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I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 527
🕑 Added 2024-05-01 15:26:07 +0000 UTCChapter 527: The Ends of the Time-Space Gate and the Jet Fighter
"How should these people be dealt with, Master Rafael?" Orlando inquired.
The captured halflings looked emaciated, and with their small stature, they resembled impoverished children, staring in terror, their mouths making constant 'squeaks' in what seemed to be a pattern.
Orlando guessed this must be some language they couldn't understand.
"Leave it to you, Tiek!" Rafael turned to the spirit mage who was communicating with a magic bat.
Tiek immediately stepped forward and grabbed one of the halflings by the head, performing a [Memory Retrieval].
The other halflings, pale-faced and shocked, screamed even louder.
About five minutes later, Tiek reopened his eyes after the memory probe, and the halfling's incomprehensible language gradually became clear.
"Release Maka, human! Or the high priest will not spare you!" "Great Moon Goddess, please save us..."
Tiek scanned the fearful or devout halflings, speaking disdainfully.
"Your god is already dead!"
Though Tiek's newly learned native language was awkward, the halflings understood him, and all threats, curses, and prayers suddenly stopped, as everyone stared at him in terror and despair.
Tiek no longer paid them any attention but turned to report to Rafael. "Master, these people are natives of another realm, worshiping the Moon Goddess Diana."
"The dead goddess?" Rafael glanced at the halflings, then continued to inquire. "How come they happened to appear here just so?"
"It's no coincidence. In fact, this halfling settlement has been spying on this area for years," Tiek explained.
Rafael paused, a look of surprise on his face, but he quickly responded. "Is it because of the church's expeditionary force?"
Tiek nodded. In this cold, dark foreign realm, food was a significant issue. Every time the church's expeditionary force cleared the nearby magical beasts, they would leave behind a lot of limbs and flesh.
The abundance of food and the smell of blood attracted other magical beasts, and also caught this halfling tribe's attention. Although they were weak, their advantage lay in their intelligence!
Previously, they had taken advantage of the church's expeditionary forces' departure before stronger magical beasts entered the valley, during this window to do some post-battle scavenging, each time gaining enough food to last the tribe for months, even a year or two.
This low-risk, high-reward way of obtaining food kept the starving halflings deeply involved, but they didn't know when the next expeditionary force would arrive, nor did they dare to rashly contact this group of beings more dangerous than magical beasts, let alone enter the space-time gate that belonged to these people.
Thus, they sent a few scouts to constantly watch over the area, waiting for the next big harvest.
Noteworthy was that there were not four scouts from the tribe, but five; one of the halfling scouts had already gone to report the disturbance at the space-time gate!
"This is exactly what Lord Lynn described as 'waiting for the rabbit,'" Rafael couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time, now that the church had been eradicated by them. If not for their need to investigate information about the lord of the undead, these halflings would probably wait to death without seeing another expeditionary force.
"Does he have any other important messages in his mind? Especially about the lord of the undead..." Rafael asked again.
"Unfortunately, no. However, I saw some low-level undead creatures in his memory, far across these mountains," Tiek regretfully shook his head and continued. "These people know too little... I think their high priest definitely knows more."
"Then let's go find that high priest!" Rafael decisively said.
From the demeanor of the people present, this halfling community likely had no strong individuals; otherwise, they wouldn't have resorted to scavenging for a living.
The high priest, now without the protection of a deity, probably couldn't even perform divine spells, most likely just a figurehead.
Rafael figured that with abundant food and absolute power, they had every capability to control this tribe.
In a sense, they were quite fortunate... Although they encountered an attack by two [Sand Worms] as soon as they entered, this also provided an opportunity to delve deeper into this world.
Thinking this, Rafael's previously furrowed brow relaxed, his heart already forming a rough plan for this expedition into the foreign realm.
"Write a report, Tiek, and throw it along with this halfling back through the space-time gate. This way, we won't need to send someone back immediately," Rafael pondered and instructed. Since a halfling had already gone back to report, to prevent the others from escaping or relocating, they must immediately set out to block this tribe.
According to the original plan
, if electromagnetic communication wasn't received, three of their nine people needed to return within a day to the space-time gate, reporting back one by one. The situation would dictate whether more reinforcements were needed.
Now, it seemed there was no need to return so frequently between the two places. They could entirely rely on these native halflings to go out and gather information, which would not be so conspicuous. In the short term, there was also no need to request more support from the council.
Tiek nodded, swiftly writing the report on a piece of beast leather, then grabbed one of the halflings, bound him tightly, stuffed the leather into his mouth, and threw him heavily into the space-time gate.
Meanwhile, Lord Lynn and others, who had sent off the exploration team, weren't in a hurry to leave, waiting for news from the other end.
To ensure the exploration team had indeed entered the foreign realm rather than being transported to some strange place or caught up in a spatial turbulence, Rafael and the others would conduct a preliminary exploration for half an hour. If there were no problems, one of them would be sent back to report.
Conversely, they would also send another person over for an exchange, confirming the information once more.
Due to the different time flows, half an hour there equated to about three and a half hours here.
However, four hours had already passed, and the space-time gate showed no signs of activity.
