk is important, there are several high-level magicians here alone, which is enough to prove the description of the expansion of the power of the magic council in the Rhine discourse.
In the hustle and bustle on both sides, the sharp boat crossed the water like a sharp arrow and turned into a quiet and beautiful urban area in Sturk.
…………
The sharp boat stopped in front of a three-story villa with a large garden, and Lucian and the ferryman walked to the gate on the stone steps that were a little slippery and slippery in the water.
"Mr. Tom, you are here." The guard guarding the gate obviously knew the ferryman, so he didn't ask any more questions and opened the iron door directly.
Lucian followed the ferryman with a smile, not expecting him to come up with such an ordinary, ubiquitous name for himself, and always reminiscent of the poor cat.
The ferryman, Tom, said as he walked through the garden and lawn, "The more common the name, the less likely it is to be noticed, and for those of us who cannot walk in the light, attention often means death. Hehe, Mr. Evans, you also used common names wisely, didn't you?"
"In fact, sometimes it is safer to be noticed and valued, such as Mr. Astar." Lucian looked around at this ordinary-looking villa and found no trace of magic.
Meow, a tiger skin cat with a tail erected, proudly and elegantly passing in front of the two of them.
Suddenly it said in a hoarse voice: "Astal asked you to go directly to the second floor, he is studying arcane and has no time to come down to greet you."
The cat spoke so suddenly that it almost startled Lucian.
Tom replied a little timidly: "Yes, Ms. Mercides."
Then, he introduced to Lucian: "This is Mr. Astar's familiar, uh, buddy, Ms. Mercides."
"Hello, Ms. Mercides." Lucian greeted politely.
The tiger skin cat snorted in response, and then walked into the garden next to it with unhurried steps.
When he and Tom walked to the door of the villa hall in silence, Lucian looked back idly and unexpectedly saw the arrogant tiger cat jumping around trying to catch a butterfly, having a great time without any sign of using magic.
"Sometimes, humans are no more happy than animals." Tom said softly, then pushed open the wooden door.
Lucian turned his head and smiled, "But the wealth of life is not just happiness."
…………
Under the sunlight, the second floor was transparent and bright, but when Lucian followed Tom through the corridor, there was always a feeling that this place was covered with shadows, which came inexplicably, and seemed to be caused by the "Crown of the Sun" he was wearing.
When he arrived at a dark wooden door, Tom knocked softly: "Mr. Astar, we are here."
"Come in. The door is not locked." A low and hoarse voice came from inside the door.
Carefully pushing open the door, Tom turned around and motioned for Lucian to go in with him.
There were many paperballs scattered messily on the heavy gray carpet, which was Lucian's first impression of the study, and then he was shocked to see an unheld quill on the mahogany desk writing rapidly on the snow-white paper, reaching into the bouncing inkwell next to him from time to time to get ink in it.
"Where's Mr. Astar?" Lucian was first slightly shocked by this magical scene, and then he was puzzled and looked around, but he only saw shelves full of books of various styles, but did not find the shadow mentor.
Tom next to him bent down and picked up the paper balls on the carpet and put them in the wastebasket.
Lucian, who had not found Astar, moved in his heart, curiously learning Tom to bend down to pick up an unkneaded paper ball, and saw the dense mathematical formulas and calculation processes inside through the gaps in the paper ball.
Since spying on other people's arcane research at will likely lead to terrible consequences, Lucian did not open the paper ball, but threw it into the wastebasket after taking a look, reaffirming the fundamental role of mathematics in arcane research.
"Wait a few minutes." The low and dull voice just now seemed to come from every shadowy corner of the room. However, Lucian saw that there were outlines prominent in the shadows between the curtains and the desk, forming the image of a gentle black-haired man.
The black-haired man sat on a recliner, intently looking at a book with a black hard cover, and in the faint shadows around him, there seemed to be countless shadows of quills writing and calculating.
