Skeleton King

These days, there is no news from General Arnold of the Dead, and Ace is more like a silent statue in the library.

For a while, with the establishment of Eternal Night City, Ace was somewhat complacent.

How many secrets in the world, he is like listening to a story; how many powerful people in life will prostrate at his feet after death.

Ace was inevitably not affected.

But when it really came to this day, Ace realized that the things he used to have were like lofts in the air, and under the powerful shell was his own weak strength.What he was proud of was brought to him by the Skeleton King and General Arnold. These things belonged to him, but they did not belong to him.

There are no shortcuts in this world. At this time, he can only rely on himself to protect what he cherishes.

At the foot of the Millais Library in the Port of Nice, this is the junction of the Millais Street and the Millais Library, and there is the only bookstore on the Millais Street.Because of the Millais Library, this small bookstore is also well-known in the Port of Nice.

But few people know that this bookstore also plays another important role.

When Ace opened the door of the bookstore, the wind from Millai's street blew in, and the wind chime made a pleasant sound.

There were a few old men in gray robes in the bookstore. They were trembling, or they were arranging the books on the bookshelf, or they were sitting behind the desk reading a book.Ace walked to the desk closest to the door, and there was an old man in gray robe holding a crystal between his eyes and the book, completely using the crystal as a magnifying glass.

Although the crystal looked ordinary, Ace felt the fluctuation of magic on it, which probably came from the magic island alchemy laboratory.

The old man in gray robe noticed Ace walking in front of him, and he raised his head.The old man who can run is very old, the teeth in his mouth are almost gone, he looks like a doll with the appearance of an old man, he panted and asked Ace: "Are you here to buy books?"

Ace: "I'm not here to buy books. I heard that you can sign up for the scholar's exam here."

The gray-robed old man put his crystals in front of his eyes, and he watched Ace carefully.

Ace stood there quietly, without any impatience, letting him watch.

The old man in gray robe sighed: "You are so young. Have you already chosen your future path?"

The gray-robed old man warned: "Knowledge is a process of accumulation. Although the amount of knowledge of a person is not completely linked to his age. But scholars, it is their existence that the progress of the human race is recorded, and it is precisely because of them Humans are different from other races because of the existence of human beings. We can plant, use tools, and do things beyond our physical limits, so we can finally occupy this continent.”

There is a faint aroma of ink in the bookstore.

Ace: "That's why I want to be a scholar. I want to understand why humans are above other races."

The old man in gray robe: "Have you thought about it? There are only three chances in a person's life to take the exam to become a scholar. When you use up these three chances, even if your knowledge is passed down to the two empires, you will not get the Millai book." hall's approval."

Ace said firmly and without hesitation, "I've made up my mind."

Ace put a silver frost shell on the desk, and the old man in gray robe handed Ace a brand new, black quill, and said: "The gate of the bookstore is facing Millais Street, and the back door of the bookstore leads to Millais Street. At the bottom of the mountain in the library, where all the scholars take their exams."

"Those who succeed among them will re-enter the Millais Library as scholars; those who fail among them can also leave the Port of Nice through the streets of Millais."

"All successful people will give up the prosperity and glory of the world. The rest of their lives will be dedicated to advancing the progress of human civilization. They will not inherit titles, marry, or have children."

"The only things they left in this world are their titles and their books."

The gray-robed old man watched as Ace's figure was blocked by layers of bookshelves until he disappeared.

Ace walked past the rows of bookshelves, and soon saw a small wooden door at the back of the bookstore.Ace took a deep breath and opened the door without hesitation.

To Ace's surprise, there are steps leading to the underground behind the door of the bookstore. The steps are extremely uneven, as if they were dug out by hand, and the two sides of the underground passage, like the Millais Library, have no magic lamps. , but half-embedded the silver frost shell inside.Silverfrost shells emit a soft light, illuminating the way to the bottom.

Ace went down the stairs, and he kept walking deep underground.

When Ace walked another corner, his eyes suddenly opened up.

There is a huge square at the bottom of the mountain of Millais Library, which is about the size of two or three football fields in Ace’s previous life university. On top of the square is a semicircular dome with dense silver frost shells hanging on it. Straight to illuminate the square as the day outside.However, this square is not empty. As far as Asim can see, it is full of tables and chairs, and the distance between each table and chair is about enough for five or six people to walk side by side.

At this time, many people were sitting on chairs in this square, with parchment rolls on the table in front of them, and black quills in their hands.Some of them are already gray-haired, and some are just in their prime, but their demeanors are all as serious as the same, and they are all writing like flying.

At this time, a young man walked up to Ace. He was wearing the standard gray robe of the Millais library.

Ace was startled, "This is?"

The young man saw the black quill in Ace's hand. Instead of answering Ace's words, the young man said, "Are you here to take the scholar exam? Come with me."

