“Thud.”
The dull sound came from deep inside the house.
Lin Gui instantly became alert. Taking several steps back, he nimbly hid behind Eve.
Eve, who had also grown vigilant, was left dumbfounded and amused by his seamless movement.
She remembered how, when facing Roger's attack back at the church in Blackwater City, Lin Gui had also used Theia as a shield.
Although she knew it was purely a rational decision on his part...
“Mr. Lin Gui, your gentlemanly demeanor... is practically nonexistent,” she sighed softly.
Lin Gui, hiding behind her, did not reply.
He quickly chanted under his breath, casting 【Wind Listening】 while spreading out his magical perception to probe the source of the sound.
...Nothing?
His sensory feedback was completely blank.
Had the wind blown down a piece of rotting wood?
He reached out past Eve's waist, his fingers twitching slightly.
He used 【Levitation】 to gently brush aside the shattered wood and debris scattered on the ground.
At the end of his line of sight, buried in the dust piled in the corner—
...a glass bead lay quietly.
Lin Gui raised an eyebrow.
Under his control, the bead flew into his palm.
It felt warm to the touch and was exceptionally clean.
In these dust-covered ruins, its cleanliness was rather jarring.
He examined it for a moment but found nothing unusual.
He checked the spot where the sound had just come from once more.
There was absolutely nothing special there.
That being the case, a part of the wooden house must have fallen off on its own.
Lin Gui relaxed slightly.
He looked at the bead in his hand.
After a moment of thought, he slipped it into his pocket anyway.
“Let's go. I might have misheard.”
He turned around, preparing to tell Eve to leave.
Just then—
【Ding!】
【Special Commission “Moro Troy's Letter” has been completed.】
【The reward “Long-Distance Random Spatial Teleportation Scroll ×1” has been delivered to your storage space.】
Lin Gui: “?????”
He froze in his tracks, his face a mask of utter bewilderment.
He questioned the system in his mind.
“The mission is complete?! When? I didn't even take the letter out to hand it over to the recipient.”
“I haven't even seen a shadow of the recipient.”
The system remained silent.
Lin Gui pressed again, but his words still sank like a stone into the ocean.
He focused his mind to inspect his 【Storage】 space.
Sure enough, there was an additional ancient scroll floating quietly inside.
He spread his right hand open, and with a thought—
...the scroll appeared in his palm out of thin air.
The scroll was about the length of a forearm.
It was made of some unknown dark silver leather that felt cool and supple to the touch.
Both ends were inlaid with dark, delicate bone clasps.
A very faint, starlight-like shimmer flowed across its surface.
Lin Gui carefully unfastened the bone clasps and slowly unrolled it.
The "runes" inside came into view.
After examining it, Lin Gui furrowed his brow.
None of these characters belonged to the modern mage system.
They weren't even any magic runes he knew of.
Those lines were twisted and ancient, resembling the shadows of living creatures that squirmed and intertwined on their own.
Or perhaps cracks frozen in some shattered space-time.
They were profound and obscure, carrying a chaotic sensation that struck directly at the soul.
He scrutinized them carefully for a long time.
Aside from barely making out a few basic structures for "mana anchors" and "energy channeling," the rest was completely incomprehensible.
Just then, the system's flat notification tone abruptly rang out again.
【Supplementary Note: This magic scroll is time-sensitive. Please be sure to use it within two months, otherwise it will expire.】
Lin Gui was speechless. “...Why didn't you say anything when I asked you just now?”
The system played dead once more, which Lin Gui was already accustomed to.
Aside from the very beginning when it had first bound to him, when it would pop up to exchange a few words,
it now had practically zero presence.
As a mage, Lin Gui naturally knew that scrolls had expiration dates.
But "two months"? That was ridiculously long.
He remembered that even for the lowest-tier novice magic scrolls,
the optimal shelf life rarely exceeded fourteen days.
The higher the magical tier, the more complex the composition.
Consequently, the sealed mana and structure within the scroll became more unstable.
Thus, the preservation time would actually be shorter.
He had once tried to make a scroll for 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】.
It could only be preserved for about seven days.
Putting these doubts aside, Lin Gui stared at the scroll in his hand.
He still found it hard to believe that the mission had been completed just like that.
The entire process was shrouded in a sense of bizarreness.
The letter was still tucked in his pocket, and there was no sign of human presence in the house, yet the mission was instantly completed.
This did not conform to the basic logic of "delivering it into the hands of the recipient."
When he delivered the letter to Rona, it was only considered complete when he handed it directly to her.
As he was frowning in thought, a soft breath brushed against his shoulder.
Eve leaned over, her gaze landing on the unrolled scroll.
A flash of curiosity flickered in her purple eyes first, followed by a slight knit of her slender brows.
“The 'writing' on this...” she said softly, her tone carrying a hint of uncertainty.
“I seem to have... caught a glimpse of similar markings on the remnants of the Holy Church's oldest forbidden documents.”
“Lin Gui, where did you... get this scroll from?”
Lin Gui looked at Eve in surprise.
“You recognize the... writing on this?”
Eve tilted her head slightly, recalling for a moment.
“It wasn't in regular magic or theological texts.”
“It was in the library of the Holy Church's 'Abyss Forbidden Zone,' in a coverless, one-of-a-kind book with pages made of unknown metal sheets.”
She described it, her tone carrying an academic prudence.
“The material of that book resembled a grayish-white, flexible metal.”
“The engravings on it share a certain similar charm with the patterns on your scroll.”
“But it doesn't belong to any currently known religious system.”
“According to the speculations of the old scholars from the Research Institute, it might come from some... ancient divine civilization that was annihilated long ago.”
“The structure of those characters is extremely complex, and they cannot be analyzed through any existing linguistic rules.”
“Therefore, that book is basically ignored, and very few people even know of its existence.”
Lin Gui found it even more bizarre. “Then how did you...”
Eve shrugged, a somewhat bashful yet slightly proud smile appearing on her face.
“The central library of the Holy Church has a total of fifteen thousand four hundred and three volumes.”
“During the seven years of my training as a Saintess candidate while undergoing disciplinary training... I read basically all of them.”
She looked toward the lead-gray clouds hanging over the distant ruins, her voice softening.
“Actually, if I had a choice...”
“My dream would be to become a librarian.”
“It's quiet, nobody disturbs you, and you just organize books and bask in the sun every day. How wonderful.”
She paused, then looked at Lin Gui and asked,
“Are you interested in that book?”
“Yes,” Lin Gui replied straightforwardly.
The 【spatial power】 constitution rewarded by the system gave him the possibility of learning spatial magic.
However, relevant knowledge was almost completely severed in the modern magic system.
Any clue was extremely precious.
Eve smiled, a hint of playfulness in her expression.
“The library of the Holy Church is permanently reinforced and protected by multiple layers of 【Barrier Stones】, and is guarded by divine arts of the archbishop level.”
“To sneak in... is practically impossible.”
Lin Gui was surprised. “Protecting a library with Barrier Stones? How extravagant!”
Eve sighed softly. “Well, that is the number one religion that has plundered the wealth of believers across the entire continent.”
“So,” she pointed at herself, “if you want to see that book, you need the help of someone with sufficient authority within the Holy Church.”
“For example—”
The corners of her lips curved up slightly.
“Me.”
“If you can make your way to Dawn City and find me before the 'Hero's Expedition' begins next year...”
“Or anytime after that.”
“Perhaps I can find a way to take you inside to have a look.”
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