# Chapter 9: You've Come to the Right Person
"Never would have guessed."
Joshua offered only a simple remark in response to Israel's tone, brimming with confidence and ambition.
The Emperor paid it no mind. He reached out and tidied his hair, somewhat disheveled from days of work. Israel felt that the warrior was surprised by what he had accomplished—in truth, he himself felt the same. If he hadn't witnessed this massive base with his own eyes, Israel wouldn't have dared to believe any of it either.
How could he believe it? A steel dockyard the size of a city, countless mana-powered machines exceeding the Empire's production capacity—even if someone told Israel this was a dream, he would have believed it without hesitation.
But in reality, Joshua wasn't evaluating the incredible existence of this underground mana base. He was merely marveling at the strangeness of fate.
In his past life, Israel had died from the eruption of latent injuries. His life essence had been drained away by the curse of an orc shaman's priest. After this great emperor's passing, his children were inevitably swept up by the forces behind them, plunging the entire Northern Empire into a bloody civil war that lasted years.
In such turbulent times, the entire Empire was unstable. The wounds of the Dragon Calamity had yet to heal when a new war arrived. Back then, forget researching mana technology—even farmers in the mountains had to be wary of the Empire's ubiquitous conscription squads, terrified of being dragged into one blood-soaked meat grinder after another.
There was no peaceful place in the vast northern lands of the Mycroft Continent. Everyone was fighting and killing. The land and resource dividends gained from defeating the orcs were all wasted in human slaughter. During this period, forget technological progress—the Imperial Royal Mage Association, the Empire's highest technical authority, was torn into five or six pieces by the various princes. Countless precious research materials left by ancestors were burned rather than given to rivals. The Empire's technical capabilities actually regressed, falling to a level weaker than when they had defeated the orcs.
If not for Di Mo Er using brutal methods to kill his own siblings and reunify the Northern Empire through iron-blooded rule, this ancient and powerful nation might have destroyed itself in civil war, never lasting until the Abyss invasion. But no matter how well Di Mo Er patched things up, reintegrating the fragile imperial provinces into a single force, he could never restore the Empire's peak technical strength.
—This was the fate line where Israel lived and Nostradamus advanced to Legendary. One ascended to the Void, the other fell to the Abyss—a truly earth-shattering change.
Joshua gazed at the center of the dockyard, where a massive warship was being assembled by imperial mages using various automated rune mechanisms. An undeniable sense of accomplishment welled up in his heart. All of this was his doing—weakening the Dragon Calamity's impact, helping Israel gain divine power and survive.
Even this enormous mana-powered mechanical dockyard was created using his Steel Force, materializing it bit by bit according to Nostradamus's designs.
"Legendary power—no matter how many times I experience it, it still feels unbelievable."
Beside him, Nostradamus sighed with emotion. His sharp gaze swept across the entire base, taking in all the steadily operating mana machines. The old mage stroked his newly regrown beard and muttered to himself: "I only heard recently that your Steel Force had improved again, that you'd even built a statue the size of a small mountain to boast about your power. I thought you might be able to help... Now it seems you've been a tremendous help."
"I didn't build it on purpose... That was an accident!"
"Yes, yes." The old mage responded rather perfunctorily.
The development was actually quite simple. A few months ago, while experimenting with the limits of Steel Force creation, Joshua accidentally created a massive steel statue nearly three hundred meters tall. This incident became not only a point of pride for the locals of Moldavia but also came to the attention of Israel and Nostradamus.
At that time, the Emperor and the old mage were troubled by the timeline of their planned project—according to their original schedule, they would need two five-year plans just to build the prototype production line beneath the Eastern Bannert Plateau in the western Empire. Both the steel raw materials and the production of numerous mana machines required enormous time, not to mention transportation. During the construction of this base, the Empire would expend countless manpower and resources. If any accident occurred, the entire financial system might collapse.
But fortunately, news of Joshua gave Nostradamus a bold idea: since Joshua could use Steel Force to create objects and directly extract rock and minerals from mountains, didn't that mean he alone was equivalent to an entire large-scale mana machine production line? One that required no fuel, no maintenance, was low-cost, and very durable!
They were desperately in need of this!
So Israel invited Joshua to assist. The result shocked them both beyond imagination: as a Steel Force wielder, Joshua's materialization speed was astonishingly fast when he had a design blueprint. It took him only eight minutes to 3D-print a giant "Fierce Storm-class" mana core, while a normal large-scale mana factory required four months to produce one. Comparing the two, the royal mages watching on-site suspected they were dreaming.
Although there were minor flaws due to the instability of the materialization ability, the three Legendary experts present could correct them in seconds. While this Steel Force creation ability couldn't yet be used in combat, for production, it was practically divine.
"Completing a decade's worth of planned work in just a few months."
Taking a deep look at the dockyard at the base's center, Israel closed his eyes and muttered to himself: "I'm even feeling lost now—what will I do after this is done? I never thought that far ahead. Even building this base, I only made a rough plan... Time has suddenly become abundant."
You'll have plenty to keep you busy.
Joshua remained silent. In response to Israel's somewhat self-satisfied sigh, he sneered inwardly: Lost? Wait until you're swamped with work soon.
Some time ago, he had learned from the Dominant Will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground that Faina had sent her spiritual avatar to the Starry World. This Legendary Sage was the second Mycroftian after Joshua to venture to the far end of the multiverse. In the foreseeable future, all Legendary experts would, for various reasons, head to the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground to tentatively explore other worlds. Israel and Nostradamus were no exception.
