Chapter 17: Winterfell Academy Exchange System
"Missing?"
One morning, half a month after his conversation with Carlis, Joshua, who was taking a walk in the stratosphere, received a piece of news that surprised him.
High in the sky, fierce winds howled, and the cold air currents carrying ice crystals reflected the sunlight, shimmering brilliantly beneath the warrior's feet. At this moment, he was strolling through the sky with his hands behind his back, inspecting his territory, while the magical projection of a winged girl hovered before him, reporting the news with a helpless expression.
"Yes, Joshua, but to be precise, it's not missing—it's just that they've left the range of my detection."
Compared to before, a golden star-shaped mark now appeared on Number Three's forehead, surrounded by semi-transparent wings. This was the result of her fully accepting the mark of the Sky God—the fusion of Gehr's imprint with Number Three's soul. At this moment, the artificial intelligence girl looked quite troubled. She hugged her knees, floating beside Joshua as she complained, "You said to give those elite students more freedom, so I didn't pay much attention to them... and then, in no time, they were gone. It's been almost a week now."
"First, tell me who's missing."
Joshua wasn't particularly tense. He just muttered a couple of times about how troublesome they were, then calmly said, "Go ahead. Is it Lisa or Ivan? I think the others wouldn't have the confidence to pull a disappearing act."
"It's Lisa, your dragon-girl apprentice."
At this point, a hint of schadenfreude appeared on Number Three's small face. "Looks like you're pretty self-aware, Joshua—you know your apprentice is just like you, always running around... Oh, and I forgot to tell you, Number One disappeared with her too."
Under Joshua's gaze as he turned his head, Number Three added another sentence: "Based on my guess, she and Number One probably went to play in the underground tunnel Number One dug. Otherwise, there's no way even the signal from the information terminal would be blocked, and we couldn't find their location."
Several months had passed, and the tunnel Number One had dug beneath Nissier Snow Mountain had grown to an unimaginable scale. Those massive caverns were deep and long, even wider than the dwarves' activity range. From a certain perspective, Number One had almost single-handedly excavated a small underground world. According to the dwarf engineer who had visited the tunnel, it was "very suitable for the reproduction of underground life."
Because it was so deep, even the mentors of Winterfell Academy didn't know where the tunnel led. And due to insufficient server load, the information terminal couldn't be used in such deep underground areas. In short, it was a blind spot.
"Joshua, do you think they might be in danger?"
Although she had been a bit gleeful earlier, that was only directed at Joshua's habit of going off alone. Number Three was still very concerned about Lisa and Number One. She asked worriedly, "Should we send a knight squad to look for them? A week isn't that long, but it's enough time to encounter some danger."
"Danger? Not likely. I've already killed all the slightly dangerous magical beasts above and below ground in Moldavia. Even if there are a few that slipped through the net, those two should be strong enough to handle them based on their abilities... What I'm curious about is how those two ended up together. And with Syndica around, how could they just run off like that?"
Joshua frowned slightly, but then his brow relaxed. "It doesn't matter. Kids being a bit restless is normal. Let them play on their own."
If worst came to worst, he could still communicate directly with Syndica through the resonance of Steel Force. Since the other party hadn't contacted him yet, it meant they hadn't encountered any danger. This channel was even more stable than the information terminal, capable of connecting with the Flame Demon even in another world.
Meanwhile, Number Three raised her eyes and began to recount Lisa and Number One's activities before they disappeared. "Let me think... First, one was watching the moon in the middle of the night, and the other was taking a walk. They ran into each other, and since Lisa could understand Number One's electromagnetic signals, they ended up chatting all night..."
Everything after that followed naturally. Having finally found someone to talk to in their native language, Number One naturally had a good impression of Lisa. Over the next few days, they arranged to meet and chat, even going to the dwarf settlement to wander around a few times. Because Lisa was a friend brought back by Number One, she was treated with great courtesy, and the girl also showed interest in the mysterious underground world.
"And then they went digging together... Thinking about it carefully, it's not a bad kind of training. The unknown, mystery, and unpredictable danger."
Joshua pondered for a moment and felt there was actually no real danger. Keeping all the students under his constant observation would prevent them from making unexpected progress. After thinking it over, the warrior made a decision: "Have Winterfell Academy set up an academy mission."
"Explore the underground world and draw a map of the underground world Number One excavated. A complete tunnel is worth two thousand credits, with no upper limit. During the Great Magic Tide, students who completely clear out the frenzied magical beasts on the Ural Plains basically can't get this, and certain special exchanges can only be obtained through special contributions plus credits."
Special contributions are divided into five levels: D, C, B, A, and S. Starting from the lowest D-level, there are special exchanges like "Activate Hidden Bloodline." The academy will perform a reactivation based on the concentration of hidden bloodlines within the exchanger's body, manifesting the hidden bloodline abilities. Whether it's a psionic sorcerer bloodline, dragon lineage, or various other strange bloodline abilities, all can be activated. A student from the Western Mountains is a good example. She was the third princess of a certain psionic kingdom's royal court. Because she hadn't awakened her psionic powers, she couldn't compete for the throne. She was supposed to be married off to a neighboring kingdom for political reasons, but due to her maternal family's intervention, she was sent to Moldavia.
At Winterfell Academy, she worked hard to become a mage, then luckily earned a special contribution during a mission and chose to activate her bloodline. After the ceremony, the awakened bloodline allowed her to successfully become a genuine Silver-rank psionic user, giving her the capital to fight her way back to her homeland.
