Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1156: Chapter 1155: Accelerating the World

In this world, civilizations wax and wane, intelligent species emerge continuously, often starkly different from each other from the very source of evolution. On the Loren Continent alone, nearly ten intelligent species such as humans, elves, dwarves, fairies, and elves coexist, along with numerous "subsidiary species." Except for the subspecies of elves, which might relate to a certain ancient division event, other intelligent species are clearly products of independent evolution.

And if we look at the distant stars, based on the information provided by Enya, the number of civilizations nurtured among the stars far exceeds Gawain’s imagination—over a hundred signals do not actually represent an accurate number; they merely indicate that in the past million years, at least over a hundred civilizations have mastered the technology to broadcast ultra-long-range signals between the stars, and according to Gawain’s thoughts, perhaps there are many more civilizations that have not yet developed to such heights, existing amidst the vastness of the stars.

They are born, propagate, and develop on their home planets, their light obscured by vast astronomical scales, their eyes unable to look afar, their voices unable to reach distant places. No one knows of their existence, and these civilizations perhaps leave no trace in the universe from birth to extinction, just like the seasonal civilizations that have been born and perished on the planet beneath Gawain’s feet.

These "lights" are obviously excluded from Enya’s statistics.

Such a high density of civilizations surely has its reasons. Gawain had not seriously pondered over this matter for a time; even when doubts emerged, he did not dwell on them much. But today, he came to Kamel’s laboratory, saw the arcane energy surging here and Kamel himself... a bold, possibly closer-to-the-truth idea emerged from his mind:

If the chaotic wave is ubiquitous in the universe, then Magic Power is clearly ubiquitous as well. If Magic Power is ubiquitous... then it might be one of the catalysts for the evolution of most civilizations in this world.

Gawain suddenly fell into contemplation. Kamel observed silently from the side and could not help but inquire, "Have you thought of something?"

"I heard you mention the rise and fall of countless civilizations among the stars and suddenly realized a problem," Gawain emerged from his thoughts and did not conceal the idea in his mind, "perhaps the existence of Magic Power has induced the emergence of so many civilizations."

Kamel couldn’t immediately grasp Gawain’s leap of thought: "You mean...?"

"Have you heard of this theory—the development process of civilization involves the extraction and utilization of energy," Gawain patiently explained his thought, "the higher the efficiency of energy utilization, the higher the level of a civilization’s development. Correspondingly, if the energy of a world is more active, easier to extract and transform, then the civilization of that world will develop more rapidly, or say, it’s more likely to witness technological progress, even leap forward.

"Magic Power is ubiquitous. According to various clues we know, the rules of this world should be consistently average, so Magic Power should exist on other planets as well. We all know this is a force that is quite easy to extract and transform, even during a very primitive phase of civilization. Talented intelligent species can directly utilize Magic Power to accomplish effects like igniting, transporting, and molding. Of course, in some circumstances, this could suppress the technological advancement process due to overly convenient production activities, but as long as the timing is right, it will allow an intelligent species to rapidly develop..."

"The degree of civilization sophistication is closely related to energy utilization, and the difficulty of energy utilization determines the speed of civilization development?" Kamel quickly grasped Gawain’s meaning, pondering thoughtfully, "That’s a very reasonable theory, but... is Magic Power originally a very easy to extract and transform force?"

The Arcane Master’s tone carried a bit of confusion; if he had eyebrows, they would certainly be furrowed at this moment. He raised his arm, controlling the Magic Power floating in the air to resonate, creating crackling sparks in the adjacent two Energy Conduits: "For me, it’s not difficult at all, but for most people, controlling Magic Power should still be quite challenging."

Upon hearing this, Gawain was initially taken aback, quickly realizing: In his own eyes, Magic Power in this world is indeed an unbelievably convenient energy source, omnipresent and inexhaustible, but for the races living in this world, they have long become accustomed to the Magic Power in nature, not feeling particularly favored by it—at least concerning civilization development, it is an advantageous condition.

