Hearing Pittman's words, Amber subconsciously glanced at Gao Wen, who took the initiative to say, "I can avoid it - if you don't want others to hear it."

"No, I don't care," Amber shook his head. "You have a good brain, and there will always be unexpected insights. I want you to be there, and this note...you can also read it."

Gao Wen looked at Amber silently, without shirking, but just nodded slightly.

It was not suitable to dig out these secret memories by the fountain. The three left the overly lively courtyard. In a lounge on the first floor of the Silver Fort, Amber solemnly placed the note on the table, and carefully opened its worn and fragile cover in front of Gowen and Pittman.

There are no patterns or heralds on the inner page, and there are no common patterns in most noble handwritten books of this era. On that yellowed paper, there are only a simple sentence:

"Give my daughter--I hope you have grown up happily and safely when you see it."

"It's still so much nonsense..." Amber pursed her lips, but the movements on her hands were more careful than before, and slowly opened the first page.

This is a diary, a diary written in special circumstances:

“…The third day of entering Shadow Fortress.

"As a Royal Film Guard, I should not leave any written information in the process of performing confidential tasks. This is a violation of the confidentiality rules, but the current situation is special and I may not be able to safely leave here. In order to leave warnings and experience for later generations, I decided to record part of my trip.

"My name is Surrey Randolph, a royal shadow guard. I was ordered to come to the dark mountains in the southern border to find ancient heritage in this abandoned land by man and gods.

“I was unfortunately trapped in this place called Shadow Fortress, which I believe is the burial place of ancient heritage…

“…According to the information we have mastered in advance, Shadow Fortress is not located in the real world we are familiar with. It is a territory opened up by the ancient Gondor Empire in the Shadow World through superb lost technology. It floats outside the present world, but it does not establish a stable connection with the Shadow World. It is a free space that can only be entered through specific gates and rituals…

"A part of my intelligence is correct. There is indeed a space node leading to the Shadow Fortress in the Dark Mountains. I successfully entered here at this node when I initiated the ceremony, but the error in the intelligence is that the "Shadow Seal Ring" used to open the door is a one-time - or in other words, I can't find a way to recharge it.

"His Majesty the King gave me one of the two rings in his hand. Obviously, he did not expect that this ring could only be used once when opening the Shadow Fortress."

After only reading these few paragraphs, Amber couldn't help but look up at Gao Wen, who also looked up.

"Shadow Seal Ring..." Amber subconsciously held a thin chain hanging around his neck. Two simple-shaped rings were hanging on the necklace. One of them still had magical glory, while the other was dull.

The ring with magical brilliance was obtained from Frances II, and the dull ring was carried by Amber since childhood. Now, the origin of these two rings has finally been explained.

She lowered her head and continued to look at the follow-up content of the diary:

"... Despite being trapped in it, I still have to admire the superb technology of the ancient Gondor Empire. Shadow Fortress is an unimaginable place - the process of entering the fortress is incredible. I stood at the correct intersection of magic powers in the Dark Mountains, and just injected magic into the ring, I could open a door to the shadow world in normal time and space. I suspected that the ring only sent a signal in this process. The real door opening process was completed by some facility of the Shadow Fortress, but I have not yet found a clue...

“… This magnificent building is made of some artificial material, stronger than rock, floating in nothingness, with no land connected around it. There is no glowing celestial bodies in the sky here, which is consistent with the scene described by the monographs in the Shadow Realm…

"My current location should be in the vestibule of this ancient facility. I can see a gate, and outside the gate is purely vain darkness, which makes people inevitably doubt the significance of the appearance of this gate - but I found some strange pillars on the platform with a limited range in front of the gate. I suspect that they are used to fix some kind of transportation, or to fix some mounts that can travel through the shadow world. The ancient Gondors may have the ability to explore in depth in that vain darkness, after all, they are all Gondors...

