Tarlan Aier, an outstanding elven scholar, expert in mathematics, mechanics, and natural history, and recipient of four lifetime honors from the Academy of Truth.

A man dedicated to scholarship, a diligent worker, one who could stay in the laboratory day and night, and someone who made Lucretia constantly worry about him suddenly dying at the research site. Now, this knowledgeable scholar was announcing to everyone that he was helpless against the geometric light beam that fell from the sky.

Lucretia looked up, her gaze passing over the crystal ball in front of her and falling on the window outside. The magnificent light was spreading from that direction, and even though it was midnight, the entire sea area seemed to be bathed in "sunlight." And within the light, the mountain-like luminous geometric object still floated quietly on the sea, its smooth, glowing walls like steep cliffs, stretching across the sky and sea.

Another small boat crossed the luminous sea and headed towards the interior of the glowing geometric object, preparing to pick up the research team that had completed its rotation duty near the "Stone Sphere." Lucretia sighed, withdrew her gaze from the window, and looked at the desk beside her—a strange-looking, gray sphere was placed on a shelf on the desk.

The surface of the sphere had a rough, rock-like texture, and strange, irregular undulations covered its surface. It was unremarkable in appearance, yet it exuded an indescribable sense of mystery.

At the center of the huge geometric light body floating on the sea was a strange "Stone Sphere" with a diameter of ten meters, and the one in front of Lucretia... was an exact, scaled-down replica of the Stone Sphere. It was practically the only "achievement" after so much research by a large group of experts and scholars.

"Master Tarlan Aier has now returned to Lightwind Port to rest, or rather, he was 'kidnapped' back to Lightwind Port by his students," Lucretia shook her head and said to her brother across the crystal ball. "If he doesn't rest, he'll probably die suddenly out there—as an elf, dying suddenly at the age of five hundred is really too young to die.

"When he left, he seemed very frustrated because this 'heaven-sent object' is really beyond our understanding. Whether it's the glowing area around it or the essence of the sphere at the center, it's a mystery to us.

"The researchers scraped some samples from the 'Stone Sphere,' but the analysis results show that they seem to be just fine stone powder. The exploration of the Stone Sphere's interior has made no progress—all methods have failed, including extraordinary powers. The thing seems to be wrapped in a dense 'shell,' hiding all its secrets, and at least until now, we have not decided to carry out destructive... 'tests' on it.

"After all this trouble, we have only reached one consensus, which is... this huge geometric light body should indeed be something that fell off the runic ring around Anomaly 001. This conclusion was given by the 'Tower' of Lightwind Port. They carefully observed the gap at the edge of Anomaly 001 and found that the damaged part matched the 'Geometric Light Body.'"

Lucretia said a lot in one breath, obviously, she had accumulated a lot of frustration during this period. Tirian was a good listener, not interrupting his sister's narration the entire time. Only after Lucretia finished speaking did he slowly open his mouth, "Has it been confirmed that it's a part that fell off of Anomaly 001? Lucy, Father had previously issued a warning to the Four Gods Church in this regard, saying that 'the Sun' may be declining."

"I heard about this," Lucretia nodded lightly. "The warning from 'Captain Duncan,' no one dares to ignore it, although most people's first reaction after hearing this warning is tension and fear towards the Forsaken Ship..."

Tirian twitched the corner of his mouth. As someone who often met with "Duncan Abnomar" recently, and had personally witnessed his father's new methods, he couldn't really comment on anything at this time, so he could only change the subject: "Do you have any follow-up plans over there? Regarding the problem of 'the Sun'..."

"What plans can we have? Throw this big stone sphere back into the sky? Re-embed it in the sun's runic ring?" Lucretia shrugged, "I'm afraid only the ancient Cretan kingdom would know how to repair the sun in the sky."

Tirian didn't speak.

After a moment of silence, Lucretia suddenly asked again, "Does Father know about my 'research' here?"

"I haven't told him," Tirian shook his head, "Without your consent, I wouldn't be so talkative... What? Do you want to ask him for help?"

Lucretia hesitated noticeably, seeming somewhat tempted, but soon she shook her head, "I'll think about it—Father may not be able to help with this kind of thing, and... well, I'm just a little afraid of him."

