In Sumeru, pretend to be a scholar

"Let's go find Falushan first and pay our respects at the temple gate."

...

Upon arriving at Eros's house, Wang Yan straightened his clothes and then knocked on the door.

After waiting for a while, there was no response from inside the door.

He knocked harder, but there was still no response.

Just as Wang Yan thought there was no one inside and hesitated about whether to come back another day, a series of hurried footsteps approached from afar, and the door was pulled open.

Falushan poked her head out with messy long hair, her eyes were covered with dark circles, and the cuff of her hand that was pulling the door was stained with ink and what looked like engine oil.

"You, why are you wearing a scholar's gown..." She blinked blankly at first, her gaze falling on Wang Yan's brand-new academic gown, then staring at the prominent Intellectualist emblem on his cap for several seconds. "Wait, how long has it been? The exams are over already?"

Wang Yan was speechless for a moment. He wanted to complain, but he held back and bowed, saying, "Senior, the college entrance examination has been over for three days. I received a notice this morning and went to the Shravasti Academy to register my student status and officially become your disciple."

Estelle froze, then slapped her forehead: "Oh... haha! Look at my memory!"

She scratched her hair a little embarrassedly and stepped aside to make way for the doorway: "Come in, come in. I've been working on those ancient mechanism designs these past few days and haven't paid any attention to the dates... I was just thinking of checking your exam results a few days ago, but once I got into the drawings, I forgot everything."

Wang Yan followed her into the house, not paying any attention to this minor issue.

It's quite normal for scholars to become so engrossed in their research that they forget to eat and sleep.

Wang Yan looked around and found that the living room was even more cluttered than when he last came.

The desk was piled high with spread-out drawings, some of which had even slipped to the floor; several half-person-high mechanical skeletons stood in the corner, their parts scattered around; on the display shelf by the window, several models that had been neatly arranged had been moved, leaving empty spaces for gear sets being assembled and a few parts that Wang Yan couldn't recognize...

As Eros quickly gathered the fallen drawings back onto the table, she turned to Wang Yan and smiled, "Sorry, it's a bit messy here..."

Wang Yan shook her head: "It's okay, Professor Falushan, let's talk about the topic directly."

Chapter 47 Words and Runes

"Oh, the topic, yes, the topic."

Estelle realized what was happening and smiled, "Since you've chosen me as your mentor, I'll definitely help you get through your study abroad period as quickly as possible..."

As she was speaking, Wang Yan spoke up to remind her, "Master Falushan, due to some special reasons, I have now skipped [Tiliyesi] and obtained the [Tasata] qualification."

Eros was taken aback, then asked incredulously, "You mean you're already a [Tasata]?"

Wang Yan nodded, took out his student registration certificate, and handed it to Falushan.

Eros didn't take it, but just glanced at it and confirmed that Wang Yan wasn't lying.

The different student records in the Academy have different styles, and she could recognize at a glance that the student record in Wang Yan's hand was the [Tuosato].

As for whether Wang Yan would forge documents, Fa Lushan didn't consider it.

Curiosity made Falushan want to ask Wang Yan how he did it.

But considering this wasn't the place for gossip, Erosan suppressed her curiosity and nodded: "I won't ask how you did it. Since you're already a [Tasita], I'll skip the basic lessons. Besides participating in the regular classes, what else would you like to learn?"

The normal task was the translation work for heritage institutions that Falushan had previously invited Wang Yan to participate in, which she was in charge of.

As she spoke, Falushan searched on the desk for a while, then took out a piece of paper and handed it to Wang Yan.

“This is a summary I compiled earlier. The first part is my area of ​​expertise, and the second part is the knowledge I possess. If you want to learn something that isn’t listed here, just tell me, and I’ll try to find a way to help you,” Erosanne said.

Wang Yan nodded slightly, said nothing, but took the paper and looked at it.

There wasn't much text on the paper; it listed more than a dozen items of varying sizes.

From ancient script analysis to ancient mechanical techniques, from modern architectural design to classical heritage surveying... and even medicine making and geomantic analysis.

Estelle's expertise lies in highly practical projects, and is not limited to the epistemological and philosophical schools.

It can be said that this provides a very secure job.

Any one of her skills, once mastered, would be enough to secure a job at the Academy.

Wang Yan's gaze swept across the area, finally settling on one of them—a wind element rune.

As the holder of the Eye of the Wind God, Erosanne naturally has a very deep understanding of the wind element.

Given his identity as an epistemologist, his mastery of wind element runes is naturally beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Wang Yan's biggest purpose in entering the Order Academy was to acquire a force sufficient to protect himself.

