Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

Starfall Year 841, twenty-fifth of June.

In the two months after the Dreadnaught-class Void Battleship formally took to the air and the Mycroft Combined Void Fleet was established, many important events had happened on the world of Mycroft.

The first was the joint investment of multiple Legendary champions who, on a one-time occasion, created over five hundred million spirit terminals, the first-batch of compulsory popularization for the global population.

This occasion had nothing to do with hierarchy or financial status, regardless if the citizens wanted them. It was distributed to every family before being locked, recording individual information such as spirit frequencies, soul data, and physical bloodlines.

While the total population of Mycroft was actually around two billion, and five hundred million would never cover for all civilians—there were, however, many elderly and children, along with those without innate talent and were fated to end up as lower Iron-tier. They would not be able to use it well or at all, and five hundred million spirit terminals would reach the goal of giving each family with one.

Naturally, the item that clearly had surveillance aspect was not accepted by some nobles and leaders of the underworld. Be that as it may, the grand scale of this popularization and the influence of those who had started it was far beyond that of any before. Even tyrant nobles and violent militia who had extreme control over their border territories quietly knelt before the threatening ‘Dimensional Slash—Special Edition’ that cuts down mountains, obediently accepting the spirit terminals distributed by local governments.

With the Spirit Terminals, most news and announcements no longer required print media, although that was limited to news. Other reading materials still required purchasing of physical copies, while the Spirit Terminals only reports major events that all citizens must know, with the market of newspapers not taking much of a blow overall speaking.

To have five hundred million logging into the Mana Net simultaneously would undoubtedly be a huge burden, but having expected that, a group of Legendary champions led by Barnil had created a mountain-sized server and transmitter at the highest peak of the West Mountains—the former backbone of the world. Naturally, the designer was Barnil, Barbarossa and the others, and the builder being Joshua himself.

And the second matter was the commencement of the open beta testing of the wildly popular full-dive game Continental War, with the conclusion of its closed beta testing.

Nicknamed ‘Civilization Simulator’ and angrily labeled ‘a million ways to die for the unruly’, ‘you’ll never know how the unruly dies’, ‘unruly continent’, ‘the hundred million demands of the unruly and I’m dying of exhaustion’ and shortened into ‘Unruly Simulator’ had been well received at its closed beta phase. Though extremely difficult and the race controlled by each player appeared unruly with their numerous demands that never seemed to be satisfied, the considerable entertainment value, sense of pride and accomplishment along with its improvement to personal ability (the most important aspect), it is presently rated 99% for positive reviews at the Spirit Terminal free application store.

The remaining 1% did not criticize the game itself, but why there were no elven and dwarf language versions—which was, in fact, adjusted for in one large update before the public beta. With 18 dialects added, even that 1% vanished.

Now, given that it was available for free and was coupled with thought acceleration so that it would take much time in real life, Continental War players increased exponentially. Special forums and offline research forums had also been created for the game itself, being the first game that received global popularity apart from Fairy Cards.

There was another major news for Fairy Cards too. The new yearly update of card packs, called ‘Universal Galaxies’ included more than ten new Legendary cards, which includes Legendary champions as well as some Legendary spells and field cards, along with new editions of existing Legends.

[Vahina, Sage of the Oceans (Legendary, Neutral)]

[10 Mana Cost, 7 Attack, 7 Health]

[Battlecry: restore your mana to 10 at the HP cost of your current hand (not including this card).]

[Deathrattle: choose a neutral card that is not of 0 mana cost. Turn its cost to 0 during the next turn.]

[Chain—The One and Only: this card and the summoned character cannot be replicated, controlled, replaced, revived or returned to hand by any method.]

[Do you yearn for power? Train your heart, for all that humans yearn for are hidden within.]

A maiden shrouded behind a veil stood by the beach, staring at the calm seas and the surging tides faraway.

[Eternal Divine Power (neutral spell)]

[18 Mana Cost]

[When you hold this card, each summoning, death and removing of a minion from the game would charge this spell once]

[Each charge lowers the mana cost by 1]

[When used on your Hero, your hero would become immune, gaining 10 attack, 10 armor and healed for 10 HP]

[When used on minions, your minion would be immune, gaining 10 attack, 10 HP, divine shield and windfury]

[When used on a field card, the field card would gain three effects: ‘cannot be selected’, ‘cannot be destroyed by any effect’ and ‘doubled effect’]

[If this card was discarded, the turn would be skipped, every minion destroyed and removed from the game]

[It’s time for battle]

A Giant God of Steel greater than a star was facing off against a darkness that filled the entire card, with eight broken streaks of divine light beside him.

[Carrier of the Stars (Neutral field card)]

[Turn your field into ‘Starherding Flock’]

[Starherding Flock: you gain 2 armor and summon a 0/1/1 Void Behemoth spawn with each card drawn]

[The behemoths that carried worlds forward as they roamed the stars, and the shepherds that steer them ahead to the fated path]

Colossal crab-shaped Void behemoths were depicted roaming the darkness of the Void, while shouldering worlds and journeying ahead towards brighter galaxies.

***

Apart from those few neutral cards, each class had also gained respective field and hero cards, with their user base enlarging with the Mana Net ‘online mode’ going live.

Naturally, those major events about Mana Net and Spirit Terminals had nothing to do with otherworld expedition teams who survey foreign worlds throughout the year.

As Extraordinary individuals grew ever curious about otherworlds and the number of people who actually left to explore them increasing, the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds was slowly surrounded by small towns of different factions. Former explorers, adventurers, and mercenaries, along with lesser nobles and those with ambition to establish borders within another world, along with ninety percent of Mycroft’s wandering Extraordinary individuals and unstable elements were hence all gathered in that demiplane.

They certainly could not venture around at their own whims, but could only conduct surveying by working together with official expeditions. Even so, they were expectant of finding worlds with fine resources and rewards, with excelling expeditions even being awarded with ‘free exploration rights’ that allow them to head for new worlds through the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds. If such an unbound team could find a world of rich resources, official bonuses would have made them rich overnight.

It was the new age of adventure and development. Instead of fighting to the death for a few pieces of mana crystals and meaningless land, it was far better to put their fate in the hands of the boundless Void and future. In that face of the great seas of worlds, the blood of humankind boils—perhaps for gold, glory, or even excitement and curiosity, adventurers would never stop one way or another, and not even death would stop their advance.

Be that as it may, the ashen faced members of the Elite Party had something to say about that.

***

Inside one of the coordinates to the many worlds with special minerals that the Million Steel Dragon, the God of the Metal Dragons had left, mana-rich world No.113, temporarily labeled ‘Superconductive Arcane Silver Realm’.

Gloomy clouds were dancing and the skies thundered.

The Superconductive Arcane Silver was a very unique enchanted mineral that were formed as Steel Strength exploded when worlds were born, having a solid 100% magic conductivity. It was not like enchanted minerals such as those alleged to have ‘120% magic conductivity’ that could be augmented by absorbing surrounding elements, but it could transmit magical energy and information at 100% without leaking, obstruction, and errors even in zones without mana.

It was essentially the two supernatural powers of mana and Steel Strength given form, and came rare amounts even across the Multiverse. Second to it was the ‘Moonlight Silver’ that decays easily, with no Superconductive Arcane Silver ever found on Mycroft before, which was why it was believed to be a theoretical, fantasized element… it was only after the world was found that the mages hastily found a name for it.

Though Moonlight Silver was a fine conductive material as well, the Council of Seven and subsequently the Skypiercing White Tower had learned to alloy it, the two mage guilds’ competition causing its market value to fall into the pits.

The Superconductive Arcane Silver at present could be used as the main drawing substance for colossal magic circles, greatly extending the lifespan of various spells, just as its presence could theoretically enhance functions of enchanted machinery by 20 %to 75%. That was only limited to replacing certain parts too—if its attribute was used to design the entirety of a magical engine, its function and lifespan would last three times that of present magic engines.

The Million Steel Dragons—the many former Metal Dragon Gods had used their partial attributes that resembled Steel Pythons and observed the Multiverse for countless years. They naturally would discover many special realms, and the worlds that contain the Superconductive Arcane Silver was one of them, but they left them unexplored since they did not have the time. Now that the Imperial External Exploration Department had received those information, they dispatched their trump card: the Elite Party that had carried out innumerable quests, even accomplishing Legendary-tier missions involving the Starherders, the Black Fog and the Evil God of Wither, to explore that world of great value.

Then, the unexpected happened.

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