Chapter 10: The Information Age
Starfall Year 838, January 3rd, Southern Province of the Northern Empire, the foremost point of the Southeastern Frontier Fortress Chain, Ares Fortress.
On the watchtower beside the fortress wall stood a tall, gray-haired man. In his hand, he held the severed head of a triceratops, its ferocious visage and sharp horns preserved with lifelike clarity by magic. The man, who bore a scar across his face, glanced at the overcast sky before placing the triceratops head on the windowsill of the watchtower.
At that moment, the cold wind churned the clouds, and the sky surged like an ocean with violent waves of cloud. The bone-dry icy wind condensed the moisture in the air, making it clear to anyone that winter was imminent, and a blizzard was on its way.
But the gray-haired man paid it no mind. He adjusted the triceratops head, ensuring it was positioned perfectly to have a clear view of the Central Black Forest, which was almost within arm's reach outside the window. Then, with a practiced smile, he raised the information terminal on his wrist and took a magical selfie with the triceratops head.
[Priest posted a new personal status]
[838/1/3 17:39: Second day at Ares Fortress, accidentally hunted a quasi-Gold-rank heavy armored triceratops. (Photo attached)]
[Location: Ares Fortress, Southern Province. Sent using the second-generation professional exploration psychic terminal.]
After sending this message, the gray-haired man—Priest—immediately took the triceratops head from the windowsill and placed it into a specialized preservation magic bag. It was clear that the magic had preserved the triceratops's dying fury and rage with remarkable clarity, giving it an imposing presence. But all of this was thanks to the magic; if the magic were to fade, the head, lacking any preservative measures, would rot.
Having done this, Priest linked back to his information terminal.
[Brandy liked your new status.]
[Brandy: Big brother is amazing!]
[Dar liked your new status.]
[Dar: Gotta say, buddy, you look awesome!]
[Factory Owner Lund liked your new status.]
[...]
[Syndicate liked your new status.]
[Lin (Administrator exclusive purple ID) liked your new status.]
Watching the rapidly increasing comments and likes from friends under his photo, Priest couldn't help but show a nostalgic smile. Especially seeing his sister Brandy's reply, he felt his heart fill with joy and motivation, as if he could go out and hunt a few more rounds.
"Thank the Magic Net, thank the information terminal, thank the status posting and comment functions, and thank the great Lord."
After sincerely thanking all of the above in his heart, Priest gazed at the gem-like information terminal on his wrist and couldn't help but sigh in admiration: "This invention is truly magnificent."
Ever since Priest accepted Joshua's invitation last year and joined the Imperial Foreign Exploration Department as a student of Winterfell Academy's Champion College, he had been forced to leave his sister in Moldavia, under the care of the academy's specially assigned personnel and his friend Dar. Meanwhile, he underwent all sorts of grueling training and practical expeditions... Separation was long, reunions were brief. Every time Priest returned to Moldavia for a short rest, he felt both exceptionally happy and pained—happy to finally reunite with his family, pained that he would soon have to part again, with no news for months.
In truth, this kind of separation pain was extremely common on the Mycroft Continent. Whether adventurers or mercenaries, long-distance merchants or traveling artists, all required long periods away from home. This was even more true for soldiers stationed at the frontier, thousands of miles from their families... Although letters existed, communication magic existed, and even the light projection spell for transmitting images wasn't a particularly advanced magic, for the vast majority of ordinary people, and especially those in special circumstances, these methods were mostly unusable.
Priest, who spent his years surviving in various death zones, was originally one of them. But recently, this pain of separation had disappeared for him, for the Northerners, or rather, for some fortunate residents of the Empire!
Because the new generation of information terminals had gained functions called 'status posting' and 'adding familiar contacts'!
The information terminal was another revolutionary magical artifact born under the guidance of that legendary lord from Northern Moldavia. The earliest test version of the information terminal already possessed numerous special functions, such as capturing magical images, recording video, recording audio, detecting elemental concentrations, and querying data. Later updates added special modules like the academy's internal forum and trading section—and just in the past two months, due to further development of the Magic Net and the addition of servers, the new generation of information terminals had gained many new functions and designs!
Every holder of an information terminal must undergo real-name authentication. After authentication, they receive a unique personal code. By exchanging personal codes, terminal users can add each other as friends, allowing them to instantly receive updates from the other party and post replies—in other words, with the support of the Magic Net, they could achieve near-real-time communication!
