Odis the Hermit describes the Elven race's experiences during the Fourth Age in a storytelling style.
The other members were all somewhat moved when they heard about the complete decline of a race.
"Justice," Audrey asked, "Are there still elves now?"
"As far as I know, there should be more," Alger replied. "They live in the dangerous waters of the Raging Sea and lead a very difficult life."
"However, I've also heard that they've discovered some relatively safe islands in dangerous waters, but nobody knows the specifics."
This suddenly made everyone yearn for the sea, because of the existence of the raging sea. There are still many unknown sea areas in the ocean. Although there are unknowns and dangers, there is also space for exploration and adventure.
After a few seconds of silence in the hall, Odis broke the silence: "Miss Magician, I have something I'd like to discuss with you privately."
"The Magician" Fors paused slightly. Was it about publishing again?
She said, "Okay."
With the help of Mr. Fool, a space was created for the "Hermit" and the "Magician" to communicate privately.
Odis began, "Miss Magician, we discussed the Abraham family last week. You should be able to contact a member of that family, right?"
Fors immediately became alert: "You... what do you want?"
She didn't deny it outright. First of all, she had indeed traded information about the Abraham family last week. It was already a consensus among the other members that Miss "The Magician" had some connection with this ancient family, so there was no point in denying it.
Furthermore, with Mr. Fool protecting him, Fors believed that the "Hermit" could not find his real-world self and would not pose much of a threat to him, so he readily admitted it.
She was also curious about what the "hermit" wanted with the members of Abraham's family.
Odis got straight to the point: "I wish to purchase a magical item with the ability to 'travel' from the Abraham family."
Klein, who was eavesdropping nearby, thought to himself: No wonder the "Hermit" said he was short of money; it turns out he was planning to buy a Sequence 5 sealed artifact. This ability, this level, isn't cheap!
Fors relaxed her guard slightly: "I can indeed contact members of this family, but I'm sorry, for some reasons, I can't help you inquire about such things at the moment."
She had recently established a stable relationship with Mr. Dorian Gray Abraham of the Abraham family, and she was well aware that she was still under observation by this member of the ancient family.
If she were to suddenly ask him for magical items at this time, Dorian would likely go into hiding and never contact her again.
Odis was slightly taken aback upon hearing this answer, realizing that the timing of his proposal was somewhat inappropriate.
He smiled helplessly: It seems the only option left is to go down the "mysterious queen" route.
However, Odis did not end the conversation there. Instead, he said, "If you think the time is right, you can help me make some connections and facilitate this deal."
"Well, if the deal goes through, I'll pay you a commission of £600."
£600!
Fors took a deep breath; it was almost as much as her current savings, but she remained rational and said, "Okay, I'll let you know when the time comes."
As soon as the private conversation ended, "Justice" Audrey, who had been waiting nearby, said, "Mr. Hermit, I would like to make a deal with you to continue to understand the issue of the occult symbols we discussed earlier."
Odis nodded: "Alright, please state your question."
Audrey asked, "Mr. Hermit, what is the specific function of mystical symbols?"
"It will cost 1000 pounds to explain this to you completely," Odis quoted. "Are you sure you want to make the deal?"
"Confirmed!" Audrey breathed a slight sigh of relief; she hadn't expected it to be only 1,000 pounds.
Odis nodded, then asked, "Do you need to speak with me alone?"
Audrey still chose: "Let's all listen together."
Fors exclaimed, "You are a generous lady."
"Sun" Derrick said bluntly, "Miss Justice, if you want to know about the 'Forsaken Land' or some ancient myths, feel free to ask me."
Having witnessed the Hermit's explanation of occult symbols last time, the other members were very curious about the Hermit's research and wanted to listen to it as well.
Audrey liked the atmosphere and smiled, "No problem."
However, after thinking for a moment, she added, "The amount involved in this transaction is too large. I suggest that other members who are going to listen in should pay something in return, such as the ancient mythology that 'Sun' just mentioned."
She really didn't care about the money. Although the assassination of the Intis Republic's ambassador had drained her savings, her weekly allowance was enough to complete the transaction.
But Audrey had just observed that Mr. Hanged Man and Mr. Hermit seemed somewhat resentful of her generosity, which made her immediately realize that she had broken some rules of the extraordinary gathering.
We can all listen to the last transaction, but if we do it the same way now, it could become a habit, and transactions of thousands of pounds can't be as casual as before.
That's why Audrey immediately changed her tune.
Hearing the words "justice," Alger, the "Hanged Man," felt somewhat relieved and said, "Ask me anything about things at sea."
