Chapter 1361: Morning Light Pool, Distributed Nodes

Without needing Lunaxisi to introduce it, everyone on the boat could already feel the water vapor permeating the air becoming warm.

Xia Duo reached his hand into the water; the water quality in this stretch was slightly worse than over at the Sky Garden, but it was still drinkable. The water temperature was slightly higher than the human body's perceived temperature, but the further down he reached, the more Xia Duo could feel a distinct temperature gradient.

Perhaps the temperature at the very bottom had already far exceeded the normal range of human tolerance.

More importantly, besides the warmth, Xia Duo also discovered that the water contained trace amounts of Positive Energy; if one could drink the water here long-term, it would also be of great benefit for Longevity.

"This is the Morning Light Pool, the most popular natural hot spring for the residents of Evereska. Almost every day, residents, especially children, bathe and play here. If it were daytime, the temperature here would be even higher. Of course, boat traffic is prohibited here during the day."

As she spoke, Lunaxisi pointed to a white marble building outside the granite riverbed and explained to everyone: "You can handle the daytime Permission Level for the Morning Light Pool there, though the Council of Elders has no intention of opening this place to outsiders in the short term."

"..."

Lunaxisi's introduction left Xia Duo speechless. He had originally thought this might be a drinking Water Source, but he hadn't expected it to be just an open-air bathhouse. Fortunately, he hadn't tried to take a sip, or that would have been too distressing.

As the boat moved, the temperature of the water at the same depth did not show any obvious changes. In Xia Duo's view, this situation meant that either there was a very large natural heat source at the bottom of the water, or the water temperature was controlled by the Mythallar.

Clearly, the latter possibility was greater.

If it were the former, one would have to ensure that the distance from the riverbed to the heat source was perfectly consistent; furthermore, whether such a large heat source was safe was still a question.

Lunaxisi had also said that many children came here to play during the day; if the water temperature were to rise suddenly, the children would not have much ability to save themselves.

Perhaps a natural heat source existed, but it was certainly incorporated into the Mythallar's control, utilizing the Mythallar to regulate the heat source's radiation efficiency; in this way, it instead added a stable Mythallar Node.

While observing, Xia Duo pondered; the Mythallar system of Evereska gave him a lot of inspiration.

In the Elven Magic System, it is generally believed that the fewer the nodes of a Mythallar, the higher its quality; the highest skill of a Mythallar is to have no nodes at the material level at all, entirely achieved by the Magic Net itself.

But here in Evereska, Xia Duo could see several suspected Mythallar Node existences. The reason for such an arrangement might be because Evereska's magical strength is insufficient.

Yet, because of this, Xia Duo associated it with distributed networks on Earth; a single-node or low-node-count Mythallar, once destroyed, easily causes chaos in core functions.

If the nodes were increased and dispersed to form a distributed structure, could it prevent the loss of Mythallar nodes from affecting the use of core functions until a certain degree of damage was reached?

It should be feasible.

After all, Mythallar Nodes are merely areas where Mythallar energy interaction is relatively concentrated; in reality, the main body of a Mythallar should be the Magic Net itself, which is the fundamental reason why Mythallars without material nodes can exist.

As the boat traveled, the group soon arrived at the other side of what was called the 【Morning Light Pool】, which was actually a small-to-medium-sized lake. Here, the Manda River split into two waterways heading downstream.

However, upon reaching this point, Lunaxisi did not seek the opinions of Xia Duo and the others in advance and decided on her own to steer the boat toward the waterway heading east.

Regarding this, Angelin quickly felt something was wrong. He pointed to the other waterway that had already fallen behind and asked Lunaxisi:

"Ms. Lunaxisi, where does that waterway lead? Why didn't we take that path just now?"

"Apologies, everyone, this question is not within the scope of my answers. Additionally, I do not have the passage Permission Level for that waterway, so please forgive me. Next, we will pass through Shuguang Taidi, which is also the venue for tomorrow's ceremony."

Failing to get an answer from Lunaxisi, Angelin was clearly somewhat displeased, but he didn't say anything, and as for the others, they were even less likely to say anything.

Under these circumstances, Xia Duo naturally would not deliberately show his differences, nor did he say much. In fact, when entering this eastern waterway, he had noticed that the Positive Energy in the water was rapidly fading.

He guessed that the waterway heading south might lead to a source of Positive Energy, and that source might also be a Mythallar Node, and a more important one than the two core nodes encountered previously.

They wouldn't even let outsiders take a look!

After the Morning Light Pool, Angelin and the others finally realized that while following Lunaxisi might allow them to quickly browse all of Evereska, those were all things Evereska specifically left for them to see; more areas were actually not open to outsiders.

Xia Duo had understood this principle long ago. He was very clear that as long as one was within the range of a Mythallar, others had plenty of ways to restrict them.

Unless one could deceive the Mythallar, even if one went out to wander alone, what one saw would most likely be "image projects" prepared by others in advance.

Furthermore, as humans coming to an Elven city, how much of the Reality could they understand in just a day or a few days?

Even for Xia Duo, who had incarnated as an Elf many times in the Projection Plane, he still felt a sense of complete unfamiliarity with Evereska after arriving.

"Shuguang Taidi has arrived!"

"Since it is the venue for tomorrow's ceremony, why don't we go up and take a look! Ms. Lunaxisi, there won't be any more restrictions over at Shuguang Taidi, right?" Angelin said with implication.

"Of course not. There are no restrictions at Shuguang Taidi. Since you all wish to see it, then let's go ashore!"

As she spoke, Lunaxisi steered the boat to the shore. By the shore was a circular plaza, which seemed to correspond to the cross-section of the mountain where Evereska was located.

In the center of the plaza was a circular platform about two feet higher than the plaza; this was the "Shuguang Taidi" that Lunaxisi spoke of. It occupied quite a large area, essentially a small plaza itself.

Of course, the plaza here was called "Dawn Plaza".

At this time, the area around the plaza was already hung with long colorful ribbons and flags of various colors, and even more so with fresh flowers, greenery, wind chimes, and Gemstone as decorations.

As for the platform, only the intricate gold and silver patterns on the ground looked like decorations; everything else was quite plain.

However, Xia Duo knew that the cost of this platform was likely many times higher than the value of all the fresh flowers, greenery, and even the Gemstone and ornaments on the periphery.

This so-called "Shuguang Taidi" was essentially a supporting facility specifically prepared for a Ritual Spell.

If nothing went wrong, tomorrow's signing ceremony would likely be realized in the form of a Ritual Spell, rather than just a theatrical trick.

This was consistent with the consistent traditions of the Elves; as long as conditions permitted, anything could be linked to a Ritual Spell.

For example, marriage; the highest-spec wedding in Elven society is a marriage contract ceremony (Spell) presided over by a High Mage.

Another example is an Apprentice's enrollment, which also has a specific "Master-Apprentice Ritual".

This time, for the Northern Alliance to specifically hold a signing ceremony was perfectly normal.