Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 470 The Troubles of Happiness

Opening a dimensional portal is a trivial matter, but is it really just about opening a portal?
They call themselves the remnants of the Nether, but in the eyes of certain beings, such as the resurrected goddess of magic, they are probably just remnants…

Moreover, in order to survive in the Shadow Realm, the entire floating city, its rulers, and even its people have long been deeply bound to the Shadow Lady. This interconnected relationship is not so easy to hide or eliminate.

If we were to rashly send the floating city of Tutantar to the prime plane, we would have to be prepared to face enemies on all sides.

Putting aside potential hostile forces and deities, even Prince Shar, who has always protected them, is not so happy that this last remaining floating city has slipped out of his control.

Are you kidding me? I painstakingly set up this private server for so long, and finally a group of truly high-quality players came, and then they said:
"We're quitting. We're transferring to the official server. Please settle your account and transfer our data as well."

This dragged on for over a thousand years until the year of turmoil arrived. The second generation of the goddess of magic both perished, and even Shar faded from view and disappeared. After much effort and preparation, the ghost princes, who had been stirring up trouble in the prime plane, especially in the Silver Moon Federation on the edge of the Wild Buffalo Desert, were finally able to bring Tutankhamun back to his homeland.

Returning to the skies above the Bison Desert, beneath the heavens of this ancient empire from a thousand years ago.

That's all in hindsight. In Drezan's time, the Shadow City, trapped in the Shadow Plane, was like a forgotten orphan, wandering in a foreign land, not knowing where to go.

Even a legend like Drezan, who is just one step away from becoming a legend and can control his own destiny, still cannot see the direction of the future.

The dramatic changes and rewriting of the rules of the magic network inevitably affected even the City of Shadows and its inhabitants in the Shadow Realm.

The path of the arcane sorcerer began to be re-examined, and power pathways such as shadow weavers, spellcasters, and divine magic came to the forefront.

When things are at their worst, they must change; change leads to progress. As for whether progress will last, only time will tell. At that time, Dreizan was unaware of this.

He was disappointed that he could not take the first step to reach the summit, and he could not see the way ahead. He was somewhat pessimistic about the future, and decided to leave a legacy for others as a kind of seed.

I don't know if this old man still exists in this world, and if he does, in what form or appearance? I also don't know if we will ever have the chance to meet again in the future.

Tsk tsk tsk, when tomb raiders meet their victims, how should they greet each other?

Hey old man, I've seen your grave, and let me tell you, your burial goods are amazing!
Upon realizing this, Master Zhang shuddered, shook his head to banish these random thoughts, and began to recall the other party's description of each instrument and device in the tomb, as well as the other party's coordinated use of the entire system at the last moment.

This first-person perspective recording serves as the most vivid instruction manual and guide, enabling the monk to quickly grasp, or at least understand, the usage and maintenance of each piece of equipment.

Aside from certain steps that require a high level of spellcasting and alchemy skills, Zhang Yuan believes he is already able to use these treasures here to do some things.

For example, there are interesting things like refining shadow steel and casting certain structural components...

Having gained a great deal, it was time to head back. The only thing that troubled him was how to dispose of all the equipment. It would be best to pack everything up and take it with him, after all, it always felt a bit strange to be working in a tomb like this, and climbing such a long passageway every time was also troublesome.

Ideally, everything here would be transferred to the underground palace of Shadow Cliff Fortress, which is spacious enough and also the location of the Shadow Gate, making things much more convenient.

Unfortunately, it didn't work.

First, there's the question of how to move all these enormous, heavy, and intricately complex treasures. Even the slightest bump or scratch along the way would break Master Zhang's heart like a piece of his own flesh.

Another, more challenging issue is energy supply.

The establishment of a construction workshop is not something that can be accomplished by simply piecing together a bunch of equipment and throwing it into a room. Why is it that only mage towers can usually support such a luxurious industry?
Once the assembly workshop or golem factory starts operating, the energy it consumes is like flowing water. Just think about the energy consumption of factories in my previous life, they were all gluttonous beasts that devoured energy.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Zhang can support the operation of the Shadow Gate with the help of the Shadow Altar, and even have a few summoning arrays attached to it. Just think about how many arrays need to be charged and how many mechanical devices need to be operated in an entire alchemy production line. There is no comparison between the two.

If there are no core facilities like element pools and energy conversion centers, which are usually only located in mage towers, how can we achieve energy supply through other means such as inscribing magic circles or charging with spell gems?
That's wishful thinking; the latter's cost and efficiency could drive even the wealthiest spellcasters to suicide.

No matter how much free energy is extracted and utilized from the primary or secondary planes, it is far from comparable to the inner ring plane, which is directly connected to the upper elemental boundary and is filled with endless energy.

To give an example, is it faster for you to dig a well or for someone else to pump seawater directly?

Of course, the construction cost of such facilities is also so high that it is beyond the reach of most people. After all, the construction of the Mage Tower is based on it, just like the engine is to a car. If even this foundation and core can be solved, then the achievement of building the tower is not too far away.

The biggest surprise, and also the most perplexing problem, is that the energy hub right here in the tomb's main hall is right there.

Relocating the element pool and energy conversion center is not impossible, but it is extremely troublesome and requires a very high level of magical skill.

After all, this thing is not a plug-and-play power bank, but a very tight and complex magical nuclear power plant that connects the magic network and the elemental planes and has strict requirements for the associated systems and equipment.

Once the location is shifted, it means that a massive number of nodes, magic arrays, and energy circuits need to be redrawn and rebuilt, and it also means that many high-level spell rituals will have to be performed again.

This is far beyond his current capabilities; it would be more manageable if it were his teacher, Tyrande.

Archmage Tyrantir's strength was certainly enough to handle these troubles, but even so, it was still a mentally exhausting and arduous project. Moreover, when Drezan designed it, he still used the arcane system and alchemy techniques inherited from Netheril.

The gap and generational difference between ancient techniques lost for thousands of years and mainstream knowledge today is not a small problem that can be ignored. Just learning, digesting and absorbing that set of arcane knowledge would take a lot of effort.

Thank you to readers 20190223195231650 and Eric Jin for their monthly ticket support!


(End of this chapter)