Star Forge Titan

"Have you seen that old fool Ian? Well, I have to admit that compared to him, I just look a little weird." The purple-robed girl muttered, as if recalling some distant memory, and the smiling expression on her face could hardly be maintained.

Although she still looks like a fresh girl, the age gap between her and the great wizard Ian who has suffered from Alzheimer's disease is not as big as it seems. There is even some unclear past between the two.

"Okay, let's put the small talk aside for now. Young man, you seem quite talented at driving magical vehicles. Why didn't you choose the extraordinary class in the magical sequence?" Christina asked curiously.

"It's because of some personal reasons. After all, I was not a citizen of Linde before." Alvin avoided the question calmly.

"That's a bit of a pity." Christina sighed.

Although this answer did not satisfy her, when she recalled the scene she had just seen, the fact that the young man in front of her could perform that action even while controlling the slow-reacting Special 34 power armor made the director seem to have some different ideas.

She jumped up and patted Ivan on the shoulder. Given Christina's current height, this action was quite difficult.

"Keep doing your best, maybe we'll have a chance to work together in the future."

Hearing this, not only Catherine, but even the black-robed man who remained silent and stood behind Christina like a bodyguard, showed a look of surprise.

"Director? What you mean is..." The man in black robe asked subconsciously, and then he immediately realized that now was not the right place to talk, so he consciously shut his mouth and returned to silence.

"Pied, we should give more opportunities to talented young people." Christina looked at Ivan with a smile.

"Keep working hard, young man. I'll continue to pay attention to you."

Hearing her words, Alvin didn't show much reaction, but just bowed politely.

"My pleasure."

Chapter 70 Racing Game

After waving away the unexpected bystanders, the practical class of driving power armor returned to normal teaching.

Meeting Christina Caroline here was completely unexpected, but Alvin saw some clues from it.

The impact of the demon's advent incident on the New Age Institute may be much greater than imagined. Although the incident was quickly suppressed on the surface, most of the responsibility was thrown onto the deceased Joseph and Meni Kaye who was involved.

But the real top leaders obviously also realized that there was an undercurrent surging within the institute.

Their choice is to speed up the research.

The reason why the top management of the institute chose to speed up the research is that at this stage the undercurrent is only circulating in the lower levels of the institute, so they plan to complete a certain important task before the situation deteriorates further, and then they will be able to free up their hands to completely resolve this matter.

For a transcendent of the Crown Grand Mage's level, as long as he has enough time and energy to deal with it, most conspiracies from those with less strength are just futile monkey shows.

Coincidentally, this is consistent with Alvin's idea.

Although we are very angry about the fact that innocent people are being used as scapegoats, due to the lack of evidence, this situation cannot be reversed immediately in the short term.

In addition, MI7, which is responsible for solving the case, obviously also knows that the people involved on the surface are innocent, but they need an explanation to temporarily relieve the pressure exerted by the upper levels, and they also need more time to dig out the real mastermind behind the scenes.

After all, MI7's agents are not all bureaucrats who are only interested in completing their missions. Among them are guardians who truly want to protect the country in the shadows.

In addition, with the supervision of a duchess who could not tolerate any sand in her eyes, the bureaucrats who were only concerned with completing their tasks could not finish their work hastily and give a final assessment of this vicious incident.

Furthermore, Ivan also vaguely realized that his previous actions seemed to have been manipulated by his opponent. Therefore, what he needed to do next was to change his pace and use the opponent's unexpected actions to break through the blockade of the entire conspiracy.

Continuing to follow the clues left by the mastermind behind the scenes obviously wouldn't do the trick. The other party wanted to gain benefits from the New Era Research Institute's underground headquarters at the Rock of Truth, so their target must be the institute's greatest asset: magical technology.

Christina, the director of the institute, came to observe a group of young students' practical classes. To Ivan, this was a direct signal that the Giant God Soldier project had progressed to the stage of selecting pilots.

Although the Colossus Rider is a fifth-tier profession, the person who drives the Colossus Soldier does not necessarily have to be a Colossus Rider.

As long as they meet certain conditions and become drivers, low-level transcendents can also drive the power of such a huge weapon, but they must be under tremendous pressure while driving the power, and the strength they can exert is probably only one percent or even one thousandth of the complete giant god soldier.

A giant god soldier of that level cannot be called the ultimate magical weapon equivalent to a fifth-level perfector.

At best, it can only reach the fourth level in terms of destructive power, and other aspects are completely incapable of being brought into play.

The true value of a Giant Driver lies in his ability to unleash the full power of the Giant God Soldier beyond its limits, so this profession is qualified to become the fifth level of the Magic Sequence.

Furthermore, this ultimate power, equivalent to that of other Sequence Perfects, was not derived entirely from research, but rather from the fusion of the ultimate will of the pilot and the ultimate power of the Colossus in countless all-out battles, ultimately giving rise to a fifth-order existence known as the 'Giant Driver'.

