Sword of Dawn

Page 218

The mirror seemed to be a magical item, it was engraved with complex and mysterious symbols and patterns, even the smooth mirror surface was no exception, Mary just glanced at it quickly, then turned her head away——

The mirror was made by the mentor before he left, but none of the apprentices knew what the function of the mirror was. The old mage didn’t allow anyone to touch the mirror, or even look at it from a distance. Mary only knew that the mentor had to take out the mirror almost every day. He looked in the mirror a few times—and every time he looked at it, his mood became better, and even his temper seemed to be changed by the mirror.

So no matter what the specific function of the mirror is, it must be a good thing.

Daniel didn't care what thoughts were going on in his apprentice's head, he just looked at the mysterious symbols and patterns on the mirror seriously, immersed in the gentle sound of waves and the pleasant sense of spiritual relaxation, and used them to soothe Looking at his slightly tense spirit—it turns out that these mysterious symbols bestowed by the master are very effective, and even if they are transferred from the wall of the room to the small copper mirror, their effect has not weakened at all.

With the help of these symbols and patterns, he completely relaxed, and then let his spirit diffuse, sensing the outside situation.

The fog has dissipated a lot, but there is still a layer of mist covering the sky and the earth-this is the case after winter in the central Typhon area, even when the sun is shining, there is often mist, and this mist is exactly the "fog" The origin of the word "moon"—in the depths of the mist, the majestic city wall of the imperial capital Aldernan is approaching.

How long has it been since you left the city?

Over ten years?Or twenty years?

Daniel couldn't remember clearly for a while, but he knew that he had indeed been away for a long time. In the past ten or twenty years, he had changed from a great magician who was in the limelight in the Royal Wizards Association to a self-exiled, A lonely and gloomy black wizard who lives in the countryside, he doesn't know how many people in the imperial capital still remember him, but presumably those who pushed him out, laughed at him, and even entrapd him secretly will not forget...

The great magician Daniel, who is obsessed with the theory of neural interaction magic, but has achieved nothing for half his life, is back——back with the master's will.

On the streets of Aldernan shrouded in mist, three black carriages rolled over the wet and flat stone road, heading towards the direction of the Royal Mages Association.

At the moment when the giant sun passed the highest point in the sky, Daniel brought his apprentice Mary to the headquarters of the Royal Wizards Association.

The other apprentices had already been sent to settle their luggage and clean their quarters—in Daniel’s view, those apprentices who could not keep up with the progress for more than half a year with the great knowledge bestowed by their masters were all mediocre, and it would be embarrassing for themselves to bring them out. Mary is more or less talented in mathematics, which can be brought out to the world.

The majestic black façade and multi-story spire of the Royal Society of Mages rose through the mist, and the solemn and straight lines of the façade gave the impression of a serious and prim old mage, the "stone mage" Standing at the end of the street in Aldernan wearing a robe, the spire on the building is the magic hat of the old mage—Daniel looked up at the roof of the headquarters of the Mage Association, and then threw the meaningless memories in his mind to aside.

Mary wanted to knock on the door, but she was stopped by her mentor before she could even take a step. The young female mage from the countryside was surprised to see a slight glow floating on the surface of the dark wooden door, and then emerged from the glow An old face appeared: "Visitor, explain your identity."

"Daniel, Daniel Fred," said the old mage with ease, "the last wise man in your musty old house."

"Oh—that's a familiar word, haha," the demon guarding the gate let out a hoarse laugh, "Arrogant young people, middle-aged people, old people...self-exiled wizard, what are you doing back here?"

Daniel's tone was cold and calm: "Windsor Mapel knows, go ask her."

The black door fell silent, and after a while, the old face squirmed again: "President Windsor Mapel invited you to the East Tower—but the girl next to you can't go in."

"Mary is my apprentice, and she can go in—tell Windsor Mapel that I am as impatient as I was then."

This time, the door was silent for a longer time, until Mary felt a little uneasy, she heard the response from the incredible magic door: "You can come in."

The heavy magic door opened slowly, and Mary raised her legs to follow the footsteps of the old mage with full of curiosity and a little nervousness.

The doors to the headquarters of the Royal Mages' Society closed behind them.

Following the route in his memory, Daniel walked forward in this huge and complex building. The corridors and rooms were all the same as in his memory. The spar lamps, the complicated decorative patterns on the pillars, the reliefs on the roof... These luxurious and meaningless things show the foundation of this mage association and the unimproved taste of transcendents, but they have remained unchanged for many years In the corridors, the faces of people passing and going are quite different from those in the past.

