Sword of Dawn

Page 428

"Now, I was thrown on a huge iceberg floating in the sea, and the dragon was with me. Just now, we finally solved the misunderstanding, this 'lady' apparently misunderstood that I was going to commit suicide by rushing into the eternal storm , and I briefly introduced my adventures and my desperate plan to return home... It can be seen that this dragon lady is a little frustrated and lost.

"But I'm [-] times more frustrated and lost than her!!

"Now the only thing that prevents me from fighting this evil dragon is my reason as a human and my restraint as a noble——I definitely can't beat her.

"Besides, I would like to mention very casually and nonchalantly, the name of this evil dragon—her name is 'Melita Pernia', and she claims to be a member of the Council of Tarrond..."

Gao Wen's hand trembled, and he almost tore a page out of this ancient and precious original book.

He never expected that he would see Miss My Little Pony's name in this situation! !After a long time, the dragon that Mordir Wilde encountered when he was wandering in the Arctic Circle 600 years ago turned out to be that guy? !

And at that time, Melita claimed to be a member of the Tarrond Council... Shouldn't she be the senior agent of Mithril Vault?Why is there another jury?Is there any connection between this jury and Mithril Treasury?

For a moment, Gao Wen was curious about the society of Tarrond and concerned about Melita Purnia, but soon his thirst for knowledge made him focus on Mordir's travel notes again. Above—the adventurer Duke’s trip to the North Pole obviously has a follow-up, and the follow-up content seems to be even more exciting:

"...After a period of embarrassment, the dragon and I had to start discussing how to deal with the following things... Fortunately, despite her rough behavior, the dragon lady is still reasonable, and she still has guilt. Xin... well, I can take back my assessment of her 'dragon', she does feel very sorry for the loss she caused...

"I discussed with her first to see if she could help me return to the human world—it shouldn't be too difficult for a giant dragon to fly across the ocean, but she said that she didn't have permission to go to Loren Continent for the time being. Some kind of application and assessment system was mentioned. It seems that if a giant dragon like her wants to go to another continent, she needs to apply to a higher level in the dragon society and wait for approval... This is really unexpected or even surprising. Bard People have always described giant dragons as ferocious and brutal, barbaric creatures similar to some high-level monsters. They have never considered that such highly intelligent creatures should also have their own society and civilization, so I am sure now that human beings' wild guesses There are too many deviations... I can't help but wonder about the daily life of these giant dragons.

"After that, I asked this dragon lady if she could find me a place to stay. I think it should be possible. If all the dragons live in this extreme north, they should at least have a place to stay. ... Settlements or countries, no matter how bad things are, Ms. Dragon should have her own dragon lair, right? That's better than continuing to drift on the cold ice ocean...

"However, things didn't go as planned. This giant dragon named Melita rejected my proposal. She said that if the upper echelons of the jury found out what happened here, it would likely affect her financial situation for the next half a year. So she can't take me to Tarrond...Damn it, why does the dragon have to think about economic issues?! Can't they just go to the human continent to kidnap princesses and princes?!

"In short, my plan to add an important addition to my adventure notes seems to have failed, and this dragon lady obviously doesn't intend to take me to visit the dragon's kingdom... But the situation is not too bad, because this 'Miss Melita' is responsible after all - although she seems to be more concerned about her own financial situation, at least she didn't choose to leave me on this iceberg to fend for myself in order to keep her own income.

"She said she could take me to a 'foothold' near Tarrond... That foothold doesn't sound like a giant dragon lives there, but at least it's much stronger than an iceberg floating on the sea...

"Frankly speaking, I don't trust this dragon very much. Although she is quite polite, her acting style is really suspicious-if my magic power is still in full swing, I think I would rather drive the dragon under my feet. Iceberg is going to challenge the eternal storm again, but...there are not so many 'ifs' in the world.

"I had to admit my weakness, I had to admit to myself ... I had no choice.

"I agreed to Miss Melita's proposal, and then... hung on her paws, I started to fly further north.

"It needs to be clarified here: more than half of this note is written on the claws of a giant dragon-this is probably an unprecedented 'adventure achievement'. Which adventurer has an experience like mine Woolen cloth?

"...After flying for a period of time, when I felt that my magic power was starting to malfunction, something else finally appeared in my field of vision.

