Chapter 326: A Catastrophic Incident

"Was that a meteor?"

Wang Yu turned to Sieg, pointing at where the distant fireball from the heavens had fallen. It was the first time he had ever witnessed a meteor in this world—something he'd never encountered even once on Earth.

"It should be," Sieg replied, his eyes likewise fixed on the distant mountain. Half the peak had been sheared away, and wildfires now spread through the forest. "I've seen a few fall before—some larger, some smaller. They all look like that, more or less."

"Are meteorites common around here?" Wang Yu unsheathed his starsteel blade, turning the hardened weapon over in his hand. "I heard this thing was forged from one."

"You'll probably be disappointed," Sieg said with a laugh. "Meteoritess do fall quite often. There's news of one landing somewhere on the continent every month or so. But most of the time, they're just molten rock, ordinary minerals with no real value.

"The ones that contain something rare, like stardew, likely fell in antiquity and were only excavated later. In the last century, I haven't heard of a single person uncovering anything valuable from a new meteorite."

Sieg shook his head. He knew that Wang Yu was a foreigner who frequently had his own unique takes on things, but they were frequently incompatible with how this world operated. Sieg was more than happy to help fill in the gaps in his knowledge.

"I see..."

Wang Yu rubbed his chin, slightly deflated. It turned out meteoric iron wasn't as rare or mysterious as he'd thought.

As their conversation died down, the two noticed a mechanical hum filling the air. A dense swarm of alchemical constructs soared overhead, ranging from buzzing worker drones to combat-ready war machines, each crafted for a specialized function.

The sky above Skyborne City darkened as the vast mechanical horde blotted out the sun. Their engines thrummed like a storm, exuding an oppressive presence. This was no ordinary patrol—this was Skyborne City's alchemical army, moving en masse.

Wang Yu and Sieg paused, intrigued. They watched the legions pass overhead as they wondered what their objective could be. Such large-scale mobilizations were exceedingly rare.

The constructs did not linger over Skyborne City. They veered sharply, soaring with incredible speed toward the site where the meteor had fallen.

"They're heading straight for the meteor. Are they planning on harvesting it?" Wang Yu frowned. "No... If that were the case, there'd be more specialized mining constructs. Aside from the worker drones, the rest are combat models. This isn't a salvage operation. They're deploying for a fight..."

Sieg nodded slowly. "Yeah... That's a military-grade legion, enough to hunt a legend-tier threat. But it doesn't look like they're trying to seize territory either. Honestly, I have no idea what they're doing."

"Well, let's watch and see," Wang Yu replied.

The metallic swarm reached the meteor site swiftly. Countless drones rained from the sky like a swarm of locusts, covering the crater and snuffing out the flames still licking at the forest's edge.

The ground churned as the worker drones scurried and writhed over the crater like a metal tide in motion.

Within minutes, they had stripped away the debris, exposing a charred, pockmarked black orb—the meteor's core.

Curiously, none of the constructs attempted to mine or touch it. Then, just as swiftly as they had arrived, the entire mechanical host took to the skies once more and returned in formation toward Skyborne City.

"...it was all to have a look?" Wang Yu muttered. "No collection, no analysis, not even any samples? Why bring so many combat units, then? Unless..."

He trailed off, his thoughts racing. Perhaps there was something about that meteor known only to Skyborne City—a hidden threat, a secret danger.

"..."

Sieg glanced at him, understanding what he'd left unsaid.

"Hey, Astartes!" Wang Yu suddenly shouted, eyes on the passing constructs. "What was all that about?"

There was no response. The mechanical host flew on in silence toward the central spire.

"Well, I guess that's fair," Wang Yu said with a shrug. "We're not exactly friends. It's not like that tower spirit owes me an explanation."

Still, he was certain that he'd caught one construct falter briefly when he shouted. Astartes had heard him, no doubt about it.

"Come on," Sieg clapped him on the shoulder. "Let's get that lich corpse back. That frost aura of hers will make an excellent cooling unit."

