There is a lot of content on the bulletin board, but not all of it is new, some of the old paper is covered with something new to be pasted, and some of the old paper has faded due to the wind and sun, and the content on it has become blurry and looks quite laborious.

Rosetta the Great's civilian literacy education and town proclamation system are indeed good things, but there are also many problems, because there is only one channel for releasing news, so whether it is the top-level new deal or the town's chores, it will be posted here, and no one has considered the issue of timeliness, and it is often seen that the emperor's decree is followed by a notice to clean up the mud, and the news of the purchase of new grain is put together with the content of the grain distributed a few months ago, and it is not easy to distinguish it.

In fact, it is a skill to find useful content in this jumbled mess, and as far as Mary knows, literacy education is not so well promoted, and most civilians do not have enough energy to read and read, and even if they do, they do not learn much under the careless teachers who come to class for a few copper plates a day, and therefore there are not many people in the whole town who can read the bulletin.

The confusion of bulletin boards, combined with the fact that the civilian literacy rate is still not high enough, has even given rise to a profession called "reader".

If someone wants to find something useful in the mess of notices—for example, a farmer who wants to know the latest purchase price of a certain crop and when it will be purchased—give the soldier a copper plate, and the soldier will find the useful thing and read it to you.

Of course, some of the information is not worth much after it is disseminated, and the more literate peasants are likely to find out useful information and tell others on their own, so on the one hand, the soldiers only regard this "reading income" as extra money, and on the other hand, they will deliberately wet and stain the content that is likely to attract the most inquiries when posting the notice, so that the civilians who want to know the price of goods or employment information have to spend a copper plate to ask for it......

But none of this made a difference to Mary, as a mage, she had the ability to easily read and distinguish everything on the bulletin board, and she didn't care much about the timeliness of the information - everything was interesting to her.

There was no such thing as a bulletin board in the village at the foot of the mountain.

"Recruiting mages...... the young female apprentice read all the announcements posted with great interest, and finally her eyes fell on the recruitment of mages, she could tell that it seemed to be recruiting people for a research project, but the information itself was unusual.

Announcements to recruit mages have been posted in town...... Rosetta the Great seems to be selecting a group of talents from among the mages of the whole empire, and his recruitment range is really large, in this kind of rural town, the mage who can see the notice is at most a three- or two-level wild mage, right?

But then Mary thought of her mentor...... That terrible old magician was probably an exception, living in seclusion in such a poor country, but his strength was unfathomable...... It is said that the mentor also lived in the royal capital back then, and I wonder if he would be interested in the recruitment of His Majesty the Emperor.

With such thoughts in her mind, the young female apprentice left the bulletin board and continued to wander around the lively town square.

The bard's psalms sound heart-warming.

The performance of the circus clown is impressive.

Even a few crappy craftsmen made a few straw and woodcut trinkets on the spot in the square, which made Mary extremely fascinated.

So when she finally woke up from these things, the golden glow of the sunset was already shining on the roofs at the far edge of the square.

Looking at the golden sunset, at the townsfolk and performers as they left the square, the poor young girl finally became frightened: she had completely forgotten what her mentor had told her!

Mary ran and rushed to the shop next to the square, the only thing she was glad about now was that she had been holding the package in her arms, if she had been too addicted to the entertainment in the square, and had lost the potion ingredients that her mentor had ordered to procure...... The Mentor will definitely pull out one of her tendons and feed it to those bloodthirsty monsters in the Mage Tower!

Finally, in a rare hand, Lucky bought the last spell casting material before the shop closed, and by the time she came out of the shop, it was almost completely dark.

Looking at the last ray of daylight left, Mary couldn't help but tighten her old black robes, it was not a wise choice to travel after dark, especially since there was still a two-hour walk between the town and the Mentor's Mage Tower, and even though she was a mage with a formal spellcasting level, the dark mountain path was also dangerous.

But the old magician's anger was more terrible than the slippery mountain paths and the monsters that lurked in the darkness.

Mary regretted her laxity as she double-checked the parcel in her arms before striding out of town.

She still had the news she had seen on the bulletin board in her head, but once she set foot on the trail, she threw all her thoughts aside.

Summoning the flash magic ball for lighting, preparing the protective spell for the amulet, the free right hand clenched the short sword for the amulet, the female apprentice walked on the dark mountain road one foot deep and one foot shallow, and the cold wind continued to blow from the mountain after dark, but Mary did not dare to be distracted to maintain an extra layer of breeze barrier: it was common sense for mages to act in the field and save mana as much as possible, as long as the external environment was not bad enough to affect thinking and judgment, they should not be too comfortable.

Finally, before midnight, the dark and gloomy spire came into view.

