Chapter 540: Solar Sail
The boundary membrane bubble carrying Large Specimen No. 1 slowly approached the World Crystal Wall, like one large and one small bubble nearing each other. The point of contact began to turn into a boundary membrane, while the rest began to crystallize into a wall.
The world began to slowly digest this island. Betty and the others looked at the World Contribution column on their panels, which showed that the crystal wall was in the process of digestion.
Bayen said happily: “As discoverers and scavengers, according to Lord Ace’s rules, in addition to a one-time Fate Point reward, we can also receive feedback from the world’s devouring of the specimen afterward. This is a steady stream of resources. Everyone, work hard scavenging!”
Betty curled her lips; she really didn’t like this word. Seeing that everyone was happy, she decided not to speak for now.
As Large Specimen No. 1 gradually merged with the world, a gust of thin Source Power blew into the “bubble” it was in. Suddenly, the entire super-large island began to recover. It wasn’t quite appropriate to call it a super-large island; it should be called a continent. It was at least the size of the Australian continent from his previous life, hovering there somewhat restlessly.
As time passed, the “bubble” gradually submerged into the stellar system within the world. It broke away from the gravitational capture of the giant gas planet, arriving at the habitable zone to receive the sunshine.
The entire bubble slowly rotated and revolved, and day, night, and the alternation of four seasons appeared on the continent.
The organics here began to resurrect. One by one, slumbering and dried-up True Spirits were reborn after entering the world environment. Ignorant primitive “gods” appeared one after another. In just three months, this continent actually ushered in a revival.
Lush jungles, hot climate, exotic plants, trees, fish, insects, flowers, birds, and beasts—everything was so fresh. Intelligent creatures also gradually appeared. They looked like they should be humans too, with crimson skin, very primitive and ignorant.
Shortly after humans appeared, a large number of totem “gods” also began to resurrect. Their memories seemed missing and chaotic, but they had some memories, gradually forming a loose “god” alliance headed by the Sun Totem God.
…
Planet Bernard.
The Golden Wizard Warren lived here. This was the world of Mages and Priests, the kingdom ruled by the Son of God, the private home Ace gave to Augustus, and also the testing ground for experimenting with the usage of the Magic Net.
For most wizards, such a living environment was not very suitable, lacking the necessary academic atmosphere and competitors. But Warren hadn’t left for a long time. It wasn’t that he didn’t want a better academic environment, but he was bound by a task.
[Main Task: Ancestor of Mages. You are a wizard. When you discovered that people without magical aptitude could also meditate through the Magic Net, the wheels of history began to roll over.]
This was the reason that bound Warren. It was a series of tasks to lead a group of Mages to construct a complete, systematic, and progressive Mage profession system.
As long as the completion rate reached over sixty percent, he could receive the reward. And this reward was extremely precious Source Points, precious items that could help break through limits and achieve the Level 3 Legend.
According to the instructions, as long as he obtained seven hundred Source Points, he could basically guarantee advancement to Level 3.
Therefore, Warren was exceptionally serious. He gathered a group of boys and girls without magical talent to train. As for those with magical talent, they could just directly take the path of wizards.
A Mage’s meditation relied entirely on the Magic Net, but this still had myriad connections with wizards. To become a Mage, the key lay in the spellbook. Warren spent a lot of energy imitating Ace’s grimore to produce growable spellbook with growth potential, as well as extremely cheap and simple minimalist spellbook.
This earned him and his disciples a lot of magic stones. But for a Golden Wizard, magic stones had gradually become insignificant. Fate Points were general equivalents, while Source Points were not for sale.
Augustus specially allocated a piece of land for Warren as his Mage Academy. Here, he manufactured a huge magical difference engine and supplemented it with animating spells, ultimately creating a living magical difference engine. He filled and recorded all the secondary spells, Level 0 Spells, Level 1 Spells, Level 2 Spells, and Level 3 Spells he had compiled into it.
Although the spell effects were not optimal, they definitely covered a complete range of categories and a wide variety of types. After doing all this, this place naturally became a holy land for Mages. As long as one paid magic stones, they could obtain equivalent spells from the animated difference engine, and even ask for advice on specific spellcasting essentials.
And this miraculous difference engine, fifty meters high and covering nearly thirty acres, was overall a big box with nearly thirty floors inside. This was both a mechanical computer and a great Tower of Knowledge.
