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Chapter 78: Rune Trigger and Amber’s Slacking Time

“What is this structure for?” Gawain pointed to the linked pedal, connecting rod and steel plate at the bottom of the furnace. These structures appeared to be very small and delicate; Hummel had probably forged them bit by bit using a hammer. A part of it was fitted with the stone slab on the ground, while another seemed to be related to the magic circle structure of the furnace. This had Gawain coming up with some vague guesses.

“Oh, oh, didn’t you say that you wanted a switch for magic circles that even blacksmiths who are laymen would be able to control? So I designed this structure.” Rebecca explained with a beam. “Although the modern furnace can be continuously operated, it has to be switched off sometimes. So look, this pedal can move this steel plate. There is a rune on the steel plate and another on the obsidian slab on the furnace. This pair of runes is ineffective if separated, but when put together, they become a part of the entire magic circle…”

Rebecca explained while demonstrating for Gawain. She stepped on the pedal with force. The connected steel plate then turned and fitted into the indentation at the bottom of the furnace. Gawain then saw that it had a basic elemental rune carved on the flip side — which happened to be the missing part of the furnace’s magic circle.

This was a switch, a structure that was extremely simple but full of creativity.

Before the appearance of this, mages essentially controlled the operation of magic circles directly using their own magical power.

However, blacksmiths did not know how to control magical power, so they clearly needed this.

And as the steel plate flipped out, the magic circuit throughout the entire furnace was connected. Gawain sensed a current briefly surge through the air. Following that, some glowing patterns emerged on the stone slabs on the ground, and the magic circles on the side of the furnace were also activated. The runes on them lit up one by one. Firewood had long been placed in the chamber; at present, as the magic circles were activated, this firewood began to burn and instantly burst into raging flames, burning far stronger and hotter than usual flames from firewood.

Rebecca had removed her foot, but the steel plate was already set in the indentation of the furnace with the help of gear latches. Despite the precision of this entire structure being no match for industrial products — as they just needed to push the crude rune up for it to take effect — its operating mode was already nearly perfect.

“Step again, and it goes back!” Rebecca pointed at the latches between those connecting rods with a rather pleased smile. “I named this entire set ‘rune trigger’, a mechanism that can be toggled and operated by runes! Let me tell you. Don’t assume that it was as simple as taking a few runes apart and reassembling them. I experimented for a long time before concluding that this pair of runes was the most stable, most universal combination…”

Girl, you’ve given this thing a super posh name!

Catching Gawain’s slightly disoriented gaze, Rebecca finally ended her ceaseless blah blah that stemmed from her being overly excited. She asked with some hope and nervousness, “Um… Lord Ancestor, what do you think of this? Oh yes, other than this rune trigger, everything else about this furnace was reformed by Hummel.”

“Very good, very good. Both of you have done well!” Gawain commended sincerely; then he noticed that the old blacksmith wasn’t present. Thus, he asked curiously, “Where did Hummel go?”

Rebecca scratched her hair. “Because we need even more black stones and red clay to build more new furnaces, he brought a few apprentices and people from the search party to look for materials in the mountains. The search party mentioned that they’d seen black stones in the mountains when they returned yesterday.”

Gawain let out an “oh” in response before it suddenly struck him that he was here for proper business. Therefore, he tapped his head and said, “Ah yes, I have something for you. Look at this. Do you have any impression?” He brought out a darkish-gray and ugly hardened substance. This was the last piece of ‘waste residue’ he had left after giving all the rest to Heidi.

Rebecca recognized it instantly. “Ah, isn’t this the waste from my failed baking previously?”

“Look carefully in here.” Gawain could tell that even Rebecca hadn’t really noticed there was something else mixed in the ‘waste residue’ she’d created. “See these grains of crystalline solids? Do you still remember how you baked these?”

Rebecca only noticed those bits of crumbs then. Honestly speaking, as the wastes all looked about the same, she wasn’t able to differentiate the products by batches just by looking. Fortunately, she’d strictly followed Gawain’s ‘operating rules’ and conscientiously recorded the ratio of materials, duration, temperature, and kiln serial number of every batch that she’d baked. They just needed to verify that this was one of the first few batches and then redo them following the records for that day. They would then be able to easily confirm how these things came by.

Hearing that Rebecca had diligently made records and that they could easily recreate the operating details from the records, Gawain really heaved a sigh of relief. In this ‘medieval’ background, ‘detailed notes’ almost did not exist in the average person’s mind; only mages devoted to various magic research would have a shallow concept of this. However, Rebecca was not a mage who could do research; this was reflected in her simplistic fireballs that had always been either big, super big, ultra big, or many, many levels bigger. Hence, this girl lacked the proper habits that one should have when doing experiments.

