Chapter 54: The Secret of the Slate
That was a gray stone slab, stained with a layer of dust, upon which some blurred characters could be vaguely discerned.
Demacia picked up the stone slab, and his eyes lit up.
"Brother Mu! Brother Mu! Come take a look at this. Is this Elvish script?"
He called out to Li Mu, who was ahead.
"Hm? Elvish script?"
Li Mu stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the excited Demacia holding up the stone slab.
"Let me take a look."
He took the stone slab, wiped off the dust, and examined it.
It seemed that the stone slab had weathered many years; the script was no longer clear, but the ever-memorable Li Mu still recognized that these strange characters seemed to share the same origin as the inscriptions outside the Feilengcui Ruins!
"Maybe... it is Elvish script!"
His heart leapt with joy.
Script is the vessel of civilization.
Whatever was written on this stone slab would be a significant discovery for them.
And one of the most important aspects of exploring the Feilengcui mission was to find the books of the Elf civilization!
"Where did you find it?"
Li Mu asked eagerly.
"Cough cough, I tripped over this thing and picked it up, it was right over there."
Demacia pointed and answered towards the ruins nearby.
Li Mu: ...
What kind of dumb luck is this?
He walked a few steps towards where Demacia had pointed, crouched down, and lit the area with a torch.
As the firelight shone, Li Mu was surprised to find there seemed to be even more stone slabs buried here!
He had been talking with Demacia all this time and hadn't noticed them on their way.
If Demacia hadn't tripped over them, they might have missed this altogether!
"Demacia! We might have found something good. Come help me turn over these stone slabs!"
Li Mu exclaimed excitedly.
Most of the stone slabs were covered by the ruins, with just a corner exposed. If they wanted a clear view, they needed to dig them all out.
"Something good?"
Demacia was stunned for a moment, then his expression turned joyful:
"Damn! Could it really be some ancient tome? Could there also be treasure maps and cultivation techniques or something?"
"Stop daydreaming, come and help!"
Li Mu placed the torch aside and carefully started to dig out the stone slabs from the ruins while instructing Demacia.
"Alright! Alright!"
Demacia also quickly crouched down and assisted Li Mu in their treasure hunt.
They spent a good half-hour before all the stone slabs were dug out.
Unbeknownst to them until counted, Li Mu was pleasantly surprised to find they had unearthed 73 stone slabs!
Each stone slab was about one centimeter thick, as big as a washbasin, square, and covered with dense, mysterious writing.
Regrettably, most of the stone slabs were broken, and many inscriptions were unclear, but of the relatively intact ones, they picked out six after some careful selection.
Looking at these six stone slabs, Li Mu was thrilled.
He pondered for a moment, then said:
"Let's hide the rest of the stone slabs well, then take these six complete ones back to Feilengcui and get Alice to identify what's written on them."
The Elf script had not changed much over a thousand years; players couldn't understand Elvish language, but Alice, as the Natural Saintess, could.
"Great! Hahaha, the diligent seeker will be rewarded! We finally found something! Just don't know if this is a treasure map or something! Hehehe, perhaps this will trigger some follow-up storylines!"
Demacia exclaimed with excitement.
The two of them arranged the rest of the stone slabs in a corner, covered them with other debris, and made a mark on the side before leaving excitedly with the six selected stone slabs.
...
Central Temple of Feilengcui.
After two days of restoration, the once dilapidated temple had been completely renewed.
Restoring the temple should have been a long process, but the existence of magic had greatly sped up this progress, and in just two days, the players were almost done with all the work.
At this moment, Gugu Bird was leading some players in the final decoration work, they even referred to several famous European churches to decorate the already solemn and sacred Natural Temple to make it even more majestic and holy.
This was not just their hobby, but also a mission assigned by the following story of the holy land, with very generous rewards.
"Place these plants under the window sills of the temple, then use Natural Magic to stimulate their rooting."
After giving instructions to a guild member, Gugu Bird continued to look at the blueprints.
"Hey, Gugu Bird!"
Suddenly, a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.
She frowned, looked up, and her eyebrows lifted when she saw who it was:
"Brother Mu?"
It was the returning Li Mu and Demacia.
At this moment, the two of them looked extremely excited, and the stone slabs in their hands were quite eye-catching.
