Books are too expensive, and the public library isn't open to lower-class citizens, so before enrolling, Edrick couldn't even read books to gain some general knowledge. Now that he has student status, Edrick rushed to the school library as soon as he dropped off his luggage in the dormitory, without even meeting his roommates.
This library was similar to those on Earth. Its exterior walls were made of off-white marble, with shallow relief carvings of laurel branches winding along the eaves. Neatly trimmed ivy vines were interspersed with gilded wall lamps, whose lampstands were shaped like the elegant posture of young women holding books.
The five-meter-high dome of the hall was painted with "The Four Seasons of Knowledge." The pages in the hands of the girls symbolizing the stars seemed to be turning. In fact, this was originally a goddess of the zodiac worshipped by the elves of the Zodiac Kingdom, but since the Zodiac Kingdom joined the Luminous Covenant and established the Church of Light as the state religion, the image and symbolic meaning of this goddess had been reshaped.
The black-and-white marble mosaic floor reflects the amber glow of the walnut index stand. The brass turntable is spotless, and a gentle turn produces the smooth sound of gears. Twelve Corinthian columns support the colonnade, with gilded vine patterns on the column shafts echoing the dome's painted designs, and the column capitals adorned with delicate gold leaf.
On the second floor, the walnut bookcases are polished to a shine, leather-bound volumes are neatly arranged, the brass edges are flawless, and the cloth-bound books have fresh covers, even the textbooks are re-bound in linen.
Wrought-iron railings between the bookcases are carved with grapevines, and the gas flames of bronze standing lamps flicker steadily. The reading booths are covered with deep green velvet carpets, each desk equipped with a brass lamp and a newly sharpened goose feather pen.
In the librarian's booth, a silver inkwell next to the gold-embossed register was so shiny it could reflect a person's image. The wooden door to the restricted section had just been waxed, and even the shoe prints on the floor in front of it had been magically erased.
"Restricted section?" Edrick looked at the word on the bronze plaque on the door and was taken aback. "Is it reasonable to set up a restricted section so openly?"
He walked over to look at the notice posted below the bronze plaque, which stated that only students with exceptional academic performance and special contributions to the school were eligible to enter the restricted book area. Additionally, Edrick noticed that the sides of the wooden door were engraved with names, clearly belonging to students who currently held or had previously held access to the restricted book area.
"It seems they consider access to the Forbidden Book Zone a honor..." Edrick understood the school's intentions, but he remained curious about the nature of the so-called "forbidden books" within the zone. He knew that some libraries on Earth also had "Forbidden Book Zones," but those were mostly for politically sensitive or explicit materials. In a world of extraordinary powers, what kind of books would qualify as forbidden?
Were they books that did not conform to the values of the Holy See? Or were they books banned by the royal family? Or were they books that recorded certain forbidden spells?
That was not something Edrick was qualified to know at the moment. The most pressing task at hand was to master some general knowledge. Basic education in Stellaxis was actually quite widespread. Ordinary civilians had to receive primary and secondary education, and only a few outstanding individuals had the opportunity to enter university for higher education.
Of course, the term "ordinary commoners" here refers to the middle class with relatively high incomes, and has nothing to do with the Croft family, who are manual laborers.
Therefore, Edrick's classmates at the university all have at least six years of basic education. Staying here is no easy feat, as the university expels a batch of students with poor grades each semester to ensure that its graduates are the most outstanding talents.
After traveling to this world, Edrick felt that a lot had happened, but it was only now that he was truly exposed to the basic knowledge of the extraordinary powers of this world. Not only did he need knowledge of extraordinary powers, but he also urgently needed knowledge of the history, physics, and chemistry of this world.
Of course, it would be best if he could find information about transmigrators, which he had always been very interested in.
Fundamentals of Junior High School Physics, Essential Knowledge for Aspiring Alchemists, The Seeker's Guide 101, Comprehensive Rune Pronunciation Guide for Beginners, A Thousand-Year History of the Zodiac Dynasty, A General History of Arcanis, Tales of the Extraordinary, The Romantic History of General Leo the Extraordinary, Equipment Compendium of the Three Great Knightly Orders, and so on.