Lucian and Tom did not speak, and after waiting for about ten minutes, the quill on the desk stopped and was inserted into the pen holder like a regular quill, and the shadow of the quill disappeared completely, and the black-haired man, who might have been Astar, closed the book and turned to look at the two of them: "Welcome, new companion on the path of arcane and magic. I am Astar."
"Hello, Mr. Astar." As Lucian saluted, he read the cover of the book, which was composed of two words with special meanings with bright silver and white lines: "Arcane?"
Astal erected the book: "Have you seen the Arcane journal?"
"The gentleman who told me where the Magic Council was once showed me an issue of the Arcane journal many years ago." Lucian couldn't suppress his curiosity, "Mr. Astar, can you let me see the content of this issue of "Arcane"? Is this the latest issue of Arcane?"
Astal got up from his recliner and smiled gently: "You are studying ancient magic systems, I am afraid it is difficult to understand the content published in the "Arcane" journal, and if you can't understand the "Arcane" journal, you will definitely not understand the various new magic ideas in the "Magic" journal. He pointed to another hard-cover book with a hexagram on his desk, "However, you are the only magician who has asked me to read the "Arcane" journal in the past ten years.
As he spoke, he handed the "Arcane" journal to Lucian, and then looked at the ferryman: "Tom, what should this magician be called?"
"He is Mr. Evans, a magician." Tom is always a little restrained when facing Astar.
Lucian took the "Arcane" journal and turned to the table of contents page, and the expression on his face immediately froze, because the first article was: "A complex function that can describe and calculate the mental force field".
"The Magic Council has studied complex variable functions so deeply?" Some of the books in Lucian's Soul Library that have been unsealed have complex variable functions. But Lucian, who was not majoring in mathematics or physics before, had a hard time learning this knowledge, and thought that the Magic Council should still be in the late 18th century and the early 19th century in the calculus rule stage, at most just starting the study of complex functions, so there was no rush when learning. It seems that I have to hurry up and learn......"
The complex function is a function with complex numbers as independent variables, and many results have been produced in its research, such as the calculation of plane fields, such as Riemannian surfaces, etc., and Riemann's later surface geometric space constructed from non-Euclidean theory is a mathematical tool of Einstein's general theory of relativity, used to explain the relationship between gravity, time, and space.
Seeing Lucian's frozen expression, Astal laughed and said, "It's normal not to understand, since the great arcanist Brook discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism and proposed the concept of electromagnetic fields, many people in the council have begun to study various 'fields'. But if we want to accurately calculate the strength of each point of the mental force field, we lack mathematical tools, so complex variable functions appear."
"This is different from the emergence of complex functions on Earth. Demand determines mathematical results." Lucian thought thoughtfully.
Astal continued: "The shadow field I study needs to be transformed, okay, discussing this latest arcane knowledge with you will make you dizzy. In any case, when you arrive in Alinge, Evans, the council will give you the basic books of the current arcane and magic, allowing you to transform from an ancient magician in two to three years. Of course, this requires your own effort, and I have seen many intermediate magicians who have learned ancient magic who have always resisted the current arcane and magic, and have not been able to change until old age."
"The council will give me basic books for free?" Because of the matter of the Pale Hand, Lucian was particularly concerned about similar things, and was afraid of any requests that could not be refused.
"There is a small request, but I won't let you do anything dangerous. The council's long-standing belief is that it is best for wizards below the middle level to study and research with peace of mind, and that you will be the best reward for the council when you grow up." Astal replied kindly, "Tom, you take Evans to the room on the third floor of the villa."
After he finished giving orders to Tom, he looked at Lucian again: "There are more than a dozen magic apprentices on the third floor who have passed the assessment and sent me here in the name of learning drama. They either have good mental strength or good talent for arcane, and will go to the Kingdom of Holm with you when the time comes. Hehe, if you are not afraid of losing face, you can learn the basics of arcane with them now."
Saying goodbye to Astar, Lucian and Tom headed to the third floor.
(End of this chapter)