Release that Witch

Roland called the Third Border City and demanded immediately, ”Ask Celine not to dismantle the Magic Ceremony Cube! I need to see her now!”

”Yes... Yes, Your Majesty!” The telephone operator on the other end of the line apparently had no idea what had happened, but still, he obeyed the order instantly.

”Take me to the Border City,” Roland said as he turned to Nightingale. ”As fast as possible.”

”No problem,” Nightingale replied with a smile and grasped his hand. ”This may make you feel dizzy.”

Within a second, they had stepped into the Mist.

Five minutes later.

”Ugh... finally.” For a moment, Roland was at a loss as he emerged in the underground hall, with his hand clapping over his mouth. Nightingale had indeed improved a lot compared to when he had first met her. She glided through waves effortlessly and gracefully in the black and white world. However, to Roland, the trip was not nearly as comfortable as sitting in a roller coaster. He saw a blurred stream of objects streaking past him, his inside churning, and the whole world had dissolved in a grayish whirl.

Nightingale patted him on the back with an understanding smile.

”What’s the matter, Your Majesty?” Celine asked as she slowly descended from the ceiling of the cave with a bunch of tools on her tentacles. ”You were looking for me?”

Roland breathed out a sigh of relief after he saw the latter carrying a hammer, a saw and a file. He said, ”Well, it seems I’m just in time.”

He also spied a triden and an ax, failing to understand why Celine would need them. Did she actually plan to grind the Cube?

”Where’s the ancient artifact?”

”Still in the underground laboratory.”

Roland took a deep breath and asked, ”Are you able to replicate it?”

Mildly taken aback, Celine asked, ”Are you sure you want to replicate it? Isn’t it just a useless piece of junk?”

”Probably not completely useless.” He then explained his idea to Celine, ”The biggest drawback of steam power is fuels. If we could replace it with the Magic Cube, it may bring about a second industrial revolution.”

The ultimate goal of industrial development was to search for an efficient and powerful resource. A powerful resource would potentially change the nature of everything, including their manufacturing process, the way they generated electric power, as well as facilities.

Nevertheless, this was not going to be an easy step to take. It was not a simple task of just switching a traditional boiler to the Magic Cube. The change in the heating method would subsequently change the thermal system, the control system and the related repair and maintenance. They might experience numerous failures before succeeding in this undertaking. However, it was, at least, worth trying.

”Heating up water... I see,” Celine said thoughtfully. ”But... it’s very hard to replicate it without exploring its internal structure. It’s a magic device after all, and you don’t allow me to dismantle it.”

”Ahem, what I’m saying is that you don’t tear it down like it’s a piece of junk,” Roland said on a cough. ”I want you to dismantle it in a careful, methodological manner for replication purposes.”

”Is there a rough dismantling procedure as well?” Celine asked in astonishment. Then she said in a pretty aggrieved tone, ”You would get punished if you mishandled a relic back in the Quest Society. From the time I joined the Society to the fall of Taquila, I had never been punished. Lady Natalia spoke highly of me, saying that I have deft fingers. If I was so careless, there would have probably been no core instruments left in the hall now.”

As Celine boasted in the disguise of a defence, Roland cast her a skeptical look and asked, ”Did you use these tools to disassemble relics back then?”

”These?” Celine said in surprise. ”How could that be possible? Didn’t you just equip us with the new weapons? So these swords and axes are now useless. Rather than storing them away in the warehouse, it would be better to melt them down and use them to make something else. I still need some bookcases in my storage room. By the way, why do you think they’re research tools?”

Nightingale turned away while clapping her hand over her mouth, shaking with suppressed giggles.

A little embarrassed, Roland replied, ”No, I just fear that you’ll get overexcited when it comes to magic power...”

”You must have heard it from Pasha,” Celine said as she mopped her giant blob with her main tentacle. ”She doesn’t know the difference between a craze and a hobby... A real researcher must always have a clear mind to accurately control his behavior. It’s normal for a researcher to work day and night or mumble while reading a book — ”

Roland interrupted Celine just in time to stop her from rambing on. ”Well, speaking of the Magic Ceremony Cube, are you sure you can replicate it once you know its structure?”

Celine replied, instantly back to normal, ”That depends on how complicated this Magic Cube is. I can’t guarantee you now, but there’s a big possibility, because one good thing about this Cube is that it doesn’t require magic power to operate it. This means the biggest difficulty in the replication is gone.”

”The hardest part is the replication of magic power!” Roland uttered an exclamation of comprehension.

”Exactly,” Celine said while bending her main tentacle. ”Due to physical and psychological differences, human beings, demons and the underground civilization use magic power in very different ways. For example, we probably could never gain multiple abilities by inserting Magic Stones in our bodies like the demons. Likewise, if I didn’t convert to an original carrier, I would have never been able to repair the magic core.”

”The fact that the Cube doesn’t require magic power means we don’t need to know what kind of Magic Cyclone that disappeared civilization once had and used. To be honest, we could never figure that out without relevant documentation. However, we now just need to replicate the object to achieve the same magical effect. Of course, this would still be hard in the Taquila age, but it’s a lot easier now with the magic core which I can adjust anytime.”

Celine paused for a second and then went on, ”However, we still have another problem.”

”What is it?”

”Material,” she answered. ”I’ve been doing research on the Magic Cube. Although it looks like an ordinary stone, it isn’t made of stones. I don’t know what it’s exactly made of, probably of the bones of that civilization or some other solid materials. Anyway, I need a lot of samples... Yet you said earlier that the Temple of the Cursed was looted years ago. It was pure luck that we found this Cube. So, I don’t know if the replicate made of a substitute material would work the same way as the original one.”

”Materials...” Roland said meditatively. ”Perhaps I know a place where you can find similar materials.”

That area should have changed a lot by now. Roland gazed in the southern direction. If the murals in the temple were telling a real story, perhaps he could find something there.