The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 138 Inside and Outside the Academy
The moon elf explained some magical principles to Eric, emphasizing the huge difference between causing destruction directly with magic and the subsequent destruction caused by magic, subtly but directly telling him not to ask such stupid questions again.

As a top-tier archmage, Eric understood her words relatively easily, even though he knew almost nothing about magic.

In short, destroying half of Lutia with magic is not difficult; just set fires everywhere, and the spreading flames will engulf the entire city.
However, to directly create the same destruction using the power of magic itself would require unimaginably high levels of magical and mental strength—Rutia is no small city.

Eric thus realized that Eileen's current growth was not slow, but rather that something had gone wrong on another timeline, forcibly elevating her abilities to a level that did not belong to her, and that Eileen's mental instability was inevitably related to this.

The source of the problem is obvious and can only be Simagu.

In a sense, it really is the teachers' problem...

"Only warriors would ask mages such questions, but mages would never ask warriors how much strength it takes to cut down a towering tree with a single sword strike... Is this a difference in race, or an influence of profession?"

Lydia, still sarcastic and amazed at how the human bloodline suppressed the elven blood in his body, said that she had probably never heard such a question before in three hundred years.

Eric was already numb to it all, and said that if there was nothing else, he would take his leave, as he had other things to do.

"What brings you here?" After her sarcasm, Lydia showed some elder's concern. "I can handle anything related to this academy for you."

Eric then told her that he had come here to find an alchemist, but that the alchemist was not here and he did not know where he had gone.

The Moon Elf said it was a small matter and that her aunt could arrange it.

After learning the alchemist's name, she raised her hand and waved it gently, sending a fireball flying out of the room.

Eric was still watching the trail of the fireball when Lydia asked him what he wanted with the alchemist.

He then went on to explain why he had made this trip.

"New materials developed by alchemists... Human alchemy has indeed become more and more advanced in recent years."

Perhaps because she has lived here for many years and is influenced by the atmosphere, Lydia is quite supportive of alchemy. "Those alchemical products allow people without magical talent to enjoy the convenience of magic... Hmm, no wonder moon elves are generally not interested in it."

She paused, then seemed to remember something. "I heard that more than ten years ago, Agnes apparently captured a group of human alchemists to study something. At first, they weren't happy about it, but in the end, she even destroyed the mage tower... I wonder what the final outcome was."

Eric was stunned.

He remembered Eileen saying that Agnes seemed rather resistant to alchemy.

And this sounds kind of familiar...

A while later, an old mage in his fifties or sixties hurried into Lydia's office. He saw Eric, paused for a moment, and then respectfully told Lydia that the alchemist she was looking for had left and his whereabouts had been confirmed. If needed, he could arrange for someone to bring him back right now.

The moon elf didn't speak, but simply gestured with her chin toward Eric.

He then looked at Eric.

"There's no need to just bring him back..."

Eric still has business to do, and although Lydia's power could force him to agree, there's no need for that. "Can you confirm when he'll be back?"

"Before the day after tomorrow," the old man replied.

It was around the same time that McGinn's neighbor told him.

“I understand. I’ll go to him myself when the time comes,” Eric said.

The old mage responded, then looked at Archmage Lydia, who waved her hand, indicating that he could leave.

He bowed respectfully again, and before leaving, he gave Eric a half-bow, then backed away from the room at the top of the tower.

There was nothing else to do, and Eric prepared to leave.

Lydia then stopped him and gave him a new badge, saying it was the highest-ranking badge in the Star Origin Academy and allowed him to go anywhere.

"Where did that ancient artifact on your chest come from? If I hadn't happened to notice it and was controlling the gargoyle, you would have been thrown out long ago."

Eric paused, glanced down, and asked, "Is this fake?"

“No, it’s true. But even the gargoyles at the gate aren’t as old as it, they don’t recognize it anymore,” Lydia said, then beckoned to Eric to give her the badge.

Eric took off the badge and handed it to the Moon Elf Archmage. She closed her eyes, held it in her hand, and after a while opened her eyes and said, "I admit it now."

Eric took the badge she threw back and bowed his head in thanks.

He glanced at it; the badge itself was unchanged, but some kind of certification must have been added to the gargoyle.

"There are still several months of elves here, and they should have noticed you coming by now."

Lydia looked at him and said, “If you have time, you can go and meet them. Don’t worry about being rejected. No one will be uninterested in Orieta’s children, especially since everyone is running out of years to live… You are half human and half moon elf.”

Eric paused for a moment, then lowered his head and replied, "I understand."

Whether out of his own curiosity or for Eileen's sake, Eric intended to meet the moon elf archmages, especially since they were not far away, all gathered deep within this palace.

With the badge Lydia gave him, he traveled smoothly and visited each place he went.

Almost everyone reacted in the same way: first, they said he looked like his mother, either reminiscing or expressing regret; then they marveled at his almost non-existent magical talent, either mocking or subtly ridiculing him; and finally, they gave him one or two small gifts to show their affection or to make up for his emotional loss.

He received seven or eight badges that were very similar to each other.

