Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 298 A Legacy Through the Ages
Rean has been getting along well with his teacher lately, as they both have needs.

Although it sounds cold, both Rean and his mentor, Alcaster Yanyu, appreciate this master-disciple relationship based on mutual benefit.

"How is the situation on His Highness's side?" the Grand Master asked, inquiring about the matter he was concerned about.

"We've already made contact, and we've given her the letter, but she hasn't contacted you yet?"

"I've already asked, but as you know, she's very busy right now, the whole city is busy. Hopefully, we can meet formally as soon as possible." The archmage sighed. The originally planned meeting and transaction had been postponed due to too many unexpected events.

"Starburner" Alcaster is the kingdom's archmage and a leader of a half-elf organization.

At this critical juncture, he is seeking a way to survive for his people, and Rean can offer some assistance in this regard.

Because of this favor, he was at least able to answer Rean's questions whenever he asked them.

This is quite rare for a newly initiated apprenticeship. Ordinary apprentices usually have to do odd jobs for a period of time to prove that they are trustworthy and capable.

However, the Archmage did not seem to like "Fisterion".

"Wait a minute, let me look for this piece. I remember using it recently."

Mage Chess is a board game originating from the elves, a custom board game where small magical puppets fight. Considering the abundant military power in this world, it is undoubtedly a board game used to simulate war (in fact, most board games in any world simulate war).

After all, simulating war and conducting simulations were the original uses of sand tables and chessboards.

Due to the abundance of magic among the elves, Elf Chess uses a type of animated chess piece. The cheaper version is an animated "sculpture," while the advanced version consists of small magical puppets or even "gargoyles" with hidden secrets.

There are many types of chess pieces, such as soldier pieces, hero pieces, monster pieces, and extra terrain pieces, but the "Fisterion" in front of us is definitely the most special one.

"He is a sacrificial pawn; by consuming one turn's action points and adding two units of magic, he can summon the thunderous punishment of the Elf King Sirossfin."

The way this piece is played is like a "bomb". You throw it out, spend resources and consume them, and then a thunderbolt will fall, directly blowing up everything around it.

"Uh, what did he do?" Rean could see the malice in his words.

"'Traitor,' 'Great Sinner.' During the Elven Civil War, he stole the artifact of the Elven King Sirofen, which directly led to the defeat of the war and the Great Purge of the Half-Elves by the High Elves."

When Alcaster Yanyu said this, he had a stern face.

From the perspective of a half-elf, this direct betrayal of the elven race, which widened the gap between the two sides and even triggered a massacre, truly makes him a "great sinner."

"And then?" Rean was quite curious. What would happen to him after doing something like this?

"He escaped, and probably died somewhere. Things were very chaotic back then."

When any race is at its peak, it inevitably experiences various civil wars, and the civil wars among the elves are said to be particularly brutal.

But it's hard to say how much hatred there is for this "great sinner." The conflict between elves and half-elves is fundamental, with numerous wars fought. One side's hero might be the enemy of the other, and the historical records of both sides are a mess.

The events of more than five thousand years ago are enough for the elves to record. With the lifespan of a half-elf, Alcaster's grandfather might not even have been born yet, so how much hatred could there be?

"I hate his 'bomb build' with this piece as one of the core units. It's notoriously cheap and effective, and it's a counter to mid-to-late game decks! I play late-game decks!"

Okay, so this is where the grudge comes from.

It's clear that this mentor is a serious fan of Mage Chess.

He not only showed off his treasured pieces with great interest, but also explained how to play to Rean and even recommended where to buy a basic game pack.

It seems quite a few people play with this thing, but to make it function, it requires regular magical support. If you're not a spellcaster, you'll need to find a spellcaster to recharge it regularly, which is far too extravagant.

"It's actually a pretty good design for a beginner to have Fisterion as the core of their team. Just be careful if you play too much of the self-destruct strategy, or your opponent will beat you up in real life." The mentor seems to think that Rean learned about Fisterion from things related to Mage Chess. He even suspects that Rean took the initiative to learn about Mage Chess because he knew that Rean liked it.

"It's obvious that he's quite addicted to chess."

Watching his mentor enthusiastically introduce the "Five Major Schools of Chess in Radiant City," Rean smiled and responded accordingly. He was also happy to establish a proper friendship with his teacher.

The reason it's now called Mage Chess is because the main players who can play it now are mages who have plenty of money and magic.

Looking at these exquisite chess pieces, he was indeed somewhat tempted.
"Isn't this a movable figure? It even has some playability."

However, considering my current environment, it didn't seem like the time to enjoy being distracted.

He had no choice but to give up for the time being, but there was something that piqued his interest, so he decided to ask about it.

"Does the Great Red Dragon also have chess pieces?"

"Eleven years ago, there was an auction in Sulda City. The highlight was a set of seven air raid chess pieces centered around the 'Great Red Dragon'. Unfortunately, I was short of money back then. I used all my gold coins to buy information on a seventh-circle spell. By the time I had raised enough money, there were no buyers left."

Rean was a bit stunned. Even a great mage like you had to raise money to buy a chess piece? It seemed more expensive than seventh-ring spell knowledge? You even pooled your money to find a real buyer offline?
"Yeah, that's amazing."

The little episode passed quickly. As for the information on the "great sinner" Fisterion, the mentor basically didn't have any specific details. In fact, unless you're a fan of Mage Chess, most people wouldn't know him. Who would care about a historical figure from more than 5,000 years ago?

When Rean left, he was given five basic chess pieces and a cheap chessboard. Although they were all unit pieces, there was also a cheap hero piece that was too repetitive. But at least it was enough for him to play a couple of games when he had nothing to do.

It's clear that the mentor is a chess enthusiast who's eager to train his disciples.

But this thing is both wasteful of resources and consumes magic power, so ordinary apprentices simply can't handle it.

It seems that in the eyes of this archmage, Rean is exactly the type of talent that can be used to play this build. In order to get people into the game, the archmage even revealed a little bit of information.
"Mages like this because it can hone their control over magic and their ability to manipulate elements. For spellcasters, playing chess is actually a comprehensive form of spellcasting training."

Rean nodded repeatedly. That's right, I bought a computer in my previous life so that I could study better.

The expensive graphics card is for learning programming and AI, definitely not for playing games.

"You can buy it from alchemists. They usually stock the common versions, and you might find some good ones by chance."

However, Rean could sense the hatred in Fisterion's ugly chess piece, whose face was twisted into a grimace. At least the person who threw him into the game probably really hated him, wishing he would self-destruct countless times every day.

As for those great sinners and traitors, Rean didn't care at all and didn't believe it at all.

Having experienced so much, and with those heroic figures whose accounts differed wildly from the records, it would be foolish for Rean to actually believe that historical records were without error or human correction.

Compared to Festerion in historical records, Rean is more interested in the "god of pleasure and drama," for a mortal who has become a god cannot hