Sword of Dawn

The sound of the wind in the woods, the sound of insects, and the singing of birds disappeared instantly, and the amber fell lightly on the ground, standing in a quiet and monotonous world.

The dense forest is gone, there are only clusters of strange rocks and rugged mountain roads, a few dead tree trunks lying across the mountains, and those ferocious branches are like fangs pointing at the gray and gloomy sky of the Shadow Realm.

This black and white world is as unsettling as the legendary kingdom of the dead, but for Amber, it is a very reassuring place.

Standing here, there will be a feeling of home.

But the former Amber could not often come here.

Although she has an outstanding talent for shadows, before that, Amber could not enter the shadow world anytime and anywhere. She could only roughly sense the "boundary" of this world, and it was easier than ordinary stalkers to reach this boundary. However, it is very difficult to completely cross the border. It often requires a long period of meditation, or it must be assisted by some magic items and potions.

But since leaving Cecil Territory, the process seems to have become much easier.

As long as you concentrate, you can feel the existence of the boundary, and as long as you mobilize the power of the shadow, you can easily pass through the boundary.

After a period of familiarization and adaptation, she can even jump into the Shadow Realm as fancy as she is now...

Although she is not a scholar who specializes in the study of shadow power, nor is she a mage with "extraordinary keen sense of smell", Amber herself is not stupid. She vaguely guessed that the ease of entering the Shadow Realm is not because of her own shadow affinity. progress (of course there must be some progress), but the world itself may be changing, and some kind of force has caused the barrier between the shadow world and the real world to loosen.

But so far, its looseness should be extremely slight, and only a "freak" like myself can feel its changes.

If I take the changes in the shadow world as a big discovery and talk to those high-ranking mages and scholars, I will probably be chased away by them as a lunatic, or worse: my excellent shadow talent and inferior talent Fighting ability will be regarded as a kind of treasure from heaven by them, and I am afraid that I will not even be able to get out of those people's mage tower alive.

Amber wanders in the shadow world, enjoying the tranquility and safety of this world, with her little thoughts floating in her heart.

So what changes in the world have anything to do with me...

But maybe you can talk to the guy who opened the coffin?

That guy seems to be the type who is interested in these weird things, and he certainly won't cut himself on the experimental bench...

Amber had various thoughts in her mind, and she laughed unconsciously.

Chapter 0079 Rebecca's success, and the question of magic

"So here's the 'Rebecca Crystal' you managed to create... well, yes, it looks the same thing."

Sitting in his big tent, looking at the large basket of things that Rebecca brought over excitedly, Gawain nodded slightly.

It was a basket of gray-black, unattractive, weird substances, some were loose like sand, and some were hardened together, but no matter what form it was, there were countless fine particles almost evenly embedded in it, and compared to Rebecca's For the "waste" created in a muddle-headed manner for the first time, the content of crystal particles in this basket of finished products is obviously higher, and the average diameter of the particles seems to be much larger.

This shows that Rebecca not only found the formula, but also vaguely touched the way to improve production.

Hearing Gao Wen's words, even Rebecca, who was straight-headed and had a low EQ, suddenly felt embarrassed. The Viscountess scratched her face that was blackened by the smoke, and smiled like a 17-year-old who was The silly roe deer who burned out the explosives in the cement kiln: "Hey... Master Zu, do you really think this thing can be called this name? Isn't it that only very powerful people can name other things with their own names..."

"You invented these crystals, aren't you good enough?" Gao Wen glanced at this unconfident great-granddaughter on the N+1 floor, "Well, although there is still a lot of room for improvement, this is indeed already possible. A repeatable 'product', the name Rebecca Crystal is well deserved."

Rebecca entered a state of silly joy: "Hey, hey..."

"Don't be silly, tell me how this thing was made," Gao Wen looked at Tietouwa dumbfounded, "Although the emergence of any new material has an element of luck, I still want to know How could such good luck befall us."

"Oh, it's true, it's a complete coincidence," Rebecca scratched her face, "It was actually fired according to the original recipe you gave me, but yesterday I failed when I tried to restore the firing process I tried it several times, but none of the ratios worked—I only suspected the furnace later, so I ordered someone to check the condition of several kilns, and found that a large piece of the inner wall of one of the kilns had fallen off..."

"A large piece fell off?" Gawain frowned, realizing that the key to the formation of these "Rebecca crystals" might lie in the broken pieces of the kiln wall, "so the materials used to build the kiln were also involved." response?"

