According to the city-state decree, nine of the ten sacred stones mined by each family in Duke Town must be handed over to the city-state, leaving one for themselves. But the decree also stipulates that every registered miner must pay at least one sacred stone every season in spring, summer, autumn and winter, which is a basic tax.
Adults in the town love to drink, including middle-aged women. Whether it is mining ore or forging iron embryos, it is extremely heavy physical labor. Legend has it that wine is a magical thing with some mysterious power. It does seem to be able to relax the mind and relieve physical fatigue, but drinking too much is not good. Amon's father is addicted to alcohol, especially the fragrant and rich expensive wine. In recent years, his hands have become more and more trembling.
In addition to wine, the residents of Duke Town also love all kinds of delicious meat, but except for the few sheep raised nearby and the occasional prey caught in the mountains, most of the meat almost all needs to be brought from other places . Amon's father got the money and immediately enjoyed it, but the sacred stone of this season's tax has not yet been handed over.
Mayor Dusti, who is in charge of tax collection and tax statistics in Duke Town, is usually very kind. He usually does not push too much when miners occasionally default. After all, mining the sacred stone requires not only hard work and skill, but also luck. Even if the debt is temporarily delayed, it is not impossible to make it up when luck is good. Because of this, the mayor of Dusty has been supported by the residents of the town for a long time, and his life is very comfortable.
But three days ago, the mayor ordered that all those who owed the sacred stone must pay it back within three days. All the houses in the town were filled within three days, and everyone basically had surplus over the years for emergencies, except for Amon's family. The mayor's order may have something to do with the honorable Lord Eju who came to the town three days ago. Amon didn't know exactly what happened, and it was not his turn to ask a child like him.
When the caravan just came to the town, Amon's father exchanged the last sacred stone in his hand for fine wine. When the mayor gave the order, he realized that he hadn't finished the tax task of this season, so he went to the town The old lunatic Nietzsche on the Internet borrowed it, but he only borrowed a well-mined ore core. The old lunatic assured Amon's father that there must be a divine stone inside.
There may not always be a god stone in the mine core, but the god stone must only appear in this kind of mine core. My father's trembling hands could not control the mine hammer, so he asked fourteen-year-old Amon to try it.
It has been a rule in Duke Town since ancient times that when a man reaches the age of sixteen, the priest presides over the prayer ceremony in the Temple of Muyun Goddess. After receiving the blessing of God, he is eligible to learn the unique craftsmanship skills passed down from generation to generation. Open the mine core and take out the god stone. Those who do not have this qualification can only do some auxiliary work, such as looking for ore cores in the mountains and mining them, cutting wood and burning charcoal to provide fuel for the fire, etc.
Amon's father felt that his physical strength was exhausted faster and faster in the past two years, and his hands were trembling more and more. He waited step by step until that day, fearing that it would be too late for Amon to take over his mine hammer, so he privately He taught his son the local miner's skills in advance. After two years of practice, Amon has mastered it quite proficiently, which surprised his father. Generally speaking, the teenagers in Duke Town want to master the control method of this unique power. They start learning at the age of sixteen, and they can only become teachers at the age of twenty, and it is impossible to use it so proficiently.
Father was surprised, but Amon was even more surprised, not because of how fast he learned. Didn't the priests and priests say that only with the blessing and permission of the patron saint can they learn the unique skills passed down from generation to generation in Duke Town? I didn't go through that solemn and sacred ceremony, how did I wake up the legendary dormant power? He didn't ask his father, but asked the old lunatic Nietzsche, and the old lunatic sneered at this and answered with disdain, but he also told him to keep it secret and not to talk nonsense.
When Amon swung his sledgehammer at the mine core, his father's expression was very nervous, and his hands were trembling involuntarily, but Amon's expression was very focused and calm. Father thought it was the first time he had done this work, but he didn't know that Amon had done the same thing many times in the old lunatic's house. It wasn't just his father who taught Amon's skills in private. The old lunatic in the town also taught him. The old lunatic often watched Amon help him work while drinking.
When the sledgehammer hit the mine core, it controlled more than just power. At the moment of contact, a penetrating shock wave was emitted into the extremely hard mine core, and there was a long-lasting vibrating hum in the room. echo. Then, countless fine cracks appeared on the surface of this ore core, which was harder than pig iron, and the cracks continued to intersect and extend to become densely packed, and the ore core gradually changed from black to grayish white, dull and dull.
When the cracks extend to the extreme, the ore core will naturally open or disperse, just like cascading fine sand. If you are lucky, a divine stone will appear in the center of the gray sand grains.
