Above the mage!

Chapter 466 [The Heart of the North]

Gao De stared wide-eyed at the Heart of Westminster in Elsa's hand.

He was shocked by the miraculous effects of the Heart of Westminster, but he also realized something.

"Could it be that this Western Heart..." Gao Deyou looked at Elsa with a questioning gaze, somewhat incredulous.

Elsa naturally understood God's question, calmly nodded, and said, "Yes, Your Highness, all the knowledge passed down in the Duchy of Xidian over the past thirteen hundred years since its founding."

From spell recipes and spellcasting systems to the analysis of leyline creatures, knowledge of extraordinary fields such as potion-making, alchemy, and runic writing, as well as knowledge and techniques related to the construction of mage towers.
From the art of governance and warfare within the kingdom, to blueprints and construction techniques for various projects within the duchy, as well as knowledge in many other fields such as art, agriculture, and commerce, everything is stored within this [Heart of Westden].

After receiving a positive answer, even though Gao De had already anticipated this when he saw the [Heart of Xidian], he still felt his brain buzzing.

knowledge is power!

Perhaps my personal level is not high enough to fully appreciate the profound meaning of this statement.

But the idea that "knowledge is wealth" is something that people at all levels of society in this world deeply understand.

In this world of knowledge monopoly, even setting aside the magical abilities of the Heart of Westland itself, the value of the knowledge stored within it is already terrifyingly incalculable.

To exaggerate, if we disregard the symbolic meaning of "North Wind" and let Gaode choose, he would definitely choose "Heart of Xidian" without hesitation.

“No wonder you were prepared to cross the sea to a place like Terra,” Gao De exclaimed, suddenly realizing the truth.

He initially thought that the reason the Principality of Ovoga was pursuing him so relentlessly was more due to the rulers' caution, aiming to "eliminate the problem completely."

Terra was a completely unfamiliar continent to Elsa, and due to the Holy Empire's expedition, it was already in a state of war preparedness, with war breaking out at any time, making it an extremely unstable place.

In this situation, Elsa's choice to flee to Terra seems unwise and reckless.

In retrospect, it was neither that the ruler of the Principality of Ovoga was overly cautious, nor that Elsa was unwise.

Rather, the knowledge stored in the Heart of Westland is of such high value that the monarch of the Principality of Ovoga is determined to obtain it at all costs.

Without the Heart of Westland, their gains from destroying the Duchy of Westland would have been reduced by at least a third, if not half.

Elsa also clearly understood that as long as the Heart of Westminster was with her, the monarch of the Principality of Ovoga would not give up even if he chased her to the ends of the earth, which is why she thought of escaping to other continents.

"Such a precious item, and you just show it to me like this?" Gao De's expression turned serious, and his tone became earnest.

Because he understood the meaning behind Elsa's actions, he naturally had to adopt a proper attitude.

“The Duchy of Westden no longer exists, and the idea of ​​restoring it is simply unrealistic. I have been serving as the Director of Phoenix’s Office and the Deputy Minister of Education for nearly a year, and Anna is also studying runes with His Highness,” Elsa stated in an extremely calm tone. “In that case, what is the point of me clinging to the Heart of Westden?”

"The Heart of Xidian ceased beating the moment the Duchy of Xidian was destroyed."

She said softly, "But the North is in a state of vibrant life and flourishing development. I am willing to transform the Heart of the West into the Heart of the North, to provide a powerful force for the North's vigorous growth."

“This is really important to the North,” God stood up and said solemnly and formally to Elsa, “The North will always remember your contributions to its development.”

Elsa pursed her lips and said casually, "No need for that. Consider it a thank you for protecting me and Anna."

Neither of them were good at being sentimental, so after that brief exchange, they quickly returned to discussing serious matters.

"What are the limitations of scanning the Heart of Westland?" Gao De asked with concern. Behind every powerful ability lies a strict limitation; this is an immutable law.

“Your Highness, it’s called the Heart of the North now,” Elsa corrected first, then explained: “One is that scanning requires mana, and the larger the amount of information, the more mana it requires to scan.”

Another point is that it cannot scan purely mental information, and it will also fail to scan encrypted or magically protected information.

