Another hour had passed, and the team was still moving forward in the endless corridors and passageways.
The scale of this millennia-old facility had exceeded Gwen's imagination.
Even in the Age of Sparks, when Gondor was at its peak, the Empire rarely built facilities of this scale. Even though it functioned as both a military fortress and a research facility, its scale was still far beyond Gawain's expectations. It seemed that it was indeed built by hollowing out a mountain, and as more and more ramps and steps went down, Gwen even suspected that it was not just a mountain that was hollowed out.
The magic reaction was still coming steadily, and it was still quite weak. Because they had encountered too many forks and corridors, Heidi's guidance was not very reliable. She could only judge the general direction and use divination spells such as Spirit Summoning to determine which fork to take. Even so, the team still took several detours and found many dead ends.
Byron and Knight had been leaving marks along the way, and Heti had used magic to outline the road signs. But after so long in an ancient ruin, the soldiers still felt a little uneasy. After noticing this uneasiness, Byron and Knight came to Gwen and said, "My Lord, if we continue to go deeper, we may get lost. Everyone's sense of direction is completely messed up."
Gwen frowned. In fact, he had also considered the problem of getting lost, but he was more confident than everyone else. The superb memory of the satellite goblin was at work. He had almost memorized every detail of every fork along the way, and even had a rough map in his mind. But this ability was not easy to say, or even if he said it, it would not make everyone feel at ease.
After all, this place was just too big.
If only Amber was here … At least he could throw her out to explore. And she could run around in the Umbra Realm, and was good at picking locks. She was certainly not easy to be trapped in the ruins like ordinary people. She had proven this in Cecil's ancestral tomb.
This time, Gwen was very serious about this matter.
But unfortunately, Amber was not here now. Gwen could only shake his head and said, "Your concern is reasonable. Then let's go a little further and make a few more marks. Then, whether we find anything or not, we will go back first and come back next time."
Although the seigneur did not order them to go back immediately, Gwen's ambiguous statement was still a relief to the soldiers. As if they had received some kind of assurance, the team once again mustered up the courage to move on.
After a flight of stairs down, there was another hall in front of them. There were some huge obsidian cuboids neatly arranged around the hall, like stone tablets placed against the wall, and many metal conduits or 'tracks' extended under the cuboids, all of which were gathered in the middle of the hall, and there was a strange hemispherical device.
Gawain frowned. He walked to the hemispherical device and rubbed it with his metal-gloved hand. Some of the black ash and oxide on the surface of the device were scraped off, revealing the silver-white metal underneath.
"What's this?" Heti curiously came over. The device in the room was obviously a 'fixed installation' that could not be taken away, which was rare in the ruins. The obsidian and metal conduits gave her a strange intuition related to magic.
"Magic Convergence Array, although I want to call it a magic capacitor," Gwen said knowledge that no one in this era knew, and mixed in some more inexplicable words. "These obsidian are connected to the magic well in the facility, and this hemispherical device can focus powerful energy, creating a short-lasting but extremely strong energy flow, and then through this main tube —"
Gwen pointed to a thick conduit that extended from the hemispherical device and finally buried in the wall.
"… to deliver the energy to where it is needed."
Heti's eyes widened slightly. As a mage, seeing this ancient magic device from thousands of years ago made her excited. "Focus powerful energy? So, this is a weapon? "
"No, this is a kind of auxiliary energy of the research facility, usually used to provide instantaneous' ignition 'for energy-consuming equipment, such as the prismatic lens." Gwen shrugged. "In the Gondor era, magic was not only used for fighting. Although this is indeed one of its important functions, magic can also do a lot of things at the same time. In fact, in my opinion, what mages should really do is to use their knowledge and magic in this kind of research. "
"Research …" Heti muttered in disbelief.
She was no stranger to the word 'research'. Mages had always been synonymous with researchers. Delving into the mysteries of magic and analyzing the laws of runes was the work that they were most proud of. However, no matter what kind of research it was, the ultimate goal would always be to improve one's spellcasting ability. Mages who were unable to improve their spellcasting ability would be regarded as lousy researchers.
Heti instinctively felt that the 'research' that Gwen was talking about was probably not the same as the research that she was familiar with.
