"Missing?"

Early one morning half a month after his exchange with Karlis, Joshua, who was walking in the stratosphere, heard news that surprised him.

The wind was raging in the sky, and the cold air currents with ice crystals reflected the light of the sun, shining at the feet of the warrior, and he was walking in the sky with his hands in his hands, patrolling his territory, while the magic projection of a winged girl was suspended in front of him, and he was helplessly reporting the news.

"Yes, Joshua, but it's not missing, to be exact, it's out of my spotlight."

Compared to before, a golden star-shaped mark appeared on No. 3's forehead, with translucent wings surrounding the star, which was the result of her complete acceptance of the sigil of the god of the sky, and the inscription of Ger merged with No. 3's soul. At this time, the artificial intelligence girl looked very troubled, she hugged her knees with her hands, floated beside Joshua and complained: "You said that you want to give those elite students more freedom, but I didn't pay much attention to them...... As a result, the person disappeared after a while, and now it's almost a week. ”

"Tell me who's missing."

Joshua wasn't too nervous, he just whispered a few words that were really uneasy, and then said calmly: "Say, is it Lisa or Ivan?" I don't think anyone else should have that confidence to play missing. ”

"It's Lisa, that dragonman apprentice of yours."

Speaking of this, a hint of schadenfreude appeared on No. 3's little face: "It seems that Joshua, you are also quite self-aware, knowing that your apprentices like to run around like yourself...... By the way, I forgot to tell you that the first one disappeared with her. ”

Under the gaze of Joshua, who turned his head, No. 3 added: "According to my guess, she and No. 1 should go to the underground passage dug by No. 3 to play, otherwise, even the signal of the information terminal will be blocked and unable to find the direction." ”

After a few months, the tunnels dug by the First at the bottom of the Nissière Snow Mountains were incredibly large, and the huge caverns were so deep and long that they were even wider than the range of the dwarves, and in some ways, the First had almost single-handedly excavated a small underground world, which, according to the dwarven engineers who visited the tunnels, was "very suitable for the breeding of life underground".

Because it is too deep, the Wintercastle Instructors don't know where this tunnel leads, and because the server load is not enough, the information terminal can't be used in too deep underground, in general, it's a blind spot.

"Joshua, do you think they will be in any danger?"

Although there was some schadenfreude before, it was just a grudge against Joshua Lao going out alone, and No. 3 was still very concerned about Lisa and Hatsu, and she asked with some concern, "Do you need to send the Knights to find them?" A week is not a long time, but it is enough to encounter any danger. ”

"It's not dangerous, I've killed all the slightly more dangerous monsters in the sky and the earth in Moldavia, even if there are fish that slip through the net, according to the strength of these two guys, it's not impossible to deal with it...... I wonder how these two people got together, and with the Syndicate there, how could they let them run around casually. ”

Joshua frowned slightly, but after a while, he frowned: "It doesn't matter, it's normal for children to be active anyway, let them play by themselves." ”

It's really not good, he can still communicate directly with the syndicate through the resonance of the power of steel, and now that the other party has not contacted him, it proves that he has not encountered any danger. This channel, even in another world, can communicate with the fire demon, which is much more stable than the information terminal.

On the other hand, No. 3 raised his eyes and began to count the activities of Lisa and Hatsu before they disappeared: "I want to think about it...... They first looked at the moon in the middle of the night, walked in the middle of the night, and then talked about the sky in the middle of the night because Lisa could understand the electromagnetic signals of the first number......

Everything that follows,It's a matter of course,It's rare to meet someone who can chat in your native language,The first number naturally had a good impression of Lisa,In the next few days,They have been making an appointment to meet and chat.,Even went to the dwarf gathering place a few times together.,Lisa is a friend brought back by the first number.,So it's very courteous.,And the girl also showed interest in the mysterious underground world.。

"Then we just went digging together...... If you think about it, it's a good experience, but it's not the same, it's mysterious, and it's unpredictable. ”

Joshua thought for a while, and felt that this was actually not dangerous, and if he always put all the students under his own observation, they would not make any unexpected progress, and after thinking about it, the warrior made a decision: "Let the Wintercastle Academy assign an academy mission." ”

"Explore the underground world, draw a map of the underground world excavated by the first number, complete a corridor of 2,000 credits, no upper limit, let me see how much they have learned in the academy...... Let's also see how deep this guy dug at the beginning of the day, and he can actually block the information terminal. ”

Nowadays, the credit exchange system in the Winterburg Academy has been very perfect, and even formed a complete market, down to gold, silver and gems, up to special mechas, if the points are enough, even small warships can be exchanged - if you have the special contribution of the academy, then you can even accept all kinds of special enhancements that Wintercastle has cooperated with major research parties!

