In late autumn, the mist gradually begins to rise.
The season has not yet reached the Foggy Moon, but Aldernan, the capital of Typhon Empire, has always been a rainy and foggy city. As the frost constellation gradually moves towards the highest point of the sky, the mist has begun to become more frequent. It’s a perfect visit to this “young” capital, especially after a cold autumn rain, when the fog arrives as promised.
Autumn rain always continues, and after the rain stops, sparse raindrops still fall from the sky from time to time. Between the cold rain and the hazy mist, the solemn black towers and rows of spiers of Aldernan can be seen. They stood silently on both sides of the avenue. The black-haired female mage Mary, wrapped in her slightly old black mage robe, walked quickly through the street with her head lowered.
The breeze shield blocked the cold air of late autumn and the falling raindrops from the sky, but the scenery in the fog still gave people a chill from the bottom of their hearts. Mary subconsciously tightened her robe, and then thought in her mind Then the angry look of his mentor Daniel emerged - if his mentor saw him walking down the street with his neck curled up like this, he would probably get angry again.
She shook her head, throwing away these unreasonable associations, and then raised her head and looked forward.
This is a street in late autumn. In the countryside, it is impossible to see anyone on the street at this time of year. However, in Mary's field of vision, there are more than one wave of people walking in the mist. .
Those figures were dressed in slightly thin old linen clothes, with felt hats or dirty turbans on their heads. Most of them were men with numb expressions, and there were also some children and children with sleepy faces. Women, most of them were walking in the same direction, with heavy steps and expressionless faces. In this early morning fog, these people walking on the streets were as weird as ghosts coming out of the mist.
Mary knew that these were workers who went to work in factories - textile factories, printing factories, rune foundries, and burning stone acidification plants - factories that had increased in number since last winter. , and the number of these workers began to increase since last winter.
The factory brought prosperity, made the whole city run at an astonishing speed, and also allowed the small nobles who had lost their power and wealth to return to extravagant banquets and dances, as great magic As an apprentice of a master craftsman, and as a rising star in the Imperial Manufacturing Association, Mary had the honor to attend gatherings of those big shots. She knew to some extent how factory owners quickly accumulated wealth, which came from the amazing production efficiency of machines and the The market bill that His Majesty the Emperor promptly implemented originated from these zombie-like... people.
But the factory owners didn't care.
Mary knows, she knows how her mentor is driving all this behind the scenes, and she also roughly knows what kind of plan is behind this miraculous factory boom, and as an insider of all this, as a mentor The main assistant in the implementation of the plan, the young female mage tightened her robe again on this cold street, and hurriedly walked between the numb-looking "new citizens".
Crossing Pamel Street, passing through several towers on the edge of the mage area, is where the mentor and several apprentices, including himself, live: a luxurious mansion in an upper-class wealthy area.
This mansion with a three-story main body, two towers, two gardens, complete stables and servant rooms was given to the tutor by the president of the Royal Mage Association.
The gatekeeper was a familiar male apprentice. This young man with some freckles had a strange look on his face after seeing Mary. Before Mary asked, the young apprentice said: He took the initiative and said: "The tutor is in the 'cellar'. He will ask you to go there immediately after he comes back."
The cellar...
Mary suddenly felt nervous, but she quickly calmed it down. She noticed all the changes in expressions on her face and nodded slightly: "I understand."
She walked through the courtyard of the mansion, walked into the main house, walked down the stairs, and came to the entrance of the cellar. In a place where ordinary apprentices and servants were prohibited from approaching, Mary saw two empty-eyed puppet slaves waiting at the door.
The young female mage swallowed. She kept reminding herself of her mentor's increasingly cordial and amiable changes in recent times, and then opened the cellar door.
In this underground space that had been transformed into a secret laboratory by the mentor, the magic crystal lamp driven by the magic network made the whole room brightly lit. Mary soon saw the old man in black robe in the corner of the room. The mage Daniel, and behind Daniel, she saw a strange... chair.
It was an obvious magical artifact. It was placed on a base engraved with runes. There was a shimmer of light flowing on the side of the seat, and some weird metal dots were distributed on the back of the chair. On the inside, the backrest itself seemed to be wrapped in some kind of magic leather - the moment she saw this chair, Mary thought of the sacrificial device described in some horror stories.
Daniel raised his eyelids and stared at the slightly helpless female apprentice standing at the door with his yellow-brown eyes: "Come here, the master wants to see you."
Mary took a deep breath .
She didn’t remember how she moved her steps to the chair, nor how she clumsily fixed her position with belts and buckles according to the method taught by her instructor. There is only one thought: the day has finally come, and she will be sacrificed by her mentor to that terrible "master"...
She knows that there is a "master" behind her mentor, of course she knows, The mentor's sudden knowledge and terrible plan were all arranged by the "master". The scattered fragments of knowledge promoted the development of the entire Typhon's magic technology, and the first step of that terrible plan changed Ald The balance of power among the Southern nobles, in addition to algebra, solid geometry, calculus, runic logic... That knowledge is awe-inspiring, but it also makes people realize the nature of the "master" behind the mentor. .
It is said that only indescribable foreign evil gods can bestow "knowledge" in such a generous way.And all this "knowledge" comes at a price.
