Chapter 1358 - 1357: "Sea

Chapter 1358: Chapter 1357: "Sea

The test has ended, and everyone retreated to a "safe distance" from the central silver-white metal pillar in the hall. Byron was staring at the empty floor ahead, lost in thought.

There seems to be an invisible boundary here; taking a step forward would be considered entering a certain "evaluation zone," after which the ancient system still operating in this tower would conduct an "assessment" of the intruder. Those who do not meet certain selection criteria would receive a warning to retreat, otherwise, nothing would happen.

For rational reasons, Byron naturally did not let the soldiers take the risk of ignoring this warning to see what happens if they continued forward—primordial elves who stumbled upon this place tens of thousands of years ago had already made that grand mistake. An ultra-advanced race was collectively subjected to a mind-dulling spell and a genetic disorder debuff left by the Voyagers. When they ran out of here, they almost forgot how to operate their own ships. Knowing this history, Byron certainly wouldn’t gamble on whether the soldiers he brought could withstand this tower’s "security system."

The result of the test was very clear: except for the three sea demons present and Asharena as a Dragonborn, none of the people here met the "selection criteria" of the Voyager system, or as the warning mentioned, called "boundary conditions."

"What do you think?" Asharena’s voice came from beside him; the red-haired Dragonbranded Witch gazed seriously into Byron’s eyes. "Where do you think the problem lies?"

"...I suspect the criterion is racial; humans do not meet this standard, nor did the primordial elves back then," Byron muttered, "but sea demons and Dragonborn do... or, the Dragonkin does. I don’t know the deeper reason."

Cassandra slithered over from the side, the sea demon lady slightly furrowing her brow: "Then what’s different about us? Are there ’traits’ that sea demons, Dragonkin, and humans must be distinguished by in the eyes of the Voyager?"

"If you talk about differences, then the distinctions are vast," Byron glanced at the sea demon lady, "There is no race in this world that closely resembles you sea demons, and the same goes for Dragonkin—the differences between dragons and humans are far greater than those between humans and elves or dwarfs. Your origins can be traced back 1.8 million years ago..."

"Is this criterion strength? The evolution level of individuals?" Cassandra pondered seriously, though most sea demons seem reckless and comedic, they are actually a race that enjoys thinking—just that most of their thinking often leaves outsiders bewildered. "Or is it determined by the presence of a tail? Look, I have a tail, Asharena has one when she turns into a dragon, but humans and elves don’t..."

"What kind of thinking is this? Even using the molar at the back of your heel, you should know it’s impossible." Byron looked at Cassandra with an unusual expression, and as soon as he finished speaking, Asharena suddenly raised her head from her deep thought, breaking the silence: "Did you notice that the warning repeatedly mentioned the word ’boundary’?"

"I noticed," Byron nodded, "What did you think of?"

"...Firstly, this system’s evaluation criteria should not be our ’race’ itself, because humans, elves, and sea demons didn’t even exist on this planet when the Voyagers arrived. So its judgment criteria should be a certain attribute unrelated to race. Secondly, the word boundary... makes me think of many research projects by the theocracy Authority Council..."

She looked up, her gaze fell on the metal pillar not far away, thoughtfully continuing: "Boundary, surpassing one’s current domain, stepping into a new forbidden zone, in the domains related to gods, this is a word with special significance. And the voice directly appearing in our minds... should have been chosen by the advanced equipment in this tower after scanning our cognitive and linguistic system for corresponding phrases. When the Voyagers appeared on this planet, it was initially related to the gods’ loss of control, and many things left here are somewhat connected with the gods. This can be confirmed through records from Talronde and recent clues discovered by the alliance in the ’door’ project..."

Byron’s expression grew solemn, he vaguely guessed what Asharena was about to say: "So you believe the tower’s assessment standard is..."

"Whether the approaching life form’s race is bound with ’gods’," Asharena nodded and glanced at the sea demons not far away, "Although humans have partially freed themselves from the mental Steel Stamp influence of some gods and started attempting to loosen the entire goddess’ hold on the race, overall, they are still quite a distance from breaking free; sea demons don’t have this problem. They are free from the mental Steel Stamp, and the characteristics of elemental life keep them from being affected by trends. As for me..."