However, fortunately, this isn’t a crucial issue; he quickly brushed aside this "perception deviation": "At least from my perspective, Magic Power is a highly convenient energy, and the ubiquitous Magic Power in the world clearly catalyzed civilization’s development."

Kamel bowed his head in contemplation, suddenly speaking after a brief moment, "Perhaps it not only catalyzed civilization’s development—it might also catalyze the birth of intelligent beings, and even speed up the birth of life."

He extended his arms brimming with arcane magic, a projection of light blue hue appearing between his hands, displaying the appearances and anatomical structures of various species: "The Druids in the Gondor era held a theory; they believed the abundant magical force in nature was one of the crucial factors in enlightening intelligent beings’ minds. Great Druid Master Pluman from the Meteoric Era even conducted numerous organizational cultivation and catalyst experiments based on this, proving that although humans, elves, and elves have differences in their neural systems, they similarly react to Magic Power—even ordinary people unable to perceive Magic Power have their nervous systems passively stimulated by Magic Power from nature and produce feedback, which is actually the foundation for many mind-related spells.

"On the other hand, earlier elven scholars proposed the conjecture ’Magic Power is the source of life,’ believing that an active energy environment is a prerequisite for converting natural substances into ’life elements.’ Although this theory hasn’t been proven, it has had many supporters throughout the years..."

"Magic Power, this active and abundant energy, is a catalytic force in the universe. It allows life phenomena to be born on numerous planets and significantly accelerates the evolution speed of intelligent species, eventually nurturing numerous civilizations," Gawain solemnly summarized the shared conjecture between him and Kamel, "considering the essence of the chaotic wave as ’destroying observers,’ it won’t lead to reshuffling the entire ecosystem beyond observers, so new civilizations can rapidly emerge in the post-chaotic wave ecosystem and develop to a certain height... repeating the cycle, perpetually."

"The appearance of chaotic waves is also related to Magic Power," Kamel added, "at least ’Well of Deep Blue explosion can halt minor chaotic waves’ and part of the intelligence shared by Dragonkin corroborate this fact."

The ancient Arcanist ceased speaking, but Gawain didn’t open his mouth immediately, his expression cold and somber, as all the answers and clues in his heart converged into a swirling vortex, a certain "truth" of the universe presented more clearly in his sight:

Magic Power accelerates everything, including the birth and demise of civilizations; it is a pushing force enveloping all intelligent species born in this universe, driving them to procreate and develop at exceedingly high speeds, only to perish equally swiftly—once, Gawain’s impression of the universe was cold and slow, stemming from his home planet, where changes of all things were often calculated by thousands or even billions of years in astronomical terms, and occasionally a civilization’s lights born in the cold universe appeared so slowly, moving sluggishly, and even until extinction, their weak and meager flames might indeed be the only sight among the vast stars.

However, now, he realizes that the world he dwells in is quite different—this world is a pot of boiling hot soup, where everything is accelerated under the blaze of Magic Power, here, it’s easy for an intelligent race to develop; just one technological breakthrough is needed for mortals to cross from ignorant steps on the earth to driving mechanics, touching the sky—only a leap is required. But simultaneously... the end of civilization is also much easier.

And the sorrow of many intelligent beings lies in this: they cannot keep up with this fast-paced train, nor can they avoid countless traps in this accelerated race. They are sprinting on a road without a focal point, where a misstep or pause means irrevocable doom.

Thus, the starry sky is filled with flickering micro-lights of civilizations, yet almost none can turn into a bright flame. Among the flourishing, rapidly changing micro-lights, there are tombstones of civilizations that have perished.

"What are you thinking about?" Kamel saw that Gawain had been silent for a long time and finally couldn’t resist breaking the silence.

Gawain gently shook his head and said in a calm voice, "I’m just wondering if we are being propelled forward by magic power..."

"...The philosopher Gramos from the Meteoric Era once said, all creatures are inevitably influenced by the environment they were born into; it’s not us who chose this world, but this world that nurtured us," Kamel said after a moment of silence, suddenly speaking up. He raised an arm, and the bright arcane sparks danced on his rune armor plates, "Magic... you know, it’s everywhere, and we cannot develop apart from it."

