Chapter 458 - 432: Entropy Ash Core and Mechanical Artisan

Chapter 458: Chapter 432: Entropy Ash Core and Mechanical Artisan

"Eep!"

Tress let out a short cry of alarm. Her tiny body clung tightly to a lock of Roland’s hair, her wings trembling in shock.

"This... this place feels so deep and dark! Could there be... be something scary down there?"

Roland didn’t answer immediately. Instead, his sharp gaze swept over the profound darkness below, a darkness that seemed to swallow the light.

The Magic Power in the air here was still stagnant, making it exceptionally difficult to cast Magic.

He focused his Concentration, struggling to gather a small, faint, yet stable flame at his fingertip. Then, he carefully tossed it downward.

The flame, like a lone firefly, traced a short arc through the darkness as it flickered and fell.

By its fleeting light, Roland managed to make out the rough outline of the ancient ruins exposed by the collapse beneath his feet.

It appeared to be the ceiling or upper structure of some enormous space. He could see fractured metal beams, twisted pipes, and shards of transparent material—likely from shattered observation windows—scattered below.

The flame finally landed on a relatively flat metal surface several dozen meters below. It flickered a few times but didn’t ignite anything, nor did it startle any obvious living creatures.

Roland held his breath and listened intently for a moment. Aside from the faint, almost imperceptible sound of wind rising from the Abyss, he detected no unusual noises.

At least, the area directly beneath the sinkhole and within his line of sight showed no immediate signs of danger.

"Hold on tight, Tress."

Roland warned in a low voice.

Then, fixing his eyes on the landing spot indicated by the flame just before it went out, he leaped down.

His figure plummeted, the rushing wind whipping at the corners of his clothes.

The moment before he hit the ground, he engaged his core, adjusted his posture, and bent his knees slightly.

He landed as lightly and steadily as a cat on the cold, hard metal floor, making only a soft thud.

Once steady, he immediately focused his Concentration again.

This time, it took far more Concentration than usual before he could finally conjure a stable orb of light in his palm.

A soft, clear light spread out from him, barely managing to dispel the dense Darkness within a radius of about ten paces.

Where the light reached, it revealed the scene inside the ancient ruins.

This appeared to be a wide corridor or hall. The surrounding walls were covered in heavy, rust-eaten metal plates, many of which had peeled away to expose the rough concrete structure underneath.

Countless severed cables and pipes hung from the ceiling like the withered veins of some giant creature.

The floor was littered with various metal parts that were difficult to identify at a glance, shattered containers, and a thick layer of dust.

A few relatively intact devices embedded in the walls caught Roland’s attention.

They had empty screen frames where the glass had shattered, with dusty buttons and levers below.

Some panels still had indicator lights that had long since gone dark and faded, illegible symbols.

In the corners, he could also see the toppled metal frames of what looked like workbenches or lab tables, along with some overturned transparent containers whose contents had long since dried up and carbonized.

The entire space was filled with the cold, dilapidated feeling of a high-tech facility that had been abandoned for ages.

This was definitely not a residential area; it was more like a place where some kind of research or observation work once took place.

But now, all intelligent activity had ceased. All that remained was this wreckage, frozen by time and disaster, silently telling stories of the past in the darkness.

Roland took a deep breath, cautiously extending his Perception outward like an invisible spiderweb.

A moment later, his tense nerves relaxed slightly.

At least within the range of his Perception, he didn’t detect any signs of life—no heartbeats, no breathing.

Nor did he sense the distorted Energy fluctuations that mutated Demons might emit.

But he remained vigilant, cautiously making his way forward along the wreckage-strewn main corridor.

Occasionally, side paths or room entrances appeared on either side of the corridor, but most were sealed off by collapsed structures or piles of rubble.

After advancing for only a few dozen meters, a huge door, which must have originally been made of metal, appeared ahead.

But the door had come off its hinges on one side and was leaning askew, revealing the dark space behind it.

Roland turned sideways and carefully peered inside through the gap.

The orb of light hovering beside him obediently floated forward, gradually illuminating the room’s interior.

It was an exceptionally spacious room, and a complete mess inside.

Lining the walls stood many tall metal shelves and bookcases, forming the main structure of the room.

The shelves were mostly bare. Only a few oddly shaped, yet heavily rusted, remnants of tools hung forlornly on them, their original forms completely unrecognizable.

In stark contrast to the desolate shelves, the equally tall bookcases seemed to have been left largely undisturbed.

They stood in neat rows. Though covered in a thick layer of dust, the cabinets themselves were mostly intact, densely packed with items resembling books or files made of some unknown material. The heavy dust made it impossible to see any details for now.

In a corner of the room, Roland also saw several metal frames similar in shape to the vehicle Hagry drove. However, they appeared to have been torn and twisted by some immense force, reduced to unrecognizable scrap metal and piled up with the surrounding debris.

Roland drew the Moonlight Longsword from his waist and cautiously stepped into the room.

His footsteps on the dust-covered floor made a soft, rustling sound.

As the orb of light pushed back more of the darkness, he could see the tools remaining on the shelves more clearly.

Though their shapes were blurred by rust, their basic structures were still recognizable. They bore similarities to the Chainsaw Sword and Hand Cannon used by Hagry, especially in the distinct grip structures and the grooved designs in their core areas.