She shrugged, her expression a bit odd: "Dragonkin have come of age—Dragonborn are also Dragonkin."

Byron held his mouth open for quite a while without speaking; after several seconds, his eyes moved in realization, his throat moved twice as if wanting to say something but finally admitted Asharena’s guess had a high probability of being correct: "It probably is true... "

"I was just speculating," Asharena made a dismissive gesture, "Ultimately, we can’t conduct further tests and long-term research. This tower doesn’t seem to want to answer our further questions. I just think... the Voyagers specifically leaving legacy targeting the gods, the ’security measures’ inside are definitely not unrelated to gods..."

Cassandra listened to their conversation, her eyes switched back and forth between Byron and Asharena several times before she suddenly recalled something: "Hey, wait, I suddenly remembered something, you said humans because influenced by gods aren’t ’qualified,’ but over seven hundred years ago, Gawain Cecil climbed the Voyager’s tower—I was guided there by a friend of mine at the time, how do you explain that? Isn’t he human?"

This remark made Byron’s expression immediately strange; to privately discuss the Empire’s ruler like this is inappropriate, but the speaker is someone who could be a "knowing party" of the ancient incident. Honestly, he became instantly curious, so he couldn’t help rubbing the stubble on his chin: "Wasn’t the tower His Majesty climbed back then not the one we have here?"

Cassandra spread her hands: "Indeed it wasn’t; that tower is south of our kingdoms, probably far to the east from here—but externally, the two towers look quite similar, and since they’re all Voyager left behind, their ’evaluation criteria’ should be similar, right? Especially when it concerns gods, changing towers shouldn’t be enough to exploit a breach..."

The sea demon lady’s words made sense; this is indeed a challenging yet objective fact to explain—but there have always been many mysteries surrounding Gawain Cecil’s adventure over seven hundred years ago, with many truths hidden in the annals of history. And he himself was not inclined to uncover the King’s secrets, so he quickly shook his head: "This is not something for me to ponder; just report what happened here up, it’s important now what we should do..."

Once he spoke, Asharena pondered briefly then took a step forward: "I want to go over and take a look. If our judgment is correct, this should be the path to the upper levels of the tower."

Byron was immediately frightened: "Are you sure? That’s..."

"Neither Cassandra nor I received any warnings, did we?" Asharena turned back and said, "Like you said, we were exceedingly fortunate to find this place; we can’t just leave with confusion. This tower is not out of control like the one in Talronde. The Voyagers saved this planet 1.8 million years ago; what they left behind generally shouldn’t harm us mortal races. Remember, the primordial elves ignored the warnings and breached the tower, but only had collective memory wipes and form changes before being expelled. The security system here didn’t even use lethal weapons..."

As she spoke, she raised her head, looking at the ring structure connecting the silver-white metal pillar to the roof, with eyes showing a hint of longing: "The Dragonkin paid a considerable price to become the first species on this planet to reach ’adulthood,’ so I stand here, passing the Voyagers’ ’assessment’ and qualifying to take a step forward. It feels... like an invitation."

"But these ’assessment standards’ are mainly your speculation," Byron knew Asharena had made her decision but reminded cautiously, "What’s more, even if things are as you suppose, we don’t know if this tower is entirely normal after running for 1.8 million years. If it has lethal faults, you may encounter danger."

"The safest place is lying in bed at home; the steadiest lifestyle is being a good girl waiting to inherit—if I were that timid and cautious, you’d never know me," Asharena couldn’t help but laugh, then waved, "Don’t worry, I’m Dragonkin; it’s not as easy to hurt me as you think."

Byron frowned for a long time, ultimately sighed with helplessness and a bit of defeat: "Alright, anyway, I can’t order you to stay here."

"Then I’ll go check with you!" Seeing the situation, Cassandra immediately slithered forward a couple of steps to join Asharena’s side, "We both can go up; going together is better for support."

As she spoke, she turned to wave at the tails of the other two sea demons she brought: "You two stay here. I’m unsure of the height of this tower; if we lose connection with the Magic Web Terminal after going up, contact me through Spirit Song."

The reckless sea demon makes decisions even more impulsively than the Dragonborn lady, and Byron had no better plan, so he could only reluctantly approve of the bold exploratory actions of the two ladies.

