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Ferryman grinned. "Xelloss Astar, the famous playwright who have already produced six popular operas in Sturk."

He did not avoid the boatman paddling in the front, since the boatman was also one of the core members of the Congress of Magic in Sturk.

"He’s a sorcerer as well?" asked Lucien. Astar’s identity for disguise was basically the same as his own.

"Yes, he is." Ferryman nodded and said in respect, "He is a Shadow Mentor."

"Mentor?" Lucien was surprised.

In the ancient magic empire, anyone who could be respected as a mentor would be at least a senior-rank mage.

"Of course. Although I’m not sure about Mr. Astar’s specific level, without doubt, he’s of senior rank. Actually, we have a couple of senior-rank mages in Sturk, but some of them are out of town right now, and they would rarely carry out tasks themselves," explained Ferryman.

"The more powerful the congress is, the more secure I feel," answered Lucien honestly. Ferryman’s words also verified Rhine’s comment on the Congress of Magic that it was growing strong very fast.

Moving along the canal, the pointy-headed boat turned at the corner and came to a beautiful and quiet residential area in the city.

...

The boat stopped in front of a big, luxury three-storey house with a spacious garden. Lucien and Ferryman stepped on the stone stairs in front of the property after getting off the boat and came to the gate of the house.

"Tom." The guard standing behind simply greeted Ferryman and opened the iron gate. Obviously, they were acquaintances.

Lucien was somehow expecting a different name for Ferryman, at least more unique than "Tom".

As Tom and Lucien slowly walked through the garden and the lawn, Tom said to Lucien casually, "Tom is a very common name, I know, but my job also does not draw much attention anyway."

"That’s right, but sometimes people take the opposite way, for example, Mr. Astar." Lucien nodded and looked around this place curiously. He saw nothing special yet with this place.

"Mew!" An orange tabby cat suddenly appeared in front of them and spoke to them in a husky voice, "Astar wants you guys to go to the second floor. He’s studying arcana right now and got no time to welcome our new friend."

"Yes... Ms. Mercedes," responded Tom with awe.

Then he introduced the cat to Lucien, "This is Mr. Astar’s familiar... no, partner, Ms. Mercedes."

"Very nice to meet you, Ms. Mercedes," greeted Lucien to the cat politely.

The cat made a short "hum" from her throat to respond, and then elegantly walked into the garden nearby.

Before Tom and Lucien walked into the hall, Lucien looked back and saw that the arrogant cat was jumping around to catch a butterfly. Obviously, she was having fun by herself over there.

"Sometimes animals know better how to enjoy life," said Tom gently and opened the wooden gate.

Lucien turned around and smiled, "But happiness is not everything that a person can enjoy in one’s life."

...

The sunlight made the second floor pretty bright. However, when Lucien was following Tom walking through the corridor, he always somehow felt that this place was covered by shadows, and he had a feeling that this was because of Sun’s Corona he was wearing.

"It’s us, Mr. Astar," said Tom in a low voice as he gently knocked at a black wooden door.

"Come in. The door is unlocked." A husky voice came from behind the door.

Tom pushed the door open carefully and asked Lucien to go in with him.

The first thing that jumped into Lucien’s eyes was the messy wads of paper on the thick gray carpet. And, amazingly, there was a quill writing fast on a piece of white paper on its own, without anyone holding it, and, from time to time, the quill was dipping itself in the ink bottle cheerfully.

But Lucien did not see Mr. Astar.

Seeing that Tom was bending to the ground and picking up the paper wads from the floor to throw them at a trash bin, Lucien hurriedly joined him.

Out of curiosity, Lucien took a quick glance at a paper wad as he picked it up and saw messy formulas and numbers on it.

In order to show his respect, Lucien did not carefully read the paper neither tried to steal it, and, of course, he dare not as well, but he could be certain about was the foundational role of math in arcana study.

"Give me a moment," said the same husky voice coming from every dark corner of the room. Taking a closer look, Lucien saw a silhouette between the curtain and the desk, and, gradually, an elegant black-haired man appeared. At first glance, Lucien thought that the man was only in his early twenties, but later, he thought that the man might be over forty.

