Sword of Dawn

Gao Wen slapped himself hard on the forehead, and forcibly gathered back the thoughts that had begun to run wild. He sighed, and looked at the "popular book" full of absurd arrangements in front of him—everyone knew that the stories in it were fake. Yes, but it is a favorite pastime for ladies in the middle and south of the kingdom, a testament to the vitality of popular literature and how boring everyday life can be.

But as the person involved, Gao Wen saw some hidden truths in those fabricated love stories—the stories in them were not all false.

Except for those confidantes who made it together, there are many adventure stories related to Gawain Cecil. These adventure stories did not appear in any official historical biography, and outsiders are seeing them At that time, I was afraid that he and those confidante friends would all be classified as some second-rate novelist's brainstorming, but Gao Wen knew that at least half of those unknown adventures were true.

Search the ruins of ancient tombs in the wasteland of Gondor to find clues of the spirit of the elements; lead a few soldiers to find a safe passage when crossing the "magic scorching mark", and accidentally discover the Gondor Magisters who turned into crystals; Cecil led the first time to go deep into the mountains, communicate with the elements and be blessed...

These are the other sides of Gawain Cecil as a pioneer. From these experiences, it can be seen that he really lives like a hooker with a halo...Of course it doesn't matter whether he is a hanger or not, what matters is these It is intriguing that an unknown story should appear in an absurd novel of chivalry.

This novel has been circulated for a long time, and the original author has been unverifiable. He probably worried about being beaten up when writing the book, so the only clue left by the author is "Mr. Bard C" as a pseudonym, Gao Wen I don’t know how this Mr. C knew these stories, but he must be a patient and knowledgable guy. He interviewed countless people who had contact with Gawain Cecil or their descendants. These materials can only be sorted out, and among all these adventure stories, there is a chapter that mentions the story of Gawain Cecil challenging the deep sea.

The story goes like this: After assisting the great founding king Charles I to establish the kingdom, Gawain Cecil was deeply worried about the monsters wandering from the wasteland of Gondor and the corruption that was still spreading. So he turned to the elemental spirits of earth, water, fire, and wind for help. The four princesses of the four elemental planes (there are also princesses in that stuff?) were impressed by the young hero knight, and they offered advice to him one after another. Vin Cecil finally accepts the enlightenment of the element of water and sets off to the ocean to find the answer.

Although there was no storm priest as a guide at sea, Gawain Cecil got the help of the sea elf (of course, in Mr. C's writing, the sea elf broke another princess in the process), and the sea elf let the fleet cross Storm around the mainland, and guide the team all the way to the east.

After sailing for an unknown number of days and nights, the sea elves suddenly fell into a panic and dissuaded Gawain from moving forward, because the sea further to the east is the territory of the "sea monsters", and it is impossible for any land-dwelling race to live in the ocean. Contending against the powerful sea monster, but Gawain Cecil was not afraid, he insisted on moving on, so the sea elves had to leave the team, and most of the ships in the fleet also left with the sea elves, only Gawain Cecil Cecil and a few loyal guards continued to sail forward, and after a while, they encountered the sea monster.

The clever reader Gao Wen immediately figured out that there must be a princess in Siren...

But the story here is a bit anticlimactic. The Mr. C just scribbled down that Gawain Cecil gained the trust of the siren and was led to a "sacred and beautiful" place, where a group of people drank fine wine It lasted for three days and three nights, and then was thrown back to Loren Continent by a storm.

This is clearly intended to fool the reader.

Intuition told Gawain that this story should be the record about the long sea voyage that was missing from Gawain Cecil's memory.

But there is a strange race in it: sea monster.

Gao Wen was very unfamiliar with the name of this race, and he only had a slight impression of it in his inherited memory, but all it pointed to were bizarre myths and strange stories, which were completely insufficient to obtain evidence.

At this moment, someone knocked on the door of the study room. After the door opened, Druid Pittman walked in: "My lord, I heard Amber say that you are looking for me?"