"On the other end of the courtyard is the main body of the building, a huge palace or fortress. I have explored a small area at its entrance. Its scale shocked me, with countless corridors and rooms, empty halls and warehouses... I can't imagine how many people worked and lived in this facility in a different space... It was so large that I doubted that many people could live here for the rest of their lives. If a newborn was born here, as long as no one instilled the correct knowledge in it, he might not even know the existence of the outside world...

"Ah, my rich association ability can only be used to relieve boredom, and it cannot allow me to go out of this damn place."

Amber flipped the paper pages, and in the quiet lounge only the sound of paper turning and the sound of the three people breathing slowly.

“…The fourth day of being trapped.

“I have been thinking for the previous three days whether I should explore the deeper depths of the fortress, which may mean additional risks: the defense mechanisms in ancient facilities may still be working, and more likely that sleeping remains guards would wake me up.

"It is said that the puppet guards of the Violet Kingdom can last for six hundred years after their master's death, and the legendary Gondor Iron Man soldiers may be able to run longer...

"But I should probably take some risks - I have been searching for the courtyard and the outer corridor for three days, and there is no device to open the space door, and my food and drinking have reached a very dangerous situation, between thirst and starving and being cut off by ancient guards, who may be more kind.

“I’m going into the inner corridor.

“…on the sixth day, I was still trapped.

"Why is this damn fortress so big!! How many corridors, rooms, and halls does it have? Did the Gondor people throw people from a city into the shadow world?

"How superb the technology of the Gondor Empire is. They can build such a fortress in the shadow world. They can allow thousands of people to live in this alien space for a long time. But I, a royal shadow guard from thousands of years later, can only drill around in this ancient facility and can't find any clues. This is really ironic.

“By the way, I had finished drinking water and the food was exhausted.

“On the seventh day, I found an empty room, which was probably some kind of research facility before, and I saw some platforms with runes and pipes that didn’t seem to be effective, and unfortunately, all the pipes and containers were not water.

“I have to start thinking about the funeral.

"On the eighth day, today's keyword is moss.

"Yes, moss! In this fortress that has been isolated from the world for thousands of years, there is actually moss! In places like the Shadow Realm, there is moss!

"They grew in a room that looked like a laboratory, where there were a lot of large tubular containers fixed to the ground, all empty, but the outer walls of one of the containers and the nearby walls were covered with these cute little plants. Just like everything else in the Shadow World, these mosses were so gray-black that I almost confused them with ordinary stains at the beginning, and thankfully, I stayed in this room for a little longer...

“The appearance of moss means moisture, and moisture means water.

"The moss tastes a bit bitter, and there is also a weird taste, like a gelatinous texture. They may not be of any benefit to my health, but I can't care about so many. Without these mosses, I'm afraid I will never have to care about my health problems within a few days.

"Moss restored me some physical strength, and the moisture they contained was also enough to inspire my spirit, but this amount of moisture was obviously not enough to maintain long-term survival. I collected all the moss from a nearby pipe, squeezed out the juice and put it into the kettle. I wanted to take this little supply and start exploring the surrounding rooms with this room as the center.

"On the ninth day, I didn't find the water, but I... saw a figure!

"I couldn't use words to record my shock at that moment. I saw a figure, but the figure flashed through the corner of the room... I wasn't sure if it was true.

“Does those mosses contain hallucinogenic ingredients? But I have to rely on them to survive…

"On the tenth day, I found water! In a place where people eat, one of the pipes could flow out of water! And it was clear water! I think I could live here for a long time!

"Does the emergence of these clean water mean that some kind of purification device here is still running? Are there more devices running?"

Amber looked at every line of text records on it seriously, biting her lips unconsciously, as if she watched her adoptive father exploring hard in such an isolated ancient fortress and maintaining his survival. After seeing Surrey Randolph finding the water source, she couldn't help but exclaim softly: "He may have found a canteen that can still be used..."

Gao Wen nodded slightly from the side, and whispered: "I'm even more curious about what the figure he saw."

