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Chapter 32: Aquatic Zombie

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

According to the witch's notes, an aquatic zombie was no stronger than a male adult. But unlike most of the undead, these zombies were way faster and swift, while they still carried the features belonging to the undead — strong resistance to physical damage and other immunities. Therefore, common people and even some knight squires usually did not have any chance to survive when facing these zombies, unless they had a significant advantage in numbers.

Since aquatic zombies were extremely afraid of Fire and Light magic, a torch could burn them down if it was used properly. However, this zombie just showed up from the water, which meant its strength and agility would be increased significantly. Fire magic was also not that powerful anymore because of the water. Only Light magic could be helpful under this circumstance.

Lucien was absolutely not prepared. Although he knew that he had to confront aquatic zombies some day, it definitely should not be today. The witch mentioned in the note that there was a kind of material called Flame Jelly which could be used for alchemy. A piece of jelly could even burn in water for a while. However, at the moment Lucien mastered no useful Light magic and also had no such jelly. Even worse was that somehow he felt the zombie he was facing was way stronger than the common ones described by the witch.

Regarding Light magic, sorcerers could never compete with pastors. Aside from Light Rays in the first circle and on, all Light-related spells of apprentice level were not for attack purpose.

Nevertheless, among Element magic Fire magic ranked top mainly because it was hard to be brought under control. The only Fire magic in apprentice magic list was Marius's Small Fire, which could only be used to kindle firewood when an apprentice forgot his or her flints in the wild.

Escape was the first idea in Lucien's mind. At the same time, the mutant zombie had finished the gangster's brain and swiftly jumped on one of the beggars. Then Lucien heard a crisp crack in the beggar's neck. Pressing its fingernails deeply into the skull, the zombie opened the beggar's head very easily like opening a walnut.

Its speed and strength made Lucien stop. After seeing that, he understood that escape simply meant death. There was no other way to survive other than fight back, and for that he needed to calm down.

Lucien's brain quickly started analyzing.

"The zombie's afraid of light. But it's very early in the morning and it is still dark outside.

"The zombie won't give me enough time to light anything with my flints.

"Marius's Small Fire… No, I don't know how to cast the spell yet."

Lucien was standing there, watching the zombie finishing the brain and then jumping onto Skar. His mind was being occupied by different thoughts and plans, but each of them was denied by him calmly.

The ability to stay calm was the most important character of an outstanding sorcerer.

Mutant zombies could impose a magical effect called Dread Aura on their targets to freeze them with fear. But Skar's fear of the zombie was so great that he managed to move his legs and started running for his life.

However, only after few steps, the zombie swiftly overtook him and grabbed his feet. Skar squeaked out shrill cries desperately.

"Disarming Loop, Eyes of Stars, Mage Hand, Extinguishment, Acid Splash, Freezing Ray…That's all I know.

"Among them, Eyes of Stars and Extinguishment are of no use here.

"Disarming Loop is useful, but it's far from enough to stop the monster."

Lucien was still standing there, his eyes staring at the monster.

The zombie raised Skar with its two claws and directly tore him in half. Lucien could hear that Skar's heart, liver and guts fell onto the ground with profuse bleeding. Skar's thrilling scream was still echoing in the pipes.

"Mage Hand… also not powerful enough.

"… Acid Splash… Wait! Sulphur is required to cast Acid Splash, which is also a component of gunpowder. And during the casting process the sulphur is lit."

Lucien's brain was striving for survival. He would not let his brain become another feast for the monster.

The zombie opened Skar's head, in which the white brain tissue was still slightly shaking like a bowl of jelly.

Lucien could feel the effects of its Dread Aura. His heart was racing and he felt breathless.

He knew he couldn't lose his mind. Thus, he started analyzing the magic structure of Acid Splash, while his right hand reached into his pocket and grabbed a handful of sulphur.

"I gotta stop the magic reaction halfway when the sulphur is lit.

"The notes mentioned that it would backfire. The consequence going from exhausting spiritual power to severe damage in soul, or even worse."

Analyzing the structure of the magic, Lucien tried to break it down into several parts to skip the acid-reaction part during the casting process and only keep the fire from the sulphur.

The process of deconstruction and reconstruction needed to be repeated several times. Even if Acid Splash was only a very simple apprentice-level spell, it was still very challenging for Lucien.

Honestly, he was not sure if he wouldn't kill himself by doing this. But he had no other choice.

The zombie devoured the brain and threw Skar's body away. Slowly it turned to Lucien and suddenly started running towards its last target. In Lucien's eyes all of these was like a slow motion, he could smell the stink of death and feel the overwhelming horror.

No one could tell Lucien's fear from his face. Lucien didn't move at all. He was just standing there with the sulphur slowly falling through his fingers.

The zombie was even faster than Lucien thought. In a second, the horrible creature was only a meter away from him.

In the meantime Lucien started casting the spell and then forced himself to stop before it was completely finished. As if he was hammered in the head, dizziness seized him and his nose started to bleed, but instantly a trail of fire showed up in front of Lucien.

The claw of the zombie was just a few inches away from Lucien's head.

Lucien's power was completely exhausted and he could not sustain the fire and let it grow anymore. In the last moment he released the fire and fell onto the ground.

He had tried his best.

The zombie's claw got his clothes and left a long tear on them.

Suddenly a fire wall exploded between Lucien and the zombie. He raised his injured hands instinctively to protect his head, and then rolled away from the blue fire.

The fire wall did not last long. However, after a whoosh the zombie was covered in flames like a human-shaped torch.

Swinging its claws, the zombie stopped attacking Lucien and started stumbling towards the water, but the monster became much slower now.

Of course, Lucien wouldn't let it go back into the river.

Grabbing the dagger, he stood up and caught up with the zombie. Lucien fiercely kicked the zombie down and stabbed the dagger into the holes where the two white flames were flickering. Lucien felt the burning pain caused by the heat.

Once, twice… Lucien was too afraid to stop himself from stabbing the monster, as if the zombie would seize the chance and tear him in half if he lost the momentum for even a second.

Even though, the zombie was still crawling towards the river with flame on its back. But few meters away from the river, the white flames in its eyes were finally extinguished and its bones collapsed.

Gasping with great effort, Lucien took out the zombie's brain with his dagger. He still remember that he needed it.

After its brain had been taken away, soon the zombie turned completely into ashes, in which something small was shining there.

Chapter 33: The Ring

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Grabbing his dagger, Lucien cautiously approached the pile of ash.

The shiny item was actually a carved silver ring, inlaid with a small blue gem on top.

"It belonged to the zombie?" Lucien was surprised. He picked the ring up and started scrutinizing it carefully.

There was a line of letters on its surface, which was written in the common tongue.

"Human nature can be colder than snow."

The ring was just plain-looking, but when Lucien rubbed it gently he felt a mysterious and amazing power coming from the gem. After a few minutes, when Lucien's power started slowly recovering from the magic backfire, he carefully examined the ring again using his spiritual power.

Lucien's injured soul was slightly shocked as soon as his spirit entered into the ring. He felt inside the gem what seemed to be the power of blizzard, but its structure was way more complicated than that of the apprentice-level magic.

"It's a magic ring! Maybe that's why the zombie seemed much stronger than the others." Lucien was excited, "It seems that the ring's even superior to Benjamin's Truth Badge. I wonder which power level the ring belongs to…"

With his remaining spiritual power, Lucien couldn't even understand the magic structure in the ring, not to mention how to leave his own spiritual imprint on the structure, in order to use the power.

A sorcerer with the first circle spell called Identify could directly understand the magic properties of all level one magic items, without having to analyze their inner structures. One's ability in using Identify would grow along with their accumulated knowledge, and thus the person could progress and start using the items of higher level.

Sometimes there was extra information in some of them, including their makers, for what purposes they were made, and so on.

According to the witch's notes, all of the magic items could be divided into different standards: apprentice level, level one to nine, and legend level.

The evaluation criteria was based on the power of the magic item: if the power was equal to a first circle magic or to the ability of a level one knight, it was, correspondingly, a level one magic item. Nevertheless, there were four ranks within each level — low, medium, high and perfect. Taking a ring enchanted with the third circle spell Lightning for example, if the ring could be used once a day, it was a low-rank level three magic ring; if it could be used three times a day, it would instead be considered a medium-rank level three one; if the ring had some extra benefits like increasing the magic resistance of the user, it would be a high-rank level three item.

If a magic item had some kind of permanent augmentation effect, it would be a level higher than the other common ones. For example, Mind Blank was an eight circle spell, and a magic item with the immunity towards this ring-eight magic would be recognized as a precious level nine magic artifact.

Furthermore, the grading was also applied to magic weapons and armors.

Lucien did not know the ring very well, so he dare not wear it casually in case there was any curse on it. After putting the ring in his pocket he was in a pretty good mood.

However, when he noticed all the bodies and blood around him, he knew that he had more work to do. Most importantly, he needed to learn how to preserve the aquatic zombie's brain tissue.

Lucien did not know how to use the apprentice spell called Organ Preservation yet, but the zombie's brain tissue should be able to last from three to five days, which should be enough time for Lucien to master the spell.

According to the notes, Organ Preservation was a spell that could actually be used for keeping many other things fresh, besides organs. Twenty four hours duration each time. No magic reagent required.

