“Qin Lun, I remember that when you came out of the underground treasury of the Amberry Church, didn’t you also carry some magic crystals and magic cores?” Hill suddenly remembered something and said, “Those things are more valuable. Perhaps they can offset our expenses.”

“En!” After being reminded by Hill, Qin Lun also remembered that he was worried that the gods would pay attention to him, so he didn’t search for too many things in Amberry’s underground stronghold. Apart from a large bag of wealth gold coins, he only brought out a sheepskin scroll, more than a dozen of the best-selling magic crystal cores, and a staff that had been pricked off a magic gem.

The staff had already been given to Hill. After prying off the gemstone, it would not be worth much. Only the magic runes on it were worth studying. On the other hand, those egg-sized pure magic cores were more precious. As for the last parchment scroll, Qin Lun and the others didn’t even recognize the ancient characters on it, so they had long since forgotten about it.

However, perhaps in Candlekeep, this scroll containing ancient texts was the most valuable item.

“Then give it a try!” Qin Lun smiled and took the lead in walking towards the oval mirror door that was rippled with water.

A scene flashed in front of him, and a simple office appeared in front of Qin Lun. This was a spacious study room, surrounded by rows of bookshelves. Strangely, the bookshelves were full of books, and there were no titles on the spines of the books.

In front of the study was a long desk filled with pages and parchment scrolls. A white-bearded Old Mage was behind the desk, immersed in copying something.

Hearing the commotion coming from the water mirror door in the room, he raised his head from the pile of books. However, his gaze was blank, as if his mind had yet to get rid of the thoughts in front of him.

“Dear reader, we are here to request a visitor to Candlekeep!” Qin Lun stroked his chest and bowed.

Before Linda left, she told them to call everyone they saw in Candlekeep “readers.” The “reader” here is not Candlekeep’s reader position, but the collective name of these scholars. Compared to the names of mages and sages, these people preferred to be called “readers”.

“Oh? Oh!” Old Mage’s gaze finally began to focus. He smashed his mouth and looked at Qin Lun and the others in front of him.

“What kind of books do you want to borrow from the Central Library?” Old Mage pinched his eyebrows and asked calmly.

“Readers, we are not here to borrow books, but to borrow the teleportation array of the Candlekeep underground maze.” Qin Lun said respectfully.

“Huh? You came to Candlekeep to borrow the spell formation?” This answer was obviously beyond Old Mage’s expectations. He touched the table and found a pair of monocles to wear. He began to carefully examine Qin Lun and the others. “Humans, Moon Elves, Highland Elves, are you mercenaries? No, let me see, there seems to be something strange about all of you!”

Old Mage took out a set of black cards from the drawer of the table. After shuffling the cards, he took out six cards for six people. He flipped his fingers from right to left and said, “Tree Demon Card, Guardian of the Forest, are you a ranger or druid?”

“I am a forest guardian of the Nature Sect!” Elistine smiled and nodded. Forest guardians were usually self-proclaimed druids.

“Mountain and Aries Card! A powerful Highland Elves doesn’t look like a Mountain Shepherd, so… Northern Harpsichord?” Old Mage pointed at Mustacha and raised his eyebrows. His seemingly turbid gaze was exceptionally sharp.

“The Queen’s Card of Whipping … Lady Lauvita’s follower, hehe, this is really a strange combination!” Old Mage laughed happily. When his gaze landed on the last three cards, he frowned slightly, “Three Marines cards. Strange, you don’t look like mercenaries … Sigh, you’re old, it’s really useless!”

Qin Lun and the others stared at Old Mage’s card. They knew that the identity of the apostle would never be revealed, but their backs were still sweating. This old fellow’s card divination was too divine!

The apostles were, in a sense, mercenaries of the shattered starry sky!

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s not that I want to investigate your secrets. The main reason is that the underground maze in Candlestick is an important place. We can’t let anyone in casually.” Old Mage explained to himself and continued, “Since you know that you are not thieves of books, then borrowing the teleportation array is of course acceptable. However, you should have heard of the rules here before coming to Candlestick, right?”

“Yes, sir. We will pay the appropriate price.” Qin Lun smiled and nodded. He took out more than ten Magic Crystal Cores from his storage space and took two steps forward to put them on Old Mage’s desk.

Old Mage didn’t mind examining them one by one. The entire process was extremely fast. He almost picked up one and immediately put it down. In an instant, he had already finished examining more than ten magic crystal cores.

Qin Lun and Hill exchanged glances and saw the astonishment in each other’s eyes. Originally, they thought that the person Candlekeep had arranged here was only a minor character, but judging from Old Mage’s current performance, there were at least two professions that he had reached the Master level. One was card divination, and the other was appraisal.

To be able to distinguish the occupations and identities of the crowd with such accuracy, it was not enough to rely solely on one’s eyesight. It definitely involved divination techniques from the mysterious domain. To test the magic crystal cores so quickly, one needed a deep appraisal skill, not something that an appraisal master could not do.

