Angor did not want to give up and leave. To find the Elder of Books, he had spent 700 merit points on teleportation. Leaving now would cause him to waste a lot of money.
Considering how the elder did not notice him at all, Angor moved closer.
The old man did not intend to chase Angor away. Rather, the elder was totally submerged inside his own thoughts without paying any attention to the outside world.
Angor moved to his side and looked at his writing.
Along with some strange pictures, he also saw several rows of disordered formulas on the paper. He did not know what the elder was trying to figure out.
“This is… independent from energy? It can’t be. The Sanmina mana equation worked fine. Or was Sanmina wrong? Or is the equation itself flawed?”
The Elder of Books had been muttering over his work. Now that Angor was close enough, the boy could hear what the old man was saying.
“Maybe Golime’s talent allowed the conversion between mass and energy?”
That… sounded familiar. Angor did not know about “Golime”, but the latter half of his words seemed to be—
“The law of conservation of mass and energy?” Angor muttered along.
“Conservation of mass and energy? Yes, it could be. Maybe mass and energy actually obey a certain law so they aren’t independent. So the Sanmina Mana Equation is right. But… what kind of law?” The elder fell into deep thought again.
“A certain mass always equals to certain energy. Mass and energy move in proportion to each other,” Angor recited what Jon taught him during his mass-energy relation class.
“Proportion? So if something gains mass, it also attains a corresponding amount of energy. On the contrary, an object growing lighter also loses energy. This could explain Golime’s talent… I was thinking about this theory, how did I get distracted? And thanks to you—”
The elder smiled at Angor but quickly changed the smile into a frown.
“Who are you? And why are you here?” asked the old man. He looked puzzled.
A mortal?
He thought a wizard was here discussing the mass-energy relationship with him. But when he looked around, he saw a mere mortal, and judging from his body, he was a 14-year-old kid.
Angor was also pondering over the mass-energy conservation theory. When the boy realized the Elder of Books was inspecting him with a dumbstruck look, Angor rubbed his nose in embarrassment.
The embarrassment went for both ways.
Angor suddenly remembered something and removed his top hat to bow at the Elder of Books politely.
“I’m Angor, and I just joined Brute Cavern recently. I ran into some problems in my training, so I came here to seek help from Mister Elder of Books.”
“You can remove the ‘Mister’ part,” said the old man. He showed a strange expression. He wanted to chase the boy away, but when he thought about how Angor answered his previous question fluently, the elder felt something weird on the boy. The question he was working on involved a scientific conclusion which was agreed upon by people a long time ago; in normal circumstances, energy and mass were independent properties and were not related.
However, when the old man was researching on a new monster from another world called “Golime”, he noticed the monster’s talent went against this conclusion. The monster could utilize ordinary mass to create other forms of energy without using magic crystals, so he began to think that these two things were connected after all.
And this brilliant young man easily followed along with his idea.
The Elder of Books developed a good impression of Angor.
“You joined Brute Cavern recently? So you’re one of the talents for this term?”
Angor nodded.
“Who told you to find me? You haven’t achieved your first step yet, so what kind of question can you possibly have?”
“Miss Flora asked me to come.”
“Flora… the little troublemaker,” said the old man. He revealed a smile and asked, “You’re Flora’s student? But you’re too different from her character.”
“No, my mentor is Sunders,” answered Angor.
“Sunders? You’re the kid Sunders accepted this year?” asked the Elder of Books. He looked surprised as he said, “I thought it would be some kind of naturally-born genius. But you?… To be frank, you make a better student for little Wallace.”
Angor did not reply. He only looked at the old man with a plain look.
“No matter who sent you, I’ll not solve your problem for free,” said the elder. He paused a moment before saying, “However… if you can tell me something about your own idea about mass-energy relation and can make a good point, I’ll make an exception and help you this time.”
Mass-energy relation…
Angor considered. He was not sure if the physical constants applied in the wizarding world, but he could still explain the basic concept of it.
This was about helping his own training, so Angor did not intend to hide anything. He told the old man everything he knew about the relation. However, Angor did not use any constants. Instead, he used speculations and inferences to create definitions in the opposite way.
Angor did not say anything about the more exotic concepts such as the core of mass-energy relation, the theory of relativity. He only explained relatively plain knowledge while using uncertain words such as “I guess”, “maybe”, and “I think”.
However, what Angor deducted already surprised the Elder of Books.
The old man possessed these superficial concepts, but they were all considered paradoxes because they went against commonly-believed views. Knowledge had paradoxes, but the truth did not. The Elder of Books admired Angor for being courageous enough to redefine the concept albeit only at a basic level.
“You did well. You didn’t know anything about in-depth problems yet, but you already have a decent knowledge base considering your age,” said the elder as he nodded in acknowledgment.
Angor brightened up and said, “So, my question…”
The old man had a thick, white, chest-level beard, and he would stroke his beard when he felt joyful. He was doing it now with a gentle look as he said, “Go ahead and ask. Truth is, I also want to know what question could a kid who didn’t find his spirit power ask.”
Angor was speechless.
You already said it!
The boy cleared his throat embarrassingly as he said, “Um, I… just wanted to ask how to find my spirit power.”
The old man stopped his hand in the middle of his beard. He was speechless.
You came all the way here just to ask me this?!
…
Angor realized the old man’s expression was turning colder, so he quickly added, “I know people have different ways to express their spirit power, and that this power is always inside their minds, and they will find it sooner or later in the long run. But I have an urgent task on me, and I need to do this faster. I’ve spent a long time trying to sense my spirit power now, so I came to you to find if there’s something I can do to speed it up.”
The Elder of Books relaxed a little upon hearing Angor’s words. Wanting to become an apprentice faster because of an urgent matter was an acceptable excuse. The old man did not intend to ask why. Maybe the kid was bullied by another apprentice or wanted to get revenge on someone?
The old man answered after considering for a while, “There are faster methods to track down your spirit power.”
He added, “I know a direct and quick approach. You can buy and drink a potion which improves your spirit power. When the potion works on you, you’ll naturally feel that power. But the potion is usually costly…”
“Potion of Austere Night?” Angor asked.
“You have it?” asked the old man. He felt a bit uneasy. He had just said the potion was expensive, and the kid declared that he had it right away.
Angor nodded as he explained, “My professor gave it to me.”
The Elder of Books remained silent and thought to himself.
Since when did Sunders become so generous? Why did he give this priceless potion to someone so easily?
In the end, he said, “Ahem. Since you have the Potion of Austere Night, just drink it down to sense your spirit power.”
Angor was happy about getting a viable answer. However, when he thought about how Sunders told him that the potion had side effects, he hesitated.
“So I can feel spirit power when it increases?” Angor asked.
“Yes. But that’s not all. Even a decrease in your spirit power or even a small fluctuation of the power which didn’t affect the ultimate result will help you to locate your spirit power faster.”