Sword of Dawn

Page 429

The word "Leave" shows the final winner of this battle of wills, but for some reason, the handwriting of this word is different from any of Mordir Wild's previous handwriting... Gawain even faintly A strange idea came up, he felt that those few letters were neither left by Modil nor the consciousness that influenced Modil, but... left by the third consciousness.

And after this shocking word, Mordir Wilde obviously returned to normal handwriting:

"I woke up outside the tower.

"Some horrible dizziness and headache haunted me for a few minutes, and I had no recollection of my experience inside the tower, only a haunting feeling of palpitations.

"I found my notebook. It was in my hand. It seemed that I threw it there after I staggered outside. I opened it and saw the... words I left before, and I was sweating instantly. back.

"Goddess of magic! What happened?

"I have almost no memory of that experience at all. From the time I entered that door, everything that happened after that seemed to be covered with a heavy curtain. I just remember wandering in a strange place. Did I shout? I wrote something What? Why should I touch a mysterious and unknown ancient relic? This is completely illogical!

"The only thing I remember is a flash of light in my mind at a certain moment...a golden light, it seems that it woke me up, and I remembered a picture again: I was writing hard, and then I suddenly lost control General wrote the word 'leave' on a piece of paper, I looked at the word in horror as if it had magic, then I turned and ran... I remembered more things, recalled how I ran all the way Escape from the tower like a scared stupid kid...

"While checking my whole body for abnormalities, I found something in the pocket of my coat. It was a snowflake-shaped amulet. I don't remember when I had such a talisman, but it was inscribed on the surface. The family emblem...it contains powerful magic power, which is obviously injected by myself, and...its material seems to be eternal stone...

"This thing makes me very disturbed. It seems to confirm some crazy words I left in my previous notes. I instinctively want to throw it away, but I am hesitant... Maybe this is what I am doing. The only harvest from this mysterious place is also the only thing I can bring back. My memory in the tower has been erased for some reason, and I don't plan to go back again...

"I'm going to think about it.

"On X, X, this is a note to be supplemented later - after tossing and turning all night, I still haven't decided what to do with this amulet, and on this morning, someone...or a humanoid The dragon suddenly appeared.

"It was a very graceful and extremely beautiful lady with very long blond hair..."

Chapter 0905 The Mystery Left by Mordir

When he saw another person appearing on the "Island of Steel" where Mordir Wilde was trapped, Gawain immediately raised his eyebrows instinctively, feeling a bit of disobedience.

The timing of this blond woman's appearance...is really a coincidence.

In the notes, Modil, who has regained his sobriety, obviously had similar doubts——

"...After that Miss Melita left and never returned, I realized that the weirdness of this steel island might be extraordinary. Under normal circumstances, it should not be possible for dragons to come to this island on their own initiative. Island, so I was even prepared to be trapped here for a long time, and the appearance of this blond woman... did not bring me the slightest hope and joy at the first time, but only nervousness and anxiety.

"In this eerie place, anyone or anything that appears without warning is enough to cause people to be vigilant.

"Being vigilant, I took the initiative to ask the woman about her origins, and she gave her name—she said her name was Enya, and she lived on the nearby mainland.

"Nearby continents - that's obviously the land of dragons. I therefore asked her if she was a dragon who took human form, and she gave a weird answer... She said she was indeed a member of the dragon society, but specifically Not a dragon... doesn't matter.

"This made me more confused, but the experience in that tower taught me a lesson: in this strange sea, it is best not to have too much curiosity, knowing too much is not necessarily It's a good thing, so I didn't ask anything.

"At the same time, I also found one thing: the woman who called herself Enya would occasionally show vague resistance and disgust when she looked at the giant tower, and she was also a little uncomfortable when talking to me. It felt like she didn't like this place very much and just had to come here for some reason... Who the hell was she? What was she trying to do?

"I was full of doubts, but I didn't ask, and the woman who called herself Enya looked me up and down for a long time. She seemed to be observing something very carefully, which made me feel awkward.

"After observing for several minutes, she broke the silence and said that she was here to help...

"'You touched something that shouldn't be touched here, but fortunately I still have time to pull you out-now the hidden dangers on your body have been ruled out' - these are her exact words.

"I recalled the memories that disappeared out of thin air in the tower, the few remaining picture fragments, and the sporadic clues I left in my notes, and suddenly realized that my survival was not due to luck or my own Her willpower is strong, but she has received help from outside. This woman who calls herself Enya...seems to be the one who gave her a helping hand.

"I thanked her and she accepted, then she asked me if I wanted to leave the island and go back to 'where I should be' - she said she had the ability to send me back to the human world and would be happy to do so .

"What can I say? Of course I would!

"Although all of this is weird, and although the appearance of this woman who calls herself Enya is too coincidental, I think I have no choice... With no supplies, my own condition is getting worse and worse, unable to navigate accurately, and being trapped in the storm In the Arctic region, even a top legendary powerhouse in his heyday cannot return to the mainland alive. All my previous plans for returning home sound ambitious, but I am very aware of their chances of success—and Now, with a powerful dragon (although she doesn't explicitly admit it herself) offering to help, I couldn't turn down the opportunity.

"Although there may be risks involved in accepting help from strangers rashly... But I think the probability of this risk should not be higher than the probability of death through or around the storm? What's more, this Ms. Enya always gives people a kind of gentle and elegant And a reliable feeling, my intuition tells me that she is trustworthy, even trustworthy like the laws of nature...

"I immediately asked her for help and asked her to send me back to the human world, but before that, I first showed her the weird amulet and told her how it appeared—although I don't know Whether this mysterious 'dragon' can answer my doubts, but I really can't find anyone else to ask. Theoretically, the dragons living in this sea area are the only race that may know the secret about that tower , if even Enya is not sure about the risk of this amulet, then I will throw it into the sea without hesitation.

"When she saw the talisman, Enya was obviously surprised. She took the talisman and looked at it carefully for a long time, then stroked it with her hand... I don't understand what happened, at that moment There is no magic power fluctuation, no energy reaction, but some kind of unimaginable power does appear, I feel it descending suddenly, suppressing and purifying what is left on the amulet. The lingering and entangled sense of panic and anxiety quickly faded from the spiritual world-I felt a sense of relief and warmth, and Enya put the amulet back in my hand.

"'It's safe—it's just a piece of metal now, and you can take it home as a souvenir'—she told me.

"I don't know whether I should trust her, but the talisman really feels different now, it no longer has any disturbing aura, as an extraordinary person, maybe I should trust my intuition in this field... …

"At this point, I finally relieved my last doubts and hesitation. I don't want to stay on this weird steel island for a moment, and I've had enough of the cold wind here. I expressed my urgency to leave as soon as possible. Wishing, Enya smiled and nodded—this is the last scene I remember on that island of steel.

"A tangle of light and shadow enveloped me, and for an infinitely brief moment (or simply lost memory for a while), I seemed to pass through some kind of tunnel... or something. When I opened my eyes again , I'm already lying on a coastline full of gravel, surrounded by a light curtain emitting faint heat, and the light curtain itself has reached the edge of dissipating.

"I looked into the distance and saw the familiar mountains - this is already the northern border.

"Now, I'm sitting on the edge of my own territory, writing furiously in this notebook, recording my strange and bizarre experiences in the past period of time, all of which are like a crazy and torn dream, full of absurd and bizarre Turning points and undeterminable details, but there is clear evidence that they are all real things-the amulet, which is now lying quietly on a large rock on my left, glowing in the sun. With a slight brilliance..."

Gawain frowned.

Mordir Wilde... just came back safely, was rescued by a mysterious woman who suddenly appeared, and was relieved of some hidden dangers, and then returned to the human world safely?

In Gao Wen's view, it seems that similar things must have some twists and shady scenes to be considered "common sense". However, the development of the real world does not seem to follow the laws in the novel. Mordir Wilde did return to Beijing safely. The decades of his life after that and the many adventures he left behind can prove this point. In this "Modir's Travel Notes", the record of this "Legend of Trek" has also come to an end. At the end of the record, there is only the ending left by Mordir Wilde:

"...Everything is over. I am walking back to Cold Winter Castle, recalling my adventures in the past few months, and my thoughts have gradually woken up from the chaos. The familiar mountains, familiar villages and towns here , and the real human beings I met on the road, all of which show that the nightmare is gone, and the land under my feet is real.