The black-haired man was sitting in his armchair and reading a black hard-covered book very carefully. Around him, in the shadow, it seemed like there were countless quills writing and calculating busily. Lucien could not see them clearly.

About ten minutes later, when Tom and Lucien still remained silent, the quill on the desk finished its work and jumped into the quill pot itself, and the shadow quills in the darkness also disappeared completely.

Closing the book, the black-haired man turned to look at them and greeted, "Welcome, our new friend. I’m Astar."

"Great pleasure to meet you, Mr. Astar." Lucien slightly bowed to him. As he was bowing, he saw the name of the book, which was printed in silver ink, Arcana.

Lucien saw the font before, and he got excited and murmured, "Arcana..."

Astar lifted the book a bit and asked, "Have you ever read this before?"

"Yes... but a very old one." Lucien was very curious, "Mr. Astar, is this the latest issue of Arcana? Can I take a look?"

Astar stood up from his armchair and smiled, "What you’ve been studying is the ancient magic system, and hence this might be a bit too much for you. And if you can’t read Arcana, you cannot understand all kinds of new magic structures published in the journal called Magic." Astar pointed at another book on his desk with a Hexagram on it, "However, you’re the only sorcerer in the past ten years who wanted to borrow Arcana from me, and I’m impressed by your thirst for knowledge. So feel free to read it, but don’t feel depressed when you cannot get it."

As he was saying, Astar handed Lucien the book.

And then he turned to Ferryman, "How shall I call our new friend, Tom?"

"Evans... Mr. Evans. A first circle sorcerer," answered Tom, feeling a bit nervous still.

Lucien opened Arcana and glanced at the content page. Immediately, he was shocked, since the title of the first article in this journal was:

"A Special Complex Function that Describes and Calculates Spiritual Power Field".

Lucien never expected that the congress’s study of Complex Functions was this advanced. Although some of the books unlocked in Lucien’s spirit library were about the knowledge of Complex Function, it was too complicated for Lucien to understand since he came from neither math nor physics academic background. Also, Lucien thought that the study progress of the congress might still remain close to that of Earth in the late 18th century or the early 19th century, which mainly focused on calculus, hence he never put too much thought into this field. Lucien realized that he was falling behind and he needed to catch up with the congress as soon as possible.

A complex function was one in which the independent variable and the dependent variable were both complex numbers. Based on the theory of Complex Analysis, many study achievements were made, for example, the measurement of planar field and Riemann Surface. And then, Riemann’s looking into the space curved surface based on Non-Euclidean geometry Theory provided the tool of developing the General Theory of Relativity from Einstein.

Seeing that Lucien was totally shocked, Astar grinned, "Aren’t these articles edge-cutting? Since Mr. Brook, the grand arcanist, found the relation between electricity and magnetism and put forward the concept, Electromagnetic Field, the studies looking into all kinds of ‘fields’ are thriving. And thus many complex functions came out as a tool for us to calculate the intensity of a specific spot in a spiritual power field. And my research interest, Shadow Field, requires a thorough understanding of it."

Lucien nodded. In this world, the need in arcana research accelerated the birth of complex functions, which was different from that of Earth.

"Anyway, talking about those theories to you right now does nothing but greatly confuses you. When you get to Allyn, Evans, the congress will provide you with lots of basic books and materials for learning arcana. And if you have an open mind, you can switch yourself into a sorcerer who believes in the contemporary magic system in about two to three years... It depends on your own effort," continued Astar.

"They just... give the books and materials... for free?" Lucien was concerned that the congress would have extra demanding requests for him just like the Hand of Paleness.

"Just some little requirements... not anything dangerous." Astar assured Lucien, "We hope that sorcerers under middle rank can focus on their own study and grow stronger, and that’s the best pay from you folks to the congress."

Then Astar turned to Ferryman, "Tom, could you show Evans his room on the third floor?"

"Sure." Tom nodded.

"On the third floor, there are a few apprentices with quite good potential living here and learning after me right now. And they’ll be sent to Holm together with you. If you feel not ashamed to learn from apprentices, you can start studying arcana learning from them," said Astar.

Leaving Astar’s study, Lucien and Tom walked to the third floor.