"Actually, he's really easy to talk to now," Tirian laughed. "But since you're not willing, then I won't interfere. But let me say in advance, even if I don't say anything, the news may reach his ears at any time. After all, he has now established connections with the Church and the city-states. If he really becomes interested by then, I wouldn't dare stop him."

Lucretia waved her hand impatiently, this "Sea Witch" who was shrouded in a mysterious halo in the eyes of outsiders never concealed her emotions much in front of her family: "I know, I know—don't talk about this. When exactly will you give me the Spirit World Lens that you mentioned before?"

Tirian: "..."

Two seconds later, Lucretia's dissatisfied scream resounded sharply from the crystal ball: "You forgot again?!?!?!"

"Tirian, you don't look very good."

Early in the morning, Duncan arrived at South Port and couldn't help but say something after seeing the tiredness in Tirian's expression. Tirian rubbed his forehead and sighed helplessly: "There are too many things to worry about lately."

This wasn't an excuse. There were indeed many things to worry about recently. The mental effort required to manage a city-state was obviously far more than managing a fleet, but then again... the impact of being nagged intensely by his sister for two hours on his complexion was obviously an undeniable factor.

However, Tirian quickly bypassed this slightly awkward topic. He didn't mention Lucretia's affairs, but straightened his expression: "I called you here so early today to tell you—the submersible is ready."

Duncan raised his eyebrows upon hearing this: "So fast?"

"Considering that the occupant doesn't need to breathe, many preparations can be accelerated," Tirian nodded. "Moreover, this submersible secretly built by the previous Frost government was based on blueprints from the Queen's era. Although there have been many improvements, the basic principles haven't changed much. If you just want to understand how to operate it, it's actually a very simple matter."

Duncan looked at Tirian for a while, then retracted his gaze and nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, take me there."

"Do you want to start immediately?" Tirian was a little surprised. "We can do some more tests. I invited you here today just to let you see with your own eyes..." Duncan interrupted him: "You should have done some tests already, right?"

"... A little bit," Tirian hesitated. "After completing the system verification, I arranged for two undead sailors to perform short dives of tens of meters last night, mainly to confirm the operating procedures and working status of the submersible. Nothing went wrong..."

"That's enough," Duncan nodded, turned around, and walked towards the warehouse leading to the underground facility. "Let me personally complete the subsequent testing process, anyway, the formal deep-sea operation will still be carried out by me." Tirian was stunned for a moment and could only quickly follow Duncan's footsteps, and on the way to the facility, a trace of doubt couldn't help but arise in his heart.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination... but he felt that his father looked a little preoccupied today, and this urgency was different from usual.

It was as if he had suddenly noticed some clues or touched upon some huge secret, and an emotion of eagerly uncovering the puzzle and exploring the truth was driving him. And this hurried appearance... vaguely gave Tirian a sense of familiarity.

The burly figure wearing a black coat was walking quickly in front, and Tirian was also walking quickly, trying desperately to keep up behind. The latter looked at the former's back, and in this step-by-step following, he suddenly realized the source of this sense of familiarity—

This feeling was like many years ago.

When some clues to ancient ruins were found, when a brand new sea route appeared on the chart, when news about border areas and mysterious anomalies suddenly entered the civilized world, his father would be like this at that time. This was how he looked when he was preparing to embark on a long voyage.

Distant and yellowed memories uncontrollably surfaced from the depths of his mind, and the scenes of sailing with his father in the past appeared before his eyes. In the overlapping images, Tirian's pace slowed down unconsciously. Duncan stopped and turned his head to look over here in confusion.

"Tirian, what are you daydreaming about—hurry up and follow."

Tirian was stunned, and hurriedly replied as he quickly stepped forward: "Ah... oh, okay, Father!" Duncan then turned around and continued to walk forward, not paying too much attention to Tirian's reaction just now.

Because a sense of urgency to explore this world surged up once again, constantly urging him on.

This urgency stemmed from what he had gained from exploring the brass key yesterday, from the corner of the mysterious veil of this world that had suddenly been lifted—

The huge spaceship that crashed into this world in some lost time, the ancient civilization creation from a hidden history called the "Profane Prototype," the deep mysteries that even scholars like Maurice had never touched. There were too many unknown things, and the occasional clues only made people realize that the secrets of this world were intricate and intertwined, like layers of veils.

Therefore, any opportunity to explore and take a step towards the truth of the world seemed extremely precious. An explorer should be like this.