It seed like the ball had really kept it in for a long ti in this world. — Considering the kind of state he was in, pretending to be a rock ball previously, even Gawain, the fellow who’d been hanging in the sky for so many years could not help but admire it. Such willpower could not be found in the average Buddha-nature.
And after such an extended period of repressing himself and living as a fake rock, now that it could finally unbind its tongue, the ball rattled on with no end. It constantly exclaid about the joy of conversing with humans and also lanted the dullness of people in this era and this world.
“Sigh, if it wasn’t for the facts laid out here, who would dare believe that civilization had regressed to this extent? That bunch of soldiers standing guard actually have no knowledge of even concepts like the atmosphere or geomagnetic fields…”
“That druid called Pittman, there’s definitely sothing wrong with his brain. He made countless trips here these two days. Each ti, the topic of conversation was only one, and that was urging to admit that I’m a dragon egg. He even asked if dragons had to hatch from their eggs twice. Damn it, so damn annoying. I’ve really, already left my shell, alright? If I break my shell one more ti, I’ll be dead!”
“And that female human wearing a red dress, she would hold all sorts of strange magic articles against my body all day long and even asked if she could scrape so chippings off my body to study. Eek—— Scared this ball to death! Virtually as abnormal as that bunch of Master Mages back in those years…”
At this point, Gawain could not help but interrupt, “Um, that abnormal human female dressed in red that you spoke of is my family mber, my granddaughter.”
“Oh—— Then you’ve got to educate her properly. Research cannot be done this way. She will develop problems ntally sooner or later this way.” The ball floated up and down, seeming to be slightly embarrassed. “Speaking of that, that bunch of Master Mages from a thousand years ago do know sothing. Initially, I’d even intended to communicate with them and try to figure out a way to go ho, but who would’ve expected that all that bunch of fellows had in mind was to study . Tsk tsk, if only those people then were as amiable as you are.”
Gawain looked at it with slight curiosity. “How many years has it been since you landed in this world? Or, how many years had it been since you landed in this world when those Master Mages caught you?”
“Sigh, I was caught once I arrived here,” The ball said dejectedly. “Then I was locked up in that laboratory all the ti, and it seed like I’d been locked up for a very long ti — so long that I’d even learned your language.”
Gawain sized the other party up. “Those Master Mages never realized that you were actually an intelligent being?”
“Hehe, I was cautious.” The ball declared triumphantly, “When I’d just landed in this world, I’d instinctively built a protective shell for myself using tal and rock. I even switched myself into a semi-hibernation state, no signs of life at all. And because I could not understand this world’s language in the beginning, I had no idea what was happening. I kept pretending to be a piece of rock and observed in secret.”
“Those Master Mages later found and brought to the laboratory. I’d planned on escaping at first, but they were really too formidable. A slight movent would put them on alert, so I really didn’t dare to move. But I was pretty lucky. So inexplicable phenona would always occur near where I was found, so they thought I was an ancient sealed object or the like and did not slice open at the first chance…”
At this point, the ball’s voice suddenly sounded terrified. “It was really unsettling. I rember, later on, they ended the research for the first phase, and they were really preparing to cut open. However, an order suddenly ca, requiring all facility personnel to imdiately transfer, and they were not allowed to take any test samples found locally. I managed to preserve my life then — but those Master Mages especially wickedly added a seal to the laboratory before leaving. In the end, I slept for many, many years. And everything that ca afterward, you’re aware.”
The ball finished sharing his experience in those years. Gawain imdiately took note of his last few sentences. “You said those researches suddenly received an order that on top of asking them to evacuate swiftly, it also demanded they leave all local samples in the facility?”
“Yeah,” the ball casually replied, “back then, they never realized that I was actually alive, so they did not avoid regardless of whatever they were discussing. That order was directly read out in the laboratory. I rember it especially clearly.”
Gawain frowned instantly, rubbing his chin as he mused.
The round ball questioned curiously, “What’s wrong? There’s a problem?”
“Such evacuation orders wouldn’t be given in normal circumstances,” Gawain explained. “Back then, the Gondor Empire recalled every pioneer team because the gains and losses were disproportionate. There were no pressing problems, but the evacuation order you heard was clearly an urgent order. Moreover, not allowed to take any locally found test samples… Why couldn’t they take the samples with them?”
The ball thought for a mont. “Could it be because the samples were polluted? Or so installation went out of control when they were studying the samples, and there was no ti to salvage it?”
“The forr is highly possible, the latter, not quite.” Gawain recalled the state of the remnants in the mountains.” Although it was an urgent evacuation, I observed the remnants. The facility was emptied in an orderly manner. Many big-scale installations were taken away, and they had plenty of ti to transfer the samples. Say, what exactly were they researching in these mountains back in those days?”