After opening the zombie's skull with the dagger, Lucien saw its black brain, which looked like countless disgusting worms entangling each other. Carefully, Lucien put the brain into a bag together with his icestones.

Knowing lots of money would be needed for learning magic in the future, Lucien plundered all the money from the bodies, including the two hollow-headed ones in the river. He got thirty-three Nars and fifty-two Fells in total.

Looking at his bulging money bag, a smile appeared on Lucien's face.

However, when Lucien was collecting the money he noticed he couldn't see things clearly and his head was buzzing sometimes. Finally he realized that these were the sequelae from his spirit damage. There was no magic potion mentioned in the notes that could be used for this kind of injury. Therefore, the recovery might take a while.

Then, Lucien started doing the labor. Holding his breath, he wrapped up the guts scattered on the ground and threw them away into the river, along with the bodies. Gradually he started getting used to the scene and even took a closer look at Skar's kidney. Lucien believed that soon all of them would become fish food in the Belem River.

After rinsing away the blood on the ground, it was about time he left this place.

"It seems like the heresy has nothing to do with the aquatic zombie." Lucien thought to himself while he was walking, "Then what about the red-eyed rats…?"

Lucien decided that tomorrow morning he would go to Lord Venn's manor to find John before going to the Musicians' Association. He had to talk to John about the heresy, but, of course, without telling him what actually happened down here.

......

Several pastors in training would come down to the sewers once every three days to clean up the trash in the river using spells.

But the person stepping out of a shadow after Lucien left was definitely not a new pastor.

"The Lord of Argent, the forever lasting silence…" The person giggled in a mix of disgust and amusement, continuously talking to himself, "A different name, a different identity? Interesting… That person must have been bewitched by him. I can't wait to see his shadow coming upon the land. A battle between him and the Cardinal of Aalto will be very interesting…

"Umm… Probably there is some kind of legacy left by the previous ancient magic empire that he could utilize.

"But the church would interrupt his plan, I bet."

The person looked around. A cunning smile appeared upon his face.

"The pretty smart young guy just created the new apprentice magic, Sulphuric Fire Wall, by himself. Impressive… He can be very useful to me…"

Then his figure split into countless small shadow pieces and he suddenly disappeared.

Only his giggles were left there, echoing in the pipes.

Chapter 34: Ice Revenger

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Half an hour later, another figure appeared in the pipes, close to the broken iron net.

It was a decently dressed man in his thirties — black shirt, black suit, black shoes, almost everything black. His moustache was carefully trimmed, and his hair was of Pompadour style.

Graceful as the man might look, he had a dark aura of ferocity and brutality, and he was not a nobleman.

He was Rosan Aaron.

All his men knew that Rosan Aaron was a knight who had already awakened the Blessing in his blood. When he was about to become a grand knight, unfortunately, his power went awry and turned out to be vicious and dark. The power not only destroyed his noble title, but also caused Aaron's endless hiding from the church.

Aaron hated the God for treating him so cruelly. Losing all of his possessions, for a long time he lived like a rat, hiding all the time. While he was trying to at least dress like a nobleman, bitter hatred was still burning his guts day and night.

The grading of knight and pastor was similar to the different levels of sorcerer.

The ability to use the third circle spell Fly, the sixth circle spell Magic Trigger, or many other ninth circle spells symbolized different levels of sorcerer. When a sorcerer or sorceress could start using one of these spells, it meant he or she had made a new breakthrough. Their spiritual power would grow by a large extent, and their souls would transform into a higher-level form. Even their lives would be extended.

In the ancient magic empire, people regarded the first and second circle sorcerers as junior-rank mages, while third to fifth circle were middle-rank mages, and sixth to eight circle, senior-rank mages. Above them, a ninth circle sorcerer or sorceress would be respected as an Archmage.

Similarly, the levels three, six and nine were the key promoting points for a knight. If a person successfully awakened the Blessing in their blood, they would first become a level one or level two knight. From level three to five, they would be regarded as a grand knight; then six to eight, a radiant knight; in level nine the title was gold knight; and after that was the highest level of all, a legendary knight.

For pastors, it went from junior-rank to middle-rank pastor. Then a middle-rank pastor could be promoted to bishop. For the senior-rank pastors, most of them would become cardinals. There was no special title for a level nine pastor, but if one could successfully join the conclave, he or she would be respected as a grand cardinal.

There were more than four hundred registered official knights in the Duchy of Orvarit. Among them, there were only around fifty grand knights and less than ten radiant knights.

Most of them were members of the Violet Knights, garrisoning different key fortresses.

Back then, Aaron, who was a level two knight, was very close to becoming a grand knight, and thus ranking among the top fifty knights in the Duchy. Now, he has been working for a big man for a long time, doing all the evil and bloody things for him to maintain his fake honor.

Jackson and his men did not come back to the hideout in time. Aaron felt something went wrong, so he came down here himself.

"Sulphur, blood… and something else." Sniffing the air, Aaron's eyebrows frowned together. With the Blessing power, Aaron was more sensitive to environment in general than common people.

Aaron could tell that someone had cleaned this place up before. But there were still slight traces of blood, brain tissue, acid and sulphur on the ground, showing that a fierce struggle just happened here.

"Acid… sulphur…" Aaron was thinking out loud, "Acid Splash? It was a typical apprentice spell. An apprentice sorcerer did all this?!" Aaron could not believe his guess, but the reasoning did make sense.

The person who did this had left quite a while before he arrived. It was too late for Aaron to track the responsible. Aaron was also concerned that what they were doing would be reported to the church or nobles.

It was still possible to track him if he turned to the priests of Silver Horn for help, but Aaron would not. He knew their magic could not guarantee finding the person, and more importantly, if the person had already reported what they did to the church, what he should do immediately was escape.

Then Aaron quickly turned around and disappeared in the darkness. Only his footsteps were still echoing there in the sewers.

......

Lying in the bed, Lucien was too nervous to fall asleep. Any little noise could scare Lucien out of the bed. Since there was no chance for him to have a good rest for now, he decided to take a look at the ring again. Doing research could calm Lucien down, and also if his enemies did find him, the ring might help.

Inside the ring there was a solid geometric model, of which the structure was not very complicated. With his high school mathematics and physics knowledge, it only took Lucien an hour to finish the analysis. But when Lucien was trying to imprint his spiritual mark on the magic structure, he almost failed during the process. His soul was damaged and Lucien felt his power totally unstable.

With great effort, the magic structure was finally imprinted with Lucien's mark. The information of the ring came to his mind:

"The original owner of the ring, Ice Revenger, was a sorcerer apprentice who was betrayed by his best friend. In order to take his revenge, the apprentice turned to a great alchemist for help and spent all his money on that. The ring felt ice-cold, so he could bear the bitterness of being betrayed in his mind. A second circle spell, Palmeira's Frost Blades, was sealed in the ring. The spell could torture people with bitter cold and pain."

The ring could help promoting the spiritual power of its owner to match a level one knight's strength. Furthermore, its owner could also use Palmeira's Frost Blades once a day. Therefore, it was a middle-rank level two magic item.

Lucien was not going to wear the ring for now, since it would definitely draw some attention and bring him unnecessary trouble, but he decided to carry the ring in his pocket, just in case.

......

Lucien woke up early at dawn with a bad headache. He felt dizzy and also had a fever. His physical weakness was caused by his internal injury from the magic backfire.

There was no time for breakfast. Lucien wanted to report the heretics to Lord Venn as soon as possible. After changing to new linen clothes, he pushed the door open and headed towards Lord Venn's manor.

The cool air outside was refreshing. He took a deep breath and felt his headache lessened. After forty minutes walking, Lucien finally saw the magnificent manor.

Lord Venn was a level two knight who used to pledge his allegiance to the Violet Knights. The grand duke of Orvarit and him became good friends when the grand duke was still the Violet Count and the commander of the Violet Knights. When Lord Venn became older, he left the fortress in the Dark Mountain Range and started having a more peaceful lifestyle here. But from time to time, he was summoned to the palace to be the grand duke's military consultant.

The manor was surrounded by a high wall and several watchtowers, demonstrating the owner's military background.

Outside of the manor, a number of farmers had already started working. Two young men in their grey knight squire uniforms were patrolling, followed by some guards.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Noticing Lucien was walking towards them, a dark blond knight asked sternly.

Chapter 35: Report

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Facing the knight squire, Lucien replied politely.

"I'm a friend of John's. I'm looking for John to tell him something important"

The dark blonde man, Ian, made a snort in contempt. "Why should I trust you? Just because you claim to be John's friend? John and other knight squires are in training. I can't let you in, unless you have proof of your identity."

Quite obviously, Ian did not get along well with John. Lord Venn always had John in high esteem, which made Ian feel more than jealous. In his eyes, John was just a stupid pauper who somehow got a chance to become a knight squire and was always using the knight rules to please Lord Venn, while he was definitely better-educated and more talented.

Another knight squire, Durago, felt the same way. Thus he just stood there, watching while Ian gave the newcomer a hard time.

Ian thought that a poor youngster like the one who was standing in front of him would be frightened by the posture of a knight squire. Were it the case, the youngster might just give up or start begging them on his knees.

After going through so many difficulties and challenges, Lucien understood clearly what he was facing. In his eyes, it was ridiculous to see the two squires trying to pick on him, a nobody.

