Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 538 Miss Shining is Trying Her Best

Maria was placed in a small workstation on the outskirts of the core research area.

Although far from the most secret Silent Furnace isolation zone, the air was still filled with a mixture of machine oil, ozone, and faint incense smells. Binary prayers were etched on the walls, and the low hum of machinery and the subtle hiss of servo skull scanning beams were everywhere.

Sage Aurejana personally granted her access to the basic technical database, the contents of which underwent rigorous screening and anonymization, and assigned her an experienced but taciturn technical priest as her mentor.

The database contains a vast amount of mechanical principles, energy conduction formulas, and abridged versions of fundamental psionic theories, like a boundless ocean.

Maria showed no stage fright whatsoever; she threw herself into it with great enthusiasm. With her solid experience in maintaining knight mechs and the legacy of the Nearl family's mechanical cult, she grasped the complex mechanical structures exceptionally quickly.

She felt she was standing on the threshold of knowledge and power, her heart filled with a desire to contribute to the governor and her family.

She paid particular attention to the progress of the construction of the Spirit Bone Core framework mentioned in the project briefing. This was the most basic and crucial part of the entire Psionic Knight project. She was eager to understand its intricacies as soon as possible, even if it was just peripheral assistance, to prove that she was no longer the "little Maria" who needed to be protected under someone's wing.

The workstation's daily routine is intense yet structured.

During a brief break, she went to the designated supply point to get her standard ration of energy paste.

The supply point was located next to a relatively wide secondary passage, where huge pipes on the walls emitted a rhythmic pulsation.

Several junior priests were gathered around a cleaning machine that had a minor malfunction, performing basic maintenance and troubleshooting using monotonous binary code.

The air was filled with the clanging of tools striking metal and the hum of servo motors.

Maria waited quietly, her gaze inadvertently sweeping into the depths of the passage.

Just then, an extremely tall figure, which even looked almost like a servant mech, strode across a cross passage, its metal feet making a heavy and unique echo on the adamantite floor.

The figure was encased in heavy power armor, riddled with tool interfaces and energy lines, but in a fleeting glance, Maria clearly saw the other's bare arms—not armor, but the limbs themselves, gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen and a hard, silvery sheen.

This instantly reminded her of the giant she had glimpsed from afar in the corridor of the core area a few days earlier.

"Is that also a sage?" Maria couldn't help but whisper to a man next to her who looked like a low-ranking priest and was waiting for supplies.

Her voice was filled with pure curiosity, carrying a hint of a young girl's natural inquiry when facing an unknown and powerful being.

“I don’t seem to have seen any detailed records about her in the database or project communications? She seems…to be particularly tall?” After asking the question, she belatedly felt a little uneasy, worried that her question might have overstepped the strict hierarchy of the forging world.

The junior priest followed her gaze and looked into the depths of the passage, his eyes immediately revealing a mixture of awe and a hint of bewilderment.

He lowered his already faint synthesized voice: "Shh! That's Lady Silverhand. She's a special advisor personally appointed by the Governor. A very senior sage. She's only in charge of the most core parts, in the Silent Forge. We don't have the authority to know the specifics. We only know that she's very powerful and very strict." The technician's voice carried an instinctive awe for the unknown high-ranking and powerful beings.

Maria understood, and at the same time, her admiration deepened.

So she was Silver Hand!
There are scattered rumors within the project about this mysterious consultant, all saying that her technical expertise is unfathomable and that her style of doing things is as efficient and ruthless as a precise machine.

Maria had seen her exchanging data with Sage Cald outside the quarantine zone from afar. His towering figure, nearly five meters tall, and the profound understanding of mechanical structures he displayed in every gesture left an indelible impression on her.

Encountering it again at such close range now, the visual impact is still breathtaking.

She thought to herself that this Silver Hand Sage must be a sage-level figure invited by the governor from some secret forging world. His massive metal body and the complex power backpack integration interface that was vaguely visible behind him indicated his extraordinary power. No wonder he could lead such a crucial project.

Being able to work on the same project as such a person, even just from a distance, filled her with a strange excitement.

She took the energy cream and quickly returned to her workstation.

In the cramped personal cubicle, there was only a hard sleeping board and an integrated workbench. After a day of studying, Maria did not rest immediately. Instead, she carefully took out a hardcover notebook wrapped in soft cloth and an old-fashioned quill pen from her bag—personal items she had taken with her when she left home, carrying her habit of recording her knight training notes and little thoughts from her teenage years.

In a world of casting filled with cold logic and data flow, this private and "outdated" approach is her anchor point for maintaining herself.

She took a deep breath, opened her notebook, and under the dim light of her desk lamp, the quill pen tip glided across the paper, making a soft, rustling sound.
Rostov III, peripheral workstation for casting core.

I saw that 'Silver Hand' sage again today.

My goodness, she's so tall!

More… taller than any technical priest I’ve ever seen?
Why is she so tall?

Was it some kind of reconstructive surgery?

She looks really amazing!
The cold, metallic arm made the floor vibrate when it walked.

The junior priest said she was a great sage specially invited by the governor, and was only responsible for the most core spiritual skeleton framework.

Amazing!
The information provided by Sage Aurejana is so much that I feel like my head can't hold it all.

Those energy flow formulas made my eyes blurry, but every time I understood a small part, I felt particularly at ease, as if I had tightened another screw on the 'Radiant Sentinel'.

What the Great Sage and Lord Silverhand did was to assemble the spirit bones like building blocks.

I really want to know what that scene is like; it must be absolutely spectacular.

My uncle and sister asked me to help... but what I'm doing now feels so far from the real core.

The way that low-ranking priest looked at me probably made him think I was just a noble lady who came here to gain prestige.
I'm a little... unwilling to accept it.

But! Maria Nearl, remember why you came here!
You are a knight of the Lin Guang family, sent here because the governor trusted you!
We cannot bring shame to the family, nor can we fail the governor's expectations.

My sister once said that a knight's duty is to complete every task assigned to him, no matter how small.

Now, understanding these basics is my battleground.

The governor needs a psionic knight, and the family needs to prove its worth.

I will conquer this knowledge like a knight charging into battle!

One day, I too will be like Lord Silverhand, truly touching that 'core' power!

May the will of my ancestors and the glory of the god of machinery guide me forward.

After writing the final, chivalrous ending, Maria gently blew the ink dry, closed the notebook, and carefully put it away.

As her fingertips brushed against the embossed crest of the Nearl family on the cover, the heavy sense of responsibility and the yearning for the pinnacle of technology became incredibly clear and fervent in her heart.

Her fleeting glimpse and hearing about the Silver Hand Sage had only fueled her fascination with the project's core progress.

She knew her authority was limited, and that she could only access the basics at present, but she was even more determined to work harder and master the knowledge at hand as soon as possible, hoping that one day, even if she was just a fine cog in the machine, she could contribute to this great project and to the expectations of the governor and her family.

The young female knight's chest beats not only with curiosity about the unknown, but also with a burning desire to prove herself and defend her honor.

(End of this chapter)