Chapter 5: Enlightenment Education

Don't be fooled by Acrylis's troubled thoughts; a smart student like Gelis is every teacher's dream. No matter how complex the text, as long as it's taught once, copied once, Gelis can write it out perfectly from memory. This kind of learning ability even ignited the enthusiasm of the lazy Acrylis. The teaching time passed quickly, and before they knew it, a day had gone by.

Looking at the table full of drafts, Acrylis couldn't help but mutter with satisfaction, "What kind of Skeleton is this!" In just one day, Gelis had learned over 240 new characters.

In the following days, Acrylis stopped all other work to focus on teaching Gelis to recognize characters. Of course, they still used the handwriting of the dean as the teaching material. After four days, Gelis had learned nearly a thousand basic characters.

"Alright, you've learned the basic characters. Now write the Thousand Character Classic from memory," Acrylis assigned the homework.

Half an hour later, Gelis handed in the assignment. Looking at the beautifully structured characters, Acrylis muttered again, "Kobada, even better than my handwriting."

Acrylis couldn't remember much about learning characters as a child, but he clearly remembered that until he was twelve, he hadn't mastered all the basic characters. Yet in just four days, this freakish Skeleton had learned all the basic characters and even mimicked the dean's handwriting to produce beautiful script.

Feeling deeply defeated, Acrylis threw out a sentence, "You're graduated," and then left the lab without looking back.

The empty lab was very quiet. Gelis looked at the pile of papers filled with characters on the table, feeling very confused. Although he had learned the characters, he didn't understand their meanings. These were things Acrylis had him learn, but what was the use of learning them? Gelis didn't know. The Undead World had no characters. In his previous life, he never needed to use characters.

In his confusion, Gelis saw the library corner of the lab, with books filled with characters.

Gelis walked to the nearest bookshelf and randomly pulled out a book titled "Skeleton Soldier." He recognized all the characters, but he didn't understand their combined meaning. What was a Skeleton? What was a Skeleton Soldier?

With these questions in mind, Gelis opened the book.

Recognizing characters didn't mean he could understand a book. Gelis could only understand simple nouns like cup, chair, gold, and silver, mostly things found in the lab. He could also understand pronouns like you, me, and he, but he didn't know what dwarves or elves were because he had never seen these creatures.

But this didn't stop Gelis from eagerly finishing the book, even though he still didn't understand what it was about.

Putting "Skeleton Soldier" back in its place, Gelis pulled out another book, "Principles of Magic."

Gelis read very slowly and carefully, looking at each character one by one. He recognized individual characters, but he didn't understand their combined meanings. He had only read a small part of "Principles of Magic" when the lab door opened, and Acrylis's figure floated in, lazily greeting, "Gelis, morning." Unknowingly, a night had passed.

Seeing Gelis standing in front of the bookshelf with a book, Acrylis waved and said, "Put it back and read it tonight. Today we start experiments."

The main purpose of teaching Gelis to recognize characters was to train him as a qualified assistant. Now that he had learned the characters, Gelis's assistant career had to begin.

"Gelis, bring that formula over here, the one with Obsidian Gold on it."

"Gelis, take some paper and a pen and copy this down. At high temperatures, Obsidian Gold will exhibit..."

"Gelis, write down the experiment steps while I dictate..."

After learning the characters, Gelis's work scope became much broader.

A day passed, and the leisurely Acrylis, who hadn't even broken a sweat, asked with concern, "You haven't fallen apart, have you?" Then he left the lab without looking back.

Luckily, Gelis was a Skeleton who didn't get tired; otherwise, he might have thrown something at Acrylis in frustration.

After some free time, Gelis stood in front of the bookshelf again and took out the unfinished "Principles of Magic."

What does element mean?

What does meditation mean?

What does magic mean?

What does Skeleton mean?

After two days, including the previous book, Gelis had accumulated many questions, but he couldn't speak to ask Acrylis.

How could he speak? Gelis opened and closed his jaw, his teeth clattering. Finally, Gelis scanned the lab, and when he saw the blackboard Acrylis had used to teach him characters, the light of his soul shone brightly in his hollow eye sockets.