Lucien answered seriously, "John's friend is in great danger. If John can't make it back in time to avoid it, both of you will be responsible for the consequences. I'm pretty sure that Lord Venn would definitely not be happy with what you guys are doing here."

He knew that Lord Venn was a nobleman who strictly sticked to knight rules all the way in his life. If Lord Venn knew his men violated the rules, he would punish them severely and drive them away from his land with no hesitation.

"How dare you threaten me, you little bastard!" Stepping forward, Ian was so furious that he almost pulled out his knight sword.

Lucien could feel the pressure coming from the high level knight squire. Even the guards standing behind him felt frightened.

What was out of their expectation was that Lucien was still the same, calm and serious. He asked sternly, "Are you gonna kill me, an innocent and unarmed boy, right now?"

It seemed like he was not affected by Ian's posture at all. His willpower was stronger than the threat.

"Did you hear what I said?" Now it was Lucien's turn to take a step forward, "Do you still want to be a knight?"

Ian's anger was burning his guts, but he knew if he really killed this bastard, his future title, rank, land and manor would all be gone. He was not stupid.

Durago tried to make the situation easier for Ian. After giving Lucien a distasteful glance, Durago hauled Ian back. "Don't waste our time on this."

"Don't let me see you again," said Ian viciously. Then he turned directly toward the manor.

Durago's face looked grim. He just stood there, waiting for Ian.

It didn't bother Lucien at all. As soon as he realized Ian and Durago were trying to cause him trouble, Lucien reached his hand into the pocket carrying the ring. The power of the ring helped increase his willpower to a higher level that could compete with a level one knight. Thus, of course the pressure from Ian, a knight squire, could not affect him.

Less than five minutes later, Lucien saw John running out from the gate in a hurry, followed by Ian, who was walking slowly behind him. John was very surprised when he recognized that it was Lucien.

"You're here, Lucien! I thought you were the one who was in danger."

"Follow me. I'll explain it to you."

Lucien stopped when he was sure that Ian and Durago couldn't hear their conversation. Then he turned to John, and started telling his well-prepared story.

"I met a weird old beggar a few days ago," Lucien put a worried look on his face, "At first, he was just complaining about the nobles and knights, but later, yesterday, when no one was around, he started accusing God. And I realized he was a believer of the devil, who was doing his vicious missionary work in Aalto.

"I was about to report to the church, but I saw he was secretly meeting Jackson. I'm afraid that the gangsters are involved with the heretic, and they may seize the chance and take revenge on us, or what's worse, on your parents. If you can report to Lord Venn directly about what's going on here, I believe the nobles and the church would pay more attention to it." Lucien looked into John's eyes.

"These damned scum… Now they're involved with the devil. Yes, you're right. I should report it to Lord Venn immediately." John took Lucien's words directly without any doubt.

"And John, I'm afraid the situation is even more severe than you thought. I counted… there are just about ten beggars now in Aalto. Many of them… disappeared." Lucien continued warning him. But he could not tell John what happened in the sewers.

Frowning his eyebrows, John could guess what happened to these poor homeless guys, "Blood sacrifice…" he murmured.

Lucien nodded seriously. "Yes, that's what I'm guessing. But John, remember, don't tell Lord Venn that I was the one who found this out. I'm afraid some heretics would seek revenge on me. I have no power to protect myself."

"But you'll be awarded for reporting this," said John.

Clapping on John's shoulder, Lucien's face softened a bit. "I'm more concerned with my life, John. Remember to ask Lord Venn not to divulge your information as well. You have a family to take care. They don't know how to fight as well."

"I will. You're always this careful, Lucien." John nodded. There was nothing more important than his family. "But if there's any award, part of it is still yours." John promised.

Lucien smiled, "Thanks John."

John stayed a bit longer with Lucien. Since Lucien told Ian and Durago that John's friend was in danger, it would be quite suspicious if John went back to the manor straight away.

After John left, Lucien decided to wait for a few more minutes to make sure that everything was going as expected. A while later, Lucien was relieved when he saw a line of knights galloping across the field. Besides John, there were six squires and a young pastor led by a serious-looking elder knight.

When Lucien went back to Aalto, he felt some vibration under the ground from the sewers. Lord Venn's men were there already.

To be prudent, Lucien decided he would not go back into the sewers for a while. Recently he was focusing on analyzing magic.

Some time before the clock showed eight thirty, Lucien finally arrived at his workplace, the Musicians' Association, in time for his shift.

Chapter 36: Pierre

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Elena was anxiously waiting for Lucien in the hall. Being late on the first day of work would definitely not make a good first impression on the director, Mr. Hank.

Another receptionist, Cathy, smiled to her colleague and joked, "Elena, who are you waiting for? Your sweetheart?"

"Come on, Cathy. I'm waiting for a friend of mine. Today's his first day working for the association."

When Elena was talking, Lucien came into the hall.

"Thanks God, you are here, Lucien." Elena walked out of the counter and toward Lucien, "Why do you look so tired? Are you sick?"

Lucien knew he must look terrible. The headache caused by his soul injury was torturing him all the way. After rushing here, he felt quite dizzy.

"Well… I think so. But I'm okay. Thank you for asking, Elena." Lucien smiled to Elena, who was wearing a long white dress today. "I think we're gonna meet Mr. Hank now, aren't we?" asked Lucien.

"Yes, we are." Elena started walking upstairs, and was followed by Lucien, "No worries. Sunday's never a busy day, or say, the work is not busy in general."

Mr. Hank was a middle-aged serious man, who was always wearing a decent suit. After asking some basic questions, Mr. Hank just nodded and asked Elena to lead Lucien directly to the library.

The library was on the second floor. While they were heading toward it, Elena was trying to describe the other librarian to Lucien, "His name is Pierre Sandor. Both of you work the morning shift in the library. He's an ok guy. I don't think he'll give you a hard time, so no worries. But he's a bit… umm…" Elena paused for a few seconds, "weird."

The guy called Pierre should also have some connections in the association, or he would have no chance working as a librarian here if he was just a nobody. Lucien just wanted to do his own work and avoid trouble as much as possible.

The Music Library was huge and quiet, and thousands of precious music books, journals, and newspaper were collected here.

There was only a black-haired young guy sitting behind the wood counter, reading the tablature carefully. In Lucien's eyes, the guy looked like a big fan of music.

"Pierre, Pierre…" Elena tried to draw his attention, "This is the new librarian, Lucien."

Finally, Pierre raised his head from the book. His brown eyes looked a bit confused.

"Morning, Elena! What day is it today… Sunday?"

"Nice to meet you, Pierre. I'm Lucien Evans, the new librarian." Lucien introduced himself with a warm smile.

Just realizing his new colleague was standing in front of him, Pierre walked out of the counter and greeted Lucien, "Nice to meet you, Lucien. I'm Pierre Sandor."

When they were shaking hands, Pierre put on a sly smile, "Lucien, you'd better… refrain yourself a bit…"

"What are you talking about, Pierre?" Elena was confused.

"Just guys' conversation," answered Pierre casually.

Shrugging her shoulders, Elena whispered to Lucien, "You see. I told you… And I gotta go now, Lucien. Make good use of the books here, and work hard."

After Elena left, Pierre started showing Lucien around. While he was walking, he talked to Lucien casually, "Umm… I sometimes talk in a weird way. If you don't understand, don't let my words disturb you."

"So you asking me to 'refrain myself' was also a casual talk?" asked Lucien.

"Nope, that was serious. Guys in our age can easily drain ourselves from too much… Umm, you know what I'm talking about."

Lucien didn't know what to say. Now in Lucien's eyes, Pierre looked like a big fan of music, and kind of nasty.

After introducing the basic stuff that Lucien had to do as a librarian here, Pierre stretched himself a bit and said, "Only the members of the association can have access to this library, so it's never busy here. Just remember to be polite to the musicians. You can spend more time here, and I'm gonna go back and enjoy The Well-Tempered Clavier now."

His eyes were glowing when he mentioned music.

"Sure." Lucien was more than willing to be left alone. With his spirit library, Lucien was always trying to store more books in it, like a squirrel collecting its favourite cones.

Lucien quickly leafed through a book, and a copy of the book instantly appeared in his spirit library. Then Lucien directly turned to another one.

"Hey, what are you doing there?" Pierre asked in a confused way. He hadn't gone far yet.

"I'm doing a random check here to see if there are any damaged ones. Then I can take note of them and report to the association." Lucien immediately made up an excuse.

"You're as careful as a woman, Lucien." Pierre commented.

In the following four hours, only two musicians visited the library. Lucien thus managed to collect more than a hundred of the books there. His arms felt pretty sore from leafing through them.

The books covered many aspects of the world, not just music. Lucien wanted to have a better understanding of the world as soon as possible.

......

Lucien finished his work at about half past midday. When he was leaving the library, Pierre was still immersed in music, with a bread in his hand.

Later, Lucien went to Mr. Victor's place and continued his study.

Life was pretty peaceful in the following couple of days.

One evening, John came back. When no one was around, he started telling Lucien what happened on that day.

Chapter 37: Choosing a Musical Instrument

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Joel was still not at home when John and Lucien were talking, and Auntie Alisa was busy preparing dinner. Their youngest son, Iven, was still playing on the streets with his friends.

"You can never imagine what we found down there," John said seriously, "There was a demon hall!"

