Chapter 400: Elven Paper-making Technique

Tailun was somewhat surprised by Ruien's arrival; these underage Elves usually only came over in the morning for training, while the afternoon was entirely for play and recreation.

He rarely saw an Elf come to find him in the afternoon; such situations usually meant they had a request. "Little one, what do you need?"

"Lord Tailun, I heard that the City Lord's Library is in Yinguang Ta, and I would like to go in and take a look," Xia Duo stated his purpose directly.

Under normal circumstances, who would have thought that this little Elf, Ruien, had already changed his core!

"Yinguang Ta?" Tailun hesitated, not because he was reluctant to issue a permit, but because he was worried about Ruien encountering an accident inside; one had to know that Yinguang Ta was connected to the underground world.

Those damned Fallen Ones attacking the Mithril Mine was not a one-day affair, and news would occasionally spread of Elves being assassinated by Drow Assassins within Yinguang Ta.

After thinking for a moment, he did not refuse, only saying, "How about this, I will take you there."

Tailun thought of Ruien's parents, who had fought alongside him; he could not let Ruien be in danger, so since the little one wanted to go to the Library, he would personally protect him for once.

It was just that Tailun's accompaniment seemed a bit troublesome to Xia Duo, but since the goal was finally achieved, he did not want to create further complications.

"Thank you, Lord Tailun."

……

Soon, Xia Duo arrived in front of Yinguang Ta once again, but this time, with Tailun's accompaniment, the patrolling soldiers did not block him.

After entering Yinguang Ta, Xia Duo discovered that it was still different from a Mage Tower; there were very few Magic Arrays similar to those in the Tower of Time, and there was no expanded space.

This place was more like an ordinary tower, except that a Micro-Mythallar was installed inside, and its effect was almost non-existent, serving only as a simple alarm without the complex functions of the Tower of Time.

There were two spiral staircases inside the tower, winding up along the inner wall of Yinguang Ta. As they walked, Tailun introduced the place to Xia Duo:

"Underground is the Mithril Mine; the first, second, and third floors are the barracks for the rotating soldiers, and the Library is on the fourth floor, which is where we are going now."

"Is there anything above that?"

"Above, of course, are the residences of the commanders and the City Lord; in the future, you will also obtain your rightful position here!"

"Then Lord Tailun, you—"

"I have one too, but because I am responsible for looking after you little ones, I usually live outside."

Afterwards, Xia Duo stopped talking and instead looked forward with anticipation as the stairs in front of him ran beneath his feet, the destination drawing closer and closer.

Before long, the two arrived at the fourth floor.

Of course, the fourth floor was not just a Library; it seemed to have a leisure area as well. Xia Duo saw several Elves drinking and chatting, looking quite relaxed.

After he entered the Library, he discovered that Tailun had not followed him in, but had gone to find other Elves to drink with.

However, this actually made things convenient for Xia Duo; if someone were constantly watching from the side, he would feel very uncomfortable.

The books in Yinguang City were different from the books in the projected Sukanweisa City from before.

It was mainly in terms of material; the books in Sukanweisa City were made from a certain type of leaf that had been processed with Magic and cut into whole sheets, and the leaf veins could be clearly seen on every page.

But the books in Yinguang City seemed to be—ordinary paper? Xia Duo carefully kneaded a corner of the paper inside a book and found that it indeed felt extremely similar to ordinary paper on Earth, lacking the unique texture of Parchment or leaf paper.

Did the Elves have a Paper-making Technique? Xia Duo did not doubt it; after all, even Netheril could make paper, so there was no reason the Elves couldn't after developing for so many years, it was just that the quality of this paper was a bit too outstanding.

Flipping through several books in a row, there was no obvious difference in the material inside, as if they were industrial products produced on an assembly line.

Looking at the various books of roughly the same specifications in this Library, Xia Duo's first thought was the popularization of Knowledge.

Then there were Magic Scrolls; if this kind of paper could be used to make Magic Scrolls, combined with Printing, one could even mass-produce semi-finished Magic Scrolls, reducing the Mage's work to the final step—Link Magic Web.

Then the cost of Magic Scrolls would surely be reduced by a significant margin.

For a moment, Xia Duo felt an itch in his heart, wishing he could start experimenting immediately, but since he had finally come to the Library, he certainly had to make full use of it.

He didn't know when he would be able to get Tailun to accompany him again.

In the Library, there was a vast number of books, and the categories were mostly artistic, such as poetry, literature, music, and so on; there was very little Magic.

Or rather, Magic was also classified under art, occupying only a part of the whole, and much of it was mixed in with other arts, making it quite troublesome to distinguish.

For example, this book, "Sixteen Variant Forms of Poetic Structure in the Fourth Lisar Period of Maiyelita," looked like a poetry book, but it actually contained a considerable portion of Spell Principles.

Many Elven poems could be related to Magic; of course, for a book title as obvious as this, Xia Duo did not need to check it in detail, as it could basically be determined that it had nothing to do with Mithril Refining.

But if it were a book like "Travels in the Underground World," "Exploration of the Children of Stone," or "Jewelry Craftsmanship," then he would have to check it carefully; who knew which page might record the method for Mithril Refining?

Yinguang City did not have any specialized technical books like the ones on Earth that got straight to the point, such as "Postpartum Care for Sows"; they all liked to beat around the bush.

But the previously projected Sukanweisa City had specialized Magic books; although Xia Duo was not sure if the Elves of the Main Plane were the same, judging solely from the Projection Plane, the decline of the Elves was not without reason.

Aside from the loss of a large population during the thousands of years of the Crown War, this kind of near self-castration might also be an important reason.

It wasn't until late in the day that Xia Duo still hadn't found a method for refining Mithril, but Tailun had already sent a Sending to urge him to leave, so Xia Duo had to give up for the time being.

He would find a way to come here again in the future; fortunately, he had originally planned to make full use of his time in the Projection Plane to push his Spellcasting Level up.

Although he couldn't level up here, he could fill up his current "experience points," and by the time he returned to the Main Plane, a fresh High Mage would emerge.

As long as the situation where the Projection Plane suddenly dissolved did not occur, time was quite abundant.

……

After exiting Yinguang Ta, Xia Duo returned to the training camp with Tailun; this place was not only a place for training but also a place for eating, and most war orphans, if they had no relatives or friends to take care of them, would mostly eat here.

After simply eating some bread and roasted meat, Xia Duo prepared to go home; as for nightlife or anything like that, there was no need to think about it, as Yinguang City didn't have such things.

And he didn't want to waste time.

(End of chapter)