"When I went back and organized my notes from the past period, I saw again the last disturbing scribblings and frantic babblings, and the word 'leave' in a very strange handwriting... Now I can be sure that this word is indeed I didn't write it out of my own will, it should have been written by my hand when 'Enya' came to help, and its function may be a medium of 'spiritual awakening' or transmission of power.

"I hesitated for a long time whether I should keep these records - they are really weird, and they don't look like the content of normal adventure travel notes, but in the end I decided to keep all traces of this adventure. I kept it in its entirety—including the scribbles and the words Enya had written with my hand.

"There is no special power in these words. I have confirmed this. Keeping them is also a warning to future generations. They can fully reflect the danger of adventure, and maybe it can make others like me Reckless adventurers think a little more before setting out...

"Later readers, if you are also interested in adventure, please remember my advice - the sea is full of dangers, especially the north of the human world, on the opposite side of the eternal storm, it is definitely not a place for ordinary people to set foot, If you really want to go, then please be prepared to bid farewell to this world forever...

"As for myself... it seems that I need to rest for a while, and finish the aftermath of my reckless adventure. As for the future... well, I can't deceive myself in my notes.

"Modir Wilder is a daring and unrepentant fellow, I just can't control my urge to take risks!

"Facts have proved that I can't be a qualified duke. I am not a qualified nobleman, nor a qualified ruler. I will complete the transfer of the title and inheritance distribution as soon as possible. The king and several other dukes cannot stop me." .Let me be absurd, let me set off again, to the next unknown—maybe next time I will be alone, without dragging the innocent, maybe one day I will die alone somewhere far away from the human world, only A notebook to accompany, but what the hell!

"This world full of unknowns is simply too damn good!!"

Gao Wen silently closed this thick and ancient notebook, watching the mottled and old cover hide the words inside again, the sun that was already approaching dusk shone on its restored spine, and the gold threads and hot silver A faint afterglow sprinkled in between.

After taking charge of this country, he also specially went to understand the stories behind several major aristocratic genealogy in this land, and learned about a series of changes in this country after the death of Gawain Cecil, and in the process, Many names gradually became familiar to him.

Mordir Wilde 600 years ago... was quite a famous person.

He inherited the title of the Duke of the North early, and passed it on to his heirs early. He has been wandering for half his life, and his behavior is by no means like a normal nobleman, even the descendants of early pioneers in Ansu In the novel, he is also so maverick to the extreme that nobles and scholars who study history will frown when they mention this "Duke Adventurer", not knowing how to write.

He is a great man, he traveled to every corner of the human world, even many corners beyond the borders of the human world, he added nearly a third of the duchy’s developable wasteland to Ansu 600 years ago, He found more than ten kinds of precious magic materials and new food crops for the firmly established human civilization at that time. He used his feet to measure the borders of the north and the east. Many things he discovered - minerals, animals and plants, natural phenomena, The law of magic after the magic tide is still blessing the human world to this day.

He is also an absurd person, abandoning the title, regardless of the fief, and ignoring the royal family. His contributions are actually derived from his interest. His casual behavior caused almost as much trouble as his contribution at the time, so that 600 Years ago, the Ansu royal family even had to devote considerable energy to helping the Wilder family stabilize the situation in the northern border, so as to prevent the "sporadic disappearance" of the Duke of the northern border from causing chaos in the border area.If placed in the Second Dynasty, where the power of the royal family has declined sharply, Mordir Wilder's rash actions may even lead to new divisions.

Therefore, the nobles and scholars who study history can only refuse to make an evaluation of the life of this "ridiculous grand duke". In the "Literature Preservation Project" launched in the first year of Modi, many precious historical records about Modi will never be excavated.

"It's a wonderful person..."

Gao Wen smiled, then sighed, and sat up from behind the desk.

He came to the "world map" hanging not far away, and his eyes wandered slowly on it.

Mordir Wilde has left too many mysteries...