The sacred stone cannot be taken out by brute force alone, it is very strong, and it is difficult to damage it with ordinary force, but it is very fragile when it is still in the ore core, and it will be turned into powder along with the ore core if you are not careful.
All the sacred stones are exactly the same shape and size, about the size of a cat's eye, and are a perfect dodecahedron. It has thirty sides, twenty angles, and twelve faces, each of which is a standard regular pentagon. It is said that in the far northwest of the Tianshu Continent, a sage named Taia Teide once said that there are only five kinds of regular polyhedrons in the world, and the regular dodecahedron is the most special one among them.
It is the outline of the world drawn by God, contains the mysterious information of the fifth element, and is the source and symbol of mysterious power. The most common sacred stone is colorless and transparent. When you hold it in your hand and look at it from different angles, it will show various unpredictable shapes of pentagrams. It is so perfect, dazzling and charming, and it is amazing the magic of the Creator.
In addition to the colorless and transparent sacred stone, Amon knew that there were four other sacred stones, which were blue, red, black, and white. According to a distant sage, Empedocles, they symbolized the formation of the world. Mystical information about the four elements of water, fire, earth and air. Of course, these Amons were all told by the old lunatic, and he couldn't tell whether it was true or not, let alone whether those so-called sages from afar really existed, maybe they were all made up by the old lunatic himself.
Regarding the sacred stones, the old lunatic Nietzsche also has a deviant saying that they are the crystallization of bones after the fall of gods, which can be called the bones of gods. Amon couldn't believe it. He once asked the old lunatic—would the eternal gods also fall
The old lunatic asked rhetorically—people in the legend were created by gods, and people are mortal, so who created the gods, why can't they perish? According to the oldest legend, the area around Duke Town is the place where the gods fell in the battle of the ancient gods.
The old lunatic also said that when he traveled to the mainland in his early years, he met monks from the far east who called the sacred stone the relic of the earth. Amon didn't understand what it meant. When he said this, the old lunatic's messy beard was stained with bright red wine juice, his smile looked very obscene, and then he winked at Amon and said: "There are legends about gods in many countries on the mainland, and the earth is ancient gods. Is it wrong that the god stone is the skeleton of god?"
Amon could only regard these as the drunken words of an old lunatic, but he didn't dare to say that this was absolutely impossible, so he stopped thinking about it and still focused on doing his own thing—this is his best habit.
Although Amon didn't know what the god stones were, he was very clear about the types of god stones. The number of the four special god stones was much less than that of ordinary god stones, and the probability of being mined was only a few hundredths. Amon didn't know how much they were worth. It is clear that the special sacred stones that appeared in Duke Town were taken away by the city-state as important tributes.
But tonight, after the ore core turned into off-white fine sand and scattered on the anvil, Amon was stunned, and the heavy sledgehammer was also fixed in the air. The father, who was watching from the sidelines, was also fixed there, his eyes widened, his mouth opened and he forgot to close it, the hand holding the wine glass was still trembling, but he didn't realize that the wine had splashed on his clothes.
I saw a sacred stone lying there quietly among the gray-white fine sand. It turned out to be light golden, translucent, and there seemed to be a strange luster flowing in it mysteriously, as if it contained unshed tears—what kind of divine stone is this!
When this divine stone appeared, there was a mysterious wave rippling around silently. Amon was keenly aware of it, but he didn't pay much attention to it because of his unexpected surprise, and his father was completely stunned. Not long, a polite voice outside the door brought the father and son back to their senses—
"Is anyone at home? I am Fayol Judah, the clerk next to Lord Rod Dick, the lord of Cape Town of the Ecu Great Empire, and I am here by the order of Lord Dick." With the sound of speaking, the speaker has already pushed away from the room door, walked through the house into the backyard, and came to the door of the workshop.
His voice was cultivated, but his behavior was very casual. He walked in without the owner's permission. Two heavily armed soldiers stood guard outside the gate, and the other two followed him on both sides. When Amon came back to his senses and turned his head to look outside the door, Fayol happened to step across the threshold with one foot, showing a look of shock and ecstasy.
Fayol is in his thirties, of medium build, with brownish skin, curly hair, wearing a linen robe, and clean. His lips are a little thin, his eyes are a little thin, and he always looks thoughtful. Only in front of distinguished adults like Rod Dick, he will show an extremely focused expression. But now, all he had in his eyes was the divine stone shining with a pale golden luster.
"Thanks to the great goddess Isis, thank the gods for their mercy, God's light will always shine on the Eju, and will always protect the cape city-state..." Amon wondered, Fayol had already stepped over the threshold, with one hand on his forehead and the other on the ground , Knelt down on one knee. The two warriors outside the door also knelt down on one knee with Lord Fayol, the long swords in their hands touched the ground, and the breastplates collided with each other to make a heavy sound.