In the words of the moon elf archmage he last met, he wore all these badges around his neck, and even if the human professors in the academy didn't kneel to greet him, they would still spend sleepless nights trying to figure out who he was.

Eric felt that Eileen still needed to come and see.

Putting aside the matter of studying magic, the things given by these uncles and aunts alone are a huge gain.

He had no magical talent, so all they gave him were trinkets, but it would definitely be different with Eileen.

You can never have too many babies, right?
After descending from the mage tower, Eric faced the sunlight outside and fiddled with a transparent, marble-sized bead in his hand.

"A gem of the soul..."

In "The Thorn Soul Crown", its main function is to be used to embed weapons.

By absorbing the soul of a monster, the gem acquires corresponding properties, such as life steal upon attack or elemental damage, essentially a unique form of enchantment. The more transparent the gem, the higher its quality, and the higher the conversion rate of these properties.

Eric estimated that the pure, transparent soul gem in his hand could have been exchanged for a top-quality, max-level weapon in his previous life.

In the storyline, this thing's function is closer to its name: absorbing souls.

At the end of the level 90 dungeon, Eileen was defeated and killed. Xinmagu appeared and absorbed her soul using a staff inlaid with soul jewels.

This thing can preserve any soul intact, and it is extremely useful for soul research. Eric himself doesn't need it, but the person he's looking for will probably need it.

"Rusdy is definitely not dead... The question is, where is he hiding now?"

Eric put away the Soul Jewel and walked out. After wandering around Xingyuan Academy for so long, it was getting late, and he prepared to return to the hotel.

He stopped again as he passed through a downward passage.

There is a star, or meteorite, underground in Xingyuan Academy, and the path in front of him is the passage leading to that meteorite.

"have a look."

Contrary to what most people imagine, the underground meteorite at Xingyuan Academy is actually open to the public, and anyone can visit it up close and even touch it personally—provided they can enter the academy.

Eric remembered that in the game, there were always mage NPCs from the academy surrounding the meteorite. They weren't there to study it, but to enjoy "mana draining".

"really……"

Following the passage to the bottom of the cave, a meteorite about one meter wide and nearly two meters long floated half a meter above the ground. A group of mages crowded around it, their hands on the meteorite, their eyes slightly closed, their faces showing an ethereal expression.

It absorbs the magic of the person it touches, which is one of the few known characteristics of this mysterious star.

The process of having magic drained brings an indescribable, subtle pleasure to the person who touches it. This leads to a considerable number of mages in the academy coming over to drain magic when they have nothing else to do, until all the magic is drained, and then they are carried away by someone.

This meteorite has been studied for hundreds of years, and the process has been proven to be mild and harmless, at most affecting the morale of some students. The professors of Xingyuan Academy initially planned to prevent students from becoming addicted to it by adding fences, but these were later dismantled by a group of weak mages using force, and the plan was abandoned.

Eric squeezed into a group of mages. Someone next to him was pushed aside and immediately shoved back in dissatisfaction. After several shoves, Eric remained unmoved.

Eric merely glanced at the weak mage, ignored him, and reached out to touch the meteorite inside.

"hiss……"

The fingertips feel smooth and cool, which is very comfortable. At the moment of touch, a little magic flows down the fingertips, which gives people an indescribable pleasure.

The unexpected first experience was even more intense than his private pleasures with Sophie. Eric's magic was already low, and it was almost depleted in the short time they were in contact. Although being drained of his magic wouldn't really affect him, he quickly withdrew his hand and glanced down at it again.

A mage was sitting on the ground, leaning against his legs. He had obviously been drained of his magic and had passed out from pleasure.

Of course, not everyone is there to enjoy themselves.

Eric saw a mage repeatedly touching the meteorite, as if testing a voltmeter, clearly conducting some kind of research.

However, his face was sometimes deep in thought, and sometimes his eyes rolled back in a daze, making him look quite strange.

"This place is insane..."

Eric squeezed through the crowd, stood outside, and looked again at the floating meteorite.

Even in "The Crown of Thorns," many of the meteorite's secrets remain unrevealed. For example, where did the magical power drained from so many mages over the centuries go? No one knows the answer.

Eric suspected that this was a super power bank that would eventually be filled with magic, and what would happen then—whether it would suddenly explode or open a portal to outer space—only heaven knew.

After staying in the underground cave for a while, Eric prepared to go up.

As he walked up the passage, he saw two thin mages struggling to lift their high-dose companion, so he helped by carrying the man up the stairs.

Once back on the ground, he finally put the monk down.

"Thank you... Which professor are you a student of? Are you new to the college? I've never seen you before."

"I was just passing through."

Eric didn't say much, and turned to walk out of the academy.

As he left along the passageway in front of the palace, the gargoyles on both sides turned to look at him, their fist-sized green eyes faintly glowing. He wondered which moon elf was watching the surveillance from behind.

It was almost evening, but the entrance to Xingyuan Academy was even more bustling than when he had arrived in the afternoon. Both sides of the road were almost completely filled with people setting up stalls, selling all sorts of things, which reminded Eric of the food street in front of his university when he was a student.

