Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 290 - 289: Yourworld Beta Test Begins

In Veronica’s view, one by one the Holy Light figures left the Great Hall of Radiance, and the sacred power that had been turbulent throughout the space finally began to calm down again. She waited until the last bishop had also left before she slightly turned herself and looked at Pope Saint Ivan III beside her.

”Your Holiness, do you have something to say to me?”

The elderly Pope hunched over in his ornate chair, the strength he forcibly sustained seemed to be gradually fading from him. Despite the brilliant Holy Light descending from mid-air, this illumination could not reverse the fact that his body was continuously weakening. The old man took several heavy breaths before raising his eyelids: ”Veronica, loyal child of the Lord, what did you see in the highest prayer room?”

Seeing the cold snow covering the dirty, filthy streets.

”I saw the Holy Light shining upon this world, the Lord’s meadow is pure.”

Seeing people filled with desire walk into the church; the wealthy pray for more wealth, the powerful pray for more power, while the poor have no even qualifications to enter the church, and can only kneel on the outermost steps of the cathedral.

”I saw the Lord’s people gathering under the Holy Light’s illumination, their hearts filled with the Lord’s power, becoming pure and holy.”

”Very good,” the Pope said slowly, a peaceful expression on his face, ”Veronica, my time is short.”

Veronica bowed: ”Your Holiness, your body is still healthy.”

”Do not comfort me, nor do I need comfort,” the old man shook his head slightly, ”I shall return to the Lord’s embrace. Recently in visions, I already see the Lord’s appearance, standing in the center of the kingdom, smiling at me. The day of return shall be my most glorious moment... I will never resist it.”

The Lord’s appearance...

Veronica repeated the phrase in her heart, yet what appeared in her mind was an amorphous large crystalline figure; the true appearance of the Holy Light remains deeply imprinted in her mind and won’t fade away.

”Veronica, I do not resist death, but I worry our cause will be interrupted by my death,” the old Pope’s voice interrupted Veronica’s thoughts, she heard him speaking to her in a slow and firm tone, ”Do you remember the revelation you received from our Lord?”

”Of course, I will never forget,” Veronica firmly replied, ”The world is being tainted with filth, the otherworldly gods are powerless to save this world, and among the gods, only the Holy Light is the ultimate salvation— the will of the Lord will guide all mortals through the final catastrophe.”

”The Holy Light is the only salvation,” Pope Saint Ivan III slowly closed his eyes, ”perhaps many will not understand what we must do, but we must because the Lord awakened us from ignorance... to give us the mission to save all living beings.”

”I am willing to bear this mission, to make the faith in the Holy Light the only one in this world...”

”Very good, child, the Lord is pleased with your words,” Pope Saint Ivan III’s voice gradually lowered, as if he had fallen into a dreamlike state, ”the Holy Light is the only salvation, the only...”

Veronica bowed beside the Pope, who was gradually falling asleep, and devoutly whispered: ”The Holy Light is the only salvation...”

...

”Calculus is our path!” In the comprehensive analysis room of the Rune Research Center, Kamel floated high up, with dozens of sheets of paper suspended by magic power around him, filled densely with equations and data converted into graphs, ”The leader has lit a guiding light for us!”

Rebecca, Jenni, and a dozen assistants (including a few newcomers who had just joined in the past few days) stood nearby, somewhat helplessly watching the ancient Master Mage so excited that he was floating in mid-air (literally). Until Kamel calmed down a bit, Jenni couldn’t help but speak up: ”Master Kamel, can you come down? The magic crystal lamps on the ceiling are almost getting burnt out by you.”

”Ah? Oh,” Kamel quickly lowered his height, ”I wondered why it felt warm near my head.”

Rebecca looked at the glowing Master Mage with admiration: ”Master Kamel, you’re amazing! Did you grasp these things so quickly? I listened to Ancestor for a long time and studied by myself for a long time, but I still haven’t fully understood it...”

”That’s because of your Yin-Dai Variational Formula—or as the leader put it, your foundational knowledge of functions isn’t solid enough,” Kamel said while using magic power to neatly return the papers to their original place, ”Back then we used various mathematical tools to solve problems, so I can adapt to this new field more quickly. But don’t be discouraged, your mathematical ability is very strong; your talent in this area is better than most of the ordinary researchers back then, you’ll fully grasp these things soon enough.”

After saying this, the ancient Master Mage couldn’t help but sigh: ”Speaking of being amazing, it’s still your ancestor... I simply can’t imagine how he mastered so much knowledge... not only as a legendary knight but also understanding magic, magic symbols, mathematics, and even map-drawing skills...”

