NOVPUB
Chapter 410: Chapter 30: Melter Anomaly, New Feature!
The Star Realm Fortress had only a few defensive secondary guns left, just over a dozen. However, according to the main control system, a fully operational Star Realm Fortress would have up to ten thousand such secondary guns, and above these were the main defensive guns, with other offensive weapons positioned even higher.
One can imagine, at its peak, what an impenetrable hedgehog such a fortress must have been.
After removing these secondary guns, Richard roamed the fortress once again.
During this time, he successively discovered various objects resembling officer’s pistols, small floating cannons, laser cutters used for maintenance, simple crystal machine tools, and various other miscellaneous gadgets.
All of these items were of significant value.
After ensuring he had scavenged nearly everything of value from the fortress, Richard finally turned his attention to his original target—the power furnace.
Such a massive Star Realm Fortress naturally had an extraordinary power furnace.
According to the main control system, the World Tree Number Three Star Realm Fortress used a Type Nine Radiation Power Furnace, which used black stones as fuel—the same black stones Richard had acquired from the Toad King Stone.
One refueling could sustain the full operational load of the Star Realm Fortress for five hundred years. In times of peace, this duration could increase manyfold.
Normally, a Star Realm Fortress wouldn’t even need to refuel for an entire epoch if no battles occurred.
Despite the fortress’s crash, the fuel in the power furnace had lasted countless epochs and was still emitting radiant light.
This magnificent piece of technology had surpassed the quality of the power furnaces in the Wizard’s Floating Cities.
At least, according to the intelligence known to Richard, Floating Cities required significant maintenance every five hundred years, which included servicing their power furnaces and refueling.
Following the directions given by the main control, Richard quickly arrived at the passageway closest to the power furnace.
Exiting this passageway, Richard would directly face the radiation emanating from the power furnace fuel.
"If it weren’t for the World Mushroom, I really wouldn’t be able to handle this power furnace," Richard said, a slight smile of pride appearing on his face as he observed the Radiation Aurora leaking through the cracks.
Soon, a massive mycelial tentacle made its way through the passageway to Richard’s side.
Ulysses arrived alongside it. no𝚟𝚙u𝚋.c𝚘m
"It’s finally time to deal with this," Ulysses said as he landed on Richard’s shoulder, his eyes lighting up faintly.
"This will be a tricky one. Even if Old Mushroom can absorb energy radiation, its tentacles will rot away with such high-intensity energy radiation."
Richard looked at the tentacle next to him. "World Mushroom, what do you think?"
"As much as I hate to admit it, the old crow is right. If I were to touch the radiation material in the power furnace, my tentacles would indeed rot," the World Mushroom conceded.
Upon hearing this, Richard frowned.
If the World Mushroom couldn’t handle it, it seemed he really had no way to obtain the material.
However, Richard soon spotted a potential solution.
"If direct contact causes decay, why not avoid direct contact altogether? Can’t you just use a thick energy barrier?"
Hearing Richard’s suggestion, the World Mushroom was also stunned.
It had always fought using its robust body, rarely ever employing something as "fanciful" as an energy barrier.
This had formed a kind of mental inertia in it.
Ulysses and Richard had similarly been misled by this fact, to the point where they had all forgotten that the World Mushroom could manipulate energy barriers.
"Indeed, I almost forgot about the energy barrier," the World Mushroom said somewhat sheepishly. "It could indeed be used.
But the radiation from this thing is extraordinary. Using an energy barrier to resist it will cause a certain degree of reduction in the magic density of the Secret Realm.
Moreover, storage would also pose a problem.
Using a large number of mycelia to store it would slow down the expansion rate of the Secret Realm."
"Bury it underground and use your mycelium as a barrier in between," Richard stated decisively. "It doesn’t matter if the expansion of the Secret Realm is slow."
These black stones, Richard would definitely refine them later.
That would only delay the Green Forest World for a few years.
Given the current situation, as long as the surface world war was won, their Plane expedition was essentially over. What remained was merely the eradication of the World Tree Subbodies and then the ignition of the Teleportation Gate.
The World Tree itself was to be handled by Garon the Great Wizard.
Seeing Richard’s determination, the World Mushroom no longer objected.
After requesting permission from the main control, Richard and Ulysses, accompanied by the World Mushroom, once again opened a Secret Realm Rift.
This rift was close to a massive wall fissure, which would later facilitate the insertion of the fuel ring into the Secret Realm.
Soon, a new mycelial tentacle emerged from the rift. The stout white mycelial tentacle also grew a creamy energy barrier around it.
With this energy barrier, the tentacle headed straight for the power furnace through the fissure.
The Type Nine Radiation Power Furnace, from the outside, resembled a gigantic pillar.
The pillar’s outer shell was made of crystal, occasionally mixed with some metal parts.
Now, the power furnace had turned into a blooming firework, revealing the Radiation Black Stone—the power furnace fuel inside.
The fuel ring of the power furnace had nine layers. The battle that caused the Star Realm Fortress to crash had shattered three layers into fragments and also exposed the fourth layer.
What the World Mushroom needed to do was to remove this exposed fourth layer.
The tentacles of the World Mushroom multiplied in the air, the greenish radiation aurora casting light on the creamy energy barrier, creating waves of agitation.
The closer to the fuel, the stronger the energy radiation, with the fuel itself emitting tens of thousands of energy levels.
