This yellow-haired witch who looked only 22 or 23 years old was the lady who assisted Miss Mana Felena in the Thousand Trees Forest to perform the ritual to call the old gods to change the door. At the same time, she was Miss Felena's first generation student and the first librarian of the yet-to-be-established Saint Byrons.
After 22 years, from the Thousand Trees Forest in the Western Continent to the Dead Silence Valley in the Central Continent, Shade met the witch again. This was also the first time he met the same person in the past, and Miss Orlanod, who should not have any memory of him, obviously still remembered Shade Hamilton.
"Teacher, who is this... Is he a man?"
The red-haired girl asked carefully, and Shade then noticed that the tail behind her was actually a tail, and not a mistake. It was a very thick tail, with dark red marks on the surface, like the scales on a lizard, and this kind of scale seemed to belong to a powerful alien creature.
"Fiona, this is an old acquaintance of mine and Teacher Felianna, Mr. Shad Hamilton."
The half-elf witch came back to her senses, reached out and shook the hand that Shade extended, and then introduced her to her student.
"Shad, this is Fiona Drago, my student. Don't be surprised by her physical features. She is a mixed-blood dragon, and can even be considered a member of the red dragon royal family."
She introduced him to Xia De, and the red-haired girl nodded to Xia De a little stiffly:
"Hello, um... sir?"
She hadn't figured out Shad's gender yet.
Finally, the witch with round glasses who was looking at them curiously was introduced. She looked at Shade up and down with an inquiring expression. Among the three people, she looked the most scholarly:
"This is Becky Samuel, an eleventh-level witch from the Zaras Academy, and our companion on this adventure."
"Zaras Academy?"
Shade showed an expression of sudden enlightenment, and quickly recalled the origin of Zarath Academy of Arts, one of the three major thaumaturgy academies. To be precise, Zarath's history is much longer than Saint Byrons. Saint Byrons was founded from scratch by the legendary thirteenth ring warlock Miss Mana Felena, while Zarath Academy of Arts originated from the Zarath Academy, a witch academic organization in the Fifth Epoch. And the information of Zarath Academy, like the information of Miss Mana Felena, is only a vague name.
Coincidentally, the three major thaumaturgy academies were established at almost the same time. In other words, this witch wearing round glasses is likely to be one of the founders of the Zaras Academy of Literature in the future.
"Hello."
Xia De nodded politely. Although the other party didn't understand what Xia De said, he understood that it was a greeting, so he nodded to him as well:
"Hello, sir."
The witch was very clear about Shade's gender:
"Would you mind telling me a little bit about your origins? I'm curious about it."
As she spoke, she tried to grab Shade's wrist with her hand. This seemed to be the habit of witches, but Becky Samuel did not succeed. Her hand was knocked away by Miss Orlanod, whose shoulders were already covered with snowflakes. The latter said with some resentment:
"Bei Ji, he is a friend of mine and Teacher Feliana, and he is here to help us. If you have any questions, you can ask Teacher Feliana after we return safely."
Miss Orlanod shut up the witch of Zalaas with a word, and then motioned for everyone to talk somewhere else.
So the four of them walked back from the entrance of the ruins to the blazing bonfire. Miss Oranord sat facing the entrance, with her student of dragon blood on the left and the witch of Zarath on the right. Shade sat opposite Miss Oranord with his back to the entrance.
In order to make sure that everyone here could understand what Shade said, the witch Becky Samuel of Zarath searched through the pile of books around her for a long time and found a book called "The Secret of Language". After chanting a spell in a low voice, she tore a page from the book, burned it to ashes in a stone bowl beside her, and then soaked it in water and gave it to the other two witches.
"Xia De, it has been 22 years since we last parted, right?"
Miss Orlanoed really still remembered the events of the Thousand Tree Forest. Under the firelight, her face was filled with nostalgia:
"Teacher has always remembered you. It was only after I was promoted to the thirteenth level some time ago that I fully recalled what happened back then. Teacher and I often talked about you. If I am not mistaken, you appear here again, just like last time, to help us."
"Yes."
Xia De nodded. Now is not the time to reminisce:
"So, may I ask what you are doing here? I can still only stay for thirty minutes."
"For this library, sir."
Miss Orlanod didn't need to answer, and the witch of Zalas spoke up:
"We are currently in a place called the Dead Silence Valley, which is covered with snow all year round, and it is almost impossible to escape once you enter. This is a place where time and space are confused, and countless lost and forbidden ancient ruins are located inside the valley. Our current location is the Gadis Library. The library even houses precious knowledge and documents passed down from the First Age. The Zarath Academy and Miss Felena both want to obtain some information from here, so they sent us here."
Shade nodded. This event was described by the Father of the Infinite Tree as "the destruction of the Library of Gadis. In other words, the exploration of the three witches will lead to the complete collapse of this library, which is older than the current Fifth Epoch."
