"We know too little?" Celine dropped her tentacles, looking a little distressed . "You're right . The longer I stayed at the Quest Society, the more ignorant I felt I was . The book you brought from the Dream World just blew my mind . I shouldn't say that the stone is incredible, because there's something even more incredible than that . "
"What is it?"
"Us," Celine said with a faint smile . "According to that book, everybody is comprised of elements . Like a tree, we're also constituted of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc . However, we can laugh, weep and think . That's more amazing than just being able to illuminate . "
"I read that book too, but I still can't believe it," Nightingale remarked on a sigh . "As much as I hate to admit, our skins aren't a lot different from scaly tree bark . "
"That's probably what His Majesty refers to as the beauty of structures . "
Celine looked at Roland, who did not respond .
"Your Majesty?"
"Hey, are you OK?"
Roland finally came out of his reveries . He asked blankly, "Celine, what did you say?"
"We're more of a wonder than the illuminating stone tablets . "
"That's it . . . " Roland muttered, feeling something dawning on him . "The so-called stone tablets are not some sort of monuments, but they are people who got killed . "
"Are you saying — " Celine said in surprise .
"The tablets were those people's bodies," Roland said slowly with a shudder . They were indeed a type of new creatures entirely different from carbon-based lifeforms — they were actually silicon-based .
As the thought struck him, Roland soon found a reasonable explanation for the "illuminating tablets", and the murals in the temple immediately made sense to him .
First of all, why were the tablets so densly patterned? Not only the surface of the tablet was patterned, but its inner part was engraved as well . If this was an artifact, even Anna would find it hard to cut it so deep in a short period of time . According to the two explorers, those tablets were carved in exactly the same way .
However, if he viewed this matter from a different angle and regarded those tablets as creatures, that would explain a lot of things .
These engravings were probably "blood" veins . Under the blood pressure, silicon oxides produced a piezoelectric effect . Those electrical signals thus intertwined with each other and gradually formed thoughts . In the meantime, electric currents transformed into visible light through some mechanism so that these creatures were able to communicate .
Roland thought of the giant man and the huge pool of blood depicted in the murals .
Oil was actually more stable than water .
There might be a specific reason that the enemy of those dead people worshipped radioactive weapons .
Strong radiation would interfere electricity and might even render "electronic devices" ineffective . That was probably why the "radiation clan" put their faith in radioactive weapons .
Roland saw in his mind's eye how the war had begun .
Two entirely different civilizations had fought a fierce battle at the Southernmost Region for the relic . The blood of the defeated party had formed the underground river and the Choke Swamp . As their bodies did not decay, they remained underground for thousands of years in the form of tablets . The party who had gained the victory had disappeared, leaving the slightest trace behind them, except the ruin and the Magic Ceremony Cube at the Cage Mountain . Roland could now only trace this distant history via the murals that survived years of frost and winds .
This was so unbelievable!
"The illuminating tablets are living beings like us?" Celine asked meditatively . "Forgive me, but I can't believe that this is actually true . It just doesn't make sense to me that those tablets had consciousness and could move about at will . Do you have proof of any of that?"
Roland managed to remain his composure . He shook his head slightly and said, "This is my personal speculation . The truth might be very different, because from the perspective of evolution, it's almost impossible for such things to happen . "
Environment determined how lifeforms came into being . Demons and demonic beasts were, after all, the offsprings of the same biosphere . However, a silicon-based living being evolved in a completely different way . It was not likely that there would be two fundamentally different creatures living in the same natural environment .
"But according to you, that fits the stories on the murals . . . " Celine said after a moment of silence . "Let's put it aside for the time being . I believe as long as we continue to do our research, we'll find the answer . Only in this way will human beings continue to progress . "
"Sounds very convinceable . . . " Nightingale said while twitching her lips .
"This is also one of the rules at the Quest Society," Celine replied with a smile . "By the way, I conducted some tests on the illuminating tablets . I was thinking perhaps it could replace the illuminating Magic Stones, but it seems that doesn't work . "
"No?" Roland said, frowning . When he had read the report, the first thought that had come to his mind was to use the tablets for illumination . Due to the limitation in power generation, lightbulbs were currently only used in the plants and a few residential areas nearby . There was still a long way to go before the mass could enjoy the convenience brought by electricity . If the tablets could be used for lighting, it would definitely make the life in Neverwinter a lot easier .
"Well, you can make it work, but it's too much hassle . Your Majesty, please look at this . " Celine then picked out two samples . One was as thin as paper and the other the size of a block of tofu . They were both further sliced into smaller pieces . Celine applied some strength to both of them . Two jets of light erupted from her auxiliary tentacles . The light from the thin fragment was more dazzling than the other . Soon afterwards, the light from the former gradually faded away and stopped illuminating while that from the latter continued to illuminate for another half a minute . Ceine said, "I applied exactly the same amount of strength to the two fragments . "
Roland immediately took the implication . "Its illumination intensity and lasting power have something to do with its size and the extent to which it's deformed . "
"Exactly," Celine said while tapping her main tentacle . "The light from the tablet fragment will extinguish eventually . The smaller the fragment is, the faster the light goes off, and it will take a very long time to recover its power . If we want to illuminate the whole underground hall, we will probably need hundreds of tablets and place ton of iron on them . When the light goes off, we then need to remove those iron . That's going to be a huge project . "
Roland thought he might be able to use an assembly pulley to transport heavy objects if he wanted to use the tablets as stationary lights, though it was a little complicated process . He stared at the lusterless fragment and sank into thought . The smaller the stone fragment was, the easier it would be deformed, and correspondingly, the shorter the light would last . It would be almost like a flash —
"Hang on, a flash?"
An idea suddenly flashed across Roland's mind .
He immediately had a perfect idea to make the best use of those "tablets", although that might involve a lengthy production process .
This had been a historical problem for the First Army, which would just further impede their operations in the future if not solved in a timely fashion .
However, he now found a possible solution .
He could use the tablets to produce tracers that pointed soldiers directions .
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