Although the crystal in his hand contained the college address, Xia De didn't have time to look at it twice before all the text on the page cleared, and a large number "3" appeared.
The four people by the wall held their breath, but they were all very excited:
"Xia De, get ready!"
Doctor Schneider called out.
The number "2" appeared.
Xia De hastily pulled out his own keys and threw them, along with the page in front of him and a jumble of things in his pocket, towards the wall.
The number "1" appeared.
"If I come back late, remember to feed Mia for me."
He shouted loudly, and then the crystal in his hand exploded like a bomb, emitting an astonishing white light. Inside the room, with its doors and windows closed, a strong wind suddenly rose in the light. The four doctors instinctively closed their eyes. A few seconds later, the light and the wind disappeared together, and Xia De, who had been standing there, was also gone.
The papers, caught by the wind, fell like snowflakes in the air. What disappeared along with Xia De was one-fifth of the coffee table in front of him and half of the sofa behind him. Both looked as if they had been precisely cut, with unusually neat cross-sections.
"Oh~"
The doctor exclaimed, surveying the room as if it had been hit by a storm, and whispered:
"This commotion… it’s much smaller than I thought."
(Mia is running...)
It felt as if he was forcibly pressed into a sphere by an external force, then quickly rolled through a narrow pipe. Then, it was like being stuffed into a gun barrel and propelled forward with immense force.
Bizarre illusions unfolded before his eyes, and strange hallucinations made Xia De unable to distinguish reality from fantasy. He saw a black octopus beast dancing its tentacles under a dim yellow sky, the sun falling in a doomsday scene, a giant black hand descending from the sky to destroy the material world, Miss Louisa and Miss Bei Ya Si embracing and kissing, and other strange scenes.
"Miss Louisa doesn't even know Miss Bei Ya Si. What am I thinking?"
His chaotic mind felt as if it was about to explode from receiving too much information at once. But soon, the sensation of stepping on solid ground returned, and Xia De only felt his body sway before the scene in front of him stabilized, and the space jump ended.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to vomit that came with the dizziness. At the same time, the air flowing into his nostrils brought a new scent: the air was dry, slightly cold, and permeated with the distinct smell of paper and ink.
Xia De really liked this smell.
Opening his eyes, he saw an undoubtedly large Library, with solid wood flooring beneath his feet. He stood in an open space amidst a cluster of bookshelves. The yellowish-brown wooden bookshelves, arranged at varying heights, extended from his view into the far distance. They were uneven in height and not neatly aligned, yet they inexplicably possessed a strange sense of order.
The bookshelf closest to Xia De had a brass plaque that read "History (fifth epoch 1 ~ 100 years)". Books filled the shelves, with text from various eras marking the book information on their spines. In an era where Knowledge was wealth, the visible portion of the Library alone was enough to buy the entire Tobesk.
Looking up, the arched ceiling, high in the middle and low on the sides, seemed to be four stories high. Xia De stood directly beneath the highest point of the ceiling, which should be the center of the Library. The sounds of footsteps coming from all directions indicated that the place was currently in use. Perhaps only one or two bookshelves away, a true Saint Byron's Ring術士 was standing.
The temperature in the Library was lower than that of Tobesk, which was currently in midsummer. He took another deep breath, letting the crisp air fill his lungs, allowing his mind to fully recover.
The open space between the bookshelves where he stood was generally circular. Not far from Xia De, three middle-aged people wearing blue robes with the Saint Byron's school emblem on their chests were frantically rolling up a huge brown parchment scroll placed on a tripod.
With a quick glance, Xia De saw the map outlined on the scroll with severely faded ink. However, the coastline he saw seemed to be different from any place he knew, and it wasn't even the shape of the New World's coastline...
"Mr. Hamilton, please follow me. Miss Daniste is waiting for you."
Two men, wearing brown leather gloves, continued to "wrestle" with the constantly wriggling map that tried to unfurl, while the woman among them spoke to Xia De in fluent delarion. She was tall and appeared to be around forty years old. However, the corners of her eyes were slightly upturned, giving her a rather fierce impression.
