Chapter 65: Ancient Facility

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Another hour passed by, and the group was still advancing into the unending hallway and passage.

The scale of this thousand-year-old facility had already surpassed Gawain’s imagination.

Even during the Gondor Empire’s prime in the ‘Meteoric Era’, it was very rare for the empire to construct a facility of this scale… Even if it had the dual functions of a military stronghold and research facility, the scale was still far beyond Gawain’s expectation. It seemed like the entire mountain had been emptied for the construction, and there were more downward slopes and stairs awaiting them. Gawain even suspected that it wasn’t just the mountain that was hollowed.

The magical discharge was still steadily being emitted, but it was rather weak. Due to the multiple forks and hallways, Heidi’s guidance wasn’t very reliable anymore. She was only able to judge the rough direction and used spirit-summoning and divination spells to determine which path on the fork they should choose. Even then, the group still made many detours and discovered plenty of deadends.

Even though Knight Byron had been putting down markings along the way and also asked Heidi to mark out signs with magic, the soldiers were still rather uncomfortable after exploring the ancient remnants for such a long time. After noticing the discomfort, Knight Byron walked over to Gawain and said, “My lord, if we continue exploring inside, we might get lost… Everyone’s sense of direction is in disorder.”

Gawain frowned. In fact, he had also considered the problem of losing their way. But he was more confident than everyone else… With his satellite spirit’s excellent memory in use, he was able to remember nearly all of the forks they took and nearly every detail. His mind actually had the rough sketches of a map too, but it wouldn’t be good for him to reveal such abilities. Even if he mentioned it, it wouldn’t be able to put everyone at ease.

After all, this place was truly too huge.

It would be great if Amber were here… She would at least be able to scout ahead, and she could even run around using the shadow realm. She was adept at lockpicking and infiltration and definitely wouldn’t be trapped in the remnants like normal people. She had already proven herself in the Cecil Clan’s ancestral tombs.

This time, Gawain had seriously considered this matter.

It was a pity that Amber wasn’t here right now. Gawain could only shake his head and said, “Your concerns are reasonable… We will walk a little further and make a few more markings. It doesn’t matter if we have any discovery or not later. We will head back first before coming again next time.”

The lord didn’t immediately order a return, but Gawain’s ambiguous instructions allowed the soldiers to heave a sigh of relief as it felt as though they had received a kind of guarantee. The group then braced themselves before advancing again.

After a section of path that was a descending stairway, there was another hall at the front. This hall had something additional as compared to the ones before: there were giant obsidian cubes that were arranged in an orderly manner in the hall. They were like stone tablets that were leaning on the wall. Below the cubes, there were metallic ducts or ‘rails’ that extended outwards. These all converged in the center of the hall where a strange hemisphere-shaped device was placed.

Gawain frowned and walked to the side of the hemisphere-shaped device. He used his iron gloves to rub the surface of the device. The dust and oxidized substances on the surface were scraped off, revealing a silver metal underneath.

“What is this?” Heidi came over with curiosity. This room’s facility obviously couldn’t be taken away as it was a ‘fixed installation’. It was rare to see such things in the remnants, and all those obsidian cubes and metallic connectors had given her a strange intuition that this was all related to magic.

“Magic Gathering Array… I want to call it a Magic Capacitor.” Gawain was saying something that a person of this era wouldn’t understand after mixing in some inexplicable terms. “These obsidian cubes are linked to the facility’s magic well. This hemisphere can gather powerful energy and produce a short-term, high-intensity energy flow. It will then go through this main duct”—Gawain pointed at a thick duct that was extending out from the hemisphere device and ultimately burrowed into the wall—”and transfer the energy to the required location.”

Heidi’s eyes were widened slightly. As a mage, she couldn’t help but feel excited for the ancient magical devices that were left behind from a thousand years ago. “Gathers powerful energy? So this is a weapon?”

“No. This is a type of subsidiary energy source for the research facility. It is normally used to provide a temporary ‘ignition’ for those facilities that require huge energy consumption. Like the Rainbow Lens or something.” Gawain shrugged his shoulders and continued, “During the Gondor Era, magic wasn’t just used for fighting… It might have been one of its important functions, but magic was also used for many other things. In my opinion, the mages should be putting their knowledge and magic into such research.”

“Research…,” Heidi mumbled while feeling befuddled.

She wasn’t unfamiliar with the term ‘research’ as mages were also known as researchers. Researching the mysteries of magic and analyzing the rules of runes were the work they were most proud of. But no matter what kind of research was undertaken, it would ultimately be on how to increase spellcasting power. A mage who didn’t work on increasing one’s spellcasting power would be viewed as a shoddy researcher.

Heidi instinctively felt that the ‘research’ that Gawain mentioned was probably not the kind of research that she was familiar with.

