The "ridges" made of a mixture of special alloys and runestones extend from the base of the Sentinel Tower, like some kind of giant root, and like some kind of pipe, stretching from the Thundering Hill all the way to the plains, and the long-term magical erosion of the wasteland has stained the civilization with the traces of time, the once smooth alloy shell has become rough and pitted, and the solid runestones blessed by the elements are mottled everywhere.

But the damage to the shell is only a façade, and within the "ridge", ancient magical devices still operate faithfully, maintaining the normal functioning of the Sentinel Tower—the Silver Empire may have declined, but the elves' creations are still far more reliable than humans.

A small group of elite Steel Rangers led by Thordrin made it to the northern section of Spine Three, where Gawain, Amber, Sonya, and the Elven Magister named Banner walked up to the group, and they looked up at the bulging man-made structure—on the side of the Spine, an ancient gate was quietly closing, and the mottled handwriting on the gate was still legible: Manway-III.

"This gate hasn't been opened since the Sentinel Tower was completed and the Civilization Territory was retreated......" Sonia stepped forward, rubbing the elven-style relief patterns on the gate with emotion, "There are dozens of Sentinel Towers on the Wasteland Border, but only a third have been effectively maintained and overhauled in the past seven hundred years - some of the towers are far from the Silver Empire, and some of the towers are deep in extremely polluted areas, These towers, which could not be maintained, relied entirely on the automatic repair system of the past to keep them running. ”

"Fortunately, most of the things made by the elves are strong and durable," Gawain nodded, looking at the magister named Banner, "Master Banner, it's up to you next." ”

With his slender eyebrows and tall, thin build, Banner nodded, he walked to the gate, took out a strangely shaped maple leaf-shaped metal plate, and stuffed it into a gap on the surface of the gate that depicted elven reliefs depicting flowers and trees, and began to inject magic into the reliefs.

A misty floating light flashed across the gate, and the ancient mechanism began to operate in the depths, and around the gate, locks creaked and rattled, but the gate itself remained unmoved.

Banner shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the immovable gate, took out an elbow wrench from the tool pocket on his waist, and slammed it a lock next to the gate: "Occasionally...... These things need a little help. ”

After three or five slams, a distinct click came from somewhere, and the magic door depicted in exquisite reliefs finally opened smoothly, revealing the dark passage inside.

Amber glared, "Hey, I said...... You don't match the elegant style of the legendary elves. ”

"If you look closely, you'll see that the arc of my wrench is a perfect quarter arc - if anything, it's elegance," the elven magister glanced at Amber as he put away his tools, "The world has a lot of misconceptions about elves, and the labeling is very serious, and as a half-elf, you can't let these misconceptions affect your judgment, little girl." ”

Amber rolled his eyes suddenly, and Gawain didn't bother with the question of whether the elven race was elegant or not, he took a step towards the floodgates, and reminded the people around him: "Cheer up, everyone—there hasn't been a living person in seven hundred years." ”

The soldiers stepped through the gate and into the main passage inside the "ridge", and the moment they entered, the breath of the wasteland was cut out.

Amber immediately sensed the subtle change, and she glanced back in the direction of the entrance, and saw that outside was the corrupt and twisted demonic wasteland, but it seemed that an invisible barrier blocked the doorway, and the oppressive magical aura did not enter the inside of the "ridge" at all.

"The entire Sentinel Tower is protected by a complex guard-filtration system," Sonia patiently explained, noticing the surprise on Amber's face, "This is to prevent the Demonic Tide Aura from invading the core of the Tower and interfering with the operation of the key spells inside, which is the main sensor and material circulation pipe of the Tower, and although it is located on the periphery, the level of protection is second only to the core area. ”

"That's amazing...... Amber muttered in surprise, raising her eyebrows and looking in the direction of the end of the hallway.

The ancient induction device finally reacted after a few seconds of sluggishness, and a magic lamp lit up in the hallway, illuminating the way forward, and everything seemed to remain the same as when it was completed in a passage that had not been opened for seven centuries.

The gray-white floor and walls stretch out in view, and the simplicity is dotted with a few elven-style ornaments and markers, and the slightly curved roof is inlaid with magic lamps, and several huge pipes can be seen embedded in the building materials in a half-buried state, the pipes are translucent, and it seems that something is constantly surging and transporting inside.

Amber was curious again: "What's in those tubes?" ”

"There's coolant in the pipes," Banner said, "and in order to control this large and complex magic tower, a powerful demonic mind is housed in the base, which generates a lot of heat during operation, and to prevent the core from melting, we have designed a highly efficient cooling system. These coolants are only part of the system, and there are more complex structures ahead. ”

"Wow-" Amber prolonged her voice and let out an exaggerated exclamation as she glanced at Gawain impassively.

Gawain was now retracting his gaze from the coolant-laden pipes, his face calm, but he was thinking the same as Amber's:

The biggest problem with the rainbow generator is the heat.

