Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 306 - 305: Contact

Due to the unique traditions of the silver elves, about one-third of them choose to travel outside their homeland after reaching adulthood to broaden their horizons and learn knowledge. Most elves’ travels don’t go beyond the Highmountain Kingdom of the southern borders, but for those who love challenges, have strong curiosity (and are urgently in need of hair growth agents), only by traveling the entire continent can they prove their lives haven’t been wasted (or prove that hair loss indeed can’t be saved).

And the monitoring stations set around the great walls are not only maintenance and monitoring centers for sentinel towers but also vital contact points for elves traveling the continent to reach back to their homeland.

Walking on the streets of the town, looking at the familiar hometown architectural styles around, seeing the faces of fellow comrades coming and going, a constant flow of kind-sounding elven language with a certain rhythm fills the ears. Soldrin felt quite emotional: this is the second homeland established in the northeast of the continent by long-term travelers who have left home. The elves gathered here are all those who have lived away from their homeland in human society for many years, and just by listening closely, you can hear the wistful experiences of travel in their accents—at least half of the elves speak with a northeast accent (Note)...

Note: Northeast refers to the northeast of the continent.

”I’ve almost forgotten what a pure elven accent sounds like,” Soldrin said with a smile as he shook his head, speaking to Belna beside him.

”Your accent is still quite pure now,” Belna blinked, then asked curiously, ”By the way, what were you talking about with the guard just now? I saw you spent a long time with the inspection...”

”Nothing much, just talking about the situation, since this place is very close to the Anzu and Typhon borders,” Soldrin casually answered, ”But how about you, did your badge have an issue?”

”Seems like the activation structure got damaged, probably broken by the magic traps when I was exploring a relic last time,” Belna scratched her head, ”But fortunately, the guards didn’t trouble me much.”

Soldrin nodded, raising his hand to point towards a building in front: ”I need to go to the ’Messenger Hall’ first to contact friends back home. What about you?”

”I need to go too!” Belna immediately nodded in agreement, ”I haven’t contacted my friends in a long time, especially my mentor—I wonder if she’s cleared her gambling debts.”

Soldrin’s mouth twitched immediately—The Druid Sage of Moon Valley truly regretted never sticking to her principles; finally retired but had to take students again due to a pile of gambling debts. But then again, the early principles of Thornheart Master seemed to have never been upheld either...

The Messenger Hall was located in the center of the town, a beautiful white building with typical silver elf style: the hall had an overall elliptical shape, with layers upon layers of roof resembling petals. Three lightweight alloy outer beams, leaf-veined in appearance, stretched across the curved roof and converged at one end of the hall—there, the lightweight alloy beams gathered into a long bridge, which led to the communication tower base not far from the hall, thus connecting the two buildings.

The Messenger Hall is an auxiliary building of the communication tower, where elves traveling outside contact their homeland to report their observations abroad. The information sent here is amplified and broadcast by the communication tower, then sent to the sentinel towers, and finally transmitted back to the Silver Empire, where it is received and processed by the massive Sky Fortress ”Sacred Stars Temple” floating above the Silver Empire.

In the Silver Empire, there is a dedicated department responsible for handling magical communications from different parts of the continent, located in the center of the Sacred Stars Temple called ”Wind Speakers.” They compile information from various places on the continent, forwarding useful intelligence to the Royal Court, while regular communications are relayed to the broadcasting devices of the Sacred Stars Temple. Through the Temple’s powerful antennas, all elves within the territory of the Silver Empire can listen to greetings from faraway friends and family at any time.

Soldrin and Belna entered the Messenger Hall together.

The cold northern air was blocked by an invisible curtain at the hall’s entrance, making the entire hall warm and pleasant.

In the center of the hall, a dozen or so columns resembling large tree trunks could be seen, around each of which spread runic metal devices used for regular communication, known as ”terminals.” A series of neatly arranged small doors could also be seen along the perimeter of the hall, which were private rooms requiring extra fees—elves wishing to maintain privacy or send sensitive information could choose to rent these rooms for a fee, which was not cheap.

In the northern parts where elves are less commonly seen, people have a misconception about silver elves, often thinking that this race living in forests, close to nature, and of long life and grace, is detached from the mundane world, living on air and dew, unfamiliar with business and human relationships. But this is not the case.

Silver elves engage in trade and commerce, understand economics and the power of money, but due to their long lifespans, their views and behaviors concerning money might lead to misunderstandings—someone borrowing money from a silver elf and not repaying for a lifetime might not face collection, leading others to think silver elves don’t value money, not realizing that a century later, that debt-collecting silver elf will knock out the debtor’s grandson if he intends to default.

Soldrin didn’t head towards the free communication terminals but went directly to the reception desk of the hall, placing several silver coins in front of the manager: ”I need a room.”