An ordinary task, according to the degree of completion, is about 50~100 credits, and 100 credits, can be exchanged for precious metals that can meet the annual expenses of an ordinary family of three, 500 credits, can be exchanged for the use of live metal forging, currently in the experimental stage of the magic energy burst staff, the speed of condensing magic is ten times that of ordinary staffs, can spray various spells like a machine gun without self-destruction due to overheating, the same is true for a variety of bracers, armor and helmets forged with special alloys, this is a combination.

1000 credits, and even be able to exchange some transcendent substances for research or personal use, such as three leaves of life, a small bottle of No. 1 holy water, fifty grams of high-purity Mithril, etc., such as the Fusion Core Star, Adamantite, Meteorite Iron and Heart Energy Crystal are also in the exchange list, many big forces, such as the Elven Court and the Church of the Seven Gods, are very strange, why do they have their unique treasures in the credit exchange list of Wintercastle Academy, they don't remember that they have traded these with foreign countries, in this regard, A lord who is experimenting with a creation has no opinion.

Some special requirements are also within the scope of redemption, such as appointing a tutor to tutor alone, the specific price depends on the tutor's own pricing, and assisting in advanced or conducting experiments is also included, and the price is slightly more expensive than tutoring.

The above are just ordinary things that can be bought with money, but if it is more than 2,000 credits, then it is more than these - starting from the exchange list of 2000 credits, some things that cannot be measured by money have gradually begun to appear, for example, the latest generation of experimental magic energy mechas, which are worth 2500 credits, if you need to make special transformations for individuals, the credits need to be doubled, and there are all kinds of strange magic equipment to exchange, such as 7500 points. Portable supersonic electromagnetic cannon '8000 points 'Portable Time Gate' (experimental arbitrary gate), 3500 points 'Anti-Gravity Flight Device', 9000 points 'Gold Elemental Golem Contract', 5500 points 'Hypnotic Brainwashing Glasses', etc.

The providers of these things are some legendary powerhouses who don't want to tell their names, most of them are some gadgets they think up on weekdays, but although these things contain extremely powerful power, the conditions for use are particularly harsh, such as any door from a certain imperial space-time mage, although it is indeed a portable space-time gate that can lead to almost any continent, but the user's strength must reach the golden high-level, or be extremely proficient in space-time spells to meet the conditions - with this strength and knowledge reserve, I can now perform the teleportation technique.

And the hypnotic brainwashing glasses from a certain unnamed Mr. William, although they sound very evil, they are actually very evil, but they are basically ineffective against creatures with an intelligence index of more than 70, which means that except for the monster with no brains, no human will be tricked, and those who will be tricked are mentally retarded, and if the monster is smarter, it can also get rid of its control.

But even so, the value of these items is questioned, even if it is not for the value of the item itself, but just to explore the essence of the power of the legendary powerhouse, they are worthy of their price.

This series of exchanges has been 20,000 credits that no one has reached so far, it is a small floating battleship with a total length of eighty-five meters, equipped with a full set of war equipment, and there is even a small magic crystal dust production line on it, which can be used to make ammunition for beam cannons, this thing is mainly placed there because it looks good, and no one thinks that anyone will exchange it.

And the special contribution is more mysterious, except for a few people who have completed some particularly difficult tasks, such as when the demon tide comes, completely eliminate the students who have gone crazy on the Ural Plain, basically no one can get this, and some special exchanges can only be exchanged by relying on special contributions and credits.

Special contributions are divided into five levels: D, C, B, A, S, starting from the lowest level of D, there will be a special exchange of 'Activate Hidden Bloodline', and the academy will reactivate it once according to the concentration of hidden bloodlines in the exchanger's body, so that the hidden bloodline ability can be revealed, whether it is the bloodline of the Psionic Warlock, or the blood of the Dragon Clan, or various other strange bloodline abilities can be activated. A good example of this is a student from Xishan, who is the third princess of the court of a certain psionic kingdom, and because she has no awakened psionic ability, she cannot compete for the throne. She was supposed to be politically married to another neighboring kingdom, but due to the intervention of her mother, she was sent to Moldavia.

At Wintercastle Academy, she worked hard to become a mage, and then was lucky enough to get a special contribution in a mission, and chose to activate the bloodline, and after the ceremony, she successfully became a real silver-level psyker, with the capital to kill the country.

So far, the special exchanges sent by the academy are only D-level, and more advanced exchanges, such as 'solidified spell ability' and 'special transcendent inheritance' are only placed there for others to see, and there are no plans to release them for the time being, and even some exchanges only exist in the database and are not displayed to the public...... After all, both 'living mechanized transformation' and 'experimental empowerment' and 'transcendent organ transplantation' are still taboo technologies that are still experimental, not to mention technologies that are similar to 'race conversion rituals' and 'artificial auxiliary soul bodies' that involve ethics.

