Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Lin Li was certain that Gerian was not the first person to have read the diary in the thousand of years. The content of the diary was full of vague hypotheses. Anyone would have deemed it as something created to trick people.
However, now that Lin Li had found the underground palace, he could be sure that its author had to be somebody who had lived in the past. Then, might he be able to glean some clues from the diary? Although Gerian did not bring the original diary with him, he had written down all of its contents based on his memory into a notebook and passed it to Lin Li when they parted ways.
Did I miss any information? Lin Li thought as he took out that notebook and flipped through it casually despite the fact that he had already remembered all of its contents. Suddenly, his hands stopped, and a smile appeared on his face. Although the diary did not have a detailed description of the events, there was something he could use a diary to ascertain—the dates.
Dates were to be in any diary entry. Yet, what was the use of knowing the date the underground palace had been established?
The underground palace had been built a century before the extinction of the High Elves. Lin Li could remember reading from a book, titled The Book of the Forgotten, that the previously unknown study of the magic gears that did not enjoy much importance had been popular for a period of time then.
Although no one could verify the origin of the magic gears, most people believed there to be a relationship between the study of magic gears and alchemy, or that both of them originated from the Goblins’ Era. Indeed, there were a lot of technical skills necessary to produce the well-known Alchemy Colossuses that were related to magic gears.
There was also a product from the application of the magic gears called the Gear Puppets. From their appearance, they resembled the Alchemy Colossuses, yet both items had vastly different powers.
The energy of the Alchemy Colossuses came from the numerous alchemy arrays on their bodies. Each array was responsible for different types of functions, and the area on magic attack and defense was just one of them. The alchemy arrays were in charge of many fundamental functions that included the drive for the movement of the colossuses—which would be similar to human muscles.
With that, there were the Gear Puppets that used gears and the force of transmission to replace some of the basic alchemy arrays. The main mechanism was not magic, but the gears. Unlike most of the people in mainland Anril who saw it as unorthodox, Lin Li was really familiar and comfortable with them.
Of course, this special characteristic made the absolute distinction between the puppets and the colossuses. To most people, the study of magic gears was useless; they’d rather pay a lower price for their servants, whom they could easily find. What was the use of those boring gear puppets?
It was this perspective that turned the study of magic gears into a disdained one. Hence, in the world of magic civilization, such a skillset had little demand despite it being novel. If not, the civilization of Anril would have been on a different path.
In reality, the Gear Puppets were only one of the many basic applications in the study of magic gears. Conservation of energy was a very unique advantage of magic gears. While it might sound absurd, it was really powerful under special circumstances.
Both mageweath arrays and alchemy arrays depended on magical crystals for energy. The effects of mageweath arrays and alchemy arrays, however, would decrease as time passed due to the weakening of any magical crystals—regardless of their initial strength. When it finally reached its lowest threshold, beyond the needed amount for activation, it would be as good as opening the door wide for any enemy inside.
As compared to those arrays, the effects of magic gears would never dwindle as long as they were deactivated. Magic gears could unleash their original effects despite the passing of time. Hence, they would be rather useful when it came to protecting tombs.
If it were real magic gear, then the wall of Magic-resistant Gems would not be a challenge to Lin Li. When he used the Scroll of Wishes to wish for all of his life skills to be raised by one level, although he did not manage to raise his skills in magic gears to the Guru level, it was pushed to the Master level together with his knowledge in minerals. The Master-level was sufficient for making Lin Li a real talent in such a forgotten area of study.
Lin Li went back to the wall, and started recalling everything he knew about magic gears. He inspected the wall very carefully. The change in perspective helped him to have a clearer view of the situation.
Lin Li was really grateful that it did not require any knowledge beyond his abilities. There were two ways to destroy those magic gears. One, settle it once and for all: locate and damage the energy source. Without the source of energy, the magic gears would naturally be deactivated. Two, outwit all the traps: either deduce all the loopholes of the magic gears, or activate the traps prematurely to eliminate them.
However, Lin Li chose to settle the issue once and for all. He felt that it would be more realistic for him to locate and damage the source of the energy so as to prevent future implications. Usually, people would think that the long-living Amethyst Turtles would be best sources of energy.
The Amethyst Turtles were considered one of the magical beasts with the longest lifespan in Anril. People had discovered a 70,000 years old Amethyst Turtle in the vestige of the Titans that had lived through the years. Of course, that Amethyst Turtle was not any source of energy for the magic gears then, but a Titan’s pet.
The Amethyst Turtles were very powerful. Those that were older than 20,000 years old would be able to reach the Legendary-realm—the peak of their potential. They would never get to enter the Sanctuary-realm even if they were to live another 200,000 years. Their temperament was much gentler than any other Legendary beasts’, which made them incredibly easy catch. Hence, Lin Li could tell that nine out of 10 trap makers would use Amethyst Turtles as the core of the mechanism. The last trap maker might have had some bad luck, being unable to find an Amethyst Turtle.
