Wizard Bloodline.

Chapter 182: Mechanical Heart, Elemental Life, and Search for the Magic Box
"Barbabia Gabriella Goldbeard."

Ronan whispered the name and fell into deep thought.

This is obviously the name of a dwarf, and the "Dodor Shorttail III" written on the previous nameplate should refer to the name of the gray goat he is holding in his hand.

So, this metallic gray goat is the pet of a female dwarf named Barbara?

Ronan had read some literature about dwarven civilization.

Dwarves are an extremely rugged race. They are naturally strong and good at forging, and almost every one of them is a natural master craftsman.

In the dwarven community, most of the dwarven surnames are named after their forging tools, such as "Steel Hammer", "Bronze Furnace", "Silver Grindstone" and so on.

Those who can use the beard, which the dwarves are most proud of, as their surnames are generally nobles within the dwarf tribe.

Because the dwarves value their beards too much.

Even their women grow thick, hard beards. If two dwarves fall in love at first sight, it must be because of each other's beards.

Ronan didn't know how noble the surname "Goldenbeard" was among the dwarves, but he should be a noble.

If we combine the "Sanshi" suffix in the gray goat's name and infer that it is possible that it is a royal family.

Ronan gently touched his smooth chin, looking at the lame gray goat in his hand that seemed unusually docile and well-behaved.

If it was an alchemical pet given by a dwarf royal family to his beloved daughter, it would be reasonable for it to show such extraordinary qualities.

"It seems that I have found a treasure."

Ronan thought about it and tried to slowly loosen his hand that was pressing on the gray goat.

He was always on guard against this guy escaping.

But to his surprise, after he "pinched" it with a little force, this lame thing that had been so slippery and cunning before became extremely docile.

She also developed an inexplicable sense of closeness to him, and kept moving closer to him, even sticking out her tongue to lick his ankle.

"Are you scared of me?"

Ronan's eyes flickered. "Or is it because the dwarves are born with supernatural powers? The dwarf princess who used to be its owner pinched it as hard as I did when she played with it... This guy is used to being abused, so he thought I was his former master?"

Whatever the reason, the spirituality displayed by this metal puppet goat named "Shorttail III" far exceeded Ronan's imagination.

The fact that a magic puppet could be so spiritual reminded him of the Dawn-level silver staff magic tool that had developed self-awareness when he first encountered it in the secret realm of the Mirror Garden.

Ronan took out a few high-level magic stones from the space ring and handed them to the goat, but the latter ignored them and stared at his right hand, where the activated nightmare tungsten steel and Neman metal were attached.

"Does it feed on metal?"

Ronan's eyes flickered, and he took out a few spare pieces of metal from the ring and threw them to the gray goat. The goat immediately ate them up in a few bites like eating grass, and then looked at him again, becoming more and more familiar with him.

"It really is."

Ronan felt a little surprised and threw a few more pieces of metal over. Then, while the other party was chewing on the food, he put them into the ring.

At this time, the Ice Crystal Demon Snake arrived, and Ronan finally had time to look at the small pit that had just been dug out by the Gray Goat Puppet.

A black metal base was revealed at the bottom of the pit. There was a circular groove on the base, more than one finger deep, and there was a rune-shaped indentation at the bottom of the groove.

Ronan's eyes flickered as he took out the magic box that served as a guide. Before he could make the next move, he saw the magic box made up of countless brass gears suddenly disintegrate on its own and flow into the circular groove like water.
"Kakaka——"

Ronan subconsciously took a step back when he heard the continuous sound of metal mechanisms turning. Then he saw two metal cylinders that seemed to be cast in brass rising quickly from the ground.

The pillars are engraved with intricate and exquisite patterns, looking like layers of entwined black vines...

"Ding--"

Something flew out from between the metal cylinders and Ronan caught it in his hand.

When he opened his palm, he found a golden gear the size of his thumb, which looked extremely delicate.

Before Ronan could take a closer look, a strong energy wave came from before his eyes. He saw streams of light quickly interweaving between the two brass metal cylinders, and finally turned into a white vortex similar to an arch. A faint mysterious ancient breath emanated from the vortex.

“It saves me the trouble of finding the entrance.”

