Ghost Knight King's Dungeon Project

Chapter 42 [Artificial Necromancers and Divine Technology]

"Should I stay, after ignoring everything?" A demon exile, holding a plucked instrument that resembled a classical guitar, hummed a soft song to the starry sky in the middle of the camp.

The starry sky was dazzling, with two bronze-white moons hanging high in the sky. In the distance, the sounds of taverns and vendors' calls could be faintly heard from the town.

"Who cares about the passing of yet another star? Under the sky, billions of stars shine..."

"Who cares if someone's time slips through their fingers? Our long lives are but a fleeting moment..."

With her face bandaged, Gwyneth Halder held a small accordion, her fingers pressing the smooth bone keys, laying down flowing chords.

Old Duke held an old violin and bow tucked under his neck, his eyes slightly closed as he accompanied the singing during the interlude. The violin strings trembled, producing a series of long, resonant vibratos, and his white beard vibrated slightly with his breath.

The exiles clapped their hands lightly to the beat, or tapped on the wooden buckets or iron cups beside them, creating a steady drumbeat.

The exile camp was quite lively at night. The demons were a passionate race, and their nomadic life in exile made them particularly value a warm and enthusiastic atmosphere. In addition, they had come across the Founders Festival of the Erdrik Empire during their journey, which added to the grand festive atmosphere. Half of the members participated in the festival's revelry in the town's tavern, while the other half gathered around the campfire in the camp, playing music under the stars and dancing slowly to the music.

In a corner of the camp, a dead rat lay quietly on the ground, motionless.

The scanner is now enabled.

[Organic structure.]

No signs of life.

Samael carefully extended his gauntlet of dark bronze, attempting to control the molten dark bronze fluid flowing from his palm to cast a psionic implant onto the rat's skull.

The red-hot liquid of ghost copper writhed, crawled, stretched, and cooled rapidly as if it were alive, eventually transforming into a fist-sized, bell-shaped helmet of ghost copper.

[Psionic implant has been installed.]

Although Nether Bronze is strong, its structural volume is severely limited, and even the smallest psionic implant that can be manufactured is the size of a fist.

The palm-sized rat wore a bronze bell-shaped helmet almost as big as its own body, looking as comical as a big-headed doll.

Samael adjusted his UI, trying to control the dead rat, but the dead rat remained motionless.

【No psionic structure. Cannot be used.】A message pops up in the helmet's UI.

[Requirement: Organic Psionic Construct - Circuit Permeator (Artificial Life Science, Level 2)]

[Insufficient permissions, unlocked temporarily. Please scan the authorized user's ID code to obtain the corresponding user permissions.]

Okay, okay, I want to unlock the circuit infiltrator, which requires scanning an authorization code. But I need this circuit infiltrator to create those rat-like undead that infiltrate the temple and scan the code! Samael was going crazy.

What kind of vicious cycle is this?

He pulled the fist-sized, bell-shaped helmet of ghost bronze from the rat's charred skull, tapped it gently, and tried to activate visual sharing and the scanner—although he couldn't control the dead rat's movements, the helmet's accessories still functioned normally.

Since organic psionic constructs are not feasible, we can only try inorganic psionic constructs.

Samael pondered for a moment, searching for the term "inorganic psionic construct" in the UI, moving back and forth on the ethereal blue screen. Suddenly, he noticed a term among the densely packed characters:
[Inorganic Psionic Construction - Component Library]

[Prerequisites: Basic Psionics - Level 0, Artificial Life Science - Level 0, Nether Copper Printer]

He clicked into the detailed page of the entry, where dozens of basic Nether Bronze construction parts were displayed, including oddly shaped Nether Bronze limbs, balancing gyroscopes, propellant jets, power wheels, and ether magnetic chucks, among other oddities.

"Besiege?" Samael paused, remembering a game he had played before.

So, all that's needed next is to create a miniature Nether Bronze construct that can function normally, and then weld this fist-sized psionic implant onto it to create a Nether Bronze artifact capable of infiltration.

He flipped through the component library's drawings, circuit structures, and detailed icon descriptions, and suddenly realized that the scale in the component illustrations was wrong.

Due to the material's properties, each of these Nether Bronze components is more than half a meter or a meter long. If Samael were to weld four Nether Bronze limbs onto his back, he could cosplay as the Dark Souls version of Iron Spider-Man.

[Inorganic Psionic Structure - Components, with basic parts made of Nether Copper, allowing the consciousness to autonomously modify the body and adapt to complex working environments.] He read the description of the component library and realized that these components were all for modifying his own body.

However, the amount of Nether Bronze available is currently very small, far from enough to drastically modify one's body. Moreover, infiltration operations can only be accomplished with a small-sized construct.

Perhaps we can reduce the size of the structure by using Wujin?

He picked up the long curved sword he had seized from Musa, and slowly placed his palm on it, attempting to mold the sword using the [Underworld Copper Printer] function.

The Wujin longsword glowed faintly from the intense heat, but showed no reaction.

It was completely useless. Samael scratched his helmet.