"First I vaguely saw a very vast landmass, which seemed to be a continent, a continent unknown to human beings in the extreme north. I couldn't see it clearly, but it seemed to be surrounded by some kind of huge Protected by the barrier, there is a lush scenery inside the barrier, and when I was about to take a closer look, the dragon took me to fly in another direction—if my sense of direction is correct, it should be towards that continent Northwest. We flew in this direction for a while before we finally arrived at our destination——

"A giant... metal tower standing on the sea."

Chapter 0903 Giant Tower

Metal giant tower! !

When Gao Wen saw this word, Gawain's pupils shrank subconsciously. He suddenly raised his head, looked at the map hanging not far away, and scanned the southwest, southeast, and true north directions of Loren Continent one by one— — On the Wangyang in the southwest and the "New World" in the southeast, the schematic icons of the two towers have been roughly marked, while the area near Tarrond in the due north direction is still blank.

There exists a giant metal tower!There is a third "tower" in this world!

Countless questions suddenly popped up in Gao Wen's mind - what are these mysterious towers for?Are they all the legacy of the Godkiller Fleet?Are they still functioning today?In those towers...what the hell is there?

Suppressing the questions that kept popping up in his mind, he quickly turned his attention back to Mordir's narrative. Between the 600-year-old pages, this great adventurer with countless legendary experiences was writing a paragraph. Incredible journey --

"...I was so overwhelmed by the sight in front of me that I couldn't speak for a long time—all the gods in this world and all my ancestors! It is definitely not something that humans can create, nor is it any one in this world that has been created. Something that the known race could have created—was that really a tower, or a pillar meant to run through this tiny planet beneath our feet?

"It stands unparalleled on the sea, and its location should be on the west side of that mysterious continent (I'm not sure, my recent sense of direction has been very confused), and its appearance has a metallic, pale color. With silver light, under the sunlight at dusk, the whole tower is filled with some kind of "divine" magnificence. It seems to be composed of countless columns and geometric structures, and many connections can be seen on the complex shell It seems to have stood here for millions of years, so that its upper part is scarred and mottled with vicissitudes, while its bottom sits on a base also made of metal—the The base is so huge that it can even be regarded as a giant island, I can clearly see gray-white seawater sediments piled up on its surface, and there is a huge amount of solid ice between the huge metal structures..."

While reading carefully, Gao Wen slowly turned to the next page, and a sketch that was obviously drawn in haste came into his eyes!

Mordir Wilde actually left behind a sketch!

On the old paper that had turned yellow or even blackened, Gawain saw a tall tower with an absolutely weird style in the eyes of humans in this era. It really stood on the sea as Mordir said, and it had metal walls. On the base, there are many complex and exquisite external structures with unknown uses on its surface.

Gao Wen was instantly attracted by the hand-drawing, and he read it several times carefully until it was completely imprinted in his mind.

Frankly speaking, he couldn't see any additional information from the hand-drawn manuscript - lacking the necessary technology and knowledge accumulation, this precious hand-drawn manuscript is just a picture, but at least in terms of style, it is similar to the high-level Some of the models that Wen saw on the holographic miniatures of the Sky Station have similarities, which can prove that they are indeed the legacy of the former "God Killing Fleet".And as for more... After all, Mordir Wilde is just a human mage, and has never been in contact with those facilities in space. The sketches he left may be accurate in general, but the details may not be reliable— ——He only used his powerful memory to describe the external structure of the tower, and there would inevitably be mistakes and omissions in it, which did not have a high reference value.

Afterwards, Gao Wen continued to look down:

"...I tried my best to remember what I saw in the sky and described it. I don't know what value this picture will have in the future-I just think that I may never have a second chance in my lifetime. It is very difficult for other human beings to have the same experience as me, so I want to record as much as possible, and I only hope that these things can be helpful to future generations.

"The dragon lady who called herself Melita put me on the pedestal of this giant tower—or on this steel island. She pointed out a route for me, saying that I could enter a certain place around the tower. Some open areas, some abandoned buildings can shelter from the wind and the sun... But she obviously doesn't intend to take me to those shelters in person, and I can obviously feel nervous from her attitude... It seems that she is doing Something that was taboo, or something that frightened her in the tower.

