"Designed by several races together?"
Ulysses was taken aback by Richard’s statement; he hadn’t expected this thing to not be a native creature of this world.
But immediately, he shrugged it off, "I guess it absorbed technology from other civilizations, this kind of thing is quite common."
Though it sounded strange, war truly was a way to promote cultural and technological integration.
Even civilizations like the Galaxy Mayfly and the Wizard, which couldn’t be more different in societal structures, experienced cultural exchanges and technological integrations.
If two civilizations were similar, war could even potentially promote the fusion of the two.
If a war reaches a stalemate, it’s possible for the two civilizations to opt for a truce or even form an alliance.
"No, this is not ordinary technological integration."
Richard’s expression turned serious. Although he wasn’t an experienced Alchemy Master, his Alchemy Skill was far from ordinary.
Unless there’s a superior-subordinate relationship, technologies from different civilizations are typically interpreted by technicians using their own civilization’s technology.
However, the design of this Metal Fortress was not like that. The inside technology was a patchwork of different technologies, yet cleverly coordinated to work together, achieving a sum greater than its parts.
Ulysses looked at Richard, and both saw a hint of shock in each other’s eyes.
Richard spoke in a low voice, "Perhaps what we’re exploring this time is not a Spark Base left by a single civilization but a Spark Base left by an alliance of civilizations."
"Whoa," Ulysses looked a bit stunned, "this time we’ve come across something big."
With the aid of the Divine Artifact, Richard found the core component of this mechanical fortress—the Control Matrix, and shut it down using Alchemy.
After losing the Control Matrix, the entire fortress entered some standby state, and the previously surging Power Furnace’s output was just barely enough to maintain its operations.
At the same time, the Miracle Furnace provided information.
[Material: Civilization Alliance Automatic Fortress]
[Extractable Information: Civilization Alliance Automatic Fortress Design Blueprint]
[Refining Consumption: 400 spiritual power]
[Extractable Information: Civilization Alliance Automatic Fortress Self-Control Algorithm]
[Refining Consumption: 20 spiritual power]
"Hmm, is the technology content of this fortress that high? It even requires consuming 400 of my spiritual power."
Richard looked at the information given by the Miracle Furnace, and a sudden shock hit his heart. He was increasingly certain that his idea was absolutely correct.
This level of high-tech content definitely came from the product of a civilization alliance.
Perhaps the Wizard’s speculation about previous civilizations was correct; there was indeed a grand civilization alliance within the previous civilization.
Without hesitation, Richard immediately chose to refine.
The next instant, the massive fortress vanished in an instant. Looking again at the Miracle Furnace, a metallic fortress model suddenly appeared inside as if it were a model.
In a matter of moments, the refining was complete.
Richard received the information, and in an instant, he understood why it required so much spiritual power.
The design blueprint surprisingly included manufacturing methods for almost all components within the Metal Fortress.
It was equivalent to him disassembling the fortress and refining each component one by one.
"That’s quite convenient."
Richard mumbled a bit dizzily, then immediately began meditating to recover spiritual power.
After becoming a Five Rings Great Wizard, his soul towered like a Giant Beast in the Sea of Souls. Even beyond the sheltering range of the Soul Crown, he could swim freely at will.
The majority of Soul Sea creatures appeared like small fry before him. He only needed to take a breath, and these small fry would find their way into his belly, becoming his meal.
This is the method by which a Great Wizard at First Level enhances spiritual power.
If it relied solely on the nourishment of the Soul Sea, the speed of enhancing spiritual power for a Great Wizard might not be as slow as a turtle’s crawl, but wouldn’t be much faster.
However, Richard was only here to recover his spiritual power today, so there was no need for such trouble; the nourishment of the Soul Sea was enough.
One day later, Richard opened his eyes.
After a full day and night of recovery, his spiritual power had returned to its peak state.
He effortlessly tossed the Metal Fortress into the Secret Realm, instructing the World Mushroom to watch over it closely. Then he called upon Ulysses to resume their treasure hunt.
Determining their location should have been an easy task, but in a world filled with automatic fortresses, this task became incredibly challenging.
Richard and Ulysses disguised themselves and spent almost half a year figuring out their location.
They were currently in the Northwest Quarter, while the Doomsday Spark Base was in the Southeast Quarter.
This forced the two of them to cross half of the Dimensional World to reach their destination.
A scarlet Fireball rose with a thunderous explosion, and massive crystal dust, wrapped with Wind Element, painted a mushroom cloud in the sky.
But the next moment, the mushroom cloud was torn apart.
Two colossal figures passed through the mushroom cloud; one was as large as a mountain, covered in Bone Armor, like a Demon God descending. The other was engulfed in black flames, appearing as though an Elemental Lord had emerged from the Elemental Territory.