Xia De nodded while surveying his surroundings, wanting to imprint everything he saw into his mind. The woman's voice in his ear had already told him that this space was permeated with traces of the Four Elements almost everywhere. This truly was Saint Byron's, and that Miracle college hidden in the far north truly existed.
He then followed the woman, walking along the narrow corridor between the bookshelves towards an unknown inner or outer area. Seeing Xia De take a final look at the large map, the woman explained to him:
"The 【Broken Old World Map】 is considered one of the relatively safer angel-level relics collected by the college. Its containment method is simple, and its negative characteristics are relatively uncomplicated. As long as it is not unfolded for more than 30 seconds each time, there will be no problems."
"What happens if it's more than thirty seconds?"
Xia De asked, listening to the light sound of his shoes on the wooden floor. However, upon entering the corridor between the bookshelves, the wooden floor turned into stone tiles, suggesting that the Library's internal flooring was not made of a single material.
"If it exceeds thirty seconds, the map will randomly teleport surrounding objects to any corner of the material world. Mr. Hamilton, this may not sound serious, but once it exceeds thirty seconds, as time progresses, the range will become larger and larger, and the effect will continue. Combined with the map's characteristic of being unaffected by any Miracle or spell, do you know what this means?"
The woman asked, leading Xia De to turn right at the corner ahead. In that corridor between the bookshelves stood a Boy who looked even younger than Miss Bei Ya Si. He curiously glanced at Xia De.
"Once it exceeds thirty seconds, no one can approach the map because they will be teleported once they get close. Nor can extraordinary abilities be used to roll up the map, so the map's sphere of influence will become larger and larger."
Xia De replied, his eyes wandering over the surrounding bookshelves. Most of the books he saw were in delarion or carson rick, and the writing of these two languages was actually very similar.
Occasionally, Xia De would glimpse books with strange characters, and after confirming that the contents of the surrounding books were safe, he would try to decipher them. For example, on the bookshelf he had just passed, there was a copy of "pink book," which was the only pink book among all the books on that entire shelf.
"This relic is collected by the Library Management College. The last time it was used like this was more than thirty years ago. This time, it was Miss Daniste's request that it be brought out. It is said that the map is a product from before the third epoch and experienced a severe out-of-control incident at the end of the fourth epoch, directly changing the topography of the material world, causing the main continent in the fourth epoch's documents to split into the East, West, South, and North Continents of the fifth epoch, as well as the central... We've arrived."
The woman suddenly stopped at the end of the bookshelf ahead, signaling Xia De to continue walking forward.
Beyond the bookshelf, there was another open space located within the cluster of bookshelves. Xia De suddenly felt that the Library here was actually more like a labyrinth, hiding countless years of precious Knowledge.
The woman turned and left behind Xia De. Xia De walked two steps forward and saw a coffee table and four long sofas arranged around it in the open space. The coffee table was made of glass, with scattered books piled on it, and the long sofas were all dark fabric sofas.
A red-haired lady with small glasses was sitting on the sofa, waiting for Xia De, with a gentle expression and a beautiful face. In her hand, she held a book whose title was too far away to discern.
Unlike the vibrant red hair characteristic of the Cavendish Royal Family, her hair color was not bright; rather, it could be considered dull.
Whether it was the influence of a High-Ring Sorcerer's power or the effect of the relic 【youth everlasting leaf】, she looked to be under thirty years old. However, according to the information Xia De had gathered, her age should not be less than...
"Good afternoon, Mr. Hamilton. From your eyes, I seem to see that you are thinking some impolite thoughts."
Her delarion was equally fluent, and her tone carried a hint of teasing.
"Good afternoon."
Just a few steps forward, without even sitting down, the woman's voice in his ear had already reminded Xia De of the other party's power.
He nodded slightly in respect:
"Miss Daniste."
Saint Byron's Comprehensive College Librarian, "Red Moon Witch" Daniste, was the first Thirteen Ring Sorcerer Xia De had met in this world. This gentle-looking woman before him was one of the strongest mortals in this world.
The lady in front of him did not possess an overly sharp demeanor. On the contrary, sitting on the sofa with a book in her hands, she resembled an ordinary person who had not come into contact with the occult. However, the more she appeared this way, the more unsettling it was. The temperament of Ring術士 would undergo unusual changes after coming into contact with the Four Elements. The lady in front of him should be considered to have perfect control over all her power.