After the birth of this Tower of Knowledge, people gradually called it a wonder. And the completion rate of Warren’s task slowly rose from fifty percent to sixty percent. Nearly five years had passed, and Warren’s disciples also grew up one after another.
Warren let them serve as academy administrators and established a series of systems imitating the Magic Council. Finally, the task completion rate reached seventy percent.
“Perhaps if I continue to stay, I can let the completion rate continue to rise, but I’ve stayed here for far too long. As a wizard, I want to go further away to take a look.”
He looked up at the sky; there was a star looming. His youngest disciple, Thales, was fiddling with Warren’s magified astronomical telescope, carefully observing that star and constantly marveling.
“It’s actually an isolated island suspended in the starry sky. It’s simply unbelievable.”
Warren smiled and submitted the task. Gurgling Source Power descended. He instantly broke through the limit of a Golden Wizard, achieving a Level 3 Legendary Wizard.
The disciples looked at the teacher whose aura suddenly became extremely terrifying, filled with awe in their hearts. Thales realized it early and laughed loudly: “Congratulations, Teacher, on the great increase in strength. Have you broken through to the Fourth Ring?”
Warren nodded, looked around at everyone, and said: “In this world, there is no dinner that doesn’t end. The fate between us is also coming to an end. Three days later, I shall leave Planet Bernard and head for the starry sky!”
The disciples were greatly shocked and asked him to stay one after another. Seeing that Warren was determined to leave, they changed their minds. Several disciples who usually took charge of a section in the academy began to hint to Warren that they could inherit his mantle.
Warren didn’t want to pay attention to these matters. He watched everyone fighting for power and profit with some amusement, but didn’t plan to intervene anymore, preparing to leave early.
Just then, Thales quietly found Warren.
“Teacher, I want to go to the starry sky with you!”
Warren, who didn’t plan to take anyone away, pondered and said: “Your parents are still alive. If you go to the starry sky with me, I’m afraid your parents will have no one to take care of them.”
Thales squatted down, knelt, and said:
“Teacher, I have two older brothers and an older sister. Even if I leave, my parents should not lack people to take care of them.
“It’s not that I don’t want to accompany my parents, but I yearn for the starry sky so much. I want to see what the isolated island in the starry sky looks like. I want to know how hot the sun really is. I want to know how big this starry sky really is.
“I yearn for the unknown, I want to explore the unknown, I want to obtain more knowledge!”
Warren looked at Thales’s pure and longing eyes, his heart slightly touched: “You have no magical aptitude; it’s a pity to be a Mage. I agree to take you along. Go say goodbye to your family tonight. Tomorrow at the time of morning glow, you must be here.”
Thales was as excited as a galloping donkey. While running, he took out his spellbook and cast the secondary spell Swiftness on himself. Usually, an intermediate Mage apprentice had more than five secondary spell slots, but at most wouldn’t exceed ten.
Thales currently had seven spell slots. He was very glad he stored “Secondary Swiftness” today, otherwise this round trip would have been very uneasy.
Warren shook his head, looking at the excited Thales. Even people from different worlds all possessed the desire to look up at the starry sky. This touched the softest part of Warren’s heart, making the corner of his mouth curve into a slight smile.
The door to the mental imagery world opened. A large number of magified metal parts floated within it. Warren manipulated the parts to assemble bit by bit. Since he planned to take Thales across the starry sky, he couldn’t just use his Legendary body to shuttle directly. He could survive in a vacuum, but Thales couldn’t.
The sky gradually brightened. Thales ran to the back mountain where Warren was and found a cylindrical mechanical structure abruptly appearing there.
That mechanical structure was about ten meters high and roughly four meters in diameter. The top was like a big head, composed of a hemispherical integrated glass. Carrying the food prepared by his parents and the Dream God amulet hung around his neck by his sister, Thales arrived panting heavily in front of the mechanical structure.
“What is this?”
Warren, having just inlaid a few parts, smiled slightly and said to Thales: “This is my magical creation, a moving megastructure, the Starry Sky Butterfly. We will ride it into the beautiful stellar system and head to other habitable planets.”
Thales looked at this big guy with glowing eyes. Although he felt this big guy didn’t look like a butterfly no matter how he looked at it—at most a silkworm chrysalis—this didn’t affect Thales’s excitement. He asked expectantly: “Can we go to that isolated island suspended in the sky?”
