บท 554: 64
After the War Chapter 12
The large crowd nervously shifted around, waiting for the event to start. The first magictech gate was constructed both in the temple of knowledge and in the main moon base. All that remained was for the God of Knowledge to activate it.
The absent-minded God, as usual, was nowhere to be found.
The device was a marvel of technology as the massive influx of Earth's scientists skyrocketed the research on the technical side of magic. Sure, Pandora's Actor had already worked hard in that regard, but he had worked off the designs that one would find in the library and were based on publicly available information.
Those who came from the cult and various government departments had access to even the most secret of the research and technology found on Earth, not to mention their more technical minds saw magic in a much more logical light than someone who had purely studied it.
With that, the gate spell was deconstructed and turned into easy-to-digest numbers. With that came the knowledge of exactly how much magical energy was needed to permanently maintain it. Combine it with the energy crystals or what the scientists called the zero point generators, and you would have a gate that would always be active and didn't need additional fueling.
Minutes ticked by as they waited and waited, but Tabula still hadn't arrived. His apprentice and the second in command, Nfirea, who was standing by the gate and doing last-minute adjustments, finally decided to ask what was going on.
{ Lord Tabula, the portal opening was supposed to start ten minutes ago. } Nfirea said nervously but also a bit confused as to where Lord Tabula was.
{ Ahm, yes, I was busy… } The brain eater message back awkwardly.
{ You said the opening was tomorrow! } Mariposa immediately got into the middle of the conversation. { I'm so sorry Nfirea. He told me he had nothing planned today and we got… busy. He will be there in ten minutes. }
{ Ohh… take your time. I'll inform the crowd that Lord Tabula was busy with an emergency. } Nfirea replied.
With a tactical cough, Nfirea forced out the mental image of his master having fun and turned his attention to the crowd.
"Lord Tabula sends his apologies but he was delayed by an emergency concerning a special project. He will arrive shortly."
True to her word, Mariposa arrived after exactly ten minutes, dragging her forgetful husband in. Both of their outfits looked hastily put on and by the looks of it, Mariposa had made her hair into a bun to hide their disheveled state.
Both approached the gate with some semblance of grace with Tabule stepping in the front of the gate.
"Yes… so today we have gathered for a historical event. This will be the first of many gates employed by the Empire, and you all have the privilege to witness the beginning of what one day will become the most effective transportation network possible." Tabula spoke in a slower-than-usual manner.
'Master forgot to prepare a speech!' Nfirea mused. Luckily for Tabula, the crowd of scientists was far too used to an awkward presentation, either seeing it performed or giving one themselves.
No other institution ran their restaurant and cafeterias all day every day in case someone realized he needed to eat at 2 am on Saturday. Forgetting to appear for an important event was not that out of the order.
With enthusiastic applause from the crowd, Tabula turned around and touched the activation panel. The gate was made with the idea of a precise coordinate system in mind and could be easily configured to connect to another location if need be once the other gates finished construction.
Additionally, a very important precaution was made. The gate spell lets through only objects of a certain size so even in the case of the moon base suddenly disappearing, it would not start sucking out the air into the near vacuum of the moon's surface which, same as Earth's moon, didn't have an atmosphere.
It didn't take long for the familiar void to appear in the gateway of the circular gate and Tabula was first to walk through.
The next to follow was Mariposa and Nfirea, who both would easily survive on the surface of the moon and after them, the group of scientists cautiously followed.
"Finally, you are here." Saz said as he looked up from a stack of reports. "The bomb is already placed. We only need your command to start."
The dragon had volunteered to be in charge of the construction of the moon base and was the one to keep a protective barrier up filled with breathable air, while the mostly undead crew built the installation. The control room was at least fifty by fifty meters with the front wall made out of transparent, magically enchanted metal that served as a window. To the right was a long row of screens with technicians working on them.
"I hope it is not too close to the base." Tabula said jokingly as he chuckled at his own little joke. "We don't want to blow off the roof and make the place windy."
"Oh, no. We set it up halfway across the moon. What the Earth people said was that we would not even be able to see the detonation from the base." Saz replied, ignoring his friend's attempt at humor. He then turned to one of the technicians. "Activate the remote viewing screens."
"I see. I think we can start. Everyone, please take your places." Tabula said. He would be the one to test the radiation removal spells. Of course, the surface was already radioactive due to cosmic rays but mostly consisted of light dust. The removal of heavy materials scattered by the explosion would be just as important if a nuke would be activated somewhere on Earth.
"Prepare the activation! Countdown; 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…." The twenty or so screens shook violently when the first shockwave reached the point from where the spell was monitoring the results. It seems even the spell was affected by the devastating weapon's shockwave as the mushroom cloud rose in the distance.
