บท 270: Citizen POV (END)
After Chris apparated to the main conference room, a few people were already inside. The people who knew him or had some relationship with him saluted him and he responded by nodding his head and taking a seat.
A few seconds later, a man wearing shades walked into the room.
"Wild night, Jacob?"
"Yes. I went to this new club opened in Saturn, and I had too many psychedelics."
The majority of drugs are now considered psychedelics because of the simple fact that their addictive measures can be treated with one potion or using science to change the chemical composition of these drugs to have the same effect without the side effects.
Of course, some drugs are harmful to people. And there is even classification. For example, drugs are also labeled based on Arcanist's Tiers.
A Tier 1 drug might be psychedelic to a Tier 1 Arcanist, but a destructive drug to Tier 0 Apprentices. The same for Tier 2, 3, and upward. Additionally, some powerful substances are detrimental to anyone who used it–no matter the Tier.
The substances are banned and strictly regulated.
Most medical treatments in the Empire are free–unless they are things that can increase the Tier or strength of any individual. However, there are exceptions to this rule: when a citizen actively broke the rules or placed themselves in harm on purpose–not including for mental reasons.
For example, if a person overdosed on a banned drug and is sent to the hospital, they will have to pay a bill based on their income and whether this was their first offense or not.
If that person is a repeated offender, their Authority Level will be decreased, preventing them from gaining access to certain information, knowledge, and other benefits.
And if they keep repeating their actions, then they will be sent to jail–unless they can prove that other mental reasons were at work. After all, in the Empire, there is no such thing as a drug addict.
If a citizen wanted, they could buy some Soul Potions targeting this area. So, if they continue such self-destructive behavior, it is only their own decisions or some unknown factor.
"Why don't you go to the hospital?"
"It will be fine. With my Aura, the headaches will be gone after 2 to 3 hours."
Suddenly, Jacob looked at Chris, making the latter uncomfortable. Chris did not like how this youngster had no respect for his elders, was very blunt, and said anything that came to his mind.
"Chris, took the train to work today again?"
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
"I've always been wondering, why are you so cheap? I mean, with your salary, you can be considered middle class in the Empire and live a fulfilling life, and yet, you treat money as you were a dragon hoarding gold."
People were given Jacob looked to admonish for his rude question.
"For a better future," replied Chris calmly.
"What do you mean?"
"I have witnessed the day when all wizards and witches revealed their existence to the world. That day, this planet was forever changed. I have lived through the Dementor Invasion and watched with my own eyes the epic confrontation between the Arcane Emperor and the Dementor King.
"Although this fight was only a Tier 3, however at that time, the power of the Emperor was like a god. Ever since that day, I have always wanted to wield magic, to become a powerful caster.
"Unfortunately, I was nothing but a muggle."
After saying that, Chris sighed, lost in his memory.
"When the first magetech product was created, I waited in line for more than 8 hours to buy one. Being able to wield magic even if it was thought the use of an item was a fascinating thing for me. I would spend most of my money on those products.
"Then, I heard of the project of mages which would allow ordinary people to wield magic. When the product was completed, I was one of the first people who got tested.
"Well, as you can guess, fate was not kind to me as I did not have any talent for sensing or controlling mana. The only good news of that test was probably the fact that I was not one of the people whose bodies were poisoned by mana."
All the staff members also began to reminisce about that day as it was a recent event, not even a decade ago. At that time, they all faced the same disappointment as Chris.
The hard truth is that this is a world where magic reigned supreme. Although the Empire have strong control of Caster and they appeared to be equal before the law, a vast difference exist between the two classes of people.
And this was not only because of the difference in strength, but to have a high status, wealth, and political or military strength in this Empire, being a high-level Arcanist is a requirement.
It's not to say that ordinary people have no chance to rise to the top. No, they can, it is just extremely difficult compared to the magically gifted. The only exception to this might be in the field of politics, and that is only because most powerful Arcanists are busy with their research and increasing their strength, so they leave the "mundane" tasks of ruling to ordinary people.
