The Record of Unusual Creatures

Greenway was the last major city towards the north on the southern part of the empire. Further north after that city was the vast and treacherous Black Forest. The vast forest that was covered in darkness most of the time was about 10 percent of the empire’s entire landmass. There were poisonous swamps, beast burrows and the nest of some ancient creatures, but the Black Forest too had rare alchemy ingredients and ores, due to the terrifying legends and the inherent danger of the forest itself, very few people will willingly venture in there.

For many years, the imperials had tried to develop this vast forest as leaving such a fertile land untilled in the heart of the empire was a waste, but the Black Forest had an unusual vigor plus the various monsters living in there made the development progress extremely slow. And after so many years, the imperials had only managed to build a few cities along the edges of the forest. Greenway was one of them.

The city was probably one of the more successful ventures of the ‘Black Forest Development program’. The place it stood on two hundred years ago was actually part of the forest, but the efforts of generations of druids and arcanists allowed the land to ‘break off’ from the ‘life cycle’ of the Black Forest and stopped the wildly growing and regrowing woods to stop north of the city’s wood screen while the imperials prospered in Greenway as they expanded the city, tilled lands and transformed it into a formidable fortress of civilization, and finally had a firm grasp of the land.

But the cost of building a city like this was far far too enormous.

To secure a plot of land from the Black Forest, the expended material and manpower was enough to built at least ten cities of similar size, without the worry of the forest fighting back so the ambitious plan pretty much stopped there. Greenway was the most successful, and was the last of the pioneer’s city. Two hundred years since Greenway’s establishment, the imperial’s attitude towards the Black Forest changed from exploration and expansion to straight up maintenance, and that continued until today. And now, very little people remembered the times when they had to struggle against the forest for every step they took.

With Rheia’s help, clearing the checkpoint was not difficult and the caravan had gotten all the legal documents and stepped into this rich and legendary city.

Greenway was much more prosperous than most other towns along the way, and the bridge fort had been expanded and renovated by countless of generations, and now stood like a massive ant hive at the edge of the forest. The campsite and workshops set up for the pioneers had became a civilian housing and market zone. The people stayed in this city trades the resources from the Black Forest for a living as both north and south bound merchants gathered here and purchase the various goods from the Black Forest at a relatively low price. The city itself had three towers that could dock a medium-sized flying ship. Those were military ports meant for supplies up north. After all, after spending so much to establish this city, returns was still a must.

North of the city was a massive wall that stood between the buildings and the Black Forest. As the light green wall glowed all year long in the glow of magic. The wall was encrusted with elven runic bricks and were used to prevent the Black Forest from encroaching the city. While this land had already broken off the Black Forest’ cycle of life, but small scale infestations never did stop. If not for the walls, the growing vines and weeds would drive any city official insane.

The magic caravan drove on the highway but Hao Ren did not have time to admire the view. He pulled up the curtain and gently knocked the MDT who was playing dead on his shoulder. “Done with the analysis?”

“Bloody hell, you only remember me when you need something,” the MDT grumbled. “But your senses are sharp, that Ebon Blade guy had something really wrong about him.”

“An undead?” Vivian raised an eyebrow. “I get a feeling that he wasn’t alive… the heat signature and blood distribution is off too.”

“It is living, but weirdly… incomplete.” the MDT said. “With limited samples my analysis may not be accurate, but based on what we see, the Ebon Blade knights are probably soldiers modified by magic or other means. Their physical body is still active but there are many non-biological objects operating as well. Their nerve system is working normally but their brain activity is lowered to the point of implausibility. Under most circumstances they do look like a walking corpse under the influence of necromancy, but as we said, his body is alive.”

“A homonculus that requires directive,” Hao Ren rubbed his chin, “Lets categorized them as that for now.”

“Why are you so interested in the Ebon Blades?” Rheia curiously looked at Hao Ren, “Isn’t your job to save the world?”

The moment Rheia mentioned that Hao Ren’s entire expression changed. “Don’t even mention it, monitoring and recording civilizations is the job of an inspector, and saving the world is actually my bloody boss’s job! If not for the unique situation of the Plane of Dreams my job would be taking notes of these civilizations…”

Rheia was surprised, “That’s actually your job?! I thought your job was to bag up dead civilizations and count my inheritance…”

“… Have you finished your homework?”