Together, they left the meteor behind and returned to their lodgings, the lich's body in tow.

A few days later, Wang Yu headed into the archives of the Tower of the Scholar, poring over volumes on knightly disciplines and texts he hadn't had access to back in Aleisterre.

"So that's how it is... Strengthening a knight's body isn't just about getting tougher or hitting harder. There's also magic resistance, void resistance, and the like—the kind of stuff that's hard to quantify, but grows with power."

Since returning from the undead plane, he'd completed his Scholar's Tower advancement exam, upgraded his rank to "Scholar," and gained unrestricted access to the open archives.

The test had been far simpler than he'd expected. And truthfully, his curious mind had already accumulated enough knowledge to be deemed "erudite."

These knightly tomes delved deeper into the path of knighthood than anything he'd studied before, expanding on concepts previously glossed over.

Much of what he read echoed what the silver dragon Aurelian had once described to him—the idea of "domains." As knights developed stronger physical prowess, their bodies would subtly begin influencing the world around them. Resistance to magic, resistance to supernatural forces, and the like were all traits that evolved with the body.

"As trainees, knights and magicians are roughly evenly matched. As novices, knights start to dominate. Beyond that, magicians pull ahead until the legendary tier, where knights overtake them once more. It's all starting to make sense now."

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow. He finally understood why there were fewer legendary knights than magicians.

Magicians were able to grow steadily, but knights had to survive two brutal stages of growth—advancing into a formal knight, then a grand knight—before crossing the threshold into legend.

During this period, they were largely restricted to melee range and still had a whole host of glaring weaknesses and vulnerabilities. As a result, even the smallest of mistakes could be fatal.

All legendary knights had had to claw their way up through blood and sweat and tears to get where they were. Those who survived were monsters. They had to be, to even make it that far.

Wang Yu shut the tome and sorted through what he had learned. The concept of domains, so similar to his own power of the Chariot, intrigued him deeply.

As for other topics, as Avia had mentioned, there was nothing on the cosmos or the abyss, nor the Lightless Order. Still, a few curiosities did catch his eye.

Apparently, this world contained a Holy Grail, a relic that would grant wishes in good faith—for a price.

The problem was that the price you had to pay was bizarre. For instance, there was a record of a wizard who wished for increased mental resistance. The Grail demanded "a color that had never been seen nor imagined."

Impossible? Almost. But the wizard outsmarted it—he threw a bunch of void creatures into the Grail and let their chaotic minds conjure something that qualified.

Another wish was for a single piece of candy. The Grail wanted a lit alchemical bomb in return. The legendary knight who delivered it got blown up in the process.

No one else had managed to meet the Grail's requirements since. Currently, it was sealed by the Winged in their ancient capital, the Boundless Expanse.

Wang Yu couldn't help but wonder if it could grant him a way back to Earth.

But Icarus had mentioned that not even the Winged themselves could locate that city anymore. It was a lost ruin, wiped away from time and memory.

With a sigh, Wang Yu shut his eyes and began to digest the knowledge he'd gained. Then, his identity card chimed. It was a transmission from Avia, Sieg, and Icarus. The message caused a cold ripple of shock to run through him.

During an experiment on hypermagic, the Council of the Arcane had suffered a catastrophic accident. A massive amount of experimental equipment had been destroyed... and a key researcher was missing.

They were urging Wang Yu to head to the Council's headquarters as soon as possible. If he could use his Chariot to salvage any remaining equipment or data, that would be invaluable. The rest was a loss they'd have to swallow.

Wasting no time, Wang Yu dashed straight there.

When he arrived, he finally understood what they meant by "catastrophic."

A full third of the Assembly's complex was simply gone. All that remained were scorched fragments of buildings and the twisted carcasses of alchemical devices and machinery.

Even the surviving structures were riddled with craters and gouges, as if some invisible force had lashed out with a thousand blows in rapid succession.

What in the world had happened here...?