"Who are you to come in like this?" Amon asked hesitantly.
Amon's father had put down his wine glass and stood up, and asked tremblingly, "My lord, what kind of sacred stone is this, why have I never seen it before?"
"Great God Isis, please forgive this ignorant voice!" Hearing what the father and son said, Fayol put down his hand on his forehead, raised his head and exclaimed exaggeratedly, and then saw Amon and his son still standing There, he shouted displeasedly: "You still don't kneel down!"
Fayol has already knelt down, and the civilians in this foreign town are still standing there, looking like Fayol is kneeling in front of them, how can it not be annoying? Amon's father's lips moved, but he didn't dare to say anything. He didn't know whether he should kneel to the sacred stone on the anvil or to the noble man in front of the door? After thinking about it, he still knelt down and saluted Fayol.
Amon gently placed the sledgehammer on the side of the anvil, and replied as calmly as possible: "When mining the sacred stone, you must stand to swing the hammer, otherwise how can you see it being taken out intact?" Following Fayol's posture just now, he knelt down on one knee facing the sacred stone in front of him. He already realized that the sacred stone mined today was extraordinary, and these people came for it.
When the father and son knelt down, Fayol had already stood up. He had seen clearly just now that the child had mined the tears of the gods. When Fayol came in, the hammer in Amon's hand had not been put down. And the sloppy old alcoholic next to him had trembling hands, obviously he couldn't be the one who mined the god stone.
"My child, you have been favored by the goddess Isis, and you were lucky enough to welcome the tears of the gods to the world. What's your name?" Fayol looked at Amon and asked.
Amon secretly thought in his heart that this sacred stone is called the tears of the gods. It seems that the old lunatic said that the sacred stone is the skeleton of the gods. Call me Amon."
Amon has a full name, called Arhat-Men-Su-Messiah-Hua-Allah-Ye-Montemon, but this full name was given by his father, and only his father said it when he was a child, Even Amon himself didn't remember very clearly, the people in the town usually only called him Amon. It was unreasonable for his father to give him such a name. Only a lineage noble can have such a long list of titles and write them out, representing hereditary glory.
Amon was neither a slave nor an aristocrat, just an ordinary commoner in Duke Town. Giving him such a name is just the self-consolation of the glory of the illusion of the alcoholic father. The long list of titles is not his family lineage. His father made up it when he was drunk, so even Amon himself would not mention it.
Fayol looked at Amon and nodded with satisfaction, his expression became solemn and solemn, and he said solemnly: "My name is Fayol Judah, and I come from the cape city-state of the Eju Great Empire that ruled the Kingdom of Hatti. Chief clerk of Lord Dick, Lord Dick. In a dream, Lord Dick received an oracle from the great goddess Isis. The saint of the temple of Isis received the mercy of the gods and was given a tear of the gods. This is where she descended. "
After saying this, Fayol cleared his throat, looked at Amon, and found that the child didn't respond, maybe he was stupefied, so he coughed lightly and continued: "Amon, under the benevolent gaze of Isis Next, you are lucky enough to welcome the tears of the gods, thank you for your contribution, it will belong to the guardian saint of the goddess Isis, and the goddess will remember your name... These are given to you by the generous Lord Rod-Dick of."
After speaking, Fayol took out a bag and put it on the anvil, reached out and picked up the tear of the gods, put it in a golden box that he carried with him, turned and walked out. Amon's father saw him doing this, and murmured his lips to stop him, but he didn't dare to speak out.
When Amon reacted and stood up, Fayol had already left, and the two warriors followed closely behind him to protect him, and the hilt of the sword made a cold and majestic sound when it touched the armor.
The voice made Amon understand that even chasing it out would be useless. The uninvited visitor took away this strange and strange stone that had never been seen before, leaving only a money bag behind. The man said, "Thank you for his contribution", as if Amon had volunteered the sacred stone to him.
Amon felt angry and unwilling, thinking that his father would have to pay a sacred stone tomorrow. This strange sacred stone could have completed the task, but now it was taken away. Then he thought that the god stone was taken away by Mr. Dick. If the mayor wants to pursue it, he should go to Mr. Dick. It's not that their family has not paid taxes.
A lot of thoughts flashed through his mind for a moment, but Amon didn't think of another thing at the moment - Fayol's doing so would reveal that he had learned the miner's skill in Duke Town without permission.
…
List of characters in this chapter—
Amon's father: a miner and blacksmith in Duke Town, and a drunkard.
Nietzsche: A resident of Duke Town, an old friend of Amon, nicknamed the old lunatic.
Fayol Judah: Rod Dick's clerk.