Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 587 - 586: Online Meeting

Late autumn, the thin mist gradually rises.

The season has not yet entered the Fog Month, but the Typhon Imperial Capital Aldernon is always a city of rain and mist. As the Frost Throne Constellation gradually moves towards the highest point in the sky, the thin fog begins to visit this "young" capital more frequently, especially after a chilly autumn rain, the fog arrives as expected.

Autumn rains are always continuous; even after the rain stops, sparse raindrops still occasionally fall from the sky. Between the icy rain and the hazy fog, Aldernon’s solemn black towers and densely packed spires silently stand on both sides of the avenue, as black-haired mage Mary, wrapped in her slightly worn black mage robe, walks briskly through the streets with her head down.

The Wind Shield blocks the chill of deep autumn and the falling raindrops from the sky, yet the scenery within the fog still brings a chill from the depths of one’s heart. Mary subconsciously tightens her robe, and then her mind conjures the angry face of her mentor, Daniel—if he saw her walking in the street like this, he would probably be upset again.

She shook her head, tossing aside these unwarranted associations, and then lifted her head to look ahead.

This is a street in late autumn; in the countryside, it would be impossible to see anyone at this time of year, but in Mary’s field of vision, more than just a few figures are walking in the thin mist.

Those figures wear slightly thin and old linen clothes, with felt hats or dirty headscarves on their heads. Most of them are men with expressionless faces, but there are also some sleepy-faced children and women; they mostly move uniformly in one direction, walking heavily and expressionlessly—in this morning mist, these people walking on the streets seem to emerge eerily like ghosts from the fog.

Mary knows these are workers heading to the factories—textile mills, printing houses, Rune Forge Factory, and Pyrostone Acid Plant—the factories began to proliferate since last winter, and these workers have been increasing since last winter.

The factories brought prosperity, allowing the entire city to operate at an astonishing speed and bringing the temporarily dispossessed and impoverished little aristocrats back to lavish banquets and dances. As an apprentice to the archMage and an emerging figure in the Imperial Construction Association, Mary has had the privilege of attending gatherings of these notable individuals. She somewhat knows how the factory owners quickly accumulated wealth, originating from the astounding productivity of machines and the market acts timely implemented by the emperor—more fundamentally, originating from these zombified... people.

But those factory owners don’t care about these.

Mary knows her mentor is behind all this and has a rough understanding of the miraculous plan behind this factory boom, and as a confidante of these events and the primary assistant in implementing the plan for the mentor, the young female mage tightens her robe once more as she hurriedly passes between those expressionless "new citizens."

Past Palmer Street, past the sentinel towers on the edges of the Mage District, is the residence where her mentor and a few apprentices, including herself, live—a luxurious mansion situated in the upper-class rich area.

This mansion, with three main floors, two sentinel towers, two gardens, a complete stable, and rooms for servants, was gifted to the mentor by the president of the Royal Mage Association.

The gatekeeper is a familiar young male apprentice. This freckled young man shows a slightly strange expression when seeing Mary. Before she can inquire, this young apprentice takes the initiative to say, "The mentor is in the ’cellar.’ He asked me to have you go there immediately upon return."

Cellar...

Mary suddenly feels a pang of nerves, but she quickly smooths out any changes in her facial expressions and nods slightly: "I understand."

She passes through the courtyard of the mansion, enters the main building, walks down the stairs, and arrives at the cellar entrance. In this place, always off-limits to ordinary apprentices and servants, Mary sees two puppet servants with vacant stares guarding the door.

The young female mage swallows hard, constantly reminding herself of the increasingly apparent kindness and affability of her mentor recently, then she pushes open the cellar door.

In this underground space transformed into a secret laboratory by her mentor, the room is brightly lit by the Magic crystal lamps powered by the Magic Web. Mary quickly spots the black-robed old mage Daniel in a corner of the room, and behind Daniel, she sees a strangely shaped... chair.

It is clearly a magical creation, placed atop a base covered with magic symbols. On the side of the chair, one can see a faint glow flowing, with some strange metal spots distributed on the inner side of the chair’s backrest, and the backrest itself seems to be wrapped in some kind of magical leather—at the moment she saw the chair, Mary immediately thought of sacrificial devices depicted in horror stories.

Daniel lifts his eyelids, his yellow-brown pupils staring at the slightly at a loss female apprentice standing at the doorway: "Come over, the master wants to see you."

Mary takes a deep breath of cold air.

She does not remember how she moved her feet to reach the chair, nor how she clumsily used the straps and buckles to secure herself in place as instructed by her mentor. Her mind is filled with only one thought: The day has finally come when she is to be sacrificed by her mentor to that terrifying "master"...

She knows there is a "master" behind her mentor’s existence, of course; her mentor’s sudden acquisition of knowledge and frightening plans are all arranged by the "master," and fragments of those bits and pieces of knowledge have propelled the entire Typhon’s Magic Guide Technology forward, and the first step of that terrifying plan altered the balance of power among Aldernon’s aristocrats. Additionally, there is algebra, solid geometry, calculus, and rune logic... those pieces of knowledge are awe-inspiring, but they also deeply reveal the essence of the mentor’s "master."

