"Qin Lun, I remember that when you came out of the underground treasure house of the Amberley Church, didn't you bring some magic crystals and magic cores?" Hill suddenly remembered something, and said, "The value of those things is relatively high, maybe they can offset Our fee."
"Hmm!" Qin Lun also remembered when Hill reminded him that he was worried about getting the attention of the gods, so he didn't search too many things in the underground stronghold of Amberley. In addition to a large bag of wealth gold coins, they only brought out a parchment scroll, more than a dozen best-looking magic crystal cores, and a magic staff from which the magic gem was pried off.
The staff has been given to Hill, and it is not very valuable after the gems are pried off. Only the magic runes on it are worth studying. Those egg-sized pure magic crystal nuclei are more precious. As for the last parchment scroll, Qin Lun and the others didn't know the ancient characters on it at all, and they had long since forgotten about it.
However, perhaps in Candlekeep, this parchment scroll that recorded the ancient text is the most valuable item.
"Then try it!" Qin Lun smiled, and took the lead towards the elliptical magic mirror door rippling with water.
A scene flashed before Qin Lun, and a plain and simple office appeared in front of Qin Lun. This is a spacious study room, surrounded by rows of bookshelves. The strange thing is that the bookshelves are full of books, and the titles of the books are not marked on the spine.
Right in front of the study is a long desk, which is also full of book pages and scrolls. An old mage with a white beard is behind the desk, burying his head in copying something.
Hearing movement from the water mirror door in the room, he raised his head from the pile of books, but his eyes were blank, as if his mind hadn't gotten rid of the thoughts ahead.
"Dear reader, we are here to invite visitors to enter Candlekeep!" Qin Lun put his hands on his chest and bowed.
Before Linda left, she asked them to call everyone they met in Candlekeep "readers". The "reader" here is not the position of reader in Candlekeep, but the collective name of these scholars. Compared with the titles of mages and sages, these people prefer others to call them "readers".
"Oh? Oh!" The old mage finally began to focus his eyes, smacked his mouth, and looked at Qin Lun and the others in front of him.
"What kind of books do you want to borrow from the Central Library?" The old mage pinched his brows and asked in a low voice.
"Dear readers, we are not here to borrow books, but to borrow the long-distance teleportation circle in the underground labyrinth of Candlekeep." Qin Lun said respectfully.
"Huh? Come to Candlekeep to borrow the magic circle?" The answer was obviously beyond the expectation of the old mage. He groped from the table, found a pair of monocle and put it on, and began to look carefully at Qin Lun and the others. "Humans, moon Elves, highland elves, are you mercenaries? No, let me see, you all seem to be a little weird!"
The old mage took out a set of black cards from the drawer of the table. After shuffling the cards, he drew out six cards corresponding to six people, and opened them one by one from right to left with his fingers. Druid?"
"I am a forest guardian of the natural sect!" Elistine nodded with a smile. The forest guardian is usually what some druids call themselves.
"Mountain and Aries card! A powerful highland elf, who doesn't look like a mountain shepherd, so... Northland harper?" The old mage pointed at Mustasha and raised his white eyebrows, but his seemingly cloudy eyes had something to say. Extraordinary acuity.
"The Queen of Whiplash card... Ms. Lovita's follower, hehe, this is really a strange combination!" The old mage smiled cheerfully, but frowned slightly when his eyes fell on the last three cards, "Three Zhang Qianbing, it’s strange, you don’t look like mercenaries... Sigh, you’re so old, you’re really useless!”
The three of Qin Lun stared at the old sorcerer's card. Knowing that the identity of the apostle would never be revealed, their backs were still sweating. This old man's card divination is too amazing!
In a sense, the apostles are mercenaries of the Broken Starry Sky!
"Sorry, sorry, it's not that the old man wants to find out your secrets, it's mainly because the underground labyrinth of Candlekeep is an important place, and people can't be let in casually." The old mage explained to himself, and continued, "Since the I understand that you are not thieves stealing books, so of course it is okay to borrow the long-distance teleportation array, but before you came to Candlekeep, you should have heard of the regulations here, right?"
"Yes, Your Excellency, we will pay the right price." Qin Lun nodded with a smile, took out more than a dozen magic crystal cores from the storage space, stepped forward and placed them on the old mage's desk.
The old mage didn't mind checking them one by one. The whole process was very fast. He almost picked up one and put it down immediately. He had already checked more than ten magic crystal nuclei in an instant.
Qin Lun and Hill looked at each other, and both saw the surprise in each other's eyes. They originally thought that the personnel arranged here by Candlekeep should be just a small character, but judging from the current performance of the old mage, at least two of his professions have reached the master level, one is card divination, and the other is identification technique.
It is impossible to rely on eyesight alone to distinguish the occupations and identities of everyone so accurately, and it definitely involves divination in the mysterious field. And such a quick test of the magic crystal nucleus requires profound appraisal skills, and it is impossible for a master of appraisal to do it.
