Although he designed the laboratory himself, Roland still felt a hint of shock when he saw it with his own eyes.
In this underground space that should have been pitch-black, magic stones illuminated the path ahead. The surrounding stone walls were covered with two-meter square lead plates, ultimately forming a regular space the size of a basketball court.
The evenly spaced and smooth lead baffles, the intersecting straight gaps, and the cold light that fell upon them, made it seem lifeless. But it was precisely this kind of room that nurtured an invisible beauty.
This was the beauty of the industrial age.
"If we fail to win the Battle of Divine Will, hundreds of years from now, this place will probably become an ancient ruin, right?" Roland murmured.
Moreover, it would be a ruin of a completely different style, unlike the Underground Ming or the devils.
The fine grinding marks on the lead plates were the marks left by humans.
"Perhaps," Pasha gently put the two down. "But I have never believed as much as I do now—believing that humanity will definitely reach the end."
"I think so too." Roland smiled and walked into the laboratory.
The entire room was divided into two areas: the operating area and the observation area—separated by a concrete partition wall nearly half a meter thick, and also covered with lead plates. The glass in the center of the wall was specially made by Lucia, with lead oxide added to the conventional ingredients. Limited by the level of technology, the light transmittance of the lead glass was far less bright than that of later generations, but at least it allowed people to see the situation on the other side clearly.
"You've arrived, Your Majesty." A main tentacle stretched out from behind the door of the operating area, followed by Celine's massive body. Her appearance had the aura of a horror movie, but the bolts and rulers rolled by her secondary tentacles quickly weakened this feeling. "I heard Pasha's notification while installing the last lead plate. Have Zoe and the others brought back the ancient relics?"
"It's in this box." Roland placed the lead box on her main tentacle, then walked into the operating area and carefully inspected it.
"How is it? Everything here is arranged according to your requirements," Celine raised her tentacles. "But is it really necessary to go to such lengths? If the curse is just a kind of light, ordinary walls should be enough, right?"
"Just in case. If it's really what I think it is, the light it emits will not only be invisible to the naked eye, but also have extremely strong penetrating power. Ordinary walls can indeed block it, but they would have to be at least several meters thick." He turned to look at the two ancient witches. "So don't act on intuition—even if the Original Carrier has extremely high resistance, you must conduct experiments according to the procedure before thoroughly understanding the nature of the magic cube."
Since ionizing radiation can damage the DNA structure of cells, leading to replication disorders, it is most harmful to tissues with rapid metabolism. Organs like the heart and brain, which do not regenerate once mature, have much higher resistance to ionizing radiation. And judging from the Original Carrier's lifespan of hundreds of years, its aging cycle is astonishingly long, and theoretically it should also have some immunity to radiation. This is also why Roland entrusted the test to Celine.
Celine laughed, "You look a bit like the president of the Exploration Society now. Don't worry, strict adherence to rules has always been the principle followed by the Exploration Society, I won't be careless."
Roland nodded, "Then let's begin."
The isolation door was closed, leaving only Celine in the operating area.
The first rule of the experimental procedure is that when studying the Ritual Cube, the internal and external exits of the laboratory must be closed, and only those in the observation area may wait, apart from the operator.
Through the lead glass, Roland saw Celine open the box and take out the magic cube inside.
Just as Sean had said, a faint blue light flowed along the seams of the stone, pointing directly at the coin placed on the experimental table.
"An interesting thing," Celine examined it for a while. "This thing hasn't been activated, right?"
The isolation wall blocked the transmission of sound. Roland concentrated his mind and replied in consciousness, "According to Sean, it was still touched at close range by the Duke of the Great Duke Island after emitting blue light, so I think that should just be an indicator function or something."
"Understood." Celine grabbed the magic cube, and countless tentacles surged towards it, instantly wrapping it into a ball.
"What is she... doing?" Nightingale asked.
"Sensing," Pasha explained. "The sensitivity of the tentacles is far superior to that of human fingers. They not only possess all tactile sensations, but can also smell odors. When they glide across the surface of an object, they can remember every bump and depression. And magic geniuses like Celine can directly construct its outline and details in their minds—unfortunately, this part is described using the carrier's thoughts, and normal people cannot understand it even if they receive it."
"Can you see the picture she's sensing?" Roland asked, slightly surprised.
"If she is willing to share it." Pasha stretched out a tentacle and tapped it in front of the glass. "The magic cube is now in front of me."
This is really a convenient ability, almost like a mental network... He used to think that it could only conduct consciousness, but he didn't expect that even three-dimensional images could be shared.
"The length and width of the Ritual Cube are basically the same, about fifteen centimeters. The inside is empty, I can feel the gaps, and it doesn't seem like a whole," Celine suddenly said.
"What do you mean?"
"It's a bit like several stones pieced together. Wait... I seem to have found the mechanism."
As soon as the words fell, the entangled tentacles scattered, and a small opening appeared on the back of the magic cube, as if the entrance to a treasure buried for many years had finally been opened.
"Amazing," Roland couldn't help but exclaim, "You figured out the clue so quickly."
Since the Ritual Cube was lost among the people, nearly a hundred years have passed, and those past handlers must have tossed it around a lot. But judging from the records, no one noticed that it was not a complete stone.
"I said it was okay to leave it to her," Pasha smiled, "Celine pieced together those underground Ming magic cores bit by bit from their broken state."
"Your Majesty, I have an idea," Celine stretched her tentacle into the small opening and probed, "that is why it reacts to this coin alone. You said that the magic cube has been dormant for many years, and I initially thought it was a problem of magic power depletion, like magic stones or runes. But after getting the real thing, you should have noticed that there is still magic power remaining inside. So what this thing lacks... could it be what you call the element that creates Sun's Radiance?"
"It's the same as I thought." Roland curled the corner of his mouth. "You can try putting the coin in—but this may activate the magic cube, so you have to be prepared for protection."
"Understood." Celine moved behind a baffle on one side of the experimental table—it was a segment of a circular arc-shaped lead block with four small holes in the center for the auxiliary tentacles to pass through, similar to a huge shield with observation holes. After she threw the uranium coin into the magic cube, the opened small mouth closed instantly, and at the same time, the light at the top turned dark red.
I guessed right!
Roland and Nightingale exchanged glances, and suddenly became a little excited.
Celine then groped for a while, and suddenly, a red light shot out from one end of the magic cube, hitting the wall straight, adding a new color to this cold laboratory.