There are many contents on the bulletin board, but not all of them are new. Some old papers are covered by new pasted things, and some old papers have faded due to wind and sun, and the contents on them have become blurred. Clear, it looks quite strenuous.
The civilian literacy education and town notice system promoted by Emperor Rosetta are indeed good things, but there are also many problems, because there is only one channel to release news, so whether it is the new policy at the top or the chores in the town will be posted on the Here, no one has considered the issue of timeliness. It is often seen that the emperor's decree is followed by a notice to clean up the mud, and the news of the purchase of new grain is put together with the content of the distribution of grain seeds a few months ago. It is not easy to distinguish them clearly.
In fact, it is indeed a skill to find useful content from these messy information, and as far as Mary knows, the promotion effect of literacy education is actually not that good, and most civilians do not have enough spare energy to read and write , Even if they learn to read and write, they will not learn much under the careless teachers who come to class for a few copper coins every day, so there are not many people in the whole town who can make announcements.
The content of the bulletin board is chaotic, and the literacy rate of civilians is still not high enough. These two factors even gave birth to a profession, that is, "reader".
If someone wants to find useful things from the messy notices, for example, if a farmer wants to know the latest purchase price and purchase time of a certain crop, he must give the soldier a copper coin, and the soldier will find out useful things and read it to you. .
Of course, some information is worthless after being disseminated, and peasants with better literacy are likely to find out useful information and tell others about it. On the other hand, they will deliberately wet and dirty the content that may cause the most inquiries when posting the notice, so that civilians who want to know the price of the product or employment information have to spend a copper coin to ask...
But these have no effect on Mary. As a mage, she has the ability to easily distinguish all the things on the bulletin board, and she doesn't care much about the timeliness of the information. It's very interesting.
There is no such thing as a bulletin board in the village at the foot of the mountain.
"Recruiting mages..." The young female apprentice looked through all the posted announcements with great interest, and finally her eyes fell on the notice of recruiting mages. She could see that it seemed to be for a certain A research project recruiting staff, but this kind of information itself is unusual.
The announcements for the recruitment of mages have been posted in the town... It seems that Emperor Rosetta wants to select a group of talents from the mages of the whole empire, and his recruitment range is really wide. In this kind of rural town, you can see The mage to be notified is at most a wild mage of level three or two, right
But then Mary thought of her mentor... The terrible old magician was probably an exception, living in seclusion in such a remote place, but his strength was unfathomable... It is said that the mentor also lived in the capital back then. Would His Majesty's recruitment be of interest.
With such thoughts in her mind, the young female apprentice left the bulletin board and continued to wander in the lively town square.
The bard's verses sound exciting.
The circus clown's performance is impressive.
Even for a few poor craftsmen, they made a few straw weaving and woodcut trinkets on the square, which fascinated Mary.
So when she finally woke up from these things, the golden-red sunset light had already sprinkled on the roofs of the outermost circle of the square.
Looking at the golden-red sunset, watching the townspeople and performers leaving the square, the poor young girl finally became frightened: she had completely forgotten what her mentor had ordered!
Mary ran away and rushed to the shop next to the square. The only thing she is thankful for now is that she has been holding the package in her arms. If she was too addicted to the entertainment on the square before, she would buy the raw materials for the potion specially ordered by the instructor. If she lost it too... the mentor will definitely pull out one of her tendons and feed them to the bloodthirsty monsters in the mage tower!
Finally, luck favored this girl, and she bought the last batch of spell-casting materials before the shop closed, and by the time she came out of the shop, it was almost completely dark.
Looking at the last ray of sky light, Mary couldn't help tightening her old black short robe. It's not a wise choice to travel after nightfall, especially since there is still a long distance between the town and the mentor's mage tower. Walking on the mountain road for two hours, even though she is a mage with a formal spellcasting level, the mountain road in the dark is also full of dangers.
But the wrath of the old magician is more terrifying than the slippery mountain road and the monsters lurking in the dark.
Mary secretly regretted her slack actions today, while checking the package in her arms again, she finally walked out of the town.
She was still thinking about the messages she saw on the bulletin board, but after stepping on the mountain road, she threw all her wild thoughts aside.
Summon the flashing orb for lighting, prepare the protective spell for body protection, hold the dagger for body protection with your free right hand, the female apprentice walks on the dark mountain road with one foot deep and one foot shallow, after nightfall There is a cold wind constantly blowing from the mountain path, but Mary does not dare to distract herself by maintaining an extra layer of wind barrier: it is common sense for mages to save mana as much as possible when operating in the wild, as long as the external environment is not so bad that it affects thinking and judgment. To a certain extent, comfort cannot be overemphasized.