After inspecting the magic crystal core that Qin Lun took out, the old mage tapped the table with his fingers, and said in a deep thought: "These magic crystals are of good quality, if they are only used as tickets to enter Candlekeep, then the six of you, just Six are enough. But if you want to borrow a long-distance teleportation circle, I'm afraid even a fraction is not enough."
The old mage paused and continued to explain, "The long-distance teleportation of the magic circle is very costly. Although the teleportation distance is different, the nearest teleportation location also needs to consume hundreds of these magic crystals."
"Hundreds of them..." Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, feeling powerless in their hearts.
Originally, Qin Lun thought that if the value of these magic crystal nuclei was not enough, he would exchange some magic crystals from the starry sky item list, but the number of hundreds of them was too exaggerated.
Besides, this is not directly completing the epic plot, but just a teleportation, so it costs more than 100,000 broken crystals, which is not worth it!
"It seems that this is a bit embarrassing for you!" The old mage seemed to understand it, and said with a smile, "It is indeed an astronomical figure to convert hundreds of magic crystals into gold coins, but what Candlekeep really values is knowledge, not wealth. If you also prepare documents or lonely books that we don’t have here, and can impress the old man, then you can borrow the teleportation array without a single gold coin!”
"What do you think of this parchment scroll? There are some ancient texts recorded on it, which should be of great research value!" Qin Lun hesitated for a moment, then took out the ancient parchment scroll obtained from the Amberley Church from his arms, and placed it in front of the mage.
"Oh, let me see it first!" The old mage pushed the monocle, took the parchment, and watched it in front of the candle.
Looking at the unpredictable old face of the old mage under the candle, Qin Lun and the others suddenly felt that they were waiting for a trial, and they couldn't help feeling a little uneasy.
The expression on the old mage's face gradually became serious, and he even habitually gnawed on his fingernails. It seemed that he had never seen the text on the parchment scroll, which relieved Qin Lun and the others who had been watching the words.
After a while, the old mage finally put down the parchment in his hand, but his brows were furrowed, showing a rare hesitation.
"The value of this scroll... I can't judge it!" The old mage said slowly, "However, it's not because I don't know what it is, but the value of this thing itself is not easy to measure..."
"Can you understand these words?" Qin Lun's eyes flashed, and there was a hint of surprise in his eyes.
He had obtained this parchment scroll for many days, but no matter how much he studied it, he couldn't understand the ancient characters on it. This was a very strange phenomenon. You must know that Broken Starry Sky sent the apostle into the world of different time and space, and the soul seal of the apostle would often be directly injected into the common language of the mainland from ancient times to the present. As long as it is handed down, it can basically be translated automatically.
The words that cannot even be translated by the soul seal of the apostle are either encrypted texts, or they are protected by the laws of the world. No matter which one, as long as it is deciphered, it will bring Qin Lun a certain degree of world exploration.
"The old man can understand it, but it is equivalent to not understanding it!" The old mage twirled his white beard and said with some distress, "This is a private magic notebook of an ancient magician, and it belongs to the period of the Netheril Empire. The content may contain the research results of a Nether scroll."
"Research notes on the Nesser scroll?" Qin Lun and the others were a little surprised.
They know that the Nether scroll not only records many forbidden spells, but also extends a whole set of magic system through it. It can be said that this is the third complete magic system independent of dragon language magic and elf magic, and can even get rid of the goddess of magic. It exists independently of Mystra's magic web.
"Then have you deciphered part of the content?" Qin Lun asked expectantly.
As an apostle, behind Qin Lun is the Broken Starry Sky, and there is no need to decipher all of it. As long as the old mage in front of him can decipher a part, then this parchment has no secrets about the Broken Starry Sky, just like the one that Mustasha intercepted back then. The Zhentarim will secret the same.
At the same time, it can also bring Qin Lun a lot of world exploration speed. After all, this is a research note on the Nesser scroll that has influenced an era.
"Hehe, do you know what a magician's private notes are?" The old mage couldn't help but shook his head with a wry smile. Following his explanation, everyone gradually understood.
Every magician is a knowledgeable and wise man. They usually do a lot of reading and writing. At the same time, in order to protect their research results, they often create some shorthand characters that only they and their apprentices can understand.
If a magician achieves greatness, his mantle is inherited by many apprentices, and his apprentices spread out, then a magical sect will be formed, and his private shorthand will be circulated.
From ancient times to the present, magic sects are as numerous as stars, and the inheritance left by some famous magicians has been inherited by many people, and the shorthand words created by private individuals have gradually become public. But for some magicians who have cut off their inheritance, the private notes left by them are equivalent to a bible that no one can understand.
The parchment scroll obtained by Qin Lun is a link between the past and the future. Part of the shorthand text is a shorthand text that has been widely circulated, and the old mage can understand it. But the core part of it, especially the research text on Nesser's scroll, has distinct personal traces, so the old mage naturally couldn't understand it.
Of course, just because the old mage can't understand it doesn't mean that the ancient mage has cut off the inheritance. Maybe there are others who can decipher it, so this note still has some value.