Drivers who meet the requirements will gradually achieve a perfect fusion of their own will and even the concept of "existence" with the body during the long-term control of the Giant God Soldier, thereby reaching a special state that is difficult to describe and can only be called "real", which is equivalent to the ultimate sublimation of the promotion ceremony in the final stage of the extraordinary road.

The pilot and the Giant God, like a curve that forms a complete circle, both symbolize the ultimate in a certain aspect.

Only when the Giant God Soldiers are with their drivers, they are true fifth-level Giant Spirit Drivers.

Both humans and the body are indispensable.

Considering the time when the Giant God Soldier first appeared in the plot of the previous life game, the plan may have begun to accelerate now, and the selection of drivers will be completed among this group of young people with the greatest plasticity.

The highest-ranking extraordinary person in the entire magic plan has only reached the second level, and their age is below a certain limit.

Obviously, the New Era Institute had already made some plans before the project began. After all, young people are the most malleable and are most likely to create miracles and variables.

So, what he had to do next was to become a pilot before the mastermind behind the scenes got hold of the Giant God Soldier plan.

By then, whether it was picking up the bucket and running back to Elrond, or killing all suspicious people with a single punch, it would be a simple matter that could be accomplished in the blink of an eye.

Simply put, as long as you obtain the power of the Giant God, you can use force to defeat cleverness, and no matter what plan the mastermind behind the scenes has, it will become useless.

"So, this is another speed race?" Diana smiled after listening to Ivan's analysis.

At this moment, the practical class has been completed, and Alvin and his friends meet up in the cafeteria.

Among them were Diana, Catherine, the quiet little Q, and of course Kayon Paulus, who had to walk with his legs clamped together after class because of a hip strain.

After the necromancer opened the barrier with a bitter face to prevent the content of the conversation from being leaked, Alvin told everyone his analysis based on the existing intelligence.

Of course, he deliberately concealed the part related to the Giant God Soldier, and only referred to it as some kind of powerful experimental magic vehicle. After being able to infer the selection of pilots, it was not surprising to come up with this information. He did not have to worry about people getting suspicious after knowing it.

As for the information about selecting pilots, Alvin used his own reasoning as justification.

This certainly couldn't fool everyone, but due to the information asymmetry, after hearing this 'reasoning', only Ka Yang gave Ivan a strange look.

At the same time, this guy also silently used his lips to make the mouth shape of "Northern Witch Doctor"

The vein on the black-haired boy's forehead jumped at that moment. After using a threatening look to make the other party beg for mercy, he continued:

"Yes, it's a race again in a way."

Hearing Ivan's answer, Diana nodded thoughtfully, and then a smile appeared on her face.

This racing witch, who had dominated the Sarthe Circuit for several years, said with exceptional confidence:

"Then, we come to the area where I excel."

Catherine, who was witnessing this scene, blushed inexplicably and trembled all over.

Alvin was also shocked by the aura displayed by the short-haired girl in a brief moment. This reminded him of the heroic figure of the woman with titles such as White Knight and Valkyrie in his memory, and he could not help but stare at her in a daze.

Noticing the strange looks from her companions, Diana's expression froze, and then her face began to slowly turn red.

Coming back to her senses, she realized that what she had just said seemed subtly shameful.

Although, that was indeed my most intuitive feeling at the time.

"It's a good thing to have confidence, so..." Alvin coughed lightly to cover up the unnaturalness on his face, then stretched out a hand.

Those who understood what he meant also stretched out their hands and put them together, including a steel dog paw.

"come on!"

Chapter 71: The Origin of Magic

Once you have a clear goal, all you need to do is sprint towards the finish line.

The Giant God pilot needs to generate a sufficiently strong "resonance" with the magical machine.

The key talent of the extraordinary class of the magic sequence, 'Machine Soul Resonance', was born for this purpose.

However, the essence of most talents or characteristics is born from the combination of various attributes of the extraordinary person himself and other key factors.

Simply put, its own properties and specialties are similar to iron ore, and the talents and abilities of the extraordinary profession are to refine and forge the iron ore and integrate it with other elements to become stronger steel, and then make the steel into finished weapons that can be used at any time.

In other words, with his almost two rows of talents, Alvin can completely simulate some of the characteristics of machine soul resonance.

In addition, he has a greater advantage, which is the new meditation method "Steel God Casting" that was gradually developed by Lind of the Central Empire after the birth of magical engineering and its corresponding extraordinary job.

The practice of meditation requires long-term persistence, but as long as you persist, changes will occur.

The original magic power in Ivan's body has now become more stable than before, while also not losing its original violent characteristics.

Just like the high-voltage current flowing in a wire, although it has the terrifying power to harm or even kill living things, it can also drive various high-power machines under the constraints of the wire.

In addition, this 'meditation method', in addition to adding magical properties, can also provide additional amplification for the resonance between the meditator and the corresponding magical machinery based on the specific image constructed in their mind.

From the very beginning, the specific image that Alvin constructed in his mind was the 'Giant God Soldier'.