Gawain sighed silently in his heart. He picked up a pen from the small shelf next to it, and the tip of the pen fell beside the piece of land representing Tarrond on the opposite side of the Eternal Storm. ——After hesitating and thinking for a while, he moved the nib of the pen on the sea on the west side of Tarrond, left a mark, and put a question mark next to it.

"Is there another tower..."

He murmured to himself softly, his eyes moved down, and landed on the coastline where Beigang was located.

"A world full of unknowns..."

Chapter 0906 A world full of unknowns

"There are so many mysterious and unknown things in this world..."

Sitting in the office of the Port Military Management Office, Byron couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Outside the window, the sound of tides from the distant sea rises and falls, and occasionally the chirping of seabirds passing over the port area can be heard occasionally. The slanted sunlight shines from the vast sea all the way into the large buildings in Beigang. , Houses, towers, and walls cast clear light and shadows. A group of soldiers is striding forward to the watchtower for the changing of the guard in a neat line. On the cement road, businessmen who responded to the recruitment lined up in front of the checkpoint and waited to pass, and the sound of the roar of construction machinery came from further away—that was the direction of the No. [-] port connecting bridge.

There is soft warm air blowing in the office of the management office, two visitor representatives are sitting on armchairs beside the desk, one is a beautiful woman with blue mid-length hair, wearing a sea blue dress of unknown texture, forehead There is a golden pendant in front of her, and she is seriously studying several crystal vessels on the table. The other is a woman whose body is almost covered with scales and tough cortex, as if a human being and some kind of deep-sea creature are fused—— The latter is particularly notable.Her lower body, which is similar to the fusion of sea snakes and fishes, "sitting" on the chair in an awkward posture, the extra half of the tail seems not to know how to place it, and has been shaking awkwardly, although the upper body is very obvious. The female form, but it has the characteristics of deep sea creatures everywhere.

Byron's eyes couldn't help falling on that "Naga" again, and he explained, "Sorry, Ms. Helen, I didn't mean to offend—but it's indeed the first time I've seen a Naga with my own eyes."

"It's the first time for everyone to see 'Naga'." The female Naga, who was sitting awkwardly on the chair, smiled, and didn't seem to care, "After all, we just...reborn not long ago. "

"Your crystal processing technology is different from before." The blue-haired woman sitting on the side seemed completely oblivious to the conversation between Byron and Helen. She picked up the cup on the table curiously and shook it, "I remember The last time I saw artificial white crystals on land, there were still many impurities and air bubbles in them, so they can only be broken and used as the base material for runes..."

"Uh... Crafts and utensil-grade white crystals have been available many years ago..." Byron didn't care about the interruption from the siren lady, but showed a trace of doubt, "Ms. Viola, can I ask you When was the 'last time'?"

"...I don't remember clearly, I don't care much about things outside of the technical field, but I vaguely remember that you humans were still trying to break through the offshore blockade..." Blue, who was called Ms. Viola Fa Siren thought for a while and nodded seriously, "Well, now you are also trying to find a way to break through the offshore blockade, so it shouldn't take long."

Byron was stunned for a moment before he realized how the other party's timeline jumped, and he was stunned: "You may not be talking about the age of sailing 700 years ago... It has been seven centuries, Ms. Viola!"

The blue-haired sea monster spread his hands: "Look, I'll say it hasn't been long."

Rao Byron, who has always paid for his eloquence and reaction ability, didn't know how to answer this kind of topic at the moment, but Naga Helen helped break the embarrassment: "The siren's concept of time is very different from that of human beings, and Ms. Viola's concept of time is very... powerful even among sea monsters. Please understand this point."

"Oh, oh...Of course, of course, in fact, I also know some long-lived races, but I can understand the difference between your concept of time and human beings," Byron was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, and then he took Standing up with a smile, he opened his hands to welcome the two visitors who came from afar, "In short, I am very grateful to Ao for the technical assistance provided to Cecil. The technical team you brought is of great importance to Beigang. It's important. We're at a critical point in the whole project right now - would you be interested in visiting the shipyard with me? The rest of the technical team should already be there."

Naga Helen immediately jumped off the chair, a smile appeared on her heterogeneous face: "Of course, that's why we came here."

