"disappeared?"
One early morning half a month after his exchange with Carliss, Joshua, who was walking in the stratosphere, heard news that surprised him.
The wind was raging high in the sky, and the cold air with ice crystals reflected the sun's rays, shining at the feet of the warrior. At this time, he was walking in the sky with his hands behind his back, inspecting his territory, and the magic projection of a winged girl Floating in front of him, he was reporting the news with a helpless expression.
"Yes, Joshua, but to be precise, he didn't disappear, but he left my detection range."
Compared to before, a golden star-shaped mark appeared on No. 3's forehead at this time, with translucent wings surrounding the star. This was the result of her fully accepting the mark of the God of the Sky, the mark of Ger. Merge with No. 3’s soul. At this time, the artificial intelligence girl looked like she had a headache. She hugged her knees with her hands, floated next to Joshua and complained: "You said you wanted to give those elite students more freedom, but I didn't pay much attention to them... As a result, after a while I haven’t seen anyone since it’s been almost a week now.”
"First tell me who is missing."
Joshua wasn't too nervous. He just muttered a few words in a low voice, "I'm really worried." Then he said calmly: "Tell me, is it Lisa or Ivan? I think other people don't have the confidence to go missing."
"It's Lisa, your dragon apprentice."
Having said this, a gloating smile appeared on No. 3's little face: "It seems that you are quite self-aware, Joshua. You know that your apprentice likes to run around just like you... By the way, I forgot to tell you. , Missing with her was No. 1."
Under the gaze of Joshua who turned his head, No. 3 added: "According to my guess, she and No. 1 should have gone to play in the underground passage dug by No. 1. Otherwise, the signal from the information terminal would not be connected. They are all blocked and can’t find their bearings.”
After a few months, the tunnels dug by No. 1 under the Nissii Snow Mountain have reached an unbelievable size. Those huge caves are deep and long, and are even wider than the dwarves' range of activities. From a certain perspective, No. 1 almost single-handedly excavated a small underground world. According to the words of a dwarf engineer who visited this tunnel, it is "very suitable for the reproduction of underground life."
Because it is too deep, the instructors of Winter Castle don't know where the tunnel leads. And because of insufficient server load, the information terminal cannot be used too deep underground. In general, it is a blind spot.
"Joshua, do you think they are in any danger?"
Although there was some gloating before, it was just resentment for Joshua going out alone. No. 3 was still very concerned about Lisa and No. 1. She asked with some worry: "Do we need to send the knights to find them? A week is not a long time, but it is enough to encounter any danger."
"It's not that dangerous. I've killed all the slightly more dangerous monsters in Moldavia. Even if there are fish that slip through the net, it's not impossible to deal with them based on the strength of these two guys... What I'm surprised about is how these two people are doing. They all got together, and with the Syndicate here, how could they be allowed to run around casually?"
Joshua frowned slightly, but after a while he relaxed his brows and said, "It doesn't matter. It's normal for children to be a little active anyway. Let them play by themselves."
If that doesn't work, he can still communicate directly with the Syndicate through the resonance of the power of steel. Now that the other party has not contacted him, it proves that he has not encountered any danger. This channel allows him to communicate with Balrog even in another world, which is much more stable than an information terminal.
On the other side, No. 3 raised his eyes and began to count the activities of Lisa and No. 1 before they disappeared: "Let me think about it... they first looked at the moon in the middle of the night, and then met while walking in the middle of the night, and then because Lisa could hear I understood the electromagnetic signal of No. 1, so we chatted for half the night... "
Everything that happened next fell into place. It was rare to meet someone who could chat in her native language. Naturally, No. 1 had a good impression of Lisa. In the next few days, they kept making appointments to meet and chat, and even went to Dwarf City together. After walking around the gathering place for a few times, Lisa was treated with great courtesy because she was the friend brought back by No. 1, and the girl also showed interest in the mysterious underground world.
"Then we go digging together... Thinking about it carefully, it's a good experience. It's unknown, mysterious and has unpredictable dangers."
Joshua thought for a while and felt that there was actually nothing dangerous about it. If all the students were always under his observation, they would not make any unexpected progress. After thinking about it, the soldier made a decision. : "Let Winterfort Academy assign a academy task."
"Explore the underground world and draw a map of the underground world that No. 1 dug. A complete tunnel has two thousand credits. There is no limit. Let me see how much they have learned in the academy... and also see how deep this guy No. 1 has dug. , can actually block information terminals."
Nowadays, the credit redemption system in Winterhold Academy has been very complete, and has even formed a complete market, ranging from gold, silver and gems to special mechas. If the points are enough, even small battleships can be redeemed - if you have If the college makes a special contribution, it can even accept various special enhancements from Winter Castle's cooperation with major researchers!
An ordinary mission costs about 50 to 100 credits depending on the level of completion. 100 credits can be exchanged for precious metals that can meet the annual expenses of an ordinary family of three. 500 credits can be exchanged for live metal forging. It is currently in the experimental stage. The magic energy continuous-fire staff can condense magic power ten times faster than ordinary staffs. It can spray various spells like a machine gun without self-destruction due to overheating. Similarly, there are various wrist guards forged with special alloys. Armor and helmet, this is a set.