These silver coins were not the newly minted currency of the Cecil territory but rather coins of the Typhon Empire; Soldrin had exchanged all his currency to avoid trouble before setting out.

”I need a room too!” came Belna’s voice from beside.

Soldrin turned to glance, seeing the lively elven girl showing him a silly smile.

Soldrin frowned: he was booking a room due to confidential matters, but was this seemingly careless girl also here to report secrets?

But he didn’t ask much and, after receiving the magical badge to activate the room, bid farewell to Belna and left the counter.

Soldrin entered the private room rented with money, ensured that the door’s magical mechanism had automatically locked, and the soundproofing magical barrier was functioning properly, then turned to the end of the small room where the ancient magical device stood, and placed his hand in the groove at the top of the silvery-white metal column.

Ancient and mysterious elven runes appeared on the surface of the mage metal, and Soldrin heard a faint noise coming from the base of the device. Moments later, the communication connected, and a vaporous light mist floated at the top of the magical device, with a blurry human figure slowly becoming clear in the haze.

A sweet-smiling silver elf waved to Soldrin: ”Wind Speaker 0287, greetings to you, sister on a long journey.”

”Ahem, I am male,” Soldrin lightly coughed, ”High-Ranked Ranger Soldrin Frostleaf.”

The image within the light fog seemed to pause momentarily.

It was probably due to network lag.

”Greetings, brother traveling afar,” the Wind Speaker within the light fog spoke once more, though this time her smile appeared somewhat stiff. ”Would you like to contact your family, or report your experiences outside?”

”I need to report some situations first,” Soldrin’s expression turned serious. As a High-Ranked Ranger, he was certainly different from the ordinary elves traveling outside. He was not only on a personal training journey but also carried the responsibility of relaying important intelligence at any time. ”It’s urgent, significant, and needs to be forwarded to the Royal Court.”

The receptionist, after verifying Soldrin’s identity, also became serious immediately: ”The secure line has been activated—please proceed, esteemed High-Ranked Ranger.”

”Firstly, regarding the great wall—recently, there have been at least three incidents of aberrations breaching the blockade in the northern parts of the great wall. Two of these incidents impacted the Anzu Kingdom, and one impacted the Typhon border. I personally experienced one of these events...

”I suspect there’s a malfunction with the northern sentinel towers, but the monitoring station here doesn’t seem to have detected any abnormalities...

”I hope the Royal Court can conduct an investigation.”

Soldrin first reported the anomalies concerning the great wall. He could tell the Wind Speaker receptionist was very tense and concerned about this intelligence, and the response from the other side confirmed a suspicion he had before:

The Silver Empire indeed was unaware of the barrier issue.

”The second matter I want to address is also very important,” after finishing the report on the great wall, Soldrin continued, ”Do you know Gawain Cecil, one of the leaders of the Human Northern Pioneers from seven hundred years ago?”

”Yes, many people know of him.”

”He was recently resurrected,” Soldrin stated solemnly.

The image within the light fog appeared to pause again.

It was probably network lag again.

”There have indeed been precedents of resurrection in the world,” after a moment, the image of Wind Speaker 0287 resumed again, ”However, there’s never been a case of a resurrection after seven hundred years of death. Is this information accurate, or is it related to undead resurrection?”

”I personally interacted with him; he is indeed resurrected,” Soldrin stated gravely, ”Moreover, the resurrection is not related to necromancy. It was a mixed-blood elf with Silver Elf lineage who awakened him.”

”A mixed-blood elf? A hidden Druid Sage?”

”No, a thief—he was robbing the Cecil Clan’s ancestral tomb, pried open Gawain’s coffin, and awakened him,” Soldrin sighed deeply, ”I know it’s hard to believe, but it is indeed the truth.”

The image within the light fog appeared to pause once more.

Soldrin thought carefully, and felt... perhaps it was the receptionist who was stalling.

Meanwhile, in another room, Belna had already placed her hand on the control panel of the communication device.

However, she did not directly activate the device. Instead, she took out a small magical artifact from her bosom with her other hand and placed it on the surface of the communication device.

It was a delicate golden disc, resembling a pocket watch. After Belna infused it with Magic Power, the disc made a ”pop” sound and opened a slit, from which several slender metallic antennae emerged, deftly seeking their target.

Two of the metallic antennae entwined around Belna’s fingers, while the others penetrated the seams of the ancient magical device.

The elven runes on the surface of the ancient magical device began to flicker violently, but after a few seconds, everything calmed down.

Belna smiled, the innocent and lively expression on her face had long vanished, replaced by a strange allure and laziness. She infused magic into the ancient magical device and called out in a low, raspy voice:

”How are the views of the Empire’s wastelands?”