Raising all of humanity: Starting with a backyard pool world

Chapter 96 [The Dwarf Masters Go Mad]

Once the goal is clear, the motivation to act is boosted.

In just one night, Wang Xuan and Ai Jia worked together to draw detailed blueprints for the [Rune Binding Container].

The blueprints were engraved on a huge black stone slab, in the same Rune Workshop No. 3.

However, this time the observers were the dozen or so highest-ranking rune craftsmen among the dwarves.

Brenner and Mason were among them.

When Aijia put down her carving knife, the pattern on the stone slab was fully revealed, and the entire workshop was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Blasphemy!" A dwarf elder with twelve braids pointed at the stone slab with a trembling finger, shaking with rage.

"This is simply... simply the ravings of a madman!"

The design on the stone slab overturned the dwarves' understanding of rune engineering that had lasted for tens of thousands of years.

It is fundamentally contradictory.

The structure on the left uses a standard and stable array of [Focus] and [Solidify] runes, designed to create a stable energy core.

However, the structure on the right is engraved with runes that possess the characteristics of "differentiation" and "diffusion".

These runes are something the dwarves have only seen on ancient artifacts from the south that have been corrupted by the abyss!

"What are you trying to do?" another master craftsman glared at Wang Xuan. "Forcibly coupling two completely opposite forces together? It's like demanding a piece of red-hot iron that is also ice-cold!"

"This will not only explode, it will even annihilate everything, leaving nothing behind!!" The eldest elder looked at them with the eyes of someone looking at demons.

Wang Xuan remained calm in the face of the agitated dwarf masters.

"Gentlemen, please calm down." He shrugged. "I know this seems crazy."

"We call them 'Chaos Runes'," Dr. Aija added, adjusting his glasses. "What we need is precisely this irreconcilable contradiction."

She pointed to the core of the blueprint, "The essence of the constraint container is to guide the seeds of chaos to generate contradictions and cause that annihilation effect in order to ensure safety."

"When the Seed of Chaos attempts to release its chaos outward, it is forcibly drawn back inward; and when it falls silent within, it is activated again, forcing it to release its power. It will forever be in a contradictory state of 'wanting to release, yet being suppressed,' thus consuming all its power in eternal self-confrontation."

This explanation clearly left the dwarves completely bewildered.

"Nonsense!" a dwarf master rudely interrupted her. "Energy either flows or remains still! There's no such thing as a state where it 'both flows and remains still'!"

"Enough!" The eldest elder finally couldn't take it anymore and slammed his hammer on the anvil next to him, making a loud noise.

"Brenner! These are the 'messengers of the gods' you speak of? They know nothing of forging, much less of runes!"

"They're turning our Blackrock Fortress into a casualty of a mad experiment!"

Brenner couldn't understand the blueprints either, but he didn't dare to question them.

In the corner, Mason, who had been listening intently with his head down, wore an expression of confusion and struggle.

In his mind, on one hand, were the ironclad forging principles of "strength, stability, and order" taught by his dwarf masters.

On the other hand, there are the incomprehensible, yet seemingly insane, theories spoken by the "messengers of the gods," which appear to point to some higher truth.

Something is in my mind, but there's an unbreakable barrier between me and it.

At that moment, Mason felt a gaze upon him.

It was Wang Xuan. He simply gave him an encouraging smile and then gestured for him to step forward with his eyes.

Mason was a little confused... Him? A human apprentice who wasn't even a formal craftsman?

In this kind of situation...

Since the divine messenger had made this decision, he mustered his last breath and shakily raised his hand.

"Um... esteemed masters... and, Your Excellency the Divine Envoy..."

Mason was trembling slightly, but he still tried to organize his thoughts.

"I...I have a preliminary idea..."

"What right do you have to speak here!" roared a grumpy dwarf master.

"Let him speak," Wang Xuan said, trying to support him.

Mason gave Wang Xuan a grateful look and walked to the huge stone slab.

I picked up the carving knife and drew something simple next to the stone slab.

A snake biting its own tail.

A circular ring with its ends connected.

"Masters," Mason gradually calmed down, "I have seen such a totem in our human legends, which represents infinity and cycles."

"It is both the beginning and the end." He pointed to the snake's head. "When the snake's head devours its tail, it is ending itself."

"But this act of ending is precisely what constitutes its form of existence."

"It must keep consuming in order to maintain this ring."

Inside the workshop, the dwarves' breathing ceased.

Mason's simple and straightforward metaphor, like a key, enlightened the dwarves present.

"I didn't quite understand what the divine messengers meant just now; but I feel that perhaps... perhaps it's just like this snake."

"What we are building is not just a cage."

"It's a... a logical... paradoxical field that allows the power of chaos to bite itself!"

[A Field of Logical Paradoxes]

The dozen or so dwarf master craftsmen, who had been filled with anger and disdain just moments before, were now completely different.

The eldest elder rushed to the stone slab, stroking the [Chaos Runes] while muttering to himself.

"I see... I see!"

"I understand! I understand everything!"

"Hahaha! We were all wrong! We fools who stuck to the old rules! We were all wrong!"

He acted like a madman, snatching a carving knife from someone else's hand and frantically calculating and marking on the blueprint.

Another master craftsman, as if he had lost his soul, grabbed his twelve braids and yanked them hard!

"ah--!"

He cried out in pain, his voice filled with remorse.

"My God! So this is how runes can be used! An eternal internal conflict to create a high degree of external stability! What a brilliant design!"

They ignored Wang Xuan and Ai Jia, and instead, like a group of fanatical believers, surrounded Mason.

"Child! Quick! Tell us again!!"

"Yes! Biting yourself! Where did this idea come from? How did you even think of it!"

"Are you a prophet sent by the god of forging?!"

Mason was so startled by the sudden enthusiasm that he backed away repeatedly. He never expected that his haphazardly made-up analogy would elicit such a huge reaction.

He looked at Wang Xuan for help.

Wang Xuan gave him a thumbs up, and then, together with Ai Jia and Chen Kai, who were also trying to suppress their laughter, they enjoyed the farce.

They knew it very well.

Whether Mason is smart or not is not important.

The key point is that this is the first time the concept of logical paradox has been proposed in the world.

It directly broke through the solid mental barrier in the dwarven rune system.

Looking at the frenzied scene before him, Commander Brenner broke out in a cold sweat.

He looked at the few calm and composed "divine messengers".

Then I looked at the human apprentice who was surrounded by a group of national treasure-level masters and treated like a precious gem.

For the first time, he felt awe for the potential of the human race.

The technical difficulties have been resolved.

A construction blueprint that combined the wisdom of two civilizations was born after the dwarven masters' fervent optimization efforts.

Brenner took a deep breath. What was happening today would rewrite the history of the dwarves.

He walked up to Wang Xuan and the other three, took a deep breath, and then solemnly knelt down on one knee.

"The wisdom of the divine messenger is like the blazing sun on the mountaintop, illuminating our foolish path."

"To thank you for your revolutionary contributions to our entire rune system..."

"In the name of the Supreme Commander of Blackrock Fortress, I will make an exception and open for you that fortress that has been sealed for a thousand years..."

"【Arsenal of Heroes】!"