Chapter 22: Inscriptions

After class ended Teo headed straight to the library

It has been a long time since Teo went to the library, he wanted to indulge himself silly but he still had something to do first.

On the first floor of the library, the books were divided into 4 different categories.

There were General Information section, it was all about things learned in the two years, from basic plants, to monsters, to different known places within and around the empire, all the general known information. there was also general information relating to elementalist.

Then there was History section, it contained mainly the history of the empire but it also contained information on famous individuals known across the lands, like Rio Hen, or the famous strategist Jade Lui. It also contained other history that was outside the empire, but there was very little of it.

There was also a Production section. Teo didn't go to this section of the library too much, but he had a general understanding of the topics it had. It had topics from farming, to animal herding, to building tools, houses and even techniques in mining and processing elemental stones.

The last section was the Miscellaneous section. It was for the books who were not categorized within the 3 sections. Teo often went to this section the most. They contained several journals of people's travels. After each journey, they would donate their journals to nearby academies. Even students who had to go on their expedition years would leave their journals there for other students to read. There were also books that were so dubious that some thought that these stories were just fantasies. They often contained unexplained phenomenon, unknown monsters, or mysterious places they could not return to once they had come out.

Of course there were other books in the upper floors. It was just that Teo was not allowed. The second floor were for older students. It contained more technical information that could not be brought down. If a blank book was used to copy a book, the book's contents would be automatically erased if they went down to the lower floor.

There were incidents when a student tried to hand copy a book from the second floor. The academy did not care too much about it, because these books were complex and some even extremely long. The books on the second floor would be free to read once students reached the third year so not many saw any value in copying the books. The only reason the academy did not want first and second year students going up to the second floor was so that they could build a solid foundation of knowledge first.

Teo wasn't sure where another array book could possibly be in the library so he went up to a staff member.

"Excuse me, do you know which section has books on arrays?" Teo asked

"Arrays? hmm I'm sorry I don't know what those are"

Teo did not expect the staff member to not what arrays were

The staff member tried to recall if he had heard of it before, then said

"Maybe you should ask the elder over there" the staff member pointed near the entrance.

Teo saw an old man sitting near the entrance. He thought that the elderly old man was just a senior guard, but apparently he is an elder of the library.

"Excuse me elder, do you happen to know where I could find a book about arrays?"

"Hm? Arrays?"

The elder looks at Teo and notices that he was a first year

"Little one, it seems to be that you are a first year. How did you know of arrays?"

A normal first year should not know about arrays. In fact, even older students would've heard of arrays. Arrays were mysterious ancient techniques. They were so mysterious that they could not be completely understood even today. Arrays have been studied by many different scholar but only a small fraction was understood.

'Is it strange for me to know of arrays?'

With some hesitation, Teo replied "I heard a teacher mentioning it once"

Teo thought that in case it was strange, then he should just say he overheard it from someone else. If the elder continued to question him, he could pretend ignorance by saying that he didn't know the person who spoke of it.

"So you've heard it from a teacher, I see"

Seeing that the elder was easily convinced, Teo was relieved

The elder continued "Little one, the books containing information about arrays are on the second floor. But for a first year student like yourself, they are too complicated for you. Even the greatest minds in the empire could only solve a small fraction of it"

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Seeing Teo's disappointed face, the elder continued

"If you really want to know more about arrays, you should start off with something simple first. There is a subject you should look into first, it's called 'inscriptions', it was derived from scholars spending thousands of years of studying arrays. It might prove helpful"

"There is a basic introduction book that should be in the Production section. The person who wrote the book is a faculty member of the academy. He teaches inscriptions available for second year students. He is called Deacon Quin, if you have any questions about the book, maybe you can find him in the central office and ask him"

"Thank you elder" Teo bowed and headed towards the Production section.

...

Although the books within the library was divided into different sections, the books were organized in a chronological order. It took quite some time for Teo to find the book

'Introduction to Inscriptions by Deacon Quin'

Using a blank book, Teo copied it, sat down in the nearby chair and started reading

The booked first introduced the author, Deacon Quin. He was a generalist that worked in the academy that had studied inscriptions since a young age.

The booked moved on to briefly describing what an inscription then talked about the origins of inscriptions.

"Inscription, a method by which we can enchant a weapon with elemental attributes. There are 2 different methods of inscription. They are drawing and engraving. The difference in both method is one uses elemental ink, made from elemental powder, to draw on the inscriptions while the other carves in the inscriptions into the material itself."

Teo continued to read patiently

Both have different advantages and disadvantages. Because of the usage of elemental powder,  the drawing method can easily use the elemental attributes of that powder. The disadvantage is that inscriptions drawn in different elemental ink could not be connected easily. The only method of connection is to use a Qi ink made from Qi stones.

Qi stones are similar to elemental stones, but instead of absorbing elemental energy, they absorbed world Qi. Qi stones were so valuable that they can be even used in place of currency.

There were different grades of Qi stones, the grade of the stone is determined by the purity of the stone. A low grade had at least 50% purity, a medium grade at least 70% purity and a high grade had at least 90% purity. Qi stones that had less than 50% were under grade stones. Instead of using them as currency, people often refined them and make a more purer stone.

The price of a low grade Qi stone was around 100 gold coins, so using Qi ink to connect inscriptions with different elements was very expensive. Because of this, most inscriber tend to use the same elemental ink throughout the material, or not connect them at all.

The method of engraving do not use elemental ink because the materials being carved all had elemental properties already. Elemental powder is usually mixed in when these materials so it was unnecessary to use elemental ink.

In this process of inscription, it was absolutely tabooed to mix more than one type of elemental powder into a single material. This is because elemental powder themselves are made from elemental stones that absolutely rejects other surrounding elemental energies. The effectiveness of the inscription would lessen and often times even explode.

Qi stones could also be turned into powder and be used in a similar way, but it was too expensive to make, and only rich families and factions could afford such materials.

There was also a matter of durability. Inscription by way of drawing was less durable than that of engraving. Drawing inscriptions that had special drying method that kept the inscription from fading, but if it was hit by a strong enough force, the inscription would become damaged. A damaged inscription would no longer function, but a drawn inscription can easily be fixed. An engraved inscription was less susceptible to damage, but once they are damaged it was more difficult to repair.

The book continued on the history of inscriptions, from its discovery to its study. Apparently, it was also Rio Hen who discovered inscriptions but it took a very long time for it to be developed to what it is now today.