There are many people in the Mage Association, but at least half of their faces are unfamiliar. They wear luxurious robes, pointed hats or expensive dharma rings and crowns. They walk slowly in the brightly lit classical corridors with extraordinary bearing , They maintained a certain sense of refusal to be thousands of miles away, but they couldn't help secretly looking at Daniel, who was wearing a black robe and leading an unremarkable female apprentice, walking swaggeringly in the corridor.

The "shabby" appearance of Mary and Daniel is indeed very unusual in this stately and luxurious building, but what is even more unusual is Daniel's proud and confident posture - the old mage has not changed his dress for many years The artificial nerve cord wriggled in his robe, making a creepy rubbing sound. This weird and terrifying creation was unusual even for most mages with eccentric personalities. It naturally aroused everyone's curiosity. Concern, but in these concerns, the old mage just walked forward, as if walking in his own back garden.

Mary had never seen such a gesture from her mentor.

The mages around cast curious, concerned, questioning and examining gazes here. These gazes made the young female mage a little nervous and uneasy. She knew who these people were, and they all had outstanding talents in magic. She also has a very high status in the group of mages, representing the peak of Typhon's magic power, a respectable big shot, but she herself is just a low-level little mage from a small place in the countryside. Under normal circumstances, she would even I don't have the qualifications to walk side by side with these big men...

"Raise your head," the tutor's voice suddenly came to her ears, and Mary Jiling woke up suddenly. "If you walk with your head down again, I will turn your neck into a stone, and you will not be able to lower your head for the rest of your life."

Mary swallowed, and she managed to raise her head, seeing that the long corridor had finally come to an end.

A wooden door with golden and red patterns and rune radiance floating on its surface stood there.

Daniel stopped in front of the door, and Mary also stopped, and the runes on the door lit up, and a small crystal floated out of a hole in the door, circling around the two of them, Then the door opened automatically.

Behind the door is a spacious and bright room, which is completely different from the narrow, gloomy and depressing mage laboratory in Mary's impression. In the center of this room, illuminated by magic spar lamps, with a circle of bookshelves and large French windows, a semicircular The large desk was facing the door, and a middle-aged woman in a blue dress mage robe stood in front of the desk, as if she had been waiting there for a long time.

Chapter 0515 Daniel's past

That is one of the most powerful spellcasters in the Typhon Empire, the supreme ruler of the Royal Mages Association, the Chief Magic Advisor of His Majesty the Emperor, Ms. Windsor Mapel, Duke of Bibi.

She is much more ordinary than Mary imagined.

Mary carefully looked at the big man standing in front of the desk with an almost awe-inspiring mood. She thought that the legendary powerful mage would be a more distinctive lady—perhaps wearing a starry robe and full of magic. The majestic old lady, or she may have changed her body age with magic, a glamorous beauty, but neither, Windsor Maple looks like an ordinary middle-aged woman, thirty to At the age of 40, although there is still a moving beauty between her eyebrows and eyes, the traces of time have already appeared on her face. She is wearing an ordinary purple robe, and her long lavender hair is casually tied behind her head. She just stood there quietly, without even showing any momentum.

Then Mary saw her mentor move, and the old mage walked up to Windsor Mapel in such a leisurely manner, and looked at him with a disrespectful, even disrespectful gaze. Under the stunned stares of the apprentices, the old mage nodded: "You have finally reached this position."

"You are still my mentor," Windsor Mapel said with a complicated look. Under Mary's astonished gaze, she bent down to the old mage, "You will always be."

The old mage waved his hand: "But you are not my apprentice anymore."

Mary suddenly took a deep breath—for a short while, she even forgot to breathe because of her shock, and the sound of her breathing caught Daniel's attention, and the old mage beckoned to her: "Come here, Say hello to Windsor Maple, President of the Royal Society of Mages."

Mary stepped forward dazedly, and before she could speak, the formidable lady glanced at her--as if the lady hadn't noticed such a stranger in the room until now:" who is she?"

"My apprentice," Daniel said with a chuckle, "is less talented than you, but smarter than you."

This was the first time in Mary's life that she heard a compliment from Daniel—although it wasn't addressed to her specifically.

"Your...apprentice?" Windsor Mapel said in disbelief, but she quickly recovered and nodded to Mary, "Hello, I am Windsor Maple, the first teacher of Daniel's mentor An apprentice. Since you are also an apprentice of the mentor, you don't have to care about my status as the president."

"I...my name is Mary," Mary said with trepidation, "it's... an honor to meet you."

Windsor Mapel frowned, and asked subconsciously: "No surname? Ah, I didn't mean to offend."