It is said that only unspeakable otherworldly Evil Gods would bestow "knowledge" in such a generous manner, and these "knowledge" require a price.

"Sit tight, no matter what you see later, open your heart to accept it, do not resist—otherwise, you will suffer." Daniel firmly presses Mary’s slightly trembling shoulders, speaking in a solemn and cold tone.

Mary thinks that she may just be this "price."

The mentor continues: "You will reach a pure space where you should speak little and observe, for the master’s affiliates gather there, each one wiser than you, much more powerful, and far more noble."

Mary swallows hard, finally unable to resist wanting to say something to ease her tension, so she speaks: "I... What should I say when I meet the ’master’?"

Daniel’s actions halt, his yellow-brown pupils staring at Mary. Whether it is an illusion or not, Mary seems to feel that there is a hint of praise for her in those eyes.

"First, tell me your name," the old Mage said with a serious face, while activating the rune trigger on the chair, "And then say—learning makes me happy."

"Ah..."

Mary made a brief exclamation in confusion, but before she could speak to inquire, a sudden dizziness pulled her into the depths of a bizarre, dazzling light and shadow illusion.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw a vast space with a high blue sky, boundless water surface, and a lot of wondrous metal platforms.

Mary found herself no longer sitting in the strange "sacrificial chair," but in a comfortable high-backed chair, facing an elegant and large round table. There were neat seats around the table, with some unfamiliar people sitting in those positions, and across from the round table, a tall and burly man was quietly looking at her.

Almost instantly, Mary realized that this man was the "Master" mentioned by her mentor.

Though this was a round table with no identifiable hierarchy, the man’s demeanor was evidently different from everyone else.

Mary didn’t expect the "Master" to look like this; she had thought she would see a hideous demon or some other unnamable existence, but in any case, a human-formed "Master" was relaxing, and just as she took a breath of relief, the old Mage Daniel’s figure appeared in this space and sat in the seat next to Mary.

Daniel gave his slightly dazed apprentice a look, "Why are you standing there dumbfounded."

Mary awoke as if from a dream, hastily standing up in flustered manner and stammering the words her mentor instructed her to say, "I... I am Mary, no surname, and... and... learning makes me happy!"

The atmosphere seemed to become somewhat awkward, but Mary was too nervous to notice the change. She saw those sitting around the round table turn their gazes upon her, including a spirit body creature filled with blue light, who looked at her with interest and buzzed, "This kid is quite interesting."

A beautifully and elegantly dressed lady in a red dress smiled at her, "You’re a bit nervous—relax."

A lively young lady with large eyes and long brown hair, bearing an enthusiastic expression, had a happy smile on her face, "Ah, you are the Mary who solved all sixteen of my equations?! You’re so amazing! I’m Rebecca—did you really solve them yourself?"

Mary felt momentarily dazed, and suddenly felt... the unfolding of events seemed a bit different from her expectations.

Gawain looked at the black-haired girl visiting the Origin Space for the first time, his expression somewhat amused as he noticed her initial tense and even fearful look. This made him feel both exasperated and amused, "Mary, right? Relax, and welcome to the Origin Laboratory."

"Origin Laboratory?" Mary was taken aback momentarily, about to ask what the Origin Laboratory was, but then recalled her mentor mentioning the name while adjusting her chair before—right when she was most nervous, she swallowed her question forcefully and nodded quickly, "Okay, okay! I... I am honored too..."

Daniel’s face grew displeased, "Disgraceful."

Mary quickly hunched her neck, "Sorry, mentor."

"It’s alright, this child has talent, her talent enough to offset these small troubles," Gawain said, "Besides, I am curious how you described this network meeting to her—she seems unreasonably nervous."

"I only mentioned you wanted to see her," Daniel responded formally, "The Origin Laboratory is extremely confidential, I told her almost nothing before entering the network."

"...Cautious, but reasonable."

Thinking of Daniel’s style in the real world and the psychological shadow he cast on his apprentices, Gawain could fully guess what happened to this girl named Mary.

Never mind, they should solve their own issues.

Gawain shook his head slightly in his mind and temporarily set aside Mary, the "newcomer," to start the main topic of the network meeting.

"Firstly, I brought some data, Jenni, Kamel, Rebecca, activate your respective printer output terminals to print the data in the real world."

As he spoke, Gawain activated the memory conversion function of the Origin Laboratory, and in the air above the round table, a large number of dazzling runes and lines were projected almost instantly, breaking down into simple, clear plane breakdown diagrams one after another.

"This is the elf’s technical data, this part being their cooling rune arrays, this part is a cooling system schematic based on oil coolant using an immersion heat exchanger, this is their anti-gravity array—it might not be complete, but it’s referable. Besides, there are their shield projection methods and thoughts on stacking multilayer runes..."

"Wow!!" Rebecca exclaimed exaggeratedly as she stared wide-eyed at those complex arrays and device structure breakdown diagrams, "Ancestor, your memory is amazing... You’re better at stealing than Amber!!"

"Aunt Heidi, remember to give her a smack after going offline."

"Yes, ancestor."