Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 49: Questions and Answers

Although he had already put the crystal away, Gawain could still “see” something like energy imaging from an aerial perspective in his mind’s eye. However, he quickly found a way to turn the images off. So long as he consciously turned his attention away from the aerial map and focused on something else, the images would disappear. Recalling the images was equally simple—he only had to call upon it intentionally.

There was no need for the power of the crystal in this process.

Some sort of “link” between his consciousness and mind seemed to have been established, and the crystal’s role in this process was probably as a key… or some kind of catalyst.

After sitting down at his study table, Gawain reviewed the problems he had jotted down on paper, gathered his wits, and attempted to answer them.

According to the memories of Gawain Cecil in addition to what had happened earlier, he could be certain that the changes with the “sun” in the sky was directly related to the Dark Wave on land. Every time red spots appeared on the sun, the magic of the land and activity of elemental power would surge. The so-called Dark Wave was the sudden, chaotic outbreak of magic and the elemental powers avalanching out of control, which caused the erosion of the material world in the process. As for the monsters that appeared in the elemental storms, they were of unknown origins, and could be temporarily classified as a secondary phenomenon after the violent insurgence of elemental power.

The inhabitants of this world were not foreign to the phenomenon of the sun’s red spots and the Dark Wave. It was considered a natural occurrence, irregular but not uncommon. Thus, Gawain postulated boldly that the essence of the Dark Wave had probably passed a certain “critical point”, causing the insurgence of magical power, and when the magic in the world reached a certain limit, the stability of elemental powers would be shattered, causing the Dark Wave.

What then, was the role of the sun in this occurrence?

Did the red spots cause the surge in magical power? Or was it not the causation of the phenomenon, but something that occurred during the same event?

Gawain pondered about this and added a little question to the piece of paper: What is the nature of the sun?

It was a giant planet, that was for sure—at least, that was according to the “information monitor”. However, it was also evidently different from the gas giants that Gawain knew of.

According to Gawain’s knowledge of gas giants from his home planet, they were not supposed to emit light or heat. Even though they were usually abundant with nuclear fuel and emitted a certain amount of radiation, they were “cool” and akin to an unlit furnace since they had not yet reached the point of nuclear fusion. In contrast, the “sun” in this world was obviously a source of light and heat for the land.

Had it been “ignited”? Or was this a unique characteristic because of the differing laws of the two worlds?

Gawain mulled over this. Personally, he preferred the second explanation because the occurrences of the red spots and magical surges constantly reminded him that this world and his home world operated on different laws of physics. If he limited himself to thinking on the lines of what he already knew, he might be afraid that he would be wasting his time thinking about the problems.

There was another important reason for eliminating the first hypothesis: If the giant sun in the sky was a gas giant that had really been ignited and was undergoing nuclear fusion, it could be regarded as a star. The light and heat it was releasing was definitely not what it could be felt right now. Based on its gigantic size and near blue-white surface, the heat it emitted should surely be able to burn this entire planet to ashes.

Gawain wrote down his conclusion on the paper. The “sun” was a gas giant of a special nature, whose activity could affect the magic on the land presumably from some kind of catalytic energy radiation. The red spots could either indicate the increase in energy radiation, but this was doubtful as there was a lack of effective detection methods.

So, the second question was, what was this “surveillance satellite”?

It could be something left over from an ancient civilization, or some kind of observation post left by aliens in this planet’s orbit. The civilization that had built it must have been extremely advanced, or at least, one that was not afraid of the Dark Wave—the satellite, used as a hang out, allowed observation of the Dark Wave which attested to the technological gap between the civilizations. Who had left this satellite (if it was a satellite indeed) here then?

Gawain considered the severe damage the satellite had sustained while he was transmigrating, but with it not having been repaired, made a bold guess that the civilization that had left the satellite behind had already died out or left and no longer cared about this place.

Of course, the satellite owner could also be some mega-rich person who was an unchecked spendthrift, and the broken satellite, to him, was akin to the cost of using a few napkins, which explained why he did not bother to send anyone over to check on it. However, because the possibility of this was really low, Gawain did not give much thought to it.

Anyway, there were no repairmen coming even though the satellite was about to die, which meant that for now, there was no need to worry about any aliens from advanced civilizations arriving to trash puny entities like themselves. This was good news, but—Gawain’s thoughts took another turn—if the aliens from an advanced civilization could come and solve the problem of the Dark Wave, but just would not, that would be bad news…

As for the function of this satellite, it might have been used to monitor the levels of magical power.

