Chapter 107: Act 40 – The Magic Hub (Second Update After Discharge)
The girl’s answer left not only Brendel stunned, but also Balthom and Lohn, who lifted their heads to look at her.
Antinna stared at the young man and replied, “Rest assured, sir, whether for fulfilling my father’s promise or my personal gratitude, I will complete this task.”
Brendel was taken aback, unable to help but look at the noble lady, trying to discern whether her response stemmed from pride or stubbornness. However, from her determined and clean face, he read a mix of both, even detecting a hint of confidence. Where did her confidence come from? Brendel was momentarily at a loss.
The development of this matter was increasingly veering away from his expectations.
“What do you plan to do to accomplish it, young girl?” Balthom asked from behind, scrutinizing Antinna and unable to resist responding in the coarse and teasing tone typical of their mercenary group. “Though you are quite the pretty little thing, our lord already has a fiancée, you know.”
As a noble lady, Antinna, though now downcast, had rarely encountered such crude remarks in her sheltered life. She was almost enraged, her pale face flushed slightly with anger, yet she disdained to argue with a vulgar guard, merely casting a disappointed glance at Brendel. Then she turned and walked over to the desk, opening a drawer and taking out a scroll—hesitating for a moment, but ultimately approaching Brendel and handing it to him. “I believe its value won’t be lower than you expect, sir.”
She thought for a moment and simply replied like that.
“What is this?” Brendel asked.
“My work,” Antinna said, a bit nervously at first, but quickly regained her confidence.
Lohn scoffed from the side. Balthom looked at him and couldn’t help but poke him, asking softly, “How much do you think this young girl owes our lord?”
Lohn was taken aback and couldn’t help but glance up at him—though Balthom’s long hood obscured his face, the short, hunchbacked Lohn could still see the man’s bushy beard. “You don’t know?” he retorted.
“Of course not,” Balthom replied quietly. “Why would I know?”
“I thought you would know,” Lohn shot back with a glance, then began calculating. “A noble like Borg, even if fallen on hard times, could still leave behind an annual pension of at least one or two thousand Thor. In conversion, that’s close to one hundred thousand Thor, which is not a small sum, my old friend.”
“That indeed is a large amount of money,” Balthom nodded. “Are you saying that the scroll our lord holds is worth one hundred thousand?”
“I never said that, but if it’s a work from a famous artist, it could be possible. Some masterpieces are worth millions. However— that little girl has already stated that it’s her work. To be honest, I don’t believe anything she creates could be worth that much; otherwise, would she be living in a place like this?”
“You really have a low view of others.”
“This is just a reasonable assumption, my lord.”
Antinna couldn’t help but clench her fist upon hearing their conversation.
Brendel held the scroll in one hand, not stopping Lohn and Balthom’s banter. For a moment, he was also puzzled about what this scroll contained: Was it a record of magic? Or transcriptions of ancient texts? Or, as Lohn mentioned, was it Antinna’s artwork? In his previous life, he had encountered many such scrolls, some worth a fortune, while others were worthless, so he examined the thick roll of parchment that had been scorched yellow on the surface—thick enough to feel heavy in his hand—he couldn’t help but doubt what Antinna’s confidence was actually based on.
“Can I take a look?” he asked.
“It’s already yours.”
Brendel nodded and carefully opened the scroll. What entered his eyes was a complex network of lines, large amounts of lines composed intricate mechanical patterns, and mysterious symbols and magical arrays filled the spaces in between, with every blank area filled with elegant handwriting notes. Just one glance gave Brendel a dizzying sensation, which didn’t seem like surprise—but rather a sudden realization. He immediately felt his heart race as he closed the scroll.
This was the design of the original magical power conduction device.
The drawing was quite crude, certainly less sophisticated than most mature products of this era. From the drawings, it was apparent that the designer had little talent in this regard and could even be described as clumsy—it was simply a poorly made item.
Yet at that moment, Brendel felt a clear understanding.
So that’s how it was—
How did ‘Origin’, one of the ten major player factions in ‘Amber Sword’, obtain that original diagram which was monopolized by the royal families of various empires at the time in the manufacturing and design of magical power conduction devices, thereby opening the door to the ‘independent’ era for players?
The answer unexpectedly lay here.
He had never anticipated encountering such a thing before coming here; he had never linked this delicate girl with the ten major mysteries of ‘Amber Sword’ from his past life, as these seemed completely unrelated matters—he hadn’t even considered the slightest possibility in that direction. If he were to describe his current feelings, it would be one of sudden shock and being caught off guard.
It turned out that the leader of ‘Origin’, ‘Staff’, had not infiltrated any empire; he had merely completed this hidden quest line from the beginning.
Brendel almost exerted all his willpower to keep his expression unchanged; the drawing in his hand could be considered groundbreaking in significance—
In this world, there were three types of power.