"Publishers... Luminous Pontificate and... Truth Publishing House?" Edrick had a habit of checking the publisher, as the same book published by different publishers would bring slightly different knowledge to readers. He noticed that most of these books were published by Truth Publishing House, but of course, part of the reason was that he deliberately filtered out books published by the Luminous Pontificate.
The entire day, Edrick stayed in the library reading books, except for when he went out to eat a piece of black bread with salted meat. By the way, he could finally eat meat once a day and no longer had to eat that black bread with wood shavings. The taste was still indescribable, but it was much better than before.
Edrick read quickly because he didn't want to study every word in every book, but only wanted to quickly skim through them to gain the basic knowledge he needed.
First, there was the continent. Currently, people only knew of one continent, the Arcanis Continent.
However, due to complex historical reasons, the Arcanis Continent was divided into the Eastern Continent, the Central Continent, the Southern Continent, and the Western Continent. Zodiac was located in the Western Continent, or, according to the countries of the Western Continent themselves, the Free World.
The Southern Continent is known as the Fertile Continent, where resources are abundant but civilization is backward, requiring guidance and development from the Free World. It is also the garden bestowed by the Supreme Lord upon the Free World. The Eastern Continent is called the Chaos Continent because it is a place of chaos and disorder, filled with unbelievers and heretics, destined for destruction...
Edrick glanced at the name of the author of "A General History of Arcanis": Bishop David.
"As expected..."
Most of the countries and ethnic groups in the Free World believed in the Luminous Church, and about 600 years ago, the Luminous Pontificate organized the countries to establish the Luminous Covenant, and all countries that joined the Luminous Covenant must believe in the Luminous Church.
This book, "A General History of Arcanis," should actually be called "The Glorious History of the Luminous Covenant," because its main content starts 600 years ago, and the content before that is very sketchy. It began with two very glorious empires, followed by a long period of war between feudal states similar to the Dark Ages, until the Luminous Covenant was established.
This year is supposedly the 3,610th year of the so-called Fifth Era, but there is very little historical documentation from the previous three thousand years, let alone the four eras before that. Edrick wasn't sure if this was due to the book itself or other factors, but he didn't dwell on it for long, as he would have plenty of opportunities to read other books later. He quickly skipped ahead to the part he was most interested in.
Ethercraft: Most of the physical and chemical laws of this world are similar to those of Earth. The biggest difference between the two worlds is this thing called ether.
On the continent of Arcanis, ether is almost everywhere. This power is the source of extraordinary powers. Through different techniques or tools, humans can use ether to achieve effects that seem like magic to Earthlings.
Ethercraft is very popular, and with just a few years of study, one can acquire the basic knowledge to use it. So, one can imagine that cults are rampant in this world, and in order to combat them, the church has been committed to improving the cognitive abilities and educational level of the people. Therefore, even thugs know what Pathseekers are and the three ranks of Pathseekers (the other two ranks are little known to the public).
According to the different categories of Aether usage, there are many schools of thought, or paths.
Regardless of the path, one must gradually advance from level 1 to level 5.
Level 1 is called Resonant, who can perceive Aether and mobilize aura relatively stably through basic laws, but needs the help of a medium (ritual implements/prayers/totems) to gain the most basic understanding and feelings.
Level 2 is Edict Master, who can stably invoke basic laws through a medium to achieve limited practical functions and can store a small amount of aura by devoting themselves.
Level 3, Weaver, can understand the metaphorical connections between the laws and create new applications, and can temporarily modify the effects of spells to a limited extent.
Level 4, the Transcendent, is known only by name, or requires more advanced texts for further explanation, while Level 5 is not even mentioned by name in this book.
"How mysterious..." Edrick was quite dissatisfied with this. He wanted to know more, such as how the Pathseekers fought.
According to the industrial capabilities of this world, they should have mastered some heat weapons long ago, but Edrick had never seen any guns or cannons, which was not very reasonable.