This old ancestor seemed to have a habit of looking at things from a very far and wide perspective. He would always mention 'universality' and 'mass production', and the mages' specialization and even deliberate isolation from each other's research seemed to run in the opposite direction of his thinking.
Heti shook her head and threw the irrelevant thoughts aside. She heard Byron and Knight asking, "Madam, is the magic reaction coming from this place?"
Heti focused her senses and shook her head. "No, but it's very close."
"Note down this place," Gwen said. "This ancient device has been completely scrapped, and there's no need to consider repairing it. But it can be dismantled to at least half a ton of mithril and seven to eight tons of obsidian, and a lot of fine gold, copper and steel."
"Wait a minute …" Heti shuddered and stared at Gwen. "Ancestor … you're going to dismantle this invaluable ancient magic device?!"
"What else?" Gwen glanced at her. "This thing needs ultra-pure magic to 'ignite', and now there's no corresponding magic purification technology. And even if there's energy, this thing has been left here for a thousand years, and its internal structure has long been rotten. It's not easy to repair it. "
Heti was stunned, and her face was strange. "You may not feel it since you came seven hundred years ago, but this thing is an antique …"
Gwen's face twitched. "This thing was also an antique before I died, but we have to start from the practical point of view. It has no value left here, and it can only be reborn if it's melted down."
After listening to Gwen, Heti realized that it was useless to say anything, so she just nodded with a pained expression.
It was said that children would not feel bad if they sold their father's land, but it seemed that they did not feel bad when they sold their own land …
The discovery of the magic focusing device meant that this place was very close to the in-depth research facility. Thinking of the magic reaction that Heti had sensed earlier, the target was most likely a research facility that was still in operation.
Gawain activated the knight's' Danger Sense 'to be on guard against the possible magic traps or primordial radiation in this place.
On the way, he casually asked Heti, "By the way, I heard them call you Madam instead of Miss or Madam. You're married? Where's your husband? "
He had been curious about this question for a long time, but he never found a chance to ask.
Heti froze for a moment, but it was normal for the ancestor to be concerned about her marriage, so she replied, "I'm not married, but I converted to the Goddess of Magic, Mirmina, when I came of age, and gave up my right of inheritance in the form of conversion so that the right of inheritance could be left to Rebecca's father. According to the law of the nobility, a woman who gave up her right of inheritance in the form of conversion and became an adult was considered married, that is, devoted to her faith. Originally, I could still keep the title of nobility and become a non-hereditary baroness, but that year, the territory was in trouble, so I sold this title … uh, to a merchant … "
Gwen nodded and said, "Oh," to show that he understood. At the same time, the information of the Goddess of Magic, Mirmina, came to his mind.
The Goddess of Magic, Mirmina, was also known as the God of All Spells, the Lady of Mysteries. She was believed to control the power of magic, and was the mentor of the world's first Giant Dragon and the first elf. Therefore, the legendary Draconic Magic and existing Elven Magic were also created by her. Unlike other gods, Mirmina was not a "god of strong faith," but more like a "goddess of symbolism."
It could be said that she had no formal religion and belief system. Almost all spellcasters were her "shallow believers," but only less than one percent of mages would convert to this god in the form of formal believers. This probably had something to do with the fact that spellcasters generally liked to explore mysteries and lacked reverence for the gods.
And among the one percent of believers, many were like Heti, who converted simply to prove that they gave up their right of inheritance or similar purposes.
Princess Veronica of the Ansu Royal Family converted to the God of Holy Light in a similar way, but that princess was not so poor as Cecil's descendants to the extent that they had to sell their noble status, so she could still be called a princess (or the corresponding clergy).
Heidi, on the other hand, felt a little uneasy after answering the question. She was mainly worried about two things. One was whether the ancestor would be angry that Cecil had to sell his title of nobility to make a living, and the other was whether the ancestor would be angry that she had not gotten married at such an age. Especially the second thing — what if Gawain turned around and urged her to get married three times in a row? "Why haven't you gotten married yet? When are you going to get married? What do you think of that XXX?"
Damn, the ancestor from seven hundred years ago urged her to get married. This was much more stressful than her parents urging her to get married!
This even made Heti less worried about whether she would be beaten up if she sold her noble status …
In the end, Gwen really did just ask casually and did not say anything else after that.
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