The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Leo looked at the metal box over and over for a long time, as if it contained infinite mysteries, just when Sylvia couldn't help but want to ask, Leo suddenly spoke in a language similar to Gamore The language reads a spell of unknown meaning.

As Leo's voice fell, the metal box began to emerge with circles of patterns layered together, covering the entire surface of the box.

Sylvia recognized this pattern at a glance as an extremely complex variant of the Turing root. Leo had taught her this Turing root, and told her that this Turing root was an ancient Gao The tower wizard's special wizard rune, only the tower wizard who really has the ancient heritage knows how to use this rune, just because the root variant of this figure bell is too complicated and cumbersome to use, it is gradually simplified It was replaced by other funny Turing radicals. Few of the later tower wizards knew how to combine the Turing radicals.

Leo deduced some of the tricks of combining Turing radicals exclusive to tower wizards from the contents recorded in various wizard notes, but it still takes a long time to study how to use the Turing radicals. , and may even never be able to research it. This is mainly because all the research materials related to this come from some fragments of notes, and the content is very small, which is not enough for him to research a complete system of wizard runes. .

However, now it seems that the shortcomings of his research materials have been fully supplemented. Right now, this metal box is a wizard's wonder made entirely with wizard runes dedicated to tower wizards, although he doesn't know what this thing is for. Yes, but just those Turing radical variations on the surface of the box are already invaluable to him.

Just now, he didn't completely decipher the meaning of the Turing root variants on the surface of this strange object, nor did he find out how to use it. He just tentatively used a branch of the Gamore language used by the ancient tower wizards. , said an ancient prophecy of the wizard of the tower - the gods will perish, and the truth will last forever.

Because it was just a trial, he didn't think about the possible effects, but what he didn't expect was that after the prophecy was spoken, the metal box actually changed, just like an intelligent combination module, constantly changing the moving shape, changing rapidly What's interesting is that no matter how its shape changes, the wizard runes on his surface will also be reorganized into new runes, and all the reorganized runes are complete without any defects.

Because Leo quickly scanned and recorded the reorganized forms of various Turing root variants of the metal box, he didn't care what the box eventually became. He didn't focus on it until he was sure that he had memorized all the wizard runes. He came back to his senses, looked around, understood the situation in the room, and then set his sights on the metal box.

However, at this moment, it is a bit misleading to call it the metal box, because at this moment, after more than a dozen shape changes, the metal box has become a nearly perfect triangle.

"This is...?" After seeing this nearly perfect triangle, Sylvia seemed to feel a little familiar, and felt that she had seen it somewhere before. After thinking about it, she suddenly remembered, and said anxiously: " Is this the tower key?"

"Yes, it is the tower key." Leo nodded in confirmation.

When he was in Velen, Leo had studied the wizard tower for a period of time, especially the wizard tower of the ancient tower wizard. For this reason, he collected a lot of relevant materials, from wizard notes to folklore. Some content came out.

For example, the wizard's tower of the tower wizard has undergone seven improvements in the construction method starting from the bottom foundation, and the fifth improvement method is the most mature construction method and the longest in use. It is long because this method is the easiest to build. As long as you are a wizard and have some financial resources, you can build it. The material can be ordinary stone.

But in fact, the wizard tower of the ancient tower wizard is not such a simple construction method. First, the ancient tower wizard needs to capture a stable subspace half-plane as the building cornerstone, and then build the wizard tower in the half-plane, the wizard tower Every stone used must be a high-energy substance, and some powerful tower wizards are even able to create an artificial intelligence-like tower spirit to take care of and maintain the wizard tower.

However, if ordinary people or those who are not strong enough want to enter and exit this kind of real wizard tower, they need the master of the wizard tower to help him tear a space rift, and then lead him into the wizard tower, or directly use the wizard made by the tower wizard. The key to enter, and the person who holds this key is usually someone close to the tower wizard, some are family members of the tower wizard, and some are students.

The reason why Sylvia was able to recognize this triangle as the key to the wizard tower at a glance was mainly because almost all the keys made by ancient tower wizards were the same triangle, because the triangle could provide stable energy, and When opening the space rift, it can also eliminate the chaotic energy of the rift, so in all the materials that record the ancient tower wizard wizard tower, without exception, a triangular key is drawn.

"Can this key be used now?" Sylvia asked curiously.

"No." Leo shook his head very positively, and said, "If it can be used, then we should appear in the wizard tower of the tower wizard now." Then, he changed the topic again: "But , this key is not broken, but for some unknown reason, the coordinates of the half-plane of the subspace where the wizard tower is located cannot be found, and the space rift channel cannot be opened because of the inability to locate it.”

"Is it because the wizard's tower is too far away in the world of Velen?" Sylvia asked again.

"It shouldn't be. The distance in the subspace cannot be analyzed according to normal thinking, because the space and time of the subspace are chaotic. The distance we think is unreachable may be reached in the subspace with only one step. " Leo denied Sylvia's guess, then thought for a while, and said: "It may be related to the law net of the gods covering the old continent, or it may be that the key is incomplete. In short, we need to study it carefully before we can be sure. As he spoke, he looked at Dean Thomas who was always standing by and listening to the conversation between the two, and asked, "Dean Thomas, where did you get this thing from?"

Dean Thomas could barely understand the conversation between Leo and Sylvia. He knew that the box he had kept for many years without knowing what it was was actually a key, which could open the secret base of an underground organization called Wizards. , it just doesn't work now for some reason.

