Another Life: Elf Archer

"Dayang, Renye, Xuliyanshang."

"Dayang, Renye, Xuliyanshang."

Two almost identical compasses were returned to the hands of their respective owners. The two players, wearing indigo embroidered white crane robes, looked at each other helplessly. They looked at the undamaged building in front of them and sighed in unison.

"Tell me, should we go find those alchemy guys for some gunpowder?" The tall player had an idea.

"...This is a game. Look, the girls in Shennong Valley have always brought charcoal with them." The short player retorted angrily.

"Yes." The tall man used the compass as a fan and fanned his wrist. "So, is there something unscientific about this building that can't be burned?"

This building, marked as "Library" on the building distribution map, is located in the southeast corner of the Holy Church Academy. The location is not very remote, but because of the unusually lush woods and the bumpy gravel road nearby, the surrounding environment is somewhat quiet. It was relatively sparsely populated. Although it was not included in the first batch of buildings to be burned, considering the value of a place like the "library" to a college, two of them were specially arranged to set fire to it. .

It is a pity that the two of them have activated the Dayang Red Fire Formation more than ten times, but the projection of the red Five Elements and Bagua Formation has never been able to land on every brick and stone of this library.

"There must be some protective barrier or something like that. Maybe this is a very important place," the short player guessed, frowning slightly, "We'd better send a message to the president and ask him to send Call for reinforcements."

"It's the former president, former." the tall player corrected.

The short player glared at him: "That's because our president wants to have some free time and doesn't want to live up to his title. Otherwise, try asking Song Qing and the president to give orders at the same time. Guess who will listen to more people?"

"No need to guess, as long as the president gives the order, you and I will come," the tall player said with a smile as he touched his nose.

"Stop talking nonsense and think about what to do now."

"Well...the center, Duanye, accommodates all directions."

The compass flew out again, and the expected earthquake did not occur, but the two Mingtang players were not surprised at all.

"Sure enough, it's better to call for reinforcements. This invisible turtle shell is not something that the two of us can solve."

The short player lowered his head and began to write a message, trying to describe the situation here briefly but accurately. He thoughtfully realized that the former president would not have the leisure to read lengthy articles at this time, such as those of Vice President Zang Jiu. Reporting methods that often miss the point.

"The reinforcements you called for have arrived."

Only a few words into the message were written, and the footsteps walking through the weeds on the roadside stopped not far behind the two of them.

There were also two people. One of them looked very kind in his navy blue attire. The other boy was dressed in a smarter style. He wore a short-sleeved shirt with narrow sleeves. His hair was tied several times with an orange hairband. His hairstyle looked weird for some reason. The look is a bit incongruous, and I always feel that this young man with a sunny smile should not have the bangs on his forehead and the sideburns on both sides so meticulously combed.

The one who spoke was the fellow disciple from Mingtang. He turned to look at the young man beside him: "How did you know that reinforcements are needed here?"

Originally, he wanted the two non-combatants to find a safer place to hide. Su Ze, who knew the map well, strongly recommended that they take shelter here, so the two of them took advantage of the chaos and turned into the road that was submerged in the shadow of the trees. on the small road.

Su Ze patted his chest proudly: "I discovered when I came here to sketch before that this library is very extraordinary, very extraordinary."

Tang Qingli looked at his two classmates who seemed to be helpless holding the compass, and then looked at the library with no cracks or traces of charcoal on the outer wall, and nodded in agreement:

"So many high-rise building lobbies outside have collapsed, but it is really unusual for it to be so strong here."

After that, he patted Su Ze on the shoulder: "Go ahead, Ma Liang, the magic pen, I'm optimistic about you."

Su Ze jumped to the left wall of the library in two or three steps, raised his arm, and the gold-inlaid glass pen in his right hand was flowing like water under the mottled shadow of the trees. Su Ze's eyes were focused, and the hanging wrist moved forward. It seems like he is painting or sculpting. The tip of his pen is wandering on the wall, as if he is looking for the best place to start writing.

Wandering, wandering, the pen tip wandered for nearly 10 minutes. Su Ze's fingers holding the pen holder began to tremble slightly. Sweat dripped on the front of his jacket, and his face became increasingly pale.

Tang Qingli's eyes that showed interest, confusion and a little impatience suddenly solidified into a look of panic and worry.

"Shaoyang is moving, and all things are happy."

The compass skillfully hovered over Su Ze's head. In the next second, Tang Qingli also entered the range of the Shaoyang Green Wood Formation. He grabbed Su Ze's hand that was writing. Sensing the tyrannical pressure, he suddenly made a sword out of his palms. , slashed at Su Ze's wrist.

The glass pen fell to the ground and disappeared into the grass. Su Ze took a step back, as if he had just unloaded some heavy sandbag. He bent down and held his knees, gasping for air with lingering fear.

"what happened"

Tang Qingli picked up the glass pen and stuffed it into Su Ze's hand.

