On the battlefield, cannon fodder was always indispensable.
At the very beginning of a battle, a large number of low-level troops would fight against each other, tearing their opponents apart or being torn apart by their opponents. Then, the losers would fall to the ground, while the victors would fall to the ground in the next wave.
It could be said that this was to gain an advantage on the ground, or to exhaust the enemy's main forces. But more often than not, it was to test the enemy's strength.
It was to test the enemy's strategic reserves, the enemy's long-range archers' shooting range, whether or not the enemy had weapons of mass destruction (archmages), the enemy's main forces' troop types and combinations, the enemy's strategic layout, and whether or not the enemy was an idiot who would bring out their ultimate weapons and trump cards as cannon fodder.
In the cruel Dark Ages, villagers with scrap metal, wild beasts with torsoed bodies, and newbies who were forced to recruit were all excellent cannon fodder. On the higher-level battlefields, mercenary groups or knight groups that fought for money and status were also excellent choices.
But in modern times, if ordinary warriors were still used in this position, not only would it be too costly and inhumane, but the results would also be poor.
Time was the cruelest. The intensity and cruelty of war would always increase. Using poorly equipped and quickly-trained foot soldiers to enter the battlefield now might turn them into dust before they could even find out anything.
Of course, with the development of the times, demand increased, and there were many substitutes for cannon fodder.
Elemental Summoners like Sophie were the most popular cannon fodder.
Elemental creatures did not fear death (death in the main plane was the same as returning to the main plane). They had strong vitality, rich combat experience, and were good at teamwork. Most importantly, they were willing to die as long as they were given "money."
This "money" did not refer to money, but to elemental energy and elemental materials. With the development of the times and the maturity of magical engineering, mana pools at the level of mage towers and cloud cities could also be purchased from the black market's arms market (although they were ridiculously expensive).
Then, as long as there was an outstanding elemental Summoner who could communicate with other elemental planes and use a large mana pool, even a church or private organization could summon a large number of elemental cannon fodder, just like ancient wars between countries.
In a way, demand also distorted supply. The growth path of elemental Summoners had been distorted.
The original Elemental Summoners were now known as the Ancient Summoners. The path they learned was to continuously strengthen their connection with the Elemental Plane and contract more and more powerful high-level Elemental Creatures. Under the premise that their mana was limited, they could summon high-level Elemental Creatures that were more cost-effective and even Elemental Lords.
However, the current mainstream Elemental Summoners were the strategic Elemental Summoners. Many even called them the modern Elemental Summoners. They did not need to establish contact with high-level Elemental Lords. Most of their work was spent on the use of low-level Elemental Creatures.
Strategy, command, investigation, and even elemental healing abilities. Most of them were trained to be low-level commanders on the battlefield.
Sophie was a Wild Elf born in the Northern Elven Kingdom. She came to Saul to learn how to transform from a typical Elemental Summoner to a modern Elemental Summoner.
In fact, she did a great job.
Unlike other graduates, the natural advantage of long-lived species was an unavoidable reality. With the accumulation of knowledge from the Classical School, she easily grasped the new course on Elemental Summoning. Furthermore, combining the strengths of the two schools, she had her own academic thesis before graduation, which was widely praised.
She did not become a Descender, not because the New God Church did not extend an olive branch to her. She simply felt that compared to entering the battlefield and practicing too early, more theoretical accumulation and knowledge were more suitable for her. Most importantly, she used these few years to learn the theoretical knowledge and piloting skills of the magic armor.
She had accumulated enough knowledge, was rational, was good at learning, and was also a long-lived species. This further improved her evaluation.
In fact, the number of large and medium-sized churches chasing after her was at least in the double digits. On the list that Lori gave to Rorschach, Sophie was also the third name. She was the target that they would do anything to get their hands on, even if it meant cheating them.
Although she was not currently using the Mage Magic Armor (those that came with a mana pool were ridiculously expensive), she still had the Epic-level Elven weapon, "Blessing of the Four Elements." It could greatly strengthen the user's connection with the Four Elemental Planes. Not only could it strengthen the user's daily learning and advancement abilities, it could also be used as an ultimate move when necessary. It was a godly weapon that was a win-win situation for both the battlefield and daily life.
She was wearing the classic Archmage Robe, which provided negligible armor protection and mana recovery abilities that could not be ignored. On her feet were the classic Mirage Boots, which provided instant activation of classic escape spells such as Soaring, Phantom, and Short-Range Teleportation Door.
She also had four rings on each of her hands, from mana recovery to elemental contracts. They were of medium quality and had comprehensive abilities.
Mages would often have the ability to transform the mundane into the miraculous. To put it bluntly, mages had always been the masters of the battlefield. Otherwise, mages wouldn't have been called "Master Spellcaster" or "Master Spellcaster" as a joke. However, the other side of powerful abilities was the high cost of production.
Magic armor was the most expensive of all. There was no upper limit to how expensive it could be. As long as you had money, there would definitely be better equipment that was ten times or even a hundred times more expensive than other job classes. Even a full set of equipment would be ten times or even a hundred times more expensive than other job classes.
A monk would be more than enough to wear a pair of boxing gloves. A ranger would at least need a good bow. A mage with or without equipment (or money) was the difference between a Master Spellcaster and a Master Spellcaster.
With Sophie's equipment, it was obvious that she was a Master Spellcaster.
This set of equipment was probably more than an ordinary human family could afford in their entire lifetime. At the very least, it would increase her combat prowess by one to five times. If necessary, it could even increase her combat prowess by three times.
But now, despite her seemingly calm appearance, her self-esteem had been completely shattered.
She had lost to an opponent who was like a plaything in the area she was best at. Sophie, who was fully equipped with top-tier equipment, could clearly see that her child-like opponent didn't have a single piece of magical equipment on him. In fact, he didn't even have a magic staff embedded with various magical gems that mages needed.
"A difference in power? Yes, a difference in power. That's the only explanation. A difference in power that's so large that it's impossible to close, he forcefully crushed his opponent. "
Sophie wasn't as calm as she appeared to be. She was filled with disbelief, annoyance, frustration, and finally, doubt.
"How did he do it? He's probably still underage. "
Recalling Rorschach's "actual age 22 years old, biological age 6 to 8 years old" in the data, Sophie, who had always thought highly of herself, had to admit a fact — she had lost to a child, a child who didn't even have one-tenth of her life experience.
At this moment, Sophie, who had completed her mission, was thinking about her future other than listening to Robins' deployment.
She, who was pursued by countless churches, had also been promised many excellent conditions. The Game Church, which Rorschach belonged to, was no exception.
Compared to the other churches' "best equipment for spellcasters", "massive amounts of elemental materials", and "treatment as a follower god", the Game Church's conditions were the most unreliable — a future of rapid growth and an environment that was most suitable for improvement.
Originally, to Sophie, who had experienced countless things, this was an insincere advertising slogan. Only small churches and organizations with nothing would use things like "the future is so good", "the future of our company", and "the working environment is quite good, and the colleagues get along well" to fool rookies.
But now, looking at Rorschach and his army who were showing off and maturing at an unreasonable speed, Sophie had to seriously consider what this "rapid growth and an environment that was suitable for improvement" meant.
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