Feeling the intense sounds outside the door, Lyle realized he had become one of Andrey's, and a sense of belonging sprang up within him.
Lyle decided to run over to the gate to join in the excitement.
The repeatedly mentioned Holy Light taboo must definitely be that Mr. Raymond just now.
Lyle was curious about what the so-called ceiling of combat power really looked like.
Sticking closely to the gate, he peeked out his head, not out of fear, but out of concern for his own safety.
Then, he saw it, a shining, golden tortoise shell pressed against the corner of the wall.
It was a large, shimmering phantom shadow; beneath the shield's phantom, a knight in splendid heavy armor knelt on one knee.
He held his head high, and if it wasn't for the shadow of the shield he was holding, one might think he was being knighted rather than being hit.
The dean stood in front of him, holding his staff like a war hammer planted on the ground, holding it like a professional weapons master, the staff now wrapped in a pale blue glow.
"Raymond, you promised me you wouldn't cause trouble at this recruitment event!"
"What I promised was that I wouldn't spread the Lord's glory in the main hall! But this is outside the hall!"
"You little bastard playing word games with me!"
"You old coot, for a college dean, you really don't know how to play word games!"
Lyle saw the dean's staff-holding hand trembling violently, lifting the staff up and down repeatedly.
"Mr. Raymond is at a disadvantage."
"No, it's a stalemate," said the gentleman, who was also watching.
"Mr. Raymond has leaned his shield against the wall, so when the dean hammers down, it's not certain that anything will happen to Raymond, but the dean's castle is sure to have a hole in it."
"Despicable."
"That's Mr. Raymond giving face," the gentleman said, shaking his head as if recalling some dreadful experience. "Mr. Raymond is purely defensive here, not his usual way of fighting. His habit is to attack, faster, fiercer than you, so fierce that you can't bear it."
"So, the dean is actually very strong?"
"The dean is indeed strong; he is a master of Enchantment Studies. But that's not the key point, the key is that the dean has done a favor for Raymond, so Mr. Raymond will only be passively hit when facing the dean."
The new recruits who had been knocked down one by one got up, none of them having sustained any injuries, as Detect Evil was only a detecting Holy Light Technique used to unveil disguises and confirm identities. If judged as evil, a mark would appear above the head. In the gentleman's words, "The souls of those of us who study taboo are inherently a transgression of this era's evil." Although it was unclear why Mr. Raymond's Detect Evil could knock people down, its non-injuring nature allowed it to become part of the welcome ritual of Andrey by default, and aside from the dean's pride, no one was at a loss.
"Let's go, Plague Doctor, no more excitement to see. The dean didn't use his full strength; I had thought he might break a few of Mr. Raymond's bones this time."
Some of the older spectators also left, and from the hissing sounds they made as they left, it was clear they were dissatisfied with the stalemate.
Raymond knocking down recruits, the dean hitting Raymond, the old people watching the dean hit Raymond.
It seemed to have become an excellent tradition at Andrey.
According to the gentleman, this was one of the rare occasions when Mr. Raymond was being beaten, which was also one of the reasons some old folks were relentless in joining the welcome meetings—to see Mr. Raymond, who had once beaten them up, get beaten in return. Otherwise, you might think they had nothing better to do; studying academic subjects wasn't more important than standing idly in the main hall.
"If you observe closely, you will see that there are blue Magic Runes on the dean's staff; that's Deep Sea Pressure Enchantment. The effect, well, is to make the object so heavy that a normal person absolutely cannot lift it."
The pressure of the deep sea, Lyle quickly grasped its meaning—the tremendous natural force capable of tearing apart a living being.
"What you mean, sir, is that this still isn't the dean's full strength?"
"Enchantment Studies, considered a discipline for sublimating matter, enables ordinary things to achieve extraordinary abilities, artificially temporary artifacts. It can temporarily make mundane items immortal, and of course, it's also possible to do so for a long time, even permanently."
"It's like how an enchanted grass leaf can cut through steel."
How? It seems I've heard of this before?
A blade of grass, cutting through the sun, moon, and stars?
"Actually, having stayed in Andrey so long, I've never seen the Dean use his full power," Mr. Gentleman expressed a bit of regret, "But I was fortunate enough to see the Dean's staff, emitting a rainbow of light."
Such a fierce rainbow of colors—unimaginable!
"How powerful is it?"
Lyle noticed that Mr. Gentleman's body clearly shuddered.
"I once had a friend who, taking advantage of the Dean's absence, dared to touch it and, right before my eyes, disappeared. Later on, the Dean replied that he had been shot into outer space and, until Andrey stepped beyond the atmosphere, there was no need to search for him."
Hisss.
True Wood•Dazzling Limited Edition•Space Ripper•Holy Light•Staff!
"Wait, atmosphere?" Lyle seemed to have heard an extraordinary term.
"It's the protective layer of gases surrounding the outermost layer of the Earth. Ah, my mistake, what is Earth, the Plague Doctor might not be clear, to put it simply, the world we live in is a giant sphere..."
Lyle fell into a trance.
The outside world is still in the Middle Ages, and it wasn't until 1519 that Magellan began his circumnavigation—the Middle Ages had only just ended in the 15th century. How impressive must the theocratic powers that suppress you all be?
But the familiar knowledge does feel quite comforting.
"The Plague Doctor has a good capacity for absorbing new knowledge, you might also have a talent in this area, you could consider joining..."
"The Astronomical Society?"
"The Advanced Magic Research Society."
What the heck? Isn't this astronomical knowledge?
"It's one of the branches of the Magic Research Society, a new academic society founded just a hundred years ago."
"At the time, it became famous for proving that the Earth is a sphere."
"May I ask how it was proven?"
"The President of the Magic Research Society at the time planned to enhance the world's magical power and artificially created magic nodes, collaborating with other academy managers. In the corners of human activity, they wove a huge network of magical linkage hubs, commonly known as the Magic Net."
"While adjusting the Magic Net nodes, they discovered through modeling that the Magic Net was structured as a hemisphere in spatial terms. The rest of it is the ocean, which is beyond human reach."
"In other words, the range of human activity formed a closed hemisphere."
"Later, they took another fifty years to establish the Deep Sea Magic Net, proving that the Southern Hemisphere, which is mostly ocean, is also a hemisphere."
"The Earth is a sphere."
"The President of the Magic Research Society gathered a group of contemporaries to form the Advanced Magic Research Society, specifically studying the macro forces of the universe and applying them to magic use."
With magic enlightening the mind, and arcane power uplifting the nation… Lyle saw the severely distorted technology tree, and he was even starting to doubt whether the historical timeline of his original world was correct.
"In short, the field of Advanced Magic Research Society is definitely a revolutionary discipline. Of course, the profoundness of the knowledge within is not something the average person can master."
I understand, I understand—the fear of being beaten by knowledge.