According to Mafa's memories, this Mason fellow also came from a merchant family. His father was Monchi, the president of one of the seven great chambers of commerce of Thousand Sails City, the Twin Moons chamber of commerce. As a matter of fact, the status of the Twin Moons chamber of commerce was even higher than that of the Flashing Gold chamber of commerce among the seven. After all, the Flashing Gold chamber of commerce had only risen up in the last few decades while the Twin Moons chamber of commerce had already established itself for a millennium, and its true power was far stronger than what it showed.
It was just that the Flashing Gold chamber of commerce had risen too quickly these past decades, outshining the Twin Moons chamber of commerce to the point that almost everyone believed that the number one chamber of commerce in Thousand Sails City was the one headed by the Merlins.
Coincidentally, Mason and Mafa both became Magic Apprentices later on while the two major chambers of commerce were fighting, both openly and covertly. Naturally, many busybodies started comparing the two of them.
But that comparison stopped after a few months.
Because Mason managed to advance and became a mage.
Afterwards, at a meeting of the seven chambers of commerce, Mason found an excuse to ruthlessly teach a lesson to Mafa. As he had just said, he had beaten Mafa's nose into a bloody pulp. That created a large conflict between the two chambers of commerce. If not for Locke Merlin having an accident at sea, who knew what would have happened.
This was definitely not a good memory for Mafa Merlin. It could even be considered a great humiliation. But for Lin Yun, who had witnessed the end of the world, this was really not worthy of his attention. A 9th Rank Magic Apprentice and a 1st Rank Mage that relied on alchemy potions to advance... Lin Yun felt like their struggles were similar to kids playing house.
Thus, Lin Yun didn't even bat an eye and only nodded, expressing his understanding before turning to leave his desk for the first bookshelf in front of him and focusing on what he had been looking for.
Soon, Lin Yun found what he needed, a thick book entitled Noscent History. Lin Yun grabbed it and started slowly flipping through the pages.
Lin Yun was so focused and conscientious in his studying that he didn't even notice that Mason had already come over.
"Tsk tsk tsk, lemme see that... Noscent History? No way, it's really Noscent History, hahahaha! Merlin, you Magic Apprentices are really strange…" As he said this, Mason's laughter grew even more exaggerated. "How much money did your Merlin family spend to send you here? And you don't even cherish this opportunity. This is the Sage Tower's library. Even if you don't understand those books, you can still get some insights from them if you try hard enough. There is no need to put on an act and read children's books. Tsk tsk tsk, Noscent History, I would feel embarrassed for you if people saw you with that cover showing…"
With an exaggerated double take, Mason continued, "Oh right, I forgot to ask, didn't the Flashing Gold chamber of commerce go bankrupt? How could your family still have money? If I were you, I would repay the debts first before spending money. I heard that a few days ago, your uncle Fario took a contract to your house to ask for money. How about I ask my father to lend you some gold for you to repay him first?"
Aft first, Lin Yun didn't pay attention to him, but Mason kept on talking. The more he talked, the more excited he became, as he had no intention of letting Lin Yun off. Lin Yun finally frowned for the third time.
"Manager." Lin Yun's voice wasn't loud, but it echoed for a bit in this peaceful library and seemed abnormally lofty, to the point that many reading mages couldn't help glancing over, some curious, and some annoyed. As for the library manager, a 30-year-old 9th Rank Mage, he slowly came over from a doorway.
"What?" As the manager made his way over, his demeanor showed that he was clearly annoyed. He had chosen to become the manager of the library because this place was quiet, so he could ponder over his work or other issues without being disturbed. But now he was being bothered by two kids in their twenties, so it would be strange if he was in a good mood.
"I would like to file a complaint against Mage Mason here. He is excessively trying to chat me up and has already affected my reading experience. So I hope that the library staff can keep him as far as possible from me."
"Mage Mason, is this the case?" Regardless of the reason, directly disturbing others from reading was absolutely not allowed in the Sage Tower's library. Thus, the 9th Rank Mage looked at Mason with a severe expression.
"No… It's not like that!" Mason was suddenly startled. He had spent a lot of his father's money to be able to enter the Sage Tower's library. It would definitely be too unfair if he was kicked out now because of a few sentences.
'No good, I have to find an excuse.'
Mason glanced at Lin Yun and suddenly thought of a plan, so he kept his voice and expression stable as he pointed at Lin Yun. "I only was suspecting that he had entered the library through improper means and wanted to question him."
"Eh?"
