In late autumn, the mist gradually rises.
It's not yet the Bruma, but Typhon didu Aldernan has always been a rainy and foggy city. As the Frost Sky constellation gradually moves towards the highest point of the sky, the mist has begun to visit this "young" city more and more frequently. The capital city, especially after a cold autumn rain, the fog will come as promised.
Autumn rains are always continuous, and after the rain stops, there are still rare raindrops falling from the sky from time to time. Between the cold rain and the hazy fog, the solemn black towers and row upon row of spires of Aldernan stand silently on both sides of the avenue The black-haired female mage Mary was wrapped in her slightly old black mage robe, and walked quickly down the street with her head down.
The breeze shield blocked the cold air of late autumn and the raindrops falling from the sky, but the scenery in the fog still brought a chill from the bottom of my heart. Mary subconsciously tightened her robe, and then the angry face of her mentor Daniel appeared in her mind Come on, if the instructor sees himself walking on the street with his neck shrunk like this, he will probably get angry again.
She shook her head, put aside these unreasonable associations, and then raised her head to look forward.
This is the street in late autumn. In the countryside, it is impossible to see anyone on the street in this season. However, in Mary's field of vision, there are more than one wave of figures walking in the mist.
Those figures were dressed in thin old linen clothes, with felt hats or dirty turbans on their heads. Most of them were men with numb expressions, and there were also some children and women with sleepy faces. Walking in one direction, with heavy steps and expressionless faces in the early morning mist, these people walking on the street are as strange as ghosts coming out of the mist.
Mary knows that these are workers who go to work in the factories. The textile factory, the printing factory, the rune foundry, and the burning rock acid chemical factory have increased since last winter, and these workers have also increased since last winter. of.
The factory brought prosperity and made the whole city run at an astonishing speed. It also allowed those little nobles who once lost their rights and wealth to return to the extravagant banquets and dances. A rising star in the Manufacturing Association, Mary was fortunate to have participated in the gatherings of those big figures. She knew how the factory owners quickly accumulated wealth. Those wealth came from the amazing production efficiency of the machines and the timely implementation of market laws by His Majesty the Emperor. , more derived from these walking dead... people.
But those factory owners don't care about this.
Mary knew, she knew how her mentor was driving all this behind the scenes, and she also had a general idea of what kind of plan was behind this miraculous factory boom. The female mage tightened her robe again on this cold street, and hurriedly walked among the numb "new citizens".
Crossing Palmer Avenue and passing through several towers on the edge of the mage's district, it is the place where the mentor and several apprentices including himself live: a luxurious mansion in the upper-class wealthy district.
This mansion with a three-story main body, two towers, two gardens, complete stables and servant rooms was gifted to the tutor by the president of the Royal Society of Mages.
The gatekeeper was a well-known male apprentice. This young man with freckles had a strange expression on his face when he saw Mary. Before Mary asked, the young apprentice took the initiative to say: "The tutor is here' cellar', as soon as he tells you to come back."
cellar…
Mary's heart suddenly became tense, but she quickly smoothed out all the changes in her face, and nodded slightly: "I see."
She walked through the courtyard of the mansion, walked into the main room, walked down the stairs, and came to the entrance of the cellar. In this place where ordinary apprentices and servants were always forbidden to approach, Mary saw two puppet servants with empty eyes waiting at the door.
The young female mage swallowed, she kept reminding herself of the more obvious changes in the friendliness and kindness of her mentor recently, and then pushed open the door of the cellar.
In this underground space that has been transformed into a secret laboratory by the instructor, the magic spar lamp driven by the magic net makes the whole room brightly lit. Mary soon saw the black-robed old mage Daniel in the corner of the room, and behind Daniel , she saw a strangely shaped... chair.
It was an obvious magical creation. It was placed on a base engraved with runes, and there was a glimmer of light flowing on the side of the seat. Some weird metal points were distributed on the inside of the back of the chair, and the back itself seemed to be Wrapped in some sort of enchanted leather, Marie thought for a moment of the sacrificial device depicted in some horror story.
Daniel raised his eyelids, and stared at the slightly at a loss female apprentice standing at the door with his tawny eyes: "Come here, the master wants to see you."
Mary took a deep breath.
She didn't remember how she moved to the chair, nor how she clumsily fixed her position with a belt and a buckle according to the method explained by the instructor. She had only one thought in her mind: this day finally Here she is, she will be sacrificed to that terrible "master" by her mentor...
She knew that there was a "master" behind the mentor, and of course she knew that the sudden appearance of knowledge and terrible plans of the mentor were arranged by the "master", and the fragments of knowledge promoted the development of the entire Typhon magic technology , and the first step of that terrible plan changed the balance of power among the nobles of Aldernan, in addition to algebra, solid geometry, calculus, runic logic... Those knowledge are awesome, but more capable It makes people realize the nature of the "master" behind the mentor.
It is said that only indescribable foreign evil gods will bestow "knowledge" in such a generous way, and this "knowledge" requires a price.
