44 Knowledge is Money (1/2)
Chapter 44: Knowledge is Money
Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion
Mercury took out a small box, in which there were three Corpse Mushrooms. One was darker than the other two. She asked politely, “You can take them all if you’re willing to answer my question, sir.”
Corpse Mushroom was required in many magic potions. The average price was about ten Nars. And the darker ones were even more expensive. If they were badly in need, the price could be doubled or even more.
Lucien couldn’t resist the offer. He nodded, “All right.”
Mercury found the article in the journal titled “A New Element Detected by A New Method” and asked, “My question is about the basic elements… The author defines ‘Tai’ which is extracted from sunstones as an element in this article, but I thought only earth, fire, wind and water were basic elements…”
Her voice was slightly trembling, as if she knew that the answer to her question would overthrow all of her previous knowledge about Element magic. In fact, the question was related to the important difference between the ancient and the contemporary magic system.
“Well…” After a while, Lucien finally responded, “Honestly speaking, I’m not sure neither. I studied the ancient magic system like all of you. In the past, I often found conflicts between some theories and my own experiment practices, and thus I started putting more thoughts on it. The reason that I’m able to explain those formula is not because I already have a deep understanding of them, but because many of the corresponding questions have been existing in my mind for a long time, and the article just solved them.”
It was very suspicious that a sorcerer who claimed himself to have nothing to do with the Continental Congress of Magic could understand all of the formula in the article, but Lucien was too excited to realize the fact when he first read the journal. Now he had to restrain himself a bit.
“That’s why I was only explaining the application of the formulas. As for the principles lying behind them, they’re also strange to me.” Lucien continued. He did not want to take even a slight risk of being suspected, “This article showed the process and the result of an experiment, with only a few formulas. I can only share some of my thoughts roughly toward the theories mentioned in it, but I can be wrong.”
“No problem, sir.” Mercury answered firmly, and turned to the other apprentices, “And I want to invite all of you here to join our discussion.”
This kind of instruction could be very expensive. Without the questioner’s permission, others were usually not allowed to listen to it. Important information sometimes would be protected by a special magic called “secret communication” in order to avoid eavesdropping.
“I heard that there has been a longtime discussion between sorcerers and sorceresses on whether the belief of four basic elements of the world is just a myth.” Lucien started analyzing, “Many believe that the real elements should be more abstract, and should be more than just four kinds.”
The other apprentices nodded thoughtfully. Many of them had the same doubt as well when they were conducting magic experiments.
“I’m not sure what are the real elements instead. But from this article, it seems like they have redefined element and found many new ones through different experiments.”