As long as he could access detailed information, he would be 120% sure that he could deduce the meditation method to a higher level, coupled with his rich experience in controlling the Giant God Soldier as a Giant Driver in the virtual game Palladio in his previous life.

By then, I believe that even without mastering the talent of 'machine soul resonance', Alvin can still stride towards the 'real' realm of human-machine unity.

Even if it is unlikely to be promoted to a Giant Driver right on the spot, he will be able to do it at that time and unleash the power of the Giant God Soldier to a level that ordinary drivers cannot achieve.

However, all of this is based on the premise that one can surpass others and be selected as a Giant God pilot.

After clearly understanding this, the other students in the first phase of the Magician Program began to feel a terrible pressure.

Someone who had already secured first place in various courses was no longer satisfied with just being first. He began to actively teach himself more difficult magical knowledge, and occasionally asked questions that even the instructor of the course could not give a definite answer to.

As a result, the course progress of the entire class began to speed up, and the students' stress also changed inversely with their hair. The top students who could easily master the knowledge now need to work harder after class, and the ordinary students who already had some difficulty had to study late into the night to keep up with the progress.

This behavior would naturally attract criticism, but the other students who could not learn or beat Alvin were completely helpless against him.

The only thing they could do was to try their best to catch up. As outstanding talents selected into the Mage Program, all the students had their own pride and would not give up easily.

Knowing this, Alvin will not take the advantage he holds lightly.

Even in the boring course about the technological history of the development of the magic industry, he still paid a lot of attention to every word the instructor said on the stage.

This class was taught by an elderly gentleman who had personally experienced the initial stages of the magical engineering revolution. As a transcendent, this instructor, nearly 120 years old, remained energetic.

As if sensing the students' fatigue, the old man's graying brows arched slightly. Although he wasn't a professional teacher, he knew that it was best to motivate students in class, as that would lead to better teaching results.

So he put down the textbook for a moment and changed the subject.

"Do you know what the original source of the original magical technology is?" The old man looked at the sleepy students with a smile, and as expected, he saw that their attention was focused on him.

"Discover the secret treasure."

A voice came from the second to last row of the classroom. It was Alvin who was speaking. He was writing and drawing on his notebook without even looking up, while casually answering the questions raised by the old gentleman.

The practical lesson on power armor operation gave Ivan some new ideas about how to use his own strength, especially the Lightforge armor of the Ash Knight. That was why he didn't pay full attention during class today, but the little attention he gave was enough to hear the instructor's instructions clearly.

"Yes, it's about discovering secret treasures." The old man nodded, not caring about the other party's attitude. Teachers always give some preferential treatment to top students.

What's more, this tall, dark-haired boy also gave the correct answer.

"Throughout research on the history of Palladio, we know that our world once had a civilization more advanced than our current one. The so-called 'unearthed secret treasure' is a special device left behind by an ancient civilization that still functions today."

The old man began to introduce the origin of magic technology in a storytelling way, which immediately aroused the students who were originally a little sleepy in the classroom.

As outstanding young people from various forces, they have obviously received various educations and naturally have heard of this kind of historical knowledge.

However, as the highest research institution for magical technology, the New Era Research Institute may possess many secret information that has not yet been disclosed to the public.

"Among these 'discovered secret treasures', the vast majority are already damaged. While they can still function, their functions are no longer complete. Therefore, the 'discovered secret treasures' we currently utilize the most are the magic furnaces of various sizes."

"Unlike the Magic Engine, the magic power output by the Magic Furnace is more difficult to control. Only those who have completed the Path of the Fire Sword, the fourth-level Crowned Ones, can successfully master it. Crowned Ones who master large Magic Furnaces can transform themselves into entire armies, often relying on the additional magic power provided by the Magic Furnace."

"Teacher, what does this have to do with magical engineering?" an anxious student couldn't help but ask.

"Ho ho ho, young man, don't be too anxious. That's what I'm going to talk about next." The old man didn't get angry. He just pressed his hand lightly and used extremely delicate magic manipulation skills to push the other person back to his seat. Then he continued:

"Since ancient times, scholars have repeatedly attempted to replicate the 'Magic Furnace,' a widely used excavated treasure. However, they have all failed for various reasons. After research, we've discovered that the key lies in a technological divergence between the ancient civilization and modern magical civilization. Before we can pinpoint the exact stage at which this technological divergence occurred, replicating the 'excavated treasure' will likely be a difficult and unprofitable endeavor."

"But magical engineering is different. We didn't try to restore a specific item or type of discovered treasure. Instead, we chose to restore the technology used to discover the treasure." The old man's tone gradually rose.

"Could it be..." Some students couldn't help but look surprised.

"Yes, in a sense, magical engineering is the technological revival of super ancient civilization!" The old man's words caused an uproar in the classroom.

Even Alvin couldn't help but look up because of the other party's next words.

"And do you know where the earliest research in magical engineering began?"

After a brief pause, the old man did not continue to whet everyone's appetite.

"Right here, in this underground space!"

Chapter 72 Sid Meier