Ronan looked at the vortex arch in front of him, and saw streams of gray smoke moving like snakes around the vortex.

His eyes flickered slightly, and he reached out his hand to gently touch the gray smoke, watching the smoke slowly slip away between his fingers like sand, and a faint sense of fatigue came from his fingertips.
The power of the time curse.

The power of the time curse only exists at the entrance to a sufficiently ancient secret realm. It seems that the ruins of the Mechanical Heart are indeed quite old.

Ronan spread out his five fingers and tried several methods to try to intercept some of the power of the time curse, but all failed without exception.

In the wizarding world, there are several spells that are generally recognized to be superior to ordinary elemental spells and possess an incomparable lofty status. Once mastered, they will surely possess immense power that others cannot achieve.

Time spells, space spells... are all included.

Especially time-related spells. Ronan searched through all the wizard books but never found any example of mastering the power of time.

Mastering time means having infinite life, infinite wisdom, and infinite power.
Even in ancient times, or even in times older than ancient times, the power of time was a vague and unattainable legend.

Any spells with the name of time that are currently circulating are not true time spells. For example, the "Aging Aura" cast by the Resurrection Society leader who died at Ronan's hands was just a high-grade curse spell that forcibly deprived the opponent of his vitality, thus achieving an effect similar to being rapidly aged by the erosion of time.
Ronan had just successfully integrated the power of space into his own magic system. His ambition had expanded and he wanted more. He even had the idea of ​​touching the throne of time.

As it turns out, this was nothing more than a delusion.

Ronan shook his head, put the unrealistic thoughts behind him, and prepared to enter the vortex arch.

"Why are you so short?"

Found by the puppet gray goat "Shorttail III", the vortex arch that opened the magic box was only as high as Ronan's chest after it was completely formed.

Ronan had to bend over to get in, let alone the Ice Crystal Snake.

Considering the height of the dwarves, Ronan was suddenly relieved about the height of the vortex arch. It actually proved that this was the correct entrance to the Mechanical Heart.

Ronan instructed the ice crystal snake to guard the door, lowered his head slightly, and stepped lightly into the vortex archway.

"Whoosh-"

“Clang! Bang——”

The thick reddish-brown cloud suddenly hit the mirror-smooth dark silver round shield, and a sound of metallic collision was heard.

The dark silver shield was swung outward fiercely, releasing tremendous energy pressure that directly dispersed the thick clouds. Immediately afterwards, a tall and slender figure appeared from the void.

Blue eyes, chestnut hair, handsome yet heroic face, it was Ronan who had just entered the secret realm.

At this moment, Ronan frowned slightly, looking at the magic round shield in front of him, which had a dent in the center and large marks of rust.

He was attacked right after entering. But he was not very surprised. After all, there were risks in exploring any ancient secret realm, and being killed at the door was a very normal thing.

What really surprised him was what attacked him.

The reddish-brown thick cloud that was forcibly dispersed by his magic was now gathering together again not far away, and was faintly transforming into a huge body that looked like a beast or a rhinoceros.

Ronan narrowed his eyes and looked at the thick clouds in front of him. With the [Eye of Truth] woven between his eyebrows and combined with his mental power, he was able to detect that this should be a kind of "elemental life" naturally formed by a large number of metal particles and metal-based energy particles.

The concentration of metallic free energy particles in this space is astonishingly high, so it is not surprising that this kind of metallic elemental life would be born.

Judging from the strength of the attack just now, this thing's strength is probably around the middle of level two, and it is extremely aggressive. After being repelled by Ronan once, it immediately attacked him a second time.

The huge metal elemental life form rushed towards Ronan with a roar, carrying a strong smell of rust.

Ronan looked calm as he stretched out his right hand towards the rhino-like elemental life that was rushing towards him. Countless mysterious auras belonging to the extraordinary realm quickly flowed out from between his five fingers.

"Ding Ding Ding-"

It was like the sound of iron swords breaking free from the weapon rack and flying up. The two kinds of metals after being [Silverized in Space] turned into countless palm-length handleless daggers, rushing towards the metal rhinoceros like a swarm of silver bees.

If you look closely, you will find that each of these handleless daggers is very similar to a "mirror dagger".

