Chapter 204 — The Shift of Magic
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
Gao Yang came to the collection point and saw that the surface of the ore was covered by a thick layer of porous, greyish-white rock that looked as though it had been weathered, and that chunks of ore bearing a faint violet or pale blue luster were "set" within it, as though they were some kind of condensation nuclei.
"The ones on the surface are all small pieces; the deeper you dig, the better the quality and the larger the size of the ore. The truly valuable veins will still require deep digging," Hom explained from the side. "This soft, weathered rock layer isn't well suited to sinking a mine shaft—it collapses too easily—so it would be better to cut an open pit directly. With Rebecca crystals, blasting through the rock layer won't be difficult."
Gao Yang nodded. "I saw the reports you sent back. You've found many things never before seen in the outside world, and both the flora and fauna show signs of mutation."
"Yes, my lord," Hom replied. "But this is the first time we've found mineral deposits over such a large area as this."
Gao Yang murmured an "Mm" and tilted his head slightly to observe the surrounding terrain. Seven hundred years ago, Gao Yang Cecil had led troops through the Dark Mountains in search of a path, and at that time this place had not yet been affected by the magic tide. In Gao Yang Cecil's memory, there had been no such strange and uncanny things here.
They had all appeared only after the magic tide.
Amber drew her dagger and, out of curiosity, picked a fragment shot through with blue-violet luster from the rock already dug open at one of the collection points. Holding it up in the sunlight to observe it, she said, "What a strange thing. Old... Gao Yang, is this what you meant—natural substances changing under the influence of the magic tide?"
"The essence of the magic tide is an incomparably powerful surge of magical force. Though mortals cannot use this magic, it can still exert a profound influence on the natural environment," Gao Yang said. "Believe it or not, far more magical materials can be found in the ruins of the ancient Deep Blue Well than here."
Amber's eyes went wide. "Who'd be reckless enough to go mining in a place like that?"
Gao Yang shook his head but did not answer her question.
He looked at the ore before him, but what occupied his mind went well beyond the ore at hand.
He had once speculated that the magic tide might not have erupted only that one time.
The surveillance satellites left in the sky were plainly some kind of early-warning installation aimed at the magic tide (or phenomena like it). The disaster that had previously struck the Cecil Territory had also revealed signs that the magic tide was about to return, and in the surveillance records he had left hanging in the sky in ages past, he had observed phenomena in which the civilizations upon the earth suddenly and inexplicably vanished altogether, and the entire ecosystem was reshuffled and restarted as though from zero.
In the "satellite era," his observations of the earth had been discontinuous owing to severe "frame skipping," so on many occasions he could not make out how those earth-shaking changes on the surface had come about. In the blink of an eye, primitive men built magic cannons; then another blink, and they had moved back into tree hollows, and wearing animal-hide loincloths, they danced in a ring around the campfire. The geology, terrain, and plant distribution in his field of view were turned upside down as well; somewhere in between there might have been decades of devastating war, or perhaps a flood and tsunami lasting seven times seven and forty-nine days, but for a satellite spirit who waited a thousand years for a single frame, these "swift and fleeting" moments of disaster were truly hard to capture.
But something must be causing this "reshuffling." If there was no other answer, then the only answer was the magic tide.