"I don't know, I just feel..." Su Ze grasped the glass pen tightly, "This wall gives me the feeling of perfection, the kind of perfection that cannot be eroded by time, impervious to water and fire, and useless for swords."

So he had nowhere to put pen to paper, and countless ideas emerged in his mind, but he broke them all into pieces and discarded them one by one. All his mana was wasted, and he was full of unwillingness and could not vent his frustration.

"This is definitely not your problem." Tang Qingli said firmly, "There is something weird about this library."

He took a few steps to the left, pointed at a place, and looked at the two fellow disciples in confusion:

"Why don't you go in and set fire?"

The door of this library is open. Why are you messing around with a wall of rocks outside?

The short player coughed lightly and made a "please" gesture: "You will know after you go in and take a look."

Tang Qingli raised his eyebrows slightly and walked towards the door first. The two Mingtang players whose IQ was suspected hurriedly followed, and both saw the light of joy in each other's eyes. Su Ze looked at the outer wall of the library regretfully and calmed down. Breathing, he shuffled his steps to catch up with the three of them.

When Su Ze stepped into the door of the library and shivered due to the cold air inside, Tang Qingli was maintaining a weird forward posture. His raised right leg seemed to have suddenly kicked something hard. The toe part of the shoe obviously has an extra flat surface.

"Ahem," the muffled laughter echoed in the short player's sudden words. He raised his hands and gestured, "Probably with this front desk as the boundary, we can't get in, and the compass can't fly in either. .”

Su Ze turned around and looked at the front desk, which was only more than one meter away from the main entrance of the library. It was a bit crowded for the four of them to stand in.

Looking up, I can clearly see the rows of bookshelves inside.

"It's a pity that we can only visit here." Su Ze sighed.

"Maybe it's to guard against those of us outside the school, or it's racial discrimination." Tang Qingli calmly retracted his foot and curled up his big toe in his shoe.

"Then we don't have time to slowly test the passage standards of this gate." The short player spread his hands.

"How about we grab a player from Gaia and try to push him in?" the tall player raised his hand and suggested.

The four people present looked at each other, and three of them looked at the metal compasses in their hands and thought about the feasibility of the "catch people" skill.

"Even if we can knock someone out, or if we are lucky enough to pick up the corpse of a player who was offline, let alone the time it takes to get the person in, there are still variables, so we might as well do it Go ask Shi Sui for any suggestions," Tang Qingli analyzed seriously.

"There are only four of us here for the time being, and the opportunity is still in our hands. This library is obviously very important. The president said that the main task today is to destroy the foundation of the Holy Church Academy as a school. I think it must be the same here. As part of the foundation, you can try various methods first and narrow down the scope of thinking for the president." The short player responded.

"How about we instigate one or two Gaia continent players and let them go in and set fire to it?" the tall player enthusiastically suggested, but was ruthlessly ignored.

Su Ze looked at this and that for a while, then interrupted hesitantly:

"Um...three of you, if you find out that players from Gaia can enter and exit freely, what are you going to do next?"

"Intimidation and inducement," the tall player said enthusiastically, and before the other two could refute, he added, "Or you could set people on fire and throw them in."

After the words fell, the four people present fell into silence at the same time. The air was a little stagnant, a little hot, and inexplicably a little dry.

When the player dies, it will turn into white light. In other words, if you want to use the player's "" to start the fire, you need to keep the player "alive" burning for a period of time. Let's not talk about whether this method is feasible.

Su Ze mumbled hesitantly: "Isn't this a bit cruel?"

The short player kicked his companion and smiled:

"Don't listen to his nonsense. Look at the distance between the front desk and the bookshelves. Even if we throw people in, they won't be able to throw them that far. Wouldn't the players we captured help themselves and fight back?"

Hmm... So, the plan to arrest people has been completely rejected?

"Coercion and inducement" the tall player said without giving up, "I would say report it to the president, he is the best at this."

"Okay." The short player reopened the letter interface and completed the sentence he just interrupted.

Tang Qingli and Su Ze watched quietly. Su Ze tentatively touched the transparent barrier, while Tang Qingli became interested in the empty front desk.

The front desk is just a long wooden table, which is dark brown in color and looks very old. The long table is neither wide nor high. It just has a small countertop about [-] centimeters higher than the table top.

Tang Qingli put one hand on the shorter tabletop, jumped neatly into the front desk, sat in the cushioned armchair, and crossed his legs casually.

The tabletop feels very smooth, with a few shallow scratches near the edge. The edges and corners of the table have been worn a little round. Although it looks empty from the outside, there are two bottles of ink and two bottles hidden under the small tabletop. A quill pen standing on a copper stand, a small pile of slightly scattered cardboard, a small desktop calendar and a long paper box that almost fills the entire space under the small countertop.