"Whoosh-"

At the moment when countless daggers flew out, countless metallic energy particle flows were drawn out from the ground and air, and were also dyed with silver, transforming into streams of silver mist, like the brilliant tail flames of countless daggers.

In an environment with extremely high concentrations of metal free energy particles, the power of Ronan's metal spells was greatly enhanced, and the power of his extraordinary domain [Living Steel] was pushed to an unprecedented height.

In just a moment, the aggressive rhinoceros-shaped metal elemental life was hit by countless daggers, and its forward momentum suddenly stopped.

Countless streams of silver mist wrapped around the body of the "rhinoceros". Although they were quickly dyed reddish-brown by the rusty power emanating from its body, at this moment, a trace of spatial stagnation power emanated from the silver daggers.

"Ding--"

In an instant, the "Red Rhino" was nailed dead in mid-air.

Ronan closed his five fingers, and with a crisp "click" sound, the entire metal elemental life form "shattered" and turned into smooth reddish-brown pieces that fell from the air. A black and red smudge broke free and was about to fly away, but was restrained by Ronan's mental power and captured in his palm.

Ronan's eyes flickered, and he quickly took out a ball of gray powder and a bottle of black potion from the space ring.

He crushed and mixed the two materials, and using the fingertips of his left hand as a pen, he quickly drew a complex and mysterious rune pattern in the void.

He threw the semi-solidified rune towards his right hand, and at the same time, a strong frost force gathered in the palm of his hand. Soon, the vibration stopped, and a fist-sized dark blue ice block appeared in Ronan's hand.

Ronan studied more than three thousand runes in the Silver Ring training attic. This was one of the runes with a sealing effect. Combined with the sealing power of the ice mage, it was just right to suppress the spirituality in the core of the metal element.

This elemental life core with its own spirituality is worth studying, especially for wizards who follow the summoning and puppet styles.

Ronan can keep it for his own research or trade it with others.

Through the sealed ice, Ronan saw that the so-called elemental life core was a rusty metal round plate half the size of a palm.

A corner was missing and the metal was covered with traces of rust.

One side is engraved with a rhinoceros pattern, and the other side is engraved with a few lines of small characters. However, due to its age, it has been rusted and blurred. One can only barely make out a few words written in the dwarven language, such as "Shaba..."

Ronan took a quick look at it, then put it into his space ring, and only then did he have time to look at the ancient secret realm in front of him.

At this moment he was on a long street.

The long street was extremely spacious and could accommodate at least eight carriages running side by side.

The entire long street is paved entirely with metal, and traces of rune inscriptions can be seen in many places. On both sides of the street are metal buildings of varying heights. The overall color tone is mainly black and brass, giving people an extremely heavy and solid feeling.

These metal buildings are generally very tall and rough in shape, but the doors of the buildings are not high, which is a typical dwarf architectural style.

Both the long streets and buildings have become rusty and dilapidated after being washed away by the rune array for a long time because they have lost the care and protection of the rune array.

Many buildings showed signs of having been bombarded by magic, perhaps by wizards who had come here to explore before.

Ronan turned the flying ring, and he slowly rose into the air, his vision expanding continuously.

As the location got higher, Ronan discovered that the size of the Mechanical Heart ruins was far beyond his expectations.

He estimated that he had flown to a height of about four to five hundred meters, but he was still unable to fully see the Mechanical Heart.

In all directions, there are metal buildings lined up like building blocks, with wisps of reddish brown, blackish brown, and silvery brown smoke swaying and rising from them, just like curling smoke from cooking.

"The Mechanical Heart is like an extremely huge city-state"

Ronan looked down at everything below, imagining in his mind that thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, an extremely prosperous dwarf civilization had flourished here.

Later, for unknown reasons, this civilization fell.

All the dwarves left, and the magnificent city was abandoned.
Ronan thought about it and slowly took out the golden gear left by Spierter's Wonder Box after the entrance was opened.

He did not forget why he came here.

A small golden gear was suspended in front of Ronan, rotating slightly at an extremely slow speed.

Kosti told Ronan that there was a special connection between the magic boxes of Spierter, and that one magic box could be used to find another.

He tried to move in the air, and his body began to descend, getting closer to the top of the buildings of the city-state below.

