Chapter 26: Asking Questions, Receiving a Notebook

Xia Duo understood. It was true that Official Apprentices had the opportunity to ask questions, but each person could only ask once per day. Generally, when an Official Mage was teaching, the number of people was not too large, and questions would not take up too much of the lecture time, but if there were no restrictions, one person could ask questions all day long.

Xia Duo hurriedly stated the question Dien wanted to know. Jianaer was silent for a moment, then said, "The apprentice you mentioned is likely lacking in the foundations of mathematics. To solve this problem, one only needs to use some basic knowledge from Arcane Geometry. Tell him to go to the Library and borrow the book 'Geometric Principles in Ring Spells'; that should solve his problem."

Xia Duo wrote down Jianaer's guidance, and the other apprentices also silently noted down the book. Although they did not have the right to ask questions, listening was not a problem.

After answering Xia Duo's question, Jianaer's teaching task for the day was finished. This Magic Enlightenment Course of his was to last for one week in total. Giving enlightenment classes to New Apprentices was not considered a good job, and Official Mages were usually unwilling to do it.

Because the rating for enlightenment classes in the Mage Tower was the lowest, the remuneration was naturally the lowest as well. But for the apprentices, what was like a chicken rib to an Official Mage was a not-insignificant sum.

Jianaer had also gone through a round of competition to become the instructor for this year's New Apprentices.

……

After the dismissal, Xia Duo went directly to the nearby canteen to get two loaves of bread before returning to the dormitory level. There were still more than three hours until "lights out," and he needed to hurry to Dien's place to continue organizing the Netherese Dictionary.

Moreover, even if he finished organizing that half of the "Sacred Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance," there were still more new characters and words waiting for him. However, by then, he would need to go to the Library to borrow books.

In the Dormitory, Dien had already returned. Furthermore, he did not want to study anything today; instead, he sat outside the dormitory door, absent-mindedly flipping through a notebook while gnawing on bread, waiting for Xia Duo to arrive.

At the thought that Xia Duo might very well bring him the key to the final hurdle for becoming an Official Apprentice, Dien felt somewhat restless. He had joined the Mage Tower two years ago; if he could not become an Official Apprentice within the third year, his family would no longer support him.

If it weren't for the good luck of coming into contact with an Official Apprentice who had not yet begun their enlightenment, allowing him to trade for the opportunity to ask questions at a very low cost, Dien might already have been in despair.

The vast majority of the entire Mage Tower were Ordinary Apprentices like him. Everyone wanted to ask the Mages questions, but the opportunities were extremely limited. After satisfying the needs of the Official Apprentices themselves, how much could be left over?

Even if there were any, it was not something Dien could afford.

When Xia Duo arrived near the Dormitory, what he saw was Dien sitting at the door in a daze; Dien did not even notice him when he walked close.

"Dien, why aren't you going inside?"

"Xia Duo!" Hearing this Netherese Common with a distinct accent, Dien was instantly overjoyed. "Xia Duo, you're back! I helped you transcribe the first half of the 'Sacred Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance' this afternoon."

Xia Duo was stunned upon hearing this. "You didn't go to class?"

"I've already fallen behind." Dien's tone was somewhat desolate. "The Mage never cares whether we understand or not, and without an Official Apprentice present, there is no question-and-answer session. The course I'm taking now has already repeated for the third round; missing a day or two doesn't have much impact."

Xia Duo was silent; the treatment of these Ordinary Apprentices was truly miserable.

The Mage Tower allowed them to attend lectures and borrow books, but did not allow them to ask questions. This was simply forcing them to all become geniuses through self-study. In fact, all the Official Apprentices in the Mage Tower had come up that way.

Except for Xia Duo.

"I asked that question for you today, but I was in an enlightenment class, not a lecture by an Official Mage."

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter!" Dien's eyes were shining as he looked at Xia Duo expectantly. He didn't care about apprentices or mages; as long as someone could answer his questions, he wouldn't mind even if it were a beggar.

Xia Duo repeated Jianaer's answer, emphasizing that book, "Geometric Principles in Ring Spells."

After hearing Xia Duo's relay and the evaluation from that Official Apprentice, Dien was somewhat lost in thought. He had held that book in his hands several times before, but because it wasn't a direct Spellcasting technique, he had put it back.

Thinking about it now, he was filled with regret.

"Xia Duo, wait a moment!"

Dien rushed into the room and came out with a notebook. "Here, I've transcribed the first half of the 'Sacred Proverbs of the Lord of Radiance' that I scraped off earlier. I'm giving this notebook to you. You can organize the words and phrases inside first; tomorrow I will interpret the specific pronunciations and meanings for you."

He couldn't wait to rush to the Library, but thinking that just reading books might not solve his problem, Dien simply gave this notebook to Xia Duo.

Xia Duo looked at the notebook Dien had shoved into his hands. It was the same one he had transcribed yesterday, but the content on the first half had been scraped off by Dien and replaced with the "Proverbs."

Such a standard notebook, if brand new, would sell for 15 Gold Coins at the Material Requisition Office.

And if it contained recorded Magic Knowledge, it could be called a Magic Book, and the price would increase almost geometrically, depending on the value of the knowledge inside.

However, even if the paper inside had been scraped and written upon many times and was filled with the less-valuable "Proverbs," this notebook was still worth at least several Gold Coins.

The high cost of Knowledge was actually reflected in the high cost of paper. Currently, Xia Duo had not yet seen real paper—paper made from cheap materials. Everything was Parchment, usually from the skin of a lamb.

Of course, there were also calfskin, Giant Lizard skin, and the like, which were suitable for making paper, or even dragon skin, but the price of that was unimaginable. Xia Duo had been in Savile Town for half a year and had never heard of the Netherese people having any dragon-slaying feats; he only heard that the Elf Kingdom had a dragon-skin Magic Book, which was said to contain Magic capable of destroying the world.

The path of a Mage required not only talent but even more so, money.

Some seemingly inconspicuous but indispensable basic consumables were worth a fortune, such as ink at 10 Gold Coins a bottle, a 100-page Blank Notebook at 15 Gold Coins, and the cost of borrowing from the Library once was usually one percent of the book's own value (at least 1 Gold Coin).

If one relied solely on the Mage Tower's wage of 1 Silver Coin per day, how could one possibly sustain it? One definitely had to find a way to get money, whether from the family behind them or from other apprentices.

Although the notebook Dien gave him was already full of writing, Xia Duo was still very happy, because a man with only 6 sheets of Parchment could not afford to be hurt.

He planned to organize all the text inside and then scrape it clean to use as his own first notebook. This way, he wouldn't need to buy Parchment separately; it was too uneconomical. Later, he could save up money to buy a proper Blank Notebook.

However, in his excitement, Xia Duo also forgot his original plan. It was only when he returned to his own dormitory that he remembered he had intended to renegotiate the terms of the trade with Dien.