However, the sad truth is that a member of the Arcane Council have to be respectful to a Tower Master–just because the latter has so many connection and resources that it could affect their political careers.
"On top of that, after I acquire my Gate of Truth, my talent for energy manipulation only allowed me to do basic transmutation," continued Chris.
"I thought that my dream of being a great Arcanist was ruined until I knew the existence of the Dragon Potion. I was determined to buy one to get at least get me a Level 3 Talent.
So, I will not waste my money on useless things until I achieve my goal."
"What? Are you crazy?" said Jacob. "With your job and salary, it will take you at least 50 years to save enough Arcane Merit to buy something like that.
"62 years to be exact. However, if you think about it carefully, I am 80 years old. In 62 years, I will be 142 years old. Considering my 200 years lifespan, it is worth it."
"I don't think it's worth it," commented another coworker. "That's too long."
"Not really," replied Chris. "After becoming an Arcanist, it will be easier for me to live a few hundred years, even thousands of years or more. So, I will live a reserve life for 6o years in exchange for the possibility of immortality: this is a great exchange to me."
Chris knew that the Empire valued talents above everything else–especially in the field of magic where often time, talent is more important than anything else.
Luckily, as a meritocracy, the Empire still left a way out for ordinary and talentless people. They can sacrifice their time in exchange for an opportunity to change their fate.
A perfect example of that is the Dragon Potion; it is a very precious resource in the Empire. As such, requires a tremendous amount of money to buy.
Truth be told, money cannot even buy this as Arcane Merit is required, and to acquire merit, you have to contribute to the Empire through research or technological developments.
This method of acquiring merit is applicable to the elite of the Empire. Another method to acquire them for ordinary people is through hard work or exemplary behavior.
For example, if a citizen is always on time at work and is never absent, at the end of the year, they will acquire certain merit. Based on their performance at their jobs, they will receive an evaluation that determined the number of merits they will receive.
And if they feel that their job did an unfair evaluation of their performance, they can ask the government to send someone to investigate and re-evaluate.
Additionally, ordinary people can exchange Arcane Coins for merits. However, if a person's annual income reached a certain number, this privilege will be revoked from them.
Another popular method is the lottery. Every four months, a nationwide lottery is conducted by the Empire to choose three people. The first person is guaranteed all resources to become a Tier 4 Arcanist, the second to become Tier 3, and the last Tier 2.
The official announcement says that this is a way to test people with tremendous luck. Of course, measures to counter the Luck Potion are used during the selection process.
In conclusion, there are many ways for normal people to acquire merit. And Chris was prepared to do whatever it took to buy a Dragon Potion and change his destiny.
After Chris' words, his coworker understood that his words were logical, but not everyone can be as disciplined as him, dedicating everything to pursue their dreams and goals.
So, even if they knew that his method worked, they could not follow it. Many of them are content to live their 200 years of life enjoying themselves. And if they are lucky, they can change their fate through the lottery.
And in their twilight years, they may save their saving to undergo another genetic modification to add another hundred years to their lives.
Soon, the manager arrived and the morning meeting took place. Taking his assignment for the day, Chris went to his office. As a computer programmer, he had to tap all day.
Although people can use Neural Link to tap codes, Chris preferred the old method. Plus, with his enhanced physical stats, he was not slower than his coworkers.
Throughout the day, Chris noticed that many of his coworkers looked at him differently; a sense of awe or respect could be detected instead of the usual odd looks. He could guess that what he said in the morning was now common gossip in many of the lounges, but he did not care.
Near the end of the day, an idea suddenly popped into his head. So, he immediately log in to a website on Skynet and submitted it. A few minutes later, he received a very brief email:
"Dear Mr. Chris,
Your idea has been verified to be possible. And according to our analysis, it is temporarily worth 25 Arcane Merits. Thank you for your support of the Empire and its development."
A smile appeared on his face.
'With these points, I can now shave 2 years on my time.'
One way that ordinary people can gain merit is to provide ideas to the Empire. The idea can be anything for an invention, laws that could help the Empire, or some random question that popped in someone else's head: the idea does not have to make sense or be logical.
