Chapter 53: Relic from 200 Years Ago
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translations Editor: EndlessFantasy Translations
Although his nose was filled with the smell of decay, Rody was no longer bothered by it anymore. This place was not large. It was like what Andy said. It was a small study. In the corner was a huge bookcase but the books on it were covered in thick dust and its true features could not be seen. There was also a small and strange shaped table. It was not like the tables that Rody had normally seen. On top, there were some hidden compartments. The wood of the chairs in front of the table were all decayed, the chairs looked shaky and seemed like they would fall apart at anytime.
The thing that attracted Roy most was the pitch dark wooden box placed on the table.
He went to the table and picked up the wooden box. He wiped the dust off the wooden box with his sleeve and immediately saw a line of words that were carved out with a knife. Unfortunately, those words seemed to be in what Rody and the Tulip Family recognized as ‘God’s Language’. Nobody could actually understand it.
“Open it!” Andy sounded excited.
Rody forced open the cover to find a small book in the box. As the book was old, it looked a bit yellow and the words were a bit blurred.
“Dandong’s Diary”
Four big and clear characters were on the first page. Even though his own handwriting was a bit crooked, it was obvious that the Great Sage had terrible handwriting. Thankfully, it was written in the Empire’s common text.
Rody turned to the next page to see the large and small writing. It made him feel relieved to know that these were written in the Empire’s common text.
Rody was so curious that he did not care how dirty the floor was. He sat down and began to read the notes of the mighty Sage of the Empire.
“I want to go home! I really want to go home!”
Dandong’s first sentence was written in very big letters. The scribbles were extremely messy. Obviously he felt very agitated when he wrote this.
“It has been a month since I arrived here but I have not found my way home. My aircraft is damaged but I cannot find any fuel or repair tools here! My God! This place is like Europe in the Middle Ages! It is ancient! What should I do?”
A series of strange terms made Rody confused. He did not understand what the sage was talking about and could only continue to read.
“My timer is broken. I cannot tell what the exact time is now! However, it should be around New Year's on Earth. I do not think I will make it back. This place is not Earth and I do not understand their language. Shit! I am a genius, proficient in five languages!”
“I have finished eating all the food and I will need to leave this cave soon. Recently, there were more and more people here and I managed to learn a bit of the local language of the mountain people. I also heard that there is a war coming and that they are all fleeing. How unlucky! How did I get into such a situation? What if I die? My girlfriend is still young… Shit! Not sure who will benefit....”
When he read the last sentence, Rody laughed. Although he could not understand most of what he wrote, he understood from the Great Sage’s last few words that the Great Sage was also a normal mortal.
“This morning, I encountered a cavalry…. God! This place still has cavalries! Fortunately, I still have my laser gun. Every minute, there was a man on his horse with a dozen of horses following him. That felt great. However, when I went through a town, I was stopped by some soldiers and was treated as a spy. Shit! I kept shooting and dealt with them!”
“Today, there were a lot of problems…. I had to trade away some of my clothing. My laser gun is also almost out of energy. Fortunately, there is still a bit of money. The currency here is a bit strange and is made out of metal.”
Having read up to this stage, Rody felt dizzy. He faintly understood that Dandong came to the Empire from someplace else as he did not seem familiar with the environment of the Empire. However, Rody was not able to find out where Dandong actually came from.
After Rody randomly flipped through a few pages, he was attracted by a message.
“Today, again I won another bet with the general. How pitiful. I am a professor that knows a lot about astronomy! I could tell what kind of wind will blew from last night’s weather. This general lost his bet, but it seems that I am the one who was duped. This is because he listened to me when I said that today would be windy and used this knowledge to employ a fire attack to burn enemy warships. To think that he was making use me! I have been captured by him for about a month. He seemed curious about me and did not kill me. It seems that I am safe for the moment. However, he started to look worried recently. Apparently, we are surrounded by the enemy….Shit! Does that mean I am doomed? No way! I better sneak away!”
“He did not kill me! He even secretly came to me and told me that if I wanted to go, he would set me free tonight! He even cried hypocritically. Shit! Did he think such a small trick could move me? My ancestors were famous liars! In this world, only I am able to deceive others. Nobody can deceive me! However, if I were to die in this place it would be too embarrassing! I have decided to go!”
