The journey back to Estate felt remained quiet,lucien still kept thinking about the offer.
The carriage moved steadily westward while the distant royal palace gates slowly disappeared behind the horizon.
Malen occupied the seat across from him.
Gandalf sat nearby, calmly reading a book.
There was far too much lucien needed to think about and they would give him the ti for it.
The thousand-year demonic invasions, Supre Mage Council, Royal Guardian,Princess Elena and lastly the King’s proposal.
The list seed endless.
Eventually Malen broke the silence.
"So."
Lucien looked up seeing this the older man smiled.
"It seems the eting was eventful."
For several seconds he stared then nodded.
Then Gandalf closed his book.
"So what did the king offer"Malen asked
"The king offered a offer I find too good to refuse"
"And what is it?"Malen continued
He promised a hereditary duchy, protection and money in exchange for giving them the production lines.
Malen seed particularly interested in the forr.
"A hereditary duchy."
The old knight leaned back and nodded.
"I’ll admit I didn’t expect that."
"Neither did I."
"Will you accept?"
Lucien remained silent for several monts.
Eventually he nodded.
"Probably."
Malen looked unsurprised.
"It solves more problems than it creates."
Gandalf nodded in agreent.
"The King’s reasoning was sound."
That was true.
The offer wasn’t simply prestige.
It was Political protection,the kind Elarion would increasingly require.
The conversation eventually shifted toward more troubling subjects.
The Great Tear and demonic invasions.
The information provided by the Royal Guardian.
For a while nobody spoke then Malen sighed.
"Every thousand years."
The old administrator rubbed his knight.
"I preferred not knowing."
"Most people would."
Gandalf’s voice remained calm.
"The burden of knowledge is rarely pleasant."
Lucien stared through the carriage window.
The landscape continued passing by.
People living ordinary lives.
People completely unaware of the truth.
Eventually he spoke.
"The Royal Guardian believes numbers are the problem."
Both n looked toward him.
Lucien continued.
"He thinks humanity can fight the stronger demons."
"The issue is everything else."
"The millions or billions that follow."
Malen frowned.
"And he thinks our weapons help solve that."
"Yes."
The old administrator slowly nodded.
That explanation actually made sense.
Gandalf spoke"You learned more in a month than most people learn in a lifeti."
Lucien laughed quietly.
The old mage wasn’t wrong about that
His entire understanding of the world had changed.
Everything felt larger now.
The kingdoms,The continent.
The threats lurking beyond it.
And most largest of them the future.
The carriage reached the estate but all three of them seed engaged in their own world weighing pros and cons of the offer and the coachn preferred not to disturb them.
After an hour or so gandalf finally spoke"so what now"
"We return to elarion as soon as possible,there is much to do"Lucien replied
"Ask everyone to gather we march to elarion"he continued.
For the first ti in weeks, Lucien felt himself relax.
Then—
DING!
The sound echoed inside his mind.
The carriage instantly beca silent.
Lucien froze.
Malen noticed imdiately.
"What happened?"
Lucien didn’t answer his eyes remained glued to the system’s panel.
LEGENDARY QUEST COMPLETED
Quest: Journey to the Capital
Objectives:
Go to the Capital — Completed ✓
Discover the Truth Behind the World’s Changes — Completed ✓
Uncover the Truth of the your mother death— Partial Completion ✓
For several seconds Lucien simply stared.
His heart began beating faster.
Thus was the first main quest issued by the system and one of the longest quest too.
Finally completed.
Another notification appeared.
Calculating Rewards...
Legendary Quest Reward Confird
The carriage suddenly felt very small.
Even Malen and Gandalf seed to fade into the background.
Then the final ssage appeared.
Reward Granted
Technology Tree of aetherion civilization Unlocked
Legendary Reward Activated
System full permissions granted.
Lucien stared at those three words.
Technology Tree Unlocked.
For the first ti since receiving the system, genuine anticipation flooded through him.
Because if the previous rewards had created Elarion then this Legendary Reward might change the entire world.
The new interface unfolded slowly before Lucien’s eyes.
And unlike previous system windows, this one felt vast,enormous and almost endless.
Countless interconnected branches stretched across the screen.
Thousands of symbols,thousands of nas and thousands of possibilities.
For several monts Lucien simply stared at it.
Then the system finally responded.
LEGENDARY REWARD ACTIVATED
TECHNOLOGY TREE UNLOCKED
The display shifted.
Three enormous branches appeared.
Each occupying a separate section of the interface.
GROUND FORCES
NAVAL FORCES
AIR FORCES
Lucien Adam’s apple bobbed down slowly seeing the rewards.
