Chapter 354 - 105: Relics of a Civilization (Part 2)
Chapter 354: Chapter 105: Relics of a Civilization (Part 2)
"I really don’t recognize it..."
’This place is pretty interesting, though. To be able to create something like this, their level of Magic must be about the same as in my era...’ Falan glanced around. After confirming the place had nothing to do with him, his expression returned to normal, and he began to explain the surrounding facilities to Robson.
"This pillar in the center... if I’m not mistaken, it should be a Magic Conversion Array."
"Remember? You asked me to build a Magic Array to pump water before—that pit that eats Magic Crystals," Falan explained.
Robson looked up at the colossal pillar, finding it hard to connect this thing with the small pit back home.
"This Array would require at least a hundred Legendary Mages and ten years to build!"
"If I’m guessing correctly, there should be a Magic Crystal Ore deposit beneath this pillar, and a sizable one at that. In my era, we loved to build Energy Conversion Wells directly on top of Magic Crystal Ores to extract energy directly."
’Magic Crystal Ore!’ Robson perked up.
"Unfortunately, judging by the state of this Energy Conversion Well, the Magic Crystal Ore has probably been depleted."
Robson grimaced but wasn’t too disappointed.
"What’s the deal with those lights and these patterns on the ground?" Robson asked, looking down at his feet.
"The patterns? These patterns on the floor all serve that Energy Conversion Well. If I’m not mistaken, there should be many conduits underneath, used to supply energy to the entire Array."
"This isn’t even the whole Array?!"
"Of course not. If it was purely for storing energy, why would they need those lights?"
"The lights you mentioned—those aren’t actually lights. They’re Magic Transmitters. The brightness of the lights represents the amount of Magic Energy contained within. We typically use them to observe the Array’s operational status."
"Look, all these lights are lit up now, which means the Magic Energy inside is at full capacity. In other words, the Magic Energy can’t get out," Falan explained.
"A short circuit?" This time, Robson understood.
"Huh? What’s a short circuit?" Now it was Falan’s turn to be confused.
"Nothing, please continue," Robson said, shaking his head.
"There are two possibilities for why the Magic Energy can’t get out. One, the energy storage Array on the other end is already full and doesn’t need any more Magic Energy. The other is that the Magic Array is broken, and the Magic Energy is stuck inside these lights," Falan said.
"Didn’t you say you didn’t recognize anything here?" Robson looked at Falan strangely.
Falan also shook his head in confusion.
"I’m not sure myself. I truly haven’t seen any of the specific items here before."
"However, the underlying technology is mostly from my era. It’s just the form of expression that’s different," Falan said.
Robson didn’t dwell on the issue. Instead, he walked over to the giant pillar, which also had several hundred of what Falan called Magic Transmitters on it.
Of course, compared to the ones on the pillar, the majority of the Transmitters were mounted on the walls. Even if there weren’t ten thousand of them, there were certainly more than five thousand.
Robson ran his hand over these Transmitters. Just from the touch, he could feel the pure magical aura within them.
"Sigh, what a shame. A whole Magic Crystal Ore deposit, wasted just like that..." Robson said, his heart aching.
He could almost hear the cries of the Magic Crystal Ore. ’You don’t know the cost of living until you’re the one paying the bills.’ In Lord Robson’s eyes, Magic Crystal Ore was money! Gleaming Gold Coins!
"I wouldn’t exactly call it a waste..." Falan said.
Robson froze and looked at Falan, only to see that he had already pulled a bulb off the giant pillar with his bare hands.
"You can just take these things off?" Robson was slightly shocked. He himself was a Sixth-rank Mage, but he had never seen such an advanced Magic Array.
"Of course. If we need to repair the Magic Array, we have to remove the Transmitters."
"Still, for it to be functioning normally after all this time... the quality seems pretty good," Falan said, tapping it with his finger.
Robson stared at the Transmitter in Falan’s hand. The more he looked at it, the more it resembled a lightbulb—an eco-friendly incandescent one, at that.