Gawain nodded, let the old Druid enter the room and asked straight to the point: "Have you heard of Siren?"

"Sir-monster?" Pittman touched his chin, "I've heard some legends about them."

Gawain's eyes lit up immediately: Druid is indeed the profession that knows the most about races in the world. Even if Pittman only knows the legends about sea monsters, the level of detail must be much more than ordinary people know. !

"What do you think!"

Pittman twisted his beard, and said unhurriedly: "The legends of sea monsters are mostly concentrated in the eastern and southern parts of the mainland. In Ansu's side, few people mention them. Even if they are mentioned, they will only appear in horror stories or similar stories. It is said that the sea monster is one of the oldest intelligent creatures in the world, and its history is very likely to be as long as the dragon. Long before the rise of human beings, they have ruled the ocean for tens of thousands of years.

"The sea monster is a race with only females in the whole race. It lives in the depths of the ocean in the far east, and almost never communicates with the intelligent races on the mainland; they all have beautiful appearances, but only the upper body is human-like, and the lower body It's all kinds of sea monsters...

"In addition to these, there are legends that it is not that the sea monsters do not communicate with humans, but because they have the ability to change into human shapes, so when they go ashore, they will immediately blend into the crowd... Yes, The ability to change. Many legends point out that sea monsters have ever-changing forms. They are as amorphous as water, so they can change into various shapes. More than half of the sea monster legends in the distant sea are their masterpieces.

"In addition, there are legends that sea monsters will visit the land in a planned way. Because they have a long life span, they will observe the development of short-lived human civilization as a pleasure. Whenever human civilization has ups and downs, they will be curious. Some people think that the sea monsters visit the land to find something. In some of the silver elves' books, some people have vowed to leave a record of contact with the sea monsters, and say that the sea monsters will contact the intelligent creatures on the land. Peaceful communication, they sometimes turn to the 'land people' for help, and as long as the land people can satisfy their wishes, they will get very rich rewards - sometimes it is rare jewels in the deep sea, sometimes it is weird and incredible It is said that the sea elf royal family has a trident that can release thunder and lightning, which is a gift given to them by the sea monster thousands of years ago.

"However, there are also legends that the sea monsters don't seem to know the value of the gifts they send. They just give some things to land people according to their own preferences. Sometimes you show them the way and they will give you a gift. Pearls in the box, sometimes you do them a great favor and they will only give you a piece of fish—and there are tooth marks on the fish. The records of this are also left by the silver elves."

Gao Wen interrupted Pittman's narration: "If you encounter sea monsters while sailing in the ocean, how will they treat the people who 'invade the ocean'?"

Pittman raised his eyebrows: "You have touched my blind spot of knowledge—but according to most legends, it is very, very dangerous to encounter sea monsters in the far sea area."

"Very dangerous?" Gawain frowned. "Aren't there many legends that sea monsters communicate peacefully with people on land? They even give gifts..."

"But that's on land," Pittman said with a serious expression, "in the ocean, they seem to be very aggressive, especially when the wanderer enters some sea areas that shouldn't be entered, the siren will immediately turn into a Terrifying sea monsters come out to drive them away or even chase them. They are the family members of the sea, and they have unimaginable power on the sea. Even the thunder and lightning summoned by a powerful magister cannot compare with their storms. There are many horror stories, but not all of them are groundless."

Gao Wen frowned: "Is that so..."

At the same moment, in the eastern deep sea far away from the Loren continent, some elegant and slim figures are quickly crossing the dark and deep seabed, their snake tails or fish tails are swaying in the sea water, making these beautiful and intelligent creatures look like creatures in the deep sea Phantoms generally move quickly and are elusive.

They have no idea that they have been discussed by two humans on a distant continent. For these deep-sea saltwater fish, there is still very important work waiting for them to complete.

A siren crossed a "mountain" on the seabed and watched the scene unfolding along the seabed ahead. Her special "deep sea vision" allowed her to see far away even on this dark seabed.