……

On the east side of Beigang, in the newly built shipyard near the sheltered bay, the roar of machinery running can be heard endlessly, and the intense and busy construction work is gradually coming to an end.

A new steel-based ship is quietly lying in the dry dock. A large number of supporting structures on both sides of the hull make it stable. On the scaffolds distributed along the hull and frame, technical workers are checking the Every key structure of the new ship, and confirmed that the vital power ridge has been installed in place.In the few openings on the hull that have not been closed, the flashes of welding light up one after another, and the builders in charge of the construction are sealing the mechanical structures and key compartments of various places there.

On the ground at the end of the dock, there is a platform several meters above the ground. The technicians responsible for shipbuilding and some special "guests" are gathering on this platform.

Some of them are humans wearing Cecil's navy uniform or technician uniform, while the rest are beautiful women and "Naga" with obvious characteristics of deep-sea creatures.These people paid close attention to the progress of the construction on the berth not far away. Some people reached out and pointed at the various parts of the ship, while others held the blueprints in their hands and were interpreting the contents of the blueprints to the people beside them.

Obviously, the "cooperation" of these people has just begun, and there are still very obvious strangers to each other. Human technicians can't help but cast their curious eyes on those sea monsters and Naga. They were curious about the other magical machines in this shipbuilding facility. They sometimes discussed and sometimes chatted, but overall, the atmosphere was quite harmonious.

A magical car stopped near the platform, and Byron, Viola, and Helen got out of the car. Helen was still curiously looking at the "weird car" she had just been riding in, but Viola had already Put your sights on the berth.Byron looked at the platform not far away, and glanced at the sea monsters and naga who had been mixed with his technicians, and couldn't help but murmured to himself: "Looking at the atmosphere, it's still a mess." good……"

In fact, the technicians only arrived in North Harbor yesterday - they suddenly appeared from the nearby sea and startled the patrol personnel on the beach at the time.After a hurried welcome ceremony, these "technical experts" who came from afar went directly to work.

They came earlier than everyone expected. Fortunately, relevant news reached Byron a few weeks ago. A lot of information about Naga and Siren has been conveyed through audio-visual materials at the meeting in the past few weeks. Thanks to the main staff of the various facilities in the port, these furious "deep sea visitors" did not cause any confusion in Beigang.

This special "deep sea expert team" is led by the siren "Viola", a beautiful lady with blue hair who claims to be a "deep sea witch" - according to the siren, this seems to be a technical position title.In addition, Viola has two main Naga assistants, one of which is Helen, and the other is a male Naga nicknamed "The Philosopher"—that Naga did not show up in the management office, Instead, he came to the shipyard early in the morning with other sea monsters and Naga, and now he is standing on the platform not far away, but Byron really can't tell the Naga's appearance clearly, and he can't tell where it is. One is him.

"This is the boat you built..." Viola's eyes moved slowly on the berth, and the big ship with a metal shell was reflected in her beautiful eyes. She looked at the streamlined bottom of the ship, placed on both sides of the ship. Looking at the mana wings on the side and some structures on the deck, he nodded slightly, "The man-made ship on land is very different from our means of transportation, but at least it looks reasonable."

"There is nothing wrong with the external structure." Naga Helen on the side also nodded, "But...we didn't expect you to have progressed to this point. I thought you would wait until we came before actually starting to build new ships."

"When Beigang started construction, no one could tell when you would come, and it was impossible for us to stop everything and wait for someone else's technical team," Byron said with a smile, "and we have experience in inland shipbuilding. , although these experiences may not be useful at sea, at least it is more than enough to be used to build an experimental offshore sample ship. experience of."

What Byron said was very frank, but there were still some things he didn’t say—in fact, before the Kraken’s technical team set off, Gawain had discussed with him the matter of building a sea-going ship, and there was a rule that two people They all agree, that is, no matter whether or when third-party technical experts come, Cecil's own R&D and construction projects should be carried out according to the plan, even if this will cause some loss of resources, from laying a solid foundation From the perspective of mastering technology and accumulating experience, everything is worthwhile.