Then, an Artificial Intelligence will determine if that idea has any merit or is possible to be created and judge its value before rewarding the sender. And if that ideas eventually lead to the creation of a new invention or some new magical theory, or a new research direction, more points will be rewarded to the sender.
Because of this system, writers of science-fiction and fantasy are very valuable and popular in the Empire. Some random ideas that they come up with in their books might inspire the research of an Arcanist or Engineer, thus leading to the further development of the Empire.
While Chris was smiling at the fact that he took one small step closer to his goal, he–along with all the citizens of the Empire received a notification:
"A massive upgrade was made to the Arcane Library."
All the citizens remembered how much things changed the last time this message was sent. Now, they were wondering if this was the case as well? With anticipation and bated breath, they all log on to Skynet to check things out.
Meanwhile, the rich and powerful knew that this upgrade signified that the mighty Arcane Emperor had returned, and he was more powerful than ever.
บท 271: Mana Abundant Environment
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________
After releasing the terrifying soul pressure to envelop the entire planet, Edward landed on Earth. Immediately, he noticed something different.
"The mana in the environment is too abundant. At least 12 times higher than when I left," he muttered.
In the Undead Combination World, (this is the name that he labeled the previous universe he came from since undead was one of the main themes of the entire universe when you take into account Frank and the conquistadors, the Mummy movies, and Kaulder, mana was almost non-existent, so Edward was very sensitive once he returned to an environment full of it.
However, now, he wanted to know the reason. He logged into Skynet since he has the highest Access Level, and he found the information he wanted. When he was creating the Pangea Continent, he noticed that many of the monuments worldwide–like the pyramids scattered across the globe– formed a strange rune; he theorized that Herpo was slowly leading different civilizations of Earth to set up some sort of ceremony magic that would allow the leyline nodes to activate and return mana to the environment.
Immediately after capturing Herpo, he tasked some people to study this magic and perfect it since it was not completed. But now, it was obviously a success hence the reason for the sudden increase in mana.
Edward then found the report on the mission and read through it.
"Mana is truly a wonderful thing," muttered Edward. According to a recent discovery, the leyline nodes across the entire solar system had entered a dormant state. It was discovered that the reason for that was because a large amount of mana was instantly sucked from them, almost destroying the leylines.
So, they enter a dormant state to preserve themselves. However, they were still producing a large quantity of mana. And in the past 12,000 years, a large quantity of it was stored, so when the Mana Activation Ceremonial Magic was activated, a large quantity of mana was released in the environment, which in turn resulted in quite a few significant changes in the Empire.
The first of which is the fact that there has been a drastic increase in babies born with magical talent ever since the environment was changed 2 years ago. Even birth rate has increased slightly, however, there is not enough data to support a correlation between the two.
The second effect of this change was the birth of many more Arcane Sorcerers. This subclass has existed ever since Edward created the method for the people of the Empire to have a Gate of Truth.
However, with the change in the environment, it became easier for people to control the mana in the environment to cast spells–even if they do not have mana inside their bodies or a magical core.
The only downside to this subclass is that it relies too heavily on the environment. However, with the new magic system that Edward and the group brought from the other universe, Arcane Sorcerers will prosper in the future,
By then, they will be able to use all kinds of different energy: tectonic energy, earth energy, solar energy, water energy from the ocean, metal energy from technology products, and even cosmic energy from the universe. However, they still have to focus on increasing the strength of their souls.
After checking the information he wanted, he teleported away. He appeared in the Himalayas, on top of Mount Everest. Edward observed the mountain deeply.
He could tell that the mountain's height had increased from 8,000 meters to close to 10,000 mountains.
"Is this one of the Dense Mana Regions?"
His eyes turned golden and he could see that deep in some part of the mountain, some rock-like creatures were being bred. Edward then teleported to an area in Chile.
Volcanoes were constantly erupting, spewing lava nonstop. Additionally, hundreds of Lava Monsters were walking around the volcanoes. The weakest of them were Tier 1 and only a little over 3 meters.