Thankfully, she was very obedient and was thorough with all that Gawain tasked her with.

While Gawain was studying how to introduce ‘the art of explosion’¹ as soon as possible into this era, a certain half-elf bandit who was idle after eating and drinking to her heart’s content was strolling in the dense woods of the Dark Range.

Of course, a more creative way of putting it would be — patrolling the borders of the territory or, even, searching for potential danger and wealth in the Dark Range… They had almost the same meaning anyway! … Anyone who knew this person would know that she was merely slacking.

Carrying her two treasured little daggers and humming an untuned song, Amber leaped between rocks and branches as if she was walking on flat ground. With the help of the pervasive shadows in the woods, her form would disappear into the air from time to time and then suddenly appear tens of meters away, even up to a hundred meters. Sometimes, as her figure flickered, a wild fruit from an unknown source would be on her little dagger. Then, she would take one or two bites out of it before casually tossing it away.

To Amber who was an elf and also a master of the shadows, these dark woods were like a paradise tailor-made for her.

“Ha… this is a really lovely place…”

Standing on the branch of a big tree, Amber comfortably stretched as she let out a relaxed sigh.

Despite being intimidated by the notorious reputation of the Dark Range when she had first arrived (she even had thoughts of whether to escape or not), but after staying here for a period of time, she realized that this place was really as that 700-year-old dumpling had said — not that scary at all.

It made sense too. Several hundred years had passed since the Dark Wave. Those monsters were doubly sealed by the Great Barrier and by the Dark Range in the Gondor wastelands. This northern side of the range also had layers of protection. How could there exist anymore danger?

These fellows from the north had really scared themselves: they were scared out of their wits!

Amber subconsciously mocked these ‘northerners’ who didn’t dare to come here as they’d believed the ferocious reputation of the Dark Range yet forgot entirely that not too long ago, she had been one of them.

She stayed on the branch for a while. When she had enough of the cool breeze, she spread her arms and fell backwards from the tree.

Midway through the fall, she entered the shadow state. The power of the shadows wrapped her up and instantly brought her into a world parallel to the real world, where almost no one could step into.

The sounds of the wind, insects, and birds chirping in the forest were left behind. Amber landed gently and stood in this tranquil and dull world.

The dense forest was gone. There were only overgrowths of grotesque-looking rocks and rugged mountain paths. A few withered tree trunks laid among the mountain. Like jagged teeth, their hideous branches pointed toward the shadow realm’s overcast and gloomy skies.

This black and white world was disconcerting, like the kingdom of the dead in the legends, but to Amber, this was a place that brought her a lot of peace.

When she stood here, she would feel like she was home.

Yet the past Amber wasn’t able to come here often.

Despite possessing exceptional talent with the shadows, previously, Amber hadn’t been able to enter the shadow realm anytime and anywhere she wished. She could only get a vague sense of the ‘border’ of this world and could arrive in this world more easily than the average rogue, but it had been especially tough to completely cross over the border. Often, it would either require an extended period of mediation or the help of some magical articles and potions.

However, ever since she left the Cecil territory, this process seemed to have become much easier.

As long as she focused, she would be able to sense the presence of the border, and as long as she mustered the forces of the shadows, she would be able to cross the border with ease.

Through a period of familiarizing and adapting, she could now even dive fancily into the shadow realm like she was doing now.

Although she was neither a scholar who specially researched the shadows nor was she some mage with an ‘acute sense of the supernatural’, Amber was no fool herself. She’d vaguely guessed that the shadow realm had become easier to enter — not because her shadow affinity had advanced by leaps and bounds (though there was definite improvement) — but probably because this world was seeing changes. Some force had caused the walls of the shadow realm and the real world to weaken.

However, the weakening was extremely slight; only she, the ‘freak’, had been able to sense the changes.

If she treated the changes of the shadow realm as some huge discovery and approached those lofty mages, scholars, and lords with it, ten to one, she’d be driven away as a madwoman or worse; to them, her extraordinary talent with the shadows (and terrible combat ability) would be considered a gift that fell from the skies. She might not even get to walk out of those people’s mage towers alive.

Amber wandered about the shadow realm, enjoying this world’s tranquility and safety, while those little thoughts of hers floated in her mind.

So what had any changes to the world got to do with her…?

But perhaps she could tell the fellow who crawled out of a coffin about it?

That fellow seemed like the type who would be very interested in these odd happenings, and he definitely wouldn’t hold her down on the laboratory bench and slice her up…

All sorts of thoughts spun around in Amber’s mind, and she subconsciously smiled.