"He mentioned it here-" Amber turned the page, glanced at it and pointed to the content above:

“…I saw a figure again, and more than one, this time I can confirm that it was not an illusion, but what happened next made me even more stunned and confused.

“Those figures are ‘shadow residents’.

"They were as ghostly as they were, wrapped in human form by some kind of ragged 'shrub', and they were free to travel through the shadow world, and obviously noticed me, the uninvited guest who broke into it.

"I was ready for the battle, but the battle did not happen - all academic records say that Shadowmen will attack all the material creatures that broke into the Shadow World, but those Shadowmen just stared at me coldly. I can be sure that they were watching, although there was only empty darkness in those 'shrubs'...

“After the unbearable confrontation, the Shadow Inhabitants left and there was no communication between us.

"I have no idea what's going on."

Amber frowned. She also felt that the shadow residents she had encountered were a bit strange, but she could not explain it. She had to put these questions in her heart and continue to look down—

On a new page, Surrey Randolph's text continues to record his experience in the Shadow Fortress:

“…On the fourteenth day, I found a room where some devices in this room are still running.

"I find it difficult to describe exactly what I see, which is beyond my knowledge - around a huge pillar, I see a large number of light yellow translucent ovate containers fixed to each bracket, and those ovate containers are roughly the size of an adult cow...

“There are a lot of pipes that extend from that large strut and connect to the surrounding ovate containers.

"Almost all containers were broken, broken, crooked, and dropped to the ground, and the contents inside were dried up, and in those damaged containers, I saw many small corpses.

"This made me shudder - as a royal shadow guard, I have seen many miserable scenes and many death scenes, but the small corpses in those containers are more strange and terrifying than those I have seen. This makes me wonder what the Gondor people were doing here back then?

“I checked the room with shock and tension and found her.

"The only complete container, the only living individual.

"She curled up in some kind of liquid, floating in a translucent crystal container, all of which looked like a piece of amber.

"I can't describe my mood at this moment, and what makes me even more at a loss is that these crystal containers are exactly the same as the target items described in the mission, which means... the 'thing' in the container is the 'ancient heritage' I want to bring back.

"My task can be completed, but only if I have to find a way out, and I have to take this container that makes people unable to start - if I open it rashly, will the little girl inside die directly? This is a very tricky thing."

Amber's eyes stared at the page in front of her. Even though she had read the contents of this page, she still did not turn to the next page. It was not until a minute later that Gao Wen gently patted her shoulder.

Amber woke up, then took a deep breath and turned over this page-

“…On the fifteenth day, I hadn’t figured out what to do, but suddenly I realized that it was useless to think: I was still stuck here.

"It's really a delusional to think about completing tasks that a person who can't even go out alive.

“I will put the problem that cannot be solved right now and focus again on finding a way out.

"Considering that for a long time, the only one who could accompany me was the little guy in Amber, I gave her a name, Amber.

"But I guess she should have another name - every ovate container here is engraved with a line of letters, and each container has a slightly different letter. They may be the real name (although I also doubt whether the Gondor scholars who worked here would really name a batch of experimental works), but it was an ancient Gondor text a thousand years ago, which is very different from the common alphabet today, and my ancient writing knowledge happens to be a weakness.

"I can only describe these letters. If one day I can really go out alive, perhaps the scholars of the royal capital can answer my doubts and let me understand the real name of this little guy, or at least understand what the Gondor people called her back then."

At the end of this page, Surrey Randolph left a large blank space. In that blank space, he used bold font to draw a line of letters that few people could understand in this era.

Amber stared at the line of letters, and then raised her head for a moment before looking into Gao Wen's eyes: "What do these letters... mean? What was my original name?"

Gao Wen withdrew his gaze from the letters. He looked at Amber silently for four or five seconds, and finally let out a soft sigh and slowly spoke:

“Man-Made No. 36.”
Chapter completed!