Mordred devoted most of his remaining time in his small private quarter, meditating. Unlike other cultivators who perform spiritual meditation techniques or train their physical body for incremental progress in their cultivation, Mordred’s primary cultivation is the soul. He requires a copious amount of soul resources that can be effectively gathered through slaughter.
The aftermath of the war with the Darkshroud Formic Lord had elevated his soul cultivation base from 31-man soul to 59-man soul, teetering on the cusp of late-stage rank 0. Regrettably, he could only devour soul nutrients—generated when a lifeform dies or a truesoul gets completely broken down—during the war. The absence of Divine Envoys might have allowed him to ascend his soul foundation to the peak-stage by directly consuming souls, but that remained a wishful thought since Klauss and other Divine Envoys were present in the war.
In any case, the peaceful two weeks spent on the Shinkansen had caused his cultivation to stagnate. Therefore, despite his meditation, he was primarily engrossed in deciphering the coordinates of his current objective: the Azure Blade Twins' Minor Inheritance.
When Kasumi transmitted the secret coordinate, it was encrypted in a foreign language known as Verbum-Mechanica. Originating from Crimson Mars, the fourth planet of the Sol System, its creator was none other than Mordred's peer: Intelligent Metal, one of the Sovereign Magi of Holy Terra.
If Grimsong Specter was the Magus of Death, specializing in soul-path and sound-path cultivation, Intelligent Metal was the Magus of Machines, focusing on information-path and metal-path cultivation. He has little to no information about the techno-magus, but he has some surface-level understanding of what she specializes in.
In Morgen World, information-path had been invented by the Great Archmage. However, in reality, Mordred had merely adapted the methods he had learned, plundered, or stolen from Intelligent Metal to suit his needs. He couldn't fathom why the 'Great Archmage' had sought to disseminate information-path to Morgen World, considering that its concealment held greater merit. After all, the ability to keep certain information hidden proved immensely advantageous for an infiltrator or an assassin like him. Nonetheless, there must have been a deeper scheme at play.
Yet, the loss of his memories didn't make it any easier to learn the language from scratch
Verbum-Mechanica is the primary language that Intelligent Metal made to code her artificial intelligence as well as encrypt and transmit information amongst her machines. Being the Sovereign Magus of Information, her encryption methods were so advanced that they possessed the ability to mitigate some level of karmic backlash. Thus, it is extensively used in most of Mordred’s operations.
Unfortunately, Mordred's memory loss, or more precisely, True Black's loss of that portion, was a significant setback. Considering Purple Fragment's fluency in Verbum-Mechanica, it seemed that True Purple must have reclaimed that particular memory.
To resolve this dilemma, Mordred had the option to start from scratch, learning the language and decoding the coordinate himself. It was bound to consume an immense amount of time and effort, but it proved more constructive than idly waiting. At the very least, he possessed some information-path methods that could expedite the process.
Unfortunately, progress had been disappointingly slow.
Information-path encompasses a wide range of tasks, including encrypting, storing, transmitting, transforming, generating, and deleting information. While it wouldn't be accurate to claim that information-path lacked offensive capabilities entirely, its primary purpose lay elsewhere, not in direct confrontation.
In any case, Verbum-Mechanica is an encrypted machine language that transcends dimensions. Up to a certain point, machines fitted with artificial intelligences hardcoded in this language can still function despite the difference in dimensional laws. This presented Mordred with two possible routes: either brute-forcing it with his current limited information or accumulating a substantial dataset to aid in the decryption process. Both paths demanded an extraordinarily high level of computational resources, which he presently lacked.
He had devoted the past two days to brute-forcing it, but the absence of foundational data meant he had made zero progress on this front. Unlike cultivating in time-path, which required timeforce, or soul-path, which demanded a constant stream of souls, the fundamental requirement for cultivating information-path was an enormous reservoir of raw information.
Big Data and the ability to utilize them is the core of information-path.
‘It seems like I had to pass through a certain Fate Checkpoint for me to regain those memories…’ Mordred pondered, letting out a sign.
A Fate Checkpoint refers to a significant event viewed from the perspective of high-dimensional beings, ones no longer bound to the third dimension. Naturally, all rank 6 Sovereigns are high-dimensional beings. However, it is worth noting that the Sacred Alliance is under the leadership of the Dragon God of Time who not only can scheme around across different timelines but also specialize in it. To her, a Fate Checkpoint is an event that which she seeks to alter. Simultaneously, it’s an event Mordred seeks to safeguard, considering she’s the one who held the initiative.
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However, it is also crucial to acknowledge that due to the nature of karma, a Fate Checkpoint is difficult to change. Any significant event is a whirlpool of karma with various factors influencing it. As the one who is living in the ‘present’, Mordred has the advantage because the heavenly dao is relatively in favor of ones living in the moment while against those who want to change the predestined course of fate.