Such intensity, if borne by Richard, would reduce him to ashes in less than a second.
But fortunately, it was the World Mushroom taking action.
As the World Mushroom could absorb energy radiation as nourishment, its energy barrier didn’t completely resist all the energy radiation; instead, it intentionally allowed some to penetrate the barrier to replenish the energy consumed by the barrier.
This was the confidence it had in retrieving the fuel ring.
Otherwise, even the World Mushroom would struggle to bring back the fuel ring.
Rapidly, the mycelial tentacles of the World Mushroom wrapped around the fuel ring, and soon after, the fuel ring trembled slightly before being lifted by the tentacles of the World Mushroom.
Mycelium tendrils enveloped the entire fuel ring in an airtight wrap in midair, then quickly sent it toward the Secret Realm Rift.
If not for the wrapping, the terrible radiation of the fuel ring would have instantly destroyed the Secret Realm Rift.
Soon, the fuel ring entered the Secret Realm Rift.
"It worked!" Richard exclaimed somewhat excitedly.
Once it had entered the Secret Realm, the rest would be simple.
...
Inside the Secret Realm, the Fire Lizard Battle Group and the Fire Lizard Craftsmen were slowly emerging from the World Mushroom’s stipe.
Just moments ago, the World Mushroom had captured them all inside its stipe, saying something dangerous was entering the Secret Realm, and they needed refuge.
It was hard for them to imagine what kind of terrible thing required them to take refuge inside the stipe of the World Mushroom.
But before they had all come out, they saw a figure in a black robe hurrying past them and heading under the stipe of the World Mushroom.
The Fire Lizards looked closely, and wasn’t that figure Richard?
"Master."
"Master."
...
The Fire Lizards bowed slightly to Richard, who under normal circumstances would have calmly nodded in acknowledgment.
But today, Richard clearly was not in the mood for pleasantries.
"Do what you need to do, don’t crowd around me."
Before long, a passage appeared on the stipe of the World Mushroom, and following this path, Richard quickly arrived at the location of the fuel ring—a subterranean cavern meticulously wrapped in layers of mycelium and soil.
The World Mushroom created an Energy Barrier for Richard, allowing him to approach the fuel ring.
Looking at the pitch-black fuel ring before him, Magic Power surged within Richard, and intense energy fluctuations suddenly arose in his left arm.
Richard was prepared to sacrifice his entire arm—after all, it was bound to happen sooner or later since material that is not of the World Master cannot be physically touched.
Then Richard’s left arm passed through the Energy Barrier, lightly touching the fuel ring.
In the next instant, Richard’s entire arm turned into ashes, causing cellular collapse in half of his chest as well.
The pale ribs were directly exposed.
The World Mushroom immediately followed up, and abundant Life Energy continuously flowed into Richard’s body through the mycelium. The collapsed cells quickly regenerated, and even the severed arm slowly regrew.
However, Richard was utterly indifferent to his physical condition at this moment.
His entire mind was absorbed by the information from the Miracle Furnace.
"Material: Fuel Ring"
"Extractable Rules: Radiation Rule (First Level)"
"Refining Cost: 500 Soul Power"
...
"Complete rule detected, initiate Rule Fusion?"
The information initially provided by the Miracle Furnace was straightforward, although the complete Radiation Rule pleasantly surprised Richard, it was still within his expectations.
However, the subsequent information provided by the Miracle Furnace really shocked Richard.
The Miracle Furnace had other functions!
Richard had always felt that the Miracle Furnace, a device of such high status, surely had more than one function.
Now, it seemed his feeling was correct.
"Initiate!"
Richard said without hesitation.
The next instant, the fires within the Miracle Furnace surged, and the originally dark melter gradually turned red.
Ancient characters flickered on the walls of the melter. Merely glancing at them, Richard felt dizzy.
The characters contained unimaginable horrifying power.
Soon, the transformation of the melter ceased.
The melter, which had been pitch-black, now bore some fiery red characters, with no other changes.
"Rule Fusion activated."
Subsequently, new functions of the Miracle Furnace appeared in Richard’s mind.
In short, the furnace could now not only refine rules but also fuse them, altering the rules themselves.
"Is that all?"
Richard scratched his head, feeling that this new function seemed not very useful.
Even without Rule Fusion, the rules he controlled still interacted. Moreover, using this function required using rules as fuel, which, for Richard, seemed quite extravagant.
However, he wasn’t a World Master and could not make hasty conclusions.
After leaving the Secret Realm, Richard returned to the Star Realm Fortress. Losing the fuel ring, the Power Furnace’s radiation released outward suddenly decreased.
The Power Furnace wasn’t completely destroyed; the remaining parts continued to contain the radiation of the fuel ring.
The reason the radiation had been so strong before was because the fuel ring Richard took was almost completely exposed, barely restrained by the Power Furnace.
After finding Ulysses, Richard introduced him to the new function of the Miracle Furnace.
"Ah? Rule Fusion?" Ulysses looked at Richard somewhat stunned, his mouth hanging open in amazement.
"Seeing your reaction, this function must be powerful." Richard chuckled.
"It’s not just powerful, this function could save you several epochs of hardship!" Ulysses shrieked somewhat frantically, "Richard, my Main God, sir!
Whether I can become a Main God in the future depends entirely on you!"
