When Furan arrived at the meeting spot with Lai Yi a little early, she only had to wait for a short while before Lai Yi arrived.
Furan was somewhat surprised. "What a coincidence. I arrived here a bit early, and there's still some time before our appointment."
Lai Yi said with a smile:
"No, it's because I saw you coming in the astrology, so I came down."
"Astrology can even do that?"
Furan became even more interested in the upcoming club visit; it seemed quite different from her Star Gazing Technique.
Furan followed Lai Yi inside a building. A person with chestnut-colored hair, wearing a shirt with a green coat draped over it, was sitting at a table watching them arrive.
"This is Ha Ya, the president of our Night Sky Reading Club."
Looking at Ha Ya's face, Furan felt a sense of familiarity, as if she had seen her somewhere before. However, she clearly remembered that she personally hadn't met her; it must have been the original owner of this body who had seen her.
Ha Ya also looked toward Furan. She scrutinized her for a long time, as if remembering something, and spoke:
"This is the person you mentioned who was so entranced by the starry sky painting in the Art Appreciation Class."
"Yes, her name is Furan."
"Oh, Furan. Then it's her."
Lai Yi also seemed to notice that their president appeared to know Furan and asked curiously:
"President, you know Furan?"
"Of course, she left a very deep impression on me."
The corners of Ha Ya's mouth curled into a smile as she continued:
"When I was a teaching assistant for the arithmetic class, I was very impressed by her arithmetic level. Few apprentices could get so many homework problems wrong."
Holy crap. Furan now somewhat admired the original owner. How did she manage to do so many things and end up doing every single one poorly? It was simply a lack of learning and skill, ruining her reputation.
Lai Yi's face flushed slightly. Under Furan's strange gaze, she said something rather mysterious.
"Even though her arithmetic might not be good, what if she picks up astrology very quickly when she encounters it?"
What did that mean? Why did it seem like arithmetic was linked to learning astrological magic? This was a bit different from what she had imagined.
Furan had thought this astrology magic was like prophecy or divination, but now it involved mathematics.
"I didn't say she couldn't learn Astrological Spells. Come, let's test how her talent actually is."
Saying that, Ha Ya stood up and walked further into the house, with Furan and Lai Yi following behind.
After going up one floor, Ha Ya opened a door with special decorations. The room was pitch black; the light from outside didn't seem to reach inside, and Furan couldn't even see the floor.
"The person in the back, close the door."
Lai Yi took the initiative to walk at the back and was responsible for closing the door. Then Ha Ya opened another door in the passage, which Lai Yi also closed.
Finally, after three doors, the three of them arrived in a room with many shimmering decorations.
The environment was still very dark; one could barely see their own fingers when holding their hand out. Furan could now hardly tell the two of them apart.
"Alright, wait here while I activate the device."
As she spoke, she reached toward a corner of the room. Lai Yi, seemingly sensing Furan's confusion, explained:
"This is our club's specially made room. Its effect is that astrological phenomena can be observed even during the day. Those three doors just now were to block out the outside light."
Furan knew that stars were actually in the sky during the day, just obscured by the brightness of the sun. It seemed quite reasonable that this other world would have some magic to see astrology during the day.
With a 'click,' the surroundings gradually brightened. Furan looked toward the source of the light; it was above her head.
Above was a circular dome, and now many tiny lights were gradually appearing on it, slowly forming a starry sky.
Furan was very familiar with this starry sky. Wasn't this the same sky she looked at for a few moments every night?
Ever since she discovered she could foresee the future through the starry sky, she had been very dedicated to this skill, spending half an hour looking at it before going to bed every time.
However, the results had been quite disappointing. Since then, she hadn't seen any visions of the future like she had on the first day.
Furthermore, her proficiency only grew by about 1 point per day.
"Come, stand here, and look at the sky while referring to this paper."
Furan took the paper and looked at the indicated spot. She then noticed many circles on the floor, seemingly meant to assist with positioning. Where she stood was one such circle.
Furan looked closely at the contents of the paper. It recorded a method for measuring one's current position by observing the positions of the stars.
At the same time, there was a very complex mathematical formula on it, requiring seven or eight pieces of information to be plugged in.
Furan looked at it for a long time, trying to find a way to start. The two people beside her waited quietly without speaking.
Furan was gradually figuring out how to use this formula. Just as she was about to begin, she glanced at the starry sky above.
Normally, according to what was written on the paper, one should observe the starry sky from different angles and determine their orientation from the changes in position. Furan intended to do exactly that.
But when she gazed at the stars above, a feeling arose within her: there was no need for such trouble, she could just write it down directly.
She directly wrote '316.4; 70.8' on the scratch paper Ha Ya had just handed her.
Then she spoke directly:
"I'm finished."
[You have completed a calculation using astrology. Star Gazing Technique proficiency +4]
Only after she said those words did Furan wake from her daze, only to see the stunned expressions of the other two.
Ha Ya took the paper, glanced at it, and looked at Furan with a complex expression before taking out another sheet of paper.
"Calculate how far this location is from us."
The content on it was several images of the starry sky, hand-drawn by someone. It seemed only the necessary information had been retained. Furan found it very comfortable to look at, with no distracting information.
After Furan gave the three images a cursory glance, that feeling surged in her heart again, and she wrote down the coordinates directly.
After Ha Ya looked at it, she stared at Furan with a shocked gaze.
She was witnessing a miracle in the field of astrology. How could someone directly derive coordinates without even changing positions or observing from multiple angles?
When Furan first wrote out that string of coordinates, Ha Ya thought Lai Yi had teamed up with her to play a prank. But the second paper confirmed to Ha Ya that she could truly calculate these coordinates.
Ha Ya understood that the principle of this calculation technique had two parts. One was the affinity between the user and the astrology; in fact, moving a few steps on the ground couldn't possibly cause a change in the position of the stars in the sky.
What the user saw was the change in the astrology produced by themselves; it was the astrology telling the user their own position.
The second was arithmetic. Every user's perception was different, and arithmetic was the way to standardize this perception for communication.
So, was Furan directly making the stars shift their positions while standing still? This performance reminded Ha Ya of a student her mentor had mentioned, who was now a Formal Mage; they were also like this, able to derive coordinates just by standing in place.
"Please, you must join our club."