The emergence of this function was almost revolutionary for the Mycroft World, where long-distance communication methods were quite limited and were essentially the privilege of Transcendents! After confirming the reliability of the status posting and private message functions, almost all of the Empire's merchant caravans and slightly wealthier adventuring teams and mercenary groups unhesitatingly spent large sums to purchase information terminals, a magical artifact they had previously been hesitant about.
The massive sales of information terminals brought immense wealth to the Moldavia Territory and countless changes to the world, but that's beside the point. At this moment, Priest was happily looking at a photo sent by his sister via the information terminal. It was a slightly crooked drawing of the two of them, made with colored pencils.
Beneath the drawing was a line of small text: Three more days until big brother comes home.
Yes, the Foreign Exploration Department's squad had successfully completed its mission in the Black Forest. In three more days, after various handover reports and inspections, Priest would be able to return to his home in the North.
At this moment, the replies under Priest's posted status had already exceeded twenty. Many strangers who had followed their friends' replies had also browsed the photo the man had posted. The vast majority were praise, admiration, and likes, but a small number of people voiced discordant notes.
[First floor is the poster's sister? How can such a young girl have an information terminal? And why is she looking at something as bloody as a magical beast's head?]
[Looking at this photo, it seems the poster took it on the city wall of a southern fortress? It involves military architecture; I suggest deleting it—I really think we need to regulate the use of information terminals and also restrict user age.]
Although few in number, these comments did exist. Some people were worried about the sudden spread of this new thing called the information terminal. Others believed that its rapid proliferation would lead to an overflow of information exchange, causing secrets that shouldn't be leaked to be exposed, such as military secrets, and therefore strict posting and user restrictions were needed.
Priest had actually thought about this as well. After all, compared to these latecomers, as some of the earliest users of the information terminal, they had already considered similar issues and reported these potential risks to higher authorities. But regarding these concerns, the higher authority—the Lord's Mansion of Moldavia—had stated that 'the Lord does not consider it a major problem, and His Majesty the Emperor has also given his permission.'
With two legendary figures having spoken, others naturally had no need to worry.
Priest ignored these overly anxious replies and descended the stairs back to the city wall of Ares Fortress. Just then, a deep shadow fell from the sky—accompanied by a sudden intensification of the wind, a sky-obscuring blizzard poured down like a waterfall!
The cold air mass from the northern frozen lands swept across the Helgamos Plains, eventually meeting the humid air pressure mass of the Central Black Forest at the border of the Southern Province. The mixture of moist water vapor and dry, icy wind resulted in one violent snowfall after another. This blizzard could even break the sturdy branches of the Black Forest trees, blocking the dens of countless beasts and magical beasts, forcing them to wake and venture out. Their ultimate fate, under the interference of chaotic forces, was to madly charge towards human settlements, that is, towards one fortress after another.
And this was the cause of the Empire's Southern annual 'Winter Magic Tide.'
Seeing the blizzard, Priest, who was originally from the Southern Empire, knew that the first wave of the magic tide was about to arrive. Tens or even hundreds of millions of frenzied magical beasts would continuously assault every surrounding fortress, including not a few Gold-rank or even Ultimate-rank leaders and king beasts.
Every magic tide was a great test for the Southern Fortress Chain. At this time each year, a considerable number of names would appear on the casualty lists. In the most difficult times, even civilians within the fortresses had to take to the walls to defend against the frenzied magical beasts, resulting in massive casualties. The 'Titan Dragonflies' and 'Polos Giant Serpents' they had observed before were the main forces of the magic tides that had caused severe losses in the past.
"Judging by the scale of this year's snowfall, the central area of the Black Forest is probably going to take a hit too..."
Gazing at the horizon, which was also a blur of gray, Priest murmured to himself: "It's possible that many powerful magical beasts will be forced to wake from hibernation and, as before, attack the fortresses."
By now, Priest had reached the stairs leading up and down the city wall. Here, the garrison of Ares Fortress was on patrol. The soldiers on duty heard the mutterings of this young man from the Empire's new department, who held considerable authority—this news was usually what all soldiers dreaded most during the annual magic tide, as it meant heavy casualties and countless lives lost.