"This is one of the reasons, because those kilns also used rune heating, so they were mixed with quartz sand when they were built, and besides the quartz sand, another important reason is the stone from the dark mountains. "

"Stones from the Dark Mountains?" Gawain repeated.

"Yes, I compared several sets of records, and found that there are two biggest differences between that furnace and the others. The first is that the quartz sand used to build the kiln was mixed into the raw materials, and the second is the raw materials used in the raw materials. The limestone was dug from the Dark Mountains. Other furnaces of limestone came from the Whitewater River, and some from the lumberyards to the west. If you use them as raw materials, even if you mix them with quartz sand, they will not work..."

Two conditions, quartz sand and limestone from the dark mountains...

Gao Wen pondered for a while. These two conditions are accurate conclusions drawn by Rebecca after comparing them many times. There is no need to doubt their authenticity. So what role did these two things play in this process?

Quartz sand can also be imagined, because it is a weak magical material. Although it is extremely cheap, it is also a genuine magic material, and it is one of the raw materials for making artificial crystals. But what about the limestone from the dark mountains?

Why not limestone mined elsewhere?

He threw out these questions, and was stunned by Rebecca's question.

The Viscountess didn't think about these details at all, she scratched the back of her head: "I'm just happy, I haven't thought about it..."

"The Dark Mountains were once shrouded by demon tides, and many places in the mountains still have traces of being eroded by elemental tides," Gao Wen rubbed his chin and said thoughtfully, "Perhaps this process has changed the properties of some of the minerals... ...give them the ability to participate in magical reactions?"

In the absence of more experimental data and theoretical guidance, Gao Wen can only make such a bold guess, but no matter what the real reason is, now Gao Wen is sure of one thing: "Rebecca Crystal" in this It is absolutely unique in the world, at least in the Kingdom of Ansu.

Usually, who would go to the Dark Mountains to dig mountains and burn stones...

"After confirming that the key lies in quartz sand and dark mountain limestone, I tried several methods to increase the proportion and quality of crystals," Rebecca continued, "I found that increasing the proportion of quartz sand can increase the crystal yield rate, but A lot of crystals will be broken when they come out of the furnace. Increasing the proportion of limestone will improve the ability of the finished product to store magic power, but after a certain proportion, it will not form crystals. And I also found that the temperature and firing time have a particularly large impact... can There are too many test items, and I can't finish them in a short time, so I burned them out according to the best method now. Here, these are in front of you."

Gao Wen asked bluntly: "Can ordinary people complete this process?"

"Yes, but most people don't understand what you taught me about 'cross-control' and 'observation group', so they can only do as they are taught," Rebecca replied, " And they are very careless, even if they are told how to do it, they will often get the ratio wrong, or remember the firing time wrong-the time control required for firing crystals is much stricter than that of firing bricks.”

It is imperative to improve the average quality of labor force.

However, there are not even a few qualified cultural teachers in the territory... All the people who can read and write are already overworked. Where can I find someone to form an education team?

Go to Tanzanian town to hire?There are not many people in Tanzania who can read!People who can read and write are either the sons of merchants or "respectable people" who have entered the noble mansion and served as housekeepers and clerks. How could these people be willing to come to such a shitty place to follow the pioneering work? It's not that they are poor and white serfs and paupers...

Gao Wen rubbed his head, every time a new problem appeared, he would always do this subconsciously, as if he was confirming his hairline...

"Master Ancestor?" Rebecca asked cautiously.

"No, it's okay. This is a long-term problem to be solved," Gao Wen waved his hand, "You continue to produce according to this 'optimal plan' first, and try a better ratio when you have free time. All in all, these crystals The more particles the better, it is even as important as the output of steel. By the way, we have to find a way to extract the mixed crystals. The black residue next to it is useless. You can try smashing them In order to sieve with water, the crystal is much harder than the residue, and it is also heavier, and it should be easy to separate after being smashed and washed with water."

Rebecca nodded as she listened, and after Gawain finished speaking, she approached with a smile, and asked in a low voice like a stealing kitten: "That...Master Ancestor, I heard from Aunt Hetty, are you Are you going to make this crystal into an explosive magic item?"

"Almost the same meaning," Gawain glanced at the girl who always had fantastic ideas, "What do you think?"

