Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 249 - 248: Aunt Heidi’s Experiment

Gawain and Amber went together to inspect the hundred or so future ”intelligence elites,” while on the way, Amber started asking about rumors she had heard in the territory. ”I heard there’s a new ’ancient archmage’ in the territory?”

Gawain nodded. ”His name is Kamel, and you’ll meet him soon.”

Amber’s eyes darted around, not sure what she was thinking, suddenly blurting out, ”Did you dig him out from the ruins in the mountains?”

”... You can’t really say ’dug out,’” Gawain felt the half-elf’s phrasing was somewhat off. ”He was trapped in the Otherworld...”

”Then you dug him out,” Amber said matter-of-factly, then began scrutinizing Gawain, making him feel goosebumps all over. ”What’s with that look?”

”Yet another one risen from the coffin in the territory!” Amber clapped her hands, ”Were you feeling out of place being the only ancient person here, so you decided to dig up someone even older? But won’t you two also have a generational gap?”

Gawain suddenly felt he hadn’t knocked this person on the head hard enough just now...

However, Amber’s winding thought process and overly blunt mouth weren’t new; Gawain had long developed a decent immunity and knew she would soon quiet down if he ignored her.

This time, though, Amber’s babble seemed even worse than usual. Even when Gawain stopped responding, she kept opening new topics on her own, and after getting nagged half the way, Gawain finally couldn’t help but glance at her. ”Why are you so chatty this time?”

”Really?” Amber was taken aback, then shook her head vigorously, ”I didn’t feel like it!”

”You’re probably a bit nervous,” Gawain looked at her helplessly. ”When you’re nervous, you babble on and on, and you don’t even realize it.”

With Gawain’s reminder, Amber finally realized she had inadvertently exposed her emotional shift, feeling embarrassed at a knight’s acute sensitivity, she nodded awkwardly. ”To be honest... yeah, but I’m not nervous about myself.”

Gawain had already vaguely guessed Amber’s thoughts. ”Is it because of the people you brought along?”

”Kind of...” Amber chuckled dryly. ”I just wanted to say... those guys grew up in the gutters, bastards, conmen, thieves were their main roles in the past. Although they pledged to behave before coming here, I know their backgrounds... I hope you’re mentally prepared, don’t get too riled up by their crude manners. They... are actually a pretty good bunch.”

Gawain stopped walking and looked at Amber with a faint smile until she turned away awkwardly. Then he said, ”It’s rare to see you speak so cautiously - and you’re even making excuses for others upfront.”

”We have lives-long friendships - even though it was years ago,” Amber pursed her lips. ”I just want to help them out a bit, but their caliber really worries me.”

Gawain shook his head with a smile, bringing up a seemingly unrelated topic suddenly. ”You know Anzu’s royal shadow guards, right?”

Amber was stunned for a moment before nodding. ”I know, I even ran into one the last time we went to the royal capital - the one I nearly knocked out of the shadow realm with a kick, that was a royal shadow guard, right?”

Gawain: ”... Don’t boast about that one fluke of yours. If you really faced that shadow guard head-on, ten of you wouldn’t be enough to take him down. The royal shadow guard is Anzu’s royal family’s most powerful stealth users and intelligence personnel, trained from the kingdom’s inception. They protect the kingdom’s safety in secret while collecting various information for the King - and I was one of the original trainers of the royal shadow guard.”

”I think I remember you mentioning it,” Amber furrowed her brows, trying to recall, ”Oh, you taught them two-handed swordsmanship and physical training...”

Gawain was once again speechless; this feeling of trying to display some grace but being continuously shot down was uncomfortable, yet he stubbornly continued. ”... I indeed taught them those things, but besides that, I also contributed to developing the entire training plan for the royal shadow guard.”

Amber finally understood Gawain’s intention, but her face was full of surprise. ”So... you’re aiming to train those unpromising guys according to the royal shadow guard standard?”

Before Gawain could respond, she waved her hands firmly. ”Stop joking, don’t I know their worth? Besides conning, trickery, and a few sleights of hand, what else do those guys have? Training them to be ordinary soldiers would be challenging enough, not to mention elite ones.”

”They don’t need to be overly strong armed forces, I wasn’t planning to train them exactly to the royal shadow guard standard either,” Gawain shook his head with a smile, ”Royal shadow guards and the intelligence personnel I require are ultimately different; I don’t need extremely elite combat personnel... information gathering, secretive communication, identity disguising, use of spy tools, they can learn quite a few things as ordinary people. You should have some confidence in them.”

”I don’t know what you’re thinking,” Amber looked at Gawain, full of self-assurance, couldn’t help scratching her head. ”But you always have a whole bunch of ideas, I’ll trust you this time.”

At the same time, in the magic laboratory located in the southern part of the territory, Aunt Heidi and her assistant Rebecca were busy testing a peculiar-looking ”stone” with heads down.

In the center of the magic laboratory, they opened up a quite large area. On the ground, a ”portable honeycomb magic web” made of interconnected rune triggers was laid, easy to dismantle and move. Among the honeycomb units of the web, three copper bases for conducting magic power were installed — these three bases were arranged in a triangular formation, and in their center was placed a ”stone” resembling an obelisk, standing several tens of centimeters high.

