Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 583 - 582: Interior

The ”spine,” constructed from a blend of special alloy and rune stones, extends from the base of the sentinel towers, reminiscent of gigantic roots or perhaps a vast pipeline stretching from the Thundering Hills to the plains. The long-term erosion by wasteland magic power has left marks of time on this creation of civilization, where the once smooth alloy shell has turned rough and pitted, and the resilient rune stones blessed by the elements are also marked with mottles.

But the damage to the outer shell is merely superficial. Inside the ”spine,” ancient magical devices continue to operate faithfully, maintaining the normal functions of the sentinel tower—although the Silver Empire may have declined, the creations of the elves remain far more reliable than those of humans.

A small troop of elite Steel Cavalry, led by Soldrin, arrived at the northern section of the third ”spine.” Gawain, Amber, Sonia, and an Elven Mage named Bannar walked to the front of the group. They looked up at the artificial structure—the closed ancient gate on the side of the ”spine,” with weathered inscriptions still legible: Inspection Hatch-III.

”Since the completion of the sentinel towers and the civilization’s territory retraction, this gate has never been opened again...” Sonia stepped forward, gently stroking the elf-style relief patterns on the gate, with a touch of sentiment. ”There are dozens of sentinel towers along the wasteland border, but over the past seven hundred years, only a third have received effective maintenance and inspection—some towers are far from the Silver Empire, and some are deeply embedded in extremely polluted areas. These unmaintained towers rely entirely on the automatic repair system from back then to remain operational.”

”Fortunately, things made by elves are mostly sturdy and durable,” Gawain nodded, looking at the mage named Bannar, ”Master Bannar, it’s your turn now.”

Bannar, with his slender eyebrows and tall, thin stature, nodded and approached the gate. He retrieved a uniquely shaped, maple leaf-like metal plate from his belongings. After inserting it into a crevice among the elven reliefs depicting flora and fauna on the gate, he began to infuse it with magic power.

A shimmering light passed over the gate, and the ancient mechanical devices began to operate in the depths. Around the gate, the locks were released with creaks and groans, but the gate itself remained motionless.

Bannar shrugged at the immobile gate and casually took an L-shaped wrench from the tool bag at his waist, striking one of the nearby locks forcefully: ”Sometimes... these things need a little help.”

After several strikes, a distinct click could be heard from somewhere, and the magic door adorned with exquisite relief finally opened smoothly, revealing the dark passage inside.

Amber widened her eyes: ”Hey, I mean... this doesn’t align with the legendary elegance of the elf tribe.”

”If you observe carefully, you’ll notice that the arc of my swinging the wrench is a perfect quarter-circle—if you must say, that’s elegance,” the Elven Mage remarked while putting away his tool, casting a glance at Amber, ”There are many misconceptions about elves among people, with a lot of labeling. As a half-elf, you shouldn’t let these misconceptions cloud your judgment, young lady.”

Amber rolled her eyes, while Gawain wasn’t concerned about whether the elven race was elegant or not. He moved towards the gate, reminding those around him: ”Stay sharp—there hasn’t been a living soul in here for seven hundred years.”

The soldiers crossed the gate, stepping into the main passageway of the ”spine,” and as they entered, the wasteland’s aura was instantly cut off.

Amber immediately sensed the subtle change. She glanced back towards the entrance, seeing the corrupted, twisted wasteland of the chaotic waves outside. Yet, it seemed as though an invisible barrier blocked the entrance, preventing even a trace of the oppressive magical aura from entering the ”spine.”

”The whole sentinel tower is protected by a complex defense-filter system,” Sonia noticed the astonishment on Amber’s face and patiently explained, ”This is to prevent the chaotic wave aura from infiltrating the tower’s core and disrupting the critical spell operations inside. This area is the main sensor and material circulation conduit of the tower. Although it’s located on the outskirts, its protection level is second only to the core zone.”

”That’s amazing...” Amber murmured in surprise, raising her eyebrows and looking towards the corridor’s end.

After a few seconds of sluggishness, the ancient sensors finally reacted, and the magical lamps in the corridor lit up, illuminating the path ahead. In this corridor that hadn’t been opened for seven centuries, everything seemed to have maintained the appearance it had when completed long ago.

The gray-white floors and walls stretched out of sight, balancing simplicity with a few decorative elements and symbols rich in elven style. In the slightly arched ceiling, aside from the embedded magical lamps, several gigantic pipelines could be seen inlaid within the building materials, semi-embedded, with contents seemingly in constant motion within them.

Amber’s curiosity was piqued again: ”What’s inside those pipes?”

”The pipes contain coolant,” Bannar replied, ”To control this massive and complex mage spire, a powerful Magic Spirit Mind is housed in the base. It generates a lot of heat during operation, and to prevent the core from melting down, we designed a highly efficient cooling system. These coolants are just part of the system; ahead lies even more intricate structures.”

”Wow—” Amber exclaimed exaggeratedly, subtly glancing at Gawain.

Gawain, at the moment, was retracting his gaze from the coolant-filled pipelines, his expression calm, though his thoughts mirrored Amber’s:

The biggest issue with the Rainbow Light Generator is the heat.

