Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1281: Chapter 1280: Retrieving the Magic Artificial Intelligence

In the depths of the dark chaos within the defied Court, a faint glow floats on the land formed by piles of shattered boulders. A massive oak tree, which grew unbeknownst to all, stands in the center of the courtyard, surrounded by numerous functioning Magic-Guide Devices. Some project ever-changing holographic images, while others emit light intertwined into a complex lattice barrier.

The Goddess of Magic, Milmina, sits beneath the oak tree, eyes closed in meditation. A few of the pale golden leaves drifting from the tree crown settle in her hair, then transform into fragments of light, gradually dissipating.

Suddenly, the once tranquil face of the former Goddess of Magic opens her eyes, with an eerie glow unknown to her gracing her features.

Next moment, Amon’s voice came from beside her: ”What happened? Were you dreaming?”

”...No, I wasn’t asleep,” Milmina murmured with a somewhat unusual tone, rubbing her temple, ”I was startled into waking from meditation due to some sudden anxiety... not sure why.”

”Anxiety? Woken from meditation? That doesn’t sound like a good omen,” Amon, attending to the oak tree nearby, suddenly seemed anxious, a look of very human-like concern appearing on his face. ”Could it be that some aspect of your ’divine’ nature still lingers...?”

”It’s nothing severe, just a slight panic, like someone suddenly witnessing an embarrassing old history,” Milmina waved her hand, not knowing why such a peculiar thought occurred to her, but she soon dismissed this trivial matter and focused her attention on the busily engaged Amon, ”Still not done, huh?”

”Still early, I’ve just begun,” Amon shook his head, the faint green magic symbol whirling and floating around his antlers gradually dissipating in the air, ”It’s rare for me to have the chance to move freely. I have to decorate my yard seriously, given that I’ve lived here for three thousand years anyway, and who knows how long I’ll continue to live here... at least I should plant some trees or something. Do you think my oak tree is tall enough, or should it be taller?”

”It’s quite good—unless you’re not planning to plant anything else,” Milmina looked up at the beautiful golden oak tree, the only ”plant” currently in this defied Court, glowing faintly. Its mighty vitality radiates from the center, enveloping the entire courtyard in a pleasantly relaxed atmosphere. It’s the first time in thousands of years that such vitality has appeared in this dark, desolate place—although Milmina isn’t interested in Amon’s ”landscaping plan,” she’s delighted to see Amon find this joy upon recovering physically and truly being free, which is undoubtedly better than spending all day online playing cards. ”I must say you are quite motivated, planting trees in the shadow realm. What’s that saying again... oh, Philem wouldn’t think of something so ridiculous.”

”I did not lie among the barren stones for three thousand years because I liked it,” Amon said with a fairly cheerful tone, ”Do you need any help? These days, I see you resting amid these boulders and ruins. Though I’m used to it, you should be more accustomed to having a shelter—perhaps I can create a dwelling for you, like a magic tower that grows? Gawain and his friends certainly wouldn’t mind; they already said this yard could be freely modified to my liking, as long as it doesn’t affect the operation of these Magic-Guide Devices.”

”No, I think it’s fine just like this! Don’t mention magic towers again!” Milmina instantly glared, practically shouting in a reflexive response, but she quickly realized her reaction was overly strong, revealing a resentful expression. ”If I wanted a dwelling, I could handle it myself, don’t forget that ’shaping’ is an important branch in the magic realm, where I excel more than you.”

”Alright, alright, I was just casually saying it, no need to shout so loudly,” Amon shook his head, then couldn’t help but glance up and down at Milmina, ”By the way, what conclusions have you reached in your meditation? For two days, you haven’t stopped conducting various bizarre magic experiments, meditating under the tree, or writing reports... just like those busy researchers in the council. What exactly are you up to?”

”I told you, you wouldn’t understand,” Milmina, with no interest in explaining to Amon, waved her hand and stood up, ”Anyway, I’m nearly done with my paper. If you genuinely have an interest, you’ll be able to see it in the future from the neural network database.”

Amon softly hums, lacking interest in arguing with the Goddess of Magic on the topic. His attention shifts back to his ”courtyard beautification project,” where a new planting plan gradually forms in the mind of this former God of Nature—with the majestic golden oak tree surrounded by the formed life force field. In the shadow realm, an environment conducive to plant growth has emerged. Amon feels he should plant a field of flowers around or hang full berry bushes...

