The masonry walls of the library at Wis University provided excellent insulation during the winter.
Closing the windows also considerably blocked out the noise from the outside world.
Seated quietly in his office, Ronald had three books on his desk, namely "Konsop Record," "Gred Year Calendar," and "Self-analysis after the Dark Age."
The "Gred Year Calendar" lay open on the desk.
Ronald himself held an old, yellow-paged book in his left hand, while his right finger gently pressed on the words on the page. He had already reached the end of this book, and as he flipped through it, Ronald read the contents in a voice only he could hear:
"This is the twenty-seventh year."
"Stark creatively crafted his own Wheel of Magic Patterns after its formation, which could guide the original power through school marks that gradually spread around the world, surpassing the old techniques—this was the future."
"But is this really okay..."
"We who are growing old, no longer have the strength to personally experience this distant future, I can even feel my body’s ability to hold magic power slipping—no one regrets the end of this era, but..."
"I hope on the road to the future."
"There will still be those who courageously forge the right path."
Ronald leisurely turned the page.
At the end of this ancient book, there was a borrowing record tucked inside. It had been precisely seventy-six years since the last person had read this book.
Ronald subconsciously lamented yet again,
"If no one reads it, doesn’t the existence of a book lose its meaning?"
Feeling somewhat melancholic, he shook his head.
Ronald picked up a brand-new fountain pen on the desk, and delicately, as if afraid of damaging the book’s cover with the nib, he wrote down today’s date following the previous format.
[Year LR417—Month of Penitence—Day 12]
After finishing, he spread open the book to let the ink dry, and slowly leaned back in his chair, then heaved a long sigh:
Although he had only joined the "Scroll Research Society" for just over a week,
As an original holder, he had successfully borrowed numerous books.
They could definitely be called immensely fruitful.
With an information advantage, and given that people on the mystical side were not very interested in historical research, Ronald’s current understanding of these past histories, even if he considered himself an expert, wouldn’t pose too much of a problem.
And from his perspective, he had also deduced some even more interesting things.
Such as the book he had just finished—"Augustus Jonah—Memoirs."
This historical figure, who also lived through the Dark Age, recorded a wealth of precious content in his memoirs.
For instance... the true birth process of school marks.
The school marks of the current world were actually a set of casting rules redefined by Stark using the original texts of his own school as a trade-off, thus broadening the spread of casting abilities, and also to End the Dark Age.
However, the author of the book didn’t describe the specific circumstances of the Dark Age, only occasionally mentioning it obliquely as ’a very dangerous time for humanity.’
Of course, besides that,
Ronald made an even more important discovery.
—During the Dark Age, the effectiveness of all the schools’ spells had abruptly dropped significantly.
Although no one explicitly stated it in the book.
However, by comparing the content of their battle memories, it was evident that everyone who experienced that era encountered the same issue, with no one able to avoid it.
Then, something more interesting happened.
If this world was set during something like the "End of the Age of Spells," its spells should continue to decay or perhaps experience a brief resurgence.
But after comparing a vast amount of data, Ronald Adler was very certain.
Whether it was decay or enhancement, the spells of the casters in this world had remained unchanged from four hundred years ago to the present day.
Thus, the situation was quite simple.
The end of the Dark Age, or something that occurred at that time point, had intervened in the world’s magic permanently.
Referring to how Stark could sacrifice the original texts to swap for the development of school imprints, Ronald now had several hypotheses.
Unfortunately, the meanings in these books were mostly vague, and he could not yet accurately determine what exactly happened during the Dark Age.
Why the end of an era.
Interfered with the mystical effects of spells.
At first glance, this seemed as if human beings, after moving from primitive tribes to feudal eras, suddenly experienced a decline in all previous hunting skills and effects.
"Hmm, let’s leave it at that."
Thinking about these things, Ronald noticed out of the corner of his eye that the ink on the borrowing form had dried.
He then closed the book "Augustus Jonah—Memoirs."
He picked up "Konsop Record" and simultaneously referred to the opened "Gred Year Calendar" for a particular entry.
—[Nine Commandments Secret Society].
In short, this was the biggest discovery of his recent investigations.
The organization that Elva belonged to should be called this name.
An organization that, starting forty years after the end of the Dark Age, began to appear sporadically in records.
According to the information Ronald found, this organization would extend invitations in a highly secretive manner, targeting only the most outstanding casters of the era.
And at the same time, they demonstrated spells of a wide variety and entirely different effect systems. Although it did not mention which original texts the [Nine Commandments Secret Society]possessed, Ronald found content in past battle records that matched the effects of the spells from "Astronomy Master."
After all, these were the records made by someone who had survived battles and lived to write about them.
The details within were even more thorough than what Ronald had experienced.
[This individual from the [Nine Commandments Secret Society]could specify any person or object within their line of sight, forcibly move them along any arc, and even link multiple targets together in coordination, just like the trajectories of celestial bodies in the sky.
And equally dangerous was the sheer force of this spell, completely irresistible.
During a battle, the only option was to protect oneself.]
From this description.
Ronald truly confirmed the source of the attack methods described in "Astronomy Master."
—The Equal Circle System.
This indeed matched an important theory in this book significant on Earth.
By applying it, one could understand.
The force of celestial motions, how could human strength possibly contend?
He continued browsing the books in front of him for more records.
When the time reached past two in the afternoon, Ronald’s office door was knocked, and a young voice immediately rang out from behind it.