I Became The Pope, Now What?

Chapter 713 712. I Absolutely Love Trains

"What!?" Sylvester jumped to his feet. "That makes no sense. Soul Trees are solarium generators, and solarium is a natural deterrent to demonic energies. Do you have any proof or theory confirming that it's possessed?" 

The Saint Seer shook his head, but proposed a possibility. "Your Holiness, we all know the Central Continent's four kingdoms have always been at war. But, beyond that, I've found out that common crimes are also utterly regular there. There is so much deviancy that murder is a word mentioned by every single mouth, at least once every single day. Thievery, rapes, slavery, trafficking, and anything else that you can imagine is a way of life there." 

Silently, Sylvester rubbed his chin and remembered what he had found out in the Darkpit Sea. 'That portal in the sea corrupted the creatures, mutated them, and turned them into monstrosities. Could that also be a… portal?' 

But the fact that it appeared at the place with the most solarium concentration didn't sit well with him. 'Did the demons evolve? Or did they find a way to ignore the repulsion of the solarium?'

"Send a team of official envoys from the Holy Land to confirm the findings. Place the devices on them and keep them under strict supervision. In case they get mentally influenced by the demonic energy, I'll go there personally," Sylvester gave the orders and felt the urgency to act. It was time to visit Nehilius again.

Saint Seer saluted and left right away. "I shall report to you once they reach the Central Continent."

Again, alone, Sylvester looked at Sol's map. 'The Essence of Life is easy to gather, and the Source of Elements can be made with my own hands, but the Source of existence is—the core of a star.'

"WAIT!" Sylvester suddenly thought of something. "The core of the sun is nothing but a fusion reactor. If that's the case, a Solarium-Fusion reaction might be able to substitute the Source of Existence."

Finally, he rolled his sleeves up and decided to get his hands dirty personally. It was time to go and make a reactor with his own hands, alongside his five students, Project Hive.

…

'Where is it? Why are they keeping it so hidden?' 

A dwarf who had accepted the faith of Solis, with a bald head, but a long beard, sneaked around the research and development complex of the Holy Land. He was no intruder and worked there in the metallurgy branch. But today, he had chosen to visit a different warehouse secretly. 

Rummaging through various lockers and papers, he looked for something, but despite his best efforts, only defeated grunts came out of his mouth. His clergy robes turned dirty in doing so, as the grease covered him all over. 

'I have to find it… Otherwise, I will never be able to sleep. Where, where is it?' He muttered to himself the entire time and slowly got careless. 

Thud!

"Who are you?!"

Just then, a voice came, and the dwarf looked behind himself. His heart almost climbed up his throat. It was another human Clergyman, and this one worked in that warehouse. "I… I was looking for the mana—"

"GUARDS! Intruder!" But the human Clergyman ran and rang the alerting bells. In an instant, armored soldiers surrounded the warehouse and entered to arrest the dwarf. 

"A spy?" The Knight Commander declared and pointed his blade. "Surrender, or you will be killed."

"No! I'm not a spy. I'm Uldrac Windpike, an Archpriest. I work in the metallurgy department," the dwarf tried to clarify in surrender. "I'm really not a spy, broth—"

Bam!

But, he received the butt of the sword on his head, knocking him out cold. Whatever they needed to know would be uncovered later in interrogation. 

…

In a different part of the R&D complex, Sylvester worked on the Fusion Reactor with his two Oppenheimers and the five prodigies. Sadly, he was a mechanical engineer in his past life, and beyond that expertise, he couldn't help them with much, other than matters of magic and runes since solarium was the fuel. 

"We have enough Skygem to create reactors and spread light to the entire world, so don't worry about the quantity. Focus on making bigger, more efficient, and more powerful reactors," Sylvester ordered them and stood around a work planning table. 

They were all wearing coveralls, as clergy robes were too troublesome when working. In addition, the multiple pockets helped a lot. 

"Controlling the rate of reaction is the main issue. That's why it exploded the last time we tried. We've already found out the breaking and melting point of the Skygem, so we're good to go. But any runes we place in it, to control the reaction, get destroyed by the fusion," Cardinal Jinn explained the issues hindering the development. 

