Hearing Pittman's words, Amber subconsciously glanced at Gawain, who took the initiative to say, "I can avoid it - if you don't want others to hear it." ”

"No, I don't care," Amber shook her head, "you've got a good brain, and there's always something unexpected, and I want you to be there, and this notebook ...... You can also take a look. ”

Gawain glanced at Amber silently, did not shirk, just nodded slightly.

The fountain was not a good place to dig up these hidden memories, and the three of them left the overly lively courtyard, and in a common room on the first floor of Silver Castle, Amber solemnly placed the notebook on the table, and carefully opened its shabby and flimsy cover in front of Gawain and Pittman.

There were no patterns or coats of arms on the inner pages, no ornaments common in most aristocratic handwritten books of this era, and on the yellowed paper, only a simple sentence was written:

"To my daughter – hopefully by the time you see it, you'll be happy and safe."

"There's still so much nonsense...... Amber pursed her lips, but her hand movements were more careful than before, and she slowly turned the first page.

This is a diary, a diary written under special circumstances:

“…… Enter the third day of the Shadowkeep.

"As a royal shadow guard, I should not leave any written information in the course of a confidential mission, it is a violation of the rules of secrecy, but the current situation is unique, I may not be able to get out of here safely, in order to leave a warning and experience for future generations, I have decided to record part of my trip.

"My name is Surrey?? Randolph, a royal shadow guard, I have been tasked with traveling to the Dark Mountains of the South in search of an ancient legacy in a land forsaken by the gods and gods.

"I'm unfortunate enough to be trapped in this place called the 'Shadow Fortress', which I believe is where ancient legacies are buried......

“…… According to the information obtained in advance, the Shadow Fortress is not located in the real world as we know it, it is a territory carved out of the Shadow Realm by the ancient Gondor Empire through superb lost technology, it floats outside the present world, but it does not establish a stable connection with the Shadow Realm, it is a free space, and it can only be accessed through certain gates and rituals......

"Part of my intelligence is correct, there is indeed a spatial node in the Dark Mountains that leads to the Shadow Fortress, and I successfully entered it at this node, but the mistake in the intelligence is that the 'Shadow Seal' used to open the gate is a one-time - or rather, I can't find a way to recharge it.

"His Majesty gave me one of the two rings he had, and apparently he didn't expect it to be used only once when opening the Shadowkeep."

After only reading these paragraphs, Amber couldn't help but raise her head and look at Gao Wen, who was also looking up.

......Amber subconsciously grasped a thin chain around her neck, and two quaint rings hung from the necklace, one of which still had a magical glow, the other dim.

The ring with its magical glow was obtained from Francis II, and the dull ring was brought by Amber since childhood, and now the origin of both rings is finally explained.

She lowered her head and continued to look at the rest of the diary:

“…… Despite being trapped in it, I can't help but marvel at the skill of the Ancient Gondor Empire. The Shadow Fortress is an unimaginable place - including the process of entering the fortress is incredible. I'm standing at the right intersection of magic in the Dark Mountains, and just by injecting magic into the ring, I can open a door to the Shadow Realm in normal time and space, I suspect that the ring is just a signal in the process, and the actual opening process is done by some kind of facility in the Shadow Fortress, but I still haven't found a clue......

“…… Cast from some man-made material, this majestic structure is stronger than rock, and it floats in the void, with no land around it. There are no luminous celestial bodies in the sky here, which is consistent with the scene described in the monographs of the Shadow Realm......

"I am in the vestibule of this ancient facility, and I can see a large gate, but outside the gate is pure ethereal darkness, which makes one wonder what this door is all about—but I have found some strange pillars on the limited platform in front of the gate, and I suspect that they are used to secure some kind of vehicle, or some kind of mount that can travel through the Shadow Realm, and the ancient Gondor may have the ability to explore deep into that void and darkness, after all, they are all-powerful Gondor people......