"He simply doesn't have the qualifications to stand here. He is called Mafa Merlin, the son of Locke Merlin of the Flashing Gold chamber of commerce, a 9th Rank Magic Apprentice. If I'm not wrong, only 1st Rank Mages are qualified to enter the Sage Tower's library."
Once these words came out, not to mention the onlookers, even the 9th Rank Mage was taken aback for an instant before turning to Lin Yun and inquiring, "Mister Mafa Merlin, can I take a look at your pass?"
Calling him Mister and not Mage already showed that Mason's words had had some sort of effect.
But that effect instantly disappeared when Lin Yun handed over his pass.
The 9th Rank Mage casually received the pass and then froze, before an appalled expression appeared on his face. Even though he quickly covered it up, when he spoke again, everyone could hear the respect in his words.
"My apologies, Mage Merlin, I'll properly take care of this matter and give you a satisfactory explanation."
After saying that, he respectfully returned the pass with two hands as if it was a treasure.
'You are kidding, the highest privilege pass, and it was issued two days ago, what does that mean? Two days ago, the three big shots issued such a pass in the middle of the night. If the mages of the Sage Tower were to learn that the owner of that pass was wronged by the library manager, I would be the first to suffer.'
"It's not necessary." Lin Yun nodded and put the pass into his pocket, picking up the book about Noscent's history once again.
"Mage Mason, please follow me." On the side, the 9th Rank Mage's face was scarily gloomy. Although the words he used to address Mason seemed very polite, just hearing the sinister tone was enough for Mason to feel a chill.
It was no wonder that the 9th Rank Mage felt so resentful of Mason. He truly had been led into a hole by that bastard. 'You can't just stick to reading when you're in the library? Do you want to cause trouble everywhere? And you even had to provoke someone that alarmed the three big shots. It's fine if you are courting death, but why are you involving me?' As he stewed in his thoughts, the library manager became more and more upset.
"I… I truly only had suspicions…"
As he was being led away by the 9th Rank Mage, Mason was still trying to defend himself. Unfortunately for him, no one wanted to listen to what he was saying anymore...
When those two left the library, Lin Yun had already flipped his way through more than half of Noscent History.
'This was actually a time transmigration of 30,000 years.'
Lin Yun slowly closed the book. He didn't need to look at the rest of the contents. If the history he knew of wasn't wrong, the current period should be shortly after the destruction of the 3rd Dynasty. Mankind had just recently started the era of Plane Colonization, and there were about 30,000 years left until the eventual destruction of Noscent.
This was a truly great era.
Noscent's glorious magic civilization started during the colonization era.
Countless resources passed through the colonies and endlessly flew towards Noscent, the magic civilization expanded at a crazy speed, the power and the ambitions of mages increased accordingly, and the magic system was overturned time and time again. The magic civilization was pushed towards a peak that could never have been imagined before.
All the way up until Noscent's mana was exhausted and the mages that could once be compared to gods fell back to being mortals. The formerly glorious magic civilization dimmed, and the world ended up being swallowed in flames and darkness.
Of course, all this had yet to happen.
Lin Yun put Noscent History back on the shelf and then took a book on the Jide Formula.
From this book, he could see that the Sage Tower truly had a rich collection. Lin Yun had read about the Jide Formula in that decayed library in the end of time. That place had been said to contain the last embers of the magic civilization. The books that could be stored there, even in a corner, were definitely quality books among quality books.
Naturally, the two versions of the Jide Formula had huge differences.
This was normal, since the one that Lin Yun had read about had been refined by countless mages over countless years. It had already been revised close to the point of perfection.
Compared to that, the book in his hands could be considered a semi-finished product at best...
But to Lin Yun, it didn't matter whether it was only semi-finished or not. He knew the perfected Jide Formula so well that even if he had the finalized version in front of him, it would be a bit of review. What Lin Yun wanted to do with this Jide Formula was to judge the magical knowledge of this era and what kind of level it had reached. This would let Lin Yun better understand the period that he was now in.
A book on Noscent's history wasn't enough.
In fact, Lin Yun's only knowledge of this era so far was the point in history that he was currently in.
Nothing could be done about it. There were a lot of useful things in the end of the world, but that definitely didn't include a detailed record of history. In a world where surviving to the next day wasn't certain, who would want to pay attention to what had happened so long ago in the past? In fact, about a hundred years after the mana was exhausted, Noscent's history had been almost completely severed. Lin Yun only knew about some major events that had been passed down by word of mouth through some stories. As for the details, as Lin Yun put it, 'All the conscientious historians died…'
Lin Yun sighed and focused his attention back onto the Jide Formula.