"I picked her up in the countryside, where did she get her surname," Daniel said casually, and gave Mary a slightly dissatisfied look, and waved his hands impatiently, "No progress—go stand by and don't interrupt."

Mary backed away obediently immediately, and although she was full of questions, she closed her mouth tightly and dared not say a word.

On the other hand, Windsor Maple took a deep look at Mary, who was not an excellent mage in all aspects and had a weak magical response in her body, and then turned to Daniel solemnly: "Teacher, I have been Looking for you..."

"As the president of the Royal Mages Association, if you really wanted to find it, you would have found it long ago," Daniel let out a hoarse low laugh, "and why are you looking for me? Let me continue to accept those mentally retarded ridicules? Or invite people from the association to come To visit a famous freak?"

Windsor Mapel's face changed slightly, and she immediately shook her head: "Teacher, you know what I mean, no one underestimates your attainments in the field of magic, it's just your neural interaction magic..."

The chairman of the association stopped suddenly in the middle of his words.

She stared wide-eyed, staring at something in her sight—behind Daniel's black robe, restless artificial nerve cords were wriggling, and several slender, shimmering electric lights looked like flesh and metal. The twisted thing formed by mutual fusion extended from the hem of the robe, and slowly swayed in Windsor Mapel's sight, like a blind digger, with a certain blasphemous atmosphere.

The powerful spellcaster exclaimed in a low voice: "You...you...have you succeeded?!"

"I failed, but I also succeeded. Those idiots who stick to the rules probably won't admit my success, but I don't care - the theory of neural interaction magic is meaningful after all. I can break through the limitations of my talents and do what I couldn't do before what happened," Daniel said in a low voice, "Windsor Mapel, we are not here to talk about this today."

"...Yes, we're not talking about this," Windsor Mapel was silent for a moment, before sighing slightly, "Master, I couldn't believe it when I received your letter, but you actually came—— Are you really willing to return to the Mage Association and serve Typhon again?"

Daniel snorted: "Hmph, I will work for Typhon, but I'm not interested in this association anymore, as far as I know, our emperor didn't require mages who responded to the recruitment to join the association, did he? "

"...That's true." Windsor Mapel frowned, then adjusted her posture, and looked at Daniel solemnly, "Your attainments in the fields of mathematics and ancient Gondor magic are unmatched, even if you don't I recommend that His Majesty the Emperor has also heard of your reputation. He will be very happy that a wise man like you is willing to serve the empire again. I will immediately order someone to prepare your laboratory and mage tower again - all these years The association has kept them."

"No need, I'm not used to working in places with too many people - people in the Royal Mages District probably don't want to live on the same block with a transformed freak," Daniel sneered, shaking his head, " I have already found a place to stay, and I plan to rebuild a laboratory by myself, you know my habits, I only trust the experimental environment I created, and I don't want anyone to intervene and disturb."

Windsor Mapel looked into Daniel's eyes. Although the latter was much older than she remembered, even a little abnormally old, and his temper and personality seemed to have changed a lot, but the persistence in the eyes was different from that of Daniel. The stubbornness was still exactly the same as in her memory, she gave up her plan to continue persuading, but nodded slightly: "I understand, I will arrange it according to your intention."

After saying this, Windsor Mapel paused for a moment. With a slight hesitation, she looked at Daniel and said, "Teacher, where have you lived in the past few years?"

"Is this part of the investigation?"

Windsor Mapel did not hesitate this time: "This is my duty."

"That's a good answer—I've been in Typhon these years. In the southwest, the Royal Mages Association can investigate at will, including anyone I have contacted. You can investigate. Are there any questions?"

Windsor shook her head: "Not anymore."

"Okay, I'm leaving then—this place isn't comfortable to be in."

Daniel called Mary who was still in a daze beside him, turned around and walked towards the gate, but at this moment, the president of the association suddenly spoke again: "Teacher, you really don't have to leave back then. The people who passed you were nothing but mediocre people, and now they have all..."

Daniel stopped and looked back at Windsor: "Because I'm jealous of you."

Windsor Mapel's voice stopped abruptly. She stood there with a complex expression on her face. After a few seconds, she broke the silence: "Teacher, you know that I don't believe it."

"But it's true—maybe many magicians with mediocre qualifications would think that it's an honor for their apprentices to be promoted to legend, but I'm never proud of it, because I know that you were promoted to legend just because You have such a talent, it is not my credit, it cannot be made up for by hard work, cannot be changed by any acquired means, and even has nothing to do with the teacher's personal ability, any mediocre and crappy mage will be your Any mentor can make you a legend, but even the goddess of magic can't let me break through to a high level."

After Daniel finished speaking quietly, he turned around and left the association president's room without a pause.

