Chapter 159: Origin of the Scroll

As he watched, Xia Duo noticed the tips of Niya's ears beginning to turn red, and the tone of her lecture shifted slightly. Not daring to push it too far, Xia Duo hurriedly shifted his attention back to his notes.

He already knew most of the content Niya was teaching, so he only paid slight attention to see if there was any knowledge he didn't possess; the majority of his energy was actually focused on his own research.

Xia Duo was no stranger to crafting a Magic Scroll, but he had always found it difficult to grasp why a single piece of paper could record a spell.

But after studying *Elementary Arcane Geometry*, Xia Duo understood: it wasn't that a piece of paper could record a spell, but that someone had used Arcane Geometry to turn the spell into a two-dimensional diagram.

If it wasn't encrypted, it was a Learning Scroll; if it was encrypted, it was an Ordinary Scroll.

In fact, the Magic Book that Depake had lent him could essentially be seen as a collection of Learning Scrolls bound together, where the spells inside could be observed accurately and without error.

It was just that the activation elements for most of the spells had been omitted; if the reader were to manually complete them, the spells could be triggered.

The spellbook Xia Duo planned to make in the future should be similar to this one—it could record spells concisely, intuitively, and accurately for him to flip through whenever his memory failed him, and it could also serve as a temporary Magic Scroll to be used at a critical moment.

Simply perfect.

And if he were to stabilize some magic on it as well, it might be even more formidable.

Of course, all of this was still just Xia Duo's plan; he currently lacked the ability to realize it. The only Magic Scrolls he could currently craft were the few types for which he had exchanged Learning Scrolls.

And aside from the encrypted version of 【Light】 he had learned, even if he crafted other types of scrolls, they would just be Learning Scrolls. Using them himself was no different from using the encrypted versions, but if he sold them, he would be giving his knowledge away for nothing.

Especially now that he was using Arcane Geometry to organize the spell structure and elements of the 1st Circle 【Steam Ray】, striving to work out the crafting method for a 【Steam Ray】 scroll as soon as possible.

The Official Mage stage would inevitably be more expensive, and this would be an important source of income for him in the short term.

……

Xia Duo stopped staring directly at Niya, which made Niya's lecture become much calmer, and soon the first lecture concluded successfully.

While Niya secretly breathed a sigh of relief, she also glared fiercely at Xia Duo, though Xia Duo was not looking at her at the time, but rather writing something in his notes.

This made Niya somewhat annoyed again. "Xia Duo, Jianaer, you may leave. Come back tomorrow morning for a Q&A. Also, Xia Duo, finish the books on the reading list as soon as possible!"

"Yes!"

Xia Duo and Jianaer responded in unison, stood up to bow, and then left together.

After walking out of Niya's Research Lab, the atmosphere between the two became somewhat awkward. Jianaer was terrified that Xia Duo would mention the events of the Moon Festival, while Xia Duo was wondering why Jianaer hadn't given him the reading list.

Did he have to ask for it himself? Instructor Niya had just told him to give it to him.

"Jianaer."

"Ah?" Jianaer was startled and hurriedly said, "Xia Duo, I didn't know you had become an Official Mage too. Congratulations!"

"……"

Xia Duo felt that Jianaer had misunderstood his intent and had no idea what was going through his head, so he said, "What about the reading list Instructor Niya mentioned?"

"The reading list? Oh, the reading list is here!" Jianaer scrambled to pull a piece of paper from his notes and handed it to Xia Duo. "Here, you take this. I've already copied down the books on it."

"Mm, thanks."

Xia Duo took the still-fresh piece of Parchment and looked at it. At the very top was *Overview of Weave Spell Slots*, and the two books following it were both about that subject.

Below that were books on spellcasting techniques, Magic Theory, and the like, but at the very end of the list was a book title written in Elvish.

Xia Duo had never seen this word, let alone recognized it, so he stopped Jianaer, who was about to leave, and asked, "What is the last book on this list?"

Jianaer stopped, first recited a name in Elvish, and then said, "This is the *Morning Wind Poetry Collection*, a masterpiece by an Elf poet."

"What significance does this have for us?" Xia Duo was puzzled.

Jianaer was surprised at first, then showed a look of realization. "This is the recognized best textbook for learning Elvish; it allows one to get started at the fastest speed."

"Have you learned it?"

"No." Jianaer looked a bit embarrassed; an on-duty Mage at the Library had told him about this book title, and he was planning to sign up for an Elvish course in a few days.

Of course, there was no need to tell Xia Duo about that.

……

After the two left, Xia Duo did not go to the Library to borrow books immediately, but instead went to the Arcane Garden. Niya had not ended the lecture at mealtime, leaving plenty of time instead.

The Arcane Garden shouldn't be off-duty yet!

After greeting the on-duty administrative Mage, Xia Duo walked straight toward the orchard. Under the apple tree, Aideliqi, Dien, Sami, and Dewan were all there.

And there was an extra little blond chubby boy—Donald. It seemed they had already accepted a new member, or rather, a new friend.

Xia Duo's arrival made Aideliqi and the others overjoyed, and Donald also looked at Xia Duo with admiration; they had all entered the Mage Tower in the same batch.

Now that Xia Duo had become an Official Mage, and he himself had only just managed to transition from Apprentice not long ago thanks to Xia Duo's help, the gap between them was already so great that Donald couldn't even conceive of catching up.

"Xia Duo!" Everyone greeted him one after another. Their tone was as friendly as before, but Xia Duo could still detect some restraint; after all, they now belonged to different social strata.

But Xia Duo did not show any arrogance or pride; instead, he was even more approachable, and his tone was very intimate. "Everyone is here!"

"Xia Duo, is there something you need from us?"

Official Mages were all quite busy, and everyone didn't believe Xia Duo had come just to see them for no reason. Xia Duo did not hide it and stated his purpose:

"I came partly to see how everyone is doing; seeing you all getting along so harmoniously, I feel relieved. The other reason is that I wanted to ask Aideliqi about something."

Hearing that Xia Duo was still concerned about them even after leaving the Arcane Garden, the members of the original Study Group were very moved—which, in Xia Duo's eyes, was perhaps even a bit too emotional.

A person in a higher position only needs to bestow a small favor to make those below them feel deeply grateful. Although he was not a superior, the status difference made every word and action of Xia Duo carry more weight.

Perhaps this was also the charisma and affinity brought about by Bloodline Awakening.

"Xia Duo, let's talk over there," Aideliqi suggested.

"No, no need." Xia Duo waved his hand. "What I want to ask isn't anything secret, and besides, don't I trust you all?"

"Then Xia Duo, what do you want to ask? As long as I know it, I definitely won't hide it." Aideliqi stated readily.

It had always been Xia Duo who gave him help, allowing someone who had almost given up on himself to rekindle his hope for Magic, and he very much hoped to do something for Xia Duo.