Besides Nether Bronze, how do you process and shape other enchanted metals? He searched high and low in the UI database, finally finding an entry for "Psionic Forging" on the "Basic Materials Science" tech tree, with clearly marked large text:
[Insufficient permissions, Basic Materials Science Level 3 unlocked]

Okay, okay, I want to unlock the psionic forge, which requires scanning an authorization code. But I need this psionic forge to create the metal construct that can infiltrate the temple and scan the code!

Why is it another endless cycle? He felt completely exasperated.

"Trying to forge something?" Talia's voice came from the side.

Samael turned his head and saw Talia sitting next to him.

She didn't attend the music event at the exile camp, nor did she visit the Founders' Festival in town. Instead, she sat quietly beside him all night, watching him fiddle with the dead rat and stare blankly.

“I have an idea.” Samael put down his Wujin longsword. “I have some structural blueprints that can be used to assemble and manufacture Nether Bronze constructs—that is, some kind of artificial undead. However, due to the material properties of Nether Bronze, the constructs are too large to be suitable for infiltration operations.”

He helplessly spread his hands.

"If we use Witch Gold, we might be able to successfully create a smaller version. But I can only manipulate and control the shape of Nether Bronze; I can't influence Witch Gold."

Talia's steel-gray eyes gazed at him silently.

"Can you draw the structure?" she asked.

"Ok?"

“I can hand-forge specific shapes and psionic circuits—didn’t I say that today? I can also forge and process, and my skills are better than humans'. Have you forgotten that one of my combat skills is [Forging]?” She raised her face and laughed, like some huge feline showing off its prey to its companions.

Samael scrambled to his feet, the little knight doll hanging around his neck swaying.

“Paper and pen… I’ll go ask Archie if he has any.” He instinctively wanted to bend down and hug Talia, but then he realized that his bronze body was hard and cold, and his movements paused.

"Aren't you going to compliment me?" But Talia had already opened her arms, half-closed her eyes, and was waiting for him to hug her with a half-smile.

"Awesome." Samael put aside his concerns and gave her a big hug.

This was the first time he had ever embraced Talia. It felt a little awkward; the tactile sensation in his bronze body was rather dull, making it difficult to feel anything. But her slender frame left a warm imprint on the cold bronze armor. So much so that when their arms parted, the imprint remained remarkably clear.

……

"Paper and pen?" Yachi asked as he rummaged through boxes in a truck, dragged out of the camp by Samael. "What do you need paper and pen for?" "I need to draw some structural blueprints," Samael explained. "To recast some psionic mechanical structures with witchcraft."

"A psionic structure? Can I take a look?" Upon hearing this combination of words, Archie became excited, even slightly opening his squinty eyes like a hunting dog smelling a rabbit. "I am also a foundry technician. If you trust me, I can help you."

He rummaged through the box and pulled out a stack of paper and pens, handing them to Samael.

Samael picked up a pen—the last time he held a pen was when he signed his adventurer's identity in the Alliance Hall of Fallenthorn City. Now that he thought about it, it had been a long time. The passage of time felt strange and unfamiliar.

“We also need a furnace, an anvil, and a hammer.” Talia removed her claw-shaped gauntlets and flexed her wrists, “as well as a set of forging tools such as chisels, pliers, and a sharpening wheel.”

“Do you have smaller ones?” Yachi asked. “They’re for when we make metal jewelry—gold and silver are sold at a loss if sold directly, but with the demons’ craftsmanship, they can be easily processed and sold for a high price in luxurious places like the capital of Florence.”

"Is the workpiece large?" Talia asked Samael.

Samael shook his head.

“Then a small set of tools for making jewelry will suffice.” She nodded.

Yachi brought out a small charcoal stove, a small anvil the size of a grapefruit, and a set of hammer and chisel tools.

Talia reached out and ignited a pale magical fire in her palm, then reached out and stuffed the fireball into the narrow furnace.

The small furnace burst into flames instantly, drawing in the surrounding air and creating a faint whistling sound, while the furnace mouth roared and spewed out pale tongues of flame.

"Wow, Lord Rondoran's signature ability, Psionic Flame." Archie exclaimed in admiration. "In the eternal winter of the far north, I wonder how many exiles who were about to freeze to death have been saved by this flame."

“My father acquired this psionic skill in a divine ruin, and he taught me how to burn this flame,” Talia explained. “It’s a highly efficient psionic flame that can be ignited without enchanted materials, and a single burst of fire is enough to burn for a long time.”

She peeked over to look at Samael, who was writing furiously.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, it'll be done soon..." Samael, clutching a charcoal pencil and a ruler used by exiles to measure clothes, leaned crookedly against the machine board, drawing workpiece machining diagrams.

I still have some memories of the knowledge I learned before I died. I vaguely remember that I got a perfect score on the exam when I finished my university course "Engineering Graphics" - although I lost a lot of participation points because I often skipped class.

He compared the blueprints of the bronze artifacts in the UI database, selected the components needed, drew the outline and centerline of the workpiece, marked the processing dimensions and groove shapes, and scaled them down proportionally.

"Were you one of the dwarf kings in the mountains when you were alive?" Talia stared blankly at the exquisite workpiece drawing. "Only dwarves could create something like this, with such high-level craftsmanship, such professional processing techniques, and such detailed workpiece drawing specifications!"