Windsor Maple quietly watched the stooped figure of the old mage disappear behind the door, without saying a word.

She knew that her former teacher was not jealous of herself, what he really resented was the iron rule of "talent determines everything".

He doesn't mind that his apprentice can be promoted to legend early, and he doesn't mind that the apprentice can far surpass himself in magic attainments, but he can't accept that all of this is determined by talent, and he can't accept that there is a boundary between them, and this This boundary line cannot be shaken in any case through acquired efforts.

Windsor Mapel sighed softly—maybe long before she reached a high level, long before the mentor encountered her own talent bottleneck, the latter had already foreseen what was going to happen, so he opened the Considered deviant, whimsical research.

Neural Interaction Magic Theory.

Technology to modify the human body through implants, neurosurgery, lifelong boosters, and more.

The mentor who never believed in fate chose to fight against fate more than 20 years ago. At that time, everyone thought he had failed, but fortunately, he is back now.

Although he has changed a lot, although he said that he has surgically turned himself into a "monster", everything will be fine.

……

Along the way, Daniel was silent, and Mary could only carefully keep her mouth shut and quietly followed behind the old mage. She really wanted to ask a lot of questions, because what happened today really challenged her cognition and even challenged her understanding. The three views she has established so far - the president of the Royal Wizards Association turned out to be the mentor's apprentice back then?The youngest female mage in Typhon's history who broke through to the legendary rank turned out to be his "senior sister"?The mentor was once such a big shot?

All this is something Mary never dared to think about!

However, she didn't dare to ask a word until the instructor allowed it.

This depressed state lasted for a long time, and it was not until he walked out of the gate of the Royal Wizards Association that Daniel finally broke the silence: "There are a lot of questions, right?"

"Ah... yes," Mary was taken aback, and then quickly nodded, "I... I didn't expect you to be so... the president of the Royal Wizards Association was your apprentice?!"

"Stupid question, I still need to ask it again." Daniel glanced at Mary, "She is indeed my apprentice, but she became the president of the association after I left, including her promotion after that It happened. When I left, she, like me, was just an ordinary high-ranking mage."

"Then did you really leave the association because of your research on neural modification? Now that you have succeeded, those who mocked you will feel ashamed..."

Mary spoke quickly, but after she said it, she suddenly realized that she had said something too bold: Daniel never liked any mention of his relationship with the Royal Society of Mages. If you come out, you will be punished!

The poor girl immediately became tense, and all the muscles in her body were tense in tension.

Daniel sneered: "Success? If you think these nerve cords are success, I will put them on you today."

Mary trembled all over, but just when she thought that she would really suffer such a terrible fate, she discovered that it was just a joke made by the old mage——

"Look at your appearance, do you think I will have the extra patience to do this kind of modification for you?" Daniel waved his hand, "Your talent is like a monkey, any modification is a waste of materials."

Mary didn't care about her mentor's evaluation of her talent at all. She just felt greatly relieved, and then said with a sigh: "Others will definitely not believe that Ms. Windsor Maple is our predecessor..."

"You don't have to be so in awe of Windsor."

Daniel suddenly interrupted Mary's exclamation, and then under the latter's slightly dazed gaze, he raised his head and looked at the foggy streets in Aldernan.

"If you knew his great power, you wouldn't be in awe of anyone."

The old mage took a step forward and led Mary to continue walking towards Aldernan's fog.

"Don't waste Master's time, we still have a lot to do."

Chapter 0516 A More Powerful Tool

On the edge of the industrial area in the east of Cecil City, in a research room of the Machinery Manufacturing Institute, Gawain was gathering with Rebecca and Nicholas Dan.

The chubby iron ball star floats in the center of the room. Beside him, a complex and delicate metal model is floating with him. The metal model is obviously the chassis of the vehicle. With the high-precision processing ability of Nicholas egg, its Every gear and connecting rod has been restored most accurately, and various operation demonstrations are carried out with the magnetic field traction.

"This is the universal traction chassis after finalization - of course, it's just a model, and how to realize it requires the efforts of technicians," the voice with a hint of metallic trill came from Iron Ball Star's body, and he spun while talking Looking at the model, so that Gao Wen can see its internal details, "Based on the last design drawing, we re-adjusted the connection method between the magic net unit and the power ridge, and added a layer of shock absorption, so that the chassis can adapt to more Complicated and harsh roads, and this shock absorbing structure can be dismantled, and after dismantling, it can be replaced with an additional magic net unit to make the chassis more powerful, so that it can be used as a tractor for construction machinery in relatively flat areas .”

