Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 732 - 731: Ancient Artifacts Difficult to Research

Daniel stopped in a square.

He sat on a bench, resting with his eyes closed, but his fingers lightly tapped the armrest of the bench.

Invisible data flowed through the network, and a consciousness waiting from afar responded to the bishop’s call. Accompanied by slight fluctuations in the air, a female follower dressed in a white gown appeared in front of Daniel and bowed: ”Bishop, you called for me?”

”Yes,” Daniel slightly opened his eyes and nodded—this female follower before him was his subordinate in the Eternal Sleepers, trained by him for many years, her loyalty beyond doubt. She had even been promoted to the network security department by him, but even so, she wasn’t qualified to know of the master’s existence, merely a satisfactory assistant, ”Dana, there seem to be some rumors in the network recently.”

”Rumors?” The female follower furrowed her brows, momentarily confused.

Daniel projected the information he had just seen, and the clear text floated before Dana.

To be honest, Daniel himself hadn’t paid much attention when he first saw this information: the number of followers connected in the psychic network was vast, and among the many followers, there were quite a few who were overly idle or too neurotic. Every day, countless useless pieces of information flowed through this enormous network, and overly terrifying, bizarre tales were often part of this useless information.

However, when he casually checked the statistical data of this information, he couldn’t help but take it seriously.

These seemingly rumor-like tales had appeared more than once in the past two weeks.

The female follower carefully read through the information Daniel displayed, nodded slightly after recalling, ”Yes, Your Excellency Bishop, there have indeed been such rumors in the network recently, but after investigation, they were all baseless.”

Daniel lifted his eyelids: ”Investigation?”

”Yes,” the female follower nodded, ”The Patrollers have been inspecting everywhere in the dream city and did not find any so-called abnormal voids. The priests managing the network checked all the records of those connected to the network, and no one suddenly disappeared or disconnected abnormally from the network—and the followers claiming to have lost memory were later found. It is said that no brain issues were discovered after inspections, and the so-called memory lapse might be due to mental imbalance and delusions after a prolonged network connection.”

”All delusions and rumors, are they...” Daniel muttered softly, ”But there are more than just one of these messages...”

The female follower opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but she—along with Daniel—paused.

An intangible breeze blew through the dream city, and a global broadcast announcement from the Great Temple in the city’s center spread throughout the entire network. All the Eternals active within the city involuntarily looked up towards the direction of the Great Temple, Daniel included.

In his vision appeared an announcement from the Pope:

”Regarding the recently circulated messages about anomalies in the psychic network, voids appearing in the network, connectors suddenly disappearing, and memory loss after disconnection, all are rumors. Fellow believers within the church should not believe...”

After the announcement ended, the female follower Dana blinked, looking at Daniel: ”Bishop, it seems that the Archbishop team’s investigation has already drawn a conclusion, these indeed are rumors.”

”Rumors, huh...” Daniel murmured softly, waving his hand, ”Alright, I have no other matters, get back to your duties.”

”Yes, Your Excellency Bishop.” The female follower lowered her head, stepped back half a step while bowing, and her figure disappeared into a wave of flashing lights.

Daniel shook his head, his eyes sweeping across the square in front of him.

A mass of slowly glowing, swirling light orb glided across the square, moving swiftly and silently along the ground.

That is the so-called ”Patroller,” not manually controlled, but rooted in the psychic network, operating under specific logic, similar to a self-disciplined illusion of magic artificial intelligence. They patrol the entire network day and night, examining this dream city, their activity range even broader than that of the Eternal Sleepers within the dream city.

The Patroller reached the bench where Daniel sat, gently nudging his leg, and upon receiving no response, the glow slightly retreated before advancing to nudge again.

Not particularly intelligent, but dutiful.

In theory, the Patrollers wouldn’t let go of any abnormalities within the psychic network, and those messages might indeed be rumors fabricated by the bored. But... let me report to the master anyway.

Daniel stood up, stepped forward, and his figure vanished into a wave of phosphorescent light.

...

In the high-tech laboratory of the Magic Guide Technology Research Institute at Cecil Castle, a group of seasoned Mage Technicians, Runemasters, as well as traditional Mages and scholars seconded from elsewhere, were gathered around an experimental table, their eyes fixed on something placed in the middle of the table:

A heavy black-covered tome, impossible to date.

Gawain was also standing in the laboratory, looking at the black leather tome along with expert scholars from various fields. On his left stood Rebecca and Jenni, who were equally wide-eyed; on his right were Kamel, whose expression couldn’t be discerned, and Veronica Moen, who always showed no expression, while Tiel lay at his feet, brought over for numbers but already asleep.

This Ultimate Tome, no one recognized it, nor could anyone explain its principles. Even the most learned scholars faced with this thing were at a loss.

Therefore, Gawain could only gather all sorts of experts, hoping these professionals, each accomplished in their field, could judge how to unravel the secrets of this book—not expecting them to recognize or analyze the book, but at least come up with a breakthrough strategy.

For this reason, he also dragged Tiel over, hoping to garner help from the mystical knowledge of the sea demon—but this seemed to be a mistaken path.

This sea demon glanced at the Ultimate Tome and said she didn’t recognize it, then promptly went to sleep, having been asleep almost an hour now; no water, not even boiling water, could wake her.

Gawain tried—she really wouldn’t wake up...

And she’s particularly occupying a lot of space coiled there.

Gawain shook his head, stretched out his leg to nudge Tiel’s tail to the side, and stepped forward: ”Ladies and gentlemen, any thoughts?”

Pittman, standing at the front, turned his head upon hearing this, twirling the beard he seemed to be rubbing every day but never seemed to diminish: ”Your Majesty, this... to be honest, I can’t make anything of it.”

Gawain sighed: ”Even your experience can’t figure it out...”