Or perhaps plant some cucumbers, eggplants, scallions, ginger, and garlic.

...

The stone containing a ”message” gradually drifts away, once more vanishing into the darkness between the false starlit sky. Majestic towers stand in the center of the kingdom, resembling silent sentinels, guarding the secrets of a realm which its master personally abandoned.

”...I think we should act as if we’ve seen nothing,” Amber glanced around, shrinking her neck and muttering, ”The person involved would certainly not be pleased if they found out...”

Gawain agreed with Amber’s logic. In considering the content on that stone, it likely holds similar power to the youthful melancholy literature written in a space profile during reckless youth for Milmina. Bringing it up face-to-face afterward might very well result in bloodshed...

Aboard the ancient spaceship navigating through the dark chaos, another bout of vibration occurs as the engine power gradually increases. This colossal vessel once more returns to the depths of darkness, with those enigmatic shadows reappearing outside the barrier, making Gawain and the others realize the ship is on the move again.

Just as previously speculated, the ship is cruising among the Land of the Gods, visiting one divine realm after another during its voyage, making brief stops and hovering at distances near or far to observe momentarily before proceeding to the next target—for Gawain and others, this consists, without doubt, of extremely valuable observational data.

Mortals never before had such an opportunity to observe the interior of the divine realms so directly, and during this process, without concern for mental contamination—the severe sacrifice once paid at Winterhold Fort Battlefield earned them unexpectedly astonishing rewards.

Of course, not every observation of the divine realms would be as clear and distinct as the previous ”Fertility Divine Kingdom” or ”magic Divine Kingdom.” Sometimes Gawain and others saw perplexing situations, observing ”spaces” entirely shrouded in light that prevented any perception of the interior through mere eyesight. Sometimes they witnessed a heap of chaotic overlapping light and shadow, presenting space internally intertwined in an inconceivably layered fashion. Whether this chaos of the ”deep-sea” caused interference in perception or some ancient divine realm indeed presented such bizarre appearance remains uncertain.

In one instance, the ship suddenly stopped in the darkness, activating lights and probe devices for an extended scan of the empty void—as if a hidden divine realm existed in that barren place.

All these peculiar situations were meticulously recorded by Kamel and Modir—perhaps someday in the future, all mysteries will be unraveled.

The constant emergence of these ”observational points” amidst the ”journey” significantly slowed the actions of Gawain and others aboard the ship. They repeatedly paused to document the various scenes witnessed outside the ship’s barrier, leaving behind substantial visual and textual documentation, often prioritizing these observations over the exploration of the ship itself.

But despite the delays, they eventually reached the entrance leading into the ship—a hatch made of unknown alloy at the deck’s end remains open, with the bright light within indicating the basic systems of the connecting passageway are still operational.

”The ’Explorers’ are inside,” Kamel hovered at the entrance, perceiving the magical power fluctuation emanating nearby, then nodded, ”I am receiving its signal, clear and stable. The environment inside is quite settled.”

”Let’s go inside,” Gawain finally looked up at the dark ”deep-sea” beyond the spaceship shield. This journey wasn’t over yet, and there should be more new kingdoms appearing outside the ship, but he also needed to figure out the secrets of the ship itself. ”Victoria, set up a memory crystal here to record the situation outside the shield. We’ll retrieve it later.”

Victoria immediately began setting up the memory crystal and the corresponding maintenance array as ordered, while Amber casually said, ”Anyway, this ship makes a round every two days. We’ve figured out the pattern. Once we identify the navigation process this time, when we return, we can arrange for scouting teams to board this ship regularly for long-term observation—these kingdoms won’t go anywhere, observe for a few cycles, and all the data can be recorded.”

”...I hope everything can be as simple and smooth as you say,” Gawain glanced at Amber, saying with a rather grave expression, ”I have a few bad premonitions.”

”Then, whatever you do, don’t say them out loud.” Melita suddenly said with a nervous expression.

Looking at the blue dragon lady who looked as if facing a formidable enemy, Gawain’s expression turned a bit nuanced, and he could only shrug helplessly before following Kamel into the passage leading to the interior of the spaceship.

