Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 734 - 733: Melita’s Answer

The information Melita revealed and the possibilities behind it made Gawain’s breath momentarily pause.

This brief reaction did not escape Melita’s eyes.

”Can you elaborate?” Gawain suppressed the tumult in his heart, leaning forward with a serious expression, ”In what manner, and from where, did they steal knowledge? And why did this knowledge nearly destroy the future of the world?”

”The history concerning the Inversion Tide is a rather sensitive subject among the Dragonkin, although it’s not strictly forbidden, we rarely disclose it to another race,” Melita slightly narrowed her eyes, seemingly observing Gawain’s reaction, ”Let’s not talk about that for now, you seem quite interested in this matter?”

Gawain knew that his reaction earlier might have been too strong, but he maintained his composure and responded frankly, ”Of course I’m interested—the Oblivion Association used this book to create a disaster that nearly destroyed Anzu, and now this book is in my hands—if this thing carries some ancient curse or power that drives people mad, then we’re not just facing a few personnel losses, and your Dragonkin’s nervous attitude towards this book... makes me even more cautious.”

”You can rest assured in this regard, it has nothing to do with curses or anything similar, its most dangerous aspect is the knowledge itself,” Melita shook her head, ”For some reasons, the Dragonkin on external missions are forbidden from disclosing the specific content and source of that knowledge to another race, but about the Inversion Tide... I can give you a hint.”

”What hint?”

”A race in a state of spiritual ignorance must not possess material technology beyond their capabilities,” Melita said solemnly, ”because they become slaves to both spirit and matter.”

Gawain was silent for two seconds.

For a soul who has traversed from planet Earth, who has been exposed to an onslaught of information and bombarded by various ideologies, Melita’s statement was actually quite simple to understand.

It was nothing more than digging up advanced technology from some ancient alien civilization and causing a technological crisis.

But intuition and Melita’s eyes when she said that sentence told him that this ”crisis” might not be so simple.

Melita mentioned ”nearly destroying the future of the entire world,” these words should not have been said casually, but why would the possession of advanced technology by a spiritually ignorant race lead to the destruction of the world’s ”future”?

”Destroying the future of the entire world,” in Gawain’s understanding, should mean losing potential for development, throwing the world into some irreversible, pessimistic state, no longer advancing, no longer developing, no longer having opportunities, meaning eternal decline...

If that ”Inversion Tide Empire” only stole some technology from the ”Ancient Fleet” and used it to develop advanced weapons, then they might destroy themselves in warfare, or use these weapons to obliterate the Dragonkin, but in Gawain’s view, this wouldn’t be considered destroying the future of the entire world—because this world had indeed developed multiple civilizations, with mechanisms like the ”chaotic wave” in place, any race in such a world is just a temporary traveler. If the Inversion Tide Empire destroyed itself, a new nation would rise in its place, if the Dragonkin were annihilated, a new race would be born.

Such a world is still developing and changing, its future is not destroyed, only one cycle is.

Of course, perhaps Melita was only referring to the crisis the Dragonkin faced in warfare, and Gawain’s reflections on the broader historical process were just his own meanderings, but he believed that an ancient race like the Dragonkin, who have witnessed countless eras, shouldn’t have such a short-sighted view.

He candidly shared his thoughts.

”The serious consequences you mentioned shouldn’t just be about the Inversion Tide Empire creating some sort of weapon using forbidden knowledge, right?” He looked into Melita’s eyes, ”What exactly did they do, to nearly destroy the future of the world—can you tell me that?”

”...I can’t.” Melita shook her head, her eyes strongly implied.

Gawain smoothly received the implication, ”Oh, so it seems to be related to the Black Pit and the gods again.”

Through several conversations, he had already grasped a pattern in Melita’s ”unmentionable secrets,” and accordingly inferred the predicament faced by the Dragonkin—they seemed to be under some form of divine constraint, preventing them from revealing any secrets related to gods, but conversely...

As long as they bite their tongues and don’t disclose, it must be something related to gods.

After all, these ultimate creatures are overwhelmingly powerful, capable of burning the sky, earth, and air with a single breath, rolling around in extensive fields with ease. There are very few things they dare not express.

The hints gathered from indirect questioning led Gawain deep into thought—

The Inversion Tide Empire, an ancient civilization that once wrestled with and nearly bested the Dragonkin during the Ancient Era, according to Melita, was actually a ”spiritually ignorant race.” This state of ignorance should be relative—after all, they were capable of creating a ”Steal Chain Device” that could intercept satellite data, indicating a fairly advanced technological level. Thus, their ignorance must refer to their spiritual civilization not matching the technology from those satellite clusters, or in other words, not matching the technology from that ancient fleet.

This ”mismatch” led them to trigger some crisis related to the gods and the Black Pit.

Melita could not speak of the specific content of this crisis, but Gawain could speculate...

If the so-called ”spiritual ignorance” refers to failing to escape theocracy, then... was the Inversion Tide Empire using superweapons to wage religious wars? Using black technology to pursue the path of gods? Attempting to transform the real world into a kingdom? Or...

Did these black technologies fall into the hands of the gods...

Gawain’s eyes flickered with a touch of caution suddenly.

If rapidly developing technology leads to ”mismatch,” then with the Cecil Clan’s magical industry advancing so swiftly... has it already entered this ”danger zone”? Will this technology one day turn into a crisis?

What are the exact criteria of the crisis caused by the Inversion Tide Empire, or is there a ”boundary” that can potentially be avoided?

He looked towards Melita, ”Will rapidly developing technology necessarily lead to a crisis similar to the Inversion Tide? What development constitutes ’advanced technology’?”

