Pillar of Yita

”Aquitez?” Rosetta’s voice raised an octave, ”Isn’t that damned scoundrel supposed to be on duty? What kind of shift is this if he’s not here? What is he doing? Tell that damn fool to come see me immediately. If I don’t see him in five minutes, tell him I’ll strangle him myself!”

The little girl was so scared that she woke up from her dozing state, quickly nodded, and once the Dwarf Chairman let go of her, she dashed out without looking back, as if she had been facing not a dwarf but a giant dragon with a temper.

Rosetta sighed deeply and involuntarily looked in a certain direction. The head of the Ancient Tower who witnessed the scene was laughing so hard that he was bending forward and backward. Although Rosetta couldn’t hear what the other party was saying in that direction, judging by the expressions of the other Ancient Tower People around him, it must not have been anything pleasant.

Seeing this scene, the Old Dwarf’s face grew even uglier, his nose almost crooked with anger.

But the noise outside the competition arena couldn’t affect the quiet inside the competition room.

Fang Hong silently walked up to the control panel, skillfully placed his hands on the cold metallic surface, let out a gentle breath, and then closed his eyes—the Lion People and the Papalarians sitting on the ground were curiously watching in this direction.

But Fang Hong was no longer aware of the outside gazes—

His vision was initially pitch-black, but then points of starlight lit up in the depths of the darkness. This scene felt familiar, like what he had seen in that test system. It was also reminiscent of the Artisan System itself, where the stars were interconnected and gradually formed a complete spherical nebula.

A ’Star Sphere’.

It was similar to the previous two, yet different.

The similarity to the Artisan System lay in the operational method and the structure itself, but the difference was that in the artisan’s crafting system, there was an actual structure at each point, connecting every node, as if advancing the progress of the creation.

But here, there were only virtual connection points, with no structures—demanding higher precision in connections, but virtually no requirements for progress in the work. This was not surprising, as it was a fictitious Ether Furnace that had removed the material part, turning it into a virtual teaching tool.

In this respect, it was somewhat like the mysterious test system that Shana had given him, even almost identical in appearance. But it was not exactly the same—because the ’Star Sphere’ didn’t have a fixed starting point.

Just like in crafting, the ’Star Sphere’ could begin and end anywhere.

The Artisan System was actually a simplified version of the ’Star Sphere’ and the Ether Furnace. Both Summoners and Natives, after reaching a certain level of mastery in Alchemy, would end up at the same destination and start to use large devices like the Ether Furnace to construct Magic Guided Conductors.

After all, to hand-craft a battleship—was neither efficient nor realistic.

It was for this reason that the Artisan Association used this method as the assessment for Alchemists. In fact, an Alchemist’s early systematic learning of various theories and knowledge was ultimately in preparation to reach this stage.

Therefore, in a sense, the Summoners did have a head start over the Natives on this path due to the existence of the Summoners System. The increasing presence of Summoners in the Continental League was also inevitable historically.

Although he was mentally prepared for it, Fang Hong still couldn’t help but startle when he saw the Planet Sphere. It was much bigger than the Star Sphere he had seen during his first Artisan assessment in Kapuka.

The previous Star Sphere had a diameter of only about one meter, in contrast this one was like comparing a ping pong ball to a basketball.

He stood before this colossal sphere, having to raise his head just to take in its magnificence. Thousands of points of light within the massive spherical structure made up the shell that glimmered like a star.

”This big?” Fang Hong thought to himself. ”To connect these one by one, how long would it take, until the year of the monkey?”

If it were before Shana had given him the test system, he would probably have spent an hour connecting these points one by one to piece together this immense sphere.

But at that moment, Fang Hong suddenly had a bold idea.

He knew that the Artisan System’s assessment process, involving the privacy of various craftsmen, was generally unmonitored, and the Artisan Association only cared about the results. Even if there were monitors, it wouldn’t really matter—wasn’t he not the only one who knew how to do this?

He had been working in seclusion these days, having barely passed the second barrier, and he was almost halfway through the last barrier of the third. If it weren’t for being too busy, he might already have results.

Fang Hong had been wanting to validate his achievements for a while now.

And without a doubt, this huge Star Sphere in front of him seemed like the perfect test subject.

Acting upon his thoughts was always his good habit. He gently pressed his hand on the metal panel, feeling the cool touch in response to his fingertips, then took a deep breath. His thoughts flickered, and thousands of signals emitted from the central nerve, speeding through the nervous system at the speed of light, linked to the Ether Magic Power down to the metal panel below.

Between his skin and the cold metal, it was as if a spark of electricity had ignited.

In the darkness, a great will stirred the superstrings, as if igniting particles of light once again in the dying universe blanketed by infinite heat death.