Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 582 - 581: Towers

The sentinel towers stand tall on the ground.

For those born during humanity’s Great Decline, the sentinel towers are miraculous structures beyond their imagination. These gigantic magical devices, towering hundreds of meters high, with a total height of a thousand meters including their base and floating height, exceed the technological limits of any human kingdom of the era, including the Cecil Principality. The powerful energy surging from each sentinel tower is enough to support all the mage towers in the Anzu Kingdom simultaneously, and the technologies they employ—such as large-scale antigravity fields, adaptive shield technologies, and force field joint projection technologies—leave contemporary human scholars in awe.

After establishing the third Forward Base and ensuring the supply of materials and road accessibility from the rear, the Cecil Engineering Team continued their advance southward, finally reaching the sentinel tower that required retrofitting on Frostmoon the 1st. Next to this area, known as "Thundering Hills," the engineering staff planted the first wooden stake for the camp.

Former member of the hundred-person aid team, a carpenter by trade, and a middle-aged craftsman from the royal capital named "Blues," is the chief architect of this "Pinnacle Base." This stout middle-aged man stands atop a large wooden box in the center of the camp, holding blueprints for reference, eyes wide as he observes the workers’ progress. His nose, reddened from excessive drinking, appears even brighter against the slightly odorous wasteland winds.

"Connect the Magic Web first—don’t rush to activate the obelisk, connect the base plate first! Those heading towards the walls, stay within the barrier range, especially don’t leave the breezy screens—the air here does no good for your health! Charles, Bob, take three others and set up the disruptors, or the obelisk won’t start..."

Blues’ booming voice echoed through the construction site. This middle-aged man from the royal capital was full of vigor, determined and spirited—he looked over the bustling construction site before him, the exotic wasteland outside, and the nearby towering high tower and its surrounding energy barriers, the tension in his heart transforming entirely into excitement and pride, even a bit of arrogance.

This is where a Grand Architect should be.

He hails from the royal capital and is an experienced carpenter, coming from a long line of carpenters. But Blues Panstone was never a compliant person from the moment he was born—his surname clearly hints at dwarven ancestry—and he was destined for great things. He yearned for adventure, yearned to achieve extraordinary feats, rather than be a carpenter in the stable royal capital. However, he lacked Beyonder gifts, and even his inherited dwarven strength only afforded him more muscle. Thus, he eventually inherited the family’s trademark. However, the southern expansion plan presented a glimmer of hope for this restless carpenter.

He was one of the few who actively signed up for the hundred-person aid team.

"Is the disruptor in place? Once it is, report immediately—it’s your safety assurance, don’t delay the work!"

Blues’ booming voice rang out again.

He indeed witnessed extraordinary opportunities in the southern borders. He saw attacks by aberrations, he saw the rise of a magical city, witnessed the establishment of a principality, and saw the spectacular "Industrial New City Plan." He seized every opportunity to prove his capabilities before Grand Architect Gordon, and today, he finally encountered the greatest opportunity—

To begin construction on the wastelands.

Undoubtedly, this significant "service" would become his greatest achievement. Blues believed that upon his return, he might even be directly evaluated as a "Grand Architect," just like the fellow "Grand Architect" Gordon, becoming one of Cecil’s top technicians. In such a position, there were only a few, such as "Grand Artificer" Mr. Nicholas Egg, "Arcane Master" Mr. Kamel, and Miss Rebecca...

The camp’s infrastructure was rapidly set up, with easily assembled Magic Web Units first connected into a powerful array, while several "Steel Envoys" positioned centrally within these magic web matrices had already been online. But before these multi-functional war vehicles, functioning as magic obelisks, activated their crystals, several special devices stood up across the base.

These were metallic rods, deeply embedded in the ground at the bottom, and branch out at the top two meters high into parallel "branches." A series of magic symbols is etched onto these branches, and small crystals seemed to be embedded at the top of these metal branches, emitting dim light.

These devices are "disruptors."

Utilizing high-power magical devices near the great walls is incredibly dangerous, for creatures born from the chaotic wave crave pure magic power. Much like the aberrations venturing outside approach human towns, powerful magic obelisks stand as beacons to these creatures—the area, already close to the sentinel tower highland, is within the sensory range for magic tide creatures that have strong perception abilities. To prevent attracting powerful creatures the moment the magic obelisk starts, and to prevent further harm to the already fragile great walls from creature impacts, construction staff must prepare in advance.

Disruptors are born for this purpose.

The forked branches are inscribed with symbols for aura masking, magic concealment, and elemental disturbance. Though the effects aren’t perfect, given the average intelligence of wasteland creatures, these spell effects are enough to disrupt the judgment of aberrations from a distance.

Of course, if enemies are near enough, or if they possess exceptional perception or basic intelligence, these simple disruptors become ineffective. At that point, the camp’s safety relies on the great barriers and loyal soldiers armed with guns and cannons—but as long as they can filter out sixty to seventy percent of creatures, Gawain’s requirements are fulfilled.