The implication being, with your dual identity as a double agent, two-time defector experience is not enough?

Pittman was not the least bit ashamed, and was particularly candid: ”That Beltira and a whole group of high-level Oblivion dug into this for centuries without figuring it out. What use is my experience?”

The implication being that such a profession as remnants of an evil cult shouldn’t be judged by how many times one changes posts, but rather by the time spent in service—though he jumped back and forth between two cults, his actual work experience combined is not significant enough, so inevitably, he hasn’t had contact with such top-level artifacts of a religion like the Ultimate Tome.

”Your Majesty, I’m sorry, we haven’t found any clues either,” Jenni stepped up from the side, bowing her head as she spoke, ”Although part of this book is engraved with magic symbols, they are completely unrecognizable symbols, and the sample size is too small to analyze any patterns. Additionally, I suspect those symbols are not the book’s real effective structure; its function should be achieved through more complex and advanced mechanisms.”

Kamel nodded, his buzzing voice coming from the shining arcane light: ”The technology to create this book has been lost, and we find it difficult to understand how it works—it could originate from a more advanced civilization, much more advanced than us. It might belong to a civilization with a completely different technological path, and if it’s the latter... our analysis will become more difficult. We might not even be able to tell if the patterns in its pages are decorative or functional structures, or if its cover is for protection or has other secrets...”

Veronica held the platinum scepter, regrettably commenting: ”Moreover, it’s broken now—the Oblivion’s usage might have been too brutal, resulting in the loss of such an invaluable ancient legacy. If it were still operational, our analysis might have been much easier.”

Gawain’s expression was somewhat awkward.

But fortunately, most people’s attention was on the book on the lab table.

”Kamel’s guess is quite reasonable, it’s possible both his guesses are correct,” he coughed lightly, to prevent everyone’s attention from focusing solely on ”what a shame the sample is broken, brutal usage is undesirable,” ”The Oblivion Association found the Ultimate Tome in a very ancient underground ruin, back then this book was protected by an ancient device that no one could understand, whose manufacturing technology has long been lost.

”There is a viewpoint that before the First Age of Expansion, even before our current season of mortal civilization, there have been many cycles of civilizations, so we can boldly speculate that this book is an advanced product of one of those previous civilizations.”

The technical personnel in the laboratory couldn’t help but whisper to each other, this prehistorical civilization hypothesis seemed somewhat unconventional, but in the academic field of the Cecil Clan, challenging conventions is nothing new; perhaps it seems incredible, but if it benefits their research, the scholars won’t mind exploring the discussion under this premise.

”It’s a pity there’s only one, break it and it’s gone,” Rebecca sighed to the side, ”Otherwise, cutting it open might help us understand something...”

”Hey, hey, this book is already broken,” Amber immediately chimed in, ”With a broken thing, cutting it might...”

The half-elf hadn’t finished speaking when Gawain pulled her aside: ”Don’t cause trouble!”

”Now we can only study the book’s structure and principle through some indirect means,” Kamel buzzed, ”Firstly, use the crystal resonator to test if its interior contains crystallized symbol structures, then use arcane detection arrays to slowly test if it reacts under specific arcane energy stimulation... This is a relatively conservative but quite effective approach. If the precision of our current equipment is sufficient, we may be able to map out its hidden magic patterns, even if only partially, it would be a significant step forward.”

This seems to be the only feasible plan for the time being—although efficiency may be low, at least, it could be a starting point.

The temporary research plan was quickly finalized, the technical personnel began to leave in an orderly manner, and soon, Gawain was the only one left in the laboratory.

Along with a fish that slept through the entire process, getting stepped on several times without waking up.

Gawain glanced at the Ultimate Tome on the lab table a few times—after everyone left, a sturdy iron fence rose around the lab table, with a faintly glowing barrier enclosing it, and along with an armed security force outside the facility, the book should be quite safe here.

He withdrew his gaze and turned to leave, but just as he took a step, a slightly cool touch suddenly came from the edge of his palm.

Gawain looked down, seeing a long snake tail swaying back and forth beside him, the cool tip of the tail poking his hand.

The owner of the tail was rubbing her eyes and getting up from the ground.

The fish had woken up.

”Actually, I have a suggestion,” Tiel yawned, and just as Gawain thought she got up only to say hello and go back to sleep, she spoke earnestly, ”Why not ask the Mithril Vault?”

Gawain frowned: ”Mithril Vault?”

”We sea demons aren’t very knowledgeable about the alternation of land civilizations, I’m genuinely not good with ancient relics,” Tiel retracted her tail, and while meticulously coiling herself up, lazily said, ”But there’s a similarly ancient race that has always observed the land... Behind the Mithril Vault are the Dragonkin, they nominally store clients’ deposits, but from a historical perspective, they are actually housing artifacts of civilizations, so... do you think there’s another ’Ultimate Tome’ in their storage?”

Tiel paused, her eyes fixed on Gawain: ”Or items from the same era as the Ultimate Tome.”

As Gawain had long suspected, for an ancient powerful civilization like the sea demons, the Dragonkin behind the Mithril Vault was no secret.

He looked at this sleepy and lazy creature: ”Turns out you weren’t sleeping just now.”

”I was sleeping, just that I’m innately perceptive, can think even when dreaming.”

”That’s quite impressive,” Gawain smiled and then nodded slightly, ”Thanks for the suggestion—I should probably get in touch with that agent.”

”That’s your business,” Tiel wagged her body, her tail stretched out, waving as she wiggled toward the door, ”Anyway, good luck.”

Gawain watched as this sea demon wiggled her way out of sight. Moments later, her voice echoed from the hallway: ”Hey, why are there footprints on my tail!?”

...Who was it just now who claimed they were perceptive even in their sleep?