The mental power has been closely monitoring the rotation speed of the golden gear.

But Ronan soon discovered that although this gear did have a certain "guiding" function, just like a compass, his way of searching was too inefficient.

In other words, the gear's sensing range is too small.

Or in other words, the distribution density of Spierert's surprise boxes in the Mechanical Heart is too low.

"It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack with a small magnet."

Ronan pursed his lips and continued to move according to the guidance of the gears, thinking about whether there was any way to improve efficiency.

He did not deliberately try to avoid the metal elemental life forms roaming around in the city-state. He would suppress them when he occasionally encountered them. Along the way, he collected quite a few cores of elemental life forms.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

It was as if something was constantly banging against a closed door.

Ronan stopped and stroked the space ring with his right hand in circles, his eyes fluctuating slightly, as if he was thinking about something.

After a moment, he calmly turned the ring.

"Whoosh-"

A gray shadow quickly jumped out from the ring space.

Then, he pounced towards the golden gear floating in the air at lightning speed.

"Crack!"

Dodor Shorttail III stretched his neck and stared at the golden gear that was so close to him. He stretched his pink tongue to the extreme and tried hard to lick the edge of the gear.

Unfortunately, Ronan's entire neck was tightly grasped by one hand, and the distance of several centimeters became an unreachable huge gap.

"Mea~~"

After repeated attempts without success, Dodor Shorttail III looked at Ronan with pitiful eyes, his eyes full of longing.

"You want to eat this?"

"Mea~"

Dodor Shorttail III nodded, and Ronan's expression changed slightly. He had a new understanding of the spirituality of the lame gray goat in his hand.

“This thing is very important to me.”

The light in Dodor Shorttail III's eyes dimmed.

"but.."

Ronan thought for a moment and said, "If you can lead me to find more boxes containing these things, I may consider giving them to you."

"Mea~"

Dodor Shorttail III responded, and his little sheep head immediately turned in one direction, and his four short legs kept kicking hard in the air, as if he couldn't wait to take Ronan over.

"Is it really okay?"

Ronan blinked, feeling a little surprised.

He originally just thought that this puppet gray goat had existed in the Mechanical Heart for who knows how long, and was considered a legitimate native.

I might know where the Spierert Magic Box is hidden, so I thought I would give it a try.

He didn't expect that he actually acted as if he knew the answer, which surprised him.

Ronan released the hand that was pinching Dodor Shorttail III, protected the rotating golden gear in his palm, and then said lightly: "Let's go, lead the way."

Dodor Shorttail III looked at Ronan's hand with a longing expression, then spread out his four short legs and quickly jumped in one direction.

This guy feeds on metal, but he disdains the metal all over the ground in the Mechanical Heart Ruins City-State.

Ronan wondered if it was because these metals were rusted and decayed. As a "royal pet sheep", this guy was used to a life of luxury, so he simply looked down on these "stale" "metal fodder".

"Such a strong spirituality, almost stronger than the spirituality of the Dawn-level Silver Cane in the Secret Realm of the Mirror Garden."

Ronan followed closely in the footsteps of Dodor Shorttail III, his eyes flickering as he secretly planned in his mind that when he had time, he would take this lame sheep apart and study it carefully inside and out.

Even if this guy doesn't represent the pinnacle of metal puppet forging technology of the Mechanical Heart Dwarf civilization, he must be at an extremely high level.

If he could figure out the densely packed rune arrays inside its body, he might be able to figure out a powerful metal puppet spell inheritance.

Soon, Dodor Shorttail III led Ronan to a certain location.

Ronan followed behind him and saw with his own eyes that this guy seemed to break through a layer of brittle paper and crashed into a huge hemispherical black metal building with a "bang".

After a few breaths, it rushed out happily holding a black thing in its mouth.

It seemed like something was following behind him, and the heavy footsteps kept ringing, as if some huge monster was approaching rapidly.

Ronan stood in front of the hemispherical black metal building, watching Dodor Shorttail III rush behind him with a metal magic box in his mouth, and then carefully poked his head out from between his legs.

He did not check whether the magic box he was talking about was the surprise magic box he was looking for, but stared at the direction of the hole where the heavy footsteps came from.

(End of this chapter)