At the camp’s edge, Gawain stands on a large rock beside "Thundering Hills," watching the pathfinders set up the disruptors at designated spots. As they activate one by one, the crystals and magic symbol arrays emit a faint light, causing the magic aura emanating from the camp to swiftly turn faint and chaotic.

This level of concealment won’t fool powerful or middle-ranked individuals, but it should filter out over seventy percent of aberrations.

The nearby air subtly shimmers, with Amber’s figure condensing from thin air. She approached Gawain casually, saying, "The disruptors have been activated."

"I saw it."

"Honestly, I only felt relieved after this thing got activated," Amber exaggeratedly wiped non-existent sweat from her forehead, then curiously added, "But speaking of... to survive in the wasteland, we absolutely need this interference technology... We rely on the interference device to protect our camp, so how do those ’tower repair teams’ solve the problem? Like the teams over in the western borders..."

Gawain glanced at the half-elf: "Is your brain stuck again?"

"Hey, what’s that supposed to mean!"

"Do you really need to ask such a simple question?" Gawain casually tapped Amber on the head, "An interference device is essentially a magical device and it’s not even advanced magic—teams without interference devices just need a couple of mages to stand in the camp, releasing aura concealment and magic hiding spells for an entire day. When they get tired, they switch out, or they can sit down in a chair."

Amber blinked, finally comprehending and mumbled, "Wow, imagining that scene feels pretty stupid..."

"Does it feel stupid? But before the appearance of magical devices pursuing ’universality’ and ’civility,’ all mages actually did it like this," Gawain shrugged, "They took pride in their ability to harness and release transcendental power, and even today, most transcendents outside of Cecil still think this way."

Upon hearing Gawain’s words, even Amber, who usually doesn’t like thinking, couldn’t help pondering. Gawain shook his head and turned to the direction of the sentinel towers.

The enormous gray-white tower floated in the anti-gravity field, quietly releasing its vast energy amidst the polluted and twisted heavens and earth. Its mountain-like base was set at the peak of Thundering Hills, partially integrating with the hills. Numerous complex structures were hidden in the rocks and soil deep below, with several pronounced "ridges" extending from the base and the hills’ connection points, like the aerial roots of trees, stretching far across the land—one part extended towards the Black Forest, and the Cecil engineering team’s camp was situated near one of these "ridges."

Gawain knew those "ridges," resembling aerial roots, were actually the sentinel towers’ comprehensive sensors and engineering pipeline integration units. Each base symmetrically extended six paths, three outside the barrier, and three inside, continuously gathering pollution readings inside and outside the barrier, uploading them for the tower’s artificial intelligence reference, ensuring the barrier can adjust in real-time as interior and exterior pressures change. The sentinel tower’s miraculous "adaptive shield" technology relies on these intricate and massive sensor arrays to achieve this.

So close to the human kingdoms lies such advanced technology, yet merely because of the obstruction of the Black Forest, a single Dark Mountain Range, coupled with seven hundred years of decline, Anzu’s descent has become unimaginable... Civilization is truly a fragile thing.

When the elves who once built the sentinel towers see the declining state of the human kingdoms, especially Anzu, what do they really think?

Do they disdain? Or are they astonished, just as people on planet Earth were amazed by the technological decline in Europe following the fall of the Roman Empire, amazed how barbarism replaced civilization? Or... perhaps they no longer have the leisure to lament human decline, because even they can no longer create the core devices of those towers.

A nimble silhouette jumped onto a boulder, and Soldrin, holding a short bow, appeared before Gawain.

"The surrounding area has been arranged with sentries, no corrupted creatures have been detected approaching yet."

"Great, have the Cavalry Scouts Warriors heighten their vigilance," Gawain nodded slightly, then suddenly added, "Organize a team of elite soldiers and call Sonia, come see me together."

Soldrin paused, "Call mother? What for?"

"I want to enter the sentinel tower," Gawain said, "to check the situation inside."

Before Soldrin could respond, Amber had already exclaimed, "My God, old man, are you joking?"

"Would I joke about this?" Gawain glanced at the half-elf, "We are here to solve the sentinel tower’s issues—merely constructing the sub-tower and pressure relief point, an excellent architect with blueprints and a construction crew could handle that. Our significance here is trying as much as possible to find more clues from the sentinel tower."

"Understood," Soldrin bowed his head, "I’ll go arrange manpower."

"Do I have to go in too?" Amber couldn’t help pointing at her nose, "You never told me beforehand we were going into the sentinel tower—standing 800 meters outside the barrier is the limit for me, I tell you..."

Gawain didn’t say anything, just gave her a familiar "you can babble all you want, but I’ll still grab you under the arm and take you" expression, and upon seeing this, Amber’s pointed ears drooped. "Alright, alright, since I’m on your payroll..."

"You should’ve said so earlier."