“Sigh, I am too softhearted. Actually, I already ran out but I kept thinking whether the man would die or not. This man actually treated me well. He did not make me wash his smelly socks like the other prisoners. Ugh, fine. I will help him…. Is this guy actually a man? When he saw me come back, he cried uncontrollably. Shit! Is his inclination that way? I need to pay more attention…”
“Backwards! Truly backwards! The army here only knows how to use their swords, charge forward and slash aimlessly? The range for using the bows and arrows was also too near. No way! This looks like the time for me to show off my skills. Today, I will design for them a catapult! Sigh, I had no choice. Even though I am brilliant, with the materials given to me in this place, do you think I could build a laser cannon? Shit!”
“Today, I opened my eyes! My God! Is this legendary magic? Shit! Relying on my catapult, the enemy became disorderly and a few people suddenly flew up into the sky…. It was a real flight! They did not use any form of aircraft! The ones who flew then shot fireballs at my catapult and destroyed it!... Shit! These guys are more powerful than a helicopter!”
“Haha! Those flying enemies… No! Rudolph said that those were enemy magicians. Whoever they were, they made me feel bitter. Hmph! In my place, tactics for fighting flying things from the ground have been studied for a few hundred years! The weapons used have also been improved for 17 or 18 generations! Killing these guys would be a small matter. There are no anti air missiles here, so I modified the bows and arrows to shoot down those few flying guys like a hornet’s nest.”
Rody turned the book page by page. He read with fascination. Although he could not understand most of the things said by the Great Sage, there were so many fascinating things that he could finish reading all of it. Especially getting to read about the famous war between the Empire and the continent of Northern Roland. The secret of this war was something that he absolutely could not find in history books.
“Today, I taught Rudolph how to use a water stratagem. Go up the river and build a dam. Let the water levels rise before letting the water flow freely. The water will then wash away all the enemy warships. These guys are really stupid. They can’t think of such a simple plan? In my country, even the novels wrote about this kind of stratagem. The war of the cold weapons was fought on Earth for many thousands of years... Unfortunately, I do not know much. Otherwise, I would have brought the Romance of the Three Kingdoms book or Sun Tzu’s Art of War book which would be good.”
“Rudolph told me that we were ready to move on as we had already repelled the Northern Roland continent. After that, we could return to the Imperial Capital. The Imperial Capital, sigh. This meant that there is still an emperor in this place. Where I am from, the word ‘emperor’ is only a historical term....”
Rody gave a long sigh. Although he knew that the Imperial Army won that war, it was more exciting to learn what happened behind the scenes from Dandong’s notes.
“I finally understood why there was war! Bloody hell! The two continents are actually so close to each other. It was just separated by a strait. Both emperors also want to conquer the world. How fascinating. However, since Rudolph has treated me so well. I might as well help his emperor…”
The following records described the events where Dandong and Rudolph, the Tulip Family’s Duke were having an audience with the Empire’s greatest emperor, Abbas the Great. Those records were very profound and had a lot of things that Rody could not understand. This included what happened when Dandong received appreciation from Abbas the Great. There were talks about the governing of the nation. Rody could not understand more than half of it especially when it was filled with terms like ‘economics’ and ‘inflation’. It made Rody’s head swell.
What Rody noticed was that the Great Sage Dandong was extremely interested in magic. He differentiated magic and sorcery with a series of studies. He created a lot of new spells that made magic differentiate itself from sorcery and caused both factions to reach a stalemate.
“What is magic and sorcery? They are just ways to control energy. Magic is the act of gathering energy into one’s own body while sorcery pays attention to the technique of controlling it. In other words, sorcerers may not have much energy but using some complicated technique, they could somehow be more power… How do you say this… Magic is like weightlifting. The stronger the body, the more energy could be used to carry heavier things. On the other hand, sorcery is similar to tools. A person does not need to be powerful but if he had a gun, he could defeat people stronger than himself. How interesting… Is it an energy problem? Where I am from, this problem has already been solved… Essentially, what is the difference between a lightning or fire spell and a laser gun? Hmm.”
Rody’s heart stirred as he thought about his lightsaber. He believed that the reason the lightsaber was so sharp had something to do with him concentrating his strength on the sword. However, what really made the sword become so sharp must be because of the strange gem at the hilt and something Dandong called ‘conversion’.
Suddenly, Rody was attracted by a statement found in the diary.
“God… The people in this world said that there is a God… but does God really exist? Their sorcery and magic in our world are supernatural things. In that case, what is God?”