From this perspective, runes that can drive extraordinary power are naturally Wang Yan's first choice.

After pondering this, Wang Yan turned his gaze to Erossan and said, "Master Erossan, I hope to learn wind element runes and mechanism creation from you."

Upon hearing Wang Yan's words, a hint of joy flashed in Falushan's eyes.

Although accepting Wang Yan as a student was partly out of respect for Tina Li and partly because of Wang Yan's terrifying language skills, who wouldn't want to take on a student who could carry on their unique learning?

Wind elemental runes and mechanical magic—aren't those what Valusa excels at?

"Okay, it's decided then. I'll go to the Academy of Teachings tomorrow to confirm my status as a mentor."

Eros said with a smile.

Although Wang Yan has already called her mentor, she hasn't left the house in the past few days, so she hasn't actually taken on any disciples.

However, Wang Yan applied to the Academy of Education to have Erosan as his mentor, and Erosan needs to give a formal reply before the teacher-student relationship will be confirmed.

"Let's not be idle today. Since you've chosen wind element runes and mechanisms, I'll explain these two things to you first."

Perhaps because she hadn't had a truly suitable student in a long time, Falushan was in high spirits and showed no signs of drowsiness from staying up all night to study.

Wang Yan naturally wouldn't refuse, and subconsciously sat up straight, looking at Eros as if in class.

"Let's talk about runes first. What do you think is the biggest difference between runes and text?" Erosanne asked with great interest.

Wang Yan pondered.

In fact, he had thought about this problem several times.

The problem stems from his cheat ability, namely, his mastery of languages.

Why is it that some scripts and languages ​​can also drive extraordinary powers, yet he can read them quickly, such as the language of the abyss, and the script evolved from the [engraved inscription]?

However, some incantations are very slow to read, such as Yin-Yang spells and elemental runes.

Both are carriers of information and both can drive elemental forces, so why is there such a difference?

Wang Yan was completely baffled.

Seeing that Wang Yan had been pondering for a long time but could not give an answer, Eros smiled slightly: "Don't complicate the issue. In my time, the sages of the epistemology school put forward a view that the difference between runes and writing lies in whether they are convenient for daily communication."

Wang Yan: "Hmm? This..."

"Haha, doesn't it seem pretty unreliable?" Erosham laughed, as if she had returned to her time. "After this theory was proposed, many scholars did think it was too frivolous."

"But the sages of the time also gave an answer: the main purpose of runes is to communicate with the gods, mobilize energy, and realize supernatural functions such as blessing, warding off evil, and divination."

“The sage said that it is a kind of ‘technique’ text or image, a medium connecting man with God, man with the energy of the universe.”

"The fundamental function of writing is to record language, transmit information and knowledge, and it is a tool for intelligent life to communicate daily and pass on culture."

Eros paused slightly, giving Wang Yan time to think. After Wang Yan nodded slightly, she continued, "In terms of cognition, the meaning and energy of runes are usually not known or interpreted by the general public, while written language is widely agreed upon and accepted by society, possessing public and normative characteristics, and can be understood and used by everyone through learning."

"This is the difference between writing and runes; it's merely a difference in function and is not affected by supernatural power."

"Some texts are not runes, but they can still drive elemental forces; some runes are not texts, but they can still transmit information."

"To put it more directly, runes and writing are essentially the same thing; it's just that intelligent life has separated them into two concepts during the learning process."

"... "

Erosham delved into the differences and similarities between runes and script.

Wang Yan listened with rapt attention.

The cheat code grants him the ability to quickly master written language and spoken language.

But he always knew what happened, but not why it happened.

Erosan's explanations gradually clarified many of Wang Yan's doubts, and his understanding of runes and scripts gradually deepened.

Most importantly, Wang Yan finally made some guesses about the mechanism of [understanding language].

Abyssal language is powerful and evil, but it is indeed a common language used by some intelligent life forms within the Abyss, so the cheat system quickly deciphered it.

The supernatural power involved in Yin-Yang incantations is naturally not as great as that of Abyss Language, but conceptually it does not belong to language and writing, but rather to runes. However, runes are essentially a language, so the cheat device can analyze them, but very slowly.

Therefore, the function of the "golden finger" should be the concept of language and writing, rather than whether it involves supernatural powers.

Chapter 48 Runes and Mechanisms

After explaining the difference between runes and characters to Wang Yan, Falushan began to explain runes in more detail.

"Since you've chosen the wind element rune, I'll use the most basic [Flow] rune as an example to explain the construction logic of the wind element rune."

As she spoke, her fingertips moved swiftly through the air.

