Chapter 590 - 586 – THE SECRET PROJECT ON THE BORDER AND THE GOLDEN DRAGON’S LIFE AS A MINERAL DETECTOR

The next day, the morning sun had just begun radiating its warm and bright light over Falling Star City, the capital of the Southern Star Province that had now undergone a radical transformation under the leadership of the First Princess Hua Zhaoyue.

In one of the remote pavilions located at the farthest rear of the governor’s residence, a closed area specially surrounded by absolute sound-isolation formations and magical shields, Sylvia began taking real steps on her grand plan. In the middle of that spacious and silent room, her Hologram Bracelet was set in continuous projection mode (always-on video call). The long-distance spatial connection stretching across continents for more than 500,000 kilometers remained actively linked without interruption, displaying the face of Stacia at the other end, who stood inside the Nocture alchemy laboratory amid piles of spatial-temporal magic formula scrolls.

"All right, Stacia. The connection is stable. Let’s begin calibrating the spatial anchor at this mainland coordinate point," Sylvia said while floating her right hand in the air, projecting a complex spatial-magic energy matrix.

"Excellent, Sylvia!" Stacia answered through the hologram screen with eyes sparkling full of enthusiasm, her fingers immediately dancing rapidly across her magic console in Nocture. "I’m monitoring the coordinate fluctuations from here in real-time. Make sure the anchor crystal you plant doesn’t shift even a single millimeter, or we risk tearing the spatial membrane into the abyss of emptiness!"

The secret project to construct the intercontinental teleportation gate stretching more than 500,000 kilometers officially began. Sylvia, with her mastery of high-level magic, worked in perfect synchronization with the fallen-angel scientist at the opposite end of the continent.

While Sylvia was busy assembling spatial formulas inside the closed pavilion, outside, Falling Star City was undergoing a total metamorphosis under the leadership of the First Princess Hua Zhaoyue.

Zhaoyue truly utilized the moment of the massive cleanup following the public execution of the ten corrupt officials in the plaza with brilliant effectiveness. For years, the main problem that had made this border city look squalid, dirty, and backward had been the massive budget embezzlement by the old mayor’s regime. Yet now, after all the illicit wealth of the corruptors had been confiscated into the state treasury, Zhaoyue suddenly held an "extremely abundant" emergency fund.

Almost not a single copper from the central palace in the capital was spent. The entire cost of the city’s restructuring and renovation was purely financed using the piles of gold coins, gems, and valuable goods seized from the homes of those corrupt officials.

Under Zhaoyue’s direct command, the border city was transformed within a matter of days. Construction worker squads and earth-element mages were mobilized on a massive scale. The dilapidated and filthy squatter houses along the wall outskirts were systematically demolished and replaced by proper, clean, and neatly arranged residential housing. The city streets that had previously been filled with thick mud, animal waste, and dirty water puddles were now excavated, leveled, and resurfaced using dense black magical asphalt material that was solid, smooth, and resistant to the heavy loads of horse carts or combat vehicles.

Not only that, but Zhaoyue also ordered a major renewal and reinforcement of the city’s defensive fortress walls. Using high-quality black stone reinforced with magical metal plates, the walls of Falling Star City now appeared far more magnificent, taller, and more solid, providing an absolute sense of security for the hundreds of thousands of citizens living within.

Amid her extraordinarily dense busyness from morning until afternoon, circulating through the city supervising construction, signing bureaucratic documents, and listening to the people’s aspirations, Zhaoyue occasionally glanced toward the pavilion where Sylvia resided.

As a First Princess, Zhaoyue was fully aware of the limits of her knowledge about her friend. In Zhaoyue’s eyes, Sylvia was an extraordinarily powerful Rank 7 mage and Tamer, mysterious, and possessing combat ability far above the average human. Zhaoyue did not know and indeed had never been told that Sylvia was actually a Demigod who originated the Authority of Absolute Death. To Zhaoyue, Sylvia remained a friend as well as the strongest protector with Rank 7 power equivalent to a natural disaster.

Because of the extremely high level of trust and respect Zhaoyue held for Sylvia, she never felt suspicious or intended to interfere with the secret affairs Sylvia was working on inside the pavilion. Zhaoyue trusted Sylvia completely; she knew that whatever her friend was currently doing, the purpose was certainly for the good of their territory. If Sylvia needed something, Zhaoyue was ready to assist with all the resources of the city.

However, a real technical obstacle soon appeared in the middle of the spatial-gate construction process.

Inside the closed pavilion, Sylvia furrowed her brow upon seeing the energy readings on her anchor crystal.

"Stacia, we’re facing a material bottleneck," Sylvia said through the hologram video-call connection. "Our spatial matrix is lacking pure metal conductors to stabilize the long-distance wave anchors. We need a large supply of pure mithril."