The carton was originally supposed to be white, but now it is a little yellowish. It is composed of many small drawers in the vertical direction. A finger-long ribbon extends from each small drawer. The colors of the ribbons are different, and the tail and edges have become somewhat loose. , it can be vaguely seen that letters were once printed on these ribbons.

Tang Qingli turned to look at the tall bookshelves, reached out and opened one of the small drawers, and pulled out a few pieces of cardboard filled with words.

The same table is printed on each piece of cardboard, with six columns in total. The first two columns and the last column are words, and the middle three columns are numbers.

Tang Qingli could only roughly identify that these words were Latin. Unfortunately, the real-time translation function could not be used to read text. Latin is an almost extinct writing system in the real world. He could only rely on a few pieces of cardboard. The length of the word and the words that are similar to English are guessed. The first column records the title of the book, and the second column contains the name of the person.

The numbers in the last three columns are easy to understand. The first column is the loan date, the second column is the deadline for returning the books, and some of the numbers in the last column are written in red ink. If you look carefully, you can see that they are all returned after the deadline. .

Most of the words in the last column are the same as those in the second column. Occasionally, some, especially those in red after the date, are different names, which seem to be those who returned the items on behalf of others.

Tang Qingli held a piece of cardboard and thought for a moment, then suddenly stood up and looked at Su Ze:

"Junior brother, can you draw a book?"

"What kind of book should I read?" Su Ze was stunned by his sudden request.

"Yes, a book," Tang Qingli raised his hand and pointed to the bookshelves, "a book that should belong here."

The other three people looked in the direction of his finger, but they could only see the side of the bookshelf, not the books displayed on the bookshelf.

"It's not a book that already exists here." Tang Qingli couldn't explain his inspiration at that moment. "If it's an existing book, it would be true or false, so it definitely won't work."

"It's a book that should be stored here, placed in a corner or high place, and easily forgotten."

"It should be very thick, so no one would usually be willing to take it out and open it. It is very old, but also very precious. The cover is made of chocolate-colored goatskin, covered with gold edges, and has patterns printed on heated copper plates. , maybe even inlaid with gems.”

"It is a book... about some ancient scripture. The text is handwritten in elegant cursive script, and there are hand-drawn animal and plant patterns. The content is obscure and a dark gold ribbon is sandwiched between There are creases in the pages of the book."

Following Tang Qingli's description, Su Ze closed his eyes and breathed in the cold, old, decayed air in the library. The tip of the glazed pen shone like a star.

Structure, a shimmering structure like a star chart;

Fill, fill with color and the unique atmosphere of ancient books;

Depict, describe its front cover, back cover, interior pages, spine, and loose hand binding;

Give it, give it the author and content, give it the time it was forgotten on the bookshelf and the smell of it being brought to the sun.

finally

Su Ze placed the thick book at the front desk, and Tang Qingli wrote down a copied person's name and the "liberdespiritu" bookofspirit that had just been returned on a piece of cardboard, and then wrote down a distant loan date. and due date.

Su Ze took the cardboard and used the glazed pen to rise and fall, olden the ink writing, increase the wear and tear on the corners, and re-render the color of the cardboard to make it look different from the other old cardboard in the box. Paper jams are generally the same.

Finally, Tang Qingli recorded today's date in red ink, changed his pen, and wrote the pinyin of his name.

When the last point fell, Tang Qingli paused for a few seconds. The black ink smeared out an irregular ink ball on the hard cardboard, contaminating the adjacent letters, but he didn't care.

He has an intuition.

Tang Qingli picked up the thick book, turned out of the front desk, and walked straight towards the tall bookshelves hiding unknown shadows. When he passed the place where he was blocked just now, he seemed to be saying to himself, and also to this. library says:

"I'm here to return the book."

......

The raging fire spread rapidly among the bookshelves, and the ferocious tongues of fire licked the leather covers. The scorched smell reminded people of charred corpses. Tang Qingli and the four people stood at the door and watched quietly, with different thoughts.

Su Ze looked at the fire jumping in Tang Qingli's eyes, moved his steps, quietly came closer, and asked softly:

"Brother, how did you come up with that method just now?"

Tang Qingli withdrew his gaze, turned around and walked out of the library door: "Because this is a library."

Storing books and disseminating knowledge, whether it is blocking them based on friend, foe or race, it will definitely not violate its own job.

Cherishing books is indeed a responsibility that overrides all positions.

"Senior brother, you are too smart. You are worthy of being my senior brother. I will tell my master later and she will definitely praise you."

Su Ze talked around Tang Qingli from left to right, and soon walked away. The two Mingtang players who were forgotten estimated the spread speed of the fire. The short player lowered his head again and submitted a follow-up report to the president.

However, what he didn't know was that Shi Sui didn't have time to click on the incoming message at this time. Even the request for help he sent before was still flying up and down above his head anxiously.

The black horse that rushed to his side raised its front hooves high, and behind the silver shield painted with blue lilies, a sharp knight's spear was ready to go.