When he returned home, Bailing was whispering with Lianyi. It seemed they had been waiting in the hall for quite some time.
"Wow, Reilo, you're finally back! Let Mother have a look at your Bubble Technique!"
As soon as he entered, Bailing stood up and eagerly urged Reilo on.
"Okay!"
Reilo knew what Bailing meant: she wanted to show Lianyi his results again. He answered, and as the Energy Magnetic Field fluctuated, he released a Bubble Technique from his palm.
A transparent bubble floated in midair. With Reilo's control, it drifted in front of Lianyi.
Lianyi gazed at the transparent bubble before her with bright eyes, a hint of satisfaction showing on her face. She stroked Bailing's hair, studied the bubble for a moment, then suddenly reached out with her index finger.
"Careful!"
Reilo couldn't help warning her.
A layer of pale blue light enveloped Lianyi's index finger. With a pop, the bubble burst, and Lianyi slowly withdrew her finger.
That layer of light seemed to be the protective coloration of some kind of bioluminescent creature.
"Mm."
Lianyi nodded thoughtfully.
"The energy level is around three to four degrees, and its projectile speed is rather slow. Its advantage is that it's relatively easy to upgrade and evolve."
After analyzing it, Lianyi smiled at Bailing. "Still, as Reilo's basic academic spell, the Bubble Technique is a good choice."
"Of course!"
Bailing looked pleased with herself.
"Never mind poison bubbles. Once Junior finds a Medium Companion and masters a First Order Energy Magnetic Field, he should be able to use the Bubble Technique to fly! Wow! An Enlightenment Scholar with the ability to fly will have an obvious advantage when he takes his graduation assessment!"
Hearing his senior sister's words, Reilo's eyes lit up!
Why had he never considered using a large Bubble Technique to fly through the air?
The Bubble Technique wasn't just for direct attacks!
Night fell.
During dinner, Reilo had told Gubo, Lianyi, and Bailing that he planned to go out to collect specimens. Now he was tidying his room alone, packing the things he would need into his Space Box.
Since the Space Box Shatuo had given him wasn't especially advanced and had limited capacity, Reilo had to arrange everything carefully to leave room for the specimens.
Gubo and Lianyi didn't say much about Reilo's plans to collect specimens.
For scholars, life consisted largely of traveling abroad, aside from the time spent doing research in the laboratory. Since this was Reilo's first trip out and he lacked experience, Bailing, as his senior sister, had simply given him a few extra reminders.
When she learned that Reilo hadn't found anyone to travel with and planned to go out alone on his first specimen-collecting trip, Bailing suggested he visit the Mercenary Association and hire a few E-rank mercenaries.
"Mercenary groups are at least D-rank. They've all paid a registration deposit to the association to guarantee their contracts, which is what lets them accept the association's missions. As for E-rank mercenaries, they're unaffiliated individuals who haven't joined a mercenary group. They can only take odd jobs, so they're practically day laborers. They usually don't cost much."
Bailing said smugly, "Besides, to those mercenaries, we scholars are magicians. We wield supernatural knowledge and power. If you go looking to hire some, they'll be fighting to get the job!"
Reilo took Bailing's advice and decided to visit the Mercenary Association the next day.
Ever since arriving in Saint Grand Fort, Reilo had been studying at the academy and had never left it. He had grown accustomed to spending the quiet hours of the night alone, thinking and studying in peace, silently dissecting experimental specimens, recording his observations in his notebook, and building up his knowledge.
A little while later.
On the tray of the test bench in the corner of Reilo's bedroom, an electric eel specimen was being slowly dissected. Before long, Reilo had begun documenting the secrets of the eel's electrical organs in his notebook, piece by piece.
As a zero-level creature, the electric eel's current was astonishingly powerful for its kind. Its energy level far surpassed that of Reilo's Bubble Technique. An average adult could withstand around ten degrees of energy, while the eel's current had already reached between eight and twelve degrees—enough to kill most adults.
Yet among magical beasts that possessed the same ability to generate electricity, an attack of this strength was no more than a toddler's first steps.
However!
The basic anatomy wasn't the main reason he was dissecting the electric eel this time.
Using the eel, Reilo had secretly conducted the first stage of the Self-Control experiment, testing his ability to control his own muscles. But after only three days, the eel had died of poisoning!
In addition, five of the seven white mice had died one after another after undergoing two rounds of poisoning and antidote experiments. The remaining two were also listless and on the verge of death.
The horrifying results had left Reilo in a cold sweat. He was even less willing to experiment with Self-Control on himself.
"So it really was the poison that killed it."
Reilo had confirmed the electric eel's cause of death: the medicine he had injected into it.
The antidote had worked, but after the second round of poison and antidote injections, the eel had ultimately failed to recover and died. And that had been only the minimum dose of a weak poison.
"Could it be a dosage problem? But I only injected one milligram each time! Or was something else going on? What was special about that old man's body? How did he withstand the side effects of the residual poison?"
Reilo suspected that the old man who had left behind Self-Control must have been extremely powerful when he created it. Only then could his body have endured the side effects of poisoning and detoxification during the first stage.
