Chapter 22: Financial Constraints, Organizing a Dictionary

"How much is the ink? How much do you have?"

"Ink is 10 Gold Coins a bottle, standard ink bottle." However, seemingly noticing that Xia Duo did not have much money on him, this Apprentice lowered his voice and added, "If you're short on cash, I can sell you a bottle of my homemade ink for just 1 Gold Coin."

"..."

Xia Duo had not expected someone at the Material Requisition Office to be peddling private goods, but he truly did not have much money on hand. If he couldn't buy ink, buying Parchment would be useless, so he had no choice but to buy the private goods.

"Fine. Also, I need 6 sheets of Parchment. The Parchment must be brand new."

"Got it!"

Xia Duo fished 22 Silver Coins from the inner pocket of his Mage robe and lined them up on the counter. Aside from keeping 5 Silver Coins for emergencies, Xia Duo exchanged all his money for study tools.

A man without money lacks confidence; Xia Duo hoped such days would end as soon as possible.

Standing right in front of the counter, he checked the Parchment and ink he had bought. Only after confirming the Parchment was brand new did Xia Duo put them away, though the ink was a bit...

It was a small wooden bottle, and the ink inside was so diluted he could see the bottom. Xia Duo even doubted it could leave a mark on the Parchment.

If this Apprentice hadn't demonstrated it for Xia Duo on the spot, Xia Duo would never have bought such inferior ink. It was too faint, barely able to leave a mark.

But for now, this was all he could afford.

Leaving the Material Requisition Office, the next step was either to go to the Library to borrow books and organize a dictionary, or go to Dien's place to copy.

On the Elevator, Xia Duo chose to go to the dormitory level without the slightest hesitation, because borrowing books from the Library also cost money; he had to save every bit he could now.

"Dien, are you there?"

"Xia Duo, you—" Dien opened the door with messy hair, his expression somewhat ferocious, his eyes bloodshot. "I thought you weren't coming today!"

"I'd like to borrow that half-volume of the *Sacred Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance* to copy. May I?"

"Sure, come in."

Dien turned back into the room. Xia Duo saw several notebooks spread out on the desk inside, along with some scattered sheets of Parchment. Dien seemed to have been calculating something just now, but judging by his current state, it clearly wasn't going well.

"Just copy it here; I'll look at some other books first," Dien said to Xia Duo while hurriedly clearing the things off the desk.

Xia Duo wanted to refuse, but Dien had an "I'm going to watch" expression that made it impossible to decline. Xia Duo guessed that Dien was worried about him seeing the contents of the first half of that notebook.

Xia Duo could already speak Netherese Common (basic communication); now he just needed to supplement more vocabulary and the written characters corresponding to all the words.

When reading the *Sacred Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance* with Dien earlier, Xia Duo had noticed it. Now, after purposeful identification and analysis, Xia Duo discovered—

Netherese script was composed of 26 basic letters. After deliberately selecting similar words to ask Dien about, Xia Duo confirmed that Netherese script was a phonetic script, extremely similar to English on Earth.

Then the problem became much simpler.

As long as he organized all the words in order and added phonetic symbols and meanings, wouldn't a dictionary be created?

The *Sacred Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance* covered quite rich content. Just organizing the words that appeared in it would make a simple but practical dictionary. In the future, he could look up words he didn't know at any time, and if he couldn't find them, it meant the dictionary needed to be expanded.

Although Xia Duo wanted to do it all in one go, he only had 6 sheets of Parchment now, which might not be enough to organize all the words. He could only start from the first letter and organize as much as he could.

Netherese script was completely foreign to Xia Duo, and he was not very comfortable using a quill, but Xia Duo overcame these difficulties one by one. Nothing could stop his thirst for Knowledge.

Just like that, time slipped away bit by bit as Dien's gaze shifted from confusion and doubt to sudden realization and admiration.

For the annotations of the Netherese words, Xia Duo did not use the Chinese he was most familiar with, but used Pinyin paired with phonetic symbols. It looked like the secret personal script Mages used to record secrets, possessing quite a mysterious feel.

At the very least, Dien was bluffed; he wasn't even an Official Apprentice yet, so where would he have come into contact with knowledge of secret scripts?

The half-volume of the *Sacred Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance* was flipped through again and again by Xia Duo. He had already organized all the words in this half-volume that started with the first and second Netherese letters, and had also added phonetic symbols and meanings.

Looking at it this way, it wouldn't take much time to compile a simple dictionary. Xia Duo felt some anticipation for the scene of him taking the dictionary to the Library to borrow books.

Just as he was preparing to seize the time to organize other words, the light in Dien's Dormitory suddenly dimmed, as if it had suddenly gone from day to night. Although he could still vaguely see his five fingers, it was absolutely impossible to continue writing.

Xia Duo felt that the darkness of this night was even thicker than the inferior ink he had bought.

"Dien, is the Mage Tower like this every day?"

"Yeah, the light inside the Mage Tower also comes from the outside world. When the Lord of Radiance returns to His Shenguo, the interior of the Mage Tower no longer provides illumination. However, I've heard that if you have energy pool Permission Level like the Mage lords, there are no day and night restrictions."

Once put that way, Xia Duo understood. So the Mage Tower used solar power, but the energy reserves weren't open to Apprentices. If one wanted to gain more study time, one could only light a candle at night.

No wonder they issued candles and matches to the Apprentices.

But since the "lights were out" and Dien had no intention of lighting a candle for him, Xia Duo could only bid farewell and leave. Because it was only the first day, Xia Duo did not realize how tight an Apprentice's time was.

At the 02163 Dormitory, just as Xia Duo opened the door from the inside, seven or eight Apprentices squeezed in all at once, shouting:

"Dien, it's your turn today, why haven't you lit the candle yet?"

Xia Duo didn't leave for the moment, wanting to see what was going on. Dien was a bit embarrassed for a moment, but fortunately, the light was very dim, so it couldn't be seen. Regardless of the fact that Xia Duo was still there, he took the matches from the inner pocket of his Mage robe and lit his candle.

And those few Apprentices who had just entered took fire from Dien's candle one after another, then all left in a rush with their own candles.

"That—Xia Duo, using one match a day isn't very cost-effective, so we agreed to share with a few people. Do you still want to continue copying?"

Although he said that, Dien was stuck in the doorway, with no intention of letting Xia Duo back in.

"No need, I'm heading back. I don't know what chores there will be tomorrow."

Xia Duo also felt it was somewhat funny, but upon closer thought, these Apprentices struggling at the bottom might be a true reflection of his own future. Thinking of it this way, he felt his previous thought was the truly funny one.

Returning to his Dormitory in the dark, Xia Duo also began to gradually adapt to life in the Mage Tower.