But he still had doubts. He looked at the witch across the fire and asked cautiously:
"Is your action this time related to... God?"
"I'm sorry, what does that mean?"
Miss Olanord asked curiously.
"Did you know that..."
Xia De subconsciously lowered his voice, wondering if this time, the gods would appear again, but would just hide and not show up:
"... The Great One - the Gray Robe Sage?"
The old gods of this era have not yet left, so they cannot be called "old gods".
Miss Orlanod and the round-framed witch of Zarath looked at each other. The light of the bonfire dyed their two extremely beautiful faces red and illuminated their two pairs of smart eyes. The charm of witches is incomparable to ordinary people. Even if they are in a bad state, even Zarath's witch hair is messy, they are still real beautiful girls.
Miss Becky Samuel, who was wearing round glasses, replied:
"The god Gray Robe Sage is also known as the guardian of the library. His shrine can often be seen in large libraries. But the purpose of our trip is just to collect knowledge from the library, not... Could it be that there is also a shrine of the Gray Robe Sage in the ruins of this library?"
Shade didn't know this, but since the Father of Infinite Trees asked Shade to help the god collect knowledge, then even if the god didn't come in person, there should at least be altars, shrines, statues, holy emblems and the like to facilitate Shade's sacrifice.
"Teacher, when we explored the library for the seventh time two weeks ago, I saw a shrine very close to here, but I didn't notice who it belonged to."
The Red Dragon Witch said in a low voice, still kneeling in front of the flames, with the thick tail wrapped around her waist. Seeing that everyone was looking at her across the flames, she frantically searched in her small backpack and found a hand-drawn map of the library ruins, which marked the parts they had explored.
The location of the shrine is indeed very close. Judging from the map, it is only separated from the current library entrance by three large rooms.
"If there is a shrine, then it will be easy."
Xia De nodded:
"But what happened to you? You don't seem to be in a good condition. Are you unable to get out again this time?"
"See the blizzard outside?"
Miss Olanord pointed to the door:
“It snows all year round in the Dead Silence Valley, but it is divided into different stages, namely light snow, black snow, red blood and heavy snow.
During the light snow stage, there is no other impact except for the extremely cold weather; black snow will revive the undead in the entire valley, and the power of all the living will be greatly suppressed, and those who are touched by black snow will die immediately; red snow usually appears with an abnormal red moon, and then the night will cover the valley, and some strange humanoid creatures will visit here, perhaps human relics, perhaps evil spirits, or even stranger things; during the heavy snow stage, even if you do nothing, your physical strength and spirit will gradually disappear, and the recovery of the two will completely stagnate. Most of the people who froze to death here died in the heavy snow. "
"Has the recovery of spiritual and physical strength completely stopped?"
Because Shade had just arrived and had only traveled a short distance outside, he did not realize this. Knowing that the witches were a little weak, he put on the moonstone ring as a medium for casting spells and activated his magic:
"Silent Moonlight!"
Above the campfire, an unusually illusory silver full moon appeared, and the cold moonlight shone on the four people. The witches immediately groaned softly, and judging by their expressions, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"The duration of the four different stages is completely irregular. After we entered the light snow stage, we only explored for more than a week before encountering black snow. During this time, we found some of the texts we wanted to take away."
Miss Olanord pointed to the pile of books next to Miss Becky Samuel in Zarathus:
“But before we left, we encountered a two-week-long blizzard. No one can leave the Dead Valley in the blizzard, so we can only wait.”
"The situation is better now. Although the effect of your spell is not very obvious, at least your strength is no longer lost, but is recovering little by little."
The witch of Zaras also said, looking up at the moon above the bonfire:
"This is obviously not a witch's power. It is more like divine magic, but not divine magic. What on earth is this..."
"After we get out, go ask Teacher Feliana yourself."
Miss Olanord interrupted her again.
"I can only stay for half an hour. I can't let you recover all the time."
Shade pointed this out and then asked:
"Can you leave the Dead Valley now?"
"If it's the light snow stage now, we can, but Black Snow and Red Blood must not leave the range of the campfire. As for the heavy snow stage, unless we recover more than half of our strength, our physical strength will not be enough to support us to leave the protection of this campfire."
"I see..."
So this time, not only do we need to help the god who has not yet appeared to collect knowledge, but we also need to find a way to get the witches away safely:
"Ms. Orlanod, please give me a list. Next time I come, I will bring you some of the things you need, so that you can live better here. In addition, I want to see the shrine."
"OK."
The yellow-haired witch on the other side of the fire smiled:
"Although there is no shortage of food and water, daily necessities still need new ones. I have never used a comb for more than two weeks."
The life of the top witches in the Fifth Era was really unimaginable. Now Shade was very worried about what would be on the list that would be handed to him soon.