Gawain looked at the model presented by the Nicholas egg, listened to the other party's explanation, and nodded slightly: "...not bad."

The magic vehicle was born, and the first problem it had to face was the harsh road conditions and difficulties in maintenance in this era.

In this era, there are no smooth and solid highways, and there are no service areas and car repair shops in the vast wilderness between cities. Although since Rebecca tossed out the cement, Cecil's road construction has never stopped. However, even with the convenient means of magic, the current road facilities in the southern border are seriously imperfect-at this stage, there are only three roads in Cecil that can be regarded as "modernized", among which the road between Cecil City and Kant is There is a wide concrete road, and there is a similar road between Cecil and Tanzania. The road leading to the Glen area was just completed a few days ago, and other places are basically only the original southern border. The messy roads built by the nobles.

Among these messy roads, the best situation is the "temporary road" from Tanzania to Hossman City, but that is only for mages and engineers with magic terminals to use "fossils to mud" and "transformation roads". The "mud to stone" technique is only emergency leveled and reinforced, and it is okay to transport people and materials temporarily, but in the long run, it is not up to the standard for Gao Wen in terms of durability and scale.

As a remnant of the old feudal regimes, "roads" were a big problem in front of Gao Wen. The nobles practiced their own methods in their own territories, and built various roads. Not only were the quality and scale chaotic, but the planning was also a mess. Sometimes, in order to prevent being plundered by neighboring nobles, they even specially destroyed the area where the roads meet between the two territories, and used magic to create a large number of man-made potholes, sandy land, and quagmire. Now that the southern border has been unified, The lords of yesteryear have withdrawn from the stage, but these irritating things have been left to the builders of Cecil.

Fortunately, this world has incredible magic technology, and the magic terminal specially used by ordinary engineers has also been popularized. Under the circumstances, the road construction project in the southern border is progressing fairly smoothly, but even so, considering the actual situation in most remote areas and the situation outside the southern border, the early magical vehicle chassis must still take into account how to deal with harsh road conditions.

"The universal chassis needs to pay attention to the maximum applicability, so we redesigned its size according to the current average width of most roads in the southern border—basically, it is slightly narrowed," Rebecca said while taking the words of Nicholas Egg. While gesturing, "The widest point is no more than 1.8 meters..."

Gao Wenxin said that it was indeed the case - 1.8 meters, which is the width of the largest double carriage in the world. Strictly speaking, it is the limit width of two horses plus a set of harnesses.Although the roads built by the nobles are varied, their widths are roughly similar. Except for small paths and country roads, the narrowest "official" roads will not be lower than this number-if it is narrower than this, a large double carriage will be impassable.

Cecil's road construction was carried out on the basis of the old road, and the personnel and materials needed for road construction were also transported by horse-drawn carts. Therefore, each lane of the newly-built cement road was also affected by this number, which was basically the same number. The width of a large two-horse carriage plus a "safety margin" of about one meter, and on this basis, the size of the magical vehicle must also meet the requirements of being able to drive safely on such a lane.

As far as Gawain knows, a similar thing happened on Earth—primitive carriage widths influenced the standard of roads, road standards influenced the size of early cars and trains, and the size of cars and trains influenced the size of all roads built on early roads, The size of transportation tools, cargo boxes and other things based on railway transportation...

Two completely different worlds, after all, have reached the same goal by different routes at this point.

He suddenly thought of the hometown that he had been away for countless years, but Gao Wen could only sigh silently, and in the sigh, his thoughts gradually diverged.

With magic vehicles, this is an epoch-making means of transportation. Of course, they are countless times stronger than the current horse-drawn carriages. With these powerful and tireless vehicles, the development of the southern border will definitely take a big step forward, but if They alone are not enough.

The southern border is not big, but it is definitely not small. The long and narrow shape of the territory makes it extremely difficult for east-west traffic.At present, in order to build the four new industrial cities on the "cross axis", Gao Wen needs to deploy a large number of materials and personnel from various parts of the southern border, including ore from the Tanzanite-Cecil area, timber from the Glen area, stone materials from the Pepo area and Magic materials, as well as the huge immigration brought by the population migration project, all these are basically carried by several river channels centered on the Baishui River. However, the river transport has natural restrictions after all. The scale of the city is getting bigger and bigger, especially since the "cross axis" starts to extend in both east and west directions. Some raw material production areas far away from the river channel will get on the right track sooner or later. Gao Wen must find a way to find a more efficient means of transportation.

The advantage of magic vehicles lies in their flexibility and convenience. They are quite useful for short-distance and small-scale cargo transportation, but when dealing with the development pressure of the entire southern border, their power will definitely be stretched.