Chương 41: Knowledge of the Elves
"Indeed it does. There are basically two classifications of Elves. Low-born and High-born. Although it eventually became a status symbol, that's not why those terms were made in the beginning. Low-born Elves can be conceived through sexual intercourse, but with extremely low chances. A single <Life Tree> can birth at least one hundred a year. These Elves usually make up the majority of the workforce and regular citizens. High-born Elves or High Elves, like myself, are born solely through the <Life Tree>."
"What's the major difference between the two? Potential?"
"Indeed. Low-born Elves, while still being more proficient in magic on average when compared to humans, have limited potential. Of course, although it is extremely rare, there can be exceptions. High Elves are even more loved by the elements. Not only do we find it easier to comprehend the secrets of the elements, but we also naturally have a higher mana pool, faster mana regeneration rate, higher magic defense. Our glaring weakness as Elves, which even High Elves suffer from, is our susceptibility to physical damage, which is made up for by our exponentially longer life span compared to humans."
"I see. Thank you for your candor, Elder Aran. May I ask, how old are you?" Luna asked out of curiosity. Elder Aran definitely fits the description of an Elder, but with their long life span, how old is he now?
"I have lived for 8,000 years. Only because I've reached the level that I'm currently at, which is level 65. Arbane here is currently level 40, at 500 years of age, is my biological son. Alea is a High Elf adopted by us and despite being only 120 years old, is already at level 50."
This girl that looks about the same age as Maxene, is 120 years old?! At first, Luna was shocked, but after remembering all the weird stuff that's happened thus far, this one more shouldn't be a big deal. Nonetheless, it was still amazing that this little girl could be over a century old.
"That is the second secret of the Life Tree. The capability to give birth to High-born Elves. We Elves know how to cultivate it. One Life Tree can give birth to one High Elf every year. With five of them working together, it goes up to around ten a year, possibly 11. This is due to the Cradle of Evolution expediting the growth of the High-born Elves instead of them growing one by one on each tree at a slower pace."
"Alright. I'll leave it to you then, Elder Aran. Also, along with your people, we've reached close to over 150,000 in population. I'd like to request your help in dealing with the <Titan> so we can completely start expanding more aggressively. I'd also like to integrate the Elven people with humans with close monitoring. This is a critical period and I'd like for everyone to get used to working together."
"Your wish is my command, Lord Luna." Elder Aran left to share the good news with the rest. It was a joyous occasion for the Elves. They all witnessed the collapse of their power on their own planet, not only because of their incapability to defeat their enemies but mostly because of their pride. This was a lesson that Elder Aran had reminded them all time and time again, which made these survivors more willing to integrate with the human race.
Luna wanted to closely monitor this integration because he anticipated how sensitive this was going to be in the early stages of integration.
His plan was to make use of the soldiers to help monitor everything while they were within the City, and to prevent any disputes or at least report it to their superiors. The Elves would go out to hunt with the soldiers as well, and in their spare time, help out the Human Mages in order to help them with their understanding of the elements. The deeper one's understanding of it, the more potent their skills were. This was separate from actually putting in skill points into the skills.
Take for example Luna's passives, like the Blessings of Apolaki and Mayari. The enhancement they provided to his overall constitution was not present as a numerical enhancement in the form of stats. The same way the Rangers had much more grit than most people. It didn't appear as a skill, but it was there.
The same way there was no "Steal" or "Pickpocket" skill, but someone who was good at it to begin with, could do it better than others. This was the intricacy of this new world that had MMORPG elements. They didn't quite know what made this possible, but with the teachings of the Elven people, everybody started to understand just how crucial these things were.
Understanding that, one would come to know why Elves were naturally more potent Mages. Of course, this wasn't reserved for just Mages. Luna himself, after enchanting his weapon with the <Bathala's Primordial Flame> Anito, found out he could start comprehending the laws of fire as well.
Apparently, skill books were just an easy way to familiarize oneself with these elements, in terms of Mage skills. In truth, everybody was capable of doing so.
The same way with body-enhancing skills like <Fleet Footed>, <Rapid Tempo>, and <Regeneration>. Unfortunately, the humans of this world didn't know enough to teach the Elves. The Elves themselves were not proficient in body enhancement as the races that specialized in it back in their own planet, refused to teach them any further than what they've learned from skill books.
***
Meanwhile, in some places all over the world, similar things were happening.
The Giant race was welcomed by someone who was a University student prior to the new world, the current strongest ONE candidate in China, and they shared their body enhancement techniques with them to help enhance their strength which added even more pressure towards the Chinese Government.
