“Sigh...”
Inside a tent at a human camp in the God-Forsaken Land.
Rudolf placed the component in his hand onto the table, walked out of the tent, and sighed as he looked up at the massive full moon in the sky.
Suddenly, a cold gust of wind blew by, and the elderly mage couldn't help but cover his mouth and cough.
After a moment, he stopped coughing, took a few deep breaths, and looked down at his palm.
The striking, vivid red was glaringly obvious even in the dark of night.
“Sigh...” Rudolf sighed once more.
“Clank, clank... tap, tap, tap...”
The sound of clashing armor mixed with footsteps drew closer, accompanied by a raspy, low voice.
“Rudolf, are you alright?”
“I'm fine.”
Rudolf waved his hand, casually using a cleaning spell to erase the bloodstains from his palm.
Yet, the body of this once-invincible Gold Rank archmage seemed to slouch slightly at this moment.
Seeing this, Moses, a Grand Knight clad in silver armor, gradually slowed his pace and came to a stop about two meters away from the old mage.
After a moment of silence, he spoke, “Are you still unable to draw it?”
Rudolf lowered his gaze and remained silent.
Seeing this, a look of worry appeared on Moses's face as well.
Having spent over a decade with this archmage, he knew this silence meant agreement.
The two stood in silence for a few seconds.
Suddenly, Rudolf murmured:
“Moses, did you know? I have never seen such a miraculous, incomprehensible creation.”
He turned his head and asked Moses:
“My dear friend, you were by my side when I was drawing those blueprints.”
“Do you still remember what was on them? Even just a little bit counts.”
Moses was about to say “of course,” but to his shock, he discovered that every image of those blueprints in his mind had become extremely blurry.
In fact... he was gradually forgetting them.
This shocked Moses.
As a high-tier Silver Rank warrior, although his memory was not as strong as a mage's, it was definitely far superior to that of an ordinary person.
Even a minor event from decades ago could be recalled in detail if he thought about it carefully.
Yet, he had clearly just looked at those blueprints a few days ago.
Now, he could no longer remember them clearly.
“You don't remember either, do you?”
Rudolf shook his head and, under Moses's puzzled gaze, continued:
“My dear friend, there is no need to panic, because even I have already forgotten them.”
“As you know, to draw those blueprints, I dismantled a whopping thirty-one suits of that so-called Imperial V-Type Power Armor.”
“I thought I had completely mastered the structure of this creation.”
“But after the blueprints were taken, I suddenly realized something.”
“Forget about mastering it—without the blueprints, I can't even reassemble the dismantled parts.”
“Although the structures are indeed complex, with my memory, it shouldn't be like this.”
“In fact, even the way this creation looked before disassembly is slowly fading from my memory.”
Moses's expression gradually shifted from puzzled to solemn.
“Could it be that these creations have been enchanted with a curse of forgetfulness?”
“No, there are no magical fluctuations on these creations.”
Rudolf's eyes suddenly became resolute.
He turned around, his gaze locking onto the middle-aged man before him.
“The fact that these things appeared in the God-Forsaken Land means they were rejected by the gods in the first place.”
“Perhaps we humans should never have touched this domain!”
“Having our blueprints snatched by that strange black dragon might just be the gods' warning and punishment for us!”
He spoke louder and louder, almost shouting by the end.
As the last word left his mouth, the elderly mage looked as if his vital energy had been completely drained, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.
Moses quickly rushed forward to support him, preventing him from falling.
Feeling the chaotic aura emanating from the old mage, Moses felt a pang of sympathy.
“Since this is something despised by the gods, let's not dig any further...”
To his surprise, Rudolf immediately shook his head:
“No! Don't! Keep digging, do not stop!”
“But...”
“There are no buts!”
The old mage grew more excited and frenzied as he spoke, suddenly becoming extraordinarily energetic, as if experiencing a final burst of vitality.
His eyes shone brightly as he stared at his dear friend.
“Rudolf!”
Moses spread his hands and said:
“My old friend, our trip out this time was to find an opportunity for you to break through to the Legendary Rank.”
“We have already delayed too long in this desolate, godforsaken wilderness.”
“Since these things cannot be of use to us, we should simply leave.”
“If His Grace the Duke finds out that you failed to find an opportunity to break through to the Legendary Rank because you were busy researching these accidentally discovered ruins,”
“he will surely be deeply disappointed.”
Rudolf merely waved his hand. After casting a simple refreshing spell on himself, he pulled away from Moses's support.
“Moses, I think you might not know, but in order to heavily wound that black dragon last time, I already burned my mana tide once.”
“Even if I were to find an opportunity to break through to the Legendary Rank now, with this sponge-like body of mine, riddled with holes, I would never be able to make the breakthrough.”
“As a mage who pursues truth and knowledge, I want... I want to understand all of this before I leave this world...”
“I want to know... what kind of secrets are hidden behind these miraculous creations!”
“If I ultimately fail to leave this wild land alive, please trouble yourself to tell the Duke.”
“This old man... has failed his trust...”
With that, without waiting for Moses to say anything more, he walked back into the tent.
He returned to researching the power armor he had dismantled into individual components.
Gazing at his old friend's gaunt back, Moses stood in place for a long time.
Finally, he let out a helpless sigh.
He shook his head.
Then he turned and walked away.
“If that day truly comes, I will pass on the message for you.”
With the conversation between the two ending, silence returned to the camp once more.
Occasionally, a gentle breeze would blow, carrying the distant roars of beasts and the sound of the wind.
Rate on N.U.
