Chapter 42: The Secret Gathering

  Looking for Sanjiang tickets~

  …………………………………………

  After closing the door of Smael's house, Lucien concentrated his spiritual power and changed the structure and frequency of the weak spiritual mark on Dorro, making it disappear directly. Because as soon as he left, Smael would definitely carefully check Dorro to find out why he was being tracked, and Lucien didn't want his unique spiritual power technique to be discovered and cracked so quickly.

  Still treading carefully, Lucien made his way to the back door and once again cast "Silent Portal" and "Switch", slipping out of the Copper Crown Tavern unnoticed before circling around a large block to return to his own hut.

  Lying in bed, Lucien suddenly felt a slightly relieved emotion. In the powerful church of Alto, meeting fellow magic apprentices was like having someone to cooperate with in the midst of a storm, no longer having to journey alone: "It turns out we're all magic apprentices, I wonder how many hidden mages are left in Alto?"

  …………

  For the next few days, Lucien lived his own regular life, getting up early in the morning, exercising for an hour and practicing swordsmanship, then going to work at the library, sometimes reading religious classics and travel notes, sometimes reading music theory, memorizing fingerings and scores, and sometimes analyzing the structure of spells and magic arrays in the Soul Library.

  Although Pierrot was quite a rogue, when he became absorbed in the world of music, he was an extremely quiet boy who wouldn't disturb Lucien's studies at all. Meanwhile, Wolf had been invited to perform on the estate of some count and hadn't come to the library. The other musicians, instrumentalists, and Victor couldn't be considered friends with Lucien, but they weren't enemies either, and didn't have time to bother him, so Lucien was living a very leisurely life.

  The only small regret was that he didn't get to see Miss Sylvia, a 24-year-old unmarried musician known as the "Musical Lily", whose appearance Pierrot highly praised, describing her as an elegant and refined goddess. Lucien had no ulterior motives, but was simply infected by Pierrot's enthusiastic attitude, feeling very curious, unfortunately, Sylvia excelled at the harpsichord, often appearing in the music rooms of many noble girls and ladies, rarely coming to the musicians' association.

  In the afternoon, due to good learning results, Lucien's text-based learning time was compressed to one hour. Then he studied music theory and notation like Lott and Phyllis. At four o'clock, he began two hours of piano practice, repeating over and over again. The tenacity and stubbornness hidden in Lucien's heart were fully utilized in this matter. He wouldn't stop until he was satisfied with his performance. After the practice ended, Lucien would lament that playing the piano is a physically demanding task, making him sweat all over, with sore arms and fingers.

  At night, it was Lucien's time to study magic and research magic without being distracted by anything.

  By Friday evening, when Lucien went to Aunt Elisa's house for dinner, he noticed that in the inconspicuous corner of the wall next door, someone had drawn several simple patterns like a child scribbling.

  "Saturday night at 10 o'clock, wait for me in front of the abandoned sixth house on the easternmost side of Adet district. Owl."

  "Owl" is Smiley's codename.

  Lucien glanced at it casually and interpreted its contents, his expression unchanged, and walked into Aunt Elisa's house with a steady pace.

  …………

  The next evening at 9:30, the soft silver moon and the twinkling stars were all covered by dark clouds, and the night was deep and oppressive.

  Lucien put on a black robe with a hood, checked the location and quantity of the magic materials, wore the "Ice Snow Avenger" ring on his left index finger, carefully sensed the surroundings, and then carefully went out and merged into the dark night.

  Under the humid and stifling warm wind, Lucien took twenty minutes to walk to the easternmost part of Adrien District and found that abandoned house.

  The mournful hooting of an owl came, and Lucien hastily looked towards the tall willow tree beside the house. There he saw Smeyer standing in the shadow of the tree, also dressed in a long black robe, but with his hood thrown back so that Lucien could recognize him. Meanwhile, the owl Dorro stood leisurely on the willow, watching the surroundings and acting as a guardian for the gathering inside.

  "Professor, it's an honor to have you attend our gathering." Smiler put on his hood, covering his face, and his tone was filled with excitement. "I've already told the other companions about you, they're thrilled and want to ask for your guidance on some magical problems, of course, we'll pay for this kind of guidance."

  "Magic problem? Hehe, looks like they still don't quite believe I'm a formal 'magician'." Lucien said with a smile in his heart, although the witch only translated one formal magic spell, Lucien wasn't clear about how big the gap was between himself and a formal magician in terms of knowledge, but he was certain that he surpassed most magic apprentices in this aspect, as could be seen from analyzing the "Ice Snow Avenger" ring. "Alright, but I'm more skilled in astrology and elemental system magic, if it's problems related to these two areas, I think I should be able to help you guys."