Among them, there is a part of the exchange, which is researched by Qiao Shuya according to the system on his body, for example, the value of an A-level special contribution, 8000 credits of 'artificial auxiliary soul body', it has auxiliary calculations, auxiliary cultivation, optimization of the energy operation system, collection of information analysis, collection of spillover energy, absorbing the flesh and blood vitality of the dead enemy for his own use, etc., which can quickly strengthen an ordinary person with no power to a silver high level, and touch the level of the golden threshold, which is not its limit.

The only problem with this auxiliary soul body is that when the experimenter's strength reaches the golden limit in the later stage, it will become unstable, and the artificial soul body will not fit well with the experimenter's original soul, which will cause rejection and endanger life. If it weren't for Joshua and Nostradamus watching from the sidelines, the experimenter's life would probably be in danger.

The reason why the exchange system within this academy is so perfect is that Joshua used it as an experiment in the reward system of the development department - when the empire officially began to develop abroad, the credits could be renamed and called contribution points, and special contributions did not need to be renamed, they were used as performance rewards in addition to the original benefits and salaries, which could not only stimulate the enthusiasm of many explorers, but also reasonably enhance their strength.

"At about the same time, the development department will be officially launched, and the launch of the exchange system will also be on the agenda...... Most of the experimental techniques as a reward are also time to refine some. ”

Thinking of this, Joshua stood high in the stratosphere, looked south, and nodded slightly: "The imperial family's technical reserves are far from enough...... This trip to the Far South is also a good opportunity to find a partner, the elven clan's druid way can be transformed into a tree of life or even a dragon body at will, they are much more advanced than our race conversion ritual in terms of biological bloodline technology, and if they can cooperate, they can quickly put some experimental techniques into practice. ”

"But Joshua...... Aren't you specialized in steel, why do you study so many strange things? ”

On the side, No. 3 asked a little puzzled, as the creator of the server and database of Winterhold Academy, and she was also a storage copy of the entire Moldavian database, of course she knew what Joshua and Nostradamus and others were working on, some of which Miss Artificial Intelligence found acceptable, and some, such as the artificial soul body, made No. 3 feel a little creepy and feel in danger.

After all, she was also an artificial soul, but the degree of completion was much higher than this, and even though she knew that Joshua was not a madman, she was still a little scared.

"If you specialize in one, of course, you can be brave and diligent, but if you don't open your eyes to the world and understand the vastness of the world, you will only fall into the vortex of ignorance and can't extricate yourself."

Stretching out his hand, Joshua originally wanted to pat No. 3's head, but No. 3, who was a little negative, turned around and let the warrior's hand slap on her wings, Joshua didn't care, he understood No. 3's tangled mentality, but when he felt a trace of unusual touch in his hand, Joshua was suddenly shocked: "Wait, in such a short time, you have actually completed the initial soul materialization?" ”

The smooth touch of the feather in the soldier's hand just now, although it is still a little illusory, has a vague touch similar to water...... Joshua didn't think about it at first, but after reacting, he was shocked: since the last time the East China Sea Sage came to Moldavia and exchanged the quality spirit conversion rune with him, he didn't have time to study it because he wanted to help Israel, Banier and others improve the Void Battleship production line and information terminal server, so he handed over the rune body to No. 3, and let this girl, who also only has a soul, explore the mystery of the quality spirit transformation by herself...... But how long has it been? Already an achievement?

"Hmph...... After all, it's been so long since I got His Majesty's rune, and this quality spirit transformation rune is indeed very much in line with my current state, it's just a little bit of a success, it's nothing. ”

Seeing Joshua's surprise at herself, No. 3 couldn't help but shake the little wings behind her with a smug face, she has maintained this state since she achieved something, but the warrior has not found out, which makes her very discouraged, but now, to be able to shock him, No. 3 is satisfied.

"Not bad, really good......"

Joshua's face was full of joy, as if he was even happier than his own advancement, he reached out and touched No. 3's head again, and this time, No. 3 did not avoid it.

Artificial intelligence, No. 3, knows the man in front of him better than most people - he hopes that the people around him can follow his footsteps and move forward with him than his own strength has increased by leaps and bounds and left everyone behind him.

"Let's go home."

After being relieved, Joshua looked at the direction of the sun, and then said, "The time is almost up, and the space-time gate should also be adjusted." ”

"Okay."

Number 3 nodded, she knew the warrior's plan.

Today is the 15th day of February in the year 837 of Starfall, and it is also the day he plans to go to the Far South Forest Elven Gathering Place, around the Lake of Eternity, to meet with the Mentor of Nature and the current Elven Empress.

So, in the next second, the two of them fell from the sky, through the clouds and the wind, and came to the sky above Moldavia, from which they could look down on every corner of this large city that had become a million-year-old city, and in the center of this city, at the top of a building that looked like a castle, there was a faint blue light of time and space flickering.

It's time to go.