An astonishingly huge tentacles lay across the seabed ahead. The tentacles were covered with layers of corals and deep-sea plants. A large number of fragmented pieces of flesh and blood were scattered around the tentacles. They had completely lost their vitality, but they could not be seen. A little sign of rot.

And in a more distant place, at the end of the tentacles extending like a small mountain range, you can vaguely see a larger shadow, which is a larger body of flesh and blood, which is the direction of the "first excavation site" .

The excavation team leader's long snake tail slapped on the seabed beach, then the tip of the tail was raised high, swaying quickly like a flag in the sea water, and she gave a loud order to her team members: "Dig here today! Come on, everybody!"

The Krakens responded in unison: "Everyone, come on!"

"Don't go too far with 'Squid', don't waste your time!"

"do not waste time!"

"No stealing engine fuel!"

"No stealing engine fuel!"

"Dig!"

"Dig!"

Chapter 0188 Siren's Excavation Plan

As for what the "big squid" is, the sea monsters themselves can't tell clearly.

Regarding the forced landing in ancient times, the memory of many sea monsters is a bit blurred. Although they are elemental creatures that are immortal and immortal, they can't remember things that are too old, but only one thing that sea monsters can be sure of, That is, since they made an emergency landing in this world with land, the "big squid" on the bottom of the sea has already existed.

It was the remains of a creature far older than ancient times. Its remaining tentacles snaked on the seabed like mountains. The size of its body can be imagined. The Krakens were shocked by the size of the corpse at first. , and have been terrified of this world for a long time—they were worried that this strange world would be full of such huge and terrifying life forms, but soon, they found that their worries seemed unnecessary.

The deep sea is full of protozoa that are weaker than them, and the "big squid" seems to be the only exception, and this powerful exception is dead.

The "big squid" was killed by some kind of external force, which can be seen from its fragmented corpse and the metal fragments left on the seabed, but the person who killed the "big squid" is a mystery. Among them, the Krakens have never been able to find clues to that powerful race. Although they have also searched on various continents, there are only some barbaric and backward indigenous civilizations on those continents. Those civilizations do not even have the ability to sail the ocean. Naturally, it is impossible to be the strong one who kills the "big squid".

After realizing that there is a "magic tide" that periodically destroys the ecosystem in this world, the Krakens completely gave up their search for that civilization, and instead lived their lives in this ocean with peace of mind.

Digging the "big squid" is one of their most important jobs, and this job is a part of restarting the core engine-although the day of success is still far away, the siren is a kind of creature that is slow to the passage of time, Like many elemental creatures, they also have plenty of patience and a poor sense of time. This characteristic allowed them to successfully complete the transformation of civilization in the deep sea in the extremely long past, and now allows them to immerse themselves in their work. Enjoy yourself.

The excavation team arrived at the scheduled work site. A huge piece of flesh and blood that fell off from the tentacles lay quietly in a deep pit on the seabed. After several months of "life cycle", this piece of flesh and blood had been reborn into a The starting size, which means it's diggable again.

The Krakens spread out around the flesh and blood tissue, and drove a dozen force field shielding generators deep into the seabed, and the light blue energy barrier blocked the entire area to prevent the "big squid" from escaping. The force that came out polluted the water area, and then they started to cut this group of extremely strong flesh and blood tissue with a group of three, carrying all kinds of equipment.

The excavation team leader is patrolling the periphery, checking whether the field of vision obscuration generator is working properly - this job is very important, because these devices are barely functioning now, and all kinds of weird and bizarre failures are commonplace for them , It is easy to go wrong if you don't look at it carefully.

But this is much stronger than it was many years ago, at least now more and more equipment has been restored to operation - although the restart of the core engine is still far away...

Captain Siren walked around to the back of the fleshy tissue, which was the target of the next excavation. She leaned over to the rough skin that looked like a pile of bark and fungal growths, and checked the regeneration of this part of the tissue.