"You plan to use the detonation circle in the Gondor-style crystal on this crystal," Rebecca's eyes sparkled, "but have you figured out how to detonate it?"

Gao Wen frowned, this was exactly what he was thinking about.

The detonating magic circles in those Gondor ancient crystals are the same as the common small magic circles. They are magic circles that cannot be self-charged. In the crystal, this part of the energy is provided by the crystal itself, but in the "Art No. [-]" he conceived, there is no such energy.

The magic power stored in the Rebecca crystal can't be extracted to participate in other magic reactions except for being directly blown up as an explosive. Therefore, the detonation circle attached to the Rebecca crystal must use other magic power to act as " Starting momentum", so where does this part of the magic come from?

Use another energy storage crystal as a "detonating battery"?Then this loses the meaning of "cheap".

Use the magic power of the magician to activate the magic circle?Then this loses the design goal of "letting ordinary people use it".

"Just say it straight. You can tell by the look in your eyes that you have an idea." Gawain glanced at Rebecca. The girl in front of him is really not a person who can hide things. Even if he doesn't ask, she probably won't be able to hold back Don't forget to speak your mind.

"It's like this," Rebecca really didn't hold back, "I studied the detonation circle, and found that the magic power it needs to activate is actually quite small..."

Gao Wen nodded: "Of course, after all, it is a magic circle used to self-destruct when the crystal is about to fail. Its activation energy requirements must have been optimized many times."

"Then I discovered something," Rebecca went on to say, "the 'rune trigger' I invented, it will generate an extra magic impact when it is closed for a moment. It is very weak, but it does exist... "

"Wait a minute!" Gawain interrupted Rebecca's words in an instant. He vaguely realized that he had caught a key question that had been ignored for a long time, "You said that the rune trigger structure will produce magic power when it is closed? Are you sure?" Isn't that the magic power released from the magic net buried in the ground?"

"I have confirmed it several times, because I have a strong sense of magic power since I was a child, so I can 'see' very clearly," Rebecca nodded emphatically, "When the rune trigger is closed, there is an extra Magic power, and I also found that it is not just the rune trigger, as long as an original complete rune group is disassembled, and when they are closed again, there will be an "instant magic power", and this instant magic power comes and goes quickly. Quick, it only takes a blink of an eye, but if it is going to detonate something, then a blink of an eye is enough."

Gao Wen immediately fell into deep thought, and woke up when Rebecca almost died of nervousness: "Ah... very good, very good, then you can follow your own thinking and combine your rune trigger with that Let’s have a try with the detonation array combination. You can ask Heidi to help, just say I ordered it.”

Rebecca immediately beamed with joy, but before she was about to leave, she suddenly remembered something: "Oh, yes, Mr. Zu, have you thought about what the name of this explosive tool should be in the future?"

Gao Wen thought for a while, and Baoxiang replied solemnly: "Art."

Rebecca: "Huh? Does this have anything to do with art?"

Gao Wen looked serious: "It's called art."

Rebecca rolled her eyes and thought for a while, and felt that her ancestor might have other meanings, so she nodded happily: "Yes! Art!"

Rebecca left happily, but Gao Wen sat in the tent for a long time unable to calm down.

He was fiddling with a pen in his hand, turning it around unconsciously, and when he realized it, he realized that he had written a line of text on the draft paper:

Magic, what is magic?

Chapter 0080 The Nature of Magic and the Sound of Art

For the vast majority of people in this world, "what is magic power" is not a question at all. They think the answer is obvious, and it is not worth pursuing further: magic power is magic power, one of the ubiquitous energies in this world, is The most precious wealth bestowed by the gods on human beings is also the standard by which people can be divided into three, six, and nine classes.

Some priests will tell you that magic power is the authority that spread in the world after the fall of the gods. It is the aftermath of the war of the gods recorded in the "Eternal Slate". The body burns in mid-air, the flame and smoke are the original magic power, and the residue left after burning is the original monster; some scholars among mages will say that magic power is a bridge between the elemental world and the real world. "Super matter" can be perceived and used but invisible. It comes from the turbulence of the ether sea, and it will show irregular fluctuations as the relative distance between the real world and the elemental world changes, which is the phenomenon of magic power upwelling...

However, Gao Wen could not accept either of these two statements. He came from a modern world that advocates science and reason, and advocates the clear interpretation of all mysteries. Data quantification, interpretation with model norms.