Sylvester nodded and thought about it. "Maybe Elder Runes can help? I'll have to experiment with it." 

"Why not just make a machine for it?" Emara, the second-ranked IQ talent, voiced. "Why not create a rod from Skygem that's connected to the main core chamber and lets in solarium particles as per the controlled need?" 

"Double chambers in the rod!" Ella interjected. "A container chamber for particles, and then an inlet chamber that will hold the dosage of the particles that need to be inserted. Or else, once the rod's door is opened, the reactor will react with the entire containing chamber." 

'Sounds much better than using Elder Magic, since only I know that. To make the world less reliant on me, I should let them experiment.' Sylvester made up his mind. 

"Go ahead and make it then. Let's do the testing and see if we need to add anything to it. I will focus on making the secondary circuit, turbine, and generators. Considering how massive their size will be, I'll have to teach the metallurgy department how to make them," Sylvester allowed them to work on the reactor part and focused on the mechanical parts that were his specialty. He knew the turbine would need a lot of testing, and the main thing was the efficiency of the reactor. 

Noah, the third-ranked, joined Sylvester's side. "I have some experience in smithing. I worked as a helping hand in the town's workshop. May I join you and learn from you, Your Holiness?" 

'Oh? His mannerism has changed a lot.' Sylvester noticed a nobler attitude from Noah. 

"Good, you can joi—"

Bam!

"Your Holiness, we caught an intruder!" 

Sylvester grunted and looked at the warehouse's door. "About time you came looking for me. I was wondering why nothing happened until now." 

Having lived through so many unpredictable incidents, he was now used to things going wrong and falling onto his head all the time. In fact, nowadays, too much peace feels suspicious. 

"Where?" 

The Knight Commander seriously reported, "It was a dwarf, Your Holiness. He was sneaking around the engine research warehouse during lunchtime." 

"Where is he?" 

"Held at the guard outpost."

Sighing, Sylvester took off the overalls, wearing only his regular robes. "Lead the way, Commander. The rest of you return to work. This doesn't concern you." 

"I wanna see." Ella still followed. 

'Seeking entertainment?' Sylvester thought, but then he remembered something about her. 'Ah, she wants to become the Pope in the future. Seeking knowledge by seeing how I deal with things, I see.' 

"Suit yourself." 

After that, Sylvester followed the men to the guard outpost near the main gates of the special zone under heavy protection. 'How would an intruder even enter? Curious…' Sylvester pondered. 

'Sent by the Dwarven King? But we have such great relations, and he's even a Solis believer.' Sylvester wondered and soon arrived at the large building, then followed to the underground complex of jail cells. 

"There he is, Your Holiness." The Knight Commander stopped in front of a brightly lit cell. "His name is Uldrac Windpike, and he claims to be an Archpriest working in the metallurgy department. We have requested a background check from the office of Saint Wazir."

Sylvester silently looked at the dwarven man sitting inside the jail cell, appearing scared to a degree but still proud. He was bald and had a long red beard, almost reaching his knees. From his facial features, he appeared to be middle-aged at best. 

"Open the cell," Sylvester ordered and stepped inside. "Speak, but only the truth."

The dwarf looked up at Sylvester with big, shining eyes. He was already short, so when he knelt down and clasped his hands, he couldn't even reach Sylvester's waist. "Your Holiness, I'm innocent. I'm not a spy. I was merely looking for the blueprints." 

"That is called spying, my friend." 

"No!" Uldrac refused loudly. "That's false, Your Holiness! I'm just… I absolutely love trains!"

"Trains?" Ella came forward, appearing taller to the kneeling dwarf, which seemed to hurt the poor man's pride as he stood up. "But there are no train blueprints there. Only the engine blueprints are kept there."

"Yes, I want those, miss," Uldrac replied and took an almost fanatic look while speaking. "The heart of the steel beast, running on the tracks with the resounding clangs, oh so beautiful. I sat in it once.

"Your Holiness, I absolutely love trains! I even made new designs to make it faster and stronger, make the carriages as comfortable as possible using the suspension system you designed so many years ago."

'Oh, I know what he is now.' Sylvester rubbed his forehead as he came to realize. 'He's not a spy, but just a… shameless train fanatic.' 

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