Chapter 17: Ancient Technology

The heroes had barely walked out of the city when an orc rushed out of the trees and ran toward them, his axe drawn. Tariel drew his sword and got ready to fight. The orc swung his axe down, but Tariel stepped away from the blow and swung his new sword, killing the orc in one blow. He picked up the loot and put it in the matter-compression device.

"Wow, this new sword is really powerful. They don't call it a Sword of Destruction for nothing." When he looked at the ground, he found that the corpse of the dead orc had disappeared. "Why do you think this is?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Artalax. "Normally I would think it's probably just some microscopic biological scavengers with a hyper-accelerated metabolism, but I definitely detected a temporal distortion field."

"You really do watch too much Star Trek."

"No, I was just – uh – wait, I think there's another monster coming!"

Several hundred monsters later…

Tariel saw an unusual object in the field in front of him. It was an ornate pole, about one and a half meters high, on top of which was a crackling orb. About every ten seconds, a lightning bolt would shoot out of the orb in a seemingly random direction. The bolts extended far away from his range of sight, so he couldn't see where they landed. "What is this?" he said.

"You know, you can just read the label," said Artalax.

"You mean there's a label?"

"Yes, there is," Artalax said, pointing out the label affixed to the pole. "TRX-900 temporal reflection device, Kalmeth Industries. I know what you're about to say, and I didn't just make that up."

"Wait. You said this is made by Kalmeth Industries? Isn't he the bad guy? You mean this is the Evil Bad Guy's Diabolical Device? Is this what we're supposed to destroy?"

"No," Artalax said. "Look at the other label. 'Property of the Department of Monster Control. Do not remove. Violators will be prosecuted.' And it looks like it's locked in place anyway."

Suddenly a much bigger lightning bolt shot out of the orb. When the heroes turned to look in its direction, they saw a gigantic ogre-looking creature appear out of nowhere and start running towards them.

"It's too powerful. Run!" Artalax shouted.

Later…

While running away from the ogre, Tariel saw what appeared to be ancient ruins – of what, he didn't know – off to the right. "Let's go over there!" he shouted. "We might be able to hide!"

Tariel, Artalax, and Talia turned and started running towards the ruins, aiming for an opening that looked like it led downward. There was no way the ogre would fit through the opening, so if they could make it there they would be safe. They ran with all their might and managed to rush in through the opening, the ogre himself slamming into the wall. The ogre staggered back and walked away.

"That was close," said Tariel.

"You sure are a coward," said Talia.

"What do you mean, a coward? If we hadn't run away we might all have been killed!" said Tariel.

"What I mean is, you won't even face any real danger. You're like every single other hero I've met. You say you're all heroic, but you flinch every time there's actual danger. The only bad guys you fight are guys that are so weak they pose no threat."

"Well, what do you expect? That ogre was level 25! That's more than twice our level!" said Artalax.

"Yeah.," said Tariel. "And, Talia, if what we do isn't heroic, then what is? You know, this is our job. And if we were to take too many risks, we adventurers would be dead before you know it and then there would be nobody to save princesses like you."

"Heroism is about self-sacrifice," said Talia. "Putting yourself at risk for the common good. It's not just about going around, killing monsters, completing the quests, and getting all the nice loot. It's about something more than that. It's about putting others before yourself."

"I'll think about that," said Tariel. "But for some reason, I do have a weird feeling that there's going to be a flashback scene and it's going to flash back to just that line you just said. I don't know why, it's just a hunch."

"Anyway," Talia said, "is this our quest destination? Or do we have to go somewhere else yet again?"

"This isn't our destination, but I have a sense there's a clue somewhere in here," said Artalax. "Let's check it out."

Several hours later…

"What did you find," asked Tariel.

"I found some ancient documents. I think the information they hold is crucial.

"What information?"

"This appears to be the ruins of an ancient magical research laboratory. They were developing technology that surpasses anything we have today."

"Wait a second. Ancient technology is more advanced than modern technology? Is that what you're saying?"

"I think so, based on these documents."

"But wait a second. Carpathia's technology is more modern than Altaria's, and it's also more advanced. So technology must be increasing with time. Is it increasing, or decreasing? This is confusing."
"Well, we can plot this on a graph. So at the beginning, during the time of the Ancients, the technology was advanced. Then, the technology becomes primitive again, and after that, when we get to modern technology, which is advanced, but not as advanced as the Ancients."

"I get it," said Tariel. "So technological development follows a parabolic curve."

"I suppose that would be correct."

"Yes, that's what I thought, but I wasn't really sure. Prince Arthanis was really confusing when he tried to explain it."

"Well, now you understand."

"So, what exactly does this ancient technology do?"

"The most interesting piece of technology I found is in this document," said Artalax, holding up a large piece of parchment showing the plans for a complicated device. "Apparently, this device can actually create a gravimetric singularity."

"Yes, but what does it do?

"In layman's term's, it pokes a hole in the fabric of space-time."

"I know that. What does it DO?"

"Oh, you want practical applications?", said Artalax. "Well, once you create the singularity, you can use it to create portals between the vicinity of the singularity and just about anywhere else in the world."

"But we've already seen that they have portal technology. How is this different?"

"Several things. First of all, the portals are self-sustaining, and don't require any additional energy input once created. And also, you can create as many portals as you want out of one singularity. And one more thing: the portals can't be moved once created."

Tariel thought about his. "I see. So if someone were to build this thing, he could create portals to every region of Altaria in minutes. And nobody would be able to cast a spell to move the portals, so we couldn't do what we did 400 years ago. There would be no way to stop it."

"What do you mean, 400 years ago?" interrupted Princess Talia.

"Don't interrupt our scene," said Tariel. "You're not supposed to be in this scene. And to answer your question, it was explained way back in chapter one."

"I knew that," said Talia. "What I meant was, if it was 400 years ago back in chapter 1, it should be 400 years and three months by now."

"Just deal with it," Tariel said. "You don't think those ancient legends are accurate anyway, do you?"

"I never did," said Talia. "You followed the ancient legend and look at the mess you've got us in."

Tariel turned back to Artalax. "Were you about to say something?"

"I was going to say you were right," said Artalax. "Imagine what could happen if a bad guy got his hands on this. They could create the portals to Altaria, immediately create a mass exodus. There's nothing anyone could do to stop it."

"Well, let's just hope the bad guys don't get it."

"One more thing," said Artalax.

"What?"

"All these documents I found are carbon copies. That means the originals have been stolen."

"What!?" said Tariel. "Did you just say they have carbon paper technology?!"

Almost immediately, the ground began to shake,

"The ground's shaking," said Tariel. "There must be a main boss coming."

A voice came from apparently out of nowhere.

"Defense system activated."

Everyone paused, waiting for what would come next. The voice spoke again.

"Do not be alarmed. You are about to be attacked by a giant robot. This might be a good time to run away if you do not want to get killed."

"Everybody run!" they all shouted in unison.