So far, the academy has only offered D-level special exchanges. Higher-level exchanges, such as "Permanent Spell-like Ability" or "Special Transcendent Inheritance," are just placed there for display and haven't been released yet. Some exchanges even exist only in the database and aren't shown externally... After all, whether it's "Living Mechanical Modification," "Experimental Authority Granting," or "Transcendent Organ Transplantation," these are still taboo technologies in the experimental stage, not to mention things like "Race Conversion Ritual" or "Artificial Auxiliary Soul Body," which involve ethical issues.
Among them, some exchanges were developed by Joshua based on the system he carried. For example, the "Artificial Auxiliary Soul Body," worth one A-level special contribution and 8,000 credits, has special functions like auxiliary calculation, auxiliary cultivation, optimizing energy operation systems, collecting and analyzing information, gathering dissipated energy, and absorbing the flesh, blood, and life force of slain enemies for personal use. It can quickly strengthen an ordinary person with no combat ability to Silver High-rank, reaching the threshold of Gold-rank, and that's not even its limit.
The only problem with this auxiliary soul body is that when the experimenter's strength reaches the Gold boundary in the later stages, it becomes unstable. The artificial soul body can't perfectly integrate with the experimenter's original soul, causing rejection reactions that endanger life. During the experiment, if Joshua and Nostradamus hadn't been watching closely, the experimenter might have been in life-threatening danger.
The reason this internal academy exchange system is so well-developed is that Joshua is using it as a trial for the exploration department's reward system. When the empire officially begins external exploration, credits can be renamed "contribution points," and special contributions don't need a name change. They serve as performance bonuses beyond the basic welfare and salary, which can both stimulate the enthusiasm of many explorers and reasonably enhance their strength.
"When the time is right, the exploration department will officially launch, and the exchange system going online should also be put on the agenda... Most of the experimental technologies used as rewards should also be perfected."
Thinking this, Joshua stood high in the stratosphere, looking south, and nodded slightly. "The empire's technological reserves alone are far from enough... This trip to the Far South is also a good opportunity to find partners. The elves' Druidic path can freely transform into the Tree of Life or even a dragon's body. In terms of biological bloodline technology, they are far more advanced than our race conversion ritual. If we can cooperate, we can quickly make certain experimental technologies practical."
"But Joshua... aren't you specialized in Steel Force? Why are you researching so many strange things?"
Beside him, Number Three asked in confusion. As the creator of Winterfell Academy's server and database, and a backup copy of the entire Moldavia database, she naturally knew what Joshua and Nostradamus were researching. Some of it, the artificial intelligence girl found acceptable, but certain things, like that artificial soul body, gave Number Three chills and made her feel threatened.
After all, she herself was an artificial soul, just much more advanced. Even though she knew Joshua wasn't some madman, she still felt a bit scared.
"Specializing in one path can certainly lead to rapid progress, but not opening your eyes to see the world and understand its vastness will only trap you in a vortex of ignorance from which you can't escape."
Reaching out his hand, Joshua intended to pat Number Three on the head, but the somewhat sulky girl turned around, causing the warrior's hand to land on her wing. Joshua didn't mind at first; he understood Number Three's conflicted feelings. But when he felt an unusual texture in his hand, Joshua was startled. "Wait, in such a short time, you've already achieved preliminary soul materialization?"
The smooth feathery texture in the warrior's hand, though still somewhat ethereal, vaguely had a sensation similar to water... Joshua hadn't thought much of it at first, but after realizing it, he was shocked. Since the last time the Sage of the Eastern Sea came to Moldavia and exchanged the Essence-Spirit Conversion Rune with him, Joshua had been busy helping Israel, Baniel, and others perfect the void warship production line and information terminal server, so he hadn't had time to study it. He had handed the rune's original form to Number Three, letting the girl, who was also just a soul, explore the mysteries of Essence-Spirit Conversion on her own... But how long had it been? And she already had results?
"Hmph... After all, I've had Lord Gehr's rune for a while now, and this Essence-Spirit Conversion Rune really suits my current state. It's just a small achievement—nothing much."
Seeing Joshua's surprised expression, Number Three couldn't help but proudly flutter her small wings behind her. She had been maintaining this state ever since she made progress, but the warrior hadn't noticed, which had been discouraging. But now, being able to shock him a little was enough to satisfy her.
"Not bad, not bad... Really not bad..."
Joshua was beaming with joy, as if he were happier than if he had advanced himself. He reached out and touched Number Three's head again, and this time, she didn't avoid it.
The artificial intelligence, Number Three, understood the man before her better than most people—rather than making rapid progress himself and leaving everyone behind, he preferred that those around him could keep up with his pace and move forward together.
"Time to go home."
After feeling gratified, Joshua looked at the direction of the sun and said, "It's almost time. The spatial gate should be adjusted by now."
"Alright."
Number Three nodded. She knew the warrior's plan.
Today was February 15th, Year 837 of the Falling Stars Era, and it was also the day he had planned to head to the Far South, to the forest elf gathering place around the Eternal Lake, to meet with the Nature Mentor and the current Fairy Empress.
And so, the next second, the two of them descended from the high sky, passing through clouds and wind, arriving above Moldavia. From here, they could overlook every corner of this city, which had become a metropolis of millions. And at the center of this city, atop a building resembling a castle, a faint blue spatial light flickered.
It was time to depart.