"At the other end of the courtyard is the main body of the building, a sprawling palace or fortress. I've explored a small area of its entrance, and I've been blown away by its sheer size, with its myriad corridors and rooms, as well as empty halls and warehouses...... I can't imagine how many people were working and living in this facility in another dimension...... It's so big that I suspect that many people can live here for the rest of their lives, and if a newborn is born here, he won't even know that the outside world exists if no one instills the right knowledge about it......

"Ah, my abundant associative abilities can only be used to relieve boredom, and it won't get me out of this damn place."

Amber flipped the pages, and for a moment all that remained in the quiet of the lounge was the sound of the paper flipping and the gentle breathing of the three men.

“…… The fourth day of the trap.

"I've been pondering for the past three days whether I should delve deeper into the fortress, which could mean an additional risk: the defenses within the ancient facility may still be working, and it's more likely that the sleeping ruin guards will wake me up.

"It is said that the puppet guards of the Violet Kingdom can continue to operate for six hundred years after the death of their master, and those legendary Gondor Iron Man soldiers may be able to operate even longer......

"But I should probably take a risk - I've been searching the courtyard and the outer cloister for three days, and there is no device to open the door to the space, and my food and water are in a very dangerous situation, between dying of thirst and starvation and having my head cut off by the ancient guards, the latter of whom is perhaps more merciful.

"I'm going into the inner cloister.

“…… On the sixth day, still trapped.

"This damn fortress, why is it so big!! How many corridors does it have, how many rooms, how many halls does it have! Did the Gondor throw the people of a city into the Shadow Realm?

"It's ironic how skilled the Gondor Empire is, they can build such a fortress in the Shadow Realm, they can allow thousands of people to live in this alien space for a long time, and I, a royal shadow guard from thousands of years later, can only drill around in this ancient facility, and I can't find a clue.

"By the way, I've run out of water and I've run out of food.

"On the seventh day, I found an empty room, which may have been some kind of research facility before, and I saw some platforms with runes and pipes and containers that did not work, and sadly, none of them had water in them.

"I'll have to start thinking about the future.

"On the eighth day, the key word for today is moss.

"Yes, Moss! In this fortress, which has been isolated from the world for thousands of years, there is moss! In a place like the Shadow Realm, there is moss!

"They grow in a room that looks like a laboratory, and there are a lot of large tubular containers fixed to the floor, and the containers are empty, but the outer wall of one of the containers, as well as the nearby walls and floors, are overgrown with these cute little plants. Like everything else in the Shadow Realm, the moss was so grayish-black that I almost confused it with a normal smudge at first, and thankfully, I stayed in the room for a little longer......

"The appearance of moss means dampness, and dampness means water.

"The mosses have a bitter taste and a weird, gelatinous texture, and they may not be good for my health, but I can't care about that much, and without them, I'm afraid I'll never have to worry about my health in a few days.

"Mosses have given me some strength and they have enough moisture to lift my spirits, but it's obviously not enough to survive in the long run. I gathered all the moss from a nearby pipe, squeezed the juice out and put it into a kettle, and I took this little provision with me and began to explore the surrounding rooms centered on this room.

"On the ninth day, I didn't find water, but I ...... I saw a figure!

"I can't put into words how shocked I was at that moment, I saw a figure, but it flashed from the corner of the room...... I'm not sure if that's true.

"Could it be that those mosses are hallucinogenic in them? But I had to rely on them to survive......

"On the tenth day, I found water! In a place that looks like a meal for many people, one of the pipes can still flow water! And it's clear water! I think I could live here for a long time!

"Does the presence of this clean water mean that some kind of purification device is still running? Are there more units in operation? ”

Amber looked at every line of text on it seriously, and unconsciously bit her lip, as if watching her adoptive father explore and survive in such an isolated ancient fortress. After Randolph found the water source, she couldn't help but exhale softly: "He may have found a working canteen......"

Gawain nodded slightly beside him, and at the same time whispered, "I'm more curious about what the figure he saw." ”

"He mentioned here—" Amber flipped a page, glanced at it, and pointed to it:

“…… I saw the figure again, and more than one, and this time I could confirm that it was not a hallucination, but what happened next made me even more stunned and confused.

