Chapter 537 - Reading the Book of Eternity
Geresco, who was known as the God of Mages, had said something that was still regarded as the golden rule by all mages.
“Knowledge is the true faith of a mage!”
This sentence was written on the cover page of the Book of Eternity, which Lin Li was holding now.
People nowadays couldn’t imagine how difficult it was for humans to learn magic, and how much people desired knowledge during the Dark Age.
Under the control of the High Elves, humans couldn’t expect the High Elves to teach them magic, although learning magic was not forbidden for humans. Humans could only explore the misty realm of magic on their own, and record everything down in their own magic books. These books were then passed down generations after generations and perfected along the way.
During that time, the typical items that a human mage had were a magic staff and a magic book; even Geresco was no different. Now, Geresco’s magic staff was housed in the Guild of Magic at Alanna, shielding the guild from harm for over 1000 years. The Book of Eternity, a book which recorded all of Geresco’s findings in his lifetime, was now gently flipped open in Lin Li’s hands.
The pages of the Book of Eternity were made of leaves from the Tree of Eternity. The ink used in the book was the tree sap that Geresco had gotten from the trunk of the Tree of Eternity. The Tree of Eternity which once supported the entire Anril had leaves and trunk that held more power than any ordinary person could imagine. The Book of Eternity made from these things contained so much power that it could easily be considered the most powerful magical weapon during the Dark Age.
However, just like what was written on the cover page of the book, its value didn’t come from its power, but rather the knowledge, experiences, and revelations the God of Mages Geresco had throughout his lifetime about magic. This was the true priceless treasure to mages. Be it the powerful seventh Sky Castle or the magical crystal of the Evil Eye Tyrant which could increase mental strength, neither and nothing was more useful to mages than the knowledge in their minds.
This famous Book of Eternity was lost in Anril for more than 1000 years until Lin Li obtained it, making many mages actively searching for it. Though nobody had ever seen the Book of Eternity before, based on the fact that it belonged to Geresco, many a Legendary-mage had announced that whoever held on this book wouldn’t face difficulty in reaching the Sanctuary-realm.
This was just a wild guess by people who had never seen the Book of Eternity before. However, Lin Li knew after he had gotten the book that although those people’s guess seemed to be an exaggeration, the truth was more complex than that.
The Book of Eternity could be considered the most complex magical book Lin Li had ever read. Before obtaining this book, Lin Li had speculated more than once what kind of content Geresco would write in his magical book. When Lin Li had flipped open the book for the first time after getting it from Tutankhamun, he finally knew that the contents of this book were very diverse.
For 1000-plus years, all kinds of speculations about the contents of the Book of Eternity existed. Even the most absurd and exaggerated guesses didn’t cover 0.01% of its real contents. Anyone who had read the book would know that Geresco didn’t rely on the slightest bit of luck to become the God of Mages. He had achieved it through hard work.
As a mage, Lin Li was concerned about magical spells the most. When he was at the small wooden hut of Tutankhamun, he had watched a battle between Geresco and an Evil Eye Tyrant through a Spacetime Beacon Spell. During that battle, Lin Li had seen Geresco use a level-23 Legendary magic spell—Starfall, but what he was more shaken by was the Void of the Stars which only existed in legends.
There was no mage who had the slightest knowledge of the Void of the Stars now in Anril. Nobody even knew about the existence of that magic spell. Even knowledgeable people like Andoine could only find remnants of the Void of the Stars from legends. They only knew that was a realm only gods could reach.
Legend had it that mages who mastered the Void of the Stars could entrust their bodies and souls to nothingness, and were no longer subject to any harm from earthly magic and weapons. How could Lin Li not be interested in such powerful magic? From the first time he had opened this book, Lin Li had been looking for information about the Void of the Stars. He didn’t want to learn it immediately, though. After all, despite not knowing the exact level of this magical spell, he guessed that it wasn’t something an ordinary Legendary-mage could accomplish.
This kind of curious mentality wouldn’t change with people or the level of ability a person had. The only thing that differed among people was whether they could control such mentality well. In fact, curiosity was not a bad thing. For any intelligent race, curiosity drove development. It was precisely curiosity that made people explore and learn. The act of learning magic, in some sense, was precisely for fulfillment of curiosity.
Lin Li wanted to know how much Geresco knew about a magic spell like the Void of the Stars which only existed in legends. However, he soon realized that he had never seen at least 90% of the magical spells recorded in the Book of Eternity before.
These spells contained Ancient Dragon language, Demon Language which Connoris had mentioned, and even some Titan language. In contrast, the language of the High Elves and modern languages were rarely used in them. It was evident from these spells that Geresco was extremely knowledgeable.
One needed to know that Connoris had directly passed a paragraph of Demonic runes to Lin Li with mental strength back at the Throne of Darkness in the Abyss of Tharlen. This had allowed Lin Li to break through all barriers and step into the Legendary-realm. However, the Demon Language was merely a small part in this book. Be it Demon Language, Ancient Dragon Language, or Titan Language, all of them pointed directly to the origins of power and core knowledge about Rules. It wasn’t surprising that people speculated that reading this Book of Eternity would allow a person to reach Sanctuary-realm effortlessly.
Other than a large number of spells which Lin Li couldn’t understand, the more important part of this book was Geresco’s thoughts on magic. Geresco had handed this book to Tutankhamun because he wanted to create a powerhouse who could save humanity in time of crisis. Thus, Geresco had recorded his thoughts and experiences down to every magical spell, every word, every syllable, every way of mana distribution, and every kind of elemental sequencing. It was right to say that reading this Book of Eternity was like being taught by Geresco personally.
