Was the Mage Country really strong? The answer was obvious. Although the Mage Country was rated as a mega country, everyone knew that it wasn't a country at all. Instead, it was a gathering place for countless mages. Not to mention the countless low and mid-level mages, just the archmages who had received the Emblem of Endless Truth, if all these top-level mages were to act together …
Alright then, everyone knew that this was basically impossible. After all, every mage had their own needs, goals in life, and research topics. It would be unthinkable to have them work together like a country for the sake of a common goal. This was also why the Mage Country had remained firmly rooted in the Mage Country for so many years. They lacked the need to expand their territory.
Expand territory and population? What a joke. There were only so many mages. A single city would be enough to accommodate 90% of the population. Who would use the land if you expanded? You'd even need to hire people to grow crops and maintain public order.
Increase the number of mages in the country by increasing the population? No need. We never cared about so-called nationalities, nor did we need a so-called population. As long as anyone was willing to abandon the boring lives of mortals and choose the path of seeking knowledge, they would be our comrades.
An eternally neutral country — Arlodante. It wasn't that this country remained neutral. Instead, most of the mages in this country consciously chose to remain neutral as individuals. This neutrality didn't only include wars between countries, it also included the eternal Holy War.
They didn't have any good impressions of the Order Gods, but they also hated the Chaos Evil Gods. It could be said that the Order Gods only believed in themselves and only pursued magic and the truth. They were the most likely third party in the Holy War.
Of course, since most mages were born human, it wouldn't be wrong for them to belong to the Order Faction. If they were asked to send troops to participate in the Holy War … fine, they didn't have any troops. Mages who had things to worry about and were willing to participate in the Holy War could do so by themselves.
"They're basically our natural allies."
But just as I mentioned before, when the entire Truth Symposium was filled with academics who hated politics, forming an alliance was basically meaningless. An alliance that couldn't be carried out to the end was no different from a piece of scrap paper.
Throughout history, there had been many ambitious schemers who wanted to borrow the Mage Country's great strength. However, they all failed. No matter how loud they shouted, there were still very few who responded.
But if I had to say it, it was because their ideas were too old-fashioned. Common conspiracies such as forming alliances, inciting the populace, and colluding with those in power were completely meaningless against this country's abnormally disorderly organizational structure.
Personally, I had some other opinions. Indeed, we couldn't ally with this country that was far too loosely organized. After all, even if we obtained the support of some of the Truth Overseers, those loosely organized mage organizations and individuals still wouldn't trust us … But if we thought about it from a different angle, we could easily bribe everyone. As long as we bribed enough mages, it would be the equivalent of having the entire Mage Country on our side.
Sounds incredible? If there were too many of them, how could they be bribed individually? But it could actually be done.
How do you make a neutral person suddenly become your staunch supporter? The answer was simple. Fill his wallet with your gold coins, or simply throw a valuable IOU into his hands, turning your two different interests into one.
In that case, how could two different forces or even two countries come together? Actually, the answer wasn't that different. It would be fine as long as they shared the same interests. For example, they could use the same currency and the same language, and both sides would have zero tariffs. In many situations, their interests and standpoints wouldn't be separated, and they would naturally come together.
In the history books of my previous world, many countries had used this exact method to merge two countries into one. There was also a certain emperor who used the same "currency" and dialects as the cornerstone of his unification.
Alright, now that I mentioned it, I had come up with a method. As long as I fulfilled two conditions, I would be able to bribe everyone. First, make everyone share the same interests as me. Second, make them my customers, friends, and even creditors. If I could accomplish these two conditions and make them feel like they would suffer losses if they didn't support me, they would naturally join me.
Originally, I had helplessly given up on this plan after only thinking about it for a bit. After all, the amount of capital and financial resources required would be astronomical. However, a sudden incident recently made it possible for me to buy over all the mages in the Mage Country.
"Justice Points. Our top-level goods can only be bought and sold using Justice Points. And this is only the beginning. Our final goal is to have everyone in the Mage Country use Justice Points as the most important currency. "
I was confident that with my many years of accumulation and the many factions behind me, my goods and treasury would be more than enough to make all the mages go crazy. However, this was only the beginning.
According to my plan, there would be more and more shops using Justice Points as payment in the future. My most important goal would still be to have most people in the Mage Country recognize Justice Points as the most valuable form of currency and actively participate in earning Justice Points.
This way, we would naturally have countless powerful "Contract Heroes". If an astonishing number of mages were willing to fight for Justice Points, the entire Mage Country would gradually become our ally.
Of course, in order to achieve this goal, there would still be countless steps and tricks, such as how to make Justice Points the official currency, how to have all the shops and mages use Justice Points, and how to make all the mage organizations sit back and watch this happen. However, I had the patience and confidence to take things slowly.
"Neutral? You'll soon discover that there's no such thing as neutral in this war. This time, I definitely won't repeat the same mistakes. "
The Mage Country in the game's "history" wasn't any weaker than the current Mage Country. However, when faced with the changes in the world and how many lives were lost, the Mage Country still chose to ignore the unfolding of this Holy War and simply record everything as a bystander.
