"Actually... I've always wanted to find something in the college library."
Xia De hesitated for a moment, but still spoke out.
The sorceress smiled:
"So tell me, what do you need?"
"A slab of stone, about this size."
Xia De gestured with his hands:
"And the four corners have yellow caps. I'm not sure if it's brass, gold, topaz, or some other material."
The first two are silver and ruby, so it makes no sense that the third should be blue or black.
"To be honest, this slate is related to time. I need to rely on this special item to complete the advancement of a magic. The information I have found so far shows that the slate is most likely in Saint Byrons."
Shade told the truth, and Miss Danister thought for a while:
"I can look for the library's asset manual and files. If I can't find it, I can try to look for records in the Hall of Secret Keepers."
"The Hall of the Secret Keeper?"
Xia De raised his eyebrows, and the thirteen-ring sorceress smiled and asked:
"Did I mention this? Well, this is a special space similar to the Silver Moon Library, and all three academies can make use of some of its power. Because of its ability to pass on knowledge and store memories, previous librarians may have left information in it."
Xia De nodded, guessing in his heart that the special space corresponding to the ancient god's secret-keeping mentor was the Secret-Keeper's Hall.
The entrance to the Dark Dungeon is controlled by the Church of Dawn, so it is not surprising that the three major colleges can use other spaces:
"Thank you then, Miss Danister."
The sorceress shook her head.
"It's just a small matter. Someone will pick up the mirror tomorrow, and I will be able to get it and test it around next Wednesday. I will contact you then."
"Okay, I'm always available."
If it were Wednesday, the demonic matter would have been resolved.
"Then let us pray that Kings Prisha's inspiration will be useful."
The sorceress said lazily:
"Otherwise, I don't know where to find another ring sorcerer who might meet the requirements."
There was progress on two things overnight, which made Xia De in a very good mood.
Because Miss Danister said someone would come on Saturday morning, he got up early to wait for the delivery person. The knock on the door came at seven in the morning. Shade, who was sitting in the dining room watching Dorothy cook, stood up almost immediately. After opening the door downstairs, an elegant middle-aged man with a black felt hat, round-frame glasses and a golden beard stood outside.
The carriage parked behind him was not a standard four-wheeled rental carriage. The carriage and the shaft were very black, and the driver sitting high up looked like he came from the Far North.
The elegant middle-aged man took off his black velvet gloves and shook hands with Xia De, looking at him curiously:
"Mr. Shad Hamilton?"
The Draerion language is not very standard and has an accent from the northern ice sheet region.
"Yes."
Shade also stretched out his hand, and then learned that this was a 9th-ring warlock.
"I am Associate Professor Lyon of the College's library management program."
He stood at the door of Xia De's house and said, then saw Xia De's surprised expression:
"Don't be so surprised. Miss Danister said that she wanted me to pick up something important."
"Oh, I just didn't expect Miss Danister to send... Yes, right here."
Xia De immediately made way for the door and pointed to the large box on the side:
"Did Miss Danister mention that this was dangerous stuff and needed to be transported with caution?"
"Yes, our librarian is very careful."
Associate Professor Lyon nodded with a smile. Xia De never thought that there would be a day when he would discuss such things at his doorstep.
The middle-aged associate professor then asked the coachman for help, and the three of them lifted the box onto the carriage. He also gave Shade a receipt with the school's seal and his own signature to prove that the item had been handed over. This was also his proof of private contact with the correspondence ring sorcerer.
Of course, the name of the item on the receipt is "Carcass of an ancient mutated man-eating rabbit of unknown species (a class of dangerous goods)".
"I almost forgot, there's this."
As he spoke, Associate Professor Lyon handed Shade another piece of parchment. This was a bounty order from the college, issued by Associate Professor Lyon, for the purchase of "the corpse of an ancient mutated unknown species of man-eating rabbit (a dangerous item)". The bounty was issued on Monday last week, and the reward was two practical credits, with no other physical rewards, but the seals and signatures were complete.
"Congratulations, Mr. Hamilton, you have accomplished my reward brilliantly."
The professor smiled and patted Shade's shoulder, took back the parchment he had just stuffed into his hand, and winked at him:
"You see, if you want to perform a play, you have to do it completely. Now there will be absolutely no omissions."
“It’s very rigorous indeed.”
Xia De nodded and politely invited:
"Would you like to go upstairs and have a cup of hot tea? The temperature is really low today."
"Forget about drinking tea. I have to escort this to the next stop as soon as possible. Miss Danister is in a hurry."
Associate Professor Lyon waved goodbye to Xia De:
"Normally, professors like us who are on business trips are not allowed to contact local correspondence students at will. This time, it's an exception because of the bounty."
After getting on the carriage, he handed Shade three strawberries in a paper bag:
"It's a meeting gift. I rarely come into contact with correspondence students, but I have to admit..."
Before the carriage drove away, he looked up at number 6, Place Saint-Teresa:
"Students nowadays are really rich."
Waving goodbye to Xia De, the professor of the college, who came and went in a hurry, left from No. 6 St. Teresa's Square.
“Where are the strawberries from?”
When Shard returned to the second floor, Dorothy had already put breakfast on the table. The cat, who looked especially soft in the winter, was lying beside the plate, with his paws tucked under his body, staring at the food.
"The professor just gave it to me."
Dorothy didn't ask why a professor from the college appeared downstairs so early in the morning. She took the strawberries and looked at them:
"It seems that the professor is well versed in the power of nature and plants. This is a strawberry that has been treated with a high-level thaumaturgy natural fruit.