Yet at this moment, neither figure exuded any aura, and after passing through the mushroom cloud, they wasted no time, immediately tearing through space to enter the Secret Realm.
Just the next second after they left, their position was struck by several streams of seven-colored torrents.
The terrifying disintegration flash instantly ripped a chasm over hundreds of kilometers long on the metal ground.
Clusters of crystal floating cannons passed through the mushroom cloud, behind them was a massive metal fortress with a diameter of fifty kilometers.
The deep blue light from the floating cannons continually probed the space-time flaws in the air. But their light beams could not observe one place where a mass of golden Holy Light stuck to the void like a plaster, concealing an invisible fissure.
A moment later, the Mayfly Cannons collectively returned.
[Target has disappeared]
A cold mechanical voice echoed from the metal fortress, which then vanished from its original spot.
After a while, that metal fortress appeared again, releasing another group of floating cannons for observation.
After confirming no abnormalities, it disappeared once more.
But this still hadn’t ended. The metal fortress repeated the same procedure five times.
Only after five reconnaissance attempts left no trace did the metal fortress finally retreat for good.
"Hmm, it’s finally gone."
The golden Holy Light slowly dissipated, and Richard and Ulysses emerged from within, with a hint of lingering fear on their faces.
"Gah, I have strong suspicions this world is the Illusionary Dimension of a Dominator from the Civilization Alliance. Otherwise, how could such monstrous things exist?" Ulysses grumbled.
They had been in this world for five years now.
During these five years, they had been cautious, extremely cautious, fearing to provoke any trouble. Yet despite this, there were extended periods over these years where they were pursued relentlessly.
Those automatic fortresses didn’t just hover in the sky playing suns, they actually moved periodically to patrol the entire land.
They attempted to venture underground, only to find it teeming with train-like metal crawlers. These crawlers swarmed relentlessly, impossible to eradicate, and they would even summon nearby automatic fortresses.
Their first encounter with these nearly forced the two of them to flee the dimension.
Fortunately, they later discovered that these automated fortresses were ineffective at detecting miracles, allowing them to progress smoothly to this point.
"It doesn’t matter who he is. So what if this is the Dominator’s Illusionary Dimension?"
Richard skillfully cloaked himself in a layer of Miracle Disguise, appearing as a humanoid Alchemy Puppet.
This land possessed more means of observation than merely automatic fortresses; it contained a bizarre and complex ecosystem.
Although these mechanical creatures were dimensional beings, they were extremely sensitive to flesh creatures. If they detected one, they would attract an onslaught from automatic fortresses.
Fortunately, these creatures didn’t have the keenest vision, and a simple Miracle Disguise was often enough to slip by.
After confirming his position slightly, Richard took out a map and made a mark on it.
Linking the marks, Richard showed a trace of relief on his face.
"Whew, we’re finally almost there."
They were now less than ten glittering light-days away from Spark Base, and at their speed, they could reach it in twenty careful days, forty at most.
After spending five years, they were finally about to reach their destination.
"Ulysses, keep up, we’re almost there."
In this cold-hued metallic ground, mountains were exceedingly rare. It seemed this dimension’s creator preferred flat realms to majestic peaks.
But rare did not mean nonexistent.
During these five years, Richard had still seen many such terrains.
For instance, the gigantic automatic fortress that chased him a month ago turned out to be one of those mountains.
Indeed, all the mountains in this land were disguises of automatic fortresses.
Ordinary mechanical creatures approaching wouldn’t cause alarm, but if flesh creatures like Richard or other outsiders passed through, they would immediately expose their true form and obliterate intruders into elements.
So, Richard and his companions usually circumvented these treacherous setups.
But now, they had to make a decision.
"Do we go in or not?"
Ulysses murmured as he gazed at the metal mountain not far away.
According to the coordinates, they had reached the entrance of the Doomsday Spark Base.
Unexpectedly, the entrance was covered by a massive metal mountain.
Richard looked at this object, feeling at any moment it could transform into seven differently colored, melon-topped little dolls pummeling him.
"We must go in. We’ve come all this way; not taking a look would leave me extremely dissatisfied."
With a steeled heart, Richard insisted, after spending so much time getting here, he couldn’t just walk away without glimpsing the relics!
However, his decision seemed somewhat superfluous.
Because, at the instant of his decision, the distant metal mountain suddenly began to tremor.
The pitch-black metal slowly cracked open, transforming into a giant humanoid creature, standing up slowly.
This colossal being towered into the sky, its huge body entwined with thunder and flames.
Ulysses watched the vast creature, his beak almost locking in awe.
"Titan! Creation Titan!"