This cooling system can be used.

"To be honest, I'm interested in a lot of the technology here," Gawain said casually, "Although this tower was built by the human nations and the elves, we didn't have much technical touch on it back then...... If you can, can you take me to see the heat exchange structure and cooling core later? ”

Hearing Gawain's words, Banner and Sonia exchanged a look almost subconsciously, and then the latter smiled: "The Sentinel Tower is built and shared by all races, of course there is no problem. ”

Banner reminded: "However, the magic skills of elves and humans are very different, and the structure of the runes is also very different - this is the reason why almost all the technology of the Sentinel Tower was in the hands of the Silver Empire back then, not that we are reluctant to announce it, but even if humans come into contact with the runes of the elves, they can only imitate them to a limited extent, which you should be clear." ”

"Of course, I know, I'm just going to take a look," Gawain said with a smile, "And we have made good progress in the field of runes now, although humans still can't release the spells of the elves, but we have mastered some rune translation techniques, and the technology in this tower has some reference value on our side." ”

"Then please," Banner nodded, "you were one of the builders of these towers back then, and there's no reason for us to stop you." However, for the purpose of protecting the assets of the Silver Empire and preventing excessive leakage of technology, please do not draw any drawings. ”

"Thank you very much, that's enough - I'm just looking at it, and I'm looking at your ideas for some of the magic devices."

Gawain expressed his gratitude, and then continued to walk forward with the group, but under his calm countenance, there was a hint of excitement in his heart.

This is the highest technological crystallization of the Silver Empire, everything here ...... It's all treasures!!

Of course, he wasn't lying about his reason for entering the tower - he did want to find out what was wrong with these Sentinel Towers, and this was one of the goals and even missions of his involvement in organizing this massive project, but beyond this formal reason, he was also interested in the elven technology in the Sentinel Tower.

After the fall of the Gondor Empire, these elves have the world's most advanced artificial intelligence technology, the most outstanding high-density rune technology, and the most powerful anti-gravity technology in their hands!!

Of course, due to the historical legacy of the "Primordial Elven Division", the elves themselves also have a lot of black boxes to solve in these technologies, and for a long time, all the magic skills of the elves have been almost incomprehensible to humans, and the two races have never thought about the possibility of technological exchange, but ...... It doesn't matter.

The math will explain the power of each rune and their optimal position.

Sonia and the elven magister named Banner walked silently beside them, and Gawain couldn't see too many emotional fluctuations on the faces of the two elves.

They didn't mind Gawain observing the core structure of the tower, and they didn't mind their technology falling into human hands.

Is it simply the friendship of the various tribes who joined hands to build the Sentinel Tower seven hundred years ago? Or is it out of their friendship with "Gawain Cecil" himself? Or ...... They didn't realize that the Cecil had fully mastered the art of using rune logic to reassemble elven runes, and that humans had been able to completely control elven magic, rather than just applying a wind elemental blessing to a cannonball?

To be honest, it was a little surprising that the other party agreed to his request so happily, he was even ready to secretly study in the Sentinel Tower, but now that the other party has agreed...... Then Gawain had no reason to miss such an opportunity.

Seven hundred years ago, although Gawain Cecil was erudite, but more as a military general, he did not have an in-depth understanding of its technology when building the Sentinel Tower, seven hundred years ago, humanity was experiencing a great recession, and it was also facing the gap of "alien magic cannot be understood", although he participated in the tower repair project, but also did not contact the core technology of the latter, so today's opportunity is particularly valuable.

The team continued towards the core of the base of the Sentinel's Tower, and at each other time, Sonia or Banner would ask the team to pause to check on the operation of the critical devices.

"This is the sensing center of the entire third 'ridge,'" Banner stopped again halfway through the corridor, and came to a gray-white square pillar with a pale gold ornamentation that connected the roof to the floor, and said as he took out his tools, "All the sensing centers are connected, and theoretically any of the six 'ridges' should be able to see the problem in any of them......

As he spoke, the magister had already removed a cover from the pillar, and after the protective cover was removed, a large number of metal pieces that overlapped like leaves, with intricate magical runes engraved on the surface, appeared in front of everyone.

The pieces of metal piled up in layers inside the pillar, and Banner reached out and waved near them, and some of them immediately detached themselves and flew into the air. With a serious expression on his face, Banner controlled the metal pieces fly past his eyes one by one with teletransfer, carefully observing their condition, and after observing them, he injected magic into the other metal pieces in the pillar, sensing their movements.

“…… All sensing centers are functioning normally, and the sensors of the six 'ridges' are intact," Banner said with a frown, "and the signal coming from the wasteland side is clear. ”

Sophia asked, "What about the communication with the demon spirit?" ”

"Communication is good, there is almost no delay, and the demon's mind seems to be working normally," Banner said, magically putting the metal blades back in place, then looking up at the end of the hallway, "There's the control center of the Sentinel's Tower base ahead, maybe we should check its 'brain' directly." ”