The next day, it wasn't until noon that Acrylis arrived at the lab. He was the principal of the academy, and although he wasn't very keen on administrative work, he occasionally had to handle some affairs. Being a lazy person, he never set foot in the lab unless there was an important experiment. His frequent visits lately were entirely because of Gelis.

As soon as he entered the lab, he said, "Nothing to do today, take a break." Then he floated towards the balcony, giving orders without looking back, "Gelis, get me a glass of water." He had just said to take a break, but immediately started giving orders, clearly indicating that the "break" didn't apply to Gelis.

Gelis poured a glass of water and brought it to the balcony. Acrylis was already lazily lying on a rocking chair, sunbathing with his eyes closed.

On the first day, Acrylis had said that without his orders, Gelis was not allowed to leave the lab. So Gelis had never been to the balcony. When he lifted the thick curtains, the dazzling sunlight made him momentarily dizzy. The Undead World never had such intense and scorching light.

Gelis lowered his head to avoid direct sunlight into his eye sockets. After a moment to adjust to the intense light, he placed the glass on the round table next to the rocking chair. Seeing that Acrylis had no other orders, he moved to the shadowed area by the door to avoid the direct sunlight.

"Do you hate sunlight?" Acrylis, with his eyes closed, seemed to sense Gelis's actions and asked without opening his eyes.

Gelis nodded.

Acrylis, still with his eyes closed, nodded as if he had seen Gelis's nod and muttered to himself, "It seems the author was right about Undead Creatures hating sunlight. But why did they say that half-bodied Skeletons are the weakest Undead Creatures?" These questions still puzzled him, especially given Gelis's outstanding performance, which made it even harder to understand.

Acrylis said, "Go to the bookshelf and bring me that book 'Skeleton Soldier.' I need to study it further." Gelis's performance had also sparked his interest in Undead Creatures.

After bringing the book, Acrylis casually flipped through it, finally opening his eyes. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Gelis suddenly pulled out a stack of paper and quickly wrote a few words on it: "What is a Skeleton?"

Acrylis was very surprised. Gelis was a Skeleton and didn't have the organs to speak. Acrylis had also been troubled by this issue but couldn't think of a solution, so he had stopped considering it. He didn't expect Gelis to come up with this method to express his thoughts. This way, Gelis now had the ability to communicate with others.

What a smart Skeleton, Acrylis couldn't help but marvel again. It wasn't surprising that Acrylis could think of this method, but for Gelis, who had just learned to write, to come up with it was truly astonishing.

Without any visible action, Acrylis's magic slightly increased, and a water mirror appeared in front of Gelis.

Pointing to Gelis's reflection in the water mirror, Acrylis said, "This is a Skeleton."

Curiously, Gelis reached out and poked the water mirror, causing ripples to spread and distort the image.

In the Undead World, Gelis had seen his reflection in puddles on the ground: hollow eye sockets and nose, a bald head, and gray-white bones. He looked no different from his companions in the Undead World.

So this is a Skeleton. From today, Gelis finally had a more vivid understanding of the word Skeleton, connecting the text with the object.

On another sheet of paper, Gelis wrote, "What is a Lich?" Skeleton, Lich, Undying—these were all terms that appeared in the books.

Acrylis flipped to the chapter describing Lich in the book and pointed to a passage, saying, "An Undead Creature with both a skeleton and flesh, possessing independent consciousness, is called a Lich."

What is a skeleton? What is flesh? Gelis wrote on another sheet of paper.

Acrylis was a bit surprised, looking Gelis up and down.

A Skeleton's face had no muscles, showing no expression. From Gelis's face, Acrylis only sensed blankness.

From these questions, it was clear that Gelis knew nothing. He didn't even know he was a Skeleton, let alone what a Lich was. This meant that if Acrylis wanted to answer all his questions, he would have to start with the simplest explanations. This would be an enormous teaching task.

For the lazy Acrylis, this was definitely a headache. Originally, he thought that teaching Gelis would give him a capable assistant, but it turned out to be such a hassle.

Could he not teach him? Of course, he could. He could simply order Gelis to stand aside and not bother him, only giving commands when needed. But looking at Gelis's blank face, Acrylis finally sighed, stood up from the rocking chair, and went back inside.

Lying on the balcony sunbathing was enjoyable, but sunbathing while working was torture.