"What?!" Lucien was more than surprised, "They built a hall down the sewers? Has Lord Venn questioned the heretics yet?"

Shaking his head, John sighed with disappointment, "No, Lucien. We didn't find anyone there. All of them were already gone by the time we arrived."

"…It's impossible, John. I didn't tell anyone else about this except you." Lucien started feeling worried. What if the demon followers somehow found out it was him who exposed and denounced them?

"Lord Venn told me that information about our actions might have been leaked by a knight. We don't know who did this yet, but if it's true, the knight should be of a relatively high level."

Lucien thought about the possibility that the heretic power had infiltrated into the upper class. However, it was astonishing to imagine that the evil power had corroded some of the noble knights.

"What about Aaron's Gang?" Lucien asked.

"The leaders escaped, including Rosan Aaron. The rest of the gangsters know nothing about the heresy. They can't lie in front of the divine power of the inquisition." John's eyebrows frowned, "Even though they know nothing, all of them will be sentenced to death by the judges."

Facing heresy, the church never showed mercy. And Lucien believed that the way the church treated sorcerers would not be any better than that.

One of the books from the library that Lucien read recently was called Hunting Sorcerer, which was written in the year 392 of the Saint Calendar, or say, 423 years ago. It was an instruction for sorcerer hunters and night watchers telling them how to identify the sorcerers, how to track them and even how to torture them. Lucien remembered some of the paragraphs, which sounded ridiculous and cruel to him:

"If a suspect lives in an unsociable or eccentric way, the chance of him or her being a sorcerer or a sorceress is high. However, even if a suspect is always sociable and passionate, the possibility still could not be ruled out, because he or she might just be pretending."

"If the person you suspect panics when he or she knows who you are, the person is a sorcerer. But if the person does not, don't lower our guard, because all the sorcerers are experienced liars."

"If your divine spells cannot help you make sure the identity of the suspect, inflicting sacred punishment on the suspect can be useful: If the person rolls eyes when facing the punishment, that means he or she is trying to communicate with demons to seek for power; If the person's eyes glaze fearlessly, that means he or she has got the protection from devil power and thus you must torture the person in a more severe way; If the person dies, it is because the demons took his or her life in order to keep their secrets safe."

"If you have tried them all but still cannot be sure, leave the suspect to our almighty God. Burn the suspect. A sorcerer would burn down to ashes, while God would protect the person safe and sound in the fire if he or she is innocent."

Lucien was grateful for still being alive. If Lucien had lived four hundred years ago when the book was written, he would have been burned to death thousands of times. The church had been dominating the whole continent for so many years; thus they were now paying more attention to the heresy in the north, instead of going all out hunting scattered sorcerers and sorceresses.

"Then did you find anything in the demon hall?" Lucien asked with curiosity.

Bad memories made John's eyebrows frown even tighter, "We knight squires didn't go in there. Knights and pastors led by Lord Venn, Lord Verdi and the cardinal of Salvatore searched the hall. Lord Venn never told me what he saw there, but I saw his face when he walked out… He looked very serious.

"I was guarding outside of the gate." John's eyes looked down at the ground and Lucien could tell the bad memory still disturbed him, "When they opened the gate, I saw the ground was covered with blood. And I saw hearts…. living throbbing hearts on the ground. They said that those were hearts extracted from people's chests when they were alive.

"Lucien, I've heard many stories, poems and rumours saying how horrible and vicious the heresy is, but today I finally realized how hateful and inhuman it can be." John raised his head and looked at Lucien, speaking with great determination, "I hate them, the heretics. I can never forget what I saw there. I want to grow stronger and eliminate the demons completely."

Looking at his serious face, Lucien smiled, "This is the justice you're looking for, isn't it, John?"

John nodded, but then shook his head, "I still don't clearly know what kind of justice I'm looking for, Lucien. All I know is that I not only want to protect my families and friends, but I also want to protect more people and fight against the dark powers."

"I know there's a class among the knights called 'Demon Hunter'. They walk in the darkness and are willing to die fighting against the devil power. Is that your dream now?" asked Lucien.

"I don't know, Lucien. I still can't awaken my Blessing power. Not everyone can become a real knight, not to mention becoming a demon hunter." John replied, a bit depressed.

"Come on! Of course you can." Lucien gave John a friendly nudge, "Look who am I talking to? The most promising knight squire appreciated by Lord Venn!"

Feeling the encouragement from his best friend, John grinned at Lucien.

"Talking about Lord Venn…" Lucien asked, "Did he mention anything about your reward?"

"Yes, sure!" John's face was lightened by this topic, "Lord Venn promised to give me a good knight sword made of fine steel. Compared with what I'm using now, this one would be much sharper and even have some magic effects on it!"

Talking about the new sword, John even giggled a bit with sweet expectation.

Lucien and John stopped their conversation when Joel came back. In the end, John reminded Lucien, "Lord Venn told me that security will be tightened and there will be much more undercover investigations in Aalto recently. You were questioned before because of the witch, so be careful recently. You're Mr. Victor's student now, and you never know if there's anyone who'd frame you for this out of jealousy."

"Thank you, John. I'll be careful," said Lucien gratefully. He knew that, as a knight squire, John was not allowed to leak this kind of information to someone else. Lucien knew he had to be really careful recently and stop practicing most of the spells that could cause a mess. However, Lucien also believed that after this massive search, when the knights and the nobles started letting down their vigilance, it would be even safer than before.

......

Another Sunday morning, and Lucien was trying to organize everything on his day off. Although he was not practicing much casting during the past couple of days, his analysis work of the other several magic spells went on pretty well. His spiritual power was completely recovered and grew even stronger than ever with his meditation. For now, Lucien could cast up to six spells of the Element School successively.

In his spare time, Lucien also worked hard on his music studies. He spent lots of time with reading different books in his spirit library, but not only music books. From a variety of books, Lucien started to learn more about the continent: those countries believing in the God of Truth in the south, and heretic countries in the north, as well as the evil creatures living in the the Dark Mountain Range.

The brain tissue of the mutant aquatic zombie could be preserved up to three years by exerting the magic once a day, which enabled Lucien to have enough time to collect the rest of the magic matters.

......

"Your progress impressed me again, Lucien." After testing Lucien's basic music knowledge learned within the several classes, Mr. Victor commended, "Then we can move forward to actual practice and to learn how to integrate what you've learned from the books into it."

When Lucien first helped with improving the harpsichord, Victor thought that Lucien might just happen to have an inspiration there. But now Victor felt that Lucien at least had some talent in music.

"Lucien, what musical instrument do you want to learn?" asked Victor gently, "I'm relatively good at violin, harpsichord, pipe organ and flute. But if you want to learn something else, I should also be able to help."

Lucien never really put much thought into it. He was a bit hesitant. Lucien was a fan of piano back in the days, but he never had a chance to learn how to play it. But on second thought, one day Lucien would set out to find the headquarter of the Continental Congress of Magic and, of course, he could not carry a piano with him all the way. Probably he should choose something relatively portable, like a violin?

Lott, Felicia and Herodotus were curious to see which one Lucien would choose, but Lucien was still hesitating.

"It's okay, Lucien." Victor smiled, "If you have any concern, just tell me. Maybe I can help you."

So Lucien asked cordially, "Mr. Victor, can I choose both the improved harpsichord and violin?"

The rest of the three students were a bit pissed off. They felt Lucien was being really greedy because he could learn for free.

"No problem," answered Victor, "but you gotta focus on one thing at a time. What about we start from learning harpsichord? And I can probably get some new ideas while I'm teaching."

"Sure, thank you, Mr. Victor." Lucien was grateful.

Chapter 38: Modern Piano Fingering

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Standing up from the couch, Victor clapped his hands delightfully, "All right. Mr. Rhine and Mr. Shavell have finished the improvement of the harpsichord a couple of days ago. Let's try the new harpsichord today! All of you can come! I even feel that I shouldn't call it a harpsichord anymore, since its tone, its range, and its volume are completely different now. For me, it's a revolution in string instruments!"

Seeing the joy on his face, Lucien could tell that Mr.Victor was very satisfied with the improvement.

"Mr. Victor, as the initiator of the harpsichord improvement, you may like to give the new invention an official name." When they were walking upstairs, Lott talked to his teacher in a flattering way.

"Yes, Rhine, Shavell and I actually talked about the name before. However, none of us could find a proper name for it." Victor looked at Lucien with a mild smile on his face, "Lucien, what's your idea?"

"My idea?" Lucien was a bit surprised.

"Of course, you made no small contribution to this. We'd like to hear your suggestion." said Victor, "Well… Rhine appreciated its mechanical sophistication, so he wanted to name it mechanical harpsichord. I mean…Mr. Rhine is a talent in music, but definitely not good at naming a new musical instrument. Mechanical harpsichord doesn't sound right to me at all."

"What's your idea then, sir?" Lucien asked.

"Um… I prefer to have a new name. This new musical instrument combines both the features of harpsichord and clavichord, and it has a much wider range of tones compared with its predecessors. So I would suggest the name to be… superchord!"

"..." Including Lucien, none of the students present knew what to say toward this name.

"Well, what about the name 'pianoforte'?" Lucien said with uncertainty.

"Pianoforte? It's a pretty new name, but it sounds a bit weird." Victor rubbed his chin with his hand in thoughts.

