Chapter 24 - The Farm in Irttat
Chapter 24: Prisoner of Mirror Lake 10
The content of this magic book was already from five hundred years ago. It had been recopied many times in between, but the content remained basically unchanged word for word.
The reason was simple: the elven race, merfolk, and Irttat's mixed-bloods who preserved it had no one who could study magic. They simply kept it as a type of historical material that could be researched.
On the library shelves, it was placed together with popular science materials like "How Humans Live" and "Research on Human Political Systems," belonging to the type that gathered dust for years,far less popular than books about innate abilities.
Additionally, perhaps because education in the human world had once been uneven, nobles who had mastered reading and writing often felt compelled to display their sophistication in official documents. As a result, this book was written in an excessively ornate and obscure style, filled with long, euphemistic rhetoric that greatly hindered readability.
Lucita practically had to hold her nose to read through it.
Magic also had different schools. The opening of the book introduced the two most popular schools at the time: the Perception School and the Research School.
The Perception School was somewhat similar to the methods long-lived races used for innate abilities and rather tested one's talent.
Some humans were naturally able to perceive and contain elements existing in the magical world layer—the book's author called it the elemental world. Through continuous cultivation and progress, they mastered methods of using elements. But some humans, despite being born into privilege and growing up in the most elite magical education, never grasped it in their entire lives.
The mages of this school were all favorites of the gods.
In the eyes of the Perception School, the elements composing the world were divided into four types: wind (some mages called it air), earth, water, and fire.
Wind element had two mainstream uses: one was lifting oneself to increase speed, the other was creating air currents for attack. There were also obscure uses like creating vacuums. Earth element's mainstream use was controlling plant flourishing and withering by absorbing earth power, belonging to supportive elements... and so on.
The Research School was different. It was a summarizing term.
Some human philosophers without magical perception ability could also master extraordinary power through contemplating and exploring this world's rules. This power's source was knowledge.
In the Research School, two types of magic attracted much pursuit due to their extremely high upper limits: space-time magic and mental magic. They were the most mainstream magic in the Research School and also the first choice for some upper-class people without magical perception talent.
Compared to the hard threshold of talent requirements for perception magic, the Research School's magic seemed to have no threshold, but the actual requirements were even higher—it required knowledge and comprehension.
Space-time magic was created by a famous philosopher, and the founder of mental magic was also a renowned psychiatrist.
Of course, because research magic relied on knowledge, various schools left behind many handed-down works for later generations to study. But knowledge itself was a monopolized resource. Combined with the fact that genius minds were always hard to come by, although there were successive waves of intelligent students wanting to achieve something in research magic, none could surpass their predecessors.
Later research magic fell into an awkward situation. Every time it was almost forgotten, some wise people would comprehend one or two basic spells, brushing up research magic's sense of existence.
Research magic thus continued to exist lukewarmly, like a child's toy under the glory of perception magic.
Beyond these two schools existed something most mages refused to acknowledge as true magic: ritual magic. This magic satisfied one's prayers through sacrificing to divine beings, some were curses, some were blessings.
It required no threshold at all. Even the most ordinary person, even "lowly commoners," as long as they mastered sufficient sacrificial offerings and prayer language and set up the corresponding ritual, could obtain what they wanted from the ritual.
Because this magic had no threshold, it was once the thing mages most despised. This book's author was no exception, using extremely mocking language to describe this "blasphemous," "something-for-nothing foolishness."
But in the end, it was precisely this threshold-free ritual magic that imposed long curses on the other races.
Lucita extended her hand, sensing the various colored light points of the magical world layer.
Were these the elements described in perception magic?
Pale green was wind, deep brown was earth, blue was water, red was fire.
Unfortunately, it would take a long time for Lucita's soul to merge with this world. She could only see some faint light point phantoms. Extending her hand, she couldn't grasp anything.
Occasionally some light points leaked out. After her skin contacted them, it would contain them inside. Her body would have a moment of strangeness, but it passed in an instant, uncatchable.
Trying to use this pitifully sparse element to attempt the basic magic described in the book was simply a pipe dream.
After trying several times, Lucita resentfully lowered her hand.
Lunch was two corn pies prepared in the morning, wrapped in very thick melted cheese sauce, very filling.
After the meal, each drank a pouch of goat’s milk, and they lay down on the grass for an afternoon nap.
Lucita opened the book to cover her face, closed her eyes for a brief rest, then was pushed awake by Violet.
She had woven a golden primrose wreath and placed it on Lucita's head, pressing on her thick black hair like a crown.
Lucita was just smiling when suddenly everything went black before her eyes. She steadied herself against a tree to recover.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
She rubbed her temples, relieving the dizziness in her head.
The next loss of the five senses was coming.
During these days, the elven race gradually settled in the Peace Forest west of Irttat.
Only ten years had passed. Some elves returning to their old haunts could still find their former houses.
The small town became livelier day by day.
Of course, the elves had also developed five hundred years of new civilization. They wouldn't simply take handfuls of silver coins to buy things in town.