This cooling system could be utilized.

”Honestly, I’m quite interested in many of the technologies here,” Gawain casually remarked. ”Although this tower was jointly constructed by human nations and elves, we didn’t really delve into its technical aspects back then... If possible, could you take me to see its heat exchange structure and cooling core later?”

Upon hearing Gawain’s words, Bannar and Sonia exchanged a glance almost instinctively, and then the latter smiled, ”The sentinel towers were built and shared by all races, of course, that’s not a problem.”

Bannar reminded, ”However, magic skills of elves and humans are vastly different, and the rune structures also vary greatly—this is why the technology of the sentinel towers was almost entirely in the hands of the Silver Empire back then. It’s not that we’re unwilling to share; it’s just that even if humans come into contact with elven runes, they can only imitate them to a limited extent. You should be aware of this, right?”

”Of course, I understand, I’m just taking a look,” Gawain responded with a smile. ”And we’ve made decent progress in the field of runes now. Although humans still can’t cast elven spells, we’ve mastered some rune translation techniques. The technology in this tower holds some reference value for us.”

”Then please feel free,” Bannar nodded. ”You were one of the builders of these towers back then; we have no reason to stop you. However, to protect the Silver Empire’s property and prevent excessive technology leakage, please don’t draw any schematics.”

”Thank you very much, that’s enough—I’m only just looking, merely referencing your design ideas for certain magical devices.”

Gawain expressed gratitude and then proceeded forward with his team. Underneath his calm expression was a hint of inner excitement.

This is the pinnacle of Silver Empire’s technology. Everything here... is a treasure!!

Of course, he didn’t lie about the reason for entering the towers—he truly wanted to figure out what went wrong with these sentinel towers, which was one of the goals and even the mission of his involvement in organizing this grand project. But besides this official reason, he was equally interested in the elf technologies within the sentinel towers.

After the fall of Gondor Empire, the elves held the most advanced artificial intelligence technology in the world, the best high-density rune technology, and the most powerful anti-gravity technology!!

Of course, due to the historical legacy of the ”Primordial Elves’ Great Schism,” elves themselves have many black boxes in these technologies that need resolving. Furthermore, all the magical techniques of elves have long been nearly incomprehensible to humans; the two races never considered the possibility of exchanging technologies, but... that’s not important.

Mathematics will explain the power of each rune and their optimal positions.

Sonia and the elf mage Bannar walked quietly alongside him. On the faces of these two elves, Gawain couldn’t perceive much emotional fluctuation.

They didn’t mind Gawain observing the core structures within the tower or that their technology might fall into human hands.

Is the sole reason the camaraderie from seven hundred years ago when all races built the sentinel towers together? Or is it due to their friendship with ”Gawain Cecil?” Or perhaps... they haven’t realized that the Cecil Clan has actually completely mastered the technology to use rune logic to reconstruct elven runes and hasn’t realized that humans are now capable of fully controlling elven magic, beyond merely applying a wind element blessing to a missile?

To be honest, the other party’s agreeable response to his request was quite unexpected for Gawain; he initially even prepared to secretly research within the sentinel towers. But since the other party had already agreed... then Gawain had no reason to miss such an opportunity.

Seven hundred years ago, Gawain Cecil, although erudite, primarily served as a military commander. During the construction of the sentinel towers, he did not delve deeply into its technology; at that time, humans were going through a major decline and faced the gap of ”incomprehensible magic of another race,” and although involved in the tower construction project, he also didn’t have access to its core technology. Therefore, today’s opportunity is particularly valuable.

The team continued moving toward the core area of the sentinel tower’s base, and every time they advanced a certain distance, Sonia or Bannar would request the team to pause to check the operation status of critical devices.

”This is the sensing core of the entire No. 3 ’spine,’” Bannar stopped midway down the corridor and approached a gray-white pillar with pale gold adornments connecting the ceiling and floor, speaking while taking out his tools, ”All sensing cores are interconnected; theoretically, if any issues arise in any of the six ’spines,’ you should be able to detect the problem at any sensing core...”

As he spoke, the mage removed a panel from the pillar. Once the protective cover was taken off, a stack of metal plates, each inscribed with complex magical symbols, layered like leaves, was revealed before everyone’s eyes.

These metal plates were stacked densely inside the pillar. Bannar waved his hand near them, causing some of the plates to immediately detach and hover in the air. With a serious expression, Bannar controlled these plates with Telekinesis, letting them fly past him one by one while carefully observing their conditions. After examination, he infused magical energy into other metal plates within the pillar, sensing their operational status.

”...All sensing cores are functioning normally, the sensors of the six ’spines’ are intact,” Bannar said with a furrowed brow, ”The signals from the wasteland side are also very clear.”

Sophia inquired from the side, ”And what about the communication with the Magic Spirit Mind?”

”The communication is good, with hardly any delay; the Magic Spirit Mind’s functioning seems normal too,” Bannar replied, using magic to restore the metal leaves to their original positions, then looking up toward the end of the corridor, ”Ahead lies the control core of the sentinel tower base; perhaps we should directly check its ’brain.’”