"The sounds produced by the new instrument were an extension of what the harpsichord could do." Lucien was trying to make the weird name make sense. Lucien knew, in his world, the first piano made by the Italian harpsichord maker Cristofori was first called "pianoforte". In Italian, pianoforte meant "soft loud". Lucien wanted to keep the name, because it would be sweet if he could play an instrument in this world which was almost the same as a piano on Earth.

"Pianoforte… Pianoforte…" Victor found the name was pretty interesting, "What about just 'piano'?"

Lucien was very surprised that Victor would appreciate the name.

"I like the name, 'piano'." Felicia agreed, which was even more beyond Lucien's expectation. It was the first time Felicia showed her commendation for any of Lucien's ideas. A faint blush appeared on her beautiful face, "I don't know why… I just somehow feel like it's the proper name."

Mr. Victor nodded with a bit of confusion, "Yes… I feel the same way, Felicia. Piano… It feels like it should be called piano… Weird…"

"Yeah…That's how I feel as well." Lucien was a bit nervous. He did not understand why both Mr. Victor and Felicia had a special feeling toward the name. Hurriedly, he changed the topic, "I can hear someone playing music in the practice room upstairs."

"Yes, Mr. Rhine is here today. Didn't I mention it?" Victor answered with joy.

Felicia's face was now as red as a ripe tomato.

Rhine was sitting in front of the 'piano', his hair silver and his gesture charming. Without moving his shoulders and arms, his fingers were dancing on the piano keyboards, and a beautiful piece of music was flowing out of the musical instrument.

They indulged themselves in the joys of the song. No one made a sound until Rhine finished playing. All the students and Mr. Victor started applauding for the amazing performance.

"Mr. Rhine! As an excellent violinist, it's amazing that your skill in playing clavichord is also great." Felicia's eyes were glowing, "Your performance was as good as Ms. Silvia's!"

Standing from the bench, Rhine bowed to them elegantly with his right hand on his chest. He was trying to play the same song on both the clavichord and the piano to see the difference. He turned to Felicia and smiled, "I'm flattered, Felicia. But I can never compete with Ms. Silvia. It was she who wrote this song after all."

Ms. Silvia was the best clavichord player in Aalto. Since clavichord was ideal for playing in a relatively small space, like in a living room or even bedroom, Mr. Silvia was often invited by the noble ladies to play in their places. It was said that Ms. Silvia was a close friend of Princess Natasha, and thus she enjoyed a high reputation in the association.

When Rhine was playing, Lucien paid more attention on the movement of his fingers. At the same time, he searched in his spirit library and found some useful books to refer to. According to these books, the modification of a musical instrument was the main cause of the changes in fingerings, as well as the holistic style. The piano standing beside them had eighty-eight keys and different pedals, which was already very close to a modern piano on Earth. Thus Lucien believed the modern piano fingering should be the best way of playing it.

On earth, people used to play clavichord with three fingers of each hand. Then the famous pianist, Bach, started using his thumbs and little fingers. When piano gained its popularity, Chopin made a second revolution in fingerings by also playing the black keys with his thumb and little finger.

When Lucien was reviewing the basic modern fingering books in his mind, Victor told Rhine about the new name of the instrument. It turned out that Rhine loved the name as well.

"Come here, Lucien. Sit in front of the piano. I'm gonna show you the basic fingerings." Victor said to him.

Lucien trotted toward Mr. Victor with a bit excitement. However, as soon as he sat on the bench, Lucien felt something was not right. It was a bit too short for the piano.

"Mr. Victor, can I have a taller bench?" asked Lucien.

"Why? You're not much shorter than Mr. Rhine. The height should be fine." Victor was a bit surprised.

Extending his arms, Lucien tried to show it to Mr. Victor, "But if I sit on a bench of this height, I could only use my fingers and wrists. If I want to use my lower and upper arm, as well as my shoulder, I need a taller bench, otherwise it would be too awkward."

"That's because you're not supposed to use your arms and shoulders. That's too rude!" Victor was pretty serious, "Forget about what you've seen in the pubs. You saw how Mr. Rhine played, didn't you? Did he ever use his arms and shoulders?"

Victor's reaction was within Lucien's expectation. Modern piano fingering was quite hard to be accepted by many famous pianists back in the days. In their eyes, pianists using modern fingering like Franz Liszt were rude. The way of swinging arms and shoulders in their mind looked very barbaric and it was like smashing the piano.

"Yes, Lucien. Those players in the pubs are not well-educated. I know… umm… you probably grew up in that environment, but now you're here. It's time for you to see what is noble music now." Seizing the chance, Herodotus scoffed at Lucien's words.

"Mr. Victor, the piano is a new musical instrument." Lucien explained calmly, "I feel that how a musician plays the instrument should depend on the features of it. As an extension of harpsichord, piano is superior in both volume and range. With the strength of arm and shoulder, I feel its features could be presented in a better way."

Rhine took a step forward and smiled at Victor, "I agree with Lucien. Remember the discussion about fingerings several years ago? Probably we can make a real difference again with it."

Victor thought for a while and finally said, "All right, maybe we can give it a shot. But Lucien, if it later is considered wrong, it would take you a long time to forget the wrong movements and start over again. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Lucien nodded at Mr. Victor with a determined look.

In the other students' eyes, Lucien was no more than an arrogant boy trying to impress Mr. Victor and Mr. Rhine in this stupid way.

Chapter 39: The Tawny Owl

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Mr. Victor passed a piece of notation to Lucien, which was written by himself for harpsichord beginners. The song did not require any expert skills, and thus, when it was played on a harpsichord, it was quite plain. However, after the improvement, the tone of the piano would definitely add some splendour to it.

With his diligent practice of meditation, Lucien had an even better memory now. It only took him a while to roughly go through the music several times. Before him, Mr. Victor only saw noble students, like Lott and Felicia, being able to do this, because they grew up under the nurture of music since they were born.

"All right, Lucien. I know you still feel you're not prepared, but it's time for you to start playing. Don't be nervous and just pay attention to the keys you should press down. Take it easy." Mr. Victor was quite looking forward to Lucien's first play.

Putting his hands on the keyboard in a defined arch, Lucien pressed down the first key. It was not difficult for him to remember the song, but, as expected, playing it was a completely different story. Lucien felt his fingers were too clumsy to reach the right keys in time. Slow as he was, Lucien tried his best to focus on the keys to make sure they were the correct ones. Instead of a song, his first-time playing sounded more like a bunch of separated notes climbing out of the piano slowly one by one, or like a dying man exhaling with great effort.

However, no one there ever laughed at him, including the three noble students. Watching Lucien play reminded them of their own past struggle, which was even more terrible.

It was a short piece of melody, that should last around a minute, but it took Lucien more than three minutes to finish playing it. After he pressed down the last key, his forehead was oozing sweat. Lucien felt that even fighting with an aquatic zombie in the pipes could not be more exhausting.

Mr.Victor was the first person who started applauding Lucien, followed by Rhine and the other students.

"You did a good job, Lucien." Victor comforted him, smiling, "I know how clumsy a person would feel when he or she first started playing. But you are the only student I've seen that managed to press every key correctly. It's impressive."

Rhine nodded, "Yes, you are very smart, Lucien. I'm sure you will improve quickly with more practice. But the coordination of your hands was for sure not your strong point, and later you will also need to use your feet for the pedals. It'll be pretty challenging for you."

"I agree," said Mr. Victor, "But being more coordinate is just a matter of time. If you're willing to work hard, you'll be a qualified musician within ten years."

"Ten years?" It seemed that even with the direction of a master musician, it still would take a long time for a person to make achieve something in music. However, Lucien was still expecting that, by becoming a qualified musician as soon as possible, his living expenses as well as the cost for his magic experiments could be fully covered.

"Is there any way to become a qualified musician faster?" Lucien asked.

"Yes, sure, if you're a genius." Felicia interjected, "But you are not, Lucien. Working hard is the only way to become a qualified musician, and of course it takes time. Don't let Mr. Victor lose his face for having a student who couldn't even play the piano decently."

In Felicia's eyes, Lucien'a question fully showed his shallowness.

Rhine responded in a more mild way, "I understand young people's eagerness, but like Felicia said, my current small achievement in playing violin took me a long time, and it's the same with other instruments." Then he paused a bit, "Well, actually hard practice is not the only way to become a qualified musician. If you could awaken the Blessing in your blood, your ability of controlling your body would be increased by a large extent. With your smart little brain, you could probably become a piano musician within a few weeks."

"But how long it would take you to awaken the Blessing?" Rhine shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe ten years, maybe twenty years, or forever… What do you think?"

"Becoming a genius sounds more practical, Lucien." Lott laughed.

Victor turned to Lucien, "If you just want to master a relatively hard piece of melody, an intensive practice within a short period of time may be helpful, but this can never help you become a really good musician. Do not rush, but always work hard, Lucien." Victor tapped Lucien on his shoulders to encourage him.

Lucien looked at Mr. Victor and nodded.

After the class, Lucien started working on his monthly budget. He needed to give auntie Alisa three Nars every month for the meals because he was now eating with their family more often. Also, more money would be spent on building a secret magic lab in the future, when Aalto calmed down and became safer.

Besides money, Lucien still had lots of concerns: buying too many glasswares for magic experiments could be very suspicious to the church, and Lucien currently had no idea what to do with them; he also needed some black robes, so he could sew some rows of small pockets inside for carrying more different magic reagents in the future.