The surface of that ”stone” had a deep purple sheen, with a texture between crystal and metal — it was the purified and recast Holme raw ore.

To purify this peculiar mage material, Aunt Heidi and Hummel from the metal smelting plant put in a lot of effort — unlike common metal ores, Holme raw ore cannot be smelted and cast simply by high-temperature calcination. As the temperature rises, these ores just shatter into pieces, eventually turning into useless powder similar to sand. Although Nicholas Egg successfully overcame the ”allergic cold” symptoms to Holme raw ore, his metal manipulation ability had no effect on these ores — the solution to the purification problem, in the end, came from an apparently unintended mistake.

Aunt Heidi accidentally poured acid used for experiments into the container holding the original samples, discovering that this otherwise impermeable ore could actually be dissolved by the acid. During the reaction with the acid, the useless components of the ore turned into filterable residues, and the acid itself eventually became a smeltable powder through a series of subsequent reactions, replacements, and refining. After a series of castings on these ore powders, Aunt Heidi obtained the first pure Holme crystal.

Confirming that this precious Holme Crystal was stably connected to the magic web, Aunt Heidi turned to Rebecca, who was standing by a magic circle in the corner of the room: ”Can you sense the magic field over there?”

Rebecca (who had already been searched) glanced at the sensing crystal in the center of the magic circle, which was emitting a faint glow, and three out of a dozen or so magic symbols around the crystal lit up: ”Yes, yes! But the intensity is still quite low...”

Aunt Heidi frowned slightly, looking at the Holme crystal connected to the magic web: ”Hmm... After purification, it’s become quite easy to release the magic field, capable of functioning just by connecting to the most basic magic web unit. This indicates the purification is indeed effective, but the magic field’s intensity hasn’t changed much... Could it be the limit for releasing the magic field of this thing is only so much?”

Rebecca recalled as she said: ”I remember you injected an extra dose of magic into the crystal just now, and the strength of the magic field increased for a moment...”

Aunt Heidi frowned: ”Did I? How come I didn’t feel it?”

Rebecca lacked confidence: ”Maybe I saw it wrong...”

”No, we can try,” Aunt Heidi was someone who wouldn’t let any detail slip. Hearing Rebecca’s mention, she immediately picked up her magic wand, brought the front end close to the purified Holme crystal on the ground, and then cast a simple magic injection spell, ”Look if there’s any change in the sensing crystal?”

”It seems to indeed light up a bit...”

”What do you mean ’seems to’?” Aunt Heidi glared at Rebecca, ”I’ve told you many times, magic experiments are very rigorous, you can’t use words like ’seems’ or ’probably’! Let’s try again!”

Aunt Heidi and Rebecca were busy testing the purified Holme crystal, and far away at the Rune Research Center, Kamel was engrossed in studying the ”study material” Jenni Perot brought out.

This ancient Master Mage from a thousand years ago was ravenously absorbing all applicable knowledge from this era, whether it came from erudite scholars or a mere Grade 4 Runemaster, as long as it was useful, he was eager to learn — although he was initially somewhat disdainful at learning a little girl not even considered a novice mage was leading the domain’s rune research, after seeing the rune logic material Jenni brought, this ancient scholar who loved research was deeply captivated by this novel theory.

Meanwhile, with a mix of awe and joy, Jenni looked at this incomprehensibly shaped Master Mage before her. She had been startled at first sight of Kamel, and upon learning of his identity, she was further plunged into tension and unease — even though she had adapted to the new life in Cecil, which was relaxed and respectful, the oppression from a high-level mage continued to weigh on her heart. In her mind, powerful archMages were proud, cold, and terrifying. Not only did these mighty spellcasters disdain weaker ones like her, they would also view her research findings as unorthodox. If contemporary mages were like that, then what kind of pride and inscrutability could one expect from an ancient Master Mage who had survived a thousand years?

She had prepared herself to face Kamel’s wrath and was ready to uphold the dignity of rune logic in such a scenario, but unexpectedly, upon seeing the rune logic, this ancient Master Mage did not become angry at all. Instead, he showed immense interest in the research.

This brought her immense joy — it turned out not all archMages or Master Mages were so aloof and unapproachable.

Kamel lowered his head and read for a long time, and only after finishing the discussion about interference nodes did he look up, seemingly wanting to say something. Yet, before he could speak, his body suddenly shivered slightly, accompanied by a puzzled sound: ”Hmm?”

Jenni immediately became nervous: ”Master Kamel, are you alright?”

The arcane light streams on Kamel’s body gradually stabilized: ”I don’t know... I suddenly felt an itch.”

In the magic laboratory far from the Rune Research Center, Aunt Heidi again placed the magic wand at the top of the Holme crystal, preparing to cast magic and reminded Rebecca: ”This time, watch closely and make sure to count exactly how many magic symbols light up!”

As her voice fell, a small burst of white light emerged from the front end of Aunt Heidi’s wand, and the Holme crystal also glimmered slightly.

In the Rune Research Center, Kamel had just used The Sculpture Hand to set aside the materials in front of him when his body shuddered once again.

Jenni became nervous once more: ”Master Kamel?”

”...Not sure what’s happening, but I felt an itch again...”