The two are similar in nature, since mages also need to eat, but the things sold here are more diverse, not just food.

Eric glanced around and discovered that many of the stalls were actually set up by student mages from Xingyuan Academy, selling the strange and unusual alchemical junk that Eileen loved most, or materials, or spell scrolls and magic rings of varying quality.

He saw many people who looked like merchants picking and choosing in front of the stalls, then offering an incredibly low price to buy the goods, while the stall owners seemed quite pleased with themselves.

"A college student from another world, huh...?"

The alchemical products that are still in Elise's horse bag might very well have come from here.

Eric wandered around for a bit and realized that the money he had on him was enough to buy half a street.

Once these items reach the empire, they command a different price, increasing the cost the further away they are. No wonder merchants are always willing to risk their lives in this chaotic land.

Eric walked by and looked around. At one point, he was suddenly attracted by a somewhat familiar hawking sound and subconsciously glanced in that direction.

"...Molly?"

The voice sounded familiar, and the face looked increasingly familiar. Although there were some differences from the one in the game, it was probably the NPC he knew.

Eric walked over, squatted down in front of the stall, picked up a bottle of black powder (he didn't know what it was) and pretended to examine it, but his gaze was more focused on the female mage's face behind the stall.

He was around twenty years old, with brown skin, long braided hair hanging to one side, and an excessively large mage hat on his head. His green eyes were bright and lively.

Their eyes met, and Eric calmly shook the small bottle in his hand. "How much is this?"

“Fifty silver coins will do,” the female mage said.

...That's right.

Molly is the kind of person who can sell something that costs five silver coins for fifty.

“I have never seen anything on this street that costs more than five silver coins.”

“That’s because they’re stupid.” Molly smiled. “The actual value of this thing is only about fifty silver coins. If we transport it to Lutia, we might be able to sell it for the high price of two Supreme God Gold Coins.”

“But this is Castelfell,” Eric said, knowing full well that the things she was selling weren’t made by her. “Where did you get them from, the west gate of the academy?”

And this is the south gate of the college, just a few steps away.

Molly looked slightly awkward. "Who are you? Buy it if you want, otherwise forget it."

Eric lowered his voice: "You're Molly, right?"

She stared at him for a few moments. "You know me?"

“I know you. I also know you are Rusdy’s student.”

Molly frowned. "Who exactly are you? A friend of the teacher?"

“I wouldn’t say, but I’m looking for him.” Eric pulled out a gold coin. “If you can give me even a little bit of information about his whereabouts, I’ll buy everything here.”

Molly stared at the gold coins, her eyes shining brighter than gold itself. "Are you serious?"

“Absolutely true.” Eric shoved the gold coin into her hand, then pulled out another. “Go ahead and say it.”

"All I know is that a group of alchemists of unknown origin are looking for my teacher. He didn't want to see them, so he went into hiding and has been missing for over a month. He didn't tell me where he went either, because he said I was greedy and that if people knew I was his student, I would definitely be bribed... Ah."

She paused for a moment, finally looking away from the gold coins and turning her gaze back to Eric.

Another group of people are looking for Rusdy?
When I went to see the alchemist Cameron before, he seemed to have mentioned that someone had asked him about Rusdy.

“Don’t worry, I’m not with those people,” Eric said, then thought for a moment, “Didn’t he leave you any way to contact him?”

"No. The teacher said he'll come back once this storm has passed."

Eric sighed, thinking to himself that he had come at an inopportune time.

Rusdy is a master of soul research, unmatched on the entire continent. At present, he seems unremarkable in Castelfel, a place where stars gather. However, in the later versions of "The Crown of Thorns," he is a key figure who changes the mage profession: he directly creates a new sub-profession, the Soul Scholar.

Eric sought him out because he was unaware of Eileen's upbringing and assumed that Agnes's education had gone wrong. He wanted to get in touch with him beforehand so that he could ask him for some guidance later.
Another reason was the concern that Rusti's research in the Northern Demon Realm was related to Sinmag, since the two had known each other since they were apprentice mages.

"Besides me and those alchemists, has anyone else come looking for him?" Eric asked.

Molly shook her head, indicating that there were very few people here who knew she was Rusdy's student, and he was the first to approach her directly.

"Ok."

After asking a few more questions, still without success, Eric glanced at the sky and could only regretfully prepare to leave.

Molly grabbed him. "Didn't you say you were going to buy them all?"

Eric glanced at the various small trinkets on the stall. "Aren't the two gold coins I just gave you enough?"

"Only enough to buy a few items."

"That's calculated based on your selling price, but I'm calculating based on your purchase price. That's more than double the price, isn't it?"

"You can't calculate it like that..."

"I don't want the stuff anymore."

"Then let's settle it this way!" The female mage pushed him away, afraid he would regret it. "Now that you've bought it, let's go, let's go."

Eric rolled his eyes and left.

At dusk, the setting sun is blood-red.

Before returning to the inn, Eric saw a familiar figure in the tavern next door.

He walked over and sat down opposite her.

"Have you eaten yet?"

"not yet."

"Then together."

Elise rested her chin on her hand and yawned.

(End of this chapter)