Fish live in water, and they die if they are removed from it. Perhaps someday they will evolve to breathe with lungs, but that is certainly not something mortals can consider now.

"What you say makes sense," Gawain nodded slightly, yet his gaze fell on the energy conduit and elemental pool behind Kamel, "So I am particularly curious right now... what exactly is the essence of magic power?"

Kamel turned around as pure flames surged within the energy conduit, bright yet cool: "Both Master Vilanya and I believe it is a wave, one that permeates the entire universe, penetrates stars, and crosses time and space. All indirect phenomena we have observed so far support this hypothesis, including our communication technology and the ’magic power field’ of the Magic Obelisk, but we have yet to find that key evidence...

"I have been constantly testing higher purity of arcane energy sources to minimize their interaction probability with the noise in the space. Scholars in the Silver Empire are trying to create some sort of ’darkroom’ effect, using anti-magic materials and energy fields with shielding effects to block the magic noise in the environment. Our efforts are not without results, but seeing tangible results is still far away."

"Is the magic noise in the environment still an unsolvable problem?" Gawain frowned. He already knew about this challenge years ago, and he knew that the silver elves had attempted to overcome this obstacle nearly half a century ago, "Isn’t there any ’natural environment’ in this world without magic noise?"

"Unfortunately, we have yet to find any clues in this regard," Kamel’s voice carried undisguised disappointment, "Magic is everywhere, noise too, and we used to imagine that if we left this planet, space might have a ’pure’ magic vacuum. But now we know that even in the universe, between the stars, magic is pervasive... I think it might be like the ’background color’ of our world or a macro reflection of the most fundamental structure of our world—as long as we exist in this world, we cannot avoid it."

The most fundamental structure of the world in its macro reflection?

This seems to be quite a profound hypothesis, and Gawain frowned and pondered for a while but to no avail, he shook his head: "Do you think the Dragonkin might have an answer? Their technology was far more advanced than ours once, and they accumulated a million years of knowledge—now much of it has been ’unsealed’."

"In fact, I’ve already inquired when the emissaries of the Dragonkin visited Cecil Castle last time. I met with one of their members," Kamel said, shaking his head, "Surprisingly, their progress in this aspect is similar to ours... They believe the essence of magic is indeed a wave, and have confirmed this hypothesis from various indirect evidence. They certainly possess much more evidence than we do, yet they are still one step away from the final conclusion."

To ordinary people, the question of whether magic is a wave might not seem that important. They might even think that since the Dragonkin have gathered so much indirect evidence, and many of their technological achievements support this hypothesis, the issue is "more or less settled," with no need for such rigorous pursuit or nitpicking verification, but Kamel knew that he and Master Vilanya cannot do that.

Academia is rigorous—especially when it might involve the deepest secrets of this world.

"Even the Dragonkin have not found a way to complete this experiment?" Gawain was immensely astonished by Kamel’s words, "This... it seems the magic noise challenge is more troublesome than we imagined..."

...

At the same time, in the sky north of Cecil Castle, a small formation of dragons flapped their gigantic wings, flying through the clouds.

At the forefront of the Dragon Herd were the White Dragon Noreta and Blue Dragon Melita.

"This is the first time I’ve left Talronde since that battle," Noreta couldn’t help but say as she crossed a gap between the clouds. Her gaze swept over the ground far below, where some wide, straight roads and the magic power transmission facilities along them entered her sight. "There’s been significant change again... The change in the human world indeed never ceases for a moment."

"It’s the same with Talronde now," Melita channeled the magic in the air, her voice reaching Noreta’s ear directly, "Moreover, in the future, we will certainly never fall into the stagnation of the past again."

"That is a very good wish," Noreta bent her neck, gently touching an egg-shaped container securely fastened to her chest with her chin. The dragon egg within was immersed in the magic power field, its surface with a faint sheen. "I also believe that after this child is born, it will live in a better world."