But at this moment, the mass of flesh and blood suddenly wriggled as if it had come to life!

Dark red blood gushed out from the wound, and the muscles and skin grew in a meandering manner. They quickly condensed into a small tentacles with strange patterns and bright edges, wriggling crazily in front of the sea monster.

The patterns on the surface of the tentacles are shining, and with twisting and wriggling, they continuously present various weird and bizarre shapes. Any ordinary mind will go crazy in front of these patterns, and even the most tenacious mortal warriors cannot be safe and sound after facing them——

Captain Kraken stared blankly at this tentacle, made a bold assumption, calmly analyzed it, and decided to say hello to the other party as well.

As a result, her body disintegrated and reassembled in an instant, and her form changed in the blink of an eye, turning into a tentacle that was exactly the same as the other party's, wriggling and curling rapidly on the seabed.

An indescribable tentacle and a tentacle imitated by a siren performed an ecstatic dance on the seabed for 10 minutes. The two sides did not reach any consensus, and the three sirens who had completed their excavation tasks had already swam over.

One of the krakens carrying the vibrating cutter poked the mimic tentacles on the seabed with the tip of their tails: "Captain, what you said just now is not to go too far with the giant squid..."

The mimic tentacles suddenly turned back into the appearance of a siren, looking a little embarrassed: "I thought it greeted me..."

Another sea monster wagged its tail curiously: "It is said that there are often tentacles twisting and twisting on the giant squid... What does it mean?"

"Who knows, deep-water scholars have always thought that this is some kind of communication signal, but after so many years of deciphering it, there is no result. I suspect that they are just twisting and turning, just like seaweed."

"No, this must be communication, but we can't understand it," said the Kraken carrying the cutting machine seriously, "Why do people on land get so excited when they see these tentacles? ? And they will yell and talk to these tentacles... This shows that there is communication!"

Captain Kraken thought for a while, then swung his snake-shaped tail: "Whatever it is, cut off this heel and take it away—who made it jump out on its own initiative."

The Kraken carrying the cutting machine activated the equipment in his hand, but before doing it, he asked with a little expectation: "Then... can I have some?"

"emmmmm...the reactor fuel should have been collected enough...well, you can eat a little. But only a little!"

"Yeah~~"

The remaining Krakens cheered and rushed to their "lunch".

At the same time, in Lord Cecil's mansion, the discussion between Gawain and Pittman about the siren finally came to an end.

Pittman stroked his beard: "Generally speaking, the sea monster is such a legendary creature. There are only very few sighting reports, and each record cannot withstand scrutiny. Their history is older than human beings, and their lives In the eastern part of the endless ocean, there may be occasional landing behaviors, but most of the time they will not leave the deep sea, nor communicate with humans and other land races. Sirens in the ocean are dangerous and will strictly protect their territory. Sailing in their territory will attract their attacks-but now that all ocean-going routes have been cancelled, there is no need to worry about that."

Gawain frowned, looked at the biography of the knight in his hand, and sighed slightly: "Is it a legendary species... It would be great if I could find a siren to communicate with. Alright. Let's not talk about this, I learned from Kant's tie before. Have you checked the biological tissues that came back? What's the progress?"

Gao Wen took a lot of samples with him when he left Kant Territory, including the weird biological flesh and blood connected to the human brain in the underground hall, and the soft, "creep"-like dark substance on the rectangular table around the stone pillar Of course, he rubbed the runes carved on the stone pillars by the cultists of the Eternal Sleeper. Although all the runes were destroyed by Philip Knight, there are many stone pillars. You can still get the full picture.

It's just that those magic circles are too dangerous and their mechanism is unclear. Gawain has not started research on them for the time being. However, the dead flesh and blood tissues have not rotted after returning to Cecil Territory, so they are handed over to Pittman for research.

