Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 270 - 269: Those Without Magical Talent

The monsters’ offensive was dismantled.

However, the panic they caused will take some time to dissipate.

General Andresha, with a sword at her side, walked steadily along the walls of Winterwolf Fortress. As she inspected the defensive line after the battle, the scene before her made her frown deeply.

Those blood-red giants, whose origins were unknown, did not set foot into the fortress. The valiant Typhon soldiers repelled those dreadful enemies from the walls. However, the monsters’ fearless charge and strange corrosive destruction left a lingering sense of dread. Large marks caused by corrosive energy arrows were everywhere on the walls. Soldiers hit directly by these arrows either died miserably or were severely injured. Ordinary metal armor offered almost no protection against this bizarre attack. It seemed only enchanted or Mage metal armor could effectively resist the monsters’ assaults—but how many in the entire army could afford a full set of magical armament?

Andresha glanced down from the wall’s edge, observing the massive stone walls below, mottled with scars, and several large corrosive marks stretching up to the height of the battlements. In the final stage of the battle, some exceptionally large and highly resilient special individuals among those blood-red giants appeared. A round of attacks from the Master Mages failed to stop their advance. These creatures used a peculiar magical lightning to shatter the mages’ defenses and climbed the walls amidst falling logs, stones, and a rain of arrows. They were eventually eliminated, but not before inflicting several terrifying damages on the walls.

An adjutant approached from behind, handing a report to Andresha: "General Andresha, the report on the casualties is ready. Please have a look."

With a heavy heart, Andresha took the report. The monster attack had been very sudden, and the soldiers had never faced such enemies before, making the battle far from easy. In her eyes, this report was even somewhat harsh.

"Take it away and follow the procedures to compensate the families of the fallen, treat the injured, and send those unable to continue fighting back home—provide them with proof of their heroic deeds so at least they can have a decent life afterward," Andresha said, somewhat irritably handing the report back to the adjutant. Then she turned her gaze to the plains now covered in a layer of filthy blood, "Where do you think these monsters came from?"

The plains in front of Winterwolf Fortress had originally been covered by a silver expanse of snow, but the giants turned the entire land an ominous dark red. The fallen monsters melted and flowed like mud, corroding the ground while rising into swirling dust, leaving behind massive skeletons that were intimidating just to glance at. Andresha had faced many different enemies, but this was the first time she had seen such a spectacle.

The adjutant did not expect the general to ask him this question. He hesitated before uncertainly saying, "Initial sentinel reports stated that the monsters surged from the pass in the Dark Mountain Range, which... should be in the direction of Anzu."

"Anzu?" Andresha’s expression gradually darkened, "That country..."

"But it might not necessarily be Anzu," the adjutant quickly added his thoughts, "General, the Dark Mountain Range borders the Gondor wasteland..."

"You suspect the monsters came from the Gondor wasteland?" Andresha raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised at the usually cautious adjutant’s bold idea.

"We once received intelligence that Anzu territory faced attacks from ’unknown non-human monsters,’ rumored to have wandered out from the Gondor wasteland," the adjutant reminded Andresha. "If more monsters wandered out of the wasteland along the natural barrier of the Dark Mountain Range, they could indeed end up here..."

"But the great walls block the Gondor wasteland," Andresha immediately frowned, "Did the Borderline Watchtower not also report that the barrier was intact?"

"Those watchtowers are essentially useless; they’re too far from the wasteland."

"...Prepare the gryphon," Andresha said after a moment’s contemplation, "We must inform the emperor of what happened here!"

After giving the order, Andresha looked up, uneasily gazing at the vague silhouette of the mountains to the southwest. Though her eyes could not see the sights beyond those mountains, she knew the Gondor wasteland lay in that direction, and the great walls built by the elves stood there.

Thinking of the great walls and the sentinel towers supporting them, Andresha couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy. It was said those ancient Mage spires possessed powerful communication abilities, able to transmit information instantly along the entire border of the great walls back to the Silver Empire’s heartland. The elves maintained surveillance of the entire barrier system using this incredible ancient technology, and seven hundred years ago during the Gondor era, humans also had similar technologies.

But now, these technologies had become severely outdated and degraded. Existing communication spell infrastructure was either exorbitantly expensive or ineffective. Most Magic Communication Towers could only transmit information within a few kilometers, and building a tower was outrageously costly. While major border forts could use magical communications, transmitting messages from the border back to the imperial capital still relied on traditional gryphon messengers.