The first type of power was called the Elements, or rather, a higher-level existence force. Fire, wind, water, earth, truth, and law, time and space, even matter itself are elements of existence; those who can harness this power are called warriors, elementalists, wizards, and all great power wielders. However, different powers manifest different characteristics in them; they all share a common measuring standard known as ‘Oauth’—energy level.
The power of the elements is presented as a latent existence within different individuals until their cultivated power exceeds 500 energy levels (Oz); in the description of the Temple of Fire, this is referred to as ‘Awakened Elements’. From then on, these individuals would be granted the title of ‘Temple Knight’.
This would be a long and perhaps unattainable process because in Vaunte, most people are born with a power level of only 0.3 Oz; even if they spent their entire lives, they could never reach such heights. But heaven always favors some; there are indeed those who possess such qualifications at birth and are therefore called the Chosen Ones.
The second type of power is non-human power, known as ‘Divine Power,’ which is also the power of faith.
The gods of Vaunte have long diversified into two pantheons—Hilmara and Einhardt—Hilmara is secular, while Einhardt is proud; the gods control the patterns of the sun, moon, stars, and the operation of all things on Earth, thus they are called gods. Their existence relies on this world, or rather, the rules projected on the heavens; they do not need worship from people, but the tiny mortals, out of fear, produce faith towards these powerful beings—the gods respond to their believers.
This response is called ‘Divine Power,’ the strength wielded by priests—its source is the gods’ will to alter this world, as well as the care of the exalted beings towards their children.
This is why numerous sects argue day and night on the land; their disputes arise from the misinterpretation of what people believe the gods mean or the confusion resulting from the gods themselves regarding their alterations of this world.
As for the third type of power, it is the power of wisdom and the power of mortals to transform the world.
The magical power conduction device in Brendel’s hand, also known as the ‘Magic Hub,’ is the source of all magical propulsion in this world. It converts energy from the elemental crystals non-mechanically to provide power for everything from magical firearms to warships, even floating cities—its origins trace back to the creativity of the crafting wizards and were soon secretly grasped by the royal families of various empires.
This entirely new force created by mortals quickly transformed the world’s structure. With the significant development of productivity came enormous changes, followed by power struggles, resource conflicts, and a series of holy wars and the Eleven Month War over decades, all making this world tumultuous over the last century.
And now Brendel held the root of this turmoil—
Even further, the groundbreaking significance of this drawing lies in—although it wasn’t technologically superior to most contemporary magical hubs, and can even be said to lag behind by at least thirty years in conversion efficiency—it changed the nature of the secret monopolized by a few on the ‘Magic Hub.’
In ‘Amber Sword’, the magic hub named ‘Stellar,’ designed by Antinna, was only produced for the first time in player territories twenty years later, marking the players’ rise above NPCs.
And at this moment, this symbol lay in the palm of his hand.
He couldn’t help but take a deep breath and asked, “You designed this?”
Antinna, who had initially displayed some anxiety on her face, was taken aback by this question.
“You— you can understand it?” she couldn’t help but ask.
All her knowledge came from the written word; although she had long poured all her interests and energy into the design of magical devices—even though her past mentor had told her that her talents did not lie in this field, and that if she wished to continue down this path, her achievements would likely be limited—she still invested all her money and heart into it, especially after her parents passed away. She threw herself into it wholeheartedly—she sold off her estate and even once narrowly avoided falling into the trap of a smooth-talking merchant; were it not for her noble status protecting her, she might already have become someone else’s plaything.
Yet Antinna still had not given up.
Especially she insisted that perhaps she had discovered a path to the ‘Magic Hub.’ She had designed many drawings; this was merely one of her concepts, which had a fatal flaw—it consumed too much, making the finished product seem somewhat unrealistic. But the girl stubbornly believed her design was worth that price.
However, she was entirely prepared for Brendel to mock her, gathering her courage, yet the response she received was unexpected.
He can understand?
“It’s rough but at least it’s a finished product,” Brendel replied.
“No, no, sir, you don’t understand,” the girl coughed and replied, “This design is actually a semi-finished product; its input and output are simply disproportionate—”
“What? A semi-finished product and you dare use it to settle a debt!” Lohn jumped up upon hearing it.
But Brendel gestured for Balthom to stop him, then turned to Antinna and replied, “It’s alright; from my perspective, this deal is worthwhile. You’ve fulfilled your promise, Miss Antinna—you’ve indeed paid enough, if not more.”
He was not lying; it was indeed more. Compared to Borg’s treasures, this felt more like an unexpected harvest.
The girl couldn’t help but widen her eyes—
…
(PS. Although I feel somewhat ashamed, this month’s updates have been much fewer than expected, but I still shamelessly ask for votes.) (To be continued, to know what happens next, please log in; there are more chapters, support the author, support legitimate reading!)