To combat the deity who can, and will dispatch assassins from different timelines, the Great Archmage locked up his splintered truesoul’s memory according to a specific condition. Unless the conditions are fulfilled, he won’t be able to remember much.
For example, Mordred speculated that the moment he undergoes a Protogenic Ascension and attains the status of a rank 4 Paragon, he might regain access to all of his memories.
This was both a countermeasure against the karmic backlash of having the memories of a rank 6 being despite being a rank 0 apprentice, as well as being assassinated and having his memories plundered by said assassin. After all, the scale of the Dragon God of Time’s schemes is beyond time and dimension. One can never be too careful when confronting a seer.
At present, Mordred had identified one of the crucial Fate Checkpoints: surviving a war with the Darkshroud Formic Lord and encountering Kasumi. With this condition met, memories of the Armored Soul Tribe surged forth like a broken dam, granting him access to mortal shell designs and reclaiming some of his refinement-path inheritances.
Having successfully navigated this Fate Checkpoint, his overall condition had markedly improved. The karmic 'counter' had been 'reset,' at least up to a certain extent. This meant he would no longer bear the brunt of the intense karmic backlash that Shion had endured. Nevertheless, this didn't make his path any less challenging.
Naturally, he has a cheat called Asmodeus who has [Sudden Inspiration], relying on it recklessly would be akin to quenching thirst with poison. If he relies on her [Sudden Inspiration] before he knows the limit and constraint, he will suffer a fate worse than death. He refuses to believe that the Dragon God of Time lacked a similarly potent tool, so it’s not good to rely on a method that could affect karma to an extreme degree.
Taking a deep breath, Mordred carefully assessed the dangers that lay ahead.
‘Since my objective is to recover the Azure Blade Twins' Minor Inheritance, the next Fate Checkpoint will be my success in obtaining it. Prior to safely plundering the minor inheritance, I'll encounter obstacles in the form of karmic backlash. This necessitates a more aggressive approach to resource gathering. Failing to do so could result in being swept away by the karmic current...’
He began mentally outlining the tasks he needed to accomplish—a sort of roadmap for the challenges ahead.
‘1. Deduce the Azure Blade Twins Minor Inheritance Coordinate…’
He wasn’t sure how he would accomplish them, but he had some methods in mind.
Using the information-path approach, he could refine a (relatively) primitive computer and by setting up some machine learning algorithm, he might be able to brute-force it when given some time.
Another method to through the wisdom-path approach, he might be able to accomplish this is through erecting negative emotion farms. Right now, he has a biological mortal shell with some level of computation capability. Its telepathic thought generation rate is lower than expected, so if he can create a negative emotion farm, for example, imprison some slaves and induce physical and mental torture to produce negative emotion, he can use wisdom-path methods to extract telepathic emotion and convert them into telepathic thoughts.
Of course, the easiest method is the soul-path approach. If he could simply cause genocide and rapidly elevate his soul foundation into the realm of rank 1 Officials, he was sure that it’d fulfill some conditions for unlocking his memories, but that is one of the riskiest approaches.
Regardless, he knew he could adjust his approach based on the circumstances later.
‘2. Nurture human resources to diffuse the karmic burden of plundering the minor inheritances’
The second point was straightforward. As a rule of thumb, Mordred had always considered Murphy's law: If things can go wrong, they will go wrong. With his luck and karmic burden, having more people under his lead means more people who shoulder his karma. In a situation where he was forced to give up an arm or a leg to progress, he can substitute it with sacrificing other people.
‘3. Proceed towards the location of the minor inheritance.’
Given the expansive nature of Morgen World, even traveling from one location to another posed a significant challenge. The capital city of Hartina Kingdom alone equaled the size of a large country back in Holy Terra. Moreover, venturing into non-civilized regions posed risks, as they were home to hostile races and dangerous beasts.
‘4. Execute the acquisition of the minor inheritance.’
The minor inheritance itself could take various forms. According to Kasumi's description, it should be a micro-plane containing factories and fabricators. Forcing his way into the micro-plane presented a unique challenge. Mordred would have to carefully assemble a team, take necessary precautions to prevent mishaps and have contingency plans in place. In the unfortunate event of any complications, he must also ensure he has ample manpower at his disposal, even if it means making human sacrifices to safeguard his progress.
‘Given that points 1 and 2 can be pursued simultaneously if all is well, it is most efficient to merge them into a single phase, which I'll term the 'Preparation Phase'. The subsequent step, involving the third point, should be designated as the 'Mobilization Phase', followed by the final step known as the 'Execution Phase'. At present, my primary focus will be on the Preparation Phase.’
At that moment, the doorbell rang, disrupting Mordred from his thoughts.
“What is it?” Mordred stood up and opened the door, only to see Kaishin, Nagata, and a few of his fellow apprentices in the background.
As Nagata gestured towards the bustling apprentices handling their luggage, he declared, “Yo, we're reaching our destination. Time to pack up.”