Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 430 - 288: Before the End of the Competition (Part 4)

Chapter 430: Chapter 288: Before the End of the Competition (Part 4)

Knowledge is like a high wall; this is what the foolish would say.

Knowledge is like the Tower of Babel; this is the path for those skilled at learning.

And knowledge is like the sea; this is what would be said to someone like Constantine Julius, the old curator.

As one of the rare elders in the Sage Sequence who managed to live to eighty, retiring with honor was the most important reason he had survived until now—he had been a prodigy when he was young, becoming a librarian at sixteen. During his most arrogant years, he undertook deep dives thirteen times a year, each time reaping rewards from the Old Era. His greatest haul was an artifact that the Mage Tower had sought for seventy years.

It was also then that he unwittingly became a black librarian.

Fortunately, before his second deep dive, he met the Lord of Justice, who was walking on the earth. This great being saw the problem within him at a glance and intervened to rescue him.

Since then, Constantine had been living cautiously.

Yes, cautiously. The seniors met with misfortune, yet he survived; his peers met with misfortune, and he lived on. Even as later generations fell into decay, he remained alive.

By the time he became the Think Tank Curator at forty-three, Constantine no longer delved deep but instead began to chronologically classify the Old World.

Before that, the sages cherished the pieces of the Old Era they owned. When Constantine published the first edition of his chronology, the entire Sage Realm and Techno Hunter Realm were boiling over—because no one had ever systematically organized the chaotic and disorderly Old Era into a genealogical tree like he did.

The areas of the Old Era that he had explored were also confirmed by the Tech Hunters to indeed exist, and after that, the upper tier members of the Sage Sequence began to publicize their records to Constantine for the first time.

Three years later, the second edition hit the shelves. The survival rate of the Tech Hunters increased by thirty percent, and the conversion rate of Sage Sequence librarians was cut in half.

And so, more and more people joined in the effort to perfect the chronology of the Old World.

This year was the last time Constantine participated in the publishing of the ninth edition of the chronology. Next year, he would fully publicize the chronology and hand it over to an editorial team to complete the next compilation.

Thinking of this, the old man in the rocking chair noticed the carriage outside the window.

It was the carriage of the Mowish family.

The old man was curious—because when he was young, the king, who once aspired to be a Tech Hunter, had sought him out, wanting to know what it took to be a Tech Hunter.

So many years later, he wondered why someone from the Mowish family would still come to see him.

The carriage stopped, and the first to step out was an elven female.

Ah, Lady Anna, Constantine rose to his feet—the Think Tank Curator must show respect to a legendary figure who battles Chaos year-round, not someone he could dismiss due to his seniority.

Standing at the open door, the old man smiled at the lady and the two children behind her: "Welcome to Julius’s cottage, Lady Anna of Mowish."

"Good day, honorable Curator, I am here today because of this child," Lady Anna said, pointing to the boy behind her.

Yes, the boy. Although he looked adorable, Constantine, as a Psychic, didn’t just look at appearances like the young ones—he could see in his Psychic Vision that Lady Anna’s soul was like a flaming torch, so intense and pure, a sign of a good alignment.

The girl had a silver-haired true self, a sign of the High Elf blood running through her veins, extremely pure, though not a full hundred percent pure, for she bore a human’s appearance.

Considering Lady Anna and King Goethe, Constantine confirmed that this must be Princess Faye—in his days spent writing at home, this was his first time seeing her.

Back in her days, she must have been a beauty that could bring a kingdom to its knees.

If so, accompanying Princess Faye must be the recently infamous Malin Gaiate in this city.

Behind him was a tall Spiritual Body, a projection of his soul’s strength. Many said he had the blood of giants, and seeing him now, the rumors seemed true—this Spiritual Body bore the distinct features of a giant, robust, with the upward-angled eyebrows and braided hair characteristic of the Frost Giants from the North.

This in itself wasn’t anything special; Constantine had seen at least ten such outstanding Spiritual Bodies in his life, all from very promising young people. But what inspired awe in Constantine was the child sitting on the man’s circled arms.

The child, who looked like his twin spiritual entity but not as lifeless, curiously surveyed the world, clearly a trait only possible after awakening Spiritual Energy.

That wasn’t the only significant thing; awakening to Spiritual Energy at birth is no strange thing, and some children with strong bloodlines can even touch the magical web. It wasn’t unheard of that a six-year-old could come in contact with Spiritual Energy.

What brought Constantine his deepest reverence was the black energy in the child’s hand.

This was the Chaotic Energy that had contaminated librarians, yet the child’s Spiritual Body was not controlled by it—instead, he controlled it.

Pondering this, Constantine sighed, "I understand your purpose, madam, but I am powerless to help. The child must have awakened to his Psychic abilities autonomously. I can see the agility of his Spiritual Body, and he has that in his hand."

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