Chapter 877 — The Land Once Abandoned

While Gao Yang swiftly and covertly sized up Noretta, this senior agent of the Mithril Vault—the temporary replacement for Metzen Pernia—also stole a couple of extra glances at him. She was genuinely curious about this human: back from the dead, a legendary pioneering hero, the overthrower of a kingdom, the founder of a new order... In her long life, Noretta had met any number of figures the human world would call "legends," and even among them, Gao Yang was a rather special one.

She kept her gaze and expression carefully composed, wearing a faint smile. "So, what is it you wish to consult us about?"

"Strictly speaking, it's not a consultation. I want to confirm a few things with the 'dragons' behind the Mithril Vault," Gao Yang waved a hand, his expression turning serious. "Here's the situation. Not long ago, a large-scale magical device we set up on the Holy Spirit Plain picked up some mysterious signals. After extensive comparison, humans, elves, and even the sea folk could not determine their source. So now I suspect these signals come from the dragon race.

"Given the advances in arcanotechnology, and to avoid any future misunderstandings between humans and dragons, I think it necessary to... confirm this with you."

"Mysterious signals?" The woman in white who called herself Noretta raised an eyebrow, her expression growing somewhat serious. "What... do they contain?"

"We still haven't deciphered them. It is a series of very brief tremors and echoes, in a structural form never seen before—the scholars are completely baffled. But we recorded a copy with a mana crystal." As he spoke, Gao Yang casually beckoned, and a pale blue crystal wafer, only the size of a palm, lifted silently from the rack nearby and flew into his hand.

This was a recording medium improved by Kamael. Its prototype was the memory crystal commonly used by traditional mages—after optimizing the etching structure within the crystal and implementing more advanced standardized production, similar recording media were being applied to an increasing number of devices such as the Magic Net terminals and immersion pods.

"It's stored in here," Gao Yang said. "But I don't know what equipment your dragon race normally uses to read something like this. It may require some conversion..."

"No need. I can perceive its mana structure." Noretta cut him off. She reached out and took the crystal wafer, her fingers lightly brushing over the fine runic carvings on one side, and at once a glimmer like starlight surfaced in her pale eyes. In that brief instant, Gao Yang felt the mana around this agent lady abruptly grow immeasurably active and complex, as though a spell of extremely high rank had been compressed into the space of a square inch and completed in the blink of an eye.

In mere moments, Noretta finished reading and recording the storage medium. She handed the faintly warm crystal wafer back to Gao Yang. "I have recorded it. I will pass it to my superiors for further analysis and processing. Thank you very much for informing us so promptly and for your sincere attitude—this truly helps both sides maintain a good relationship."

Taking the crystal wafer back, Gao Yang could not resist giving the woman in white a long, searching look. "Extraordinary magical skill—Metzen never demonstrated anything like that before me."

"In fact, she isn't good at it," Noretta said with a slight smile. "I generally handle paperwork in the rear or command-and-support work. This is just a 'little trick' I use on the job."

"It seems the Mithril Vault has a complex and effective internal division of roles. I'm rather curious about it now," Gao Yang remarked offhandedly. "So, I just wait for your word?"

"It won't take long," Noretta nodded. "We will complete the analysis and comparison of the signal as soon as possible. Also, though I cannot give you a definite answer yet, judging solely from what I just read... this thing most likely did not come from Tarronde either."

"...Not from the dragon race?"

"We use a different communication technology, one that doesn't produce signals of this character," Noretta nodded. "But this world is vast, and there are many corners and secrets even the dragon race knows little about. Some matters only my superiors are clear on, so I still need to report it. Perhaps the Grand Treasurer of the Mithril Vault and the high councilors can find out where this thing actually came from."

"Then I'm very grateful."

...

The Courage had been anchored along this desolate, bleak stretch of coast for nearly a week.

Apart from a few beasts uncommon on land and not especially afraid of humans, there was nothing here but lush vegetation, the damp, warm sea breeze, and the ruins of a town overgrown with shrubs and vines.

Count Owen Dyson stood on a reef by the shore. When the magnificent sun had climbed halfway up the sky, he drew a gilded mechanical watch from his coat, flipped open its lid, and glanced at it.

At almost the same moment, several wavering figures appeared on the path leading from the coast deep into the island, and a number of sailors emerged from the trail buried under shrubs and tall grass.

"Half an hour later than the agreed rendezvous," Count Owen said calmly once the sailors had come before him. "Did you run into trouble?"

A sailor with a red headband snapped to attention and gave a military salute, then reported with meticulous precision, "Captain, on our way back we encountered a giant python, possibly mutated in the mana-rich environment. But it has been dealt with."

"Mm," Count Owen nodded. "And did you find anything?"

"Only an abandoned manor. Like the town at its center, it shows signs of having been repaired a second time," the sailor said, while fishing something out of his coat. "Also, we found this in the manor."

Count Owen took what the sailor handed him. It was a badly worn talisman. The emblem on its face was completely illegible, but judging by the material, it had once been a magical item—Owen Dyson had seen similar things not long ago.

"Left by the Sons of the Storm... and it must have been discarded here for over a decade," the Typhon noble quickly judged the talisman's age of abandonment. "It appears that at least a dozen years ago, the Sons of the Storm still occupied these islands near the boundary between the coastal and deep waters, but afterward they abandoned these strongholds close to the human world and headed for deeper, more distant seas..."

"These cultists have been squatting on property that belongs to the Empire all along, treating the facilities on these islands as their own," the Courage's first mate muttered behind Owen Dyson in a tone of disgust. "They left their mad ravings scrawled everywhere in the town, and then simply walked away. I only wish they'd be swallowed by the deep sea, offered up by their own fanaticism to the monsters down there."

"I don't much care about the fate of cultists," Count Owen said offhandedly. He put away the talisman and looked at the first mate. "How stands the Courage?"

"We've repaired the anti-magic shell, the shield array, and two mana engines, but there are still problems with the transmission mechanism connected to the engines. The technicians say those big fellows need proper port facilities to be fully fixed. On a beach with nothing at all, all they can do is 'heal one leg.'"

"How far exactly can they repair it? Can she sail?"

"Setting out is no problem, but the speed will be about two-thirds of before, and if we run into another 'disordered turbulence' of the same magnitude as last time, the entire drive shaft will snap," the first mate said frankly, then added, as if to reinforce his point, "It will snap. One hundred percent."