Chapter 7 –– gnox Router

He showed me some kind of a floating crystal that glowed with an orange light. Somehow, it was hypnotising. It was exuding some kind of strange energy. I don’t know how to describe it, but I could feel its energy radiate all across the room.

“Do you know how the illumination stones illuminate all the villages in the tribe?” Dawoud asked me.

“No.....”

“All illumination stones were powered by an energy force called gnox. It’s a source of energy that spreads all across the realm, from the closest to the surface until the lowest territory beneath the ground. It exists everywhere; in the ground, in the air, in water. It also exists within living beings such as plants, animals, and even us, Werebeasts. It is an energy force that exists in nature, also called as a natural energy.”

Wow.....I didn’t know anything about that. This is the first time I heard of it. I really should travel more. Going to places I’d never been really taught me a lot of things.

“According to historical records, at the beginning of Werebeast settlement underground, this natural energy was so sparse that it was almost impossible to be contained, let alone be infused to objects. Our ancestors–– the founders of the realm–– then worked together in order to be able to harvest this energy for us to use. They then created a vessel that could absorb gnox energy that roams freely in nature, concentrate it into a condensed matter, and contain it for later use. This vessel is called gnox crystal. It can be found at the central government territory.”

He then grabbed my wrist to show me around the crystal. We walked around it in a circle, getting a closer look of the glowing crystal. It looked beautiful.

“Despite its boundless potential for application, the crystal however, has a limited range. Although it covers all the initial territories of the 7 villages plus the central government, it could not reachnew areas that a village had expanded after having dug more land in the following years. This was due to the fact that the gnox crystal was placed at the centre of the realm and was only intended to reach areas that were possible back then, without taking into account the possibility of land expansion and development. There is also a report saying that most of the energy used by gnox crystal was monopolised by the central government, so it’s hard for other villages to get a fair share of the energy.

In addition to that, because of the evergrowing Werebeast population, gnox is getting more and more scarce by the day and we needed to come up with a solution in order to keep the sustainability of the energy in our village. Thus, we–– the Caninus Tribe–– came up with an idea to create a device called a gnox router. Instead of relying on the gnox crystal that is placed at the central government, we created one for ourselves that worked as an extension of the gnox crystal. After having worked on the prototype for more than a decade, our tribe finally managed to create one by imitating the basic principles of the gnox crystal–– absorbing, condensing, and containing gnox energy.”

Dawoud put my paw on the router to get a feel of the router’s texture. It was as hard as a diamond, yet it was warm. I could feel some kind of energy flowing onto my paw. It felt magical.

“Although it is not a perfect imitation of the original gnox crystal, a gnox router allows our village to absorb some of the energy from the gnox crystal as well as the gnox energy roaming around freely in our village, as it covers the extended areas of our village. This creation helped us develop further the technological advancement in our village, especially in our specialised field, the structure planning and construction sector.”

Wow....

This village was so far advanced than mine. No wonder it was known as the rival of Felixia Tribe, as the two most powerful and most technologically advanced villages in the realm.

“Is this Caninus Village’s gnox router?” I asked, confirming whether it is the one we were currently looking at.

“Ah, no. Ours was created several years go. This one is an ongoing project that we are currently making for the Bear Tribe. It’s not finished yet, but it’s about to be very soon.”

Interesting. So they also made a deal with the Bear Tribe, huh. I wonder if Hyaena Village will ever have one, too.

“Fun fact: currently, only Caninus Village has a gnox router. Not even Felixia Village has one,” he added, being proud of his tribe.

While touching the router, I felt some kind of energy flowing to me. It was an odd yet intriguing sensation. Since that was still a prototype, I wonder how a real router would feel like.

“Can wee see the gnox router?” I asked him, curious about how it looked in person.

“Sure. Let’s go.”

He took me outside of the lab and eventually outside of the building. We then took a stroll around the village to see the gnox router, somewhere in the village.

Dawoud took me to the far edge of the village. It was a territory nothing like the ones I’d seen so far. It seemed like it was part of a new area that the village had expanded.

We then arrived at a certain spot near the edge of the village. It was a restricted area with some kind of dome barrier around it. It was also securely guarded with fences, with several tribesfolk standing by the area, protecting it from outsiders without permission.

“The router is inside that. Do you wanna take a closer look?” Dawoud asked me.

“Can I?” I asked him.

He took a moment to take a full look at me. I don’t know why he’s looking at me like that.

“Of course. Anything for you.” he smiles at me.

He then approached one of the guards to ask their permission to allow us to enter the dome. Seeing them talking from afar, it looked like they denied our request to enter the dome. After showing his ID card from the Research Facility and convincing them, they eventually gave in and approved our request.

“Noam, let’s get in,” Dawoud said, asking me to come with him.

I walked towards him to enter the dome. I’m really curious to see the router up close.

Inside the dome, Dawoud talked to a lot of people to let us see the gnox router in person. It was really safely secured as if it was some kind of national treasure. After a lot of lobbying, he finally got the permit that allows us to see the router up close.

We opened the last door and entered the room, wearing similar goggles and lab coat as the one we wore right before entering. The moment we set our foot in the room, I saw the gnox router shining brightly, even more so than the one I saw at the Research Facility Building.

The router was twice bigger than the prototype for the Bear Tribe. It also radiated twice as much light to the point that it made me hard to see even with goggles on. I could also hear a faint ringing sound coming from it; a low frequency sound.

“This is our router. We plan to develop the router for the Bear Tribe similar to this,” Dawoud said.

I was so mesmerised by the energy coming from the router that I felt like it was somehow calling me. I was hypnotised and pulled by it, feeling strangely attracted to it on a spiritual level. Without realising, I was walking towards the router, getting close to it.

I reached out my paw to try to touch the router. I wanted to feel the warm sensation of the gnox energy coming from it, like the one I sensed at the Research Facility Building.

“Noam, don’t get too close!”

The moment my paw made contact with the surface of the router, I felt an immediate surge of energy flooding into me. I was engulfed in gnox energy to the point that it overwhelmed me and almost break me. I suddenly felt light-headed and lost my consciousness.

“Noam!!!”