After a long while, Aqi Ma took a deep breath and pointed to Roland's desk, "In your drawer, there should be another 'equal' object."
"Absolutely correct," he replied with a satisfied smile, then placed the other square box on the table. "However, I'm a little curious why you call it 'equal' rather than 'same'?"
"Because... the reactions of the two are different. Although they are both source-level, the first one is much stronger." Aqi Ma described the scene she saw.
"Then can you find a third equal object?"
"Please allow me to try."
She calmed her mind and felt the green light in her hand again—because the previous target was too close, she had ignored other directions. After concentrating her mind, Aqi Ma quickly found three other extension lines, pointing east, west, and north, respectively. This meant that there were at least three sources larger than the item in her hand. However, what puzzled her was that although those indicator lines looked thick, they were composed of countless strands of dim light.
After informing His Majesty of the feedback from her ability, he nodded thoughtfully. "So, until you get close to the source, you can't know how far away it is."
"Yes."
"Then go east first, then north," Roland quickly decided. "Going west would enter the wilderness, which is too dangerous. If you still haven't found the source by the sea, it's not too late to turn north."
Aqi Ma hesitated for a moment, then asked the question that had been bothering her. "Your Majesty, is this thing... more precious than gold?"
She wasn't a combat witch, and her means of protecting herself were extremely limited. If this thing was really that precious, once the news got out, not only would she not be able to complete the mission, but she might even lose her life on the road.
Perhaps sensing her worries, the young king smiled and said, "In fact, it is both precious and worthless—to those who don't understand it, it's just an ordinary stone, with no ornamental value or any use. But to me, its value is far above gold, and it is the key to unlocking the brilliant radiation mission line."
Brilliant radiation? What's that? Aqi Ma felt like she understood, but after thinking about it carefully, she didn't understand anything.
"However, considering the uncertainties of the journey, I naturally won't let you search alone." Roland pointed to a guard next to him. "His name is Xiao En, and he is your protector on this trip. In addition, there will be an engineering team drawn from the First Army, traveling with you. The first priority of this mission is to find the source, so you can ask Xiao En to handle anything that requires the cooperation and assistance of officials from other territories."
"You mean... to have those lords work for me?" Aqi Ma asked in surprise.
"Why not?" Roland shrugged. "They are no longer the lords of their own territories. Obeying the orders of the Central is their duty." He paused slightly. "Since the source search may take a long time, the salary can be prepaid by 30%, and the remainder will be paid monthly. This is the entire contract. So, what is your answer?"
Aqi Ma thought for a moment. "Your Majesty, can you send all these salaries to Duolisi?"
"There's no problem in principle," he raised his eyebrows. "If that's what you want."
"Then I accept this job." She bowed. "I can be ready to leave tomorrow morning."
Although there were still many things she didn't understand, at least... she didn't have to worry about her financial difficulties anymore. Besides, there didn't seem to be anything unreasonable about this mission, and with the assistance of the First Army, finding the source sooner or later was inevitable. With the additional fifty gold royals reward, her partner's life could also be greatly improved. She couldn't wait to share the good news with Duolisi.
"Very well," Roland stood up and said. "Then, I look forward to your good news."
...
After Wendy sent Aqi Ma away, he returned to the French window, looked at the city under the night sky, and sighed.
"It's finally begun."
"Creating the sun?" Nightingale appeared from the mist. "I always feel that when you mention this, your enthusiasm is particularly high..."
"Because this is a path of chasing the flame," Roland sighed. "From this moment on, mankind has entered a new era, from looking up at the sun to competing with the light. To me, there is probably nothing more romantic than this." He turned around and pointed to the top of his head. "Do you see a yellow exclamation mark?"
Nightingale shook her head with a smile. "I only see a self-talking... dreamer."
"Cough cough..." Roland almost choked on his saliva. "Hey, is it really okay to be so blunt?"
"I don't want to tell lies in front of you." She turned her eyes away and pretended to be innocent.
Roland glared at her, both angry and amused. Although he knew that Nightingale was half-joking, this was probably what most people thought before the real product was made.
Even he himself wasn't sure if this plan would succeed.
If it weren't for the witches, he would never have had such fantasies—the resources, manpower, and financial resources spent on the Manhattan Project in later generations were enough to bankrupt a large country, and trying to replicate it from scratch was tantamount to wishful thinking. But with the help of magic, the distance to the sun was not unattainable.
Moreover, its characteristic was that it required very little input, and the main tasks were concentrated on a few witches. Creating a nuclear weapon out of thin air was a joke in another world, but here it actually had some possibility.
Therefore, as a pre-research project, it could be carried out simultaneously with the existing major industrial projects. Even if it failed, it would not have much impact on him.
In fact, from the moment when Lucia evolved on her coming-of-age day, he had been preparing for this. Taking the opportunity to collect elements corresponding to the complete periodic table, he entrusted the chief alchemist Kaimo. Sterr to determine the original sample of uranium from a large pile of separated elements and kept it safe.
Uranium can be said to be widely present in nature. In addition to uranium mines, granite, coal, and even seawater can be found, but with conventional technical means, it has no mining value. And Lucia's ability directly crossed the separation-purification threshold. As long as there was a sample, she could gather trace amounts of uranium element by element to meet the raw material needs.
The ambitious words at the meeting were more to boost everyone's morale, but he kept some words in his heart—the romance of competing with light was only half the reason. If it weren't for the critical moment of life and death, he wouldn't have decided to implement this plan, but from the news from the high-level devils, he realized that perhaps mankind had reached a critical moment of life and death.
Where is the end of magic?
No one knows.
He didn't dare to underestimate this kind of unreasonable unknown power.
The devil's progress was staggering, and the reason was actually the ascension after seizing the inheritance.
Agatha's proposal to hold on seemed to be fine, but there was a biggest loophole, which was to give the opponent time to deal with.
The reason why the Union was defeated so miserably was precisely because it ignored this point.
If in the third battle of divine will, the devils and the deep-sea monsters were to be victorious and get another ascension, what would they become?
Since the enemy could strengthen themselves with magic in such an incredible way, he could only use another unreasonable means as a last resort.