At last, before midnight, the dark and eerie spire came into view.
Mary was cold and hungry, but she made it back to the Wizard's Tower before the collar around her neck turned into a red-hot iron ring.
The gate of the mage tower opened automatically, and the gatekeeper inside silently put the female apprentice into the tower. With a muffled sound when the heavy gate closed, the mountain wind and starlight outside were blocked out.
The mage's tower was still gloomy and dead, like a cage that made people breathless, but Mary still let out a long breath after entering the door. She tiptoed to the stairs leading to the upper floor, preparing to buy it before the instructor found out. She put the things in the warehouse, and then hid in her room, but she stopped stiffly as soon as she took two steps.
The shady and lonely old mage stood on the stairs, quietly blending into the darkness like a statue, the sound of artificial nerve cords wriggling in the fabric and sweeping the ground came rustling, like countless poisonous snakes entangled The creeping sound is creepy.
Mary seemed to have forgotten how to speak, she stammered: "Teacher... I..."
A bright bolt of lightning struck her shoulder before she finished speaking, and along with the severe pain came the old mage's gloomy words: "Why is it so late?"
The lightning pierced through the simple robes that had almost no protective effect, scorching a piece of flesh and blood, but Mary, who had long been used to dealing with this kind of punishment, suppressed the trembling of her body and voice immediately, and lowered her head: "I am in the town. Delayed...”
She didn't use reasons such as "the mountain road is not easy to walk" to explain, and she also has experience in this point: the instructor has profound knowledge in the field of neurology and brain wave manipulation, and those winding and wriggling nerve cables can not only be used to connect A certain mysterious thinking network can even detect lies. The last apprentice who lied in front of the mentor almost died on the test bench. She didn't want to use her life to test the mood of the old mage at the moment.
The old mage Daniel stared at Mary with dark eyes, he waved his hand, and the package in Mary's arms flew in front of him. After checking the contents of the package, he raised his eyelids again: "Remember, if you delay I will use you as the experimental material for the experiment that the master told me!"
Mary lowered her head and acted submissively: "Yes... yes!"
The old mage has a mysterious master, which she knows, and she also knows that the mysterious and powerful master gave the old mage a series of orders, researching new neural connection technology and brain wave amplification technology is the order Partly because of these tasks, the old mage frequently arranged for his apprentices to go out to collect materials recently.
Mary didn't dare to ask the secrets behind those studies, let alone the name of the mysterious "master". She was very clear about this: an existence that could make even a terrifying mentor so awed was definitely not something she could easily contact, saying Maybe just getting a little bit of news is enough to bring her a fatal disaster.
Looking at the timid female apprentice, Daniel frowned, not knowing what to think, and then suddenly said: "What did you see in the town?"
Mary dared not share all the details of her wanderings, but said something that might make the tutor less angry: "... I was reading the notices in town... I wonder if there is any useful news..."
Daniel snorted: "Hmph, what useful news did you see?"
"His Majesty is expanding the school... recruiting volunteers..." Mary immediately said what she saw, and put the piece of information she thought was the most important at the end, "By the way, His Majesty is still recruiting mages, maybe It is the Royal Society of Mages who is expanding its manpower, mentoring you... "
She didn't dare to speak any more before she finished speaking, because she saw that the expression on the instructor's face suddenly became more gloomy than ever, and the gloomy expression was almost full of undisguised resentment, but the instructor was After she stopped, she spoke: "Continue to talk about what the emperor recruited mages for."
"Maybe... it might be a research project..." Mary stammered, "I haven't written the specific content, but it requires... knowledge of mathematics and magic circles, and a special understanding of self-charging... self-charging magic circles..."
The gloomy expression on the old mage's face suddenly changed.
He frowned and seemed to be in deep thought. While Mary was waiting tremblingly, he whispered to himself: "... Is the empire studying... the master may be interested in this news..."
Mary lowered her head and listened in a breathless manner. She was not interested in the old mage's master at all. She was hungry, sleepy and nervous to death. She just wanted to go back to her room as soon as possible.
The old mage finally woke up from talking to himself and thinking. He glanced at the apprentice who was still waiting at the bottom of the steps, a trance flashed in his eyes, and then he regained his clarity.
He waved his hand: "Go back to your room."
Mary bowed deeply as if she was pardoned, and just as she was about to leave, she heard the tutor's voice coming from the stairs again: "... there is a plate of muffins on your table, it's for you."
Mary raised her head in astonishment, as if suspecting that she had heard something wrong.
However, the old mage just waved his hand, his artificial nerve cord had quieted down at some point, and his tone was full of impatience: "Today is your birthday."