After all, a foreign race is a foreign race after all, and no matter how good a technical expert is, it is not your own. It is good to have a good relationship with more allies, but it is very difficult to base one's major projects entirely on the help of other people's technical experts. Unwise.

Byron didn't know if the "Witch of the Deep Sea" next to him and the "Naga" who was once the son of the storm on the other side could think of this, and he didn't care much about it. He just looked at the woman on the slipway with some proud eyes. A beautiful steel ship, with a smile on his face: "It's a beautiful ship, isn't it?"

"Does it have a name?" Helen looked at Byron with curiosity in her tawny vertical pupils.

"...Actually, I wanted to name it 'The Pea' at first, but His Majesty didn't agree, and my daughter even talked about me for half an hour," Byron shrugged, "Now its official name is 'Curiosity' No.', I think this is also in line with its positioning - it will be a symbol of human beings exploring the sea again after the end of the classical age of navigation. We will use it to reopen the offshore route of the Northwest Circle of the mainland, and try to explore the differences between the far sea and the near sea. boundary."

"Curiosity... is indeed a good name," Helen blinked, and the long tail covered with scales swept the ground, making a rustling sound, "Curiosity..."

The tone of this Naga seems a little complicated. She may have thought of the courage and exploration of human beings when they first stepped into the sea, or the short-lived glory of the Church of Storms in the classical sailing age, or the Priests of Storms. Falling into darkness, the regrettable situation that humans stayed away from the sea for hundreds of years... However, the scales on the cheeks and the body that has not yet been fully mastered prevented her from making rich expression changes like when she was a human, so in the end she All exclamations can only be attributed to a sigh.

……

On the platform at the end of the dry dock, a tall male Naga with sunken eye sockets and skin covered with light blue scales retracted his gaze towards the sea at the end of the dock.

A Naga companion next to him was joking: "Philosopher, you don't want to write poetry again, do you? You have been showing this sigh today."

"I'm just thinking about what else 'Curiosity' needs to be perfected and remodeled in time." Naga, a tall male with deep eye sockets, glanced at his companion, "The technology used in this ship is very important to us. Unfamiliar, the ships built by the Church of the Storm were all powered by magic, manpower and sails, but Curiosity mainly relied on magic machinery to propel it... The power system is different, and the hull structure and various characteristics of sailing will be completely different , these are things that must be considered.”

"That's true," a Kraken deep-water technician nodded, "Although we are here to provide technical support, we also need to study human magic technology to figure out how to support it..."

"Human..." The Naga technician nicknamed "The Philosopher" couldn't help murmuring softly when he heard this word, but then he shook his head, "But no matter how it changes, the laws of nature will never change, The fundamentals of how a ship sails won't change much."

His speech was quickly recognized by the technicians present. These technicians from different races and forces, and even with completely different perceptions of the world, got together again and began to study the drawings of "Curiosity".

Byron, who was standing not far from the platform, was paying attention to the movement of the technicians on the platform. As an extraordinary person, he could hear their discussions—the purely technical matters, which the “Admiral of the Navy” was not clear about. But he can understand things other than technology.

In the matter of exploring the sea, the Typhon people have indeed taken a step ahead. They started earlier, have richer heritage, have better coastlines and natural ports, and have unique advantages from the near sea to the far sea that can be used for construction. The base's natural island chain has advantages that are too great to ignore.

But the Cecilians will still be confidently catching up.

The Cecils know magic technology, the naga who used to be the sons of the storm know how to build ships, and the sea monsters know the sea.

Now, these three things have come together.

That's where the Cecils excel in this field.

Chapter 0907 The New Wind in the Moss Forest

The sun shines through the tall tree crowns, forming bright beams of light among the criss-crossing branches and leaves, and sprinkles mottled spots of light on the forest path covered with fallen leaves. An unknown small animal suddenly emerges from the bushes. Jumping out, there was a series of crackling sounds.

A male gray elf, as short as a child, with short gray hair, emerged from the nearby bushes. He was wearing a brown blouse that residents of the moss forest area often wear, with a thick cloth sack on his shoulders. A tool for collecting herbs was hung on his waist, and the sunlight from the forest fell on his gray eyes with a faint brilliance.