So, after hearing Leo's inquiry, Dean Thomas did not answer immediately, but asked tentatively: "If this key can open the entrance and go to that wizard tower, can I go together?"

Leo and Sylvia looked at each other upon hearing this, and then Leo said with a smile: "Of course, this key belongs to you, of course you are qualified to go together."

Hearing Leo's acceptance, Dean Thomas breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, when he asked, he was still a little uneasy. After all, if Leo didn't agree, he couldn't help it. After all, Leo and Sylvia He was no longer an ordinary scholar of the Academy City. With their current prestige and their close relationship with the Theresa royal family and the Belmont family, his status as the president of the Academy City had no binding force at all.

Now that he heard Leo's promise, Dean Thomas felt relieved and replied truthfully: "This is a sacred object of the Tilan tribe. I once helped the Tilan tribe survive a disaster and helped them I found a safe settlement, and in order to thank me, their patriarch gave me the most precious thing in their clan. I didn't intend to accept it, but I feel that this thing should be a relic of prehistoric civilization. Accept it. It's a pity that after studying this thing for so many years, there is still no progress."

"The Tilan tribe?" Leo quickly found the information of this tribe in his mind, and after consulting the information, he gradually understood why the key to the wizard tower was in the hands of the Tilan tribe.

This Tilan tribe is a very special one among the various races in the Old World. This race is completely different from other races in this world in addition to the visible race culture such as language, writing, and clothing. More importantly, this race cannot be compared with other races. People intermarry, because they will not have any offspring after marrying people outside the ethnic group. It is rumored that this is the reason why their entire ethnic group was cursed by a certain true god.

In addition, in the ethnic legends of the Tilan tribe, a promised land given to them by the gods was mentioned. They first lived in that promised land and lived a life of adequate food and clothing. Later, because the tribe violated the rules set by the gods, they were banned They were driven out of the Promised Land, and finally drifted to the outside world, and the greatest wish and goal of their group was to return to that Promised Land.

Regarding the Tilan tribe itself, leaving aside their unique ethnic culture and legends, the so-called curse that this ethnic group cannot have offspring with people outside the ethnic group made Leo immediately think of reproductive isolation.

Although there is no difference in appearance between the humans in this world and the humans in the Velen world, after countless years of evolution, as well as the mutation and pollution after the intervention of the gods, the humans in the two worlds have already changed from the cellular and even genetic levels. Differentiation has occurred, so to be correct, they should be regarded as two different races with the same appearance but different internals. This situation will naturally lead to reproductive isolation.

As for why the Teresa royal family and the Belmont family did not undergo reproductive isolation and can still reproduce with humans in this world, I am afraid it is more because of the blood of the abyss dragon in their bodies. It is the only race that does not have reproductive isolation. They can produce offspring with almost any upper species, or even lower species, as long as they are willing.

Reproductive isolation, the wizard's tower key of the ancient tower wizard, plus the promised land and the place of origin in the national legend of the Tilan tribe, all kinds of clues have been integrated together, and an answer can be drawn. The Tilan tribe is a certain The vassal race of the tower wizards used to live in the subspace half-plane of the wizard tower. For unknown reasons, they were sent out of the wizard tower, and eventually became a group that was incompatible with this world.

"Where did you put the Tilan tribe?" Leo thought for a while and asked Dean Thomas.

"In a small valley in the upper reaches of the Turtle River, that small valley used to have no name, but because the Tilan people settled there, the locals named it Tilan Valley, and its location should be found on the map. "Dean Thomas walked to the map of Teresa Kingdom hanging on the wall while talking, scanned it, then pointed to a place about four or five hundred kilometers away from the academic city and said: "Here, here It is the location of Tilan Valley."

Leo looked at the location pointed out by Dean Thomas, wrote it down, and said: "The thing has been with me for a while, I will study it, see what's wrong with it, and see if it can be repaired to a safe level. The point of use."

Dean Thomas naturally would not refuse Leo's request, and then he got up and said that he would not disturb Leo's time anymore, and asked if there was any need, and then left Leo and Sylvia's research institute.

After Dean Thomas left, Leo rang the bell and called Bohr in, asking him to lead his scholars to sort out the materials in the room, and to report the completed research projects to the project committee. Then bring back some previously stalled or abolished research projects.

"Do you have any news about Penny and Joan?" Sylvia asked Boer while sorting out the information.

"No news." Bohr shook his head and said, "However, the last time they appeared was in Ji'an Province, and they said they had already had contact there."

Although Penny and Joan have amazing talents in their respective fields, their talents are not as good as children born in the general school city in terms of learning knowledge. Leo arranged for them to go to the first school district to attend classes, but the results were ineffective. Except that they all regarded the teacher's speech as a lullaby and the classroom as a bedroom.

Under such circumstances, Leo felt that it was unnecessary to force the two of them to stay in the academic city to study, so he sent the two of them out to look for clues related to the Transcendence Organization.

Things did not go beyond their expectations. The implant in Joan's body was obviously a special existence that was very important to the detachment organization, so two days after Joan just left the academic city, people from the detachment organization began to In contact with it, there were even a few attacks in the middle, and those few attacks gave people the feeling that they were not intended to kill Joan, and wanted to injure or stun him, so it is conceivable that he accepted it. The strength of Joan trained by Leo is far from being comparable to that of ordinary paladins, not to mention that there is an assist from Penny in the dark, so in the end every attack is near-miss.

Perhaps knowing that a frontal attack was ineffective, the detached organization seemed to change its strategy and began to contact it in a friendly manner. It seemed that it was planning to draw Joan into the organization and become one of the official members of the organization.