Warren smiled amiably and said: “Of course we can. But it’s not called an isolated island there; it’s called the Totem Continent. You can even directly enter the Totem Continent to observe and study everything there.”
Warren opened his arms. The young Thales looked up at him, saw the sparse starry sky behind him, and nodded excitedly.
The hemispherical glass cover at the top of that cylindrical machine flew up and hovered above it. Warren grabbed Thales, jumped lightly, and entered the machine. The glass cover slowly lowered, making a creaking sound.
Warren pressed the crystal ball right in the middle and said: “This is the operation core. All operations of this flying machine require permissions and corresponding passwords. I’ll give you passenger permission now.”
Saying that, Warren grabbed Thales’s hand and also pressed it on the crystal ball. The crystal ball flickered slightly. Warren spoke words Thales couldn’t understand in a strange aria, and then felt his hand get slightly hot.
“Teacher, what were you saying?”
Warren slapped his forehead and said: “Haha, forgot to tell you. Wizards have their own unique language. This is a supernatural language created by the Mentor of All Wizards, His Holiness the God of Dreams and Magic Net, Ace, based on Dragon Language, Abyssal Language, Hell Language, Divine Language, and other supernatural languages. Simply put, every letter of this language possesses magic.”
Thales listened enviously and asked in a low voice: “Then can I learn the language of wizards?”
Warren smiled and said: “Of course you can, but knowledge is not priceless. How about this: I’ll teach you how to operate the Starry Sky Butterfly. You drive this flying machine for me during this time, and I will teach you the supernatural language of wizards, Magic Language, as a reward.”
Thales nodded heavily. This was completely a freebie. The teacher was really too gentle.
After a while, the magic circle at the bottom of the Starry Sky Butterfly flickered, spewing out bursts of flames, and rose into the air.
Warren constantly guided Thales to calculate the gravity situation clearly, striving to break free from the gravity of Planet Bernard. After flying to a certain height, the Starry Sky Butterfly began to revolve around Planet Bernard, rotating circle after circle like this.
Thales looked at his hometown. The azure planet was so beautiful, the clouds so brilliant under the sunlight. He waved goodbye. The Starry Sky Butterfly broke away from its orbit and flew towards a neighboring habitable planet.
This was when Warren walked over, taught Thales to extinguish the jet flames at the bottom, and said: “Our magic stones are limited. If we only use magic stones for jet propulsion, the consumed magic stones are too many, and we can’t fly far. Therefore, I designed a unique device. This is also why this flying machine is called the Starry Sky Butterfly.”
After speaking, he chanted a password. Mana pulsed. The four spatial seals on the northern part of the Starry Sky Butterfly were suddenly unsealed. With a swish, thin metal light wings full of geometric beauty extended out. The light wings were so huge, hundreds of meters long, and the four light wings extended to an extremely large area.
Thales walked to the edge of the glass cover, looking at those thin light wings full of metallic texture. His eyes were full of shock and excitement. At this moment, this flying machine really looked like a butterfly of the starry universe, sailing gracefully in the vacuum.
Warren seemed not to care on the surface, but looking at Thales’s excited eyes and eyes full of stars, the smile at the corner of his mouth couldn’t be hidden no matter what.
Thales hurriedly asked: “Teacher, are we going to flap our wings and fly like a butterfly?”
Warren rubbed his head and said with a smile: “Blame me for not laying a good foundation for you. You lack common sense for wizards too much. This is a Solar Sail. Just like a wind sail, sunlight also has propulsive force. This power is hard to be effective in places with atmospheric resistance, but in a vacuum, light itself is a kind of thrust.
“In other words, the vacuum we speak of is not a true vacuum. Countless rays of light fill this vacuum. The Solar Sail is the new sail for space sailing. Perhaps one day in the future, there will be countless solar sails traveling back and forth among various habitable planets in space.”
Thales’s eyes shone with brilliance. He nodded excitedly and said: “Teacher, you are too amazing, to actually be able to manufacture such a miraculous flying machine.”
His face darkened again, and he whispered: “You usually don’t teach me wizard knowledge. Although I must rely on the Magic Net to cast spells, I also want to study the truth of the world.”
Warren rubbed his head and said: “It’s my fault. We’ll take advantage of this travel time to give you good makeup lessons. The courses are not easy, hahaha…”
The angle of the light sail adjusted. The Starry Sky Butterfly rapidly rushed towards the nearest habitable planet. That planet looked somewhat dark red, seemingly surging with something.
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