After checking the Magic Crystal Cores Qin Lun took out, Old Mage tapped the table with his finger and muttered, “These Magic Crystal Stones are all of good quality. If they are just used as tickets to Candlekeep, then only six of you need them. However, if you want to borrow the teleportation array, I’m afraid there won’t even be enough change.”

Old Mage paused for a moment before continuing to explain, “Long-distance teleportation formations are very costly. Although the teleportation distances vary, the nearest teleportation location requires over a hundred of these magic crystals.”

“More than a hundred …” Everyone looked at each other with a sense of powerlessness in their hearts.

Originally, Qin Lun had thought that if these Magic Crystal Cores weren’t worth enough, he would exchange them for more Magic Crystal Stones from the list of items in the starry sky. However, the number of over a hundred Magic Crystals was simply too exaggerated.

Besides, this wasn’t a direct completion of the epic plot, it was just a teleportation. It wasn’t worth it to spend more than 100,000 broken crystals like this!

“Looks like this is a little embarrassing for you!” Old Mage didn’t seem to be surprised. He smiled and said, “Converting hundreds of magic crystals into gold coins is indeed an astronomical number, but what Candlekeep really cares about is knowledge, not wealth. If you have prepared documents or books that we don’t have here, and can move this old man, then you don’t need a gold coin to borrow the teleportation array!”

“What do you think of this parchment scroll? There are some ancient characters recorded on it, so it should be of great research value!” Qin Lun hesitated for a moment before taking out the ancient sheepskin scroll he had obtained from the Amberry Church and placing it in front of the mage.

“Oh, let me take a look first!” Old Mage pushed his monocles, took the sheepskin scroll, and leaned over to the candle to look.

Looking at Old Mage’s unpredictable old face under the candle, Qin Lun and the others suddenly felt that they were awaiting trial and couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy.

The expression on Old Mage’s face slowly became serious, and he even habitually bit his fingernails. It seemed that the words on the parchment scroll were indeed something he had never seen before, which made Qin Lun and the others who had been observing the scroll breathe a sigh of relief.

After a while, Old Mage finally put down the sheepskin scroll in his hand, but his brows were tightly knitted, and his expression revealed a rare hesitation.

“I can’t tell the value of this scroll!” Old Mage said slowly, “But not because I don’t know what it is, but because its value is hard to measure …”

“Can you read these words?” Qin Lun’s eyes flashed with surprise.

He had obtained this parchment scroll for many days, but no matter how he studied it, he still couldn’t understand the ancient characters on it. This was a very strange phenomenon. One had to know that the Broken Star Sky had thrown Apostle into the alternate space-time world, and the Apostle Soul Seal would often be directly injected into the related languages of the continent from ancient times to the present. As long as it was a text passed down, it could basically be automatically translated.

Words that cannot even be translated by the Apostle Soul Seal are either encrypted or protected by the Laws of the World. Whichever one he deciphered, it would give Qin Lun a certain degree of world exploration.

“This old man can understand, but it’s the same as not understanding!” Old Mage twirled his white beard and said with some distress, “This is an ancient mage’s personal magic notebook, and it belongs to the Netheril Empire. It may contain research results on a certain Netheril scroll.”

“Notes on the Nether Scroll?” Qin Lun and the others were a little surprised.

They knew that not only did the Nether Scroll record numerous forbidden spells, it also extended out a complete set of magical systems. It could be said that this was the third complete magical system independent of the Dragon Language Magic and Elves Magic. It could even break free from the Magical Goddess Misra’s magical web and exist independently.

“Then did you decipher some of the contents?” Qin Lun asked expectantly.

As Apostle, Qin Lun had the Broken Star Sky behind him. He didn’t need to decipher it all. As long as Old Mage could decipher a portion of it, then the sheepskin scroll had no secrets about the Broken Star Sky, just like the secret letter that Mastasia had intercepted in Santalin.

At the same time, it could also give Qin Lun a large amount of world exploration. After all, this had affected the research notes of the Nether Scroll of an era.

“Haha, do you know what a mage’s personal notes are?” Old Mage smiled bitterly and shook his head. Following his explanation, everyone slowly understood.

Every mage was a knowledgeable and wise person. They usually read and write a lot of work. At the same time, in order to protect their research results, they would often create shorthand characters that only they and their apprentices could understand.

If a mage’s achievements were extraordinary, and his mantle was inherited by many apprentices, and his apprentices opened branches and leaves, then a magical faction would be formed, and his privately created shorthand characters would spread.

From ancient times until now, there were many magical factions like the stars. Many people inherited the legacies left behind by some famous mages, and privately created shorthand characters slowly became public. However, there were some Magicians who had lost their inheritance. The personal notes they left behind were like heavenly texts that no one could understand.

The sheepskin scroll Qin Lun had obtained was a connecting link. Some of the shorthand characters were shorthand characters that were widely circulated, and Old Mage could understand them. However, the core of the research, especially the research on the Nether Scroll, had clear personal traces, so Old Mage naturally could not understand it.

Of course, just because Old Mage didn’t understand it didn’t mean that the ancient mage had already cut off his inheritance. Perhaps there were others who could decipher it, so this note was still of some value.