"As for those biological tissues, I conducted a series of tests," Pittman nodded, "It has been confirmed that they have traces of magical transformation, and there are druid spells involved, and the end of all things obviously intervened-- Just as you feared, Doom will cooperate with the Sleepers in the field of technology. If they have the same cooperation with the Sons of the Storm, then the threat level of these cultists... I am afraid it will exceed many people's imagination. "

"I have already written a letter to Francis II, and I hope that my personal warning will give that king some relief," Gao Wen rubbed his forehead, "What I am most worried about now is that the Eternal Sleeper has controlled a large number of nobles, and they The power of the power is more strange and terrifying than the end of all things. Once they have penetrated, it will be difficult for outsiders to notice their existence. If I hadn't just swallowed the consciousness of a cultist of the Eternal Sleeper, I am afraid that even I would not be aware of it. There's something unusual about Kant's collar."

"That's what the king has to worry about," Pittman nodded, "In addition, I found some clues when testing the flesh and blood—although they all have signs of being transformed by magic, this kind of transformation is acquired. carried out, which means that there are natural prototypes for them."

"Natural prototype?" Gawain instantly realized what Pittman meant. "You mean, those weird biological tissues are transformed from some kind of species already in nature? Are there such weird species in the world?"

"Yes, the soul-destroying octopus on the west coast of the dwarf kingdom, the spirit-eating monster near the peak of the ancestors, and several monsters related to the power of shadow and undead. They all have similar developed neural organs that can link and control the brain tissue of the victim. , and in the tissue samples you brought back, I also found primitive structures similar to those of the above-mentioned monsters, which are obviously part of the 'raw materials'. However, the abilities of these monsters are not strong enough to take such The extent to which multiple human beings are connected to create a 'real dream', and their respective races are so different that it is impossible for conventional life-cultivating spells to fuse them together, so I suspect that the cultists of the Death of All Things Society may have some experience in the field of life fusion. What a breakthrough, so many monsters can be 'spliced' together abruptly, and a functional product that can be mass-produced has been created."

"...The feeling that the cultists have mastered the core technology, but the civilized society is standing still is really uncomfortable," Gao Wen sighed, "Don't you have any good news for me?"

Pittman looked a bit embarrassed: "There is, but you may not be too happy."

"What is it?"

"Those pieces of meat taste good after braised..."

"vomit--"

Chapter 0189 The Image Left by Selina Gelfen

On the tenth day after winter, the brick kiln factory and magic energy crystal smelting factory in New Cecil Territory completed the overall expansion and transformation.

The use of mining machines has ensured a steady increase in steel production, and the steady increase in steel production has ensured that the machinery and equipment in other parts of the territory can be started smoothly one by one. , crushers, tunnel kilns, and higher-power honeycomb magic nets replaced the old equipment, which also prompted these factories to be refurbished and rebuilt in advance—although in the minds of many people, the "factories" with a large area on the territory have already They are very remarkable large-scale buildings, but in Gao Wen's eyes, they are still just larger workshop sheds, until all the factories have completed at least one expansion, there will be more or less the shadow of "factory" in his mind.

The territory is changing every day. Sufficient food reserves and heating supplies ensure the maintenance of human labor, and the metal control force of the Nicholas egg can make machines and equipment go from drawings to reality in batches as if they were printed. , Gao Wen would see a lot of progress reports on his desk every day. Although reviewing these reports was quite exhausting, he enjoyed it.

It's much more comfortable to read the report than to chop the cultists with a knife - the latter only means that someone is being attacked by those villains, while the former means that everyone in the territory is getting better.

But apart from reading the report, Gao Wen also had other things to do.

The "soul lantern" recovered from Kant was placed on his desk by him, and a faint and pure white gleam was emitting from the lantern.

When it just left Kantland, this lantern has always been not "stable". It continuously emits a light mist of lavender like starlight, and as long as someone touches it, it will hear faint light. The strange sound, not to mention other effects such as causing hallucinations and causing nightmares. In addition, it cannot be activated and used in the way Gawain remembered. It seems that even without Lilith Kant, the "use As if the negative power entrenched in the lantern could not be dissipated, Gawain had to temporarily seal up this thing and put it in a certain storage in the ruins in the mountains.