1,000 credits can even be exchanged for some extraordinary substances for research or personal use, such as three leaves of life, a small bottle of No. 1 holy water, fifty grams of high-purity mithril, etc., such as core star, fine gold , Meteor Iron and Anima Crystal are also on the redemption list. Many big forces, such as the Elf Royal Court and the Church of the Seven Gods, are wondering why there are their unique collections in the Winter Castle Academy's credit redemption list. They don't I remember that these were traded externally, and a certain lord who was experimenting with the creation did not express any opinions on this.
Some special requirements are also within the redemption range, such as appointing a tutor to provide individual tutoring. The specific price depends on the tutor's own pricing. Assistance with advancement or experiments are also included, and the price is slightly more expensive than tutoring.
The above are just ordinary things that can be bought with money, but if it is more than 2,000 credits, it is not just these - starting from the exchange list of 2,000 credits, some things that cannot be measured by money gradually begin to appear. Things, such as the latest generation of experimental magic mecha, are worth 2,500 credits. If special transformation is needed for an individual, the credits need to be doubled. There are also various weird magic equipment exchanges, such as 'Portable Supersonic Railgun' worth 7500 points, 'Portable Space-Time Gate' (experimental arbitrary door) worth 8000 points, 'Anti-Gravity Flying Device' worth 3500 points, 'Gold Level Elemental Puppet Contract' worth 9000 points, 5500 'Hypnotic brainwashing glasses' and so on.
The providers of these things are some legendary powerhouses who do not want to tell their names. Most of them are gadgets that they have figured out on daily basis. However, although these things contain extremely powerful power, the conditions for use are particularly harsh. For example, they come from a certain person. The arbitrary door of an imperial time and space mage. Although it is indeed a portable time and space door that can lead to almost any place on the continent, the user's strength must reach the gold level, or be extremely proficient in time and space magic to meet the conditions - with this strength With knowledge reserves, I can now perform fixed-point teleportation.
The hypnotic brainwashing glasses from a certain Mr. William who wishes to remain anonymous, although they sound evil and are actually very evil, they are basically ineffective against creatures with an intelligence index of over 70. That is to say, except for the brainless Warcraft. , no human being will fall for it, those who will fall for it are mentally retarded, and if the World of Warcraft is smarter, it can also get rid of its control.
But even so, the value of these items cannot be questioned. Even if it is not for the value of the items themselves, but just to explore the essence of the power of the legendary strongman, they are all worthy of their prices.
This series of exchanges has led to 20,000 credits that no one has ever reached so far. It is a small floating battleship with a total length of 85 meters, equipped with a full set of war equipment, and even a set of small magic crystals on it. The dust production line can be used to make ammunition for beam cannons. This thing is placed there mainly because it looks good, and no one thinks that anyone will exchange it.
As for special contributions, they are more mysterious. Except for a few people who have completed some particularly difficult tasks, such as completely eradicating the students who turned into monsters on the Ural Plain when the demonic tide came, basically no one can get this. Some special redemptions can only be redeemed by relying on special contributions and credits.
Special contributions are divided into five levels: D, C, B, A, and S. Starting from the lowest level D, there is a special exchange called 'Activate Hidden Bloodline'. The academy will conduct a redemption based on the concentration of hidden blood in the redeemer's body. Reactivation makes the hidden bloodline abilities visible, whether it is the bloodline of a psychic warlock, the bloodline of a dragon, or various other weird bloodline abilities. A student from Xishan is a good example. She is the third princess of a certain psychic kingdom. Because she has not awakened her psychic powers, she cannot compete for the throne. She was originally going to be politically married to another neighboring kingdom, but due to the interference of her mother's clan behind her, she was sent to Moldavia.
At Winterhold Academy, she worked hard to become a mage, and then she was lucky enough to receive a special contribution during a mission and chose to activate her bloodline. After the ceremony, she activated her bloodline and successfully became a genuine mage. Silver-level psychics have the capital to return to the country.
So far, the special exchanges sent out by the academy are only D-level. Higher-level exchanges, such as 'solidified spell-like abilities' and 'special extraordinary inheritance' are just put there for others to see. There are no plans to release them outside for the time being. There are even Some exchanges only exist in the database and are not displayed to the outside world... After all, whether it is 'living mechanized transformation' or 'experimental power granting' or 'extraordinary organ transplantation', they are taboo technologies that are still under experiment, let alone something similar to 'Race conversion ritual' and 'artificial auxiliary soul body' are technologies involving ethical values.
Among them, some of the exchanges were researched by Joshua based on his own system. For example, the 'artificial auxiliary soul body' worth an A-level special contribution and 8,000 credits has auxiliary calculations, auxiliary training, and optimized energy operation systems. , special functions such as collecting information and analysis, collecting spilled energy, absorbing the life force of dead enemies' flesh and blood for one's own use, etc., can quickly strengthen a helpless ordinary person into a high-level silver level, reaching the threshold of gold. , this is not its limit.
