Since the harm of using the Coin of Wisdom at a low frequency is not great, some ring sorcerers will use this coin as an auxiliary item when pursuing inspiration and breakthroughs. Some ordinary people who have discovered its use have the opportunity to become celebrities such as pianists, writers or detectives.
This resulted in the coin being priced slightly higher, even though it was only of poet grade, and Shad paid £28 for it.
"Also, I have made some progress on the time perception issue that you asked me about a few days ago."
The old man finished boiling water and poured a cup of tea for Shade. Although the lighthouse was shabby, the black tea leaves were quite high-end:
"I don't know where you heard that our monastery has the knowledge of the Grey Robe Sage Order of the Old God, but you are right. It does exist. I wrote to the keeper in charge of the library and asked him to help search for it. It took me two weeks to find what you want."
Shade looked at him expectantly, and Mr. Edmund shook his head:
"It is a stone tablet with the holy emblem of the old god's gray robe sage. It was brought by the order that joined the monastic order, but no one knows how to use it."
Shad thought he had a rough idea. Judging from his experience in the Gadis Library, the old god should have set the stone tablet so that by saying the name of the stone tablet, one could see the knowledge inside.
"Also, this stone tablet only records one-third of the content - this is what is recorded in our great library, so you have to find the rest yourself. But the stone tablet cannot be given to you directly, as you know, it is a very precious item. In the past, more than one ring sorcerer obtained spiritual runes related to libraries and books by touching the stone tablet."
“So what do I have to give?”
Xia De sat upright:
"Pounds?"
"Of course not. You need to do something for the Priory."
The old man said.
Xia De immediately smiled:
"I'm familiar with this kind of work. It's fair to complete a special task in order to obtain a certain item. What does the Priory need me to do? I can do most legal work... and some illegal work as well."
The old man smiled and shook his head:
"We don't do anything illegal, at least not yet. Look, aren't you often active in Tobesk? Princess Margaret of Anjou from Carsenrick will visit that city soon..."
It seems that everyone is paying attention to this political event.
"We found out from our investigation that the princess was a student of the Sukses Medical College. She switched from formal to correspondence courses due to some issues. She has great talent and was appreciated by Mr. Tardis, the vice president of Sukses. She was able to borrow some books from the Sukses Medical College that are not usually allowed to be borrowed by correspondence students. Now, the princess has an ancient document, The Secret of Immortality."
Mr. Edmund took out an old yellowed photo. Because it was in black and white, the large book on the corner of the table in the photo was not particularly clear:
“This is it.”
"How old? The Fourth Age? Or earlier?"
"No, no, no. It comes from the last era. It's an old book left by the last Witch Emperor. What you need to do is to copy down the contents of pages 5 to 8 in full according to the layout of the book."
Mr. Edmund said, and Shade frowned slightly:
"It doesn't sound like an easy task, but it's not difficult for me either. The Witch Queen left behind... That wouldn't be..."
He suddenly looked up, and the old man had an expression that said, "You guessed it."
"I didn't say it had anything to do with the Whispering Verses."
Mr. Edmund even knew that Shade was suspected to be related to the "God Caller" who chopped off the giant mermaid corpse on the beach, so he naturally knew that he also understood the "Whispering Poems".
The old man took a sip of tea from the cup, as if they were chatting about fishing catches or something lighthearted:
"Cerces hasn't realized the value of the book yet, and we spent a lot of effort to find out that the princess is also a ring wizard. You need to act quickly. Once you get the manuscript, the slate will naturally belong to you. You don't need to worry about this."
Xia De nodded:
"No problem, I'll take this task."
If there really were fragments of poems in that book, then it would be a fair trade for the Guiding Light Hermitage to pay for the stone tablet related to the old gods. However, that stone tablet might not be what Shade was looking for, and even if it was, it was not complete.
But this was still a very good deal. After copying the words on the Secret Art of Immortality, Shade would also know what the new poem fragments were. Even if the stone tablet given by the hermitage had no value to him, the poem fragments alone were worth Shade's approach to the princess.
Not to mention, his tasks of "tailing the princess to find the grey-headed eagle" and "approaching the princess to get acquainted with the 'guiding moon'" were both related to Margaret of Anjou.
"Mr. Edmund, I really don't know how to thank you for your help."
Xia De said sincerely, and the old man shook his head:
"Young man, I admire you. You are different from almost everyone I know. It's hard to explain, but you may be our fellow traveler. Speaking of which, there is another thing I want to tell you. Don't you often ask me about the legends and myths of various places in the Old World, as if you are looking for something?"
"Yes, is there any clue about this matter?"
"I looked up some information based on the three clues you provided. Recently, when I was communicating with an old friend, I heard an interesting thing that might be helpful to you."
He sat up straight, moistened his fingers with tea, and flicked them gently. A thin mist emerged, projecting a huge map of the old continent between the two of them.
"Meow?"
