62: Finding gold in the shit

Ronan followed behind Darsi; the winding stairs stretched continuously downward.

Only then did he realize that the 'Second Floor' actually referred to the second basement level.

Students often hurried past them along the way.

They often didn't even spare Ronan and Darsi a glance; only the wind whipped up by their walking ruffled their Academy uniforms, speaking of their frantic haste.

Ronan noticed that for most of these hurried students, the design details and collar colors of their Academy uniforms were a simple white.

A few, however, were green, with slightly different styles.

He recalled the Academy uniform he had been issued; it was also white, just like most of the others.

This was likely a distinction of academic rank within the Arcane Arts Society.

He casually shared this thought with Darsi and received confirmation.

"Yes, my lord. Different academic ranks receive different treatment in the Academy."

"As far as uniforms go, Level 1 is white, while Levels 2 through 5 correspond to green, blue, purple, and orange respectively."

"What about the kind Higgs wears?"

He thought of the white magic robes worn by Higgs and Red Star.

"Those are special Prefabricated Academy Robes, prepared by different colleges for the reserve apprentices they've selected."

Darsi's face was full of yearning.

"Is Higgs also a reserve apprentice? From which college?"

Ronan had assumed that given Higgs's combat power—being able to take on an entire squad alone—he should at least be a formal apprentice of some college.

"Lord Higgs is a reserve apprentice of the Life Department Academy, 'Holy Blood Ring'."

Darsi looked proud by association. "Everyone says Lord Higgs could have become a formal apprentice long ago, but he has other plans."

"What plans?" Ronan asked curiously.

"Uh, I don't know..."

Darsi was clearly speaking from hearsay.

As they walked, they arrived at the Second Floor Area.

The space on the Second Floor was no less grand than the underground plaza from before.

Countless bookshelves were scattered about, filled with books and paper documents of varying thicknesses.

The place was brightly lit, with ample ventilation.

Ronan could even feel the light, refreshing sensation of a breeze brushing against his cheeks; it didn't seem like an underground space at all.

"You mean, all of these are free?" Ronan's breathing hitched slightly, somewhat in disbelief.

"Yes, my lord. For five months, the entire Second Floor Area will be fully open to you."

Darsi nodded, looking at the knowledge on the rows of shelves with eyes full of envy.

When would he be able to gallop through the ocean of knowledge himself...? After leading Ronan, whose eyes were glowing with excitement, through a simple registration at the desk, Darsi departed alone.

Leaving the newly joined student lord to plunge into the magic knowledge section by himself.

"The Past and Present Lives of Magic Power"

"Elementary Elemental Reactions: Supplement"

"A Thousand Applications of Spiritual Power in Practical Combat"

"The Advantages and Future of Ritual Magic"

"What is Arcane"

...Ronan's gaze swept over the rows of books, and he casually pulled out "A Thousand Applications of Spiritual Power in Practical Combat."

It had to be said, the title immediately caught his eye.

His Spiritual Power was far higher than that of mages at the same level; if he could master so many practical applications, his combat strength would surely see a massive boost.

Opening the book, he saw the author's name was "Academic Godhood."

"This book is dedicated to researching the application of Spiritual Power in practical combat, the fruit of the author's painstaking efforts. Below, please follow the author's footsteps to analyze and learn the performance of the application named 'Thousand Kinds' in actual combat..."

Ronan: "?"

Wait, is this right?

He flipped through it in disbelief; the entire book really only talked about a single Spiritual Power application technique called "Thousand Kinds."

Holy shit, where did this clickbaiter come from?

"Academic Godhood"? Buddy, do you even know you're committing academic fraud?

Ronan suddenly had a bad feeling.

He quickly pulled another heavy book from the shelf: "On the Deep Influence of the World Cage on the Evolution of Magic."

Seeing this title, Ronan slapped his forehead and shoved it back onto the shelf without even looking at the author.