Even the nas alone carried enormous implications.
The system continued.
NOTICE
Technologies must be researched sequentially.
Higher-level technologies cannot be unlocked without prerequisite developnts.
Industrial requirents remain mandatory.
Infrastructure requirents remain mandatory.
Resource requirents remain mandatory.
Current developnt (Rudintary)
Lucien imdiately understood imdiately now there would be no more miracles.
The system would provide knowledge only now and not perform magic anymore.
Finally lucien clicked at ground forces.
The Ground Forces branch expanded first.
Hundreds of interconnected technologies appeared.
Infantry equipnt,machine guns,logistics,vehicles,artillery,armor,communications,engineering,anti air guns,rpg,mortars,multi barrel rocket launchers everything imaginable or possible tech was there and
each connected to dozens of others.
Lucien quickly noticed sothing interesting.
The landship appeared at top followed by Warhound within the tree.
Their icons glowed golden while the rest either dim or total black like so fog preventing him from seeing them.
Warhound Mark II
Status: Researched and in production phase.
Lines extended outward from the tank.
New vehicles branched from it.
dium tanks,Heavy tanks,Main battle tanks,Self-propelled artillery,Tank destroyers,Armored personnel carriers.
Entire families of vehicles.
He first scrolled to the next tank requirents
dium Tank Developnt
Requirents:Advanced tallurgy,Improved Engine,Enhanced Suspension Systems,Industrial ecosystem of minimum Tier III.
Another appeared.
Heavy Tank Developnt
Requirents:
Advanced Armor Manufacturing,Large-Caliber Tank Guns,Heavy Industrial Infrastructure,Industrial ecosystem of minimum Tier IV.
He kept scrolling down.
Thousands of designs.
Thousands of future possibilities.
In the rifles section first appeared flintlock then mauser98k followed by Ak47 then more modern rifles after it the sa black fog.
The Ground Tree alone looked capable of occupying generations.
Then Lucien noticed sothing else.
The technologies weren’t isolated.
Every weapon possessed dependencies.
A better tank required better tallurgy.
Better tallurgy required improved steel production.
Improved steel production required industrial machinery.
Industrial machinery required precision manufacturing.
The entire tree connected together.
Nothing existed independently.
The system wasn’t teaching making weapons anymore.
It was teaching how to build a civilization.
The Naval Tree expanded next.
Lucien imdiately understood why the system separated it.
Its scale was absurd to the point it even consisted of experintal ships containing only missiles or projects large enough that they were considered impossible according to his old world’s standards.
Destroyers,Cruisers,Battleships,Submarines,Aircraft carriers,Radar systems,Fire-control computers,Naval aviation.
Entire technological revolutions hidden behind countless prerequisites.
Even viewing the tree felt overwhelming.
Then the Air Tree appeared And at this point Lucien stopped breathing.
Because unlike the previous branches, almost every icon remained dark.
Locked and Waiting to be unlocked.
The earliest sections showed primitive aircraft.
Observation planes, balloons,Training aircraft,Early fighters,Early bombers.
Then ca more advanced generations.
Jet aircraft,Supersonic aircraft,Missiles,Airborne radar,Strategic bombers.
The branches continued beyond that.
The deeper sections again disappeared into endless darkness.
Even the system refused to display them.
INSUFFICIENT PREREQUISITES
Lucien slowly leaned back.
The implications were staggering.
The technology tree wasn’t a collection of rewards.
It was a roadmap.
A roadmap stretching centuries into the future.
And for the first ti since arriving in this world, he finally understood the true purpose of the system.
It had never intended to help him build a city.
It always intended to help him build a civilization slowly.
Slowly lucien looks away from the interface finding both malen and gandalf looking towards him
"What now" both said at the sa ti.
"We unlocked sothing big" lucien replied
"And this big is how big exactly"
" Enough to keep us busy for decades to co and maybe more"lucien continued
The old mage looked more hunched within few seconds of hearing it.
"The system"
"Finally after a brief pause he continued it gave entire technology tree necessary for civilization developnt"
" It consists everything needed for the developnt of ground forces,naval forces and air forces"
"Air forces"Even malen looked focussed on that world.
" You an to say flying chanized units"
Lucien nodded at this"yes flying chanized units, you can call them aeroplane and they are much faster than you are thinking or imagining and way deadlier too"
Both Malen and gandalf kept quiet after hearing this.
"We should probably reach elarion first, i can’t carry this burden of research alone anymore " said the old wizard looking teary eyed.
Lucien simply nodded at this and asked everyone to prepare for departure at the earliest ti possible..
User Comments
0 comments from readers