Chapter 255: Chapter 251: Magic Spring
Early the next morning, Perfikot set out under the protection of the Imperial Guard Knights and the White Bear Knights, circling the entire mountain outside Death Valley, heading toward the discovered cliff.
There were no incidents along the way, but when passing a mountain spring, Perfikot unexpectedly stopped to examine it.
"How interesting, the energy concentration in this spring is surprisingly high. If the mages in Langton knew a place like this existed, they’d go crazy." Perfikot said, holding a test tube filled with spring water, her face showing interest while her right eye was emitting a green glow.
This world indeed has magic, there is no need to elaborate on that point.
However, the magic power in this world is extremely scarce; even the most powerful mage may not be able to defeat a knight of the same level in a one-on-one battle.
And this understanding was established even before the industrial revolution.
With the development of the industrial revolution, knights’ equipment was enhanced by technological advancements, to the point where they were almost about to be eliminated before Perfikot created steam knight armor, but the increase in combat power was undeniable.
If measured solely by combat power, knights after the industrial revolution could probably defeat one and a half of their pre-industrial revolution selves.
Mages, however, did not gain much improvement during this process.
The reason is simple: their magic power doesn’t experience a qualitative leap just because they have better equipment.
Better equipment only allows them to utilize their magic power more effectively, but the total magic power doesn’t gain a qualitative boost. Although they could cast more powerful magic with more refined spells, with less energy to achieve greater miracles, the improvements of mages are too limited compared to the enhancements knights gained.
In fact, alchemists are similar; they have turned more towards academic research and embraced industry and science, unlike those mages who still indulge in their towers, steadfastly upholding the purity of magic.
After all, magic power throughout the world is very sparse; once mages leave their towers, it becomes extremely difficult to replenish their magic power once it’s consumed.
However, some special places in this world do exist; these places have relatively richer magical environments, allowing mages to exert stronger power and better recover their expended magic, and these places are called magical nodes by mages.
There’s a magical node in the capital of the Empire, Langton. It is said the reason for initially building the capital here was that the original builders hoped to harness the power of the magical node, using magic to construct an invincible fortress wall.
The fortress wall was ultimately built, but whether it was invincible remains unknown, because it hasn’t played any role over the past several hundred years — it has always been just a decoration.
Internal strife in the Empire didn’t require breaching the fortress; just sending troops into the city was enough. And no foreign invasion has occurred during the few hundred years since Langton was built.
Thus, more than a hundred years ago, a king repurposed the power of the magical node into a barrier over the palace that kept it evergreen all year long.
Compared to this inconspicuous spring eye she was now looking at, the dispersed energy was already comparable to the magic barrier over the palace.
It’s easy to imagine if mages found out there’s such a magic-filled spring here, they would lose their minds over it.
After all, if the spring eye has such abundant magic power, then the underground water vein must harbor even more astounding energy.
Perfikot understood now why a "dragon?" could survive in the Petroleum Lake if the underground has abundant magic power, then nurturing such a creature is understandable.
Perfikot carefully studied the spring eye, noticing its water was seeping out from a rock crevice, and decided not to explore further.
After all, such a natural magic spring is rare, she didn’t want to destroy it.
So, she merely took samples of the magic-containing spring water and soil around the spring eye, intending to research it further when she returned, and did nothing else.
Despite being an Alchemist, with the Jade Record’s help, she could conduct some research and utilize magic.
Gathering up the collected samples, Perfikot continued with the others, spending some time until they finally reached the cliff said by the explorers in the afternoon.
Arriving at the cliff’s edge, Perfikot looked down, and from here, she could fully take in the appearance of the entire valley.
It was a crescent-shaped valley, with the terrain overall appearing sunken, as if formed from a collapse in the underground, which could be inferred a bit from the surrounding cliffs and the broken terrain in the valley.
However, these weren’t the focal points of Perfikot’s attention; her gaze was drawn to the massive Petroleum Lake at the bottom of the valley.
She could confirm it was indeed a Petroleum Lake; the dark surface reflected an oily shine, indicating rich reserves.
"If this were in the original world, people would go mad." Looking at the Petroleum Lake, Perfikot couldn’t help but lament, if there was such a place in the original world, countries would likely wage war to seize it.
Even with deploying the Eye of Omniscience for analysis, Perfikot could only conclude that the lake was entirely composed of petroleum—a ludicrous finding.
Despite it being a relatively small lake, if the "water" in the lake was all petroleum, it would be the easiest petroleum to extract in the world. All you would need is to drop a pipe down and pump it up, no need for drilling, exploration, or a series of troublesome processes.
Moreover, with the oil surfacing naturally to form such a lake, one could anticipate the rich petroleum reserves below ground.
Yet extracting petroleum here faces two pressing issues: the first naturally being the hydrogen sulfide gas in the valley.
This poisonous gas poses a fatal threat to human life, making it extremely difficult to lay oil pipelines and equipment without solving the problem.
The second issue being the "dragon?" Perfikot already saw, currently lounging at the Petroleum Lake’s edge, surrounded by piles of rotting corpses and bones, appearing very sinister.
"Samantha, do you have confidence in killing that dragon?" Perfikot asked Samantha while watching the "dragon?".