Chapter 56: Rast: Now I’m in the Right Profession
After the records on the first page, there followed a long stretch of blank space, marked only by dates, and even the sporadic characters that appeared were hurried nonsense.
It resembled the scrawled notes Rast had jotted down to fulfill the diary assignment given by his elementary school teacher.
Hiltina flipped through the pages like this.
Until, on one page, the half-hearted words came to an abrupt halt.
[Catastrophic Era, June 11, 94]
[The thick fog in Frozen Water Town has lasted for two months now. While it is not uncommon for fog to occur by the seaside, I have never encountered such prolonged and intense fog before.]
[In this thick fog, the visibility is at most one hundred meters… The lighthouse has completely lost its function; I only need to use the foghorn occasionally, and I’ve become much more relaxed.]
[Anyway, the supplies are due to arrive in four days, and I will be changing shifts; I’ll leave the follow-up matters to my replacement.]
……
[Catastrophic Era, June 19, 94]
[The fog is still ongoing, and it has been four days past the promised supply date. Did the supply team encounter an accident on the way?]
[Fortunately, I have about a month’s worth of surplus supplies left; it should be enough to last until the new supply team arrives.]
……
[Catastrophic Era, July 15, 94]
[Hell, it’s been a month since the promised supply date! Even if they dispatched three batches of supplies, they should have arrived by now!]
[Considering the importance of Broken Coast to the civilized routes, as long as the “Guardian” exists for even one more day, it is absolutely impossible to abandon the lighthouses along the coast.]
[Is it possible that the headquarters also encountered an issue? No, the leader has reached the unprecedented sixth rank; even the king of the Iron Cross or the chosen ones of those cult organizations could also put up a fight. If not, the Broken Coast wouldn’t be able to resist their erosion for so long; I’m just overly worried.]
……
[Catastrophic Era, July 21, 94]
[My food and fresh water have been used up, and the fog still shows no signs of clearing.]
[During this time, not only has contact with the outside world been cut off, but even the sounds of ship horns that would occasionally occur on the sea have vanished, leaving the lighthouse frighteningly silent.]
[I activated my extraordinary ability “Paper-Magic” and used the discarded metal parts from the lighthouse to assemble two mechanical messengers resembling carrier pigeons, controlling them to fly in different directions outside the fog to scout the situation.]
[This usage consumes a lot of mental energy, but I can’t be picky now.]
As he read to this point, Rast couldn’t help but look up at Hiltina beside him.
“Extraordinary ability?”
Information regarding the Sixth Epoch was already quite scarce in Starry University.
And his permissions at the Tower of Secrets were insufficient to query the information of the Sixth Epoch; he could only depend on the long legs of the lady beside him.
“Hmm.”
Hiltina nodded gently, seemingly not surprised by the mention of “extraordinary ability” in the diary.
“Since every era has traces of deities, dragons, and elves.”
“Then in the lost history, there must also exist extraordinary powers that humans can grasp… these powers are diverse, including mystical and even technological kinds.”
“For instance, during one Calamity Echo raid I participated in, the location was an abandoned alchemical machinery research facility.”
“And at that time, our target was a massive killing alchemical robot, over ten meters tall, created as a weapon of war but inexplicably lost control. We paid a heavy price to complete the raid.”
“As for the Sixth Epoch…”
Hiltina’s gaze lingered slightly on the diary.
“Perhaps it is because the Sixth Epoch is closest to our time on the timeline, the extraordinary system of this era is extremely similar to the present world.”
“Since the Iron Cross Plague broke out and the old order was destroyed, with the start of the Catastrophic Era… maybe some world laws have loosened, and the Sixth Epoch has begun to develop large-scale sequences similar to ours. From the timeline’s perspective, perhaps they are the pioneers.”
“However, compared to the current world where civilization develops rapidly and knowledge is transmitted steadily, you also know the situation in the later period of the Sixth Epoch; there is no order, and the development of extraordinary beings is entirely in a struggling and exploratory phase.”
“In such circumstances, to still give birth to sixth-rank powerhouses… this secret organization called the Guardian is quite remarkable. They may have already possessed extraordinary knowledge transmission even before the Catastrophic Era.”
Hiltina began to explain:
“As for the so-called ‘extraordinary ability’ of the Sixth Epoch, it is actually our ‘Night Blade.’”
“Although travelers obtain the Night Blade as a gift from the Night World… it is essentially the manifestation of our mental imagery, the power that comes from our souls. What the Night World does is simply fully activate it, helping us master it quickly.”
“And since there is no Night World in the Sixth Epoch, stimulating the deep-seated power within the soul is undoubtedly much more challenging. Those extraordinary beings with abilities can only emerge by coincidence, one in ten thousand exceptions.”
As she spoke, she reached out and turned to the next page of the diary.
[Catastrophic Era, July 22, 94]
[Fog, fog, all fog!]
[I sent the mechanical messengers I created using my extraordinary ability flying in different directions for a day and night until my mental energy was completely exhausted. Before the mechanical messengers crashed to the ground and became scrap, what I saw was still only endless fog!]
[I vaguely remember that the nearest town was just a few dozen miles from Frozen Water Town. The messengers should have arrived after a day and night of flying; they are machines and wouldn’t lose their sense of direction and go in circles like biological beings.]
[This fog is problematic! Once you enter it, you will be forever lost within!]
[Continuing to stay at the lighthouse is meaningless; I must take action.]
[I will rest today to recover my spirits and check the situation in Frozen Water Town tomorrow, along with requesting some food and fresh water.]
……
[No date marked]
[I’ve gone mad! I don’t know if it’s me who’s gone crazy, or if everyone in Frozen Water Town has gone crazy!]
[As I walked along the path and arrived a few miles outside Frozen Water Town, everything seemed normal. The townsfolk were self-sufficient, and the thick fog outside the town didn’t seem to affect their lives.]
[However, when I asked the mayor, the townsfolk, the old farmer, the butcher, and the tailor… why has this fog lasted so long?]
[They all showed astonished expressions and said the fog has only lasted for a total of two days.]
[And when I asked them for the date, their responses invariably pointed to the same date—]
[May 11.]
[That is a date from two months ago!]
(End of Chapter)