After each pill is eaten, it can provide a slight healing effect and directly replenish a low-level warlock's one-third of the spirit or a mid-level warlock's one-fifth of the spirit, but the effect will be severely reduced with continuous use, and like your fullness food, it cannot be stored for a long time. "
Dorothy examined it.
“This can probably be kept for about 8 hours.”
Today was Saturday, and the only thing they had to do was attend a meeting with the doctor in the afternoon. There was no possibility of a fierce battle that would require spirit replenishment, so Shad gave the three strawberries to Dorothy and Mia respectively.
The fruit is quite sweet. Being able to eat fresh strawberries in winter makes even outsiders feel that today is a lucky day.
The spells and magic that use fruits to gain strange powers are actually very common. The ring magicians of the Church of Nature are quite proficient in this kind of power, and the ring magicians of the Pantanal Voodoo Society are probably also proficient. Most of them are not basic abilities, and have prerequisites for learning.
For example, Dorothy's magic "Godberry Magic" requires not only fruit spirit runes, but also the spell "Food Preservation". And "Food Preservation" is a spell that pharmacists such as Augustus priests must learn, so the ring magic system is quite magical, and Shade's understanding of it is just the tip of the iceberg.
After breakfast, Dorothy accompanied Shad to the photo studio to pick up the photos they had taken there a few days ago, so that Shad could put the photo of him holding Mia in an envelope and send it to Miss Gold.
Dorothy was very happy looking at the pictures of her and Shad together, while Shad checked the individual pictures. The pictures were divided into three parts, one for Shad, one for Lecia, and one for Dorothy. Shad would hang his own pictures in the living room and bedroom, and the pictures of him and Dorothy together in the study.
Thinking in this way, No. 6 St. Teresa's Square feels more and more like home.
The study session was scheduled for this Saturday in the afternoon, but Father Augustus and Luvia were unable to attend because they had something else to do. Father Augustus was called by Bishop Owen to help, and Luvia was called to participate in the divination training of the Prophet Association—this was what Shad learned when he went to tell her about Sir Prisha at noon.
Even Dorothy was not there with Shad, for on Saturday morning she went to her flat to check her mail and found a letter from the Steambird Daily, asking for a reprint of the first volume of Hamilton's Detective Stories.
Therefore, there were only two doctors, Dr. Xia and Dr. Schneider, in the doctor's office that afternoon. The doctor was not very surprised:
"It's the end of the year and everyone has a lot to do. It's only the eighth day of the Dormant Month. It will be half a month before things really get busy."
Having said that, at least the current doctor seemed to have plenty of time. Since no one else was around today, he talked to Shade about the demon's progress.
"Probably tomorrow."
The doctor said in a relaxed tone:
"He failed to leave the Tobesk range."
"no problem."
Xia De nodded and asked:
"Doctor, how are you preparing for your end-of-year exams? Although demon matters are important, exams should be more important."
"Except for 'Ether Mechanics', everything else should be fine, but I still have one final paper to hand in."
The doctor shrugged. He had been in the Fifth Ring for more than two years and had actually completed most of the fifth-grade courses long ago.
After chatting with the doctor about the scholarship assessment after the end-of-year exams, he asked the college for a catalog of magic and spells. Having not purchased new magic and spells for a long time, Shade spent a total of 69 pounds and selected the spells "Flash Mark" and "Feather Falling Curse".
The former can release a long-lasting mark on the surface of an object that can only be seen by the person himself and a ring warlock 5 levels higher, to mark his own items. The casting material of the latter is feathers, which can make the body bear more air resistance like a feather when falling, thereby reducing the damage of falling.
The conditions for upgrading to a higher grade included the number of spells and magic that one had mastered. Shade, who was planning to skip a grade, therefore needed the number of abilities of two grades. His number of magic barely met the standard, and his spells barely met the standard. However, he really didn't want to mention the spells from the Pink Book, so he just picked some basic spells to fill the number.
After all, the "Living Rope Trick", "Partial Hardening", "Status Transmutation Spell: Pain and Pleasure", "Summoning Lamp Wax", "Hair Shedding Spell", "Mark of Love", and "Suffocating Gaze" may not seem like much, but if they all appear on a certain ring sorcerer at the same time, it would be quite suspicious.
The rapid upgrade left Shade no time to learn and explore too many magic spells. He planned to wait until he was promoted to the middle ring before learning a few useful magic spells. But if he did that, his current savings of tens of thousands of pounds would probably not be enough.
Although there were only two people attending the afternoon study session, it lasted until 4:30. After saying goodbye to Dr. Schneider, Shad took the cat to the Steambird Daily newspaper office to look for Dorothy, and ended up meeting the writer's loyal readers at the newspaper office. In order to answer questions from those enthusiastic readers, they stayed at the newspaper office for more than an hour.
During this time, the cats that the newspaper kept to guard the warehouse and prevent the documents from being bitten by mice suddenly rushed towards Shade, causing Mia's strong resistance. The two cats ran around in the editorial office, almost bringing a "disaster" here. But the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Mr. Carl Vinson, who laughed, didn't care about this, but praised Shade's cat for looking very energetic.
The pleasant Saturday is coming to an end, which also means that a new time key will be opened tomorrow morning. After the adventure with the eight witches in the year 5177 of the Fifth Era, Shade is looking forward to what kind of stories and people he will encounter next.