"Those figures are the 'Shadow Dwellers'.

"They, as described in the monograph, were disembodied like ghosts, wrapped in some kind of tattered 'shroud' and took human form, and they moved freely through the Shadow Realm, and apparently noticed me, the intruder, an uninvited guest.

"I was ready to fight, but it didn't happen - all academic accounts say that the Shadow Dwellers will attack all material beings that break into the Shadow Realm, yet the Shadow Dwellers just stared at me indifferently, and I am sure they were, even though there was only empty darkness inside the 'Shroud'......

"After the unbearable confrontation, the Shadow Dwellers all left, and there was no communication between us.

"I don't know what's going on at all."

Amber frowned, she also felt that the shadow dwellers that her adoptive father had encountered were a little strange, but she couldn't explain them, so she had to keep these questions in her heart and continue to look down-

On a new page, Surrey?? Randolph's text continues to chronicle his experiences in the Shadow Keep:

“…… On the fourteenth day, I found a room with some of the devices in it...... Still running.

"It's hard for me to describe exactly what I saw, it was beyond my knowledge – around a huge pillar I saw a large number of yellowish, translucent oval containers about the size of a full-grown cow attached to supports......

"There are a lot of pipes that extend from within that large pillar and connect to the ovoid vessels around it.

"Almost all of the containers were broken, cracked, crooked, and fell to the ground, and the contents had dried up, and inside those damaged containers, I saw a lot of small bones.

"It makes me shudder—as a royal shadow guard, I've seen a lot of horrific sights, I've seen a lot of death, but the little bones in those containers are more eerie and terrifying than anything I've ever seen, and it makes me wonder what the Gondor were doing here.

"I checked the room with shock and nervousness and found her.

"The only intact container, the only living individual.

She curled up in some kind of liquid, floating in a translucent crystal container that looked like an amber.

"I can't describe how I felt at this moment, but what made me even more frustrated was that the crystal containers were exactly the same as the target items described in the mission, which meant ...... The 'things' in the container are the 'ancient heritage' that I want to bring back.

"My mission can be done, but only if I find a way to get out, and I have to go out with this container that I can't do - if I open it rashly, will the little girl inside just die? It's a tricky thing. ”

Amber's eyes were fixed on the page in front of her, and even though she had finished reading the page, she never made the move to the next page, until a minute later, Gawain gently patted her on the shoulder.

Amber woke up, then took a deep breath and flipped the page—

“…… On the fifteenth day, I hadn't figured out what to do, but I suddenly realized that it was useless to think about it: I was still stuck here.

"A person who can't even get out alive thinks about what to accomplish the task is really wishful thinking.

"I put aside the problems that I couldn't solve for a moment and refocused on finding a way out.

"Considering that I am afraid that for a long time to come, the only one who can accompany me is this little guy in Amber, I have named her Amber.

"But I guess she had some other name—each ovoid vessel here had a line of letters carved into the base, and each container had a slightly different letter, and they might be the real names (though I doubt that the Gondor scholars who worked here would have really named a batch of experiments), but it was a thousand years ago ancient Gondor script, very different from today's common alphabet, and my knowledge of ancient writing happened to be weak.

"I can only trace these letters, and if I do make it out alive one day, maybe the scholars of the royal capital can answer my doubts, and let me figure out the real name of this little fellow, or at least find out what the Gondor people called her back then."

At the end of this page, Surrey?? Randolph left a large blank space, and in that blank space he traced in bold a line of letters that few people in this day could understand.

Amber stared at the line of letters, and only after a moment did she raise her head and look into Gawain's eyes: "These letters...... What is the meaning? What was my original name? ”

Gawain withdrew his gaze from the letters, and he looked at the amber silently for four or five seconds before finally exhaling softly and speaking slowly:

"Android Thirty-Six."

(Double the period of na+.) + Ask for a monthly pass!! ）