Melita clearly understood what Gawain was worried about, she smiled lightly, ”Is magic technology something that human researchers discovered themselves? Does it originate from humans, return to humans? Do ordinary citizens in your Empire treat this technology as a tool, or as a miracle?”

Gawain vaguely grasped the crux of the matter.

”If the technology is something we discovered ourselves, applied to society as a whole, and ordinary people know its origin is human rather than divine, then it is safe, even with its rapid development it is safe, whereas otherwise... it leads to a crisis like the Inversion Tide, is that what you mean?”

”As you said.”

Gawain observed Melita’s expression changes, refraining from further questioning about precise reasons or the connection to gods.

Because experience told him, further inquiries would likely lead to the moment where the blue dragon miss faced the pressure of 200+ blood pressure and a critical failure on her sanity check: ”ask more, pay more.”

Even though every time My Little Pony looks like she’s just having a thrilling experience, Gawain is genuinely afraid that one day she’ll lose control and drop dead right in front of him...

However, even if Melita can’t provide an answer, it doesn’t stop him from speculating along his current line of thought:

What’s the specific difference between a complete research process technology tree and a ”descended from heaven” technology tree? Why is one safe and the other potentially causing a crisis related to gods? According to Melita, there seems to be a subtle matching relationship between ”spiritual civilization” and ”material technology,” this matching... What exactly does it affect?

After all the questions have spun through his mind, Gawain suddenly feels he’s grasped a key point: What changes occur in society during the process of technology research and promotion?

He looks at Melita and states word by word: ”The process of technology development is about bringing things once belonging to gods back to humans — are the stolen advanced technologies missing this step?”

Melita smiles, not the usual professional, precision smile.

Her smile is heartfelt.

”The fact that you can understand this shows you probably won’t go astray.”

Gawain lets out a gentle breath.

Actually, he was close to going astray.

Almost taking the shortcut that all crossers tend to choose.

Luckily, in this world with bizarre physical rules, shortcuts don’t work.

He raises his head, looking at the Ultimate Tome in the center of the lab table: ”How will the Dragonkin handle this book?”

”If according to regulations, this is related to The Inverted Tide Empire’s item, it must be recalled,” Melita says earnestly, ”leaving it ’outside’ is very dangerous.”

”But there’s always an exception,” Gawain looks at her, ”You must know I can’t just give you this book because of a few words.”

Melita blinks: ”Yes... So you just keep it.”

Gawain was initially expecting to wrangle over this matter, but he didn’t expect the other party to agree so readily, which left him somewhat taken aback: ”Really?”

”Just as you’ve seen, it’s already broken, irreparable, it can’t steal any knowledge from anywhere anymore, the biggest risk has disappeared,” Melita says unhurriedly, ”Moreover, you’ve already realized that ’key point,’ no doubt... you won’t go astray.”

”You really trust me.”

”Consider it a show of friendship,” Melita chuckles, ”Snatching someone’s treasure damages friendship, since it’s unnecessary to recall it now, I don’t need to disregard courtesy.”

Upon hearing her mention ”friendship,” Gawain’s lips curled—aren’t you My Little Pony?

Unfortunately, little did Melita know what thoughts were behind the old man’s slight smile; she just felt she had used her rhetoric well, raising the goodwill with this human leader...

The Ultimate Tome was placed back on the lab table, alloy barriers rose again, the protective shields activated anew.

Melita quietly looked at that book for a moment before turning around, speaking formulaically, but her eyes carried an animated smile: ”Well, this service ends here, hope you’re satisfied with this consultation.”

”Worth every penny,” Gawain nodded his head, but just as Melita was about to bid farewell and leave, he suddenly remembered something, ”By the way, there’s a small question I want to ask you.”

Melita’s eye smile stiffened a bit, her tone becoming subtle: ”Could it be...”

To be honest, she truly has a psychological shadow—every time this human wants to add a small question, nine times out of ten, it touches on the edges of black traps and gods, even answering one word costs nearly half a life, originally thinking this time it could finally end peacefully, how come he still wants to add more at the end?

Seeing Melita’s reaction, Gawain felt a bit embarrassed, hurriedly waving his hand: ”Don’t be nervous, it’s really just a small question, just to satisfy my own curiosity—I’m quite curious, what’s the attitude of your Dragonkin towards human stories about valiant heroes slaying dragons and dragon knight legends?”

Melita blinked, clearly a bit surprised by this question, but her professionalism allowed her to quickly react, smiling: ”Dragon slaying stories... Speaking of which, have you heard the story ’The Dragon in Black Mountain Castle’?”

Gawain thought for a moment, then nodded: ”Yes, it’s a famous saga among bards since the Gondor Era, telling of a fictional evil dragon threatening a town, causing disasters, and then a war survivor picks up the knight’s sword left by his commander, step by step challenging the non-human monsters, eventually facing off with the dragon in Black Mountain, both disappearing—a legend that after seven hundred years, still sees variations and fragments circulated in the north and Western Region, considered a classic work portraying evil dragons.”

”I wrote it.”

”What...?”

”I wrote it,” Melita points to herself, ”The prototype was a friend of mine, though she doesn’t know about it yet.”

Gawain: ”...”

After a long half-minute of shock, he finally hesitantly asked: ”Then... what was your main purpose in doing this?”

”Recently in Talronde, villainous texts are quite popular—I mean recent as in the last ten centuries.”

Gawain: ”...”

What on earth is the trend in Talronde, are these dragons just being neurotic in their spare time?

”Look, this is our Dragonkin’s attitude towards such stories,” Melita remains unconcerned by how much her words impact Gawain, she just chuckles breezily, ”Don’t use human logic habits to consider a species that can live through several seasons of civilization—so, do you have any other questions?”

”No more...”