Gugu Bird automatically ignored Demacia standing next to Li Mu and, looking at the stone slabs in Li Mu's hand, her eyes brightened:
"Have you finally found something interesting?"
All the players knew that Li Mu and Demacia had been picking up trash in the ruins for two days.
Li Mu nodded and revealed a brilliant smile:
"Yes! We found stone slabs with inscriptions. Let's get Alice to identify them!"
"Text?"
The Gugu bird raised an eyebrow.
"Here!"
Li Mu took out a slab of stone and gestured for her to look:
"I've seen these characters before; they're very similar to those in the temple. I guess they must be Elf Language."
The Gugu bird showed a look of great interest, leaning slightly forward, bringing her head closer to seriously inspect the writing on the stone slab, with a focused expression.
"Silver Calendar... Elves... Celebration..."
She frowned, reading each word aloud.
"This seems to be about an Elven celebration."
The Gugu bird thought for a moment and came to a conclusion.
Li Mu and Demacia were stunned.
"You... you... you can understand it?!"
Demacia stuttered, his face filled with sheer amazement.
The Gugu bird glanced at him and turned to Li Mu, explaining:
"I've been learning about Arrays with Alice recently, and the layout of Elf Clan's Arrays requires the use of Elf Language, so I've also been studying it."
"So... this really is Elf Language?"
Li Mu's face lit up with joy.
But then he thought of something, looking at the Gugu bird's expression, which was a bit odd:
"Wait... you've only learned for two days, right? And you've understood it already?"
The Gugu bird furrowed her brow, somewhat dejectedly shook her head and said:
"No, Elf Language is too difficult. It has a vocabulary of tens of thousands of words. I've spent two whole nights on it, and so far, I've only learned about thirteen hundred words. I can only understand at most one tenth or one twentieth of these characters."
With that, she sighed helplessly, looking quite disappointed.
Li Mu: ...
Demacia: ...
The two of them looked at each other, speechless for a long time.
Is this... the power of a top student?
It's only been two days! Just two days!
The Gugu bird is terrifying indeed.
Truly worthy of being a prodigy from Jinghua University...
Li Mu vividly remembered how the 6000 words from the university's English Level 6 had tormented him for two semesters and he still hadn't mastered them completely.
But the Gugu bird...
In two days, she learned over a thousand unfamiliar words of Elf Language...
Terrifying indeed.
Li Mu was familiar with Elf Language; it was an entirely different system. Just the alphabet alone, he heard, had as many as 72 characters. He didn't know what was going through the planners' minds when they created such a complex system of writing, as intricate as Chinese characters.
However, for some story enthusiasts and rationalists, this was another kind of surprise.
Seeing the Gugu bird's regretful expression, Demacia sighed to the sky:
"Ah, it seems I'm fated not to learn about Arrays in this lifetime."
"What does a warrior like you need to learn Arrays for?"
The Gugu bird gave him a sideways glance.
Demacia: ...
Li Mu coughed twice and quickly handed the other two remaining slabs to the Gugu bird:
"Gugu bird, could you help me look at the remaining two as well?"
The Gugu bird nodded and took them, scrutinizing them closely. She said:
"They seem to be related to the history of the Elves; I can't make out the specifics."
"Not a treasure map? Or some secret Cultivation Technique?"
Demacia quickly inquired.
"Doesn't seem like it."
The Gugu bird shook her head.
In an instant, Demacia looked as deflated as a frostbitten eggplant:
"My God, so they're just a bunch of junk after all?"
Li Mu also felt very disappointed. He sighed and passed the three slabs in Demacia's hands to the young girl:
"Gugu bird, these three as well, please have a look."
The Gugu bird took them.
"This also seems to be about history."
After a while, she handed the first slab back to Li Mu.
"This one too."
Soon, she returned the second slab.
For a moment, Li Mu and Demacia felt a wave of dejection wash over them.
However, after a long while, the Gugu bird didn't return the third slab.
"What's wrong? Is there an issue with this one?"
Seeing her eyebrows knit tightly together, Demacia's heart skipped a beat, and he asked with some curiosity.
The Gugu bird shook her head and looked at them with an odd expression:
"No..."
She checked the slab again carefully, with some uncertainty she said:
"This one... seems to be a meditation technique."