“That, I don’t know. I wasn’t the one doing the research, I was the one being researched,” the ball said helplessly. “But there were a few occasions where I caught sight of so things when they were transferring to other laboratories. They pushed so mutated, completely swollen corpses into the incinerator room. I suspect those corpses were from them using humans in experints. Though they no longer looked like humans, you could tell they used to be humans at one glance.”
“Experinting on human subjects?” Gawain faltered; he really hadn’t expected such to be the secret hidden in the Gondor research facility. “Were there any other traits of those test subjects?”
“Let think… Ah yes, other than being slightly bigger and taller than average humans and having signs of deformity on their limbs, there was also sothing like crystals growing on various parts of their bodies. Like crystals separated out from biological tissues. One researcher, how did he put it…?” The ball thought hard and finally recalled the term. “Ah, he called them ‘divine evils’. But I don’t know whether the ‘divine evils’ referred to those crystals growing on those test subjects or the test subjects themselves. Your language is too inconvenient.”
“Divine evils?” Gawain’s brows were tightly knitted together. He could not help but repeat these words.
This was not a term that could be casually used.
The evils of divinity, forbidden, a violation of rules, a renouncent of divine will. Born because of divine power, but they were sothing that should not have co into being at all. So believed they were the negative elents released due to agony in the mont gods lost their consciences and fell into degeneration. Others thought they were ssengers that the gods sent to the mortal world to punish sinners, as mortals ddling in the gods’ authority had infuriated all the gods. Regardless of which, this term was related to the gods.
In the era of the Gondor Empire, the belief in gods was as thriving as present-day. It was impossible that those researchers would pointlessly use the term ‘divine evils’, which had such significant aning, to refer to those research products without careful consideration.
An urgent order a thousand years ago had the research facilities in the Dark Range deserted, but this ergency order also demanded for them to leave all local samples behind. Then did the ‘human experints’ that the ball saw share so relation with the ‘local samples’ ntioned in that order?
The latter were the forr’s tools and materials? Energy source? Or technical source?
Of course, these were not Gawain’s greatest concerns. His primary concern was — were the samples that the researchers of the empire didn’t take with them a thousand years ago still left in the remnants in the Dark Range?
A thousand years had passed. Would those samples have weathered? Decayed? Disintegrated? Or had they seen no change at all and were even subtly influencing the area!
“You seem a little nervous?” Although the tal ball wasn’t a human, in its prolonged process of observing humankind, it had learned how to analyze human emotions. “Why are you worried? Those were research projects of a thousand years ago. By this ti, those people should be long dead, and even the facility was abandoned. What implications could there be?”
“I’m worried about the samples that they didn’t take with them.” Gawain frowned as he asked, “Do you know where they left those samples?”
The ball swayed. “Not at all. Though I was also classified as a ‘local sample’, those Master Mages were clearly no fools. They would not confuse with their true samples, so I never ca into contact with the facility’s real center. Why? You wish to find and bring out those things?”
Gawain pursed his lips. “Find them at the least, so I’d know what they are.”
The scale of the remnants in the mountains was massive, even to the extent where it was unbelievable. Gawain had already explored it once with a team, but he suspected that the area they’d seen during that exploration was less than a fifth of the entire remnants. In other words, in the remaining four-fifths of the remnants, it was possible for anything to be hidden!
“If you wish to explore, you better be careful.” The tal ball perceived what Gawain had in mind and reminded him with good intentions. “Given the scale and risk level of that facility, it’s almost impossible to explore the entire place inside with just the manpower in your camp.”
“I know.” Gawain nodded. “I will work within my ans. Let’s move on. We’ll talk about you first.”
The tal ball faltered for a mont. “About ? What’s there to talk about?”
“Don’t you know how striking you look in this world?” Gawain said with a wry smile. “There do not exist lifeforms like you on this world at all. If you run out just like that, how would you introduce yourself to people?”
“Boss Saint Nicholas Egg.”
“…”
“Alright, I was joking.” Nicholas Egg slowly sank a little, almost touching the ground. “The majority of the people in this era are fools. There are indeed very few people like you, who are smart and can be communicated with. So speak, what are your arrangents for ?”
“My explanation to the outside of your identity is that you are a magical equipnt that stores an ancient soul. However, at present, only so of the soldiers know this. Most of the civilians in the camp have yet to see you. If you think there’s no problem, you may show yourself in the camp from today onwards using this identity.”
“Aha, sounds pretty cool!”
Clearly, Mr. (Mdm.) Nicholas Egg was rather pleased with Gawain’s arrangent.
Potential for attaining Buddhahood, that is said to be present in every person
User Comments
0 comments from readers