"What’s the principle behind this thing? How can it still work after so long?"
"In my time, we had a machine that could inscribe an Array onto them. I know a thing or two about that machine, but with humanity’s current level of technology, building one would be nigh impossible," Falan said, looking at the Transmitter in his hand.
"Then what did you mean by ’not a waste’?" Robson asked, confused. This was what he was most concerned about.
"Of course it’s not a waste... Look, this Transmitter is still lit, which means it still has Magic Energy inside."
"This is all the purest form of Magic Energy, converted by that Energy Conversion Well. You can tell by its color—pure Magic Energy is white," Falan said.
"So you’re saying this thing can be used like a Magic Crystal?" Robson asked as he casually pulled a Magic Crystal Bulb off the pillar himself.
’Too bad that even if it can be used like a Magic Crystal, only he, Lord Robson, could use it. The market wouldn’t recognize this thing, so it couldn’t be exchanged for money.’
"Mm, a Transmitter of this size, with such high purity... the energy inside is probably around five Falans..."
"To put it more directly, for that Magic Array we built before, this could probably power it for about ten years. Factoring in degradation, maybe not that long, but six or seven years should be no problem."
"How many?"
His mindset shifted in an instant. Robson suddenly felt that the incandescent bulb—no, the Magic Transmitter—in his hand was worth its weight in gold!
One had to know, the Magic Array Lord Robson owned required half a case of high-grade Magic Crystals to run for just one year.
’Ten years of operation! How many Magic Crystals is that? A case of flawless Magic Crystals?!’
’Could the energy in one of these be equivalent to a whole case of flawless Magic Crystals?!’
Robson looked around at the incandescent bulbs glowing with white light on the walls. He felt as if he had stumbled into a dragon’s hoard.
’No! Even a dragon’s hoard couldn’t possibly be this wealthy!’
The only shame was that this stuff still couldn’t be sold, or rather, could only be sold on a small scale.
With a fortune of this magnitude, not to mention the technology inherent in this Magic Conversion Array, Robson could guarantee that even Marquis Oscillate would be tempted to get involved personally. More likely, it would attract the attention of the Southern Tilia Kingdom, and the matter would absolutely escalate into a diplomatic incident.
’No matter what happens next, one thing is certain: a discovery of this scale would most likely be taken out of his, Lord Robson’s, hands.’
’He, Robson, might be a big shot out on the frontier, but on the scale of the entire continent, he was just an insignificant minor lord.’
"If you don’t think this is enough, you could also try to figure out a way to extract the energy from the Magic Energy Well. That’s where the real mother lode is."
"See that blue gas? It’s flowing out of this pillar. That little bit of loss is probably just a drop in the bucket for the well."
"Of course, doing that would require specific technology. It would likely be quite difficult," Falan said.
"Ha! It’s enough! More than enough!"
Hearing Falan’s words, even the usually steady Robson couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.
’He might not be able to exchange them for wealth, but he could use them for the construction of his domain!’
’After all, what were the key ingredients for industrialization? Weren’t they energy, technology, and raw materials?’
’Now, he had Falan for technology, and he had found a source of energy.’
Even though Robson didn’t even understand how a steam engine worked, he had a crystal-clear idea of how industrialization came about!
’It was no exaggeration to say that with this batch of energy, as long as he had enough resources and people, Robson could spark a small-scale industrialization within his territory.’
’Industry... that was far too important! It practically represented two different stages of civilization!’
’Just look at the British Isles...’
’Okay, that was getting a bit ahead of himself. In any case, while the technology of industrialization in this Otherworld might be different, its societal impact should be more or less the same.’
’As long as he used them well, the benefits these Magic Transmitters could bring him, Lord Robson, would certainly far exceed the paltry Gold Coins he’d get from selling them.’
’When that time came, he, Lord Robson, might just be able to make a real name for himself in this Otherworld.’