The cat was very interested in this, and Shade also slightly widened his eyes. This was a high level of control skill over "water". Even if Shade had "flame plasticity", he could not achieve a similar level of fine control over flames.
“Do you know the Pantanal region?”
"Of course I know."
Shade pointed to the sunken area in the central and western part of the Old World:
"The Pantanal region refers to the large swamp area west of the border between De La Rio and Carsenric (note), which is two-thirds the size of the Rommel Mountains. In the old days before the steam age, the area was not well developed because it was extremely unsuitable for human life. Even in our time, the swamps have shrunk greatly due to climate reasons, but the Pantanal region is still rainy all year round and full of mud. However, this area is politically important, and both countries have deployed a large number of troops in the swamp area."
He paused and added:
“A captain friend of mine said that serving in the Pantanal was the next worst option to serving in the Far North.”
The captain naturally refers to Captain Rades. Shad recently heard that he was preparing to return to Tobesk to report on his work because of his meritorious service in the Battle of Middleburg. At the end of each year, there will be promotions for officers in the kingdom. If Captain Rades can "move around" during his report in Tobesk, he may really be able to rise from captain to the same rank of major as Shad's current rank.
This is a qualitative leap.
Mr. Edmund nodded:
"Yes, most of the sovereignty of the Pantanal region is in the hands of Carsenrick in the south. There are no large cities in the entire region, only isolated small villages and towns. I have not been there, but I have heard that there is mud all over the place, mosquitoes, snakes and ants everywhere, and it rains all year round. All kinds of strange creatures roam in the depths of the swamp."
The old man pointed to the mist map:
"And to the north and south of the Great Swamp are the capitals of the two countries, Tobesk and Willendel."
"I've heard a lot of legends about it."
Xia De leaned back slightly on the back of the old sofa:
"Because it was sparsely populated in the old days, many rare animals live there. It is said that many wanted ring sorcerers also hide deep in the swamp, but after being discovered in the New World, they all ran to the New World."
He hesitated:
"It is said that a long time ago, there were many unicorns and chocobos living there. I wonder if it is true."
"It's true, but that happened in the last era."
Mr. Edmund said:
"And the beliefs of the local indigenous people are also very strange. They believe in the Pantanal itself and believe that the Pantanal is indeed the heart of the entire Old World. They even organized an unknown ring wizard organization. But this has nothing to do with our topic today. There are not many big cities in the Pantanal region, but in the Carsenrick jurisdiction in the south of the Great Swamp, in addition to the capital city of Willendel, there is another very important city."
Shade squinted his eyes and looked at the map. Mr. Edmund had already highlighted the location of Willendel. He pointed to the north of Willendel City and the southeast of Pantanal:
"The City of Red Wine, Guard of the Royal Capital - Huntington City?"
The red butterfly flew out of Shade's hand and landed on the mist map. Mr. Edmund smiled and nodded:
"Yes, that's it."
The city of Huntington is called the "Guardian of the Royal Capital" because it is almost impossible to cross the Pantanal Swamp and attack Willendel directly from Delarion. The poor environment of the swamp area and the huge lake in the center of the swamp together hinder large-scale marches... unless it is a small group of lightly armed infantry.
Therefore, if one wanted to attack Willendel from the north, one could only advance along the western or eastern edge of the Great Swamp.
As a result, Huntington City actually took on the responsibility of guarding the capital in the eastern Pantanal. In the current relatively peaceful steam age, the city has also experienced tremendous development. Relying on the status of a transportation hub in the north of Carsenrick, it has become the most important freight distribution center in Carsenrick. Most of the bulk goods traveling between the north and south and the east and west of the old continent must pass through Huntington City.
As for the title of "City of Red Wine", it is because there are a large number of vineyards around Huntington, especially in the south and east. The soil and climate here are extremely suitable for grape planting and red wine making. The famous wineries in the Old World, except for those located in the southern Principality of Carsenrick such as Roselle Winery, are almost all concentrated in the north near the city of Huntington.
Even the vineyard and winery of the family of the vampire Mr. Armand Bernhardt were near Huntington. The letter left by the captured vampire when he left Cassandra Auction House also invited Shad to visit his manor in Huntington.
"The rumor about the 'Lady of the Lake' seems to be in Huntington."
Xia De understood what the old man was going to say.
"To be specific, it's not that city, but the west of Huntington, near the Great Swamp. The legend of the Lady of the Lake is a story passed down from generation to generation in the local area. It is said that people with kind hearts and noble character can meet the Lady of the Lake and gain the power they want after passing the test."
"Of noble character?"
Xia De repeated doubtfully, and then began to wonder if he met the requirements. But then, the contents of the list of sins in the Sin Mansion appeared in front of him. The stranger who was currently entangled with the girls did not seem to meet such strict requirements. And the scale of his promiscuous sin was probably increased.
But no matter what, Shade decided to go to Huntington City to take a look. Obtaining divinity is the most urgent thing at the moment. The afterglow of divinity is gradually fading, and he must act as soon as possible.
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