But this time was different. All the soldiers exchanged glances and revealed quite knowing smiles, even starting to discuss in low voices: "Haha, the magic tide is coming!"
"This time, it's hard to say who's going to suffer."
"The more, the better. The stronger, the better. That way, we can finally get some payback!"
"I lost two fingers in the last magic tide. Thanks to the Church of the Seven Gods' magic, or I would have had to retire—but unlike last time, this time, they've picked the wrong time!"
Suddenly, a lively atmosphere emerged at the stairs, and even Priest couldn't help but laugh.
The reason was simple. Everyone knew that the Northern Lord, the great creator of the information terminal, would arrive at Ares Fortress this evening to launch a 'major counterattack' against the Black Forest—something the garrison had been anticipating for decades!
"Oh! Look at that!"
It was now time for the shift change. Two groups of garrison troops were rapidly exchanging posts. As Priest walked through the crowd, he suddenly heard an exclamation. It came from a soldier who was changing shifts. His eyes were wide open, and he raised his hand, pointing to the high sky obscured by the blizzard: "Up there, an airship!"
Instantly, including Priest, many people looked up, facing the blizzard to gaze into the distance. They too saw, amidst the overcast sky and white snow, a black-red airship breaking through the clouds, slowly descending towards Ares Fortress. On the side of this airship, a golden emblem of a hand holding a sword gleamed!
That was the emblem of the Radcliffe Family!
"That Lord is here!"
"It's the Flame Prison Count's airship!"
"It's the Dean!"
As if struck by lightning, the soldiers changing shifts immediately became excited—not that they were disregarding military discipline, because even their commanders, the several Gold-rank experts leading Ares Fortress, were also joyfully looking up at the high sky, at that black-red airship. Priest was even more excited, pulling out his information terminal and quickly snapping a few photos.
[838/1/3 17:55: So excited! Saw the Dean's personal vehicle, it's incredibly cool! (Photo attached)]
But just as the garrison of Ares Fortress was about to arrange personnel to guide the airship in for landing, the black-red airship abruptly stopped in mid-air. Then, under the puzzled gazes of the crowd, a figure opened the airship's hatch, naturally stepped onto the air, and began walking towards the direction of the Black Forest.
The moment this figure appeared, it seized the attention of everyone in the entire fortress. Its presence caused the already raging blizzard to become even more violent, and the surging dark clouds collapsed, converging like a hanging gray-black funnel of smoke towards where the figure stood. For a moment, the crowd could only see a dark mass of snow and mist wreaking havoc in the sky, like a chaotic cloud cluster.
But soon, bright lightning flashed within the dark snow mist. In that instant, an intensely powerful light illuminated the gloomy sky and earth, turning the evening at Ares Fortress as bright as day—and in the next moment, the figure could be seen raising a hand, then gently swinging it down towards the snow-covered Black Forest below.
Immediately, a clear, resonant rumble echoed through the sky and earth.
"Rumble————"
It was the sound of the earth's rocky crust churning.
Accompanied by a violent tremor that could be clearly felt even within Ares Fortress, starting from the edge of the Central Black Forest, layer after layer of soil and rock rose into the air under a colossal force capable of distorting space-time. As if weightless, large chunks of earth split apart, revealing the roots of the Black Forest trees that had solidified the ground like hard rock.
This single wave of the hand had lifted hundreds of square kilometers of Black Forest land, along with the roots of its trees, into the air. And in the next moment, amidst the gasps of everyone in Ares Fortress watching this scene, the figure in the sky casually made the motions of 'turning the hand over' and 'pressing down.'
And with such simple, small gestures, the hundreds of square kilometers of Black Forest split into thousands of smaller pieces in mid-air, then flipped like building blocks, with the treetops facing down and the roots facing up.
Then, this vast expanse of Black Forest fell upside down onto the land it had originally occupied, pressed deep into the earth by a tremendous force—along with the countless magical beasts living within it.
Black-red traces could be seen spreading through the soil, the final remnants of countless magical beasts crushed in their confusion.
The figure—Joshua—had no intention of slowly acting or exchanging pleasantries with the garrison of Ares Fortress.
Since he had already arrived at the Southern Fortress, at the edge of the Black Forest, he would now begin his actions without any waiting or delay.