Two years and one month after David's "launch into the sky" from the Anauroch Great Desert in Ferren, he awoke from his suspended sleep for the first time. Before him lay the purest body of water amidst the sea of stars, tranquil like a colorful marble resting on a dark tabletop.
This was also the first gravitational slingshot acceleration point he had reached—Carpei.
Thus, the glyphs on David's body slowly lit up at his will, and six crimson beams erupted from his wings, propelling him towards Carpei with increased speed.
As he drew nearer, he finally got a first-person view of this landless yet stunningly pure planet. Its entire surface displayed three distinct colors: icy polar regions, the azure of the middle latitudes, and the verdant green of the equatorial Sargassum belt.
"Too bad I don't have time to explore and linger here," he thought.
According to unearthed ancient books from Neisser, in the early days of stellar development, some artists were idle enough to embark on long voyages just to meticulously paint its exquisite scenery. One such painting was even auctioned for an astronomical price by the Serenity People, who might have been an embodiment of Suren.
The Toriel star system wasn't as 'lonely' as the universe where Blue Star lay. Even on such an extreme planet, a diverse range of predators lived atop its miles-thick ice sheets, though their intelligence was relatively limited.
CLICK. Without expressing any particular emotion, David once again used Spell Illusion to 'photograph' it and sent the image back to Toriel, now 500 million kilometers away.
On the seventh day, having completed his acceleration via the gravitational slingshot orbit around Carpei and about to enter the second phase of suspended sleep, he unexpectedly received a reply from Toriel:
"A perfect piece of art, how I wish I could roam the starry sea with you... it's just a pity I cannot..."
Seeing this verbose 'parental-style' sentence, David instantly knew it was Magic Messaging from Dragon Dad himself.
Normally, he and Tania would steer clear whenever they heard Dragon Dad start spewing that 'pseudo-intellectual middle-age whining,' unable to bear his 'bourgeois, sickly sentimentality.' But for some reason, perhaps due to the different circumstances he was in, David felt an inexplicable emotion welling up inside him. He instinctively wanted to chat with his old father for a while, though he soon abandoned this impractical idea.
This magic world was different from Blue Star. Without radio wave transmission, he could only briefly communicate with his father and others on Toriel when nearing celestial bodies. Even this communication was limited by the transmission of Magic Power.
In other words, during his journey, there was only this brief period of a few days when he had the opportunity to exchange messages with Toriel.
As his voyage took him farther and farther, this connection would become increasingly difficult and, eventually, impossible to maintain.
Then he saw in the Telepathy:
"Regarding the tagging conundrum you've raised and based on your mother Pafila's 'Quantum Dot Ink,' I have found the alchemical direction. I will catch up with your journey. Wishing you a fair wind."
When he saw this message, David was stunned—what on earth was Quantum Dot Ink? In his previous life, he had only heard of research fields like quantum communication and quantum computers.
But he immediately remembered some literature he had casually read during university, confirming that some semiconductors exhibited quantum size effects between 2 to 10 nanometers, though exactly why was unknown.
Mom, you truly are my super Dragon! David thought with deep emotion.
Compared to himself, who sat on a treasure mountain but didn't know how to utilize it, Pafila, the academic overachiever, was the real defy-the-heavens existence in this world.
Then, as David was about to distance himself from Carpei, he hurriedly transmitted a list of precursor materials from his memory—materials that could possibly be used to synthesize quantum dots—back to Toriel.
Only after sending the Telepathy did he suddenly realize.
Wait a minute! Even if Attilicia did manage to 'alchemize' this substance into being, without having seen the actual material and being unaware of its specific properties, how could he, no matter his Arrogance, 'conjure' anything from it?
At this thought, David, who usually maintained a Mind like Still Water, became unsettled.
「Toriel, Ghost Soul City.」
Attilicia had just recorded the material list telepathically sent by David, but she couldn't muster a smile on her face.
It wasn't that there were problems on Toriel's side. Their flying fortress had landed in the Anauroch Great Desert, an area lacking any relatively powerful forces. Moreover, they had kept to themselves within the city, displaying no aggression. Consequently, as of now, the surrounding regions had fallen silent. This happened after the sentries dispatched by various factions to scout them—much like that red-robed bald man—had all 'vanished into thin air.'
Attilicia knew this was probably due to the historical deterrence of Neisser's Sky City. Furthermore, the Dragon Queen's other arrangements had drawn the attention of the gods of Toriel and other powers. The return of this Sky City to its homeland, by comparison, seemed to have become the most 'normal' historical event.
The real trouble lay with their homeland, Elariya.
Just recently, she had received news from Drow Hiatt through a soul link with the Elf Yevgeny:
Compared to them, the fake immigrants posing as Neisser people, the High Elves of the New Continent in Elariya, under the leadership of Queen Arasya from the Eternal Gathering Island of Toriel, seemed to have real plans to return to the Old Continent and rebuild the Dewensen Empire.