After Asharena and Cassandra each prepared the necessary equipment and supplies for exploration, Byron led the marines to retreat to a farther place, watching the two explorers walk towards the center of the hall.

They arrived in front of the silver-white metal pillar. The identification system in the tower still had not issued any warning. Asharena looked up, examining the seamless metal wall before her. There was nothing resembling a control panel, so she glanced at her temporary teammate beside her: "Do you have any plans?"

"I don’t know what to do either," Cassandra thought for a moment, raised the tip of her tail, and probed towards the mysterious metal wall in front of her. "But based on experience, when you encounter something you don’t understand, just poke it..."

Before she finished speaking, the tip of her tail had already poked the seamless metal outer wall.

Layers of light instantly spread like ripples. Asharena hadn’t yet ridiculed Cassandra’s "sea demon-style exploration experience" when she heard a slight hum from inside the metal wall. The next second, the originally seamless surface of the metal wall suddenly manifested a large number of hexagonal micro-light grids. The metal, which appeared flawless just a moment ago, separated, shrank, and retracted along the grid lines, revealing a spacious cylindrical space inside.

A voice appeared in their minds: "The cabin door is open, visitors, permission to proceed."

"See, I told you, just poke it," Cassandra immediately turned her head, looking at Asharena proudly. "For relics left by an advanced civilization for backward species, the method of use must be as simple as possible, unless they never intended for you to use it..."

Asharena was speechless: "..."

After carefully checking the inside of the suddenly opened door to confirm that there was only a well-lit cylindrical space inside, the two explorers finally stepped inside. They turned to wave at Byron and the others standing not far away, after which the low hum sounded again, and the silver-white metal walls closed again.

Asharena took a gentle breath to calm her somewhat tense nerves. She knew she was now "trapped" inside a facility left by an ultra-advanced civilization, so... what would happen next?

As if to respond to her thoughts, that synthesized voice resonated in her mind again—

"Inertial stabilizer normal, gravity docking point responding normally, upper transit station responding normally, confirming firmament feedback signal... feedback signal normal.

"Transit route unobstructed, two visitors confirmed, inertial stabilizer activated.

"Orbital cabin ascending—heading toward Firmament Orbit Space Station."

A soft vibration suddenly came from beneath her feet, as if something had been activated. Asharena instinctively grasped the circular handrail at the edge of the cylindrical space, but after the vibration, her feet felt stable again. The brief sensation of acceleration upwards was quickly counteracted by some mysterious force. She exchanged a bewildered look with Cassandra but only saw the sea demon lady eagerly examining everything around her, the tip of her tail tapping rapidly on the floor.

Her behavior was like a blend of cat and fish.

Asharena still clutched the handrail tightly. Inside, there was no shake left, not even the sensation of accelerating upward, but the low hum reverberating around reminded her that this lift-like mechanism was in operation. She couldn’t see outside, but she guessed she was being sent to the upper levels of this tower at incredible speed.

Then, she started hearing the voice in her mind again:

"Crossed Atmosphere Top Checkpoint..."

"Passing through Equilibrium Point Checkpoint..."

"Crossed optical shield layer, entering concealed section, observation wall opening."

Asharena suddenly felt another tremor, followed by a very slight mechanical sound. In the next second, she and Cassandra simultaneously widened their eyes in astonishment.

The "walls" surrounding this cylindrical space rapidly exhibited countless hexagonal light streams. The cabin walls that seemed metallic turned transparent in an instant!

Asharena noticed that this "lift" was traveling through a transparent tube at an astonishing speed.

Outside the tube, she saw an endless expanse of stars—more spectacular than all the stars she had seen in her life combined. It filled her vision, all within a dark and profound cosmic space.

She stared in shock at everything, feeling her breath and heartbeat pause simultaneously for a beat. She clutched the handrail as if fearing that she might accidentally fall into that boundless, dark, and profound star sea.

Strangely, she suddenly recalled a detail mentioned in ancient legends:

——An ancient tower stands in a "Sea of Eternal Darkness," this sea covered by eternal night, filled with stars...

"So... the Sea of Eternal Darkness refers to this..."