Burying his head in his arms, Lucien thought to himself, "Maybe I'll become a tailor sewing clothes for people rather than a sorcerer." The idea amused him a bit.

......

Several days later, at night, Lucien was reviewing the last magic he analyzed, Homan's Oscillation, even though it was too risky for him to practice the spell at this moment. Besides, by changing the vibration frequency of his spiritual power, now Lucien could leave an imperceptible magic mark on a target, which made him very happy.

As for music, like Rhine commented, after a certain stage, his good memory could not help much anymore. His poor coordination became his biggest problem, so Lucien was still practicing the same etude.

All of a sudden, Lucien heard someone or something was swiftly approaching his shack.

Lucien hid all his stuff under the bed in a hurry and stood there in a defensive posture.

*Knock, knock, knock*

…

The window opened by itself!

Lucien felt a familiar wave of magic power coming inside. He was very nervous, but also kind of excited. Was it another sorcerer apprentice, or even a real sorcerer?

A tawny owl flew in through the window and landed on the table. Somehow Lucien felt it had an arrogant-looking face.

And the owl started speaking in a harsh voice.

"You should open the window for me, you little boy."

Lucien was not really scared. In the notes, the witch mentioned some animals that could talk. Some of them were sorcerers or sorceresses transformed into different kind of animals, while some of them were summoned pets. However, Lucien was not sure which one the owl was, yet.

Strolling on the table, the arrogant owl looked at Lucien from top to bottom. Then it started talking again.

"Don't be afraid, boy. As long as you answer my questions honestly, Lord Doro won't hurt you."

Lucien nodded his head, feeling a bit confused…Who was Lord Doro?

The owl took a step forward and looked at Lucien's eyes, "Listen to my question… After the apprentice died, did any sorcerer or sorceress come here and asked you about her?"

Chapter 40: Tracking

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

As long as all the required reagents were ready, an apprentice could start summoning his or her own pet. With different reagents, there were also different summoned animals. Some could be common animals like owls, cats or ravens, while some could be very powerful magic creatures like a Faerie Dragon.

Once they were summoned, mysterious connections would be built between the owners and them. Thus, an owner could gain some special abilities based on the features of his or her summoned pet, and vice versa. As long as the pet was strong enough to handle magic, it could also use some of its owner's basic spells. For example, if one could summon a cat as his or her companion, the summoner usually would then have good night vision, and there would be also a significant improvement in the person's agility. Meanwhile, the cat could help its owner to cast some of the apprentice spells like Darkness and Organ Preservation, even some basic Necromantic spells.

However, as to how many spells a companion pet could master, and how many times it could cast the spells depended on its owner's level. That was to say, the power consumed by a spell would not come from the pet, but still from its owner. If the owner's remaining spiritual power was not enough, the pet would not be able to use magic.

A summoned companion pet could also grow stronger to higher levels, but the special abilities its owner gained would not be further improved along the process. If the pet died, or somehow the connection was broken, the owner would lose the special abilities deriving from the pet and even be injured.

Lucien had never paid much attention to summoning spells before, because having a magic pet in the city under the nose of the church could easily bring him big trouble.

A few seconds later, Lucien slowly answered the owl's question, "No… I didn't see any other sorcerer or sorceress."

The owl flapped its wings in satisfaction, "Very well… You are indeed not lying. Lord Doro has been watching you for some time, and no one came or asked about her."

"Sneaky little bird…" Lucien almost rolled his eyes.

"Then, the second question. What happened in the witch's secret chamber and what did you find there?" The owl's big round eyes blinked.

"Well… I went down there with a few guards…" Lucien told the owl exactly what had happened in the chamber, except, of course, the part about the magic books being copied to his spirit library. No one would believe that there was a whole library in his soul anyway.

"What a tragedy for the guard! He lost his arm!" The owl sighed, "Good boy, Lord Doro's job is done now. Good night, little boy!" Then it flew directly toward the open window and gradually disappeared in the darkness.

Then Lucien finally realized that Doro was the owl's name. Without doubt, the owl had a master, and Lucien wanted to figure out who the person was.

So when Lucien was talking, he left an almost undetectable mark on Doro, the owl, with his spiritual power. When he was sure that the owl had flown some distance away from his place, Lucien quickly put on his black robe and ran out of the door.

It was very dark outside at midnight and the streets were quiet. Lucien spread his power out and soon detected the owl.

The owl did not fly very fast. Lucien was a bit hesitant whether he should follow the bird or not. Doro didn't look like a very strong summoned pet, so Lucien was guessing that its owner probably was also an apprentice. But what if there were other sorcerers at the place?

A few seconds later, Lucien decided to take the risk. After all, sooner or later, he needed to find other apprentices or sorcerers and join them. Such a good opportunity like the one sitting in front of him was definitely worth the risk. Furthermore, if Lucien found himself in a dangerous situation, he still had a level-two magic ring to help him, the Ice Revenger.

Lucien followed the target and ran on the streets. At the same time, he kept some distance between him and Doro to make sure he wouldn't be noticed.

About ten minutes later, Lucien saw the owl flying into a window on the second floor of a building covered by darkness. Carefully, he approached it, and was a bit surprised when he found out it was actually the Copper Coronet.

Lucien put his Ice Revenger on the finger, and then carefully walked toward the back door of the pub. With some easy apprentice spells, he sneaked into the tavern and went upstairs. Luckily, no one was on the corridor at this time.

Listening carefully with the help of his spiritual power, Lucien could hear a man talking in a low voice inside one of the rooms.

......

Listening to his owl's report, Smile was sitting in a rocking chair with a glass of wine in his hand.

Then he closed his eyes and lay back on the chair, "Well… It seems that the guy doesn't know the witch as well. Oh no… I have no clue now, not at all. How can I find the man from the Continental Congress…"

"Smile, as long as we keep collecting information…" Doro was trying to comfort him.

While he was feeling depressed, there was a knock on the front door.

Doro jumped to the bed at once and buried himself under the blanket, while Smile bounced out of the rocking chair and asked nervously, "Who is it?!"

"I'm looking for Doro, the owl, and you, Mr. Smile" A man answered in a calm way. His voice sounded harsh and cold.

"What?!" Doro screamed and its big round eyes opened even wider.

Smile's spell was ready, but he dare not launch the attack rashly on a stranger who he knew nothing about.

"I asked, who are you?!" Smile repeated.

"I'm a sorcerer, and I know the witch. Like you, I'm also looking for the man from the Congress." The harsh voice paused a bit and continued, "Earlier I heard your owl asking a young boy about the witch, so I followed your pet and came here."

"What?! It was Lord Doro's mistake! What a tragedy!" yelled the owl.

Smile relaxed a bit. At least he knew it was not the church, or they would have broken the door at once, without any explanation.

"If you're a sorcerer, you don't need me to open the door for you." Smile did not lower his guard though. If the man opened the door by himself, he could have a few more seconds to better cast defensive measures. Besides, he could tell from the spell if the guy was really a sorcerer, or a pastor in disguise. The two powers were different.

Then, the door opened. A freezing cold and threatening power came into the place before the sorcerer entered.

Smile took a step back. He knew he was definitely overpowered. None of his apprentice spells would be helpful when facing the other sorcerer's power. Then he saw a mysterious man wearing a black robe, whose face was hidden in the shadow of a hood.

Lucien, on the other hand, saw the apprentice's face well enough, and realized that he actually met Smile before. When Lucien first visited Copper Coronet, Smile was the hooked-nosed man sitting beside the pub counter.

Chapter 41: Apprentice Group

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Facing the threatening power, Smile subconsciously tried to avoid looking at the face shaded by the hood, as if there was a dreadful and evil pit hidden inside. He even thought it was possible that the sorcerer in front of him was a user of black magic.

After putting on Ice Revenger, it kept infusing a steady cold flow into Lucien's body, strengthening his willpower. At the same time, Lucien could also sense the tension in the air built by the ring.

With Ice Revenger, Lucien could be immune to all the apprentice-level magics working on his mind. The person who wore the ring could, at the same time, have the Frightful Presence buff forcing people surrounding him or her to feel frightened, which was usually a buff of knight.

Without asking for permission, Lucien entered the room and closed the door behind him. Under the alert gaze of Smile, Lucien casually found a chair and sat down, then he started talking again in the pretended harsh voice,

"I knew the apprentice by accident. She made an appointment for me to meet the sorcerer who came from the headquarter of the Continental Congress of Magic. I was looking forward to meeting him to find the land where sorcerers and sorceress can feel free to study magic. But before the meeting, she died, and I never had the chance to meet the sorcerer. I was planning on asking the young lad named Lucien the same question as well, but your owl was a step ahead of me."

Knowing that the sorcerer sitting in front of him was not his enemy, Smile finally relaxed. Rubbing his hands, he started explaining why he was also looking for the mysterious sorcerer,

"I met the her several months ago, and I invited her to our secret apprentice group meeting. Later she told us that she met a great sorcerer from the Congress. In her description, on the land where the Congress sits, all the sorcerers and sorceresses don't have to hide anymore. We were…so encouraged…"

"I understand," Lucien nodded, "We are sorcerers, not rats. We deserve much better than this."