At the other end, Stacia let out a long breath while scratching her head. "Pure mithril? Ah, true enough. The mainland of the Tianhua Kingdom is extremely poor in high-grade noble mineral reserves. Most of the mines here only produce ordinary iron ore or low-quality mana crystals. Pure mithril is only abundant in special geological regions such as the Lumina ruins or the core mountains on our original continent."

Sylvia fell silent for a moment. If they had to wait for a conventional shipment of pure mithril supplies from the original continent of Nocture, it would take months and risk triggering suspicion from the capital palace factions of Tianhua if a large mineral cargo crossed without official permission.

In that case, we have to find it ourselves in the belly of this mainland, Sylvia thought firmly.

Exactly at that moment, the pavilion door opened casually, and Sol, who had returned to the form of a smooth golden-furred cat, walked in while yawning widely, followed by Noir behind it with lazy steps.

Sylvia regarded the golden cat, then a brilliant idea flashed through her mind. She knew perfectly well the unique characteristics of pure dragon races. Although Sol appeared like a lazy cat that loved sleeping on silk pillows and eating delicious food, the sense of smell, spiritual instinct, and natural sensitivity of a Golden Dragon toward the presence of treasures, noble minerals, and pure metal energy far surpassed any human-made magical detection tool in this world.

"Stacia, I’m turning off the bracelet projection for a while. I have to go mineral hunting," Sylvia said briefly.

"Go ahead, Queen. Don’t forget to bring me a few rock samples if you find an interesting mineral vein!" Stacia replied before Sylvia pressed the button and shut off the hologram connection on her bracelet.

Sylvia crouched in front of Sol, who was stretching all four of its legs. She gently patted the golden cat’s chin with full persuasion.

"Hey, Sol. Time to work," Sylvia whispered with a meaningful smile. "We need a pure mithril mine on this mainland. And that noble nose of yours is the only treasure map we have right now."

Sol snorted softly, regarding its master with its round golden eyes as if wanting to protest why it, a sacred great dragon, was always turned into a "tracker." Yet seeing the red-and-gold gaze of Sylvia that implied refusal was not an option, the Golden Dragon finally sighed in mental resignation and meowed softly as a sign of agreement.

Not long afterward, Sylvia left the pavilion and met Zhaoyue, who was resting in the governor’s office together with several young city bureaucrats.

"Zhaoyue," Sylvia greeted, stepping in gracefully while wearing her silver travel cloak.

Zhaoyue immediately looked up from the pile of highway-asphalt budget reports, smiling warmly and full of affection toward her friend. "Ah, Sylvia! You’ve finally come out of your secret cage. Is your Rank 7 magic experiment going smoothly? Is there anything you need for your research? Just say the word, "I’ll mobilize the entire city’s material-search teams to help you!"

"Actually, yes, I need a little help," Sylvia answered honestly with a thin smile. "I need a rare mineral called pure mithril in a fairly large quantity for my magic project. Unfortunately, there is no mithril mine in this city or in the surrounding territories of the Tianhua Kingdom."

Zhaoyue furrowed her brow, thinking seriously for a moment. "Pure mithril? Ah... true. The alchemy elders in the capital palace always say that mithril is a sacred metal that can only be found in the buried ruins of ancient civilizations or wild mountains never touched by humans. Our territory has many mana crystal mines and iron ore, but pure mithril mines... There seems to be no official record of that in the royal archives."

"Relax, I’m not asking for official records from your kingdom," Sylvia said casually, waving her hand. "Sol and I will search for it ourselves in the wilderness outside the city borders. The nose of my little golden cat has a natural talent for smelling precious metals from a long distance."

Hearing Sylvia refer to the great golden dragon as a "little golden cat," Zhaoyue almost choked on her own saliva. She glanced toward Sol, who was sitting near Sylvia’s feet, staring out the window with an expression that looked extremely gloomy, as if the dignity of a great being was being slowly trampled upon.

"V-Very well if that is your decision, Sylvia," Zhaoyue said in a slightly awkward tone, holding back her laughter. "But be careful out there. Although you cleaned the Forest of Death a few days ago, the wild mainland beyond the borders of the Southern Star Province is still extremely vast, rugged, and filled with natural anomalies and unexpected wild monsters."

"Don’t worry. With my ability as a Rank 7 mage, there is nothing on this mainland that can injure me, Zhaoyue," Sylvia answered with a smile full of confidence that made Zhaoyue feel extremely safe.

Without wasting any more time, Sylvia lifted Sol into her arms, called Noir to follow from behind in its black-cat form, and left Falling Star City through the northern gate.

Outside the city, under the clear sky of the southern mainland that stretched widely, the new adventure of the Queen of Death together with the golden-furred mineral detector officially began. Relying on Sol’s sharp sense of smell that could detect the energy resonance of noble metals from hundreds of kilometers away, they shot through rugged mountains and hidden valleys, searching for the pure mithril veins hidden in the belly of the Tianhua mainland.