Chapter 81
Reencounter with Perrault
"Did you know Angela returned to the School?"
Tom's smile faded as he replied, "She's been back for a while now. I saw her a couple of days ago."
Upon hearing this, Matthew frowned and fell into thought.
These past few days, he has been immersed in various studies, and his days have been peaceful and uneventful.
He found it strange that Angela had returned to the school long ago, but hadn't made any moves.
That's fine, though. Since the other party hasn't come looking for him, he won't make any rash moves.
Matthew suppressed his doubts and turned to Tom to ask again.
Do you have any Flame Crystal Dragon blood for sale?
Tom shook his head and replied, "No."
"As far as I know, the Flame Crystal Dragon rarely appears in this area of the Golden West Coast."
Matthew already knew this from the Harrison family's research diary, so it wasn't surprising, but he still asked persistently.
"Do you have any dragon blood derived from the Flame Crystal Dragon for sale?"
Tom thought for a moment and took out a catalog from the counter.
He stuck out his finger, moistened it with saliva, and began to flip through the pages.
His movements were quite skillful, his eyes quickly scanning the catalog.
After a moment, he spoke to Matthew.
"I don't have any blood from the Flame Crystal Dragon-derived Dragon Beast."
"If you need it, I can keep an eye out for it for you."
"But you'd better not get your hopes up too high..."
Matthew sighed helplessly. "That's all we can do."
"By the way, do you sell any knowledge that can increase the speed of mental power growth?"
Tom chuckled and shrugged. "No... I don't have any..."
"As you know, this kind of knowledge can generally only be exchanged for credits within a school."
"Not much of it has been circulated outside..."
"As expected..." Matthew wasn't surprised by Tom's answer; he was just trying his luck.
"It seems we'll have to start from somewhere else..."
Not getting the result he wanted, Matthew didn't linger and turned to leave the Smith family's grocery store.
……
About twenty minutes later...
Matthew arrived at the Tidal School's library.
There weren't many people today, and the library seemed rather deserted.
Without thinking much, he went up the stairs and made his way to the third floor.
Matthew walked up to a bookshelf containing knowledge about spiritual power.
After some searching, he borrowed two books related to mental power.
And so he watched for the entire morning.
"It still doesn't work..."
Knowledge that can accelerate the growth of mental power is something countless wizard apprentices dream of.
Exchanging for it within the school would cost hundreds of credits, so it's obviously not something you can find by simply flipping through a couple of books.
The most effective way Matthew can think of to improve is to increase his meditation time.
He can only meditate for two hours a day now, which is the shortest duration compared to other intermediate apprentices.
Many apprentices can meditate for three or four hours, and some exceptionally talented ones can even persist for six hours.
The duration of meditation is closely related to the strength of the soul.
The stronger the soul, the longer one can meditate.
Unfortunately, Matthew was not an expert in spiritual studies.
Although he had fused with the bloodline of the Abyssal Dragon, this dragon bloodline could only solve the problem of soul erosion and did not help much in strengthening the soul.
Then Matthew suddenly remembered the mushrooms Angela was cultivating.
They are made from the Whispering Mushrooms of the Winter Realm, and their hallucinogenic components are transformed into pure soul energy through special means.
"These hallucinogenic mushrooms contain such concentrated soul power that if they were used to concoct potions, they would surely increase soul strength..."
But the thought of Angela made Matthew shake his head. "Forget it, let's look for another way..."
He closed the book, glanced around the reading room, and saw groups of apprentices sitting at the tables, each engrossed in their own studies.
He glanced at the sky outside the window again.
The sun is high in the sky; it's midday, and there's still a long time before it gets dark.
Matthew didn't leave immediately; he went back to the bookshelf and looked through the books.
He encountered a problem when applying the oscillation technique to [Meteor Technique 3.0].
That is, when energy oscillates inside a flaming meteorite, it becomes highly random and uncontrollable.
This greatly disrupted the stability of the internal space of the magic, causing the elemental structure to collapse prematurely.
Unless Matthew can control the vibrational direction and trajectory of all energy, witchcraft can not succeed.
However, given his current level of control over magic, it's simply impossible for him to do so.
Therefore, Matthew wanted to embed some space-stabilizing runes inside the fire meteorite to delay the collapse of the elemental structure.
Soon, he borrowed a book called "The Principle of Spatial Rune Stability".
Matthew returned to the reading room and began to peruse the contents of the books.
During this time, he took out paper and pen and occasionally calculated stabilizing techniques on the draft paper.
......
Soon, an afternoon had passed...
The sky was gradually darkening.
Matthew looked up and realized that all the apprentices in the reading room had quietly left, leaving him all alone.
He glanced at the central clock and realized that it was 10 minutes to go until 6 p.m.
"It's almost dark, it's time to go back."
Just as Matthew stood up to pack his things...
He suddenly felt that his surroundings were changing rapidly.
He looked up suddenly and found that all the bookshelves had disappeared.
A huge portrait has been hung on the towering wall at some point.
The painting depicts a handsome young man with silver-white curly hair.
When Matthew came last time, it was completely dark at night, so he couldn't see the contents of the painting clearly.
At the very bottom of the painting is a semi-circular platform with stairs on either side leading up to it.
"What's going on? How did I end up on the 6th floor?"
He glanced at the central clock and realized that it was still 8 minutes until 6 o'clock.
"There's still time..."
Matthew doesn't believe it's an illusion.
He didn't have any contact with anyone in the library.
Just as he frowned, a point of blue light suddenly appeared, transforming into a phantom figure.
A faint, indistinct owl silhouette hung upside down from the railing of the high platform, its claws clasped together.
"Hey, little guy, we meet again!" The owl's beak didn't move at all, but it let out a hoarse hoot.
Matthew was puzzled.
In fact, he had tried to find Pero in the library ever since he exchanged hallucinogenic mushrooms with Milo.
It just didn't appear at the time.
"Lord Pero, why am I here?"
"According to the old ghost stories, you weren't supposed to appear until after 6 o'clock, were you?"
Perrault's shrill voice rang out: "You know that's just a rumor. In fact, I can show up anytime."
"Let's not talk about that anymore. That glass tube of yours really had a powerful aftereffect; one bottle kept me asleep for a full three months!"