Theron’s steps paused and he looked up. His gaze landing on a familiar Bordeaux: Rowlan.
It was amusing. He was the first person to antagonize Theron in the Imperial Capital, and yet he had been one of the only ones to survive. But it was also because of that that he felt the pressure the most intimately.
That night, Theron had killed a rival of Rowlan’s no more than a few moments after the latter had left the scene. If Theron had thought that killing Rowlan would be more beneficial to him, wouldn’t Rowlan be the one dead, bleeding out in the alley somewhere instead?
The pressure of such thoughts made Rowlan look to Theron as though he was seeing some sort of monster in the flesh.
This was much worse than Moreno. All Moreno had done was kill one Duke Clan member that slighted him. But Theron was caught up in something much worse, and yet here he was, strolling into the most populated location of their school.
The worst part was that it had been announced not long ago that Theron would be representing the First Years in both the academic stream and the military stream.
This was the only thought Theron had when he saw Rowlan, sweeping a glance over him and then looking away.
As far as he knew, Rowlan was a Sect disciple, not an Imperial Academy student. So why was he here?
It was no wonder the tension here was so very high.
Theron ignored those thoughts, though, walking to the receptionist desk. Surprisingly, there wasn’t an attendant or usual librarian there, but rather a young woman who looked youthful enough to be a student. Looking at her uniform, Theron knew that she must have been.
"Hello. I would like to see the directory. This is my first time in the Main Library so I’m not too sure how it’s organized."
The young woman looked up. From the start, her Third Eye had been on Theron, but for some reason, she was pretending to have only just seen him.
Her fingers tapped at her desk, and then a series of magic circles flashed by Theron’s eyes. This lasted for a few seconds before they faded away.
Theron nodded and then walked away, leaving the young woman blinking in silence.
She stood up. "Hey, wait."
Theron stopped and turned back. "Yes, is there something the matter?"
"You helped me answer it quite well, thank you. Apologies, I should have thanked you already. I appreciate your efforts."
After saying this, Theron turned to leave again, but the young woman called out to him once more.
"Yes?" Theron blinked in confusion, this time really wondering what the young lady wanted.
"You’re sure you saw all of that?"
"What was there not to see?"
"That was the entire directory encrypted through—."
"Professor Looge’s Encryption Cipher. I’m aware of it."
"If you’re aware of it, then you should know that unless you have the key or Third Eye evolved to—."
"—Walk while you feel, you won’t be able to see through it?"
The young lady opened her mouth again, but this time her words were caught in her throat.
The Looge Encryption Cipher was a way of bundling large amounts of data into a limited space. The higher up in cultivation you got, the more complicated Runes became, and the more layered magic circles and the formations they formed had to be.
At a certain point, the effort wasn’t worth it. This was where Encryption methods came into being.
For a library of this scale, ironically enough, an Encryption Cipher was overkill. Though there were definitely millions of books here, the name of an author, title, and location weren’t too hard to bundle up.
It could be considered an unnecessary flex on the part of the Main Imperial Academy that they were using such a method at all.
But there was no denying the efficiency of it all nonetheless. This Encryption Cipher not only incorporated those three items, but also a small summary of the book as well.
As for the "walk while you feel" state of Third Eye, it wasn’t a true state, but rather a feeling just as described. It was a level where someone had truly made their Third Eye akin to a Third Eye.
Third Eyes only manifested in Silver Mancy. Compared to other senses people had spent a lifetime getting used to, it took some adjustment. It only made it harder that every time you improved your cultivation, your Third Eye would also change and shift.
Reaching that colloquial "walk while you feel" state was akin to making your Third Eye as thoughtless as every breath you took, not just in deploying it, but also in processing the information it returned to you.
One could imagine Third Eye like an additional view downloaded into your brain. If one lost a real eye, it would take time to get used to the loss in depth perception, or you would have to make up for a much larger blind spot.
With Third Eye, it was , but in reverse, and also hundreds of times more difficult.
A new Silver Mancer having already reached that state… was absolutely ridiculous.
But by the same token, scanning that many complicated and encrypted magic circles with your eyes alone was impossible. Theron had to have used his Third Eye.
But shouldn’t she have sensed his Third Eye if he did?
"You’re lying. You’re lying through your teeth."
Theron raised an eyebrow, half wondering why this woman was so hostile.
"… Are you one of the participants for the gathering?"
The woman was startled for a moment before she shook awake.
"I’m under no obligation to answer that question."
"Mm." Theron nodded. "Well, you’ve done your job already, and I’m under no obligation to continue this conversation with you."
After saying this, Theron turned and left the region, spinning the encryption around in his mind until he found the pieces he wanted to unravel.
The eyes of the young woman behind him widened.
"No! You wait right there!"