Gawain thought about what he had seen in the secondary aerial view (he classified the clear, HD view he had seen for thousands of years as the primary aerial view). The view was composed of color filters layered over the entire land, and their different shades were perhaps indicative of the flow of magical power. This hypothesis was supported by the synchronized changes in the colors when the surge in magic happened, so was this satellite an early warning device for the Dark Wave?

“Early warning” would be one of its functions, at least.

However, the condition of this observation post was worrying. No matter how Gawain tried to command it, he was unable to adjust the images at all. Sometimes, the images even had severe interference and flickered from time to time, which only served as a reminder that the system was about to reach the end of its life.

The final question was: Why did the ancient man, Gawain Cecil, leave this crystal behind?

Right now, Gawain was still unable to understand the crystal’s every property, but he had at least ascertained that it had helped him reconnect with some surveillance outpost in the sky. Was this crystal of use to anyone else?

If it was how did Gawain Cecil of the past use it? Did he also obtain satellite vision from it?

Hmmmmmm… This thought seemed reasonable. For the fiercest pioneering knight to be able to lead a group of refugees to escape amidst successfully killing monsters in the Dark Wave, as well as breaking out of it all as though it was parkour and then establishing a new kingdom, he had to have a map hack…

However, simply hypothesizing was not enough. He had to put this to the test.

Holding up the whole crystal, Gawain pondered who he should allow to test it. This intruded into his own secrets, which meant that he could not just hand it over to anyone. Even though it would be impossible for a native of this world to discern that the aerial view afforded them a thermal image of the land, it could be possible for the intelligent ones out of them to infer the truth from the aerial image.

Thus, he had to find someone who was reliable enough, so that in the event the test was successful, anything that could happen was controllable.

Actually, Gawain’s concern here was a little redundant—the worldview of most of the people here did not have the concept of respawning from a satellite or something. If they suddenly saw such a map through the crystal, their only thought would probably only be “This is a magical thing which is imbued with ten thousand levels of hawkeye power”. However, Gawain’s ideas and thoughts were still unintegrated with that of this world’s.

As he fell deep into thought, he slowly looked up at the daydreaming Miss Amber standing right by the table.

The half-elf girl felt a chill run through her body. Turning her head around, she noticed Gawain’s gaze on her and broke out in goosebumps immediately. “What… What are you doing?! Has your aristocratic nature finally burst through that you’re about to attack your own guard…”

That was out of the question. She was disobedient, unreliable and mischievous. Who knew what might happen if he let her test it.

Gawain quickly dismissed the thought. Just then, someone came in to report that Rebecca had returned from surveying the land.

Gawain beamed instantly. “Get her over here right now!”

Rebecca sprinted into the tent hurriedly. She had spent half of the day running around outside, but not only showed no signs of fatigue, and was instead full of energy and life. She thought Gawain wanted a report on what she had done, and thus blurted out as soon as she entered, “Ancestor! You wouldn’t believe how much good land is nearby—I thought the land on this side of the dark mountains was all barren and couldn’t be developed, but according to the map you gave me, I actually found…”

“It’s okay, that’s not an urgent matter.” Gawain waved a hand to interrupt Rebecca and held out the crystal in his hand to her. “I have something for you to do.”

He smiled as he looked at his nth+1 great-granddaughter. She was the total opposite of Amber—

Obedient, reliable, and had her head clipped by a door before.

Rebecca received the crystal from Gawain blankly, unsure of what her old ancestor was going to instruct her on. “What’s next?”

Gawain thought long and hard about how he connected to the satellite. He instructed, “Then, imagine a really, really high place—one that’s higher than the clouds, where there’s a thing overlooking the land. Now, try to connect with it.”

Rebecca blinked. “Oh, oh, are you talking about the Eye of Mystery?”

The Eye of Mystery was a phrase mages used. They believed that any talented person who possessed magic had a pair of eyes that transcended themselves. The eyes floated over the entire world, soaking in the “Sea of Ether”, a proxy to the mages that observed the essence of the world and the flow of magic, and also determined the talents of every mage during the course of their training. Mages could not connect with the pair of eyes directly, but their soul could subconsciously—meditation was the key to communicating with them.

Gawain did not mean that, of course. “No, it’s on a higher level that the Eye of Mystery, and even more material. It’s a physically present thing, like a magical prop.”

Rebecca exerted great effort, but smiled apologetically. “But why don’t I see anything?”

Even after Gawain instructed her differently several times, the crystal in Rebecca’s hand still did not react.

It seemed that… the problem of the map hack from Gawain Cecil of seven hundred years past had no conclusive answer.