Smile raised his head and started feeling close to this unexpected visitor. Sorcerers and sorceresses always understood their shared struggle and fear. Facing the same enemy, most sorcerers and sorceresses united to help each other and to escape from the search of the church.

"Yes, sir. You must understand our excitement." Smile lowered his head and looked at his hands again, "We also asked her to invite the great sorcerer to come to our meeting. Although he didn't show up for the first time, the sorceress brought a journal called Arcana from him to us."

Lucien remembered the journal. It must be the same one the sorceress mentioned in her notebook.

"Arcana?" Lucien pretended he never heard of the journal before.

"Yes, sir. When she first mentioned the Congress, some of us didn't believe it. After reading it, all of us started yearning for the place. The journal was old, very old… it was published about twenty-five years ago. But the ideas in the journal were amazing, way beyond imagination… It was like a new world." Smile's face lightened up a bit.

A few seconds later, Smile continued in a depressed voice, "But she was found by the church before our next meeting. I know it was dangerous, but I still don't want to give up. I moved from Purple Lily into this pub, hoping I could find any clue related to the Congress. Before, I was afraid that the church might still be watching her place, so I waited for almost a month and finally sent Doro there tonight."

Lucien saw Smile's face was changing with different emotions—excitement, astonishment, sadness and depression. He was pretty sure Smile was not lying. Hearing Smile's explanation, Lucien felt kind of disappointed, since he was hoping that Smile might know something more about the Congress.

"Her death is our loss." Lucien said slowly, "I'm afraid the sorcerer you were talking about might get caught with her at the same time. A sorcerer from the headquarter can easily catch the church's attention."

"I guess so…" Smile nodded with a sad look.

"What a tragedy!" yelled the owl Doro.

"Smile, can I take a look at the journal?" Lucien was trying to see if he could find any information from it.

Smile shook his head and replied, "Sorry, sir. The journal is not here now. We take turns to read it. The journal was very hard for us apprentices to understand, but I guess for a real sorcerer like you, it won't be a problem."

The power of the ring made Smile think Lucien was at least a sorcerer of the first or second circle, instead of an apprentice like him. Toward Smile's assumption, Lucien neither admitted nor denied, since Smile's respect might bring him some benefits.

"So…If you don't mind, sir," Smile asked Lucien with a bit hesitation, "you can join us. The journal will be passed on to another apprentice over the next meeting."

Lucien thought about the potential risk, but he also didn't want to miss the chance to find the apprentice group in Aalto.

"What do you usually do during the meeting?" Lucien asked.

"Aalto is the last city of ancient Sylvanas Magic Empire, and there are still many sorcerers and sorceresses teaching their apprentices secretly. Apprentices gather together to exchange information, magic materials and views. We work together and help each other." Smile explained.

"I see… But the church is watching us all the time. How did the founders manage to start the group at the very beginning?" Lucien wanted to ask more questions to make sure it was not a trap.

"Well… there're several apprentice groups. Most apprentices here belong to one of them, while some join more than one group. The founders of our group first met each other by accident in the Melzer Black Forest when they were seeking the same magic materials." Smile answered in a patient way, "…I know you're very cautious, sir, and I completely understand. Every one of us all felt the same way when we first joined the meeting group. You'll see that it's a very secret group. Except the one who introduces you to the meeting, you can hardly can recognize anyone else there, because we'd all dress like the way you're dressing now."

"If you can join us, sir, it will be our pleasure. And I'm pretty sure you can also find what you need there, at least we can try." Smile added.

Despite the man's harsh voice, Smile felt the man in the black robe was not a vicious sorcerer, instead, he appeared to be quite calm and understanding. If their apprentice group could have a real sorcerer as a regular member, these apprentices, including Smile himself, could definitely benefit a lot from it. Even if the man was actually not as powerful as he appeared to be, Smile didn't think he would do any harm to the group.

Lucien was persuaded. He knew sooner or later he had to find a group instead of always working alone, and the magic potions and reagents were also too tempting for Lucien to refuse, "Well… My lab was damaged several days ago, if your group can provide me with a whole set of labware, I'll be more than willing to go."

"I don't think it will be a problem, sir." Smile grinned.

"Thank you, Smile. Then where is the group meeting, and when?"

"This Saturday evening," answered Smile, "It would be held in the sewers, but we haven't agreed on the specific location. Please tell me how to find you when we decide, sir."

"Don't hold your meeting in the sewers." Lucien warned Smile seriously, "The church is lately keeping a close watching there. Don't ask me what happened there, and don't ask why I know this. Just tell all your group members not to go down there recently."

"What?!" Smile was shocked. Even thinking about what would happen to the apprentice group if he hadn't met the mysterious sorcerer tonight made his heart beat really fast.

"We can develop a set of code first. Then when you decide where and when to hold the meeting, find the eighth house opposite to the ruin of the apprentice's place and leave the secret code on the corner of the wall. It's easier and also safer for both of us." said Lucien.

The house sat right beside auntie Alisa's place. It was very convenient for Lucien to see the code on his way.

After agreeing on the secret code, Lucien stood up from the chair and was about to leave. Simile stopped him and asked,

"Sir, can you give me your pseudonym? We don't use real names during the meeting."

Lucien thought for a few seconds and replied, "Well… call me 'Professor'."

Lucien slightly dusted his black robe and walked toward the door. Before he left, he turned towards Smile, "I almost forgot… I'm working on an experiment recently which requires Corpse Mushroom and Revenant Dust. I'm running out of these two materials. If you guys can provide some, I'd really appreciate it."

Then he opened the door and stepped out of the room, "Good night, Owl." Lucien nodded politely. "Owl" was Smile's pseudonym.

Smile watched the mysterious sorcerer closing the door gently and heard his light footsteps downstairs. Like a dream, the room became quiet again, as if the man never had never been there.

Chapter 42: The Secret Meeting

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

After leaving the room, while Lucien was walking downstairs, he dispelled the spirit mark he left on Doro, as he didn't want Smile to somehow find out his own unique way of tracking.

Carefully, Lucien approached the back door. Again, with some easy spells, Lucien managed to leave Copper Coronet quietly and no one ever noticed him. Just in case, Lucien took a very roundabout way first, instead of going back to his place directly,

Lying in his bed, Lucien felt kind of encouraged since now he was certain that he was not alone. He was comforted by the fact that there were still other apprentices working hard while carefully hiding from the church. He wondered how many apprentices, sorcerers, and sorceresses were there in Aalto in total.

......

In the following few days, Lucien's life was pretty plain but peaceful. Lucien got up early in the morning to do some work out and then went to work. Sometimes he read music books, and sometimes religion and travel book, sometimes he read in his own spirit library and analyzed the magic structures.

Although Pierre could be kind of weird sometimes, when he was reading his music books, Lucien almost couldn't feel his existence. And luckily, Wolf had been out of town for a while, and no one else in the association would ever give them a hard time.

Life was almost perfect these days. The only pity was that Lucien didn't have a chance to see Ms. Silvia, the famous violinist who was still single. According to Pierre, she was a goddess-like lady and was very talented. Since Pierre kept mentioning her for countless times, Lucien also started feeling curious. However, Mr. Silvia didn't come to the association very often.

While learning music, Lucien was still learning how to read, but the time spent on the latter was much shorter now, since he was learning really fast. Like the rest of the music students, after finishing the class, Lucien would stay at Mr. Victor's place and start another two-hour piano practicing. Lucien's quality of being persistent helped him a lot. He never stopped practicing until he had really sore fingers and arms and sweated a lot.

The evening was reserved to the study of magic. Nothing could pull Lucien out of the magic world in this period of time.

On Friday evening, what Lucien was on his way to auntie Alisa's place, he noticed there were some doodle-like patterns at the very corner of a wall. Lucien quickly understood what they meant.

"Ten o'clock. Saturday night. The abandoned house in the easternmost area in Aderon. Owl."

Lucien's expression did not change at all. He kept calmly walking toward Alisa's place as if he had seen nothing unusual.

......

Lucien arrived at the place ten minutes earlier in his black robe, with Ice Revenger on his left hand. Before Lucien left his place, he also checked all the magic reagents in the pockets of the robe.

There was neither moon nor stars that night. Thick clouds covered all the light in the sky.

As soon as Lucien arrived, he heard an owl hoot in the darkness. It was Doro standing on the tall willow, serving as a sentinel. Under the tree stood Smile in a black robe. In order to let Lucien recognize him, Smile didn't wear his hood.

"Welcome, Mr. Professor." Smiled walked toward Lucien and put on the hood, "I told the other members about you, and they were looking forward to your presence. Several apprentices also wanted to ask you for help with some magic problems. Of course, they will pay."

Knowing that Smile was trying to test him, Lucien, however, didn't feel nervous. He was pretty sure that he was more advanced than most of his peer apprentices, although he couldn't guarantee that he was able to solve all the problems, "I major in Astrology and Element magic. So if these are questions related to those, I shall be able to help them a bit."

Smile nodded, "Then please follow me, Mr. Professor."

Smile stopped in front of the old wood door of the abandoned place. After knocking on the door in a unique rhythm, Smile mimicked an owl hoot.

A few seconds later, a man wearing the same black robe opened the door slowly. When the man saw Lucien, he slightly nodded towards Lucien, "This must be Mr. Professor, then."

Lucien could tell it was not the man's real voice as well.