But yesterday, the guarding soldiers suddenly reported that the purple star light of the lantern had faded.

It's back to normal -- at least on the surface.It seems that the evil ritual performed by the Eternal Sleepers cultists cannot accumulate energy for a long time. As long as the ritual is terminated, the power of the nightmare in the lantern will also decline rapidly.

Gawain picked up the lantern and carefully observed its crystal shell and delicate brass base.Through the translucent crystal shell, you can see that there are very complicated runes flowing slowly inside, all of which are similar to the way they were 700 years ago.

This lamp is not a product of the ancient Gondor Empire. In fact, its technology comes from the dwarven kingdom in the west of the continent. Those short and stubby mining enthusiasts often give people a sense of rudeness, but in fact they are exquisitely processed props They are especially good at combining crystals and metals to form all kinds of incredible magic props. The "Dream Lantern" was the proud work of a well-known dwarf craftsman at that time.

In Gawain's memory, apart from enhancing the power of dream magic and protecting the user's mental body, this lamp also had some peculiar functions.

He put his hand on the lantern, infusing it with magic power a little, but not fully activating it, and in the process, he outlined the figure of Selina Gerfen in his mind, and silently recited the other party's words in his heart. name.

After a few seconds, some messy and broken pictures began to appear in his mind.

He "sees" himself floating at a height of more than one meter above the ground, his angle of view shakes slightly from side to side, and in the peripheral vision beside him, he can see a female figure in a moon-white priest's robe, and from a little further away, he can see Things like tents and shacks.

A surge of excitement surged in Gao Wen's heart: Sure enough, these messages haven't disappeared yet!

This is the unique function of "Dream Lantern" - after injecting suitable magic power, it can be used to record some images and sounds, and through a special extraction method, it can reproduce the records in the user's mind.Selina Gerfen often used this function to record the scenes along the pioneering journey. In a few times, she even succeeded in passing vital information in this way.

The only thing Gao Wen was worried about was whether the new owner of this lamp had also activated this function after Selena died - in this way, the "video" of Selina Gerfen would be used by the new user Overwrite it, but now it seems that only Selena and him know this secret function.

The first picture was the scene of the pioneering journey, and these things were also in Gawain Cecil's memory, so Gawain quickly skipped them, and soon he found the records near the end.

He hoped that Selina Gerfen would keep the habit of recording meaningful images at any time, and record the pictures he most wanted to know.

Finally, another picture appeared. Gawain "saw" Selina Geer walking on a rugged mountain road, and many "serious" people wearing priest costumes or church armor could be seen on the front and back of the road. Pilgrims".

In the next picture, Gawain saw an open area on the top of the mountain, a huge altar was arranged, and priests and church knights stood around the altar. looming.

It is the peak of the ancestors!It was the ceremony 700 years ago when the top leaders of the major churches worked together to communicate with the gods!

"I'm a little nervous, everyone's expression is very nervous, I hope everything goes well."

Gawain suddenly heard a vague and deep female voice sounding in his mind, and he was stunned for two seconds before he realized that it was the voice of Selina Geerfen—the dream priestess seemed to be recording, Write down your feelings about being at the ceremony.

This is also her habit.

Then the screen shook for a while, and Selena seemed to be moving. After the screen stabilized, Gawain saw familiar figures appearing next to the large altar in the center of the open space.

He saw the Pope of the Holy Light Church, the Pope of the God of War Church, the Grand Priest of the Holy Spirit Church, and the Popes and the Holy See...

That is the supreme leaders of all denominations.

At this point in time, the "Religious Peace Agreement" or the "Ancestors' Peak Agreement" has not yet been signed, and the various sects are still in a state of confrontation, but the scene on the Ancestors' Peak is not as tense as the outside world guessed. Although the leaders were tense and solemn, that had more to do with the ceremony itself than with their religious stance.