There were proposals to set up hundreds of magic towers along the line from the border to the imperial capital to transmit information, and similar proposals had been repeatedly discussed in the Noble Congress for many years. However, the result was always the same: no money, no manpower.

The cost of hundreds of magic communication towers would be enough to empty the Empire’s annual tax revenue, and the strategic reserve of magic materials in the national treasury would also suffer huge losses. The communication spell array is extremely complex and can only be made with the rarest high-grade materials. However, using those materials to build hundreds of immovable tall towers is absolutely impossible.

Moreover, even if they were built, who would maintain and control them? Only Mages can command magic, and complex large magic devices require multiple Spellcasters to jointly maintain them. Hundreds of permanently stationed magic communication towers would mean that half of the Empire’s Mage Corps would have to become "Tower Guardians," and this human resource cost is even more unacceptable than the financial cost.

Andresha had various thoughts in her mind. As a young Noble Officer in charge of military power, with a deep family background, she understood better than anyone the crucial role of information transmission in war but found herself helpless in this regard.

After all, she had no magical talent.

In the Cecil territory, Jenni Perot, the head of the Rune Research Center, put down the blueprints and rune trigger in her hands and stretched with a long yawn.

She looked up from behind her desk and couldn’t help but smile at the few apprentices who were engrossed in calculations or gathered together exchanging ideas at the nearby tables.

These apprentices were the newcomers added since the establishment of the Rune Research Center. There were very few of them, but compared to the initial situation where she was the only commander, the situation was indeed much better.

Half of these apprentices came from the Cecil territory and transitioned from being originally rune craftsmen or Runemasters in the territory. They had foundational knowledge in the practical rune field and showed talent in logic and mathematics. Therefore, after a "talent skills assessment," they were assigned here to serve as Jenni’s assistants. The others were the forlorn Scholars and Mage apprentices recruited from outside by the leader. Given their decent qualifications, they were also sent here.

Honestly, these newcomers needed training when they first arrived. After all, rune logic is a brand-new field, and apart from Jenni, Rebecca, Aunt Heidi, and Gawain, no one in the world understood what it meant. The thoughts of these apprentices (assistants) were initially stuck in traditional magic theory, and it took Jenni considerable effort to change their mindset. However, after some time, they gradually started to become useful.

Once they become specialists in the field of rune logic, Jenni will have them take turns teaching courses at the Cecil General Academy. By that time, Mr. Santis should have completed the foundation courses on rune knowledge and magic theory for the children, and once the basics are laid, everything will seamlessly connect for learning rune logic.

Subsequently, the children in the territory will grow into a new generation with knowledge and skills, and this knowledge and skill will continue to spread and expand. Under the leader’s promotion, everyone will have the opportunity to learn all of these.

Teaching, learning, and dissemination, once the transfer of knowledge begins, it won’t easily stop. It will continue until everyone has the right to access knowledge and to think and explore the truth, and all this... is probably what Master Ravencrest hoped to see, too.

Jenni bowed her head again, looking at the complex arrangement of runes in front of her, as well as some formulas and diagrams that seemed like a heavenly book to outsiders, and fell into deep thought.

These were not conventional magic circle designs but a special "observation record" given to her by Master Kamel. They included the control and output unit structure of the Magic Obelisk and readings of the magical energy emanating from the Magic Obelisk observed by Kamel through the "Arcane Eye." This included regular oscillations of magic energy and a series of complex diffusion and decay data.

It’s not easy to deal with this, as it was beyond the field Jenni encountered while researching rune logic. Even Rebecca, who is excellent in mathematics, found them excruciating when she first saw them. They were no longer simple problems of rune arrangement or instances that could be solved by merely comparing interference values. The vast amount of pure data made Jenni feel at a loss, but she knew mathematics would not fail her.

These data might hide the most fundamental secrets of magical power. The leader also awaited these data to unveil the mystery of "long-distance magic power transmission" and seek ways to simplify the communication spell array. Therefore, after calming her mind, Jenni picked up a paper and pen and once again engaged in contemplation and calculation.

Paper and pen are her bridge to the path of magic. Only with this bridge can she move farther in this mysterious field than anyone else.

After all, she had no magical talent.