"Yes, this is Mr. Professor," Smile's voice was also lower than the other night, "and Professor, this is Fire Wolf."

"Nice to meet you." Lucien lowered his head slightly and greeted him. His left hand stayed in the sleeve, and his Ice Revenger was ready.

After walking through the living room and another door, Fire Wolf led them to the storage room. At the corner of the room, there was a staircase that led underground.

A basement! He wondered why he never thought about building a basement under his shack, instead of taking the risk and going down into the sewers every time. And at the same time, he could build a bigger crypt in Melzer Black Forest for practicing more powerful spells.

This was not a very spacious basement. Eleven low stools were placed surrounding a long table. Flickering candles sparsely illuminated the place. The other eight apprentices were already sitting there. All of them were wearing black robes.

Lucien walked downstairs with great caution, followed by Fire Wolf and Smile. They closed the door of the basement before they sat down.

"Everyone, today we're honoured to have Mr. Professor here to exchange ideas and thoughts with us." Smile stood up and started the introduction, "Mr. Professor is a real sorcerer. I'm sure our apprentice group meeting would benefit a lot from Mr. Professor's profound knowledge."

Then Smile started introducing the apprentices present one by one, "This is White Honey, Morning Star, Reindeer, White Glove, Oak, Philosopher, Mercury and Hanger."

"The honour is all mine." Lucien slightly bowed, "Please forgive me for being so direct. I come here largely because of the journal, Arcana. Can I take a look at it first?"

"No problem, Professor. Take your time and we can do random discussion first." Philosopher nodded and slowly handed Lucien a black hardback book. His voice sounded pretty old, "Besides, I heard from Owl that you need a whole set of labwares and I brought them here tonight. I'll be glad to give them to you as a gift if you can solve a problem for me later."

Lucien didn't open the book instantly, but carefully checked the cover of the book first.

There were a few separate silver lines joining together in the end on the black cover, which formed the word, Arcana, right in the centre. Under the name of the journal, a line of words wrote "Volume 11, the year 392 of Saint Calendar". There were parchment pages inside it.

From the content page, Lucien found there were twenty-four articles in the journal. The first one was Discussion about the Fifth Failure of Finding the New Planets. Lucien felt interested in it and started reading.

"The theory of gravitation proposed by Douglas could explain lots of force field spells, even most spells of the Astrology school. Besides, the three laws of planetary motion also derives from that theory, which is of great significance for guiding the field of fortunetelling.

"Based on this theory, we have created many new and powerful spells. Thus we can say, if there are two major columns supporting the classical magic system, the theory of gravitation could be valued as the most important foundation for one of the columns — force field study."

...

"There is still one question remaining to be demonstrated: The theory of gravitation enables us to figure out many guiding formulas, and thus we know that the continent where we live in also belongs to a planet. The planet keeps rotating and at the same time revolving around the sun, so do the rest of the planets in the sky. Following the formulas mentioned above, we can also locate these planets.

"However, no one, not even the greatest sorcerer or sorceress, ever managed to reach the planets using the most advanced space magic, including me. Even we can calculate the coordinates of them, we can find none of them in the presumed places in space.

"When I was trying to cast the advanced space magic, although I could not reach the planet, I could feel the gravity of the target planet from my presupposed transit spot. The planets are there, but at the same time, they are not there."

When Lucien found out that the planets in this world could tell destinies, Lucien was already quite surprised. Now he felt surprised again, and very confused.

Chapter 43: A Real Professor

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

After he roughly went through some of the formulas in the article, Lucien found that the formulas in this world were basically consistent with what he had learned before, at school. If there was no calculation mistake, the sorcerer should be able to locate and find the planet. However, including the author, no one ever managed to arrive on the target planet.

"So weird…" Lucien thought to himself, feeling confused. Then he saw the author's introduction:

Oliver Constantine—Grand arcanist; Legendary archmage; Level three in the profession of "the Hand of Annihilation".

"It looks like the title of grand arcanist is even superior than legendary archmage, and the two titles are not overlapping. They should belong to different evaluation or ranking systems—the latter is decided by how powerful the sorcerer or sorceress is, while the former depends on one's contribution to the study of arcana…" Lucien was guessing. Then when he looked at the other authors' titles in the journal, his thought was proved right: All of them had two different titles, for example, "level eight arcanist, 9th circle Astrology mage", "level six arcanist, 8th circle Element mage"… Lucien also noticed that, in most cases, the authors' levels in arcana were lower than their magic power ranks. Therefore, it seemed the achievement in academic study was even harder.

Some of the rest of the articles were:

"Study of String Vibration in Some of the Magics"

"Brief Introduction of Differential Method and Infinite Series"

"Thoughts about Seven-bridge Problem"

"The Mutual Transformation Between Electricity and Magnetism in Magic"

...

"A New Element Detected by a New Method"

"A Forever Debate: Whether Spiritual Power Exists in the Form of Wave or Particle — A Study of 'Spirit Storm'"

......

While Lucien was reading the book, other apprentices were observing him in secret.

Half an hour later, Lucien already had a general idea of the journal.

The study of arcana in this world could be understood as science on Earth. The development of mathematics and physics here was close to the one at the middle of the 18th century on Earth. Calculus had been basically built up, while there was a very rapid growth in the development of geometry. Also, the development in Mechanics and electromagnetism had been pushed further in this world. At the same time, some spells here were beyond the comprehension of Earth's science, for example, Space Jump.

As for Element Magic, it was close to the development level of chemistry in the early nineteenth century on Earth. Researchers, or say, arcanists, had determined what particles made the elements and had realized that earth, fire, wind and water were actually not elements. Besides, they had started measuring atomic weight as well.

But the journal was published twenty years ago, Lucien speculated that the current development level of arcana should be even more advanced.

After he closed the journal, Lucien found that all the apprentices present were looking at him. He smiled and asked, "It's a very interesting book. Can I keep it for about two weeks?"

"As long as you can answer my questions, Mr. Professor." The voice of Philosopher sounded very old.

"Of course, Philosopher. You may ask now." Knowing that the elder apprentice was trying to test him, Lucien was pretty confident. He believed that his knowledge should be enough to answer some apprentice questions.

Philosopher took out a stack of papers filled with words and numbers, "Professor, since you specialize in Element and Astrology, I have some questions for you related to the first article in the journal… When I first met these formulas which can predict the orbiting of stars, I was so fascinated, but I couldn't understand how they were derived and why they actually work. Can you explain it for us, sir?"

It seemed like a shared question for all the apprentice present. All of them turned around and were waiting for Lucien's explanation.

Within Lucien's expectation, what Philosopher asked was related to celestial mechanics. He answered calmly, "Your question is too big to be fully explained at a time, because it involves too many different aspects. Tonight I can explain to you the basic principles of the formula and how to use them, are you okay with it?"

"Sure, Mr. Professor." Philosopher answered politely.

"This symbol represents gravitational constant. Some of you may wonder what is gravity. Well, gravity is the force that makes you fall back to the ground when you jump up without using any magic, the force that makes apples drop. These phenomena never follow the will of God, and they should not be taken for granted…"

Lucien was trying to make his explanation simple. And when the other apprentices interrupted him to ask why, he just answered in this way, "In order to explain this question, many more concepts and principles will be involved, and they can not be comprehended when you are apprentices. After you become real sorcerers and sorceresses, these questions will be easier to be studied."

That was actually because Lucien himself did not fully understand the underlying principles of the formula as well.

Philosopher sighed with emotion, "One can never learn enough in the world of magic. Before I thought I had made some progress in this field, but now I just realized I'm way far from that."

The rest of the apprentices also nodded. Toward these formulas, although the mysterious "Professor" did not explain "why", he indeed clarified "how", from which they were provided with new ideas about how to analyze and construct many new magic structures.

After Lucien finished his "lecture", Philosopher fell silent. After a few seconds, he grabbed his quill and started writing numbers on a piece of paper excitedly. Other apprentices were also lost in thought.

"Mr. Professor, I want to apologize for suspecting you were a liar…" White Honey was a female, who did not speak very much before, "You're the most elegant and erudite sorcerer I've ever seen." Although she was trying to make herself sound like an elder woman, she was too excited to hide her original charming voice.

From her comment, Lucien, Smile and Oak immediately drew an important conclusion: White honey was a member of more than one apprentice group.

Lucien answered in his pretended harsh voice, "I accept your apology. But actually, I don't really care what other people think of me. My knowledge and power is always mine."

...

Later, when White Honey, Smile and Oak were exchanging magic materials, Lucien also bought some of them.

Laying the right hand on his forehead, Philosopher made a deep bow towards Lucien. It was the manner of the ancient sorcerers.

"I want to extend my sincere thanks to you, sir, my mentor." Philosopher said, excitedly, "Your explanation solved many of my questions. I'm hoping that, with your help, I can figure out how to analyze the key 1st circle Astrology magic, in order to become a real sorcerer. Mr. Professor, to show my appreciation I hope you can accept this set of labware. Besides, you can choose any one of my stuff here."

"Mr. Professor, I heard that you need Corpse Mushroom, and I've brought them here. I'm not sure if you're willing to solve a question of mine…" Mercury was another female in the group, who sounded quite nervous but also excited.

Other apprentices were looking at Lucien respectfully, hoping to learn more from him.

Lucien started feeling that he was a real "Professor" now.