They had their own tailors, their own herdsmen, their own scrolls and even libraries.
Because they moved to new homes for spring plowing, Garcia's seed shop was quite busy. From time to time, three to five elves could be seen inside selecting seeds, preparing for the belated spring plowing.
Of course, for elves, late spring plowing wasn't a big deal, they could just stimulate it with life arts.
Elsia's tailor shop had many more elves coming to buy clothes and fabric.
Townspeople and elves were after all not the same race. Their clothing styles were vastly different.
Townspeople's food, clothing, shelter, and transportation leaned more toward humans. Their clothing style was practical, suitable for labor, rarely with embroidery or lace. Of course, Irttat's clothing also had its own advantages, the fabric was tight and thick with great texture, often with many large pockets.
Elven clothing was much more flowing, with gorgeous colors and light fabric. They basically all had either hand-painted or embroidered flower patterns. The most representative were the soft lantern pants in various colors.
Elsia had an elven mother. Growing up steeped in elven culture while living long-term in Irttat, her aesthetics could be said to be all-inclusive, both thick fabric and gorgeous colors. She immediately attracted the newly arrived elves. Their original tailors instead became deserted.
Ida's butcher shop's business also flourished. Elves were all natural hunters. Living in the forest, they didn't need to raise livestock to eat meat. They rarely saw domesticated sheep and geese and praised Ida's mutton and white-cut goose profusely.
At the same time, Mavis's door became deserted.
The elves had too much surplus game. Their arrival not only failed to bring Mavis a market but actually took away part of her market share.
Fortunately, being a hunter wasn't Mavis's only choice. This was even something she'd done to avoid crowds after suffering great changes.
Now Sophia had reunited with her relatives, Mavis had also let go of that tragic past from the war and began interacting with people.
She had received an excellent education. Now she occasionally helped the library copy books and substitute taught at school. Her living standard showed no obvious decline and was actually much more leisurely.
After the elven race came, even Mavis the hunter couldn't continue, let alone Lucita, a novice.
She no longer went to the forest to hunt. Instead, she divided labor with Violet to care for the flock and vegetable garden. The remaining time she went fishing by the river near the mill to the north. Relying on fishing harvests, they managed to barely break even.
After all, they only needed to eat. They didn't even need to buy goat's milk.
Of course, now that they had free time, buying bread again was somewhat extravagant. Lucita slowly learned to bake bread, saving another expense.
Violet was also very interested in cooking. She often began researching cooking with the amazement of "why is it so delicious after mixing?" enthusiastically trying to master this wonderful skill. Every time ended dismally.
Either the whole house filled with black smoke or the whole pot turned to black charcoal.
Facing the third ruined pot, Lucita could bear it no longer and ordered Violet not to step foot in the kitchen again.
While Irttat's products spread to the elven race, the elven race's wind chimes, wood carvings, and some story picture books also began circulating in Irttat again.
Recently, Violet held storybooks about herself every day, reading with great interest while commenting. She even complained that some portraits didn't paint her heroically enough.
Even so, she still couldn't put down various story books.
These story books were all rented. The entire elven race of nearly ten thousand people had only one story book shop.
Parchment scrolls were precious. Usually used to record serious useful knowledge, they were treasured and placed in libraries for everyone to use. They were rarely wasted on things like story books.
Therefore, each story book was unique, circulating in the story book shop, only for rent, not for sale.
Violet even brought them to the grassland to read while herding sheep to finish before the rental period, even lighting sturgeon-eye lamps to read until midnight.
In the gaps between reading story books, she occasionally raised her head with dark circles under her eyes and sighed hypocritically: "This really wears down one's will."
Lucita: "..."
Somehow, Lucita wasn't interested in the story books everyone loved. She vaguely felt she'd read more exciting stories. These were all too clichéd.
By March, the new changes gradually stabilized, and people gradually adapted to the new life.
Lucita's space capacity limit had risen to twenty liters. The most recent maintenance limit could last about ten days. This capacity and time still couldn't replace frost boxes, but now that the elven race had come, Lucita figured out a new market.
Sell to hunters as backpacks.
Lucita had been a hunter herself. Going deep into the forest to live in hunter's cabins far from farmland and crowds, resources couldn't be more scarce, no fresh fruits, vegetables, or food at all, only endless roasted, stewed, and fried meat.
Frost boxes weren't portable. Even if placed in a hunter's cabin, bringing several days' worth of ingredients into the forest wasn't easy.
Moreover, transporting many hunted prey to town was also very hard. One of her spaces could hold one rabbit. Bringing several more was better than nothing.
Lucita calculated and felt this was very promising. She decided to find a carpenter the next day to order a wooden sign to place at the door and start this no-cost business.
She was about to happily go out to buy meat for dinner when, passing through the living room, she suddenly saw the message feather box light up.
Unlike usual messages that extinguished after lighting, this message kept glowing without any sign of going out.
This was an important town notice!
Lucita's gaze sharpened. She stepped forward and opened the box.
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