They were as neutral as ever. No, neutral couldn't even be used to describe them. They were proud, slow, and cold. In the past, the Mage Country had been able to ignore the Yongye Calamity and other similar catastrophes that swept across the entire land. This time, they would naturally be able to do the same.
Even though they were fighting to the death in the outside world, they still chose to live their normal lives in the Cloud Tower, discussing the newest technological inventions and the terrible weather that was becoming colder and colder. But when this war truly engulfed the entire world, they discovered that they had long since been caught in the crossfire. It was already the end of the world, and it was already too late to take action.
Actually, in the game's "history", it wasn't that there weren't any observant mages who gave warnings. It wasn't that there weren't any surveillance battles from other planes that pointed out the abnormal movements of the creatures from other planes. However, the various mage organizations had long since come to the conclusion that this was just another war between species that would last for two or three hundred years. It was enough to just ignore it.
The arrogant mages finally got a taste of their own medicine. When Arochidante finally realized that something was wrong with the situation and truly ordered all the mages to mobilize, the entire land of Eich had already experienced countless battles. Countless powerful individuals from other planes had already arrived, and the River Styx was filled with the souls of the dead. SemiGod Lords were raising wine cups filled with blood in the face of the Apocalypse. Demons and devils were forming armies under the leadership of the Evil Gods. What could the "powerful" mages possibly do?
"… Sometimes, being neutral seems like the only correct choice. However, it's also the most passive choice, the farthest away from the correct choice."
Although I didn't want to admit it, from a certain standpoint, the conflict between the Bardi Empire and the Mage Country was indeed a good thing. At the very least, the Bardi Empire told the high and mighty mages in their ivory towers that there was no such thing as complete peace in the world. Even if you stayed at home, it was possible that a bandit would suddenly break in and slap you in the face.
I sincerely looked forward to the upcoming Truth Symposium. I wanted to see what the archmages who had just returned from the frontlines would come up with. Also, that sudden forbidden spell ambush was something completely different from the Mage Country's traditions. Why did I feel like it was so sudden and incomprehensible? There was definitely something interesting that hadn't been revealed yet.
What I needed to do now was to forcefully awaken the mages. "Justice Points" and the secrets of magic would be the bait to drag the mages into the Truth Symposium. As long as the mages entered the Truth Symposium, they would have enough information to report back to the Truth Symposium about destruction and chaos. With the intelligence of the mage job class, how could they not notice that something was wrong? At that time, I would naturally gain more allies.
Would it be difficult to lure them into the Truth Symposium? Would the mages have no desires? How could that be possible? I had always believed that the seemingly calm mages were actually the easiest job class to tempt.
"Greed" Heloise was the most classic example of a mage. Her endless desire for the secrets of magic was the epitome of this job class. Soon, the new issue of "Cloud Weekly" was published. Apart from introducing Thorn Garden and our new products, there was also a list of ways to exchange Justice Points for Justice Points. On this list were the secrets of the Gods from the Immemorial Era. These were all treasures that couldn't be obtained through any other method.
Nothing would attract a mage's desire for knowledge and greed more than the "unknown." This would definitely cause many people to immediately take action.
My ultimate goal was to use this point to lead the entire Mage Country to be on guard and take action ahead of time.
However, rice needed to be eaten one bite at a time, so there was no need to rush such an obvious scheme. In order to drag the Mage Country into this mess, I would first have to start with how to expand my "Thorn Garden".
The market for plant magic and its products would be limited. In order to attract the attention of the entire Cloud Tower, Amelia's foundation alone wouldn't be enough. I had already prepared my new products, so I could also make a huge profit.
"A mechanized mage army? That doesn't seem quite right. "
…
Archmage Andre was quite vexed. As the vice leader of the Sword of Order, he was responsible for taming the strongest magical pets. He had already left his cute laboratory for far too long. Those clumsy acolytes didn't even dare to approach his precious pets' cages. It was likely that one or two of his pets had already starved to death.
"I keep feeling like my precious pets are facing a threat that's even worse than starvation. How strange. Is there some sort of danger in the Cloud Tower? "
However, he knew that now wasn't the time to be thinking about such things when he saw the sandstorm and thick smoke before him, as well as the constant dragon roars in the distance.
That forbidden spell had transformed this entire area into a living hell of lava. Two squads of Bardi Dragon Knight, who were determined to take revenge, had already arrived. A surprise attack from twelve Dragon Knight would be quite difficult to defend against.
However, this wasn't actually a big problem. After all, there were a total of four Truth Overseers here. If they worked together and forced the Bardi Dragon Knight to face them directly, the problem would likely be resolved very quickly.
However, there was obviously another reason why both sides were in a stalemate.
The archmages of Arlo didn't want to continue escalating the battle. Even more so, they didn't want to offend the dragons behind the Dragon Knight by killing dragons. The Bardi Dragon Knight had also been acting rather strangely recently.
They continued to patrol and ambush the Bardi Empire, but they lacked offensive power. Their largest dragon breath attack was only a single dragon breath attack that lit up several buildings. As the Bardi Empire was determined to take revenge, this was obviously far too mild.
"It feels like they're being restrained by something. They don't intend to escalate the battle. I don't understand. "
But soon, he didn't need to worry anymore, as he received a letter from the Cloud Tower.
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