The bomb they detonated was only yielding four hundred kilotons, which for Earth's arsenal was considered medium-sized at best.
"Sir, we are ready to send the automated geiger counters." One of the technicians spoke to Saz.
"Send them in." He responded as he moved his head from side to side, cracking his neck. "Ready to go look at the damage?" Saz asked Tabula.
"There is no point delaying it. Nfirea, you are in charge of the base while we do the tests." Tabula told his apprentice in a firm voice.
Although the removal of radiation based damage was already tested on not only animals but humans as well to a great degree by Demiurge, both Saz and Tabula put up protective shields before teleporting to the impact crater.
The floating geiger counters were already floating around flashing red lights to indicate that radiation was dangerously high in the area.
Unconcerned, Tabula walked around the crater and inspected the floating particles with curiosity.
{ Are we starting? The data will be collected either way, you don't have to pick up the samples. } Saz messaged him.
{ I know, but I have never been so close to it before. I guess we can start. If my calculations are correct, together we can cover the entirety of the surface. } Tabula said as he started to cast the thirteenth-tier cleansing spell attuned to the radiation and radioactive material.
{ I'll follow your lead. } Saz responded as he took the place opposite the rotating magical circle and started adding his mana to it.
The resulting faint green wave that crossed the entirety of the moon's surface could be seen from the main world's night side. That of course excluded the capital city, but the observation station located in the Beastmen Country immediately reported the sighting.
{ Looks like our spell was seen even back home. } Tabula remarked the moment he received the report from the concerned station's executive.
{ I thought you warned them that the experiment would be conducted today. Did you forget again? } Saz asked with the suspicion that his assumption might be the case.
{ No, but I warned only about the possibility of seeing the nuclear blast. I had no idea that the cleansing ritual could be seen from such a distance. }
{ I see. In either case, we should return back to base. I have no doubt first data will be compiled at this point. }
{ Agreed. }
Both returned to a base that was filled with frenzied excitement, Nfirea being in the center of it.
"Master, it seems your spell has caused quite a ruckus in the part of the Empire that could witness it." Nfirea approached him.
"I know. Do we have any other information available?" Tabula asked. The idea of being chewed out by either Ainz or Albedo for not giving enough of a warning was not a big concern at the moment.
"Radiation levels plummeted everywhere, even within the base. The outside radiation is once again rising but that was expected. We will get soil sample results in a few days."
"Excellent. I think we are done here for now." Tabula said as he looked around for Mariposa to return home. He noticed his wife standing by the gate and giving orders to the servant staff that was sent through as well to provide more comfortable living on the base which at the moment was still pretty barren.
"Don't forget to give me updates about the terraforming project!" Saz shouted after him. "I don't want an army of druids falling on my head without a warning."
Mariposa, hearing Saz shouting about the druids, quickly ran over and took out a notebook from her inventory. "You don't have to worry about druids. Lord Blue Planet gave explicit instructions to have every safety precaution ensured beforehand and he wishes to speak with the moon operations supervisor personally before sending any of his followers here."
"That's good. Then I will contact Lord Blue Planet once all the test facilities are ready." Saz said with a sigh of relief. Relying on his friend's wife was the smartest move anyone serving under Tabula could make.
Mariposa smiled back at the dragon and then as if a light went off, flipped the page of her notebook and said. "Oh, before I forget, please prepare the report on how large of an undead workforce you need for the construction and the maintenance. The Emperor wishes to know precise numbers before performing the next summoning."
"I'll send it to you once we have a clearer picture. With the test done, the next few days will be rather chaotic." Saz took out a small floating orb and touched it to note down a reminder. Using notebooks and pencils seemed too archaic at this point.
The memory cores of his making were a much better option for planning. Of course, it was not even close to the devices called computers that were used only by the Earth scientists but to learn how to operate the device would take time he didn't have at this moment.
As the one of top ranking members of the research department, he of late had barely any time to sleep, not to mention more leisure activities and personal pet projects. With each new piece of information he acquired, more and more of them were added to the list.
'I hope once things have settled down I will have time to expand my own laboratory. At least now I don't have to worry about capable assistants.' His memories went back to the time when the late Dragon Emperor still ruled.
Save for wild magic and administration, intellectual pursuits were rather low-valued, and only the absolute minority of the mortal races serving dragons back then could read and write.
Now with the Empire of Nazarick gaining more and more foothold not only in this world but on Earth as well, eager, and most importantly, passionately curious people were lining up to work in the lucrative field of techno-magical research.
He watched Tabula, Mariposa, and Nfirea depart through the portal which would decrease his workload significantly. As one of few who could use high-tier magic, he did most of the transportation until now.
'Now where was I?' Saz snapped his fingers. 'Oh right, I need to check on the construction process of section twenty-three.'
There was no time to slack around even for a moment.
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