It may not be possible to do this in the field involving gods, but since magicians can use specific methods to use magic power, and even use formulas to simplify the process of casting spells, then magic power can definitely be analyzed in this way.

According to the current information, magic power is indeed "everywhere", and every corner of the whole world is full of this invisible power, and there are mainly two ways for people in this world to use magic power, one is direct casting , the mages use spiritual power to build a spell model, and then let the spell model mobilize the magic power already in the atmosphere to form a spell effect; the other is to use a facility similar to a charging circle or a magic well to first extract the magic power , and then use the magic power in the spell ritual.

Either way, magic is "drawn" from nature, not created out of thin air by humans.

So Gawain once thought that the magic power might really be a special kind of "substance", or something with matter as the carrier, but the instantaneous magic power produced by Rebecca's "rune trigger" at the moment it was connected He had a different idea.

This is very similar to a phenomenon that would occur in a certain energy field - he boldly assumed.

What if magic power is a kind of "energy field", and the various operating effects of magic power can be regarded as a special kind of fluctuation?The rune trigger is like an incomplete circuit in the energy field. When it is connected, the circuit becomes complete, so a part of the energy field enters the circuit, and during this process, the flow of energy A "magic power fluctuation" that can be observed is produced, but because the circuit of the rune trigger is closed, this process cannot continue, so the magic power is instantaneous...

In this way, although the original source of magic power is still nature, the instantaneous magic power in the rune trigger is "created" by human factors, and there is no process of "absorbing", which is why the rune trigger is obviously not collected And the charging structure, but produced a small amount of magic power.

Gao Wen frowned, and casually took a black stone used as a paperweight from the side, wiped it with his fingers vigorously, and the power of a professional easily drew a curved line like a vortex on it, and then he pressed down firmly in the middle of the line A dot, forming the elemental symbol of the air system: breeze.

A slight air current appeared around the black stone, and this cheap magic material, which was only a little more expensive than quartz sand, began to work. Gawain felt his wrists being gently blown by the cool wind.

He wiped it casually, the rune was destroyed, and the breeze stopped immediately.

This is the most incredible place in this world. Just such a simple symbol, carved on a specific material, can produce such an obvious effect...Why?

If you really use the "energy field theory" that you just put forward to explain it, it seems to be able to explain it: the magic power has already been filled, and it is constantly interacting with these natural magic materials. It is calm and has no special effects, but as specific lines are carved on the surface of these materials, the balance between the "energy field" and the "action substance" changes, and the frequency of magic fluctuations changes accordingly, and the phenomenon occurs accordingly.

But if the energy field theory is true, there is no way to explain the principles of various energy storage crystals: how do they store magic power?If the essence of magic power is just a "field" that wraps the planet, and magic is just a "wave" of a specific frequency, then what form is the magic power stored in the energy storage crystal?

Gao Wen's thoughts diverged, and he suddenly remembered the history of the origin of magic. Apart from the "divine teaching of all laws" or "the theory of the origin of magic in dragon language" preached by those magic sticks, in fact, there is another kind of magic in the academic world. According to this theory, the original magic of human beings is actually derived from the imitation of certain monsters: those monsters have special cuticles or exoskeleton structures, and there are natural magic lines (runes) on these structures, It is precisely because of the unimaginable coincidence in the process of biological evolution that animals whose bodies have evolved such structures have some magical abilities, thus becoming monsters.Humans in the primitive era carved the runes on various stone tools by imitating the runes on these monsters, thus the earliest magic appeared.

And mastering the spiritual power, transforming the physical rune into the spell model in the spiritual world, that is the next thing.

This legend is one that Gao Wen likes very much. Although there are many parts that are taken for granted, it abandons the unreasonable explanations such as gods and dragons, and instead tries to explore the origin of magic in a logical form. Unfortunately, Unfortunately, it seems that many magicians don't like this theory, and theologians even more dislike it-it describes the human beings who are the spirits of creation as a kind of master-stealer who needs to follow the steps of savage monsters. The big men who boasted of being extraordinary were very dissatisfied.

A burst of fresh earth and grass smell suddenly came from the side, waking Gao Wen up from the state of divergent thinking. Gawain knew who was coming without turning his head, and patted to the side casually: "Don't move me!" , This thing on the whole table is worth some money."

A hand that was emerging from the air was firmly patted by Gao Wen, and he retracted it all at once, and then Amber jumped out of the shadow state: "Oh, it hurts... Are you still human?" Hey! How can the induction be so good?!"

