Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 377 The Magical Core of “Living”
"My Lord, at the underground base on the southern slope of Jackdaw Ridge, the energy-gathering array that had been operating normally... for unknown reasons, suddenly exploded. Now part of the base's underground structure has collapsed, and some workers are trapped inside..."

what!
Harvey stood up from his chair in a flash, and the others also showed expressions of disbelief.

Energy focusing array... Whether it is continental or planetary energy focusing array, since Harvey put it into popular production application, there has never been any downtime, let alone explosion.

Whether it is the magic military factory, the mechanical repair department, or the energy center responsible for charging various combat or working alchemical beasts, each energy gathering array is under meticulous maintenance and continues to operate stably and for a long time without any problems.

"Is it an operational error... causing an energy output overload?"

The engineer, led by his personal guards to report to Harvey, shook his head resolutely. "It couldn't possibly be an operator error, my Lord. The staff responsible for the energy array know the operating procedures by heart. They wouldn't mistake the operating lever on the instrument even with their eyes closed... And the maintenance department only performed maintenance and inspection on the instrument two days ago and found no problems at all."

Harvey nodded, naturally not believing the other party's words. "Have Chris and Benoit go to the South Slope Base as soon as possible. We will go there and meet up there..."

Of course, he hoped that the problem was with the energy-gathering array instrument itself, or that it was caused by the staff's excessive fatigue or accidental negligence... If not, it meant that the source of the accident came from magic... and the instability of magic was very annoying to Harvey.

……

The engineering department arrived after hearing the news and commanded several large-scale engineering alchemy beasts to deal with the accident scene at the landslide location of the underground base. Fortunately, the landslide location was not a large cave area where people gathered and worked, but some abandoned corridors that few people had set foot in.

Few people go to the energy ranch frequently on weekdays, and the landslide only caused a disturbance among the captive beetles, which was not considered a major loss.

Chris directed several alchemy apprentices to collect the remaining parts of the energy gathering array after the explosion. While discussing with Benoit, he repeatedly checked the possible source of the problem. Judging from the frowning and puzzled expressions of the two men, they seemed to have no clue.

"Sir, we've thoroughly inspected the remaining components of this energy-gathering array." Chris revealed a rare look of bewilderment. "Whether it's the firmware structure, the connectors, or the rune matrix... there's nothing wrong with it. At least nothing that could cause it to explode."

Harvey nodded, called over the engineering team leader, Pep, and patiently asked, "Were there any staff nearby when the accident happened? Did they observe anything unusual?"

Pep pointed to a coin-sized scrape on his forehead and said with a bitter face, "Sir, there were actually two explosions. The first was extremely powerful, but most of the workers had already clocked out. The on-duty personnel, after completing their routine inspections that day, also returned to the duty room in the cave... No one noticed the problem immediately."

"A second explosion? What happened?"

"I was also on the roster for tonight's duty. After hearing the rumbling sound in the energy array room... I was the first one to rush in. And then..."

Although engineers like Pep, who came from ordinary civilian backgrounds, were very familiar with the operating procedures of various alchemical instruments, they had no idea how these magical gadgets, which they regarded as "magical creations", were made and how they operated.

Everyone only knows that according to the work rules and operating procedures, the energy transmission pipeline of the energy array should be disconnected immediately when an unknown fault occurs to avoid a series of instrument failures caused by energy overload.

As the engineering team leader, Pep rushed over subconsciously and pulled out the connecting pipe between the energy gathering array and the liquid magic energy converter after seeing it explode inexplicably. As a result, he was immediately blown away for several meters by the turbulent magic power remaining in the energy pipe, and his head was broken.

This is probably like touching an electric switch with your bare hands and not being electrocuted on the spot, but being hit by the current and being blown away. You are really lucky.

"Although we haven't figured out the exact cause of the accident, thankfully the Living Shield Machine was sent to the east to dig a tunnel... Otherwise, it would have been nestled next to the energy-gathering array, charging... and it would have been affected by the chaotic magic power caused by the explosion. If it had been destroyed, we wouldn't have been able to find another Macrophagia worm to transform..."

Harvey also agreed with this point, but he still felt uneasy because he hadn't figured out the cause of the accident. "Let's go to the energy ranch below to check the situation..."

It was not until Harvey led everyone on the alchemy beast vehicle and arrived at the energy ranch deeper underground that he discovered something strange.

"Look! There seems to be something... moving in the magic stone crystal pillar." Harvey said in surprise, pointing to a thick mineral pillar not far away that required several people to hug it.

Chris squinted his eyes and observed for a moment, then hesitated and said, "Sir...where did the thing in the crystal column come from? Are you seeing things?"

Benoit also looked in the direction of Harvey's finger and shook his head to indicate that he didn't see anything.

Pep immediately brought several engineers closer to the strange crystal pillar, circled it several times, and said in confusion, "There's nothing in the crystal pillar."

Harvey was stunned, muttering to himself uncertainly, "Am I the only one who can see this? Just now, I clearly..."

Asdalen, who was standing beside him, stepped forward and said in a deep voice: "No! My Lord, I saw it too!"

He raised his arm and pointed at another thick crystal pillar not far away, "It suddenly ran into that pillar!"

This thing can actually teleport through the air and move freely between different magic stone crystal pillars!
The royal guards immediately felt as if they were facing a great enemy. They raised their weapons but looked around in confusion - they didn't see anything strange at all, and didn't know which dangerous target to aim at. They could only surround Harvey in a daze and remain on high alert.

Why are only me... and Asdaren able to see it?
Although the object in the crystal column moved extremely fast, Harvey was able to see its true appearance when it paused between the crystal columns - it was a deep red prismatic object that was as crystal clear as the magic stone, as if it had been carefully cut and carved by a jeweler, like a huge vertical spindle-shaped gem.

The magic stone crystal column is obviously such a hard solid material, but it can move freely through it at a high speed, just like swimming freely in liquid.

Like Chris and the others, Duncan was completely unable to see the strange crystals. However, based solely on Harvey and Asdalen's descriptions, he felt something was amiss and quickly suggested, "Sir, this underground ruin itself contains too many doubts and unknowns. I suggest we evacuate this area and seal it off temporarily..."

Harvey frowned and pondered in silence. If the operation of the energy ranch was suspended, the territory's energy center would immediately shut down due to the lack of liquid magic power. It would be completely insufficient to rely solely on the energy gathering array to supply energy for the huge number of alchemical creations that had long been widely used in the territory.

Just as he was hesitating, he suddenly found that the crimson crystal flashed quickly again. This time, it did not move between the crystal columns, but suddenly appeared out of thin air next to a working alchemy beast lying on the stone wall, diligently collecting beetle ore.

In an instant, the alchemical beast's metal body began to vibrate violently, mixed with faint sparks from the friction between its parts...

With a loud bang, the alchemy beast exploded, and fragments fell to the ground with clanging sounds.

"I roughly know how the energy gathering array exploded..." Harvey glanced at Asdalen, his tone filled with incredible surprise and excitement.

"This thing...I'm afraid it's the magic core we've been looking for!"

But Harvey never thought that the magic core was actually "alive"!
(End of this chapter)