"What dwarf... I was 1.82 meters tall with shoes on when I was alive!" Samael retorted. "The soles of my shoes were at most three centimeters long!"

"The technology in my hometown is just that it is relatively advanced, but there is nothing like psionic energy."

Yaqi moved closer to the other side of the drawing and peered at the grooves on the surface of the workpiece.

“An engraved psionic circuit,” he said softly.

“I’m not sure what these psionic principles are. There’s no psionic technology in my homeland. I got the blueprints by chance—can you understand them, Archie friend?” Samael asked.

“It’s like some kind of…” Archie looked at the two ring-shaped structures on the blueprint, “…dual-loop feedback control.”

"Huh?!" Samael shuddered, nearly dropping his drawing pen. "You know about dual-loop feedback control?"

This is a term from my university courses on "Automatic Control Theory" and "Automation." Why would Yachi, a native demon from another world, know it?!

He suddenly grabbed Archie's shoulder.

"Yaqi, do you know about PID control?" he asked, half panicked and half surprised. "And transfer function and frequency domain analysis?"

“No… I don’t understand any of this.” Archie was stunned as he was gripped by the cold, metallic hands.

Samael released the bronze gauntlets in disappointment.

I had assumed that this place possessed a sufficiently advanced technological level to support a powerful world. But now, it seems that everything remains a mystery.

“Didn’t I say before that my former boss got beheaded by adventurers halfway through building the dungeon?” Archie shrugged. “He once unearthed a set of incomprehensible psionic mechanical blueprints in the ruins of the Age of Gods. He managed to decipher part of them and asked us to build that psionic machine and design the dungeon’s architecture based on its structure. It contained such a psionic circuit, and the annotation for this circuit was ‘dual-loop feedback control’.”

“What is that thing on the blueprint for?” Samael realized that his voice was trembling slightly.

“I don’t know.” Archie shook his head. “We didn’t finish it. The thing on the blueprints was terrifyingly large—almost as big as a medium-sized dungeon, so much so that when my former boss was killed by adventurers, less than a third of it had been built.”

"The entire underground city's structure is its shell, bridges follow its pipes, the forging and metallurgy areas are located at its heat dissipation vents, but there is still excess waste heat that boiled half a river, and the waste outlet is connected to a huge lake where a giant beast dwells. When construction was halfway complete, that lake had turned into a highly poisonous, rotten swamp."

"Because of its enormous size and scale, its manufacture requires not only the skills of foundry technicians but also the knowledge of architects. That's why my former boss was willing to hire me—both of these skills are quite profound and complex, and there aren't many demons who can hold both positions."

Yachi raised his hand and tapped his chest, indicating how important his dual roles were to his former boss.

"The sheer number of parts in that enormous psionic machine was terrifying. Even with the tireless work of me and over thirty other demonic forging technicians and architects, we were still unable to complete it."

"The adventurers broke in before I and the other demonic forge engineers could successfully create the complete structure from the blueprint. They destroyed everything, including the unfinished machine."

Samael was stunned.

Is this some kind of colossus or EVA-like ultimate weapon? A giant psionic machine that can merge with the entire dungeon? What do you mean by the dungeon standing up?
If Archie's former boss hadn't been killed by the adventurers, would he be driving a Gundam and a Knight Titan across the entire continent by now?

How many secrets does this world hold?
He shook his helmet, clearing his mind of any unnecessary thoughts.

“All great achievements begin with small steps forward.” He placed a scaled-down drawing of a Wujin psionic structure on the table and pushed it in front of Talia and Archie.

The drawings were complex and ingenious, and were drawn clearly and meticulously, relying on Samael's foundation in engineering graphics.

"Knowledge is power, and technology is controllable power."

"Thank you for your help." He nodded slightly in acknowledgment.

Talia gripped the shamanic longsword and plunged it into the roaring, pale demonic fire of the furnace, gradually heating it until it glowed red-hot. She tightened her grip on the hammer, the smooth muscles in her arm taut, and chipped off a small piece of shamanic metal.

Amidst the clanging and banging of the hammer, the smashed metal sheet gradually took shape.

Yachi took the small piece of shamanic gold that had been shaped, put on the miniature lenses often used by jewelers and craftsmen, and used a jewelry carving chisel to slowly tap and engrave the corresponding psionic circuits.

“Sometimes, I also want to learn a little forging.” Samael drew the second workpiece drawing while watching Talia swing the hammer to shape it.

“I can teach you,” Talia smiled. “We’ll have plenty of time later, and I can teach you slowly.”

"Ah, why did I deliberately stay here and bother you two?" Archie wailed. "Oh yeah, it's because I'm too curious and stubbornly insisted on seeing the structure of the psionic machine, which has led me to this miserable situation. Like a fly attracted by honey, trapped in a glass on a couple's table, watching a horrible scene that I can't understand, but unable to escape for the time being."

“Speaking of which, Yachi, do you know who made this little doll I’m wearing around my neck?” Samael asked.

"This is the fifth time you've accidentally brought it up today!" Archie wailed.

(End of this chapter)