"Sit down, no matter what you see for a while, open your heart to accept it, don't have any resistance, or you will be the only one who suffers." Daniel pressed hard on Mary's slightly trembling shoulders, and said in a serious and cold tone.
Mary thought that she might be the "price".
The instructor continued: "You will arrive at a pure space, where you will talk less and see more, because the master's family members are gathered there, and each of them is much wiser, stronger and more noble than you. .”
Mary swallowed, and finally couldn't help but want to say something to relieve her tension, so she said, "I... what should I say when I see 'Master'?"
Daniel's movements stopped, and his yellow-brown eyes stared at Mary. I don't know if it was an illusion, but Mary felt that there was a hint of praise for herself in those eyes.
"Say your name first," the old mage said with a serious face while activating the rune trigger on the seat, "then say that studying makes me happy."
"ah… "
Mary let out a brief exclamation in confusion, but before she could ask, the sudden dizziness pulled her into the depths of a grotesque illusion of light and shadow.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw a vast space with high blue sky, boundless water surface and a large number of wonderful metal platforms.
Mary found herself no longer sitting on the weird "Sacrifice Chair", but on a comfortable high-backed chair, in front of an ornate and large round table, surrounded by neat seats , some unknown people were sitting in those positions, and across the round table, a tall and burly man was looking at him quietly.
Almost instantly, Mary realized that the man was the "master" mentioned by the instructor.
Although this was a round table where it was impossible to distinguish between primary and secondary, the man's aura was obviously different from everyone else's.
Mary didn't expect the image of the "master" to be like this, she thought she would see a hideous demon, or some kind of more indescribable existence, but anyway, a "master" in human form at least made her She relaxed a lot, and just as she breathed a sigh of relief, the figure of the old mage Daniel also appeared in this space, and sat on the seat beside Mary.
Daniel glared at the slightly dazed apprentice: "What are you still doing?"
Mary just woke up as if she had just woken up from a dream, and hurriedly stood up, stumbled and said what the instructor asked her to say: "My...my name is Mary, I don't have a last name, and... and... study makes me happy!"
The atmosphere at the scene seemed to be slightly awkward, but Mary was so nervous that she couldn't feel the change in the atmosphere. She saw those figures sitting around the round table cast their eyes on her, and there was even a soul full of blue light. The "spiritual creature" looked at himself with great interest, and made a buzzing voice: "This kid is quite interesting."
A beautiful and elegant lady in a long red dress smiled to herself: "You are a little nervous, relax."
A young lady with big eyes and long brown hair looked full of energy with a happy smile on her face: "Ah, you are the Mary who solved all the sixteen equations I gave?! You are so amazing Hey! I called Rebecca and said that you really untied it yourself?"
Mary was a little sluggish for a while, and she suddenly felt... The development of things at this moment seems to be a little different from what she imagined.
Gawain looked at the black-haired girl who visited the origin space for the first time with a slightly strange expression. He saw the nervousness and even fear of the other party at the beginning, which made him a little dumbfounded: "Mary? Relax, welcome to join the origin experiment." room."
"Origin Laboratory?" Mary was stunned for a moment. She was just about to ask what the Origin Laboratory was, but then she remembered that the instructor had mentioned this name when she was most nervous when she adjusted the seat. , so she swallowed back her question abruptly, nodded hastily, "Okay, okay! I... I'm honored too..."
Daniel's face became ugly: "Shame."
Mary quickly shrank her neck: "I'm sorry, tutor."
"It's okay, this child is very talented, and her talent is enough to offset her little helplessness," Gao Wen said, "And I'm curious how you described this online meeting to this child, she looks a little nervous It's not normal."
"I just said that you want to see her," Daniel said sternly, "The Origin Lab is extremely confidential. Before entering the network, I almost didn't tell her anything."
"...cautious, but justified."
Reminiscent of Daniel's style of painting in the real world and the psychological shadow he caused on his apprentices, Gawain could fully guess what was going on with this girl named Mary.
Forget it, let them solve their own problems.
Gao Wen shook his head slightly in his heart, then temporarily put the "newcomer" Mary aside, and started the topic of this online conference.
"First, I'll bring some materials, Jenny, Kamel, Rebecca, activate your respective printout terminals, and print out the materials in the real world."
While talking, Gao Wen activated the memory conversion function of the Origin Lab. In the midair above the round table, a large number of dazzling runes and lines were projected almost instantly, and split into concise pictures one after another. Clear plan disassembly diagram.
"This is the technical data of the elves. This part is their cooling rune array. This part is a schematic diagram of a cooling system based on oil coolant and using an immersion heat exchanger. This is their anti-gravity array. It should not be complete, but it can be Reference. Plus their shield projection and the idea of stacking multiple runes... ”
"Wow!!" Rebecca stared at the complicated rune arrays and dismantling diagrams of the device structure, and couldn't help but let out an exaggerated exclamation. Amber is amazing!!"
"Hetty, remember to call after you go offline."
"Yes, ancestor."