Millennium Witch.

Chapter 44 - Exploration Ends
“It’s alive…” Yvette’s delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly as she fell into thought.

Through previous maintenance records, she had learned that the Abyss Base's main control AI was called "Firefly Core".

So the meaning here is quite clear: the AI ​​in the Abyss Base has come to life and become a self-aware being.

However, even so, there are still two possibilities.

One type is "come alive" based on the AI ​​crisis, which is also a common theme in many science fiction genres.

Another type is the "living" state of a semi-mechanical aberration, which is more in line with the apocalyptic vision.

However, Yvette felt the latter was more likely than the former.

This stemmed from some explanations she had seen in a book in the past. It's unclear whether there are any relevant documents, but they were quite convincing.

Those explanations state that self-awareness is composed of three parts: the "body," the "spirit," and the "memory," none of which can be missing. Without any one of them, self-awareness in the universal sense cannot be born or maintained.

The most crucial part, the "spirit body," is essentially a high-density aggregation of a large number of soul runes. From the perspective of runic literature, there is no difference between the soul and matter or elements.

In the understanding of the world by the original civilization, there is currently only one way to obtain "soul runes," which is through the unique transformation ability of the "brain," a biological organ.

But this does not mean that only beings with brains have spirits, because after a person dies, the soul runes do not disappear, but rather disperse into the natural world.

Plants, microorganisms, and other mindless organisms cannot produce soul runes themselves, but their bodies have the ability to act as carriers, so they can attract some soul runes from nature and integrate them into their bodies.

This situation gives rise to what is called "spirituality," which is also the basis of the idea that "all things have a spirit."

Therefore, with this theoretical support, governments around the world have special requirements for high-end AI chips such as "Mind Cores," requiring super companies like "Sky Dome Technology" to install "exorcism" modules that can automatically clean up soul runes during production, in order to prevent the accumulation of too many soul runes in the Mind Core and the generation of a slight spirituality.

However, to be fair, this is just a way to reassure the public, because in various studies and tests, the materials used in the mind core have a very weak ability to carry soul runes, and can almost be regarded as insulators.

Given that it is an insulator in itself, and has the "exorcism" function that monitors it regularly, if it could bring the core of the mind back to life, then the edifice of runic literature of the Origin Civilization would probably be clouded by a huge dark cloud.

……

Due to the extensive decay of the logs, apart from this bizarre record of what appeared to be the self-awareness of the controlling AI, Yvette saw no other useful textual information.

Looking back further, nearly 20 years later, the immortality project within the Abyss Base continued to progress steadily. This might suggest that the fact that the Firefly Core "came back to life" did not cause any major consequences and had already been quelled.

After putting the log back, Yvette and Rosalyn wandered around the twelfth basement level for a while, but without finding any new information, they continued down to the thirteenth basement level, which seemed to be the last level of the abyss base.

Upon arriving at this floor, Yvette noticed a proper noun through a nameplate with still clearly legible lettering, which made her gaze pause slightly.

The bottom of the divine erosion.

This is where the "divine transformation" is preserved!

Since there were no magic vines on this floor, after pushing open the already slightly ajar door, the two were greeted by a huge metal room through the illumination magic, with everything clearly visible.

Similarly, the large room contained very few items, except for a central display stand encased in glass, resembling a museum exhibit.

However, contrary to Ms. Etherine's suicide note, the glass dome is now broken, the shelf is empty, and the so-called "divine transformation" has long since disappeared.

Yvette and Rosalyn were somewhat disappointed with the result, but not surprised.

After all, so many years have passed, and the survivors hiding behind the door have all mutated. Even if they originally had some, they're probably gone now, and might have ended up in the stomach of some other mutant. But...

Unwilling to leave, Yvette and Rosalind walked around the edge of the Eclipse, searching for any new discoveries.

Then, this very act of caution led Yvette to actually make a discovery, finding a hidden little door.

Its color is the same as the surrounding metal walls, and it is not easy to spot it immediately unless you look closely.

Passing through the small door, the master and apprentice found themselves in a tiny metal room. The room was empty, with something on the ground that looked like a manhole cover.

But this is definitely not some kind of escape route, otherwise it's hard to imagine that Ms. Etherine wouldn't know.

A moment later, using the mechanical structure, Rosalyn turned on the valve and saw the scene beneath it.

—It really is an escape route. But it leads to a smooth rock wall outside the mountain, below which is a bottomless abyss. Unless you have flying equipment, there's not much you can do besides feel the wind. It's worth mentioning that the walls here are all carved from granite, which logically suggests is because they touch the bottom of the crater lake.

So the two of them had no choice but to leave disappointed.

However, as she was leaving, Yvette noticed a line of text engraved on the back of the small door to the room, which read—

"The Well of Eternal Night".

Although she wasn't sure if there was any special meaning behind it, she thought she would probably never come back here again in her life.

……

After completing her second exploration of the Abyss Base, Yvette felt much lighter in the following days, as if a knot in her heart had suddenly been untied, and she no longer had to worry about certain things.

Of course, the truth about the apocalypse, the truth about the divine transformation, and many other answers buried under the dust of history remain to be explored, but that is something that can only be learned by fate. She can simply wait quietly and doesn't need to force herself to do anything.

Rosalyn, on the other hand, was simply immersed in the joy of exploration and had a lot of fun.

In addition, because the Magic Light Vine was so beautiful, she brought back quite a few from the Abyss Base. This convenient plant can grow naturally without any care and can also provide light in shady places, making it a very useful night light at night.

then……

With no more specific goals or pressures, life on the manor returned to tranquility once again.

Yvette still regularly gives Rosalind rune lessons to improve her understanding and application of rune knowledge.

Rosalind, on the other hand, instructed the teacher in swordsmanship and the use of melee weapons. Although these techniques cannot be applied rigidly when used in tentacle attacks and require some additional variations, they are certainly sufficient to lay a solid foundation.

Moreover, Rosalyn gradually discovered a fact that made her very happy: her teacher's progress in hand-to-hand combat was rather slow, showing a very poor understanding and even a bit of clumsiness.

However, this is neither gloating nor mockery.

On one hand, she thought the clumsy teacher was so cute. On the other hand, she thought that if the teacher became clumsy, she could teach the teacher for a longer time and have more time to appreciate the teacher's cool yet serious, clumsy yet adorable appearance. Isn't that wonderful?
of course!

She would never voice these slightly rebellious thoughts.

(End of this chapter)