"This made me extremely curious - I am very concerned about what can make such a powerful dragon deeply afraid, so I asked, and Miss Dragon's answer is intriguing -

"'The dragons want to come here, but God doesn't allow it. I have taken a great risk by sending you here. If I go one step further, the trouble I will encounter is not just a simple economic problem'—this is Her words.

"She mentioned a 'god', so the dragons obviously believe in some kind of god, and this god also forbids the dragons to enter the giant tower in front of me... which is very interesting, because this tower is located near the kingdom of dragons, When I stand here and look far away, I can even vaguely see that continent...the forbidden area at the door of my house? I'm getting more and more curious about the dragon...

"Of course, Miss Julong refused to answer any more questions, and I couldn't force an answer from her.

"Now, I'm alone again - that Miss Dragon is going back to Dragon Kingdom, she said she will find a way to apply for permission to go to the human world, and then send me back - she said she broke my' Therefore, I will be responsible to the end. To be honest, my impression of this lady has completely changed now, even though she was a bit reckless, sabotaged my plan, put me in danger, and was a little too concerned about her own financial problems ', but this does not affect that she is essentially a responsible and frank good person... a good dragon, and it is obviously inappropriate to continue to call it a bad dragon.

"And most importantly, judging from the current situation, whether I can return to the human world smoothly...I'm afraid I can only count on this Miss Melita.

"Besides, before leaving, Ms. Dragon promised to bring me some water and food as soon as possible... I am very much looking forward to this, especially the former. As a curious person, I am very curious about what the dragons eat on weekdays. What, I don't expect them to be very rich-as long as they are no longer fish. Of course, if I can, I hope to have some wine..."

Gao Wen flipped through the records on the pages of the book, couldn't help but muttered with a smile: "The sense of humor and optimism of this 'great explorer' is really impressive..."

In a short record after this, Modil wrote about his small-scale exploration experience on the "Island of Steel", and he successfully found a shelter: on the base of the giant metal tower, there seemed to be many abandoned The facilities, with their doors open, are solid and complete, and they are perfect for sheltering from wind and rain.Modil also specifically mentioned that these facilities seem to have never been disturbed, and they are full of dazzling ancient devices, but everything is beyond his understanding. He tried his best to describe the shape and shape of some of these facilities with sketches. features, and these sketches... each one is extremely precious to Gao Wen.

In his notes after this, Mordir mentioned what happened after Melita returned from the Dragon Kingdom:

"...Later that day, that Miss Dragon returned to the Iron Island as promised—she landed on the edge of the island, still persistently refusing to take a step forward, it seems that the so-called 'forbidden by the gods' The effect on her was very profound. She brought packaged food and water, judging from the size and quantity, enough to consume me for many days, but I did not open the package in front of her, which is obviously inappropriate .

"Miss Julong told me that she still needs to work harder before she can get permission to go to the human world. Because of some kind of... shift mechanism, her application seems to be not very smooth. I can only express my understanding of this and say Urge her to settle this matter as soon as possible—I have been far away from the human world for too long, if this continues, I am afraid that the whole country will announce the death of Duke Mordir Wilde...

"After a brief conversation, Miss Dragon was about to leave again. This time she said that she might be away for many days, but she also promised that she would come back before my supplies ran out. Before leaving, she said that I could leave in the giant tower Walking around at random, there is nothing dangerous here, but there is only one thing, she reminded me very solemnly——

"Nothing can be taken from the tower, especially the 'knowledge' here.

"Her seriousness was unprecedented, and even a little frightened me. I couldn't help but curiously asked her why, especially the meaning of the second half of her sentence-how can something like 'knowledge' be 'carried'?

"She didn't explain in detail, but just said something very seriously - 'There are legacy of the sailors in the tower, although they have been sealed, but still need to avoid the risk of leakage'.

"To be honest, her answer made me even more suspicious, because I can clearly hear that this giant tower is not only a forbidden place for the Dragon Clan, but also a place where they strictly guard and isolate it from the outside world. What is in the tower? ...That thing is absolutely not allowed to be leaked to outsiders, but since this is the case...why did this Miss Dragon bring me here, and even specifically mentioned that I am allowed to walk and explore here?

