Roselle's Thought Experiment

Odys had previously had some ideas about how to act as a Melee Scholar, but he had always felt that he had failed to grasp the crux of the matter.

Roselle's reminder made him suddenly see the light: the core of acting could not be separated from knowledge itself.

When Odys had fought in underground boxing matches before, he had felt that merely fighting others at most counted as acting; there had been no sign whatsoever that his potion was being digested.

Now he finally understood. Fighting only accumulated practical combat experience, while the core of acting lay in considering what knowledge could be gained from combat.

As for what knowledge he could gain, Odys immediately thought of things like martial arts manuals.

After giving it some thought, he realized that although this Beyonder world had many fighting styles, those styles basically only had something akin to a general outline. There were no books that systematically explained combat.

Odys felt that he could try writing such a book, but at the same time, he had to focus on actual combat. The experience and cases gained through battle, as well as reflections on combat, should be the true essence of acting as a Melee Scholar.

With that in mind, he continued reading and turned to the second page of the diary. This page contained an analysis of the Sauron Family, Intis's former Royal Family.

It was clear that when Roselle wrote this diary entry, he had already been preparing to overthrow the Royal Family.

The analysis was quite brilliant, but it was already outdated. The Sauron Family had long since declined, and according to some intelligence Odys had acquired by chance, the family seemed to no longer have any Angels.

At least, none on the surface. Even if they had hidden Angels, their condition probably would not be much better.

The third page was nothing interesting either. It recorded the process of Roselle "inventing" the flush toilet not long after he had transmigrated.

The contents of the fourth page caught Odys's attention again:

June 11

Today, I attended that ancient organization's secret gathering again. I heard one of the members discuss Occult Symbols, and it seemed rather interesting.

That member believed that Occult Symbols should possess greater power, and that Magic Formations should not merely be decorations.

He gave an example. In an Elven "relic" that he had obtained by chance, he discovered an incomplete Magic Formation.

The Occult Symbols used by the Elves were completely different from the currently common symbols. That member replicated the Magic Formation, and even in its incomplete state, an electric current appeared within it.

He guessed that a complete Magic Formation should release a bolt of lightning.

That was quite interesting. If it were a complete Magic Formation, could I use it in place of a generator?

But there was a fatal problem: it needed spiritual energy to be continuously infused into the Magic Formation.

Heh, rather than having a group of Beyonders infuse spiritual energy into a Magic Formation to generate electricity, I might as well directly ask an Ocean Songster to discharge electricity.

However, after hearing my request, that Ocean Songster would most likely strike me with a bolt of lightning.

At the gathering, just as that member lamented how difficult it was to complete the Elves' Magic Formation, other members immediately expressed differing opinions.

Two of their remarks were particularly brilliant and struck at the heart of the matter.

One said, "This is a world centered on Beyonder Characteristics."

Another said, "Magic Formations are inconvenient to carry and can only be used in fixed locations."

Yes, one issue was that any Beyonder Ability in this world could not be separated from Beyonder Characteristics and spiritual energy.

Beyonder Characteristics in particular were essential. Some advanced Magic Formations required the intervention of Beyonder powers before they could display formidable Beyonder Abilities.

As for being inconvenient to carry, that was another fatal shortcoming. Rather than studying a Magic Formation with no hope in sight, it would be better to simply buy a few scrolls from a Scroll Professor.

After reading this diary entry, Odys could not help but sigh. This world did not lack intelligent people! More than a hundred years ago, people had already noticed the broader uses of Magic Formations. It was only that the writing of that era had limited their research.

Thinking of this, Odys smiled knowingly. The reason he had already achieved such profound research in this field was because he possessed an advantage that none of this world's Beyonder scholars had: he understood a pictographic script.

After arriving in this world and conducting research for some time, Odys discovered that this world's Occult Symbols seemed to be an evolved product of a pictographic script.

After conducting some research in that direction, he found that it was indeed so: Occult Symbols were a special type of pictographic script.

The civilizations of the Southern and Northern Continents should also have once used pictographic scripts, but around the Second Epoch, alphabetic writing became mainstream, and pictographic scripts vanished into the river of history.

The evolution and study of Occult Symbols had come to a halt in that era, so Odys tried to further derive Occult Symbols. Sure enough, they could produce better effects.

The process was somewhat like using Simplified Chinese Characters to derive Oracle Bone Script or Bronze Script. Although the process was extremely difficult, Odys could at least follow some traces.

Odys reread the diary's contents. It was said that the Elves came from the Western Continent. The Western Continent should have preserved pictographic scripts, so the Magic Formations used by the Elves should differ from those of the Southern and Northern Continents and were very likely more effective.

He suddenly thought that he could try looking through Knowledge Moor to see whether he could find some Elven writing and Magic Formations.

Continuing onward, the fifth page was nothing interesting either. It was Roselle evaluating the figures of two noble ladies, as well as the process from meeting them to engaging in deep exchanges.

It could not exactly be called uninteresting. It could be read as a novel with flirtatious scenes.

Putting away the diary, Odys planned to submit the five pages to the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery later and get reimbursed for the money he had spent buying the diary.

Then, when the Tarot Club convened, he would submit them again... Or perhaps he could submit them to Mr. Fool in two batches, as thanks for the help Mr. Fool had previously provided.

Odys now had an exceptional memory. As long as he read something once, he would not forget it, so there was no need to copy a backup.

More than twenty minutes later, the carriage arrived at the Backlund Mechanical Research Society. Odys found Max and, in a private reception room, explained his speculation about the suspicious wealthy merchant Blair.

Of course, names like Sharron would not appear in his speculation. He only said that Max had previously told him that a battle had recently taken place within the Rose School at an abandoned West Balam shipyard, which had led him to this conclusion.

Although Odys repeatedly stressed that this was merely a guess based on intuition, Max took it very seriously. Odys's intuition had already helped them thwart the actions of evil secret organizations many times.

Next, Odys also reported that one of their members was investigating Capim.

Max was about to report this intelligence to his superiors when he noticed that Odys had not immediately left, so he asked, "Do you have anything else to add?"

Odys said, "I also received several items that were Emperor Roselle's 'relics.'"

Max understood. "Expense reimbursement."