Next was "On the Correlation Between Dwarven Brewing and Crustal Movements"; he put it back immediately.

"The Edibility of Goblins and Sashimi Appreciation." What a psycho.

Ronan hurried further back, returning to the position of the first few books that had seemed more reliable.

"The Advantages and Future of Ritual Magic," the author was named "Against the Third Prince."

"The Ritual Magic involved in this book has been practically verified and contains no fiction. Please analyze rationally..."

Seeing the opening, Ronan could immediately feel the rigor of this book; the difference between it and the previous two was like night and day. So he flipped through it.

"A ritual array constructed from one billion Ritual Spells can effectively meet the daily needs of low-level transcendents to invoke magic..."

How many?

One billion Ritual Spells?

This is what you call 'contains no fiction'?

Ronan slammed the heavy book shut.

He looked up at the endless sea of books, feeling slightly dazed.

Even if it's low-level knowledge, this is just too low.

So that's what Higgs meant by 'if you can understand it' and 'you might not find what you want'... I thought it was my problem, but it turns out it's the books' problem!

Since most of the books were worthless, Ronan simply stood up and began to quickly scan the various bookshelves.

First, filter out knowledge related to Necromancers and souls to solve the quantity issue.

Then, verify the content of the relevant knowledge, focusing on the quality issue.

In short, panning for gold in shit.

Consequently, a hurried figure appeared among the dense bookshelves.

Like a scanner, Ronan's eyes flicked back and forth across the books and paper materials on each shelf.

As long as there was potentially relevant content, he would pull it out for later use, ignoring everything else.

This method was fast, all right.

But it was easy to run into other people's unprepared, awkward moments due to his sudden appearances.

A young man holding a pink paper publication, reading with surging blood,

was startled by Ronan's sudden appearance beside him.

"You—what are you doing!"

He hurriedly stuffed the publication back into the shelf.

Seeing a strange face not wearing a uniform, it was clear at a glance that he wasn't from the Academy.

Anger immediately surged in the young man's heart.

"Who let you in here?!"

"Huh?"

Ronan looked up and around, thinking to himself that he hadn't gone to the wrong place... His gaze swept back and forth across the shelf, and he was just about to see that pink publication,

when the young man suddenly stepped forward and said sternly,

"You, get out here!"

He signaled for Ronan to follow and then turned to walk out.

"I suspect you of illegally trespassing into the Second Floor Area..."

"...and of being suspected of stealing precious knowledge..."

To his surprise, Ronan didn't move an inch.

His gaze quickly swept across the shelf in front of him; he shook his head and continued on to the next one.

"Acting all sneaky, I could tell you were up to no good at first glance..."

The young man walked on, lecturing the fellow behind him who had interrupted his appreciation of a 'masterpiece,'

"Fine, since you've tacitly admitted your guilt and are listening intently to my teachings, I'll..."

He turned around only to find the space behind him empty.

After a moment of stunned silence, his face instantly flushed red.

"You motherfucker!"

The young man's Spiritual Power rapidly expanded, and in no time, he had locked onto Ronan's figure.

He dashed to the bookshelf where Ronan was, pulled out a short, thin wooden stick, and shouted while pointing at him,

"You treacherous rat, why don't you surrender?!"

Ronan suddenly sensed that he was being locked onto by an unknown Spiritual Power.

He was about to expand his own Spiritual Power net when a whim struck him, and he remembered the concealment function of the mask of truth.

To avoid drawing attention, he had manually set the shielding level to 0 when entering the Arcane Arts Society, which was essentially an inactive state.

At this moment, he really wanted to know what effect the shielding would have under a Spiritual Power lock.

So, he manually dialed the shielding level to the maximum.

Seeing the other party take an offensive stance, with the energy of a fingertip Ray also rapidly gathering,

he suddenly realized that he seemed to have forgotten to ask Darsi a question.

Does the Arcane Arts Society allow deaths and injuries between students caused by fighting?