Chapter 189 - The Videos That Selena Gerfen Left Behind (1/2)

The tenth day after winter set in, the New Cecil Territory’s brick-kiln yard and Magic Crystal Refinery completed their overall expansion.

Mining machinery being put to use ensured a steady increase in the output of steel, and steady increase in steel output guaranteed successive commissioning of machine equipment in other areas of the territory. In the brick-kiln yard and magic-crystal refinery, an improved tamping machine, a crusher, a tunnel kiln, and a Honeycomb Magic Web that was of higher power output replaced the old equipment and impelled a renovation of these factories in advance. ——Although in the eyes of many, those “factory sites” that took up considerable ground space in the territory were already extremely amazing large-scale buildings, in Gawain’s eyes, they had always only been slightly bigger work sheds. Only when all the factories had been expanded once would they, to a certain degree, carry some traces of the “factories” in his mind.

Changes were taking place in the territory every day. Ample reserves of food and supplies to keep warm ensured the maintenance of personnel labor, while Nicholas Egg’s nature-defying level of metal control allowed the machine equipment to walk out of the blueprints in batches into reality like they were being printed. Gawain would see a big heap of progress reports on his work desk every day. Though reviewing these reports were significantly draining to his mental power, he found pleasure in doing so.

Reading reports was certainly much more comforting than carrying a knife to go hack heretic cult believers —— the latter only meant there were people being assaulted by those villains, while the former meant that the lives of every person in the territory were getting better and better.

However, apart from reading reports, Gawain also had something else to do.

He had placed the “soul lantern” that he had retrieved from the Kant territory on his desk. The lantern was radiating a weak yet pure white glow.

When they first left the Kant territory, this lantern always appeared to be not too “stable”. It constantly emitted the kind of faint purple light fog that was like starlight, and so long as a person came into contact with it, he would hear indistinct weird sounds, let alone other influences such as triggering illusions and nightmares. In addition, it could not be activated and put to use according to the method in Gawain’s memories. It seemed that even after leaving the “user” Lilith Kant, the negative power entrenched in the lantern still would not dissipate. Thus, Gawain had no choice but to seal this item up temporarily and left it in a certain storage shed in the mountain vault.

However, the soldier keeping guard suddenly reported yesterday, saying that the lantern’s purple starlight had faded.

It had returned to normal —— at least, that was what it looked like on the surface. It seemed that the kind of evil rituals that the heretic of the Eternal Sleepers carried out could not accumulate energy for a long time. So long as the ritual had ended, the forces of nightmares in the lantern would swiftly decline too.

Gawain lifted the lantern and carefully examined its crystal outer case as well as the exquisite brass base. Through that translucent crystal case, extremely complicated ruins could be seen slowly moving inside. Everything was similar to how it was 700 years ago.

This lantern wasn’t a product of the ancient Gondor Empire. In fact, its techniques came from the Dwarf Kingdom in the west of the continent. Those stumpy mining enthusiasts often gave one a boorish feeling, but in actuality, they were experts in working on sophisticated articles and were especially skilled in combining crystals and metals into unbelievable magical tools. The “dream lantern” was the proud work of a well-reputed dwarf craftsman then.

In Gawain’s memories, other than strengthening dream theurgies as well as protecting the consciousness of the user, it also had some peculiar little functions.

He placed his hand on the lantern and slightly infused magical power, yet not completely activating it. And in this process, he sketched out the figure of Selena Gerfen in his mind and silently recited her name in his heart.

A few seconds later, some messy and broken images began to emerge in his mind.

He “saw” himself floating in a position about one meter above the ground. His vision swayed slightly. From his peripheral vision, he spotted a female figure dressed in a moon white priestess robe, and slightly farther, objects resembling tents and simple houses could be seen.

Excitement surged in Gawain’s heart: this information indeed had yet to disappear!

This was the unique function of the “dream lantern” —— upon infusing suitable magical power, it could be used to record some images and sounds, and through a particular method of retrieval, it could reproduce the record in the user’s mind. Back in those years, Selena Gerfen often used this function to record images on the way during the journey of pioneering, and for a few times, she’d even successfully passed on crucial intelligence using such a method.

The only thing Gawain worried about was whether the new owner had also activated this function after Selena Gerfen’s death —— in this case, Selena Gerfen’s “videos” would have been overwritten by the new user’s. But now, it seemed that it was indeed only Selena and himself who knew of this secret function.

The very first images were scenes of the pioneering journey. These things were present in Gawain Cecil’s memories too, so Gawain quickly skipped past them. Soon, he found the records near the end.

He hoped that Selena Gerfen retained her habit of recording images of significance at any time and recorded the scenes that he wanted to know most badly.

Finally, another image appeared. Gawain “saw” Selena Gerfen walking on a rough mountainous path, and many solemn-looking “pilgrims” dressed in priest garments or church armors could be seen ahead and behind.

In the next image, Gawain saw an open space at the peak of a mountain. A huge altar had been set up, and many priests and church Knights stood silently around the altar. In the distance, cloud and mist could be seen lingering; the mountain range in ups and downs were partly concealed in the sea of clouds.

It was the Ancestral Peak! That ceremony 700 years ago where the higher ranks of the respective sects pooled efforts to communicate with the gods!

“I’m a little nervous. Everyone’s expression is very tense. I hope everything goes smoothly.”