”I don’t know why Ancestor is so amazing either, but he just is,” Rebecca sheepishly scratched her head, as though she were the one receiving the praise, ”He is a legendary hero; nearly half of this country’s territory was conquered by him!”

Kamel turned around, looking at the assistant researchers who were casting curious glances his way. He was in an incredibly cheerful mood, even glowing with a faint blue light as he spoke: ”Every single one of us must master this new mathematical tool—I’ve already discussed with Jenni, and from now on, without affecting our research tasks, everyone must study calculus!”

Jenni smiled and nodded, indicating that this matter had her approval. Next to her, Rebecca encouraged the researchers with a bright smile: ”Everyone, don’t worry, it’s actually not that difficult! Even though I haven’t fully learned it, I think ten days to half a month of study should be enough to understand it...”

The assistant researchers on site started nodding in a muddled state, and Jenni whispered to Kamel beside her: ”Does Rebecca even know that her mathematical abilities are not like an ordinary person’s?”

”From the looks of it, she probably doesn’t know...”

”I’m mainly worried that these hard-to-find assistant apprentices will run away when they see calculus...”

”Don’t worry, I’ve already welded the door shut.”

”?”

”It’s a metaphor our leader taught me, to express a determination never to retreat.”

Jenni continued with a baffled expression: ”?”

Meanwhile, Gawain, who had unleashed the ”calculus” demon, was completely unaware of what was happening inside the Rune Research Center. At this moment, he was busy discussing with Amber about integrating the first batch of Intelligence Agency operatives into the Cecil business network after their training was completed.

As early as the establishment of the Cecil Chamber of Commerce, Gawain had reserved many positions in this system for intelligence personnel, so this task itself was not difficult. He simply shared his ideas with Amber, and the rest could be left for this half-elf to handle on her own.

”Now our commercial network is starting to show its effects. Merchants everywhere will naturally send some intelligence to the Chamber headquarters. And once professional intelligence personnel also enter this system, Cecil’s ears and eyes will be completely established,” after explaining everything, Gawain leaned back onto the chair’s backrest, ”You help me think if there’s anything we’ve overlooked.”

”What could be overlooked? Is there anyone more cunning in this world than you?” Amber couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Gawain, ”Sometimes I don’t even know if those heroic legends about you from seven hundred years ago are true—clearly in the legends, you solved problems by charging in with Whirlwind Slashes, yet here you are outsmarting others better than those conspirators...”

”Legendary tales, after all, require some artistic embellishment from later generations. During my era, we were expanding territories, and everyone generally preferred to solve problems by cutting through everything, so when describing how powerful someone was, they’d say this person was very good at slashing—you know, Duke Franklin, who once slew the orc invasion army’s grand marshal with one slash on the battlefield, actually excelled more in cooking, right?”

”Duke Franklin? That ancestor from the West Franklin family?”

”Yes, he mastered jump slashing to perfection, took down two legendary knights and at least a hundred powerful Order Supernatural directly, and his best skill was carving flowers on radishes. With nothing much to do, he’d practice on radishes—after practicing, he’d invite us over to eat radishes. So, back then, the four founding dukes and King Charlie the First himself disliked eating radishes after the founding of the kingdom—this part never made it into history books.”

Amber listened in a daze, but suddenly spotted a blind spot: ”Hey hold on, I saw you enjoying radishes during dinner yesterday.”

Gawain was momentarily stunned, realizing he had blurted something out, but he reacted quickly: ”Well, I haven’t eaten them in seven hundred years, so I got used to it again.”

Amber pondered, stroking her chin: ”Hmmmm... So you can get used to things again like this...”

Gawain looked at Amber nervously and awkwardly, planning to say something to divert the half-elf’s attention, but just before he spoke, he suddenly felt a subtle ripple in his mental world.

This sensation was hard to describe in words. Most people would likely associate it with a brief distraction or absent-mindedness, but Gawain didn’t overlook this tiny discord. He immediately realized that it wasn’t his mental world rippling, but that his mental world had ”connected” to something.

It was the mental network of the Eternal Sleepers!

The connection was re-established? Have those Eternal Sleepers finally opened for public testing? Did they fix their servers? Is my account back?

In that instant, a torrent of reliable or unreliable thoughts gushed into Gawain’s mind, but his face didn’t show it. He only ended the current topic abruptly, looking at Amber with a serious expression: ”I need... to take a nap, you keep watch.”

”Huh?”