"Sit tight, and no matter what you see, open your heart and accept it without any resistance - otherwise you will only be the one who suffers." Daniel pressed Mary's slightly shaking shoulders hard , said in a serious and cold tone.
Mary thought that she might be the "price".
The instructor continued: "You will reach a pure space, where you will talk less and see more, because the master's relatives gather there, and each of them is much smarter and stronger than you. Much more, and much more noble."
Mary swallowed, and finally couldn't help but want to say something to relieve her tension, so she spoke: "I...I saw it." Master, what...should I say?"
Daniel's movements stopped, and his yellow-brown eyes stared at Mary. Maybe it was an illusion, but Mary felt that there was a hint of disdain for her in that look. of praise.
"Say your name first," the old mage said seriously, while activating the rune trigger on the seat, "and then say - learning makes me happy."
< p>"Ah..."Mary let out a brief exclamation in confusion, but before she could ask a question, a sudden dizziness pulled her into the depths of a strange light and shadow illusion. .
When she opened her eyes again, she saw a vast space with high blue sky, boundless water and a large number of wonderful metal platforms.
Mary found that she was no longer sitting on the weird "sacrificial seat", but on a comfortable high-backed chair, with a gorgeous and large round table in front of her. There were neat seats around, and some unknown people were sitting in those seats. Opposite the round table, a tall and burly man was looking at him quietly.
Almost instantly, Mary realized that the man was the "master" mentioned by the instructor.
Although this was a round table where priorities could not be distinguished, the man's aura was obviously different from everyone else's.
Mary did not expect that the image of the "master" would be like this. She thought she would see a hideous demon, or some kind of more indescribable existence, but in any case, a human-like figure The "master" at least made her relax a lot, and just when she breathed a sigh of relief, the figure of the old mage Daniel also appeared in this space and sat on the seat next to Mary.
Daniel glared at the slightly dazed apprentice: "What are you still doing?"
Mary just woke up from a dream, and stood up in a hurry, stumbling and talking. What the instructor asked herself to say: "I...my name is Mary, no surname, and...and...learning makes me happy!"
The atmosphere seemed slightly awkward, but Mary was extremely nervous. Unable to feel the change in the atmosphere, she saw the figures sitting around the round table all focusing on her.There was actually a spiritual creature whose whole body was filled with blue light. The "spiritual creature" looked at himself with interest and made a buzzing sound: "This child is quite interesting."
A beautiful and elegant lady wearing a red dress smiled to herself: "You are a little nervous - relax."
A woman with big eyes and long brown hair looked at The young lady, who was full of energy, had a happy smile on her face: "Ah, are you the Mary who solved all the sixteen equations I came up with?! You are so awesome! My name is Rebecca - are you serious? Did you untie it yourself?"
Mary was a little dazed for a moment, and she suddenly felt that... things seemed to be unfolding a little differently from what she had imagined.
Gawain looked at the black-haired girl who was visiting the Origin Space for the first time with a slightly strange expression. He could see the nervousness and even fear in the other party at the beginning, which made him a little dumbfounded: "Is that Mary? Relax and welcome to the Origin Laboratory."
"Origin Laboratory?" Mary was stunned for a moment and was about to ask what the Origin Laboratory was, but then she remembered that her instructor had adjusted her chair before. It seemed that this name had been mentioned when she was there—it was mentioned when she was most nervous, so she swallowed back her doubts and nodded hurriedly, "Okay, okay! I...I'm honored too... ..."
Daniel's face turned ugly: "It's embarrassing."
Mary quickly shrank her neck: "I'm sorry, mentor"
"It's okay. This child is very talented, and her talent is enough to offset her little confusion," Gao Wen said, "And I'm curious how you described this online meeting to this child. She looks a little nervous and abnormal. "
"I only said you wanted to see her," Daniel said solemnly, "The Origin Laboratory is extremely confidential, and I told her almost nothing before entering the network."
"...cautious, but reasonable."
Thinking of Daniel's painting style in the real world and the psychological shadow he caused on his apprentices, Gawain can definitely guess that this person is called Mary What happened to the girl?
Forget it, let them solve their own problems.
Gawain shook his head slightly in his heart, then put Mary, the "newcomer" aside for the time being, and started the main topic of this online meeting.
"First of all, I will bring some information, Jenny, Kamel, and Rebecca, activate your respective printout terminals and print out the information in the real world."
As he spoke, Gawain activated the memory conversion function of the Origin Laboratory. In the mid-air above the round table, a large number of dazzling runes and lines were projected almost instantly, and split into pictures one after another. Concise and clear flat disassembly diagram.
“This is the technical information of the elves. This part is their cooling rune array. This part is an illustration of the cooling system based on oil coolant and using an immersed heat exchanger.Intention, this is their anti-gravity array - it should not be complete, but it can be used as a reference. Also the way they project shields and the idea of stacking multiple layers of runes..."
"Wow! ! "Rebecca looked at the complex rune arrays and device structure disassembly diagrams with wide eyes, and couldn't help but exclaimed exaggeratedly, "Ancestor, you have such a strong memory... You are better at stealing things than amber! ! "
"Hetty, remember to hit me after you log out. ”
“Yes, ancestor. ”