“That’s bullying!”

Hao Ren broke into a winning smile before turning away to analyze the planetary analysis report.

His expression changed slightly.

There was a very eye-catching note on the report: Abnormal signals detected inside L’Haronne’s core.

The probes had already completed a detailed scan of most of the planet’s structure, and Nolan even went there to set up a temporary docking spot as an endless stream of reports flowed into the Petrachelys’ mainframe before being presented before Hao Ren.

As the planet was already been split into two, the core was exposed for a long time and the usually molten core had already cooled into a metal ball, and while the temperature was still fatal to humans, for a star it was considered ‘cool’

After a few days of detailed search,m Nolan found something interested in the cooled down planet core.

“Boss, I detected a very unique area deep within the core, an unknown material with a density and energy level that exceeds the average parameters is hidden down there and it is still releasing that unique energy pulse.

Hao Ren, once he had calmed down from the initial surprise, quickly sought details, “Only such vague reports? Can’t see what it is actually?”

Nolan dithered for a second before responding, “… The scanners ran into some trouble there. Interference.”

A very unique energy field was near the L’Haronne’s core, and this energy field was capable of disrupting Nolan’s advanced radar systems, that led to the shipgirl without any ideas on how to get a better understanding of what was actually inside the core.

But one thing for sure, a normal planet’s core would not have such a thing naturally.

It was man-made, and it was definitely not by the civilization on the planet today.

In the mindlink, Nolan’s image appeared in Hao Ren’s mind, behind her was a blob of dark red, and glowing planetary core material, and various tiny debris floated around the low-gravity environment, that was the ‘dust’ kicked up by the vibration of the core.

Nolan’s had a rather conflicted look on her face, “Boss, the core is still releasing that energy pulse, but the signals are a mess, and we can’t decode anything useful. Who would have left that behind?”

“This planet was destroyed once, but even before their prior destruction they were just a planet-wide indigenous civilization. And based on Rheia’s observation, that planet could not possibly install anything in their planet’s core.” Hao Ren thought, “So what you detected may be left behind by an even more ancient civilization. Before the formation of the Umbral Realm.”

Nolan’s brow furrowed, “This probably has something to do with the ‘vaccine’ that we are looking for. But it is now being locked behind an energy field. This energy field has a very obvious mark of encryption, like a safety box or something. Forcibly prying it open will invite all sorts of trouble.”

“We cannot force it open,” Hao Ren immediately responded, “It is buried deep within the core, and anything goes wrong there will have apocalyptic results on the planet. If it really blows up, it will be all on our heads.”

“…Boss, I think it is better if you don’t say that, knowing your unique trait. What is it becomes reality?”

Hao Ren felt into a temporary awkwardness, “Even you had become a bad girl… But really, don’t provoke that thing, you need to safely crack that energy barrier. If the ship’s computer is not up to task I authorize you to use the World Tree’s computer to support you. My request is only one, take it steady, as steady as possible. Got it?”

“Nolan understood.”

The comms was then cut and Hao Ren softly exhaled.

Nolan had some pretty impressive progress.

The operation on Nolan was split into two, one was Hao Ren and his team and their mission was to operate on the planet’s surface as they personally join in and observe the world’s civilization and record down how this civilization survives and operates in this unique environment, and observing what was happening in the Dragon Empire was one of it; another was by Nolan and her massive swarm of probes. Their mission was to scan the entire planet’s geological structure and any deeper secrets, seeking any clues from those inert items. The two missions went ahead in parallel, and at the same time completing the observation and recording of the civilization and the local environment.

And they could also search for clues of the Lord of Madness at the same time.

Hao Ren had tonnes of guesses, and this was what a normal inspector would be doing. Those dynamic entries in the past with a copious about of cannon fire was the bloody abnormal ones!

Then suddenly Hao Ren felt a little pressed for time: Nolan had already detected an abnormality on the planet, and while the abnormality was covered by an energy field, decoding it was a matter of time, but could his actions on the planet’s surface get some results as well?

His instincts told him that this Dragon Empire was hiding some sort of secret, and that secret allows it to be different from every other country in L’Haronne. He believe that if they were to see this journey through to the end, this secret will be revealed…