Besides those, there were many other strange instruments he had never seen before. Some had multiple nozzles, others had complex multi-barreled structures, and some were shaped like enlarged insect limbs.

But all of these instruments shared a common feature.

In their core sections, they all had a distinct slot or socket structure designed to house some kind of "core device."

Roland stepped forward cautiously and picked up a few of the less-rusted instruments to examine them.

They were heavy and cold to the touch.

He tried to infuse a faint trace of Magic Power into one of the Hand Cannon-like devices, but there was no reaction. The Rune structure inside had clearly been completely damaged and rendered useless over the long ages.

He checked several others, and the result was much the same.

’It seems this is the origin of the weapons and vehicles used by the Knights of the Rusted Knight Order.’

The realization dawned on Roland. He then scanned his surroundings and began to check the room’s other exits.

Besides the crooked main door he had entered through, there were several smaller doors in other directions.

But two of them had been severely twisted and warped by external pressure. Through the gaps in the door panels, he could see the dark space behind them was completely filled with dense sand and soil. Those paths were clearly blocked.

Only a set of double metal doors directly opposite the bookcases appeared relatively intact. The doors were shut tightly, with no obvious signs of damage for now.

After getting a clear sense of his surroundings, Roland composed himself and walked toward the bookcases.

He carefully blew the dust off one area, revealing "books" made not of paper, but of some kind of flexible material similar to tanned leather or a special synthetic composite.

The covers of these volumes were hard, their corners reinforced with metal. Though dusty, the material itself seemed to have resisted the erosion of time.

He gently pulled out a relatively thin volume. The title was written on the cover in a fluid, unfamiliar script.

_Seventh Observation Station: Daily Maintenance and Energy Node Record Manual - Era: Crystal Rhythm_.

"Seventh Observation Station... Crystal Rhythm Era..."

Roland murmured the two names, a thought stirring in his mind.

’The era this ancient ruin belongs to... is the Crystal Era?’

With this in mind, he opened the volume and began to skim through it quickly.

The contents were mostly dry data about maintaining some kind of Energy pipeline, calibrating observation instruments, and recording fluctuations in the surrounding Magic Power.

But soon, in a thicker volume titled _Emergency Defense Protocols and Standard Equipment Overview_, he found more critical information.

The book contained clear diagrams with detailed structural breakdowns of weapons like the Chainsaw Sword, Hand Cannon, and various other strange armaments.

His gaze locked onto the Chapter depicting the weapons’ Energy Cores.

The name of the core was clearly labeled next to the diagram.

Entropy Ash Core.

The text explained that this core could capture and stabilize the naturally chaotic "Inert Ether" in the environment. Using a specific Rune Converter, it would then transform it into a highly corrosive and destructive "Active Entropy Ash Energy" that could be used to power weapons and certain facilities.

As he continued reading, a specific title appeared repeatedly in the section introducing the designers and manufacturers of these weapons and facilities.

"Mechanical Artisan?"

Roland stared at the unfamiliar Profession title on the page, his brow slowly furrowing.

In all his accumulated reading, he had never come across this name in any book or record.

However, according to the descriptions in these books, the abilities demonstrated by this Profession combined theories of Energy, material properties, and precision forging to create Mechanical Bodies and energy-based tools with specific functions.

It sounded incredibly effective, like an advanced Professional path that combined the Rune knowledge of an Enchanter with some unique form of engineering.

’Then, could it be possible for me to take up this powerful, lost Profession by mastering the relevant knowledge and skills?’

This thought drove him to search more intently through the other related books and volumes, hoping to find more information about the Mechanical Artisan Profession itself, such as its specific methods of succession, core skills, or advancement paths.

However, there seemed to be very few systematic records about the Profession itself.

Most of the documents focused on the operation and maintenance of specific facilities or the application of the "Entropy Ash Core."

Just when he thought he wouldn’t find anything more, a small, relatively plain-looking booklet tucked between the thick record books caught his eye.

He pulled out the notebook and opened its yellowed, fragile pages.

The handwriting inside was not neat like an official document. It had a distinct personal style, somewhat messy, yet full of emotion.

"...Success! We’ve finally succeeded! After seventeen cycles, we’ve made a breakthrough in reverse-compiling and restructuring the Entropy Ash Core’s underlying Energy Runes! The new compatibility protocol passed testing, and the core’s output stability has increased by three hundred and twenty percent."

"More importantly, it can finally create a beneficial resonance with the Power wielded by those high-and-mighty Extraordinary Professionals, creating a symbiotic enhancement rather than simple Energy opposition!"

"Look! Just look! Who dares say we ’Mechanical Artisans’ only make unpresentable ’hunks of junk’ and ’crude toys’ now! This is the true..."

The journal entry stopped there, the handwriting suddenly becoming extremely messy and distorted, as if the writer was scribbling furiously in a state of extreme agitation or had been abruptly interrupted.

"Alarm... what’s happening? Energy readings are spiking... out of control... the containment wall has failed... what in the world is going on..."

The following pages were either blank or contained nothing but unidentifiable ink stains, as if soaked by some liquid, and frantically scrawled lines.

The record ended abruptly there.

Roland’s heart began to beat a little faster.

He had caught the name of the key location mentioned in the notebook.

The core area where this breakthrough research was conducted—and which ultimately may have triggered the disaster.

He quietly murmured the name that had been mentioned multiple times in the first half of the notebook.

"The Bottom Protocol Hall..."