Mary was cold and hungry, but she finally made it back to the Mage Tower before the collar around her neck turned into a red-hot hoop.

The gate of the Mage's Tower opened automatically, and the gatekeeper inside silently lowered the female apprentice into the tower, and with a muffled sound as the heavy gate closed, the mountain wind and starlight outside were cut off.

The mage tower was still eerie and silent, overwhelmed like a cage, but Mary let out a long breath as she entered, tiptoeing up the stairs to the upper floor, ready to put her purchases in the warehouse before the mentor found out, and then hide in her room, but she had barely taken two steps before she stiffened to a halt.

The gloomy, withdrawn old mage stood on the stairs, silently blending into the darkness like a sculpture, the sound of artificial neural cords wriggling in the fabric and sweeping across the ground as creepy as the creepy sound of countless poisonous snakes entangled and crawling.

As if she had forgotten how to speak, Mary stammered, "Mentor...... I ......"

A bright bolt of lightning struck her shoulder before her words fell, and along with the pain came the old mage's gloomy words: "Why so late? ”

The lightning struck through the rudimentary robes that had almost no protective effect, scorching a piece of flesh, but Mary, who had long been accustomed to dealing with this kind of punishment, still held back the trembling of her body and voice for the first time, and lowered her head: "I delayed ...... in the town"

She didn't explain it with reasons like "the mountain road is not easy to walk", and she also had experience in this point: the mentor was extremely accomplished in the field of neurology and brainwave manipulation, and those sinuous and wriggling nerve cords could not only be used to connect to a mysterious mental network, but also to detect lies, and the last apprentice who lied in front of the mentor almost died on the experimental bench, and she didn't want to test the old mage's mood at the moment with her own life.

The old mage Daniel stared at Mary with a gloomy look, he waved his hand, and the package in Mary's arms flew in front of him, and after checking the contents of the package, he raised his eyelids again: "Remember, if the experiment given by the master is delayed, I will use you as the experimental material!" ”

Mary bowed her head and made a submissive look: "Yes...... Yes! ”

She knew that the old mage had a mysterious master, and she also knew that the mysterious and powerful master had given the old mage a series of orders, and the research on new neural connection technology and brainwave amplification technology was part of the order - it was because of these tasks that the old mage had recently frequently arranged for his apprentices to go out to collect materials.

Mary didn't dare to ask about the secrets behind the research, let alone the name of the mysterious "master", she knew very well in this regard: a being that could make even the terrible Mentor so awe-inspiring was not something she could easily touch, and perhaps a little bit of news would be enough to kill her.

Looking at the cowering female apprentice, Daniel frowned, not knowing what to think, and then suddenly spoke: "What did you see in the town?" ”

Mary didn't dare to tell all the details of her wanderings, but said something that might make the tutor less angry: "...... I'm looking at the town posters...... I would like to know if there is any useful news......"

Daniel snorted, "Hmph, what useful news do you see?" ”

"His Majesty the Emperor is expanding the Academy...... ...... recruiting volunteers" Mary immediately said what she had seen, and put the message that she thought was the most important at the end, "By the way, Your Majesty is still recruiting mages, it may be that the Royal Mage Society is expanding its staff, mentor, you ......"

She didn't dare to say any more before she could finish speaking, for she saw that the expression on the Mentor's face suddenly became more gloomy than ever, and that gloomy expression was almost overflowing with undisguised resentment, but the Mentor spoke after she stopped, "Go on—what is the Emperor recruiting mages for?" ”

"Probably...... Probably a research project,......" stammered Mary, "the specifics were not written, but the requirements were ...... Knowledge of mathematics and magic arrays is required, and a special understanding of self-charging is required...... Self-Charging Magic Array ......"

The gloomy expression on the old mage's face changed suddenly.

He frowned, as if in deep thought, and in Mary's trembling waiting, he whispered to himself, "...... Could it be that the empire is studying ...... The owner may be interested in this news......"

Mary listened with her head in a daze, she was not at all interested in the old mage's master, she was now hungry and sleepy and nervous, and she just wanted to get back to her room as soon as possible.

The old mage finally came to his senses from his own words and thoughts, and he glanced at the apprentice who was still waiting at the bottom of the steps, and a trace of trance flashed in his eyes, and then he regained his senses.

He waved his hand, "Go back to your room." ”

Mary bowed deeply as she had received the pardon, and just as she was about to leave, she heard the voice of her mentor coming from the stairs again: "...... There's a plate of muffins on your table, it's for you. ”

Mary looked up in astonishment, as if suspecting that she had misheard something.

However, the old mage only waved his hand, his artificial nerve cord had quieted down for some time, and his tone was full of impatience: "Today is your birthday. ”