"We can't just wait like this. Master Rafael should understand the importance of the first contact. It might be best to send another team in," Victorio furrowed his brows, suspecting that the space-time gate exploration team had encountered significant trouble, or they wouldn't have missed the time to send someone back.
"Let's wait a little longer," Lynn shook his head. A sixth-tier grand wizard, unless he faced directly a legendary being or the lord of the undead, wouldn't likely be killed outright.
According to their estimates, the space-time gate should be relatively safe.
The rest of the exploration team, although not very strong, had a comprehensive skill set, covering scouting, healing, close combat, long-range, magic, and technology. If they really encountered an unbeatable opponent, they could always retreat back through the space-time gate.
"Fifteen minutes... If there's still no movement after fifteen minutes, we'll send the second team in," Lynn stated seriously.
Victorio nodded, waiting patiently.
Time ticked away, and the numbers on the quartz clock continuously changed, the wizards present growing increasingly anxious.
Fifteen minutes soon arrived, and just as Lynn began to doubt whether Rafael and the others had truly encountered some mishap, the churning space-time gate was activated once again!
"Here they come!" Victorio's expression immediately turned serious, and a series of golden runes formed chains, encircling the area around the space-time gate.
Lynn was also ready to act at any moment.
Since the time didn't match the agreement, no one knew what might happen next—it could be Rafael sending someone back, or it could be an invading enemy!
As everyone watched, a figure, bound all over, flew out from the churning space-time gate, then was securely bound again by the rune chains.
Noting that the figure emerging from the space-time gate wasn't any of the exploration team members but a captive who had lost the ability to resist, Victorio's dissatisfaction with Rafael grew.
"This should be a halfling," Lynn immediately recognized. Having had quite a few encounters with Lydia and others, he naturally couldn't mistake it, and he also noticed the piece of beast leather the figure was biting.
Paper was difficult to preserve, with the risk of being shredded by the space-time gate, and electromagnetic signals couldn't communicate across realms, so information exchange had to be recorded on tough magical beast leather.
Lynn thought for a moment, and under the effect of [Mage's Hand], the beast leather quickly unfolded, revealing encrypted text written with magic.
Tiek had used as concise words as possible to recount everything they had seen and heard after entering the space-time gate, such as the other side also being a valley with temperatures around minus twenty degrees Celsius... and how they had encountered an attack by two [Sand Worms] upon entering, and had spotted several native scouts, causing them to delay due to these troubles.
Besides, they had already set out to surround that halfling tribe, and one day later at this time, they would send someone back to report more news.
A day there equated to a week in this world, giving them plenty of time.
"Good, it seems things are going very smoothly," Victorio nodded after reading the encrypted information, his earlier slight dissatisfaction with Rafael dissipating.
Given they were being watched, it was natural not to rashly send people in and out; delaying some time to resolve troubles was expected.
Lynn was then considering who to send to the space-time gate for information exchange after this. According to Tiek
's letter, they didn't need too many people for now, but the council couldn't really send useless individuals.
"How about we also send a few halflings over?" Victorio suggested. Since halflings were the natives on that side, they would naturally act more freely with such an identity.
Lynn nodded; this was also his idea. Based on the intelligence extracted from the captive's mind by Tiek, although the tribe worshipped the Moon Goddess Diana, most people's faith didn't seem that firm...
But then again, it made sense, as it had been a long time since the Moon Goddess's death, with no divine signs manifesting, even firm beliefs would eventually waver.
Moreover, halflings didn't live very long, even shorter than normal humans, usually only about sixty years or so. By now, those firm believers would likely have all died out.
"Now that everything here is in order, I should return to the royal capital," Lynn turned to look at Victorio. "What about you, Chancellor Victorio?"
"I'm staying here to continue studying this space-time gate, to figure out how the rate of magic influx affects time," Victorio said, raising an eyebrow.
He could also prevent some anomalies from occurring here,
As for the alchemical array that separates tritium and deuterium elements, Victorio had already solved it three days ago, increasing the efficiency by about five times. The rest could be handled by those alchemists.
Lynn nodded, bidding farewell to Sean and others, then vanished into the horizon as a streak of light.
"Bring a few spirit mages down, and take this halfling for interrogation!" Victorio looked at the halfling firmly bound on the ground, commanding.
Though weak, this native had great value. They could decipher the language using his memories and gain a lot of basic information about the foreign realm, which was why Rafael had specifically sent him over.
Approximately forty minutes later, Lynn returned to the royal capital, taking a moment to share the intelligence learned from this trip with Harof and Aurora, then called over a male witch responsible for managing intelligence, inquiring about Lydia and others' whereabouts.
It had been a while since he had seen Lydia; he had been busy studying the application of magic at the microscopic level and hadn't had time to attend to her, only to realize she had disappeared when he needed her, not even at the newly established air force base.
"Master Lydia might be at the Alchemy Research Institute now..." the male witch hesitated to speak.
He had heard that Master Dennis was recently working on a new type of explosive propulsion device, intended for new jet fighters, which had caused several accidents in the past few months, with the council receiving numerous complaint letters.
"An explosive propulsion device?" Lynn immediately became interested.
This was about jet fighters.
No wonder Dennis hadn't attended this year's academic conference...
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