After a respectful greeting, Xia De sat down on the sofa opposite Miss Daniste. He wasn't quite sure what the other party wanted from him, but since he hadn't run when he received the notification earlier, he certainly couldn't show any abnormality now.
"Welcome to Saint Byron's, Xia De · Su Lun · Han Mi Er Dun."
The librarian said softly, but didn't give Xia De a chance to speak:
"Show me your Destiny Ring."
This was Miss Daniste's first request after Xia De sat down. So, amid the sound of whistles and roars, he summoned the metal ring behind him, but the Red Moon Witch only glanced at it before telling Xia De to put it away.
Xia De originally thought that "the little match girl" had aroused suspicion, but then the question suddenly changed:
"Actually, I'm very curious, Mr. Hamilton, why is your middle name Suren?"
Her right index finger, adorned with an emerald ring, wiggled slightly, and the teacup and teapot on the coffee table automatically rose, filling Xia De's cup with tea.
Then she snapped her fingers again, and a corner of the Thirteen Ring Sorcerer's Destiny Ring appeared before Xia De's eyes. What he could see was one of Miss Daniste's core runes, 【Red Moon】.
He felt a slight surprise in his heart, but still "honestly" replied:
"I don't have any memories from before. When I woke up, I only knew my name. When I was signing the corpse disposal documents for the previous Detective, I came up with a word on the spur of the moment. 'Suren' was the first word that popped into my head."
This wasn't a lie, just an omission of some details. After all, the woman's voice speaking in his head was indeed "words popping into my head."
The Red Moon Witch nodded, then slightly raised her right hand. The illusory figures of the red moon, yellow moon, and silver moon appeared together on her palm. The three moons were almost at the vertices of an equilateral triangle, rotating in the palm of the Thirteenth-Ring Female Sorcerer:
"We are all people connected to the moon. But the meaning of the word Suren is not just the silver moon."
Xia De nodded, but said nothing, believing it best to listen at this moment.
"Mr. Hamilton, when you reach the higher grades and gain a deeper understanding of ancient languages, you will realize that words with this pronunciation appear in most civilizations, and they all represent the silver moon. One theory suggests that in the oldest epoch, there were not three moons in the sky, but one. The silver moon was the original moon."
Hearing this, Xia De recalled that when he first saw 【The Innocent Creator】 for the second time, in the "illusion" it created to match his story, there was only one silver moon in the sky.
The idea that the silver moon was the original moon was probably more than just a guess.
The discussion about the moon helped Xia De get a little more familiar with Miss Daniste. But then, she abruptly changed the topic:
"We'll talk about the moon later, this is why I came to see you. Now, let's talk about your low Four Ring Sublimation Words. For talented students, we have always supported checking "the codex of sublime" in advance. As for whether you can be trusted, I don't think it's necessary to consider it anymore, after all, no one is completely trustworthy."
She shook the book in her hand, her eyes appraising Xia De, her tone still as calm as if it were a normal afternoon tea chat with a friend:
"So what needs to be considered now, Mr. Hamilton, is which core rune you wish to use to construct your low Four Ring Sublimation Words?"
"Either is fine."
Xia De replied. He had asked the doctor in advance, and choosing which core rune would not affect him.
"Then, do you wish to use the One-Ring Ling Rune you currently possess for the construction, or do you want to challenge yourself and are dissatisfied with your current Ling Rune? In fact, in the construction of Sublimation Words, it's certainly good if the meaning completely matches, but a closely related Ling Rune can also be included in the construction. But I think your Enlightenment Ling Rune probably won't work; it's too long."
She asked again.
"【gluttony】 and 【Echo】 are both fine. I just hope to advance to Two Ring as soon as possible."
Choosing the Ling Rune for each Ring will not have a significant impact on the future; it is the difficulty of acquiring the other three runes in the Sublimation Words that will have an impact.
"In that case, your range of choices is very clear."
The large book with a black hardcover automatically flipped through pages in Miss Daniste's hand, making a rustling sound.