Fors immediately replied, "I am willing to contribute a chapter of 'Spiritual Encounters'."
Klein, behind the gray fog, thought to himself: "The Spirit World Chronicles are finally proving useful in your hands."
He had originally planned to manipulate "The World" to say that he was not interested in the deal and then have "The Fool" eavesdrop, but after thinking about it for a moment, he realized that it was unnecessary to be so "frugal," so he manipulated "The World" to say, "I know a lot about mysticism and can tell you some of it."
Audrey smiled and said, "Alright, the deal is done. Mr. Hermit, let's begin the transaction."
The other four members paid the price for things that interested her.
Odis nodded and began to explain: "To explain the specific function of mystical symbols, we must first explain two issues: the essence of mystical symbols and the formation process of mystical symbols."
"Let's talk about the second question first. As I mentioned before, the textual logic used in mystical symbols is completely different from the textual logic we use now."
"Let's conduct a thought experiment together, going back to the Second Age, or the First Age, and entering an ancient human tribe that lived a difficult life and was always at risk of becoming prey for extraordinary creatures."
"In these days when death is a constant threat, there are some crucial pieces of information that must be passed on to future generations in order to reduce the losses caused by repeated trial and error."
"Language is a great tool, but ambiguity can easily arise during the transmission process, so they have a need for documentation."
"The earliest form of writing must have resembled a realistic painting; perhaps the precursor to writing was a simplified narrative painting."
Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!
As the "hermit" described it, everyone seemed to see a unique person in a primitive tribe, writing and drawing on the rock wall.
Just then, Alger suddenly realized a problem: "Some realistic words are easy to represent, such as 'wheat' which we discussed at the last gathering. We just need to draw the shape of wheat."
"But how do you express some abstract ideas?"
"That era had its own wisdom," Odis smiled. "For example, in common occult symbols, the symbol for 'light' looks like this."
With the help of Mr. Fool, Odis manifested the symbol representing "light".
The upper part of the symbol is a circle, and the lower part is a symbol composed of five different strokes.
Klein noticed that the lower half of the symbol somewhat resembled the Chinese character for "light".
"Let's look at the lower half first," Odis explained. "Doesn't this symbol look like a person kneeling on the ground with their arms outstretched? And the circle on top represents the sun."
"First of all, this represents people's attitude towards the sun, well, I'm referring to the sun in a real sense."
"The sun in the sky has always provided us with free light and warmth, and has never asked for anything in return. Therefore, people's attitude towards the sun is to kneel down and praise it."
"This image was drawn by the inventor of writing, and it became 'light' in an abstract sense."
Alger, Audrey, and the other members nodded slowly. For those who had never been exposed to figurative language, what the "Hermit" had just said was beyond their comprehension, yet it made perfect sense.
Even Klein felt like he was listening to a "Chinese character explanation" program.
Odis continued, "Most of the mystical symbols commonly used by mankind were formed in this way. Some people have described the scene after these symbols were formed: the sky changed color, ghosts and monsters cried, and the gods were furious."
"Humans can record everything in the world, and later generations can easily obtain the experience of their predecessors. Over time, even ghosts and gods no longer have any secrets."
"Therefore, this is seen as a kind of blasphemy, a blasphemy in which humanity has broken through its own limitations."
"Because language is produced by vocal cords and then heard by ears, and animals also have their own calls, this is a capability given to us by the Creator."
"But writing is different; it's a product we created ourselves!"
Fors felt an empathy from ancient times, a creativity from ancient humans, but she suddenly felt that this empathy seemed to have a break.
The Hermit's next description resolved Fors's doubts: "But during the Second Age, humanity achieved fusion in a very short period of time, and had to abandon its original writing system."
Seeing everyone's puzzled expressions, he smiled and explained, "You can imagine that the hieroglyphs of one tribe are different from those of another, and the pronunciations are also different."
"For example, the word used by one tribe to describe 'grain' might be used by another tribe to describe 'foxtail grass,' and the pronunciation would be different."
"When human tribes suddenly began to merge on a large scale, they had to solve the problem of language barriers. The tribes would not compromise with each other; they could not allow themselves to continue using the word for 'grain' as 'foxtail grass' for a long time."
"Therefore, they could only compromise, each taking a step back, bypassing the written characters, and reaching a consensus on pronunciation."
"In general, the goal is to reach a consensus on the pronunciation of 'grain' regardless of what the characters representing it look like."
"Gradually, phonetic writing systems were formed and quickly became the mainstream."
Klein thought to himself: This sounds like a lot of trouble. This is the consequence of not having a First Emperor!