Behind the gate was a spacious corridor, bright lights illuminating this place that might have been silent for 1.8 million years—as with the situation inside the Tower of the Inversion Tide, time hadn’t corroded this creation of the Voyager, and in the ”deep-sea,” there was no so-called dust or ash. As the group passed through the clean, bright connecting passage of the spaceship, everything in sight gave them a strong illusion...as if this place had been abandoned not long ago, perhaps with bustling crew members still bustling through this corridor just moments ago.

After walking not far along the corridor, they finally found the ”Explorer” magic artificial intelligence, which had been sent onto the ship several days ago and had been autonomously active for a long time.

”That’s it.” Kamel raised his hand, pointing at a spot not far ahead.

Gawain looked up to see a brass magic autonomous device with a roundish shell quietly hiding in a corner at the far end of the corridor. It had retracted all its limbs and working extremities, using some equipment around the corner of the corridor as cover, currently in a state of deep sleep.

It looked weak, pitiful, and helpless.

Considering the astonishing level of technology represented by the Voyager ship itself, the brass golem before them, with only simple intelligence and fragile mechanical structure, indeed appeared somewhat ”pitiful.”

Yet, looking at the brass golem in a state of dormancy, an unusual sentiment suddenly rose in Gawain’s heart—he even felt this mechanical device, not even half the level of a Gondor Iron Man, seemed like a hero.

So backward, so fragile, this simple mechanical device almost represented the pinnacle of technology in today’s Loren Countries. Yet, before the technological creations of the Voyager, it might not even count as a toy—but such a ”gadgets” capable of only simple thinking had independently acted for many days on this mysterious ship, traversing the dark decks, walking through ancient corridors, exploring countless mysteries.

Could it be called the ”Mechanical Pioneer?”

This whimsical thought spun out in Gawain’s mind, but simultaneously, Kamel had issued the activation command. A slight clicking and buzzing sound came from the brass golem’s belly as the roundish thing suddenly wobbled in place, and then several mechanical limbs slowly unfolded.

It seemed like it had just woken from a long dream, stretching its folded limbs like a human stretching from a nap, with previously folded sensing devices and mechanical arms springing out from the round shell, its precise crystal lenses capturing Kamel’s figure.

A mechanical claw for picking up items was raised, waving happily—it was delighted for successfully completing its mission and being reclaimed.

”...The Typhon Empire did learn quite a bit from the Gondor Iron Man’s technology.” Watching the brass golem’s very humanlike behavior, Victoria couldn’t help but sigh.

”Indeed, they’ve learned a lot, but it’s still far from enough,” Daniel, standing beside her, said expressionlessly. ”For so many years, we still cannot replicate the Iron Man’s intellect core nor produce those lifelike bionic structures. Our magic artificial intelligence experts are still waiting for the next technological breakthrough—or a great stroke of luck.”

”Sometimes technological breakthroughs indeed require a bit of luck,” Gawain remarked casually with a smile, then turned his gaze to Kamel. ”Now, let’s check the data recorded by the golem and see what it’s observed along the way.”

During the last time the ”Steel Ground” approached the War God’s Divine Realm, the Explorer golem had already transmitted some of the data it had collected to the technical team working in the divine realm outpost. However, due to the short stay of the spaceship and the limitations of remote transmission, it could only send back a small portion of the data, and many image contents were blurry.

The complete exploration data still needed to be retrieved in the most primitive way.

Kamel opened the outer casing of the Explorer golem and found the device storing critical data from the labyrinthine core of magic symbols and guiding structures. He carefully took it out and placed it in his hand.

It was a cube about the size of a palm, with most of its exterior made from expensive Mithril and Adamantite, with high-quality crystals and gems inlaid on the surface, the inside a more complex structure, submerged within an alchemy solution storage system.

It bore the obvious marks of traditional magic craftsmanship combined with modern Magic-Guide technology.

(By the way, everyone should know by now, right? A 10,000-word bonus Chapter was added a couple of days ago, which you can read as long as you are subscribed! The bonus Chapter itself is free!)

(ps. That was 10,000 words... 10,000 words... After finishing it, I deeply realized I am indeed not young anymore, my hand is numb...)