This old ancestor seemed to have the habit of putting his vision in a very wide and far angle. He would always mention ‘generalization’ and ‘mass-production’. However, the mages’ focus on themselves — and even deliberately hiding their research — seemed to be in the opposite direction of his thoughts.

Heidi shook her head, putting all these unimportant thoughts to the side, and heard Knight Byron asking, “Madam, is the magical response coming from this place?”

Heidi concentrated her senses for a moment and shook her head, “No, but it is already very near.”

“Note down this place,” Gawain spoke. “This ancient device is already completely nonfunctional. There is no need to consider repairing it… But it can be taken down to provide us at least half a ton of mithril and seven to eight tons of obsidian. There is also a large quantity of adamantine, purple copper, and purple steel.”

“Wait a moment…” Heidi quivered for a moment and looked at Gawain with astonished eyes. “Ancestor… Are you planning to break down this priceless ancient magical device?!”

“Why not?” Gawain looked at Heidi and replied, “This device requires an extremely pure magic to be ‘ignited’. Right now, there isn’t any corresponding technique to increase the purity of magic. Furthermore, even with the appropriate energy source, this thing has been in here for a thousand years, and the composition of the inside is already rotten to the core. Repairing it would be the same as constructing a new one.”

Heidi was startled before she spoke with a queer expression, “Ancestor might not feel a thing since you are from seven hundred years ago, but, to us, this thing is an antique…”

Gawain’s face trembled as he said, “This item was already an antique before I died… We need to view this practically. This thing doesn’t have any value just sitting here. Only by smelting it will it obtain new life.”

After hearing Gawain’s words, Heidi realized that nothing she said was going to be of use. As such, she could only nod with an agonized expression.

There was a saying, ‘The child doesn’t feel any pain when selling the grandfather’s fields.’ But why did it seem like the grandfather didn’t feel any pain when he sold his own fields too…

The magic gathering device being here meant that the research facility was very close. From linking this place with the magical response that Heidi had sensed earlier, the source might be a research device that was still operating.

Gawain calmly activated the knight’s ‘Danger Detection’ skill so as to defend against a possible magic trap or an ancient weapon that might still be operating.

As they continued to advance, he casually asked Heidi, “That’s right. I hear them addressing you as Madam instead of Young Lady or Lady… Are you married? Where is your husband?”

Gawain had been wanting to ask this question for a long time, but he wasn’t able to find a chance to ask.

Heidi paused for a moment. It was normal for the ancestor to be worried about her marriage, so she answered, “I’m not married. But when I reached adulthood, I converted my religion to the Magic Goddess Milmina and forsook my right of inheritance, so the right of inheritance was given to Rebecca’s father. According to clan laws, adult women who had forsaken their right of inheritance due to religious conversion are all viewed as married, which meant that they had devoted themselves to religion. Originally, I still had my nobility and was a baroness without succession rights. But there was a year when the territory was in difficulty and I… I sold my title to a merchant…”

Gawain nodded and responded with an “oh”. At the same time, the information about Magic Goddess Milmina had appeared in his mind.

Magic Goddess Milmina was also known as the Goddess of All Magic or the Mysterious Lady. She was believed to control the power of magic and was also the world’s first giant dragon and first elf master mage… As such, the legendary dragon-language magic and the current elf magic were also created by her.

She didn’t have an official religion or faith as almost all those of the spellcasting professions were her ‘shallow believers’. But less than 1% of the mages officially converted their religion to this goddess. This was probably related to the spellcasters’ general fondness for unraveling mysteries and a lack of divine beings to revere.

Among the 1% of believers, there were plenty like Heidi who simply wanted to show that they had forsaken their right of inheritance.

The Anzu Royal Clan’s Princess Veronica who converted her religion to the God of Holy Light also did it for similar reasons. But that princess wasn’t like the Cecil Clan’s descendants who were so disappointing that they had no choice but to sell their nobility status. As such, she was still addressed as a princess (or her corresponding clerical status).

After Heidi gave her reply, she was rather anxious and frightened. She was mainly afraid of two things. Firstly, it was whether the ancestor would be angry when he found out that the disappointing Cecil Clan’s descendants actually had to survive by selling their nobility titles. Secondly, it was whether the ancestor would be angry when he found out that she was still not married at such an age. Especially the second point… What if Gawain suddenly turned around and said, ‘Why are you still not married? When are you planning to marry? What do you think of that XXX person?’ and then press her to get married?

Oh my god! An ancestor from 700 years ago pressing her to get married would be much worse than her own parents pressing her to get married!

In fact, Heidi wasn’t really worried about getting a beating for selling her nobility title…

However, Gawain merely gave an “oh” reply and didn’t say anything else.

Heidi’s wild imagination didn’t persist for long as she finally sensed that the magical response was in front of her.