"This obvious contradictory words and deeds made it difficult for me to restrain my curiosity. I couldn't help expressing my doubts and asked her why she brought me, a foreign race, here since there are secrets in the tower that cannot be revealed to foreign races. , After bringing it here, I specially exhorted these many contradictory words.

"After I asked these questions, an incomprehensible scene happened—Miss Dragon, who was normal a second ago, suddenly widened her eyes, and then she seemed to be in great pain, and then she Started screaming, and kept mumbling some inaudible and incomprehensible words, I only heard a few words here and there, she mentioned something like 'reverse tide', 'mind deflection', 'leaking' Something. Although I don't know what happened, but I know that all this is caused by my inappropriate questioning. I tried to remedy it, tried to appease the dragon in front of me, but it didn't work...

"After a few minutes of confusion, she suddenly came back...or at least seemed to come back. Her eyes came back to life and she looked around for a moment, disconcertingly ignoring the place where I was the whole time. Until the end, when she suddenly soared into the sky and flew towards the blurry continent in the distance... She didn't even look at me again.

"It's as if she has completely forgotten what happened here, completely forgotten that she brought me here! Even when I yelled at the back and threw arcane missiles into the sky, she didn't even look back!

"... Has she really recovered?

"A great uneasiness welled up in me, and I woke up from the anticipation of going home, and realized that I was still in a dangerous and strange environment, where... strange things, this tower, these people living in the far north Dragon, this sea, this side of the Eternal Storm... has weirdness!"

Gawain stopped slowly, his brows furrowed a little bit, just like Mordir Wilde 600 years ago, he also had countless questions in an instant, and he even felt vaguely uneasy.From the written description, he can be sure that Melita's state at that time was indeed abnormal. That state made him think of the other party's reaction when he asked her some secrets about the gods, but after careful comparison, he felt that Not exactly the same - the "symptoms" recorded by Mordir are obviously more serious and more dangerous!

Moreover, Modil's records also mentioned that Melita muttered words such as "against the tide" at that time. This kind of muttering in a state of mental out-of-control... is also extremely abnormal!

Gawain frowned, tapped his fingers on the table unconsciously, and expressed the same confusion as Modil:

That giant tower near Tarrond... what's in it?

It is obviously full of weirdness, what is the connection between this weirdness... and the "Battle Against the Tide" in ancient times?

With doubts that cannot be ignored, he continued to look down, and in the second half of the note, Mordir's bizarre experience continued:

"...I'm very worried about the situation of that dragon lady, but there's nothing I can do - the flying technique can't catch up with a flying dragon, she didn't stop at all, she has already left at full speed. I can only watch from a distance The direction in which she disappeared, I hope nothing happened to her.

"I took the supplies left behind by the other party and returned to the shelter I found on the 'island'. In this temporary shelter, I can at least get away from the disturbing sound of the tide and the cold wind, and get some quiet thinking Opportunity.

"I opened up the food and water, and they looked... a bit unexpected. I've never seen anything like it, and I wasn't even sure if they were food at first - from the size, they seemed to be prepared for humans Yes, the suspected food items are packaged in small metal boxes, the boxes are well sealed, tightly seamed, with colorful patterns printed on the surface, and the water is packed in bottles, the bottles look like some kind of The soft 'crystal' is extremely tough.

"The ingenious and quirky way of packing...it's eye-opening, it looks like I'll have to figure out how to open these boxes and bottles to get the food and water inside, but it's not that difficult - if you don't think about keeping the integrity If so, a sharp ice blade can handle everything.

"I opened one of the dishes and it was seasoned fish...

"Well, this is not the time to complain, fish is fish, at least...they're spiced.

"That's all for today's notes. I think... I need to think about my future while eating."

Chapter 0904 Abnormal Record

The information revealed by Mordir Wilde in the details of the notes aroused Gawain's interest.

No matter how you look at it, the food and water that the 600-year-old adventurer mentioned looked like...canned and bottled water.