There were 10 Tier 4 Lava Monsters which were more than 15 meters tall. All of them were protecting what looked like a giant red egg more than 20 meters tall.
A great deal of heat and mana could be felt coming from that egg, and Edward could tell that a Tier 5 Lava Monster was being bred inside.
One of the changes that occurred with the resurgence of mana is the creation of [Dense Mana Regions]. In these places, the mana is so concentrated that ordinary people cannot live there.
And even Arcanists have to be of a certain Tier to be able to breathe in this area, let alone live there. On top of that, the environment has drastically changed because of this, becoming more ferocious, and more dangerous.
For example, in a Dense Mana Region where there used to be inactive volcanoes, these volcanoes will not only become active but also increase their intensity in eruption, scale, and power.
In some desert regions, sand tornadoes have become a common thing, making it impossible for normal people to live or traverse there. In Dense Mana Regions in the ocean, tsunamis and ocean tornadoes are now coming thing.
And in a normal Dense Mana Region, storms made completely out of mana could be seen regularly.
On top of all that, numerous elemental creatures have been bred in these regions. In conclusion, Dense Mana Regions are now considered inhabitable by the Empire and all have them have been isolated by enchantments.
However, with such a large quantity of mana, the Empire knows that these regions will become very valuable in the future. The reason that they have been isolated and monitored for now is that the changes in these places are not completed, so they have to wait before began taking control of them.
Edward checked a few of them to ensure that nothing unexpected will happen. As of now, the highest level of Elemental creature bred by these regions is Tier 5, which is not a problem.
However, Edward could not help but wonder what would happen if the environment changed like this while the planet was still in the old era. Most likely, the earth's scientific civilization would be destroyed by these creatures and the rise of magical civilization.
After all, in just 2 years, Tier 4 creatures capable of singlehandedly destroying countries were born. Of course, the rise of magic would only be possible if the wizards at that time could adapt to the changes of the world and take this opportunity to increase their strength.
Based on the information he read online, he teleported to Canada. While invisible, he observed a young man who was riding a floating scooter and enjoying himself.
The young man had a small amount of aura inside his body but no mana. However, this young man was somewhat special: he was an Awaker.
The increase in mana in the environment has granted some individuals special powers or gifts. Based on the data gathered, these abilities varied from elemental control, teleportation, and many other magical abilities.
They can use these abilities instinctively without studying or training, however, intense training can increase their output and stamina in using these abilities.
And these gifts were not only gifted to ordinary people–albeit 86% of the Awakers are people with no previous magical abilities. Some arcanists also awakened, and their gifts have increased their talents in certain areas.
For example, if they awakened Flame Abilities, these Arcanists have noticed that their understanding, control, and use of Flame Magic has drastically enhanced.
As Edward looked at the young man, he could see his soul, and inside his Soul Dimension, strange runes that he had never seen were engraved. This was the source of these Awakers' gifts.
A mutation occurred in their Soul granting them abilities to wield magic. With their thoughts, they can immediately activate the runes inside their souls, then, the mana in the environment will be passively activated to serve as energy for the spell.
'Fascinating. These Awakers might be the prototype of the first-ever magical users. Most likely, many of them were people born with this gift, then, at some point, some individual discovered the runes inside these Awakers.
'Then, decided to copy and study them, thus giving birth to a complete magical system.'
Edward could imagine long ago, when man was ignorant, some individual awakened magical talents. These people were probably treated as gods, or at the very least, had high status. These people were the first generation of wizards or mages.
Then, at some point, many people discovered the Soul Dimension and the runes inside. Study its mystery along with the mystery of mana, and combine them to form of complete magic system with mana and spells.
'These runes might be important for the Arcane Rune System. Most likely, they are the original runes of this universe where other runes derived from–at least the current ancient runes might be derived from them.
'So, studying them might be of great value.'
After thinking of this, he teleported to another place: there was one last place to check before he went to see his family.
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Next Chapter Title: Dimensions
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