Finally, the scanned information must be in a symbolic language that the Heart of the North can "understand"; otherwise, only "graphics" will be stored instead of "meaning".

Elsa thought for a moment and then said, "The languages ​​that the Heart of the North can currently 'understand' are limited to Common Tongue and Standard Magical Script."

"Therefore, all the Aesin books in the North need to be manually translated into the common language before they can be scanned."

Gao De frowned upon hearing this. "How do we solve its compatibility problem? Uh, it's about increasing the range of text it can 'understand'."

“Compatibility issue.” Elsa pondered Gaode’s explanation for a moment. Although the term was somewhat obscure, for some reason, she felt it was very accurate.

She immediately put her knowledge to practical use: "The core of solving the compatibility problem is to establish a mapping relationship with the existing knowledge framework of [Heart of the North], that is, the common language framework."

"The method we have developed is to find an intelligent being who is proficient in both Aes and Common, whether voluntarily or under duress."

By linking its spirit with the "Heart of the North," and through the learning abilities inherent in the brain crystal itself, it can compare and contrast with existing knowledge frameworks to master a new language system.

"The downside is that this intelligent being will most likely become demented as a result."

So, it means intelligent beings are being used as consumables. Gaode Maps instantly conveyed the harsh reality behind the "official" language.

"Furthermore, the language habits and even knowledge errors of individuals with intellectual errors will be inherited by the [Heart of the North]. For example, in his understanding, the word 'ice' in the Ace language is the word 'fire' in the Common Language, so the [Heart of the North] will also inherit this understanding."

"To reduce the probability of such errors, we can only find multiple intelligent beings to map on, using a sufficient number to reduce knowledge errors."

"Another point to note is that the energy consumption of the [Heart of the North] will increase by 50% for each additional language system."

"The current daily energy consumption of the [Heart of the North] is manageable by me alone without any access."

"But with a large number of visitors, the energy consumption increase from adding a language system becomes a very alarming figure."

"How can I access the information stored in the Heart of the North?" Gao De asked curiously.

If something can be stored, it must also be able to be read; otherwise, it's meaningless.

There are two ways to access the Heart of the North.

"The first method is to directly contact the [Heart of the North], concentrate your mind, and establish a mental link with it, which will allow you to connect with the knowledge base stored in the [Heart of the North] in your consciousness."

"You can freely view and browse the information stored in the [Heart of the North] knowledge base. However, although this is done in your consciousness, it is essentially closer to reading with your eyes, so the reading speed will be vastly different from your usual reading speed."

This method is relatively cumbersome. The truly powerful and unique aspect of [Heart of the North] compared to ordinary libraries is that you only need to express the knowledge you need, and then consume a certain amount of mental energy. It can automatically search the knowledge base and "access" documents, paragraphs, images, and other information related to the knowledge you need, clearly presenting them in your mental vision.

"However, this method also has a drawback, which is that it can only access information that [Heart of the North] can understand." "Just like books written in the Ace language, in the [Heart of the North] knowledge base, they only exist as graphics, not text."

Therefore, even if it is related to the knowledge you need, [Heart of the North] cannot access it because it cannot understand the language of Ace.

Holy crap, isn't this just an extraordinary version of a "search engine"?

Gao De was startled.

“However, because of the preciousness of the Heart of the North, it is obviously impossible for too many people to come into direct contact with it. Fortunately, there is a second way to access it.” Elsa took out a semi-transparent ring engraved with specific runes from her bosom and showed it to God.

"What is this?" Gao De examined the ring.

“The key,” Elsa said.

"As I told Your Highness before, the Crystal Brain Worm can create offspring worms using abundant energy. These offspring worms can share the information in the Crystal Brain Worm's brain crystal, as long as the Crystal Brain Worm is willing."

"Therefore, the Heart of the North, which is made with the brain crystal of the Crystal Brain Worm as its core material, also possesses similar abilities."

"Simply place a certain amount of pure elemental materials around the Heart of the North and infuse it with mana, and the Heart of the North will automatically absorb and consume these elemental materials to generate a key."

"The shape of the key is not fixed. It can be a crystal token that flashes with the light of the corresponding element, or a ball of light with the corresponding elemental attribute. It all depends on your preference."