This insignificant detail made Gawain think extra. Although he also realized that the dragon is an intelligent race with a history longer than human beings, so it may have a civilization that is stronger than all countries on the mainland, but until this time, Only then did he start to seriously think about the height of such a civilization that can ignore the continuous development of the demon tide——

Canned food and bottled water are in themselves very inconspicuous, and Cecil can easily produce them at the moment (in fact, similar products have already appeared), but the cans that Melita brought to Mordir are a symbol, one that can trigger The symbol of Gawain's deep thinking.His thoughts could not help but expand in this direction, and even gradually extended to "do dragons eat in human form or dragon form?" Huge consumption", but soon, his scattered thoughts gathered together, and pointed to a problem that he had been ignoring all along:

A race like the dragon race that is not affected by the magic tide and obviously has the same curiosity as humans... They have developed for so many years, why haven't they entered the space age? !

Is it because they don't yearn for the stars?Or is it that the dragons are highly dependent on the planetary environment and encountered a bottleneck in the process of leaving the planet?Or is it simply that the technology tree is not right so that they have not been able to break through the atmosphere after countless years?

Vaguely, Gao Wen felt that this might be a very critical question, but no one here could answer his question.

"Ask Melita next time..." After thinking for a moment, he whispered to himself, "This time her name appears in this travel book... It is indeed time to ask her."

As he spoke, his eyes returned to Mordir Wild's written records:

"...I spent the next few days exploring most of the Iron Island—I mean the accessible places. This ruin has been abandoned for many years, and there is a sense of loneliness everywhere. atmosphere, but these ancient buildings themselves are extremely solid, and after experiencing wind and rain for many years, they are still indestructible. Except for those unimportant structures, the materials of these pillars, foundations, and roofs are better than I have seen. Any man-made material that has been used must be strong and have excellent magic resistance...

"...On X, X, the day that Miss Julong agreed to return, the uneasy premonition before became a reality—she didn't come.

"On X, X, after waiting for an extra day, Melita still didn't show up...I couldn't help but think of her abnormal behavior when she left before, her poor mental state...It seems that she really forgot Yes, even mentally blocked the memory related to me directly. This is unbelievable but the only possible explanation. I can't help but be very concerned about what happened to that dragon lady to cause such a disturbing scene. result.

"I don't know other giant dragons, so I can't tell if this is some kind of 'disease' of the dragon race, but I suspect that all of this has something to do with the Iron Island itself. This is a forbidden place, a place that the dragon race fears... Now that I'm left here, as a poorer guy, I'm afraid I don't have the right to worry about the health of a dragon. I have to solve my own survival first.

"There are still some food in the iron box and some water in the bottle. It won't be a problem to last for three days, and even if they are exhausted, I can continue to get supplies from the sea. As a powerful magician, I don't worry about it at all. Died of hunger and thirst, unless the disorderly turbulence washes over the island, I can probably survive here for a long time... But I don't want to die alone in this weird ghost place!

"I conceived some plans to leave the Iron Island and return to the human world, but before implementing those plans, I decided to explore the entire ruins first, hoping to get some resources or other helpful things... Well, I can't Lying to myself is a damned curiosity, Mordir Wilder is a daring and unrepentant fellow, I just can't control my urge to take risks!

"Now, I've walked around the entire island, and there's only one place I haven't explored...that huge and awe-inspiring metal giant tower."

From here down, Mordir Wilde's handwriting suddenly trembled violently, as if he had entered a very excited state when recording these contents——

"...I had to document what I saw, the astounding, unbelievable!

"Today is X, X, and as expected, Melita did not show up, and I have fully recovered after a night's rest. Today is the day of action. After bringing a few supplies, I will come to At the foot of the giant tower - it is not difficult to find its entrance. In fact, I found several gates at the base of the tower as early as the previous exploration, and the most exciting thing is that some of them are not completely sealed. is slightly open.

"The first time I passed through the open door, I entered its interior, and after passing through some dark and abandoned corridors, I heard voices and saw lights - O Myrmina, Goddess of Magic! The inside of the tower turned out to be alive!

"Well, that's not accurate. What I mean is, the inside of this tower...is still functioning! After being abandoned for many years, with the mottled, old and lifeless exterior, its interior is actually It's been running!

"I saw a cylindrical hall, brightly lit, with great pillars running through its dome and floor, and innumerable twinkling things running around the hall, buzzing or clicking; in the center of the hall was a Huge pillars, made of metal and crystal, are hollow inside, and occasionally some kind of very fast flash of light can be seen flashing through them; in many places in the hall, there are floating magic projections, and those illusions are constantly swimming. Walking with a lot of characters and geometric figures, it was a text that I didn't recognize, and of course it was a text that I didn't recognize!

