Monster Hunting High School

"It would be nice if Fatty hadn't been called away by that paper crane."

The black cat squatted behind Dingdang Ears, watching the clothed mouse in front of him gently and deftly cut a hole in the catalpa wood, and couldn't help but sigh.

Xiao Xiao stood aside and nodded in agreement.

Just when Zheng Qing and others were called by Lin Guo to the grove to mediate the 'cat-fox dispute', a paper crane in the school newspaper's editorial office found Fatty Xin and asked him to go to the office for a meeting. Because of this, the fat man missed the things that were on his mind.

Fatty Xin has been thinking about finding another mouse in clothes these days and doing an exclusive interview - according to him, this interview is related to whether he can participate in this year's 'Golden Quill' selection - if Fatty knows that Zheng Qing and Xiao Xiao met the second mouse wearing clothes during today's mediation work. He didn't know how he would beat his chest and regret it.

Just as the black cat and the doctor were sighing, Dingdang Ears had already carved circles of strange patterns with his claws on the left and right sides of the tree hole he had just made. At the same time, he dragged several dry roots from the bushes not far away. The branches leaned against the trunk, covering the hole in the tree.

In this way, if someone passes by this catalpa tree and doesn't pay special attention, he will not notice that there is a black hole in this big tree.

"Are these runes? They look a little different from the runes used by wizards." The black cat approached the tree hole, touched the scratches on the rough bark with the tips of its claws, and couldn't help but murmured a few words.

As a young wizard who has extensive research on talismans, Zheng Qing is very familiar with the more than a thousand runes used by wizards. However, when he saw the symbols carved by Dingdang Ears around the tree hole, he still felt like his eyes were filled with gray eyes and he was completely confused - from the order of writing, to the way of word formation, to the basic sentence structure, None of them are completely consistent with the rules for using runes in the contemporary wizarding world known to Zheng Qing.

"Of course!" Dingdang Ear explained in a proud tone: "This is the 'rat rune' invented by our ancestors. Only we, the rat tribe, can use it... Don't you wizards also have your own runes? Just like me If I can’t understand your runes, it’s normal that you can’t understand the rat characters, for the same reason.”

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant." The black cat shook its ears, stared at the marks carved by the mouse with a slight obsession, and murmured: "I just said that your way of using runes is very novel, and It’s not that I can’t understand it at all—because the connection between ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’ is common among different correspondence systems.”

"Huh?!" Dingdang Ears looked at the black cat in confusion, then looked back at the short wizard holding a notebook beside him, and subconsciously stretched out his paws to pick out his own ears.

It felt that it could understand every word that the black cat just said, but after it was connected into a sentence, it couldn't understand it at all.

Is this the legendary ‘knowledge barrier’?

Unlike Mr. Mouse who was confused, Dr. Xiao Da was thoughtful about the black cat’s statement: “If I remember correctly, a magic text master once expressed a similar meaning - about language symbols, with Two most important characteristics: first, the symbol is arbitrary; second, the 'signifier' has a linear shape - according to this inference, you mean that the ancestors of the rat tribe just adjusted the shape of the symbol and No deeper meaning of change?”

Black Cat didn't speak, just nodded silently.

"Excuse me! Can any gentleman explain to me what is the 'signifier' and 'the signified' and what is 'linearity'?!" Dingdang Er was listening to the conversation between the wizards, feeling like he was listening to a book from heaven. , couldn't help but become a little manic.

Xiao Xiao glanced at Mr. Mouse, hesitated for a few seconds, and finally explained patiently:

"When talking about these concepts, we must mention the famous master of runes in Switzerland in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, Ferdinand de Saussure - he is the recognized founder of 'structuralism' in the modern wizarding world and the founder of modern runes. One of the founders of literary theory. His "General Runes Course" is still used as a textbook for senior runes elective courses at First University."

"Master Saussure believes that any language symbol is composed of 'signifier' and 'signified'. 'Signifier' refers to the sound and image of language; 'signified' refers to the things reflected in language. concept."

"The arbitrariness of signs means that the connection between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary, and there is no intrinsic, natural connection between the two..."

At this point, Xiao Xiao paused and pointed to Dingdang Ears and gave an example: "For example, a wizard uses the word 'rat' to refer to a creature similar to you, but if from now on, we stipulate that the word 'human' If the word refers to a creature similar to your image, then the 'signifier' has changed, but the 'referred' has not changed. "

"I have absolutely no objection to your idea." Dingdang Erdu intervened at the right time to express his point of view.

Xiao Xiao ignored him and continued to explain: "Of course, Master Saussure's statement is completely contrary to the traditional saying that 'the magic text has natural properties', but this does not affect his theory of the relationship between the magic text and the talismans." Wen’s research has opened up a new path..."

"Don't keep talking about these nonsense," Dingdang Ear finally got a little impatient and shouted in a high voice: "You said you can understand, but what do I mean by what I wrote around the tree hole? "

"Those words are not nonsense, but the essence of real magic." Black Cat looked back at Mouse Lord and said calmly: "The subtlety of runes lies in their arbitrariness. This feature requires wizards to You must have strong abstract thinking ability...just like the symbols you carved around the tree hole. Although I can't read them and can't taste the subtle changes, I can tell what they are based on the basic structure of the upper and lower parts. Runes of expulsion properties.”

When Dingdang Er heard the words, his eyes widened immediately with an incredible expression on his face.

At this moment, Lin Guo's shouting sound suddenly came from the distance.

"Oh oh oh, right, right, right!" The little wizard grabbed Poseidon's top coat with his left hand, and wrapped his right hand around the little ragdoll cat's body, and scampered back from the edge of the forest.

The black cat man stood up and looked at the little wizard displeased: "Don't yell and panic, what do you look like... What's wrong? What happened?"

Lin Guo immediately stopped, dropped the small things on his left and right, patted the dust on his body, cleared his throat, and then explained unhurriedly: "I just remembered that the elder said to me when he met me in the afternoon. , let me tell you when I see you that he has got the seeds you are looking for... If you are not in a hurry, he will bring it to you during class tomorrow..."

Before he finished speaking, the black cat turned into a black lightning and ran out of the forest with a whoosh.

In the cold wind, his intermittent meows came:

"That's it for today! I'm in a hurry, so take the first step!"

"The cats and foxes disband quietly and stop causing trouble!"

"And those mice, remember to clean them up according to the old rules...be careful not to let one or two of those ears wander away!"

"I'm still here! I can hear what you said!" Dingdang Ears was displeased, jumping up and down at the black cat's retreating back, and shouted loudly.

"Actually, he just wants you to hear it." Lin Guo comforted him from the side and went to collect the trophies.