Golden Dragon: Six Thousand Years of Empire

"If you hand over the blueprints to me, the remnants of your civilization might still have a chance to see the light of day. But hiding like this, tell me, what does it mean?

Look at what you've created! You call this junk a Giant God Weapon; don't you feel ashamed? If your ancestors could see what you've become today, they would probably scold you as wild goblins and wouldn't even consider you their descendants."

Noah's words at this moment were as sharp as swords, piercing deeply into the old goblin's heart.

Indeed, even within the same era and in the same world, they viewed those akin, surviving in the wild, as wild goblins. So the ancestors living during the Radiant Era would likely view their present state with similar disdain, perhaps even greater contempt.

"This isn't junk, it's just an unfinished Giant God Weapon!"

Despite Noah's overwhelming threat, a young goblin engineer dared to argue back, resisting. After all, this Giant God Weapon was the culmination of the hard work of thousands of engineers over hundreds of years.

Some engineers went underground after earning their title, never to see daylight again, just to advance the completion of the Giant God Weapon by even a little.

"A Giant God Weapon that cannot move is just a pile of junk. If you want to refute me, then make it move, even if it just takes one step forward."

Noah trampled unabashedly upon the creation that this group of goblins took pride in.

Compared to having this group of goblin engineers serve him and contribute their creativity and imagination, Noah now was more interested in the blueprints of the Giant God Weapon.

"Your Majesty, you are right, this is just a pile of junk, because we don't have the blueprints you want. All we have are just pieced-together remnants."

After an intense psychological struggle, the old goblin, like a deflated ball, chose to ultimately compromise. Most critically, Noah's words were like the sharpest sword in the world, cutting through all of his defenses.

Civilization!

The old goblin had long forgotten how many years ago his father had told him about the glorious history of the goblin race, and since then, he had never heard anyone associate goblins with civilization, not even themselves.

In fact, even the old goblin himself had doubts about that incomplete history; he strongly suspected whether such a glorious enterprise could have indeed been built by their goblin race.

But now, from a dragon's mouth, he heard the word civilization, heard the affirmation of the glorious civilization created by goblins in ancient history.

Nothing was more exciting and shook him more than this—they once had a glorious civilization, they had their own history, they were not just monsters in the wild to be slain by anyone, they were also a Wisdom Race!

"Remnants?"

"Yes, this is the Holy Object passed down by our city-state from generation to generation!"

Under Noah's gaze, the old goblin tore his robe, revealing his gaunt body, and amidst the gasps of the engineers behind him, he took out a dagger and cut open his chest, extracting a blood-stained metal solid object from his flesh,

"Everything you want is within."

"What is this?"

Noah extended his dragon claw with a gentle flick, and the old goblin held up an object the size of a human phalanx, shaped like a rectangular prism, which then flew into the air, revolving in the Golden Dragon's eyes. It felt inexplicably familiar, yet distinctly different.

"This is the Divine Artifact our ancestors used to record information. Although it's small, the knowledge recorded within is greater than a library's worth."

Despite bleeding profusely from the chest, the old goblin spoke with an air of enthusiasm and pride.

"And the reading device?"

Noah already knew what this small rectangular prism was and even had a rough idea of its state. After all, the goblin had already said the knowledge they obtained was fragmented remnants.

"It's in my residence; I didn't bring it along."

The old goblin revealed a smug smile,

"Your favored didn't recognize the value of that Holy Object and instead considered it useless trash."

"Where is your residence? I'll go get it."

A crisp female voice suddenly interjected abruptly.

"..."

Noah looked at his foster mother, who had suddenly appeared in front of him, and after a moment of silence, had to remind her,

"This is mine."

"I know it's yours. I didn't want to take it from you; I'm just trying to help you out. But you have to let me have a look."

"You might not understand it; the knowledge left from the goblin civilization has no relation to spells."

The brilliance of the goblin civilization was built upon the exploitation of external objects, which, for many civilizations today that emphasize intrinsic values, could be called an unorthodox path—an entirely different route.

"I'll just take a look; I won't delve into research."

As a Legendary Mage, Selena also knew that the goblin race once had an extremely brilliant and glorious history, though exactly how glorious was unknown, since they were a race targeted by All Gods.

For a Legendary Mage whose curiosity had been completely piqued, even crossing the Continent merely required a few more spells.

Thus, Noah quickly obtained the device to decode the information carrier. However, both the Golden Dragon and the Legendary Mage soon realized what the old goblin meant by so-called fragments.

"What is this? A word puzzle game?"

"Couldn't those ancient goblins have done a better job protecting the exterior? Look at the damage; it's beyond recognition."

"Is this all that's left? What's the use of this?"

Having crossed the Continent back and forth, Selena held high expectations, but as she watched the projected information in mid-air, her finger kept sliding, and this Legendary Mage started to grumble.

"Your ancestors accomplished building a city-state based on these fractured fragments; that's remarkable!"

Having witnessed the goblins' true capabilities, Noah didn't hold back his admiration and felt a spontaneous respect for the original goblins who established the Western City-State.

Fallen into the wilderness, the goblins, with such incomplete knowledge and in such barren conditions, once again ignited the spark of civilization.

"The Giant God Weapon! This is it!"

Although most of the information was severely incomplete, there remained a small amount of complete knowledge. Otherwise, this group of goblins wouldn't have managed as arms dealers, and among them, the design information for the Giant God Weapon was surprisingly the most intact.

"Hiss~ This is way too costly!"

Even though they obtained the most valuable target, just a cursory glance at the design schematic made Selena click her tongue.

"Costly is costly, but to create a power capable of subduing a Legend is still not bad."

Noah, wealthy enough to rival nations, felt slightly surprised at the resources needed to manufacture the Giant God Weapon, but it was still acceptable.

"With those resources, I could train several Legends from nothing. Why build a Giant God Weapon? It's cumbersome!"

Selena rolled her eyes,

"It would be better to construct a Floating City. If I had a Floating City, no number of Legends would be enough to challenge me."

Although the Legendary Mage quickly lost interest in the goblin civilization's remnants, Noah's interest was thoroughly piqued.

This was because the Giant God Weapon required nearly no physical qualifications from its user, meaning even an ordinary person could operate it to subdue a Legend.

"I am willing to fund the completion of this Giant God Weapon for you, but the prerequisite is that you and your descendants must all submit to me and remain loyal."

Noah gazed down at the goblin engineers below, who were trembling and visibly anxious, as he presented his demand.

Although these stooped green figures didn't align with his aesthetics as a Golden Dragon, their intelligence, creativity, and once brilliant history were enough for Noah to overlook this.