Since the underground palace was built by Osric, Lin Li believed that the supply of energy would not be weaker than one Legendary-level Amethyst Turtle. Therefore, how could he let go of such an invaluable treasure?
Despite not having any source of mana or magic pathways, there still were traces that helped Lin Li deduce the setup. Although the installation of gears and chains had been intentionally hidden from sight, they were sufficient to lead a gear master like Lin Li to its energy source.
As Lin Li paced around the wall, he scrutinized every line on it, and made huge calculations. Finally, a bulb lit up in his mind. He stepped out of the secret chamber and followed the clues.
Although Ujfalusi and Norfeller could not understand why their master left the secret chamber, they followed him without a word. By now, both were rather crestfallen. The inability to help their master made them feel like they had failed as Lin Li’s followers.
After following the clues given by the magic gears, and walking past a few rooms, Lin Li found a room filled with useless junk in the basement. However, everything was displayed in an orderly fashion, without even a hint of disarray.
“Move those things away,” said Lin Li as he pointed to the pile of trash by the wall. Ujfalusi and Norfeller took action immediately. The wait for instruction had finally ended.
After clearing the junk, the wall was in full view. To common people, the wall might be an ordinary one. However, nothing could hide from Lin Li’s eyes. He was an expert in magic gears!
Lin Li found a discrete door behind the pile of trash very quickly. On the surface, it seemed that there was nothing special about that door. Yet, Lin Li knew very clearly that the magic gears functioning behind it were enough to claim the life of any Archmage. After getting through the secret door, Lin Li noticed another passageway sloping downward behind it.
The passageway was pitch-black and incredibly narrow; it was large enough to fit only one person. Norfeller decided to take the initiative for the team. “Master, let me help to survey this place,” said Norfeller as he walked to the front.
Lin Li smiled and waved his hands. “You wouldn’t be able to help in this. Just stay here and wait for me to come back.” He let out a magic Solar Sphere that levitated in front of him, and started to venture forward.
It was not Lin Li’s kindness that prevented him from letting his followers survey the place for him. The main reason for his rejection was his belief that there was no need for them to do so. Through his experience in dealing with the magic gears earlier on, he had gained the confidence to deal with more of them if any appeared. Lin Li felt that it would only implicate the matter at hand if he were to let Norfeller, who was clueless about the mechanism, into this area first.
Ujfalusi and Norfeller gave each other a disappointed and helpless glance as they watched their master disappear into the passageway.
Although Norfeller was not dissatisfied with Lin Li’s decision, he could not help but feel disappointed. He remembered how he could still help his master get rid of some trouble when he started out as a level-17 Vampire. But, as his master became more powerful, the enemies they faced became more challenging as well. He felt that his identity of a level-17 Vampire was getting really useless.
As compared to Norfeller, Ujfalusi should not have felt any disappointment. After all, he was a Lich that fell from the Legendary-realm. He knew very well that it would take him another two or three months to recover his lost power. At the start, he thought that he would be of a tremendous help to his master when he returned to the Legendary-realm. However, after following the man for a period of time, and seeing how rapidly he made progress, Ujfalusi conviction started to waver.
Actually, it was not a bad thing that his master was a powerful being. The stronger the master, the easier the rewards came to the followers. Yet, only people who had no dreams would settle for such a life. Although both of them were Undead creatures, they had the minds of humans, and had the desire for fame and recognition like most humans.
Since it was fated that their master was going to leave a huge mark on the history of the mainland of Anril, it would only be natural that, as his followers, they’d be able to leave their own names there as well. However, a prerequisite was that they had to be well-known and gain the chance to display their ability in front of the public. At the same time, Ujfalusi feared that he would be condemned by posterity the minute he showed his face to the public. Therefore, the only way for him to gain fame was to raise his power. Then, he would be able to leave his name in his master’s story.
Lin Li was clueless that his two Undead followers had such great dreams. After entering the passageway, he walked along the narrow path. Indeed, it was filled with multiple precarious magic gears and traps. If it were anyone else—even experts of magic gears—they might not have the ability to walk through a few of them; apart from the magic gears, there were also traps created by mageweath and alchemy arrays.
These traps were incredibly insidious. If it had been a team that entered this place, they might still be able to bring one expert in magic gears. However, the size of the passageway was only sufficient for one person to pass through, and not everyone would be proficient in all the unfamiliar domains that were involved. That would endanger the experts at magic gears and other domains in the team easily.
Unfortunately, these magic gears and traps posed no threat to Lin Li. He understood that before he could gain the control of the core of the magic gears, the key was to trigger and suspend the traps intentionally. To Lin Li, his Guru-level skills in magic gears made him immune to all these traps. Despite the fact that much effort had been put in to set them up, it was totally useless against Lin Li, merely delaying him. The traps that utilized the mageweath and alchemy arrays were even more useless. As Lin Li was a Guru in mageweaths, alchemy arrays were even simpler for him to deal with. After all, he had in his possession a tool to dissolve alchemy arrays.
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