Gao Wen rolled his eyes angrily: "At any rate, I was also a legend back then, even if I am relegated now, I am more reliable than you, a guy with limited combat power than a goose—and you have several ideas about my silver seal Damn you think I don't know? You've been thinking about it since the day the artisans carved it out."

Amber smiled mischievously: "I just have some bold ideas, but haven't put them into practice..."

"You practiced it twelve times, but I beat you back every time, okay?" Gawain glared at the unscrupulous half-elf, "Tell me, what can you do with me—it's not too late for dinner. It's been more than an hour, you must have something to do when you come back before dinner."

Amber suddenly puffed up her cheeks: "Could it be that in your mind, I only eat?!"

"Nonsense, I use you as a clock for three meals now. Seeing you is equivalent to seeing the meal soon," Gao Wen said sadly, "By the way, what's the matter with you?"

"Tch, the old man is really boring... Well, I just wanted to tell you something, I wanted to tell you two days ago, but I forgot——I found that entering the Shadow Realm is much easier than before."

Gao Wen originally thought that the half-elf was just out fishing for too long and bored, and came to amuse him, but he didn't expect that this guy was really serious when he opened his mouth, and he was taken aback.

Amber became a little dissatisfied: "Hey, I was a little bit reactive. I was very serious about reporting the situation to you. What do you mean by being stunned?"

Gao Wen coughed twice, quickly suppressed the look of "I just didn't expect you to be able to do something serious", and turned to look at the other party with a serious face: "I remember the first time you took me into the Shadow Realm When I said it, you are also 'the first time you have entered such a deep place'..."

"Actually, I lied a little at the time... I was afraid of shocking the world, so I was modest," Amber stuck out her tongue, "In fact, I have completely entered the Shadow Realm more than once, but to be honest, I have entered the Shadow Realm before. It's really not that easy, it needs a long time of meditation, or you have to resort to rituals and incense, and at worst, you have to fill up half a bottle of shadow potion to get in..."

Gao Wen raised his eyebrows: Bored? !Did you fucking drink to death?

While being amazed, he also realized one thing: What Amber said should be true, so does that mean that the barrier between the Shadow Realm and the real world is becoming weak?

To be honest, it is a bit unreliable to make such a conjecture at the level of world rules based on the one-sided words of a half-elf who has no integrity at all. Under normal circumstances, at least half a teacher must be organized for this kind of thing. It takes a year and a half for experts and scholars to come to a conclusion, but then again... Gao Wen doubts that even if he organizes half a division of experts and scholars, they will not be as effective as Amber's unreasonable talent.

It's like if you find 1 psychologists to study why your wife is angry, it's better to take a look at her shopping cart: it's here to specialize in art...

So he nodded solemnly: "You mean that the shadow realm is gradually 'closer' to the real world? Apart from your sense of this, do you think those scholars who study the shadow realm will find it?"

"To be honest, I think this kind of 'approach' should still be at a fairly early stage. Probably only people like me can perceive it accurately, and those scholars... well, they are not all idiots, so those who really Masters should also be able to sense some clues, but they may not be able to see the changes as intuitively as I do."

Gao Wen frowned. He didn't know whether Amber's report was good or bad, because no one had ever measured the "distance" or "gap" between the Shadow Realm and the real world in history, and no one had ever measured it. Knowing how this moat has changed, it is even possible that the Shadow Realm has been close to the real world more than once in history, but no one can perceive it, and this process will not produce any consequences.

He rubbed between his brows and looked at Amber: "What do you think will happen if the Shadow Realm and the real world come into contact?"

"I don't know...but it's probably not a good thing." Amber rolled her eyes. "Anyway, most of the shadow spells are destructive. Shadow itself is a very negative force. Normal people are definitely not suitable for contact with it."

Gao Wen sighed: "Well, if you say it, you don't say it. Why did you come to me to talk about this? I am not a scholar, nor a wizard or mage who specializes in shadow magic, and I guess even with Gawain Se In the name of Syl, write a letter to the scholars of the Arcane Society, and they will not take it too seriously..."

"Then I don't care about it," Amber curled her lips. "I just want to talk to someone. I'll be much happier after talking to you. As for what you do after that, it's up to you."

Gao Wen's forehead suddenly popped with veins.

But just when he was hesitating whether to beat up the guy in front of him, a sudden explosion startled the two people in the tent.

"boom!"