Throne of Magical Arcana Chapter 44: Knowledge is Money

Chapter 44: Knowledge is Money
Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Mercury took out a small box, in which there were three Corpse Mushrooms. One was darker than the other two. She asked politely, “You can take them all if you’re willing to answer my question, sir.”
Corpse Mushroom was required in many magic potions. The average price was about ten Nars. And the darker ones were even more expensive. If they were badly in need, the price could be doubled or even more.
Lucien couldn’t resist the offer. He nodded, “All right.”
Mercury found the article in the journal titled “A New Element Detected by A New Method” and asked, “My question is about the basic elements… The author defines ‘Tai’ which is extracted from sunstones as an element in this article, but I thought only earth, fire, wind and water were basic elements…”
Her voice was slightly trembling, as if she knew that the answer to her question would overthrow all of her previous knowledge about Element magic. In fact, the question was related to the important difference between the ancient and the contemporary magic system.
“Well…” After a while, Lucien finally responded, “Honestly speaking, I’m not sure neither. I studied the ancient magic system like all of you. In the past, I often found conflicts between some theories and my own experiment practices, and thus I started putting more thoughts on it. The reason that I’m able to explain those formula is not because I already have a deep understanding of them, but because many of the corresponding questions have been existing in my mind for a long time, and the article just solved them.”
It was very suspicious that a sorcerer who claimed himself to have nothing to do with the Continental Congress of Magic could understand all of the formula in the article, but Lucien was too excited to realize the fact when he first read the journal. Now he had to restrain himself a bit.
“That’s why I was only explaining the application of the formulas. As for the principles lying behind them, they’re also strange to me.” Lucien continued. He did not want to take even a slight risk of being suspected, “This article showed the process and the result of an experiment, with only a few formulas. I can only share some of my thoughts roughly toward the theories mentioned in it, but I can be wrong.”
“No problem, sir.” Mercury answered firmly, and turned to the other apprentices, “And I want to invite all of you here to join our discussion.”
This kind of instruction could be very expensive. Without the questioner’s permission, others were usually not allowed to listen to it. Important information sometimes would be protected by a special magic called “secret communication” in order to avoid eavesdropping.
“I heard that there has been a longtime discussion between sorcerers and sorceresses on whether the belief of four basic elements of the world is just a myth.” Lucien started analyzing, “Many believe that the real elements should be more abstract, and should be more than just four kinds.”
The other apprentices nodded thoughtfully. Many of them had the same doubt as well when they were conducting magic experiments.
“I’m not sure what are the real elements instead. But from this article, it seems like they have redefined element and found many new ones through different experiments.”
The experiment in this article was an example. The author showed his way to find the new element — By using the 9th circle magic Fire Storm to bombard Sunstone in an enclosed magic circle, the author obtained a beautiful and pure crystal called Tai, which was both more flexible and lighter than Mythril.
Lucien speculated that there was no periodic table of the elements in this world yet. But in this magic world, elements here were probably totally unpredictable.
In order to show the conflict between the ancient element theory and real-life practice, Lucien took a few apprentice element magics for example. After hearing his idea, the rest of the apprentices present were very excited.
“Mr. Professor… I, I believe you’re right! Being explained in this way, many of my experiment questions can be easily solved!” Mercury was very grateful, “Thank you so much, Mr. Professor!”
Hanger, who was standing in the corner all the time, also could hardly conceal his excitement, “Mr. Professor, what about spirit? Is it also composed of certain elements? I don’t have the materials you need, but you can choose anything you want in my bag.”
The other apprentices now held no suspicion of Lucien’s identity. They all firmly believed that Lucien was the most knowledgeable sorcerer they had ever met, and were all eagerly hoping that the great sorcerer could share more of his ideas with them.
Disappointingly, Lucien shook his head, “Sorry, I haven’t dipped into Necromancy, so I cannot answer your question.”
After putting the three Corpse Mushrooms into his pocket and taking Philosopher’s suitcase, Lucien asked, “Do you have extra Corpse Mushroom or Revenant Dust? I want to buy more, or you can ask more questions.”
The brain tissue of the aquatic zombie was enough for about seven to eight experiments, and each of them would consume one Corpse Mushroom. Lucien hoped that he could collect the materials as much as possible.
“Since the church has been keeping an eye on us for a long time and it’s too risky to cultivate the mushroom by ourselves, Corpse Mushroom is very rare these days. Except Mercury, I don’t think other apprentices here would be able to offer you more, Mr. Professor.” Philosopher answered respectfully. He seemed like the leader of the group.
Like White Honey, Philosopher was a member of another two sorcerer groups. But the other sorcerers and sorceresses he had met were all very arrogant. They would only help the other group members who could offer something they really want, or give instructions to their own apprentices. Therefore, he was very grateful for Lucien’s help.
“Compared with Corpse Mushroom, Revenant Dust is even harder to find.” White Honey added, “The formation of revenant requires strong grievance and resentment gathering in a certain way. Although using the blood of some evil creatures can summon revenants, the blood is even more precious than the dust itself; after all, this is Aalto.”
Lucien was kind of disappointed, but he quickly moved on. Later he answered more questions raised by the other group members and got more materials and magic reagents in return. Lucien’s knowledge earned great respect for him among the apprentices.
Besides respect, Lucien also earned a whole set of magic labware, three Corpse Mushroom, many other magic materials and reagents. Just like the saying goes, “Knowledge is Money”.