"However, based on our experience and actual feelings, creating a ring that can be carried around is undoubtedly the most portable and inconspicuous option."

"Through the [Heart of the North], you can freely set the access permissions for this key."

"Then, the holder of the key can concentrate his mind and establish a mental link with the Heart of the North through the key, thereby accessing the Heart of the North's knowledge base, similar to the mechanism by which the worms share information in the brain crystal of the brain worm."

"Of course, this second method has limitations. One is that the materials required are quite valuable, and the other is that the daily energy consumption of [Heart of the North] will increase with each additional key."

Finally, and most fatally, the key's access range is limited to the vicinity of the [Heart of the North]. Once outside this range, access is impossible.

"Have you tested this range?" Gao De asked, frowning.

"Yes, but the range is not actually fixed, because the essence of access is that the [Heart of the North] emits something we call arcane information waves, and if we continue to supply magic to the [Heart of the North], the range of the arcane information waves it emits will be expanded."

Of course, the expanded range is also extremely limited. Under normal conditions of silence, the range is typically around one hundred meters.

In this way, Gaode Maps has fully understood the mechanism of "Heart of the North". It is equivalent to a mobile library or local database with a single node, local storage, and close-range contact scanning. It can be accessed locally, but the data coverage is a bit too small.

In scientific terms, this thing should more accurately be called the "Northern Data Center".

However, a data center is also a heart, so calling it the "Heart of the North" is quite fitting. Some thoughts flashed through Gaode's mind at an inopportune moment.

"Can I try it out?" Gao De asked seriously, his mind clearing.

“Of course, Your Highness, this ring was specially prepared for you. It grants access to all the knowledge within the Heart of the North,” Elsa said with a smile.

Gao De took the ring, cleared his mind, and focused his thoughts.

A moment later, he entered a ethereal space, with countless particles of light cascading over him like a galaxy.

Those suspended points of light transformed into the phantom images of books and scrolls, with occasional fragments of text and afterimages carrying a faint glow.

As Gaode was marveling at the coolness of the "transition animation," a circular library constructed of translucent crystal slowly emerged in the void.

The bookshelves soared into the clouds, each shelf holding parchment scrolls that shimmered with a deep blue light, the gold-embossed emblems on the spines shifting and changing with Gao De's gaze.

Gaode tentatively approached a bookshelf, selected the shelf labeled Herbalism, took out a parchment scroll, unwrapped it, and began to read.

In his mental vision, large swaths of text emerged.

"Herbal Remedy Table for Disinfecting Well Water in Civilian Areas"

Gaode glanced at it casually for a couple of seconds and then didn't want to look at it anymore.

There was no need for him to put it back. With just a thought, the parchment in his hand instantly disintegrated, turning into countless specks of light and stardust, forming a stream of stars that surged toward the bookshelf shelf and recombine into the parchment.

"It's quite convenient," Gaode commented, and then started trying the second method.

"Second-circle spell recipe".

Gaode Maps put forward its own requirements.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, dozens of beams of light shot out from the neatly arranged giant bookshelf, as swift as arrows, before stopping abruptly in front of Gao De.

Those were dozens of sheepskin scrolls.

Gaode casually grabbed a parchment scroll and opened it.

[Darkvision] (Alteration, Second Ring): Touch a willing creature and grant it the ability to see in the dark. For the duration of the spell, the creature will have darkvision of 60 feet.

Spells and potions:
Yes, each parchment scroll contains a spell recipe for a second-circle spell.

These are all the second-circle spell recipes that the Duchy of Westden has stored up over the years.

This is what Gaode needs most right now.

And that's not all.

Gao De's heart skipped a beat.

"Knowledge of Rune Arts"

The next moment, hundreds and thousands of beams of light shot out from the bookshelf, transforming into parchment scrolls that landed in front of Gao De.

Since Elsa was still waiting, after Gao De had a preliminary experience of the wonders of the [Heart of the North], he chose to disconnect and exit this vast knowledge base.

“The value of this one Heart of the North is more than five Winter’s Hammers.” God said sincerely to Elsa.

(End of this chapter)