Chapter 905 — Anomalies in the Record

The information Mo Jin Wilde had let slip through the finer details of his notes had caught Gao Yang's interest.

No matter how one looked at it, the food and drinking water that adventurer of six hundred years ago mentioned seemed to be... canned goods and bottled water.

This inconspicuous little detail set Gao Yang thinking further. He had of course realized before that dragons were a wise race with a longer history than humanity, and might therefore possess a civilization mightier than any nation of the continent—but only now did he begin to seriously ponder just how high a civilization that could ignore the magic tide and keep developing might have risen—

Canned goods and bottled water were nothing remarkable in themselves; the Cecil of this age could easily produce such things (in fact, similar products already existed). But the cans Metzen had brought Mo Jin were a sign, a sign that sent Gao Yang's thoughts racing. His mind couldn't help but expand in that direction, even gradually drifting toward strange questions like "do dragons eat in human form or dragon form" and "is there a huge difference in appetite between the two forms, and how does the feeding efficiency of human form sustain the enormous consumption of dragon form"—but soon his scattered thoughts converged and pointed at a question he had long overlooked:

A race like the dragons, immune to the magic tide and clearly as curious as humans... they had developed for so many years, so why had they not yet entered the space age?!

Was it that they did not yearn for the stars? Or was it that dragons were so highly dependent on their planetary environment that they hit a bottleneck in the process of leaving their world? Or was it simply that their tech tree had never branched the right way, so that countless years had passed and they still could not break through the atmosphere?

Faintly, Gao Yang felt this was probably a crucial question—yet there was no one here who could answer his doubts.

"I'll ask Metzen next time..." After pondering for a moment, he murmured softly to himself. "Her name actually appeared in this travelogue... it really is time I asked her about it."

As he spoke, his gaze returned to Mo Jin Wilde's written record:

"...Over the following days I explored most of this island of steel—I mean the places that could be entered. This ruin must have been abandoned for who knows how many years; a lonely atmosphere hung everywhere about it. Yet these ancient structures were themselves extraordinarily solid. After untold years of wind and rain they remained indestructible. Apart from the unimportant structures, the material of these pillars, foundations, and roofs was sturdier than any man-made material I have ever seen, and possessed excellent magic resistance besides...

"...X month, X day. The day the dragon lady had agreed to return arrived, and my earlier unease proved true—she did not come.

"...X month, X day. After waiting one more day, Metzen still did not appear... I could not help recalling her strange behavior when she left, her dreadful mental state... It seems she truly forgot, and even wiped all memory of me from her mind entirely. This is an incredible yet only possible explanation. I cannot help but wonder what on earth happened to that dragon lady to produce such disturbing results.

"...I know no other dragons, so I have no way to compare whether this is some kind of 'illness' among dragons, but I suspect it all has to do with this island of steel itself. This is a forbidden place, a place even dragons fear... Now I have been left here. As a more pitiable fellow, I doubt I have the right to worry about a dragon's health. I must first solve the problem of my own survival.

"...There is still some of the food packed in iron boxes and the bottled water left. It will be no problem to last three days, and even if they run out, I can continue to obtain supplies from the sea. As a powerful mage, I have no fear at all of dying of hunger or thirst. Unless the disordered turbulence washes over the island, I can probably survive here a long while... But I do not want to grow old and die alone in this eerie, ghost-forsaken place!

"...I have devised several plans to leave the island of steel and return to the human world, but before carrying them out, I have decided to explore the whole ruin first, in the hope of obtaining resources or other helpful things... Well, I cannot lie to myself: it is cursed curiosity that has done its work. Mo Jin Wilde is a reckless, unrepentant fellow—I simply cannot control my urge for adventure!

"...Now I have walked the whole island, and only one place remains unexplored... that immense, awe-inspiring tower of metal."

From here on, Mo Jin Wilde's handwriting suddenly began to tremble violently, as though he had fallen into a state of extreme agitation while recording these words—

"...I must record everything I have seen—everything that shook me, everything beyond belief!

"...Today is X month, X day. As expected, Metzen did not appear, and after a night's rest I have fully recovered my strength. Today is the day to act. Taking the little supply that remained, I came to the foot of the giant tower—finding its entrance was not difficult. In fact, during my earlier explorations I had already discovered several great doors at the base of the tower, and most exciting of all, some of those doors were not completely sealed; they stood slightly ajar.

"...For the first time I passed through that open door, and I walked into its interior. After some dark, abandoned corridors, I heard sounds and saw light—Milmirna, Goddess of Magic! The inside of this tower is alive!

"...Well, that is not accurate. What I mean is, inside this tower... it is still in operation! After who knows how many years abandoned, its exterior mottled and aged, seemingly dead—its interior has been running all along!

"...I saw a vast cylindrical hall, brilliantly lit. Enormous pillars ran through its dome and floor. Countless things blinking with light moved about the hall's perimeter, emitting humming and clicking sounds. At the center of the hall stood a giant column made of metal and crystal; the column was hollow, and now and then some very rapid flash of light would flicker through it. In many places about the hall floated magical projections, their illusions constantly crawling with masses of characters and geometric figures—writing I did not know, of course writing I did not know!

"...A kind of ecstasy surged up in me, and all at once I felt my failed expedition had suddenly been worth it—what an astonishing discovery! A prehistoric ruin still in operation, an inheritance of civilization unknown to humanity! It was right before my eyes, displaying its greatness in a breathtaking manner. I could not help but call aloud the name of the Goddess of Magic, more reverently than ever before. Of course, the Goddess made no response, not the slightest reaction—but I did not mind... I came to the center of the hall, to the foot of that column, and then made an even more astonishing discovery.

"...This entire column... I do not know whether my eyes deceived me, or whether my excitement had ruined my judgment, but it seemed to be made of 'Eternal Slate'! The whole column!

"...I have seen the Eternal Slate treasured by the Daylight Church—only a foot square, its edges broken, guarded by those priests as a priceless treasure, even pressed into the deepest level of the tombs of popes through the ages. What a precious thing it is! Yet here before me stood a pillar like a bell tower, the whole of it seemingly made from that material!

"...I write these words in a state of excitement. Now I am going to try to touch that ancient metal—if they truly share some common nature with the Eternal Slate, my touch should provoke some reaction..."

Reading to this point, Gao Yang suddenly frowned.

Mo Jin Wilde's behavior... was a little abnormal.