Chapter 326: Elven Arcane Text

At first, the elven queen wasn’t really concerned about Edward’s request.

Like present-day humans, the elves had once ruled the known world when their kind was spread throughout every corner of land.

And even after the High Elves went extinct, many branch races possessing their bloodline survived—the wood elves themselves include.

To put it harshly, one could find antiques of their race wherever they dig a hole in the Eastern Continent.

That was why she was quite sure what Edward had was one such trinket.

Nonetheless, she realized that she was wrong after examining it seriously.

“The words inscribed on the sack are the arcane text of the High Elves that are completely different from our modern text. It, however, does not record a message—it is made exclusively for simple rituals and to imbue it with a corresponding ‘Mystery’, which is why deciphering the original content requires a special ritual that matches it.”

The elven queen explained to Edward and the others. “The sacred arts system of the High Elves is different from what we have today. They seemed to have reached some pact with the gods in exchange for Mystery.” “Mystery’? What is that?” Gou Dan asked in confusion.

“I do not know. However, it is often used in the ancient texts our tribe has inherited… it should be the name for a special power.”

The elven queen explained. “These Mysteries is a condition with which the high elves casted their sacred arts, and because it is distributed equally, more people knowing of it would spread the Mystery thinner amongst each person. That was why the high elves generally adhere to secrecy so that the secrets in their own tribe wouldn’t be revealed to anyone else.”

“In fact, the high elves valued their secrecy so much that it reached airtight boundaries. They had even established a secrecy device specifically to handle situations where a captured high elf was about to reveal their Mystery (through hypnosis or other mind control), hence burning them into ashes because they were violating the oath of secrecy.”

“Thanks to the secrecy device and the application of Mystery being kept at maximum potential, the high elves were next to the gods in strength even in the age of the gods.” The elven queen added before sighing. “But it was also because of the strict secrecy that cut short the glory of the high elves…”

Edward had a vague hunch even though she left the actual reason unsaid.

Given that Mystery was fully monopolized and isolated by the leaders of the high elves, the essence of Mystery would be lost if those leaders were to be wiped out in one swift stroke through mishap or something else. In turn, the high elves that survived wouldn’t have any measures which they could revive their race with.

No wonder the high elves’ bloodline was all spilled all over the place, forming numerous different descendant elven races.

“In other words, with the high elves all extinct now, this spell can’t be undone…”

Edward did a double take even at his own words.

If the high elves’ extinction also meant the loss of arcane text knowledge, the application of this magitek that wielded a Mystery should have been lost together with it.

So how did those two automatons obtain the application of the magitek?

Edward quickly conveyed his doubts to the elven queen, who in turn asked in detail about the two automatons’ attributes. She believed that they were automated magitek that the high elves left behind and were basically humanoid golems built from liquid metal, in this case mercury.

In turn, it made sense why they were able to use the rope and sack that were high elven magitek as well.

“That said, the automatons are themselves magitek. If someone didn’t awaken them, they wouldn’t awaken so many thousand years later after the fall of the high elves and appear in Crookes out of the blue.” Edward pondered. “Mystery is most likely needed to awaken them, and in other words, there might be someone in Crookes who has control over the high elves’ Mystery!”

The idea itself was not entirely impossible.

Edward never considered himself a genius. But if even he could predict the disastrous outcome of the high elven leaders keeping Mystery to themselves, the high elves themselves would definitely be able to predict it as well—they once founded the grandest of civilizations after

all.

That was why they were likely to have kept the clues to Mystery someplace else in case of emergencies even before they were wiped out.

However, it appeared that the surviving high elves didn’t know about that or couldn’t reclaim Mystery over various reasons, which in turn led to the schism between the elves.

Even so, it wasn’t impossible for someone to stumble onto the high elves’ legacy after over a thousand years by sheer coincidence.

*

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After hearing out Edward’s analysis and thinking about it for a moment, the elven queen had a moon keeper ask for two elven elders who were learned in elven history to come to the visitor chamber, before requesting Joe and Gou Dan to reveal what they knew about the two automatons once more.

Unlike the elven queen who only possessed slight knowledge about the high elves, the two elders who were clearly historians and knew much more about the subject.

That was why when Gou Dan mentioned the war hammer that looked tiny but was extremely heavy and could be summoned into the user’s palm, one of the elders uttered the name ‘Moon God Meteor Hammer’ in agitation. They also subsequently confirmed that the curious buckler the other automaton had to be a protector exclusively used by the high elves called the Moon Sky Guard!

While those names don’t exactly roll off the tongue, the Moon God Meteor Hammer was forged entirely with starsteel. It was a metal divinely created as it only exists in the Moon God’s divine kingdom (there were no stars in this world in the real sense of the word, the ‘stars’ which mortals usually see are divine kingdoms embedded in the realm of the gods), and a blessing that only devoted Moon God believers could obtain.

Even if the Moon God Meteor Hammer was less than thirty centimeters in length, the amount of starsteel used to forge it had to be gathered by dozen thousands of zealots. And since zealots would never give up their gods’ blessing, it was only taken after they diedtherefore, taking into consideration that most of the Moon God’s believers were elves, it would take far longer than a thousand years to gather all those materials.

It was also said that the Moon God Meteor Hammer could only be lifted by the high elves when it was finally finished. With it, the lightest of swings would crush stone, whereas a full power blow could split mountains. Still, while it didn’t compare to the divine spear Sefarim, it was famous amongst high elves too.

On the other hand, the Moon Sky Guard was mass produced and was no more protective than an ordinary metal shield. However, the sacred arts that buffs it could divert most attacks aimed at it, misdirecting the oncoming blow away from the buckler itself to protect its wielder.

However, the elders still failed to recognize what the gimmicks of the sack and cloth were, and could only confirm that they were made by the high elves hanks to the arcane text inscribed over them.

Just as Edward considered how he should ask the elves to help, his System page suddenly bounced out in front of his eyes.

[Ding]

(Large-scale side quest started]

[Searching ancient ruins: Elven SIN (Synchronized Intellect Nation)]