In "Equipment Compendium of the Three Great Knightly Orders," Edrick saw several relatively primitive handguns, but the book described them as ceremonial equipment.
The reason was simple: they were not powerful enough, slow to reload, had a short range, were expensive, and were useless.
Edrick looked at this description and couldn't figure it out.
"The Pathseekers are so powerful, yet they don't even like guns? Or is there some other factor restricting the development of guns?" The picture showed a beautifully crafted flintlock gun, but other than that, there was nothing else to see.
Edrick finally found the answer to his long-standing question in "Tales of the Extraordinary": because saltpeter was so rare, everything related to the development of gunpowder was bound to be expensive and impossible to mass produce. Edrick even suspected that there were no natural saltpeter mines in this world, and the small amount extracted from feces was simply a drop in the bucket.
Saltpeter was an essential ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder.
In comparison, the Pathseekers' battles were more cost-effective. After all, Aether was everywhere.
Currently, there are twelve recognized paths to truth (Edrick glanced at something about wizards, sorcerers, druids, and so on, but he didn't remember all of them).There were also some schools of thought known as fantacy paths. According to the author of "The Seeker's Guide 101," the difference between the two was that the twelve paths led to the truth, while the fantacy paths were just illusions.
It was a very abstract description, and Edrick was a little confused because, based on his usual research and understanding of their functions, these paths all had incredible effects.
"Truth... What is it exactly?" Edrick saw a short description of the path of truth in "The Romantic History of General Leo the Extraordinary," which he definitely did not open because he was hungry or thirsty. It was a line spoken by the protagonist of the romantic history: "... The path of truth? Hmph, those ignorant hypocrites are so afraid that they dare not even mention the names of the gods..."
The gods...
This word itself has a blasphemous meaning in the context of the Holy See, because in the teachings of the Luminous Pontificate, there is only one deity.
Countries like Zodiac, which believed in other deities before joining the Luminous Covenant, demoted their previous deities to messengers or saints after changing their state religion.
"A General History of Arcanis" records that after a certain orc tribe joined the Luminous Covenant, their deities were demoted to saints, but as time passed, the saint's rank became lower and lower, he was mentioned less and less in literature, and eventually he was no longer mentioned at all, disappearing into the long river of history.
"Although elves live longer than humans, I estimate that their belief in the stars will also be forgotten in a few decades,"" Edrick couldn't help but sigh. Come to think of it, he had read a very interesting anecdote in "A Thousand-Year History of the Zodiac Dynasty." When the Zodiac Kingdom was planning to join the Luminous Covenant, a radical sect of Stellarism called the Order of the Stellar Dream actually regarded the bishop of Stellarism as an apostate and broke away from the Stellar Pontificate.
Normally, in a centralized kingdom, a single sect wouldn't be able to stir up much trouble, but the Zodiac Kingdom was still a feudal lord system.
"Feudal lordship!?" Edrick double-checked the text to confirm his understanding. Despite being a nation with a significant level of industrial civilization, Zodiac still adhered to the traditional feudal system where vassals of vassals were not considered direct subjects. Each noble domain even maintained independent taxation and military forces!
In other words, the great elves who owned fiefdoms still had considerable power. This social structure was completely incompatible with the industrial civilization currently displayed in Stellaxis, because the traditional landowner structure was unable to support a huge industrial civilization. In the 18th century, the textiles produced in London in a single day were enough to meet the needs of the entire British Isles.
How big of a market would be needed to absorb the products of so many factories in Stellaxis? Not to mention the raw materials needed from all over the world.
It would be very inefficient for each territory to develop its own industry, so it can be said that the land nobility and industrial civilization are naturally in conflict.
Perhaps this is why some of the land nobles support the group, led by Earl Linen.
The specific details are not recorded in this book, but in the end, Earl Linen and the Order of the Stellar Dream were crushed by the three great knight orders of the Luminous Covenant and became dust in the winds of history.
Earl Linen, a familiar name. After all, Edrick was not a robot with a photographic memory, and he felt that the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it before.