"Some kind of ecstasy-like emotion suddenly surged up, and I suddenly felt that my failed expedition seemed suddenly worthwhile-what an amazing discovery! The prehistoric relics that are still functioning, the cultural heritage unknown to mankind It was right in front of my eyes, showing its greatness with a shocking gesture. I couldn't help chanting the name of the goddess of magic aloud, more reverent than ever. Of course, the goddess didn't make any response. No, but I didn't care either... I came to the center of the hall, came to the pillar, and then made an even more astonishing discovery.

"This entire pillar... I don't know if my eyes were dazzled, or my agitation spoiled my judgment, but it seems to be made of 'Eternal Slate'! The entire pillar is!

"I have seen the eternal stone slabs they treasured in the Church of the Holy Light. It is only one foot square, and the edges are broken. They are protected by those priests as treasures, and they are even pressed in the deepest part of the tombs of the popes. What a precious thing it is. But here, in front of me, there is a pillar like a bell tower, and it seems to be made of that material!

"I am writing these words with excitement. Now, I am going to try to touch that ancient metal—if they really have something in common with the Eternal Slate, what kind of reaction should my touch cause..."

After reading this, Gao Wen suddenly frowned.

Mordir Wilder's behavior... is a bit out of the ordinary.

Although he is indeed a very courageous adventurer, he also has an impulsive side because of his exploring heart, but his behavior in that giant metal tower...was a bit too impulsive and reckless, which is not at all like The judgment of a wise and knowledgeable powerful magician when facing the unknown.

Moreover, the violently shaking handwriting, the slightly exaggerated way of writing...all of this seems to be a bit wrong, as if another consciousness is suddenly mixed into Modil's behavior, and this consciousness is secretly changing little by little The adventurer's actions, but the latter is unaware of it!

But since this notebook has been handed down, and Mordir Wilde returned safely and continued to take risks for many years, Gawain felt that there must be a corresponding explanation or reflection left by Mordir (if not, then The situation is terrible), so he calmed down and continued to look down——

"...When my hand touched that pillar, all doubts disappeared.

"There is no doubt that it is the Eternal Slate, or another large-scale 'artifact' made of the same material as the Eternal Slate.

"I felt some knowledge enter my mind, this place suddenly became familiar, the words floating in the projection became recognizable, and I knew the name of this place instantly...ah, it's called' No. [-] Monitoring Tower', and another name called 'Arctic Foundry Center', it is a factory, a factory used to produce weapons...

"I also know that there are two other monitoring towers in the world, but they are not factories, but some kind of... passages? Bridges? I don't know the specifics of those knowledge..."

The words on the note suddenly became more chaotic and scribbled, and the trembling lines seemed to contain some kind of madness. Gao Wen frowned tightly. Next to those words, there was a note left by the scholar in charge of repairing ancient books—— - Jumbled and meaningless letters, unreadable at this stage.

Among these chaotic texts, Gao Wen only found a few useful descriptions:

"...I know how to use this machine! I know... I also found casting materials, and the former users hadn't had time to fully consume them...I have to record how to use it...(Unable to recognized text)!

"Knowledge! Precious knowledge!! I have to write it down (messy strokes), I can't miss a single word!

"I'm going to build something to prove I've been here, oh... I have an idea... (messy scribble)"

Every paragraph of text is mixed with a lot of traces of smearing, and this disturbing mark seems to reveal some kind of... resistance, as if Mordir kept writing something, and then smeared it again and again, After a few paragraphs of text that could barely be read, Gao Wen suddenly saw a few huge letters on the next page that seemed to penetrate the back of the paper:

"leave!!"

On a whole page, only these letters are written on it.

Gawain's eyes were attracted by these letters, and his eyebrows couldn't help trembling. He was [-]% sure that Mordir Wilde was in trouble after entering that tower—his behavior was definitely out of control In the end, but not completely out of control, his remaining sanity and almost reflexive "recording behavior" left these disturbing words, and in the end, he was extremely lucky to get rid of this state.