  Lucien spoke with such confidence that Smyler was even more convinced of his formal magician identity: "Professor, please follow me."

  The black robe was extremely difficult to distinguish in the night, but the abandoned house was just a dozen steps away, and Lucien easily followed Smell to the door.

  Knock, knock, knock-knock, knock... Smiley knocked on the wooden door with a strange rhythm and then imitated an owl's hooting twice.

  After waiting for five seconds, the wooden door slowly opened. In the dilapidated house stood a person in black robes: "Owl, is this Professor?"

  His voice was hoarse and unnatural, obviously deliberately altered.

  "Yes." Smiley replied in a similarly low voice, "Professor, this is 'Huǒ Láng'."

  Lucien nodded his head with a hood: "Hello." His left hand was hidden in his sleeve, the Ice Snow Avenger was ready to strike.

  After entering the small living room of the house, and then passing through a door, you will arrive at the storage room, where there is a staircase leading downwards.

  "Basement!" Lucien suddenly reacted, why did he insist on building a magic laboratory in the sewer? Can't he just build a small basement for himself? The ground below isn't just limited to sewers.

  At that time, you can do magic experiments and casting practices in the basement that are not too loud or have small magical fluctuations. As for those with big movements, you can find a secluded place in the Melzer Heisen Forest and build an underground laboratory to conduct experiments once a week.

  The basement was not large, with eleven low stools arranged around a long table in the center. Two candles were lit on the table, and the faint yellow flames cast eerie shadows on the eight black-robed, black-hooded young wizards.

  After Lucien came down cautiously and highly vigilant, Huo Lang and Smiley closed the entrance to the basement and followed him down, sitting on the empty stools.

  Smail stood up and looked at all the magic apprentices: "Everyone, this is Professor Mr., a formal magician with profound knowledge and great strength."

  Then he introduced the magical apprentices to Lucien: "This is White Honey, Morning Star, Tame Deer, White Glove, Oak Tree, Sage, Mercury, and Hanged Man."

  Lucien nodded: "Nice to meet you all, before we start, may I take a look at that 'Arcane' book?"

  The old sage replied in a hoarse voice, "No problem, Professor. You can look around as you please, we'll just chat among ourselves for now. By the way, I've brought the set of magical experiment equipment you needed. If you can help me with a magic question later on, this set is yours; if not, it'll cost thirty silver Nars."

  He said as he handed Lucien a deep black leather-bound book.

  Lucien received it in his hands and didn't open it immediately, but instead carefully looked at the cover.

  In the deep black that seemed to suck in people's eyes, there were countless dazzling silver-white lines. They formed two common language characters "Arcane" and several thumb-sized words: "Sacred Calendar 790th Issue", simple yet profound and mysterious, while the inner text was written on parchment paper.

  As Lucien flipped through the catalog, he saw that there were twenty-four articles, with the first one being: "A Discussion of Several Questions Regarding the Fifth Failure to Find a Star Planet", his heart skipped a beat, and he directly turned the page.

  "Mr. Douglas's established gravity theory can perfectly explain many force field magic and even the construction principle of most astrology magic, and through this theory, we have created many brand new and powerful magic, which is one of the main foundations of the force field system in the two magnificent palaces of the classical magic system."

  "With the help of gravitational theory, we have summarized three major laws of planetary motion from the chaotic and disorderly rules of stellar changes, which has significant guiding significance for divination magic such as astrology and stargazing."

  ……

  "But Mr. Douglas' gravitational theory has a very important problem that cannot be verified, from the gravitational theory, we can deduce its formula, and know that our continent is also on a planet, it rotates by itself, it revolves around the sun, and the stars in the sky are also making similar movements. According to the formula of gravity and the law of planetary motion, we can accurately calculate the positions of these planets."

  "But when I precisely positioned myself and used the space jump magic that had been prepared for a long time to reach the position I calculated, I couldn't see any planet or even the continent we were on."

  "Why is that? The planet with the gravitational pull that should be waiting for me, as if it never existed. In that position, I can feel gravity like on land: but it's a strange and immeasurable gravity, where are those planets?"

  …………

  Lucien realized that the stars in the sky also represented fate at the time, and he understood that the planet of this world was strange, but he didn't expect it to be so strange.