The young man motioned for Ace to follow him, and then he led Ace to search around the square, and found an unused table and chair for Ace to sit on.In Ace's surprised eyes, the young man took out a stack of parchment scrolls from the space ring. He wrote the time when Ace arrived at the square in the upper left corner, then put the parchment scrolls on Ace's desk and wanted to leave.

Ace quickly stopped him and asked, "What is this?"

Young man: "The content of your exam. Don't try to peek at other people's papers. Your questions are not necessarily the same, and don't write blindly. If you know it, you know it. If you don't know it, you don't know it. The answer will be graded." left a bad impression on academics.”

Seeing that it was the first time for Ace to take the Scholar's exam, the young man explained to him: "There is cleaning agent on the side of the table. During the Scholar's exam, you can't leave your seat, or you will be punished for cheating. If you need anything, you can call me."

Only then did Ace realize that there were two bottles of blue potions hanging on the side of the table, which were the cleaning potions that the young man said.Cleaning potions are similar to purification potions, they are the most basic potions, and ordinary magic apprentices can make them, but they are not as versatile and precious as purification potions.In addition to supplementing nutrition for people, cleaning agents also have the effect of cleaning the surface of the human body and impurities in the body.

Simply put, with cleaning agents, people don't need to eat and drink.Most of the cleaning potions are used to imprison some distinguished people for a long time. Sometimes when soldiers participate in more important battles, the chief will give them a bottle of cleaning potions for them to keep.

Ace needs to use cleaning potion during the exam, and Ace has a vague premonition, "Cleaning potion? How long will this exam last?"

Young man: "There is no time limit."

Ace: "What?"

Seeing that Ace didn't understand, the young man explained: "Scholar's exams have no time limit. There are only so many parchment scrolls, you can leave after ten days after finishing ten days, and twenty days after completing twenty days. If you haven't done it for a hundred days, then you can stay here until one hundred and one days. There are still people who have died here in history, but I don't think you are at your age."

Ace: "..."

Young man: "Any more questions?"

Ace: "No more."

Young man: "Just call me when you decide to hand in the paper." After the young man finished speaking, he turned and left Ace's position, and began to inspect other places in the square.

Since there is no time limit for the exam, Ace did not rush to open the parchment. He looked around the square. There were at least hundreds of people in the square taking the exam at the same time. Eleven or twelve people in gray robes were patrolling, but Ace knew , These people are definitely not scholars, let alone people from the Millais library.

Because they are all magicians, and they are very likely to be magicians from Magic Island.

Ace felt the obvious fluctuation of the magic element in the young man just now. That young man is a first-level magician, and so are the other patrolling people in the square.If the Mi Lai Library has recruited more than a dozen magicians, it still makes sense, but it is very unusual for each of them to have a space ring.

Space rings are definitely a luxury item in the Pansy Empire.For example, Nou, as the heir of Duke Green, only has one space ring in his hand. After the Magic Tower was searched by Bill, Nou never had a second one.

As for the magicians of the Pansy Empire, Ace knew that the Bright Mage of the Georgia Knights had one, which was bestowed by the emperor when he joined the Georgia Knights.Like Mage Gabriel of the Green family, he is already a sixth-level mage, but he doesn't have a space ring.

And in the square under the Millais library, more than a dozen first-level magicians have space rings. Ace can't think of other possibilities except guessing that they came from the magic island.

Ace thought of the Millai Library and the alchemy products that can be seen everywhere on the streets of Millai, and couldn't help guessing the relationship between the Millai Library and the magic island.But Ace didn't think about it for a long time, so he suppressed the doubt first. The most important thing now is the scholar's exam.

The parchment scroll has a total of twenty chapters, which are divided into four parts. The first part is history, including but not limited to the major events in the history of the Pansy Empire and the Finger Empire. The second part is culture. In addition to the investigation of poems and songs, there are also about the architecture and customs of the empire. On the parchment, only the title is given, and there is a large blank space below, presumably for those who want to take the exam Express your opinion.

Each parchment must be filled with at least tens of thousands of words, and a dozen papers must be written in one exam.Ace gasped. He finally understood why some people could stay here for hundreds of days. When encountering fields they didn't understand at all, it was really confusing for many people who aspired to become scholars.

The third part is arithmetic. Ace finally relaxed a little. He had already taught himself advanced mathematics in his previous life, which was higher than the existing arithmetic level in the Millais library.

The fourth part was medicine. Ace was more relaxed. He didn't even read the questions, so he decided that he could give up this part.

Ace frowned, because of Mrs. Caroline's last wish, he started preparing for the scholar's exam very early.But later, due to the establishment of Evernight City, Ace put this matter aside again.

Ace didn't expect that he would come to the Millais library to take the scholar's exam.

And medicine is a part that Ace has not had time to specialize in.