The only problem with this auxiliary soul body is that when the experimenter's strength reaches the golden limit in the later period, it will become unstable. The artificial soul body cannot fit well with the experimenter's original soul, which will cause rejection and endanger life. During the experiment, if Joshua and Nostradamus were not watching from the sidelines, the experimenter's life would probably be in danger.
The reason why the exchange system within this academy is so complete is because Joshua used it as an experiment in the reward system of the development department—when the empire officially begins to develop externally, the credits can be renamed as contribution points, and special contributions do not need to be renamed. , they serve as performance rewards in addition to original benefits and wages, which can not only stimulate the passion of many explorers, but also reasonably enhance their strength.
"In about the same time, the development department will be officially launched, and the launch of the redemption system will also be put on the agenda... It is also time to improve most of the experimental technologies used as rewards."
Thinking of this, Joshua stood high in the stratosphere and looked towards the south. He nodded slightly: "The technical reserves of the Empire family are far from enough... This trip to the far south is also a good opportunity to find partners. The way of druids can be converted into the tree of life or even the body of a dragon at will. In terms of biological bloodline technology, they are much more advanced than our race conversion rituals. If they can cooperate, they can quickly put certain experimental technologies into practical use. change."
"But Joshua... aren't you specialized in the power of steel? Why do you study so many weird things?"
On the side, No. 3 asked with some confusion. As the founder of the server and database of Winterfort College, she is also the storage copy of the entire Moldavia database. Of course she knows that Joshua and Nostradam are usually What exactly are Mars and others studying? Some of them are acceptable to Miss Artificial Intelligence, but some, such as the artificial soul body, make No. 3 feel a little creepy and insecure.
After all, she is also an artificial soul, but the degree of completion is much higher than this. Even though she knows that Joshua is not a madman, she still feels a little scared.
"Of course, if you specialize in one thing, you can be brave and diligent, but if you don't open your eyes to see the world and understand its vastness, you will only fall into a whirlpool of ignorance and be unable to extricate yourself."
Stretching out his hand, Joshua originally wanted to pat No. 3 on the head, but the somewhat frustrated No. 3 turned around and let the warrior's hand pat her wings. Joshua didn't take it seriously at first. He understood No. 3. Tangled mentality, but when he felt an unusual touch in his hand, Joshua was suddenly surprised: "Wait a minute, in such a short period of time, you have already completed the initial materialization of your soul?"
Although the smooth feather touch in the warrior's hand just now was still a bit illusory, it vaguely felt like water... Joshua didn't take it seriously at first, but after he realized it, he was shocked: The last time the Sage of the East China Sea came to Moldavia and exchanged the spirit-matter conversion runes with him, he had no time to study because he had to help Israel, Barnier and others improve the void battleship production line and information terminal server. , so he handed the rune body to No. 3, letting this girl who also only had a soul explore the mystery of the transformation between matter and spirit... But how long had it been? Have you actually achieved something
"Hmph... After all, it's been so long since I got His Majesty Ger's rune, and this substance-spirit conversion rune is indeed very suitable for my current state. It's just a small improvement, nothing like it."
Seeing Joshua's surprised look on her face, No. 3 couldn't help but flutter the little wings on her back with a smile on her face. She has maintained this state since she achieved something, but the warrior never noticed it, which made her very discouraged. , but now, No. 3 is satisfied if he can shock him.
"Not bad, not bad, really good..."
Joshua's face was full of joy, as if he was even happier than he had advanced. He reached out and touched No. 3's head again, but this time, No. 3 did not avoid it.
Artificial Intelligence, No. 3, understands the man in front of him better than most people - rather than making rapid progress in his own strength and leaving everyone behind him, he hopes that the people around him can keep up with him and compete with him. He moves forward together.
"go home."
After feeling relieved, Joshua looked at the direction of the sun, and then said: "The time is almost up, and the time and space gate should be adjusted."
"OK."
No. 3 nodded, she knew the warrior's plan.
Today is the fifteenth day of February in the year 837, and it is also the day he plans to go to the gathering place of elves in the far southern forest, around the Eternal Lake, to meet with the natural teacher and the contemporary elf queen.
So, in the next second, the two of them fell from the sky, passed through the clouds and strong winds, and arrived above Moldavia. From here, they could overlook every corner of this big city with a population of one million. Right in the center of the city, on the top of a building that looks like a castle, there is a faint blue space-time light shining.
It's time to leave.
Please give me a monthly pass at the beginning of the month.
PS: Recommend friends "Summoning System Master" DND God-consecration text. The protagonist has the summoning golden finger to come to another world, gradually become powerful from weak to become a legend, condense the divinity, ignite the divine fire, weave the godhead, obtain the priesthood, and create through the golden finger [Summoner] This spellcaster profession.
(End of chapter)