The field of esoteric material sciences was quite interesting as he began going through the foundational premise.
The basic premise of the field relied on the distinction between normal and esoteric materials. Normal substances and compounds were those compounds whose properties were understood by science. These included things like water, iron etc.
Although not everything about these substances was entirely understood on a fundamental level, this was the case with all substances including esoteric substances as well.
Esoteric substances were substances and compounds whose fundamental properties were not only entirely not understood but also seemed to defy the framework of theoretical sciences that existed so far.
Rui was aware of this, but there was more that he wasn't aware of. There were multiple scientific theories that tried to explain the existence of esoteric substances and why they were the way they were, and how they ought to be categorized.
The Esoteric Singularity Theory stated that there was one single phenomenon that was responsible for the esoteric and often reality-defying properties of all esoteric substances. That a single phenomenon in nature gave rise to all these strange substances in nature.
This was not merely a hypothesis, there were vague patterns between all esoteric substances that indicated a common cause.
One such pattern was that esoteric substances and compounds became more prevalent as one went deeper into the continent, suggesting a common cause. For it would be one hell of a coincidence if each substance was more prevalent in the center of the continent for entirely different reasons.
This was a reasonably viable hypothesis. Rui couldn't help but think about the origin of all the esoteric substances as a result. If there was a common origin of all theses substances, then he couldn't help but wonder what it was.
A multitude of random hypothesis flew threw his mind. Unfortunately, he had no idea what the reason could possibly be. However, he couldn't help but think that perhaps there was some global phenomenon that affected the planet a long time ago, producing all these fantastical phenomena.
He recalled a thought he had once had when he was traveling to Vilun Island. The Panama continent was surrounded by a archipelago ring of islands in all directions outside it. Rui recalled thinking how these island were likely pieces of the continent at one point in time in the past.
He remembered speculating that there likely was some continent wide phenomenon that caused the outer layer of the continent to break away into small little pieces.
Now, he couldn't help but wonder if the two events were somehow connected, assuming that they had actually happened. As of right now, they were merely hypotheses.
Still, it was quite interesting.
There were other theories that tried explaining esoteric substance, the Divergent Theory stated the exact opposite of the Esoteric Singularity Theory. Stating that the origin and mechanism of the esoteric substances were mutually independent and were not tied to a single cause.
The few handful mainstream theories each had their own pros and cons, and were subject to wide debate across esoteric scientific community. Learning the ins and outs of each of the theories was one of the things that he needed to do as the exam would most certainly est his knowledge on that.
The following sections of the esoteric material science study materials began to actually dive into the esoteric substances. It mainly began diving into many of the most common and widely used esoteric substances across human civilization, of which there were plenty of people.
He knew that there were several ways that they could organized and categorized. By the nature of their esoteric properties, and what ways they defied current understanding of reality. They could also be categorized by their applications in esoteric technology, and the ways that humans find them useful.
A good chunk of his study material was dedicated to exploring the theories and categorizations and organizations of esoteric substances.
It was followed by the books and books filled with esoteric substances, their profiles, and properties, and the vast empirical data on them that he needed to memorize.
Rui quickly understood that the hardest part about esoteric material science was the sheer amount of data that one needed to be familiar with. The concepts, and the methods amployed were not all that difficult.
That's why he was confident that he would extremely well. With his Mind Palace, all this data was forever something that he could access at any given point.
In fact, it wasn't even an exaggeration to say that he was probably the most knowledgeable person on these study materials in the entirety of Crexeet town.
That meant he would ace the parts of the test that tested pure knowledge, but the Mind Palace couldn't help him with questions that required greater logical deduction and induction. It couldn't help him with questions that required genuine thought.
Of course, he wasn't too worried. Sacrificing false modesty, he knew what he was doing even if he discounted his intellect. A lifetime of dealing with trickier exams had honed his theoretical problem solving abilities into a sharp knife.
Still, Rui found the study material to be quite insightful. He wasn't arrogant enough to believe that he was suddenly on par with the top researchers and scholars of esoteric material science who had dedicated their entire lives to the field while also having made many contributions, he did think he could match up to the average graduate most likely.
When he considered the sheer depth of his knowledge on general sciences not pertaining to esoteric phenomena, he was probably heads and shoulders above anything in this world, most likely. Given how huge the continent was, it was possible that there was someone somewhere out there who knew just as much, or even more, but Rui had a hard time believing that.
Regardless, he deftly mastered the study materials within a short amount of time, and ten days later, the time for the exam had finally arrived.