Before he knew it, Reilo had finished drawing a basic diagram of the electric eel's body. It was already well past midnight.
With another set of dark circles under his eyes, Reilo stretched, as used to it as ever. His bones cracked, and he yawned.
A little while later, Reilo slowly closed the Ice Fire Bird Notebook. As he wiped down the test bench, he thought over the results of the day's dissection.
Self-Control involved knowledge of poisons, a subject Reilo had only just begun to study. Now that his experiments had revealed its dangers, he could only set them aside for the time being. After returning from his specimen-collecting trip, he would go to the Black Widow Potion Shop and learn the relevant knowledge from Merlin.
For now, it was more important to focus on thinking through the future development of the Bubble Technique.
"What is the future of the Bubble Technique?"
Reilo lay in bed, utterly exhausted and seemingly on the verge of falling asleep. But whenever he remembered how helpless and ignorant he had felt when the examining instructor questioned him, sleep eluded him.
It was the first time in Reilo's life that he had suffered from insomnia.
"Ah..."
With a sigh, Reilo slowly sat up. The chilly air did nothing to bother him as he made his way to the window and gazed out at the vast darkness and the glittering Cosmic Starry Sky. Before he knew it, his thoughts had begun to drift.
What was the Cosmic Starry Sky, really?
Was it as the Church proclaimed: that the Creator of Light had created Heaven, and that greedy, foolish people had fallen into the Star Curtain World to seek redemption after opening the Original Sin Box—that the Star Curtain World was a gigantic box?
Or was it as the pioneer White Niven had claimed when he resolutely mounted the Execution by Fire: that the Star Curtain World, like the countless stars in the sky, was a spherical celestial body revolving around the sun; that the sun was the center of the universe; and that the laws governing the celestial bodies of the universe could not be changed even by the Creator God of Light?
The dispute between the Church's grand doctrine and the pioneers' scholarship, the clash between Theology of Light and Natural Science, had reached the level of fundamental truths about the world. Yet Reilo was so insignificant. All he could do was study these tiny natural specimens, insignificant against the long river of life's history, hoping to glimpse some laws of truth, change his life, and earn a little attention from his mentor.
His thoughts in turmoil, Reilo had completely lost the desire to sleep.
He closed the window and crept up to the third floor.
Mentor Gubo and Lianyi should both have gone to bed. Reilo continued climbing the stairs and reached the rooftop garden.
Although Lianyi was also an instructor at the academy, like Shatuo, she was responsible for only a small part of its affairs and therefore had plenty of free time. At home, Mother's favorite pastime was tending the vegetable garden on the roof.
Most of the vegetables in the salads they ate were grown and picked by Lianyi on the rooftop.
The Scholars' Street, once bustling and lively through the night, had fallen quiet under the Church's knight curfew. Standing on the third-floor rooftop, Reilo couldn't help feeling a little empty and lonely, and uncertain about the future.
Hoot, hoot...
An academy guardian owl swept past at low altitude.
The late-night air was cold at this time of year. After standing on the rooftop and breathing in the fresh, chilly air for a while, Reilo silently shook his head and turned to go back to his room. Then he noticed, to his surprise, that the door of the Astrology Hut, usually kept locked, was standing open.
He looked puzzled.
Reilo stopped and walked toward the Astrology Hut, then tentatively called in a low voice, "Mentor?"
"Your mentor's already gone to bed."
The unexpected voice came from Jiahei, who emerged from the wooden hut. A pair of eerie green eyes gleamed in the moonlight, making Reilo jump.
Jiahei crouched in front of Reilo and licked his paw, looking bored.
"Why are you still awake so late? What are you doing on the roof? Looking for an old tomcat like me to chat with?"
"Uh... heh."
Reilo gave an awkward laugh, then glanced curiously at the pitch-black Astrology Hut. "What's inside? Can I go in and have a look?"
Jiahei shot Reilo a glance.
"I'm a cat. My job is to be aloof and eat fish, not to be a dog and guard your mentor's door."
"Haha."
Jiahei's response made Reilo laugh.
Taking that as permission, Reilo eagerly approached the Astrology Hut and peered inside. How did his mentor carry out those astrological studies of his?
But Reilo was disappointed.
There was none of the complicated, advanced experimental equipment he had imagined. The Astrology Hut contained only a cheap crystal lamp, moonlight spilling in through the open skylight, and a simply built telescope extending through the roof window.
"This high-powered telescope dates back to the astronomical age of White Niven. The Church has banned its production now."
Jiahei yawned.
Curious, Reilo walked beneath the telescope and gazed through it at the vast starry sky.
"Wow!"
He couldn't help exclaiming.
In Reilo's field of vision, countless things seemed to flicker faintly in the heights, spread across the night sky like a layer of translucent gauze. Beyond that layer, serving as its backdrop, there seemed to be a world even more vast and indescribable, with no end in sight.
Could this be the Star Curtain shown in the Star Core image—the barrier around the Star Curtain World, or the screen of the Original Sin Box the Church preached about?
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