Wang Yan only saw her wrist turn slightly, her fingertips leaving a faint blue light trail, and a simple rune with lines like swirling air appeared out of thin air.

“Wind is an ever-flowing force,” Erosham said briskly, “so [flow] is the core foundation of the wind element rune.”

The runes she drew were [Flow].

Before she finished speaking, she pointed her left index finger in the air, and another rune with sharp lines, [Sharpness], appeared next to [Flow].

The moment the two talismans touched, a bright blue light shone, and a semi-transparent wind blade flew out with a "whoosh," slicing through a piece of scrap paper on the corner of the table. The paper silently split in two and floated to the ground.

"Look, [Flow] plus [Sharpness] equals the most basic [Wind Blade]."

Falusan's movements didn't stop; she clenched her right hand, and another rune with a thick structure and a sense of vibration appeared next to the [Flow] rune.

Then she pushed her palm forward, and a condensed vortex of air shot out, hitting the wooden frame in the corner of the wall, causing the parts on the frame to rattle, but they did not fall apart.

"This is a wind element shockwave, composed of [Flow] and [Impact]."

As she spoke, she withdrew her hand and turned around, her fingertips tapping repeatedly, and different runes such as [Gathering], [Diffusing], and [Swirling] appeared around [Flow].

As she sketched and whispered, the airflow in the room changed accordingly: sometimes it gathered into a fist-sized ball of wind that hovered in mid-air, sometimes it dispersed into a gentle breeze that brushed across the pages of the book, and sometimes it swirled around the pillar, stirring up fine dust—it was truly magical.

Wang Yan watched intently, and subconsciously followed suit, gesturing with his fingers as he tried to trace the trajectory of the [Flowing] runes.

However, no matter how intently he tried to imitate it, his fingertips remained empty, without the slightest trace of wind gathering.

Eros stopped her demonstration, noticed Wang Yan's actions, and smiled knowingly: "You don't have the Eye of God, so you can't directly drive elemental power. But that won't stop you from learning rune construction—once you master the rune rules, you can make mechanisms, inscribe runes on the mechanisms, and then use the energy core of the mechanisms to drive the runes. The effect is about the same."

This is also the most common way for ordinary people to use supernatural powers: by using mechanical tools.

Upon hearing this, Wang Yan stopped gesturing and nodded calmly: "Yes, I will study hard."

Seeing that Wang Yan did not seem disappointed, Falushan nodded in satisfaction.

Often, learning knowledge but not being able to directly apply it can be a blow to one's abilities.

The reaction is even more pronounced when it comes to things like the Eye of God.

Think about it, everyone learns the same things, but the holder of the Eye of God can directly manipulate elemental power, giving you a complete integration of production, education, and research on the spot, while you have to expend energy and use mechanical devices to barely pass on your knowledge.

In comparison, the sense of loss is unimaginable.

Some people even go to extremes to obtain more dangerous powers to directly drive elemental forces, such as... the Abyss, or some kind of buried ancient power.

Therefore, Erosan nodded in satisfaction because she saw that Wang Yan did not show much disappointment.

"That's enough about runes for now. Next, let's talk about mechanisms."

Erosan continued her lecture: "Mechanisms aren't particularly difficult. Simple ones include everyday clocks, trampoline mechanisms in ruins, and even seesaws for children... These all fall under the category of mechanisms. More difficult ones include the Wilderness Mechanisms in Maple Leaf, the Celestial Mechanisms in Liyue, the Elemental Mechanisms in the desert, and the Mysterious Mechanisms in Nata... These are also mechanisms."

"Of course, these mechanical arts are presented in different ways and have different underlying theories, so mastering mechanical arts is more difficult than mastering runic studies."

As Erosham spoke, a hint of pride inevitably crept into her expression, for she was undoubtedly a scholar well-versed in mechanical arts.

There are actually many schools of thought regarding runes, such as primal elemental runes, celestial talismans, Yin-Yang techniques, alchemical runes, and so on.

But in general, no matter how different the runes of different factions are, they all originate from the same source: the most primitive extraordinary runes.

In theory, as long as you master the basic runes of each element, you can deduce the other runes little by little.

However, the underlying logic of mechanical arts is indeed completely different between different schools.

The simplest reason is that different schools of mechanical arts use different energy sources and intelligent modules for driving.

For example, the Yuan Energy Mechanism and the Secret Source Mechanism are two different systems. One relies on Yuan Energy for energy and the intelligent brain module relies on the spirit-suppressing fragments. The other relies on pheromones for energy and the intelligent module relies on the [Engraved Inscription] for editing. Even though they both appear to be autonomous mechanisms, upon closer examination, they are completely different systems.