In the United States of America, the Dark Elves shared their body enhancing techniques relating more towards speed as opposed to the Giants' more Strength and Vitality oriented skills with the <Nation of Texas>. After learning of this, the <Nation of California>, <Tri-State Nation>, and the recently formed <Central American Nation> reached out to each other in advance in order to form an alliance to prepare for the aggression they expected Texas to display in the future, and against the possibility of the smaller nations forming up in Canada to the North as well.
In India, a humanoid-elephant race, seemingly made in the image of Ganesha*, they had a technique similar to the Asura, but with four arms instead of six, and three eyes instead of three heads.
Australia was currently being overrun by mutant beasts. It became even more complete chaos when the landmass near them revealed the Demon race. It was a brutal fight that eventually leads to the Demons getting beaten back and go on the defensive. The introduction of this race leads to a huge amount of pressure off of the Australians as the mutant beasts focused on their new neighbors.
A race calling themselves "Seraph," winged, armored beings emitting holy energy, worked with the Israeli people. Individually these beings were quite strong offensively, but their population was quite small. Nevertheless, after allying with the people from Israel, they managed to finally gain their footing.
****
"There are ten ranks in every element. 1 to 3 are considered beginner, 4 to 6 are intermediate, 7 to 9 are advanced, and finally, the rank not even the strongest High Elf in our history has reached the Legend Rank. Rank 10, absolute mastery." Elder Aran was currently teaching the human Mages along with Luna.
"Every rank you master not only increases the potency of your element, whether through a spell or an element provided by the <Anito> system, such as <Bathala's Primordial Flame>, increases your proficiency with Energy, Mana, Chakra or however you may want to call it. What this brings is a rise in your overall power, separate from your stats. Increased elemental damage, increased mana pool, increased mana regeneration, and along with all of that, increased physical damage mitigation with the help of mana acting as an extra layer of armor on our skin. We Elves might be more susceptible to physical damage, but the only reason as to why that's our biggest weakness is because we have such high magical damage mitigation." Elder Aran looked around to make sure everybody was on the same page before clearing his throat and continuing.
"Not only that, if your comprehension of the laws is a whole Tier above your opponent, example being your opponent being in the beginner category, and yourself being in the intermediate category, your spell, after colliding with theirs, will merely crush theirs and continue it's trajectory towards them, albeit, being weakened a bit. Then, there's the case of the both of you having the same element, but with you being a Tier higher. Let me show you." Turning towards Apple, Elder Aran smiled and asked. "Miss Apple, would you be so kind as to cast your strongest skill on me?"
"Eh? Elder Aran, are you sure?" She was aware that the Elder was definitely strong, but she clearly knew how devastating spells could be, especially with her focusing majority of her stats to INT.
"You don't need to be worried, Lady Apple." Elder Aran smiled.
"Very well then. <Lightning Cloud>!" A familiar-looking cloud appeared above Elder Aran, but before it could even completely manifest, it dissipated as if nothing happened.
"As you can see, Lady Apple, once the difference is big enough, what might seemingly be a complex spell to a beginner, can be easily dismantled by a master, rendering it completely useless, and a waste of mana."
Everyone was in awe. The <Lightning Cloud> was the most devastating area-of-effect skill in a Lightning Mage's arsenal, but it was rendered useless just like that.
"Amazing!"
"Thank you Elder Aran for the lesson!"
Everyone was quite grateful to this Elder for taking the time to enlighten them and show them that they have been mere frogs in a well so far. Right after the lesson, he assigned Elves to each human Mage that were especially proficient in their respective elements. Luna noticed a trend as they were being assigned. Elder Aran had assigned male Elves to the female Mages and female Elves to the male Mages. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Was this old geezer actually trying to play matchmaker?
After thinking about it for a bit, Luna decided it would be for the better if relationships could blossom from these pairs. The smoother the integration of both races, the better.
Luna went over to Elder Aran's side and spoke. "Hopefully the integration of both our races goes smoothly for the majority of the process. Elder Aran, I'd like to assign some Elves to work with Humans in organizing an event to showcase and show our cultures. It would be crucial in removing any ignorance towards each other brought by not knowing each other's culture and history."
"Ah! A splendid plan, Lord Luna! I'll get on that right away!" Elder Aran was all smiles towards the proposition. He was quite thankful that this human that he pledged his service to was not racist and was actively making sure the integration of both races was as smooth as possible.
In all honesty, Luna was itching to start the conquest of the whole Island, but he knew that a solid foundation was paramount to his Nation's success. If they were all united and not separated as humans or elves, they would be a force to be reckoned with. Conversely, should they not be united there was a possibility of them causing each other's demise. This is why it was imperative that this integration went smoothly.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
TheLittleFatty
TheLittleFatty *https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha
Okay so this one took a bit. Today was a lot busier than usual(which means more breaks in between because R.I.P. wrist), so I felt bad about uploading this chapter late. Hence, this chapter is ALMOST twice as long as a regular chapter. Enjoy! :)
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