By then, no one in the entire world would feel idle. Exploration and colonization would become the mainstream of Mycroft, and the Emperor would have no time to feel lost... But this kind of busyness could be considered a happy busyness. Joshua felt that Israel would never tire of it.
Just then, Joshua's body trembled slightly. Israel and Nostradamus both turned to look at him. After furrowing his brow slightly, the warrior reached for his waist and said, "The Lord's Manor is contacting me."
"Then Nostradamus and I will go check the rune hub's operation and coordination first."
Israel nodded. Although Legendary experts could hear whatever they wanted to hear no matter where they were, showing respect was necessary. But Joshua waved his hand, indicating he didn't mind: "It's fine."
Then he opened the communication array in his hand. As a somewhat blurry light screen appeared, Ying's face emerged before Joshua, with the figures of the two Legendary mages faintly visible.
"Ying, do those two have business with me?"
Joshua immediately understood why the silver-haired girl, who usually didn't disturb him much, had suddenly contacted him today. It seemed Baniel and William had urgent matters and had gone to Moldavia only to find him absent... It must be something important.
Joshua understood Baniel and William's personalities. Neither was the type to bother others with their own affairs. If it weren't urgent, they wouldn't mind sitting in a city bar and waiting for Joshua's return. But actively contacting him like this meant there was undoubtedly something major.
"Yes, Master. Baniel and Mr. William said they have an important matter to discuss with you."
On the other side of the light screen, Ying bowed slightly. Her voice carried some confusion: "I didn't quite understand it, honestly. Something about a magic net, an internet... Wait, I'll hand the communication array to the two gentlemen."
On the other end of the screen, Joshua held his breath.
"Internet?" the warrior murmured.
"Magic net?" the Emperor and the old mage, who had been eavesdropping, exclaimed.
Then, Ying handed the communication array to Baniel and William. Although the two Legendary mages were surprised that Israel and Nostradamus were with Joshua, what they planned to say wasn't some secret that needed hiding. After a brief greeting, Baniel, taking the lead, spoke to the warrior in an extremely excited tone: "Joshua, do you remember the Writhing Forest?"
"Of course I do."
Joshua replied somewhat impatiently: "The residual power left by the Chronos Ancient Dragon—that's not important. Just tell me quickly, what did you discover? The internet?"
The warrior's tone was full of doubt, but Baniel laughed confidently: "Don't rush to ask about that... There's a big connection between the two. Joshua, you should know that some time ago, Barbarossa obtained some information about the Giant Divine Soldiers from the will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, right?"
Everyone present nodded. This wasn't secret news to Legendary experts. The Northern Empire had even taken a Giant Divine Soldier wreckage for study. Not to mention anything else, many mana machines in this void dockyard had been reinforced with technology from the Giant Divine Soldier remnants.
After confirming everyone understood, William took over the conversation: "During an experiment with Ancient Dragon bloodline power, Baniel and I suddenly discovered that a certain part of the Giant Divine Soldier imitation placed on the left side of the lab had resonated with a strong magnetic field. Curious about this phenomenon, we analyzed that part together with Barbarossa... And the result of that analysis is what I mentioned earlier."
At this point, Baniel and William spoke in unison: "Through the trajectory of electric currents, we discovered a vast web covering the entire world, connecting all things!"
"This web is hidden in the ionosphere at the highest point of the sky, breathing in sync with the world's mana cycle. It seems to have been artificially embedded into the world by the sages of the Era of Radiance. A certain component inside the Giant Divine Soldier—whose purpose we still don't know—can connect to this web. Perhaps this was how humans in the Era of Radiance controlled those giant machines... In any case, after discovering this web, we conducted hundreds of experiments to test the functions of this invisible mana network."
"And the result?"
Joshua asked directly, his tone full of curiosity: "What use is this network?"
"Use? There are far too many uses—whether for long-distance communication or transmitting energy over long distances with minimal loss, this network can do it all! As long as there's a device that can stably receive signals, it has infinite potential!"
At this point, the two Legendary mages exchanged glances and then said with some pride: "This is why we wanted to contact you."
"The trees in the Writhing Forest have special organ structures capable of sensing and transmitting electromagnetic waves. We discovered that with slight modification, this structure can easily connect to that network... Although we have seeds from the Writhing Forest, the largest existing Writhing Forest happens to be in your territory. We can join forces to explore that network and uncover its potential!"
From the two Legendary mages' description, Joshua and the other two present roughly understood their idea.
Currently, the Sky-Piercing White Tower's research on this magic net had hit a bottleneck. They didn't have enough good communication devices to explore the magic net, and what they could observe was only the magic net over the Eastern Plains region. So to thoroughly understand the magic net's functions, they needed to join forces with other powers. Joshua and the Northern Empire were the first, but definitely not the last. Later, William and Baniel planned to invite Faina, Eagle, the Nature Mentor, and others to conduct collective research.
Then, with multiple Legendary experts working together, they could surely figure out the magic net's true functions.
But at this moment, Joshua's heart was in turmoil.
...Could it be that the internet, or rather, the magic net's appearance, was also a change he had brought about?
Thinking carefully, it was indeed so. Helping the two Legendary mages find the Ancient Dragon and bringing back the Writhing Forest from the Abyss were both essential conditions. And the awakening of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground's will, allowing it to produce the Giant Divine Soldier's design data, was also inextricably linked to Joshua.
All conditions satisfied, the internet was discovered by William and Baniel.
As for the magic net—or rather, a world-class network capable of storing and exchanging information—what use was it?
Joshua shrugged. The warrior from a Star River World curled his lips into a smile.
This question... you've come to the right person.