However, everything that Lin Li could see was just a small portion of this thick book. Lin Li could see more blank pages than he could see words. Of course, Lin Li was aware that they weren’t truly blank. He couldn’t see what’s written on those pages, because he hadn’t reached the realm required to see those words.
Though Lin Li had already reached the Legendary-realm which most people couldn’t, he was still far behind Geresco during his time. Lin Li knew that he could only get to see everything in the Book of Eternity when he had reached the same realm as Geresco.
Since Lin Li had gotten the Book of Eternity, reading this book had become a daily task for him. Though he could only see a small part of it now, every sentence in this limited portion he could see was worth analyzing repeatedly.
The room was exceptionally quiet. The thick Book of Eternity lay on the table, and its pages made from the leaves of the Tree of Eternity radiated a faint fragrance. Lin Li recited the contents on the book word by word, carefully inferring ideas and thoughts between the lines.
Compared to Connoris directly passing Demonic runes to Lin Li’s mind via mental strength, reading this book word by word and then coming up with his own thoughts had slowed down the process of learning. However, though Lin Li was able to rise to the Legendary-realm through obtaining Connoris’ understanding on that paragraph of Demonic runes, his own understanding of Demonic runes was still very much limited.
Lin Li could possibly become a second Geresco with just passing of mental strength. However, if he wanted to exceed the achievements of Geresco, he needed to continuously accumulate knowledge by trying to understand and appreciate knowledge by himself in the long run. This way, there wouldn’t be any limitations to the knowledge he had obtained. In addition, maybe Lin Li could even discover something Geresco had missed out on and work on it. Eventually, when Lin Li reached Geresco’s level, he wouldn’t be just another Geresco, but someone far greater than Geresco.
Actually, this was part and parcel of human development. No matter how great the forefathers were, they all served to lead the way for later generations and build a strong foundation for their descendants to walk even further on the path of development. This applied not only to mages—pharmacists, blacksmiths, and all other occupations all followed the same principle. This was the so-called inheritance of knowledge.
More often than not, Lin Li had an illusion that Geresco was standing in front of him, answering his queries regarding magic when he read the Book of Eternity carefully. Whenever Lin Li encountered a difficult question, he could certainly find an inspiring paragraph in the book which would clear up all his thoughts.
Stars hang in the night sky outside the window, The magic lamp in the reading room was already automatically switched on, and bright light illuminated the room. Lin Li was still reading the Book of Eternity with full concentration. He seemed to have chanced upon a difficulty. He frowned slightly, murmured a few syllables, and repeatedly chewed on the contents in the book.
Suddenly, Lin Li’s eyes lit up, and his murmurs became quicker as if heavy rain landing on leaves. With the sudden cease of recitation, Lin Li’s brows relaxed, and a smile spread on his face. Lin Li could clearly feel that his comprehension of magic was deepened, which was brought by the resolution of one problem. He could vaguely sense that his true realm was close to level-21 now.
The next morning, William came to the castle and personally invited Lin Li and his companions to attend the auction.
When Lin Li’s carriage had reached the City Square of Roland City, the entire square was filled with all kinds of luxurious carriages. Although the carriages varied in design, they were arranged in an orderly manner, and didn’t seem messy despite the large number. Perhaps it was due to the tendency for people to compare with others. Even for a vehicle, the carriages were luxuriously decorated. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that a gem taken from any carriage would be enough to support an ordinary person for a lifetime.
However, Lin Li’s carriage didn’t stop there, and drove directly into the courtyard behind the Elven Theater. There were already some carriages stopped there, and they appeared much humbler than those outside. However, after some inspection, Lin Li knew that they were more expensive than the ones outside which were adorned with gems.
To ask an Inscriber to inscribe mageweath for a horse-carriage wasn’t something that could be achieved with money alone. One needed to have sufficiently high status and power so that the Inscriber wouldn’t feel insulted. Among these carriages, Lin Li saw one that made use of Alchemy Arrays and even one that used magic gears. If the carriages outside were completing for money, then these carriages in the courtyard were competing for status.
1However, those mageweaths that the carriages used were too rough and rudimentary for Lin Li. The purpose of these mageweaths and Alchemy Arrays was no more than making the carriage more comfortable and less drowsy, or adding some defensive properties. The carriage that used magic gears, however—if it could even be considered a carriage, since it didn’t even need to be driven by horses—made Lin Li think of cars which existed before he traveled to Anril. Unfortunately, it looked too unsightly, just like a plus-sized box.
“The owner of this carriage is Prince Hilary of the Ledin Kingdom. Prince Hilary’s greatest interest was to find and recover lost technologies from the Dark Age. If President Felic is interested, I can help to introduce you to him,” William suggested upon seeing Lin Li looking at the ugliest carriage.
Lin Li smiled and shook his head. This kind of introduction was rather meaningless. That Prince Hilary could greet him a bit because of William’s introduction at most and forget who Lin Li was immediately after. Moreover, it wasn’t necessary, as Lin Li wouldn’t need to deal with the Ledin royals for a long time to come.
Even in the unlikely case that Lin Li had to deal with them, he still had Englos and Sendros. Lin Li could always ask them to introduce Prince Hilary to him when necessary…