Chapter 860 - 44: Larval Tear
When the Elden Ring shattered, the Divine Ship fell into the Boundary Land, deeply buried underground.
The rule of the Golden Law thus came to an end.
The fragments of the Divine Ship peeled off, elements smaller than a grain of sand dispersed into the Boundary Land, heralding the era of the Hero of Steel...
———— Later generations’ "Wandering Warrior’s Notes", author unknown.
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The Boundary Land is not only where a splendid civilization was nurtured on its surface.
In the Underworld, ancient ruins also exist.
At the bottom layer of the roots of the Golden Tree’s deepest part, are the sources of the two great underground dark rivers, the Shifra River and the Anse River, which are also the starting points of the widely distributed underground tree roots in the Boundary Land. Gray nanomachine tides spread rapidly to the areas near ancient ruins in the basins of these two great underground dark rivers.
That is where their true target lies, while other entities contaminated and imbued with "Steel Protection" are merely incidental, to make this phenomenon appear more natural.
In simple terms, it is a bit of cover and concealment.
From the beginning, the core directive received by the nanomachines was to head towards the Eternal City underground... If not for this target, someone would not have gone to the trouble of crashing a starship into the depths of the Underworld.
This was always a premeditated outcome. The simulated location of the spaceship’s crash was carefully chosen; it wasn’t just thrown down randomly.
Underneath the false underground starry sky—
Are ruins, broken bridges, pillars, and figures standing before huge remnants of walls.
The first to choose to descend from the sinkhole to explore was Miss Witch, who couldn’t help but be awestruck by the magnificent and fantastical scenery of the Underworld. Thanks to the Spirit Horse’s powerful mobility, she easily reached the depths but couldn’t find the vanished meteor.
Because the deeper she went, the larger the underground space became.
There are many natural rock layers, tunnels, and cavities, layers upon layers of strata, and the wild growth and entanglement of the vast root system of the Golden Tree, making it all seem exceptionally complex... In the end, Miss Witch almost couldn’t find the strata pierced by the astral impact, discovering many large collapses leading to even deeper layers.
Though she didn’t find the fallen star itself, she followed some clues, quite confusedly tracing the growth trend of glowing plants all the way to the ruins located near the underground river basin.
An unimaginable magnificence and grandeur...
Especially standing at the end of a broken bridge, the contrast between the small figure of the girl and the majestic buildings of a giant city often having a more impactful feeling.
She gently patted the head of the majestic Spirit Horse beside her, soothing the horse while also taking the chance to calm herself, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on everything before her. A moment later, she softly exhaled, extended her hand to grasp the reins and the horse’s mane together, and smoothly turned to mount the horse.
Riding on the back of the Spirit Horse, she again reached out to pat its head—
The next moment, her figure along with that of the horse began to fade, blurring within a few breaths until even the outline was indistinct, the image dissipating completely into the dim underground space.
Miss Witch decided to explore further. Although all sorts of strange things exist in the Underworld, encountering many giant ants and mudmen along the way, she remained confident in her self-preservation.
Because the horse was a Spirit Horse, and she was also a Spirit Body, as long as she was careful, there would be no problem, not even being discovered...
With this thought, Miss Witch continued forward.
At the same time.
Unknown changes were slowly yet steadily unfolding in front in the Eternal City, nurturing a giant upheaval destined to shake the entire Boundary Land.
In this ancient civilization ruin, which once angered the Supreme Will and suffered city obliteration due to rebellion, almost no inhabitants remained.
Believers in Stellaris and the moon, they established their civilization in ancient times, intending to create a king and scheming to slay gods, with unimaginable ambition and boldness. However, the ultimate result was as expected; their plan to create a king failed, and the grand undertaking of slaying gods barely began—
Just as they created a weapon said to be capable of harming the Supreme Will, they were noticed...
The Supreme Will, naturally infuriated, like how they once used the Golden Meteor to send the Elden Beast to the Boundary Land, repeated the tactic of hurling a malignant meteor upon them, delivering a new Star Beast. This time, however, it was not the Elden Beast representing the Golden Law, but a star alien born from the distant darkness without light.
That terrifying alien took away the sky from the inhabitants, destroyed their capital, exhibiting a terrifying force to ravage everything completely.
However, regardless of how it went—
The Eternal City inevitably left behind two legacy plans’ outcomes, namely the result of the king-creation project, a shape-changing creature called "Silver Tear"... and the result of the god-slaying project, a weapon to harm the Supreme Will and its emissaries, named "Hunting Finger Knife".
These two technological achievements were the primary objectives of someone.
In the vast and silent Eternal City, throughout the streets, pillars, and buildings, wander beings resembling slimes. At first glance, they appear to be some kind of soft-bodied creatures, yet their bodily structures are not gel-like but rather silver fluid liquid metal.
From an unknown origin, grayness, like a parasite, has infected these liquid metal slimes.
The nanoplague has finally spread here.
The silver metal slimes show no particular reaction, as the grayness spreads across their surface, quickly fading beneath the silver fluid as if merely a simple light and shadow change, seeming as if nothing happened... nevertheless, it is merely "seeming".
They exist between the biological and non-biological, able to morph into other life forms, from ants to giants, yet it is merely imitation...
—They themselves lack consciousness.
Although according to the King-making Plan of the Eternal City, the Silver Tear would mimic other creatures, and supposedly at the end of mimicry, it would be reborn, one day transforming into a king. However, in their current Slime state, they are far from that point.
Yet, the arrival of a certain external force injected them with immense power, greatly enhancing their evolutionary journey.
Hmm, the power of evolution.
Thanks to their fluid nature of being purely liquid metal, which inherently has a tendency for transformation and mimicry, the nanomachines replicate within the Slimes effortlessly and quickly spread, initiating the process of restructuring from within.
"What... what exactly are these things?"
In the state of Spiritual Void, keeping a distance, Miss Witch frowned as she observed a scene unfolding on a street in the dungeon from afar.
Initially, she did not notice, but later realized that this city in the Underworld was not entirely devoid of residents. There were warriors dressed in consistent styles, appearing sporadically on the streets, walking alongside or passing by the liquid metal Slimes.
Despite the Slimes’ minimal interaction and apparent lack of intelligence and mind, it was clear they were on the same side as the city’s inhabitants.
However, now, some subtle changes were occurring...
They seemed to have rebelled.
On the street that Miss Witch was watching—
The warrior drew his weapon, warily guarding against the approaching Slime, seemingly noticing something amiss... However much he shouted, the transforming creature shimmering with silver light under the false starlight of the Underworld continued to wriggle towards the warrior.
Battle was imminent!
And then it ended abruptly, or rather it was never truly a battle...
The silver liquid metal morphed abruptly as it approached a certain distance, suddenly extending like a stretched dough, swiftly pouncing onto the Underworld warrior. He naturally struggled fiercely, yet the silver fluid quickly entangled him.
Ultimately, it engulfed the entire person completely.
A sculpture seemingly made of silver fluid metal stood motionless... The silver liquid metal flowed continuously over the surface of the body, transforming, and soon developed sharp-edged outlines, forming clear contours.
Just within a few breaths, it felt like an invisible forge appeared out of thin air—
Metal restructuring.
Shaped and formed.
The entirety reflected the luster and cold texture of steel.
A majestic set of brilliant silver armor appeared on the warrior.
The warrior, seemingly returning to normal, raised his hands in disbelief, looking at the fitted armor covering his fingertips, still unable to fully comprehend what had happened... But the one fact he could confirm was the overwhelming power flowing ceaselessly from various parts of his body.
"Full system functionality!"
"Full unit connection!"
"All unit modules activated, resonance rate calculation ongoing..."
Incomprehensible sounds echoed, seemingly coming from within the armor.
A terrifying force merged with the warrior’s flesh, while sensors collected all environmental data, including sensing atmosphere, vibrations, electromagnetic fields, ultra-short waves... etc., blending radar, sonar, and basic measurement data, flooding into his brain, converting into comprehensible information for the organism.
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Far aboveground.
In the great library of the Magic Academy.
Upon receiving some signal, Gu Mo decisively concluded his research on the mysterious moon, returning directly to the real world.
"Looks like it’s going smoothly, now for the data feedback... But let this matter brew for a bit first."
After processing the messages transmitted by the Starship, the young man in white with black hair nodded contently. Such results in less than a day were indeed far more potent than the Seed of the World Tree. If he had used that method, he would have to wait a full ninety days just to see it sprout.
The Starship wasn’t large, but it was, after all, his highest crystallization of imitating the Titan Series Ship.
Thus, the overall functionality was compelling, and the nanomachines, in particular, were a great weapon with endless useful applications. Countless unique ideas had already sprung up in his mind, ready to bring a dawn of advanced technology to the Boundary Land.
His gaze shifted to the center of the great library, where the true Full Moon Queen sat quietly.
The system didn’t respond.
He prepared to explore the possibility of point resetting functionality further, starting with the Great Rune within that Amber Egg. If it didn’t work, he’d see if the Full Moon Queen could manage the reset function... If that also didn’t work, he’d consider whether the Silver Tear juveniles found in the Eternal City could be utilized.
In the game, these are the items needed for point resetting.
This is also an essential reason for extending his reach into the Eternal City, all part of his calculated plan.