826 Reach (1/2)
When Donnie returned to school, there was still a long time to go before the evening class. So, he hobbled back to his dormitory, trying to think about the problem more carefully.
”Where did you go?” Sammy was watching the home TV that was embedded on the wall on his bed with a fried chicken in his hands. Amused by the shows, he was unusually enlivened. The ghost behind him, on the other hand, crouched lazily, unwilling to move at all.
Donnie replied casually, ”Didn't I tell you? I went to the Triumph Square to get the Lucidity Necklace.”
Sammy scratched his messy hair and said, unbothered, ”The sun at noon is too strong for me to keep myself awake. How could I remember what you said?”
As he spoke, the young man suddenly turned around and looked at Donnie. ”Wait, did you say 'Lucidity Necklace'? Have you saved enough money for a Lucidity Necklace?”
He finally noticed the key point.
Donnie said in a self-mocking smile, ”How can I save enough money? There are few subsidies for apprentices and intern arcanists. We do not have many scholarships either. I only ran into a kindhearted bookstore owner this time…”
He told his friend what happened.
Sammy nodded and did not have any questions for Donnie's experience. He barely considered anything deeply except arcana and magic.
After talking with Donnie, Sammy turned around and kept watching the TV. At this moment, the show was already over and replaced by a commercial, where a beautiful girl was displaying the convenient and beautiful clothes on her. Because of the increase of alchemical workshops and the change of social structure centered at the alchemy center Rentato, the fashion of clothes had greatly changed. They either became more simple and convenient for daily life or more complicated and exotic.
Being no stranger to Sammy's state, Donnie stood up, sat down, and lay on the bed, and repeated the process again and again anxiously, as he thought about his choice.
Donnie hadn't made up his mind after a long time. So, he coughed and said, ”Sammy, there's something that I would like to ask you.”
Sammy turned around again, and there was already tiredness on his face. ”What is it?”
”I'm considering which magic college I should choose,” Donnie said in a low voice.
Sammy frowned in confusion. ”Haven't you decided to go to Holt a long time ago? You are not going to study the marvelous and profound microworld anymore?”
”I… probably won't. In the microscopic domain, almost half of the equations and formulas are prefixed with Evans or Lucien. They are so complicated that I am physically repulsed every time I see them…” Donnie said his thoughts frankly. In the end, he said, ”I want to study something simpler, with fewer equations and formulas. I do not want to live in a nightmare called 'Lucien Evans' forever… What do you suggest?”
Sammy took a bite of the fried chicken. Not offering any comment on Donnie's idea of escaping from Lucien Evans, he simply said, ”The microscopic domain today includes elements, electromagnetism, alchemy, light-darkness, and force fields. That's Mr. Evans' main battlefield. If you don't want to study it, I think you can only study macroscopic astrology…”
When he spoke ”astrology”, he turned his eyes to the bookshelf in a corner of their dormitory, where the books that they borrowed from the library and their textbooks in the past five years were piled.
”A Brief Review of the Special and the General Theories of Relativity”, ”Evans Analysis of the Starry Sky of Destiny”, ”Divinity and Evans Essence Model”, ”Lucien Astrology”… The names of those books jumped into Sammy's eyes and choked him. ”Not the school of astrology… It's also Mr. Evans' territory. Although it's not as bad as the microscopic domain, I'm told that the Evans field equation alone has driven many astrologers mad.”
”Yes. The school of thermodynamics is similar…” Donnie rubbed his forehead in pain. ”Now, necromancy, illusion, transformation, and summoning are the only fields that Mr. Evans hasn't really influenced. Since I'm not a fan of summoning, I think I can only choose from necromancy, illusion, and transformation.”
Sammy's eyes glittered. He stopped sending the fried chicken into his mouth and said, ”Aren't you very good at psychoanalysis in the field of illusion? Apply for the Tower of Wizards.”
”Psychoanalysis…” Donnie was delighted at first. Then, as if he remembered something, he turned to the bookshelf.
Interpretation of Dreams, by Lannister Stanis and Lucien Evans…
Behavioral Psychology, by Lucien Evans, Erica Lavinie, Isabella…
Sixteen Countermeasures to Deal with Personality Deficiencies, Psychological Shadows, and Real Illusions, by Lucien Evans…
Application of Lucien's Personality Analysis in Illusion…
…
Donnie moved his eyes back and patted the bed hard, before he lowered his head in frustration. ”It doesn't work either. Although there aren't so many equations and formulas, Lucien and Evans are still everywhere. Many definitions in this domain have been completed by Mr. Evans…”
Why is he everywhere?