Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1726 Forging Divine Artifacts

For example, as far as Shangluo knew, being a peasant in the Jia family wasn't necessarily a good thing. However, being a high-ranking servant in the Jia family wasn't necessarily a bad thing either. Someone like Xiren, who was slated to become a concubine, wouldn't want to be redeemed—at least in the context of the time, being a servant in the Jia family meant you wouldn't have to worry about food and drink. Even young opera girls could be picky about their food. This was unimaginable among the vast majority of impoverished people.

Therefore, the relationship between automatons and their masters is always an exception. Some masters and servants get along very well, while others need to rely on a clockwork mechanism to maintain a forced relationship.

However, in the long run, this is always unstable. Slave revolts never stopped in Rome, and even in the Ming Dynasty, hundreds of years ago in the pre-modern era, when land annexation was severe and productivity was underdeveloped, bloody conflicts such as the "Jiangnan Slave Rebellion" occurred.

To bring together such a large group of automata, each with its own agenda, into a single Colombian automaton state, external assistance is required.

It is an external force in a physical sense. The current situation is mainly due to that "Great Harmony of Heaven and Earth" attack back then.

That apocalyptic weapon sent all the automatons into the spirit world, plunging them into a near-death state. It was Shangluo who pulled the chef back from the brink of collapse to the mortal realm, giving the automatons' souls a vessel. After that, the Columbia automatons became a unified whole, with the chef at their core.

Therefore, when dealing with their relationships, Shangluo only needs to manage his relationship with the head chef—currently, their relationship is quite good. Putting aside the life-saving debt, the fact that one loves cooking and the other loves eating makes for a sustainable relationship. As long as Shangluo doesn't reach the point where he can't eat, the head chef's loyalty will remain guaranteed.

However, I don't know if the chef will be able to effectively control the other consciousnesses if things continue like this.

"Indeed. I remember that too. But if they split up, there should be a reason. We can intervene then."

Shangluo remembered this incident. However, the most urgent task was to forge his own Dionysian Spear.

The chef arrived on time, bringing freshly baked pretzel bread to the door.

As he said, the chef did not descend here through another consciousness, but rather used his previous body.

However, he wasn't entirely unchanged. Two tripods were following him; one opened the door for him, and the other seemed to be driving.

Upon seeing Shangluo, the two tripod machines did not bow.

"Oh," the chef glanced back, "Sorry, I forgot. But those two are my branch consciousnesses, just like my left and right hands. Do they need to bow?"

"I don't care about that. Come in."

Those two parts were indeed no different from the chef's body parts, except they weren't connected to the main body. Shangluo had no interest in having things like refrigerators and microwaves bow to him, and things were naturally different here.

Once inside, he pointed to the seat next to him and said, "Please sit down."

“Your Majesty, I don’t actually need to sit. To me, standing or sitting makes no difference.”

“I do things my way, have a seat.”

"Understood." The bronze body sat down on the sofa in Shang Luo's house. Although the automaton's body wasn't very strong, it was actually quite heavy because it was solid. When it sat on the sofa, it would press the sofa down.

"I'll get straight to the point," the chef said. "I've designed nine plans for you to forge this divine artifact. I will provide you with the best advice based on your specific circumstances."

"Oh, that's good. So, what information do you need me to assess the situation?"

"I want you to know what materials you possess." In Greek mythology, the weapons of the gods were forged from divine metals. Adamantite, orogen, or Orichalco, were all raw materials used to forge these divine weapons.

"What do you think of this?" Shangluo tossed over the meatballs he had just received.

The chef steadily reached out and took it, then presented it to his face with both hands.

"This...this is His Majesty the King of Rome! This is absolutely amazing! This is truly a rare treasure!"

[As expected, your senior brother's luck is... I don't know if it's good or bad. He always manages to create amazing things every now and then, but those things are useless to him; they're only useful in the hands of others.]

"So, can we proceed with the casting now?"

The chef nodded: "Of course, it can be cast directly. I've also prepared a plan for you—in addition to the materials, this plan also requires the power of fire."

In Greek mythology, forging divine artifacts requires not only divine metals but also divine fire.

Hephaestus was both the god of forging and the god of fire. His furnace was located on Mount Etna, where the flames from the earth's core could melt and forge divine metals into the shapes he desired.

“However,” the chef added, “the option I’ve chosen for you isn’t Mount Etna, but Delphi.”

Does Delphi have volcanoes?

"Ah, actually there really is." Apollonia recalled, "You remember the Oracle of Delphi sitting on a cracked patch of ground, right? There's definitely active geological activity beneath there, otherwise it wouldn't keep producing those hallucinogenic volcanic gases."

"I see." Shangluo understood. "So you want to go to Delphi, use the volcanic gases that cause hallucinations in the oracles to trace the volcano back to its true location, and then complete the forging there?"

“If that’s all, it still won’t do,” the chef replied. “We need to phlogistonize the entire Delphi—because there are two Delphis you’ve seen. One is a madwoman sitting on a volcano inhaling toxic fumes, whose ravings are interpreted by a group of priests feigning madness, thus influencing the politics of Greece; the other Delphi is the sacred place where Apollo conveyed revelations to spiritual oracles, which were then interpreted by wise priests.”

Although I hate to admit it, the current Delphi is the former one. The latter only exists in mythology.

"Therefore, I pray that you will phlogiston the entire Delphi, immersing it in mythology, just like Cybernia. Only in this way, with Delphi immersed in the second mode of mythology, can you use the earth's core fire to forge your artifacts. But this may mean a great change, or even collapse, of the oracle, because mortals simply cannot withstand such a change."

“Hmm,” Shangluo thought for a moment, “We can do that. But we need to get a dog. No, at least we need to do an experiment first.”

It's not impossible to dismantle Delphi, but it has to be useful.

“Experiment? There was no experiment in my plan,” the chef replied. “This is the best result I could come up with after assessing the environment.”

“You can make decisions based on probability, but I can’t; I need to provide evidence. So it’s okay, I have a way,” Shangluo replied. “We have a panoramic photography studio in Alexandria; we can go there to simulate an environment.”

Just like with nuclear tests, once enough parameters are collected, subsequent experiments can be conducted through computer simulations, the same can be done here.

“If the simulation in the panoramic studio can be achieved, then it should also be possible in the real Delphi.”

(End of this chapter)