172 Study Helps One Progress (1/2)
Chapter 172: Study Helps One Progress
Translator: Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion
Seeing that Mr. Evans was being pretty serious, Annick, Layria and Heidi all nodded, although unsure of what exactly they were going to do. However, they definitely sensed something not that good.
”Mr. Evans, since this is the first time you are reading those arcana books, we will just leave you alone right now to let you stay focused. When you have a better understanding of them, please provide us with some direction.” Annick stood up and said to Lucien politely, ”We can practice meditating right now.”
Although Lucien was actually capable of teaching them something about science, or, using this world’s expression, arcana, right now, he decided to make the whole thing more reasonable, since it would be very queer if his instruction started immediately after he just leafed through the pages.
”Good suggestion.” Lucien smiled and nodded, ”Probably tomorrow around this time, I should be able to start teaching.”
”Tomorrow? Wow… That’s so fast.” Layria was very surprised.
”I will teach you folks tomorrow what I will have figured out by then,” Lucien answered. ”That’s my way of teaching. I study and then I teach the knowledge to you three, which’s also a good way of giving myself some pressure.”
”That’s so nice of you, Mr. Evans,” answered Heidi cheerfully.
When the three apprentices went back to their own rooms to practice meditating, Lucien picked a quiet corner to focus on his own learning.
The book Lucien was reading now was Math Principles in the Philosophy of Magic, which read quite similar to one of the most well-known works of Newton. According to its content page, the book also focused on discussing all kinds of forces in this world by using calculus, while the major different feature of the book was that, within expectation, the researches mentioned all served for the purpose of developing magic, such as solving some questions in the school of Astrology.
Then, Lucien turned the book to the preface page and started to read the words left by the author:
”… We make all the effort of conducting all kinds of researches in order to seek the ultimate answers for some abstract questions, such as: What is ‘I’? What is the essence of the world? Where does the world come from? How all the things in this world developed and integrated themselves into a beautiful system? What do ‘I’ have anything to do with the world? And that is why I decided to use the word ‘philosophy’ to name the book.
We explore the word, trying to summarize and conclude laws from common phenomena, and based on the laws, we explain, construct, and create magic.
Your friend,
Douglas”
Lucien was not at all surprised that calculus was invented in this world, since all the complicated magic structures required accurate ways of calculation.
When Lucien started to read the book carefully, a quill on the desk jumped up on its own and started writing down something on a piece of paper automatically following Lucien’s thoughts.
Lucien found that, compared with those similar books written in his original world, this book was even more systematic and clearer, and hence it was easier for Lucien to understand.
Time flew past, and when the sunlight started getting dimmer and dimmer, Lucien realized that he already skipped his lunch. He found the book very fascinating since what this masterpiece was attempting to do was connecting magic and the laws of the world together.
If it had not been because of the inadequacy of the strength of Lucien’s soul, Lucien would have been able to start analyzing some second or even third circle spells already after reading a few more of these books. Lucien really wished that he could learn the better meditation way mentioned by Felipe that was only accessible to high-rank mages sooner rather than later.
As he stretched his body a bit in the couch, Lucien stood up and looked around.
”Good evening, Mr. Evans,” greeted some of the apprentices in awe. After all, Mr. Evans was a real sorcerer who they were supposed to show respect toward.
Lucien casually burned down the draft of his calculation and nodded, ”Where I can have dinner please?”
”The dining hall, on the first floor,” answered Katrina respectfully. She already saw how hard Mr. Evans worked, and she always respected people who worked hard. She wished herself would become a sorcerer soon, so she could help her parents who had been in trouble for quite a long time.
...
The dining hall on the first floor.
”Evans, I’ve heard your diligence. No wonder you are a real sorcerer already before twenty,” commented Astar. ”After you become a middle-rank mage, and if you have a quite good understanding in shadow and light, I will definitely consider you to become one of my research assistants.”
Although Astar was saying this, he was not very serious, since even throughout the whole congress, only very few arcanists could meet his requirements right now.
Beside Astar, Mercedes was working hard on her pan-fried fish in the plate with a piece of white napkin surrounding her fluffy neck. From time to time, Mercedes would mew and brushed Astar’s arm with her tail.
Lucien smiled and nodded, ”Thank you, Mr. Astar. Arcana is still very new to me, and all I can do right now is work hard.”
”Although your attitude is surely great,” Astar changed his tone, ”hard work doesn’t solve all the problems. You gotta make progress gradually, Evans. What I mean is… Math Principles in the Philosophy of Magic and calculus might be too much for you right now. I’d suggest you to start with some basic arcana books, plus The Encyclopedia of Magic Creatures.”
”Actually… I’ve finished reading most of the content in Math Principles in the Philosophy of Magic, and, of course, like what you just mentioned, I will start reading Basic Geometry of Magic and Common Algebra to better direct my three apprentices tomorrow,” answered Lucien in a polite tone.