"Mastasya, can you tell me more about Candlekeep!"

Qin Lun's eyes flickered, when he was by Milleras's side before, the well-informed Sun Elf Prince introduced him to many famous events and regions in the Faeron Continent, including the content of Candle Castle, but there were only a few sentences, and the details of it were not clear to Milleras himself.

"Absolutely!" It was not surprising that the Moon Elf Prince in front of him would not know about Candlekeep.

In fact, although Candlekeep is famous all over the continent of Faeron, most of the people who know it are knowledgeable historians and arcane researchers, and ordinary people, even the nobles of various countries, know little about this place, only that it is a fortress-like library occupied by arcane scholars.

Candlefort is across the sea from Belgost, an important trading city on the Bayshore Highway, and between the two is an avenue known as the Lion Road.

Standing on a towering cliff overlooking Sword Bay, this gathering place of knowledge is a hexagonal prismatic fortress with a mage tower at the corner of each two sides.

It was once home to the great prophet and great sage Arlando, and the Great Library here preserves many of his historical prophecies about Feron, the most famous of which is the appearance of the Devil's Flower.

Candlestick was once a gathering place for a handful of scholars who studied Arlando's prophecy, but as they left behind more and more research works and knowledge in the area, it slowly became a large library and arcane sanctuary known throughout the continent.

(Arcane here does not refer to magic alone, but also includes all fields involved in magic and magic, such as enchantment, alchemy, magical creatures, ancient runes, and divine arts, as well as popular scholarship such as philosophy, music, architecture, blacksmithing, and politics.) ）

There are two costs for outsiders to enter the castle, one is a large amount of gold coins, and the other is a knowledge or literature that Candle Castle does not have, and it is usually rumored on the mainland that Candle Castle is to provide a new book.

The Candle Castle is surrounded by powerful multi-protection spells to ensure that nothing burns except for the wick and wax oil, and no piece of paper can burn in this castle. This protection also blocks destructive spells, kills germs and moths, and prohibits anyone who is not wearing a candelavaria marker from entering the Central Library.

However, this kind of protective spell that envelops the entire fortress is extremely costly, so the annual maintenance cost is an astronomical amount.

There is an absolute law in Candlefort: "Anyone who destroys knowledge, whether with ink, fire, or sword, will bring about his own destruction." Here, books are more important than human lives! ”

There are two kinds of permanent staff at the Candle Castle, one is the research scholars, who usually dress in monk's attire and appear more loyal than the most devout religious believers. They call themselves propagators and disseminators of knowledge, and they also entrust agents to acquire rare books and texts.

The other kind of resident staff of Candlekeep are Arcane Researchers, who are usually powerful mages and archsages. They made a pact with the propagandists of the Candle Castle, who provided them with the knowledge of books and the towers they needed, and they provided them with military protection.

The most powerful of these is called the Keeper of the Tome, and his assistants are called the First Reader, who is both the traditional Second Power and the most knowledgeable Great Sage and Fortune Teller in the Candlekeep.

Underneath these two were other great readers, chanters, professors, and tower guards.

The central tower of the Candle Castle, the Central Library, is surrounded by beautiful gardens and a ring of other buildings. These include the visitor's dwellings, griffons' stables, barns, utility storehouses, hospitals, the monastery of Ogmar (the god of knowledge), and a shrine to Daniel, Gonde, and Miliel, with the hexagonal prismatic walls and mage's tower on the outermost side.

Visitors to the Candle Castle are usually allowed to stay in the Candle Castle for a single day until the tenth day, and cannot re-enter for a month after leaving. Visitors are not allowed to take notes in the library, but they can entrust a scholar here to copy copies on their behalf.

Each ordinary manuscript costs a hundred gold coins, magic books and some precious documents cost more, usually between hundreds and hundreds of thousands of gold coins, and forbidden spells are not allowed to be read and leaked.

The most precious documents of the Candle Castle are the storage rooms of the underground labyrinth of Zài, which also houses the tombs of scholars who have dedicated their lives to knowledge throughout the ages.

While these scholars did not treat books as funerary objects when they died, their tombs often left behind personal heritage items and spell notes, which were highly prized. In general, only the heirs they have recognized can remove them from the burial chamber.

It's so heavily guarded that no intruder can literally enter Candlekeep from the underground labyrinth. Even if a legendary thief enters, he will face the labyrinth's strongest guard, Mirimu.

Mirimu is the ghost of an ancient silver dragon who has been bound here by the Grand Karcist Thor for thousands of years to protect the scholars, buildings, and books of Candlekeep. With the support of the Candlekeep's protective circle, Mirimu is an indestructible spirit, and unless the entire Candlekeep is destroyed with a forbidden spell, even if it is defeated, it will be resurrected in a short time.

However, Mirimu does not usually kill infiltrators, her soul is so lonely that she prefers to talk rather than fight, and will often appear in front of visitors, exchanging her knowledge of historical legends for information about events that have taken place in modern times.

Of course, if you're going to use false information to trick Mirimu or attack her. Then the ghost of the silver dragon will not hesitate to throw out a large amount of dragon magic and directly blast you into scum.

One more important thing to note about Mirimu is that you can't carry books with you, whether it's from Candlecastle or your own. This silver dragon ghost will insist that you surrender and return the book "properly" to Candlekeep.

(In Mirimu's view, all books belong to Candlekeep, in keeping with the domineering and evil taste of all ancient dragons: mine is mine, yours is mine.) ）

There is at least one copy of every scroll in Candlekeep, and there is rumored to be an entire "mirror library" hidden somewhere in Ferren. All the books of the Candlestick have the castle's emblem on them - the castle tower with candles shining on the top.

……

"Linda, is this Candlekeep's stronghold in the Baldur's Gate area?" Mastacia asked, turning his head.

"It's not a big stronghold, it's just a relay station for transferring magical materials." Linda pursed her lips and said, "My teacher also has some investment here, and we can borrow their horned eagles to return to Candle Castle, and by the way, we can save you some valuable time." ”

When everyone heard this, they looked at the hillside ahead, and some chirping sounds similar to eagle cries could indeed be heard in the sparse woodland.

At this time, they were already half a day's way away from the Troll's Claw, and with the help of the giant eagle that Illistin had turned into, the group left the top of the waterfall without danger, and it was considered a real escape from the Troll Mountains.

The Lancet Trio, Seaver, and Old Butler Mason have parted ways with them. At the time of separation, in order to express his gratitude, Qin Lun gave part of the gold coins that the three murderers had received from the Ambori Church to the three of Rick, and part of them to Seafer Hulan, who was re-impoverished in order to save people.

In fact, the three apostles are now following Mastasia and no longer need gold coins to make dots along the way. Anyway, the gold coins are useless to the Apostles, so it is better to give them to Rick and the others to make a good impression on the Highland Elves and Linda.

As for whether you want money after arriving at Candle Castle, this question does not need to be worried about by Qin Lun and the others. Even without Linda, Mastasia would have figured it out.

Rick and Siver did not refuse the gift, whether it was the knight's return to Char's kingdom or Siver's rebuilding the caravan would require a large sum of money.

The only thing that surprised Qin Lun was that Idria had gone through so many hardships and had to follow them to the Northlands, and Ms. Lauvita's followers were indeed some crazy and masochistic people who could not be described in words.

Because the conspiracy of the Santarin Society was close at hand, after Qin Lun and the others left the claws of the troll, they didn't even have time to feel the sorrow of parting from their friends, so they had to go on the road again and rush to the place in front of them.

This is the closest Candlekeep stronghold to the northern exit of Troll's Claw, and is home to more than a dozen adult horned eagles for the transportation of valuables. It is generally a precious book and document, as well as magical materials and alchemical items used in the mage tower.

After climbing the hill, a simple two-storey wooden house appeared in front of the wooden house, and in front of it was a small horned eagle stable. Although it is a small stable with only about a dozen horned eagles, the horned eagle is a large bird, and its usual range of activities is large, and the area is much larger than that of a stable.

"Miss Linda! Aren't you supposed to be in Candlecastle at this time? The apprentice magician stationed in the cabin apparently knew Linda, and was surprised to see her.

"Hey, Lascaux!" Linda's expression was unnatural, obviously thinking of the teacher's anger in this magic apprentice, "This is a long story, let's prepare some food for us first, we're going to starve to death!" And get some No. 7 holy water for a few of my companions, all of whom have Yan zhòng injuries on their bodies. ”

Leaving behind the heavy burden of nearly half a month, Qin Lun only felt that this time his sleep was extremely sweet. Even with his self-discipline, when he opened his eyes again, it was already dusk the next day. The others were no better than him, and had to stay in the cabin for another night.

However, this time of recuperation is necessary, and although the medical effect of the No. 7 holy water is powerful, it will take some time to take effect. In particular, Illistin and Idria, who had suffered a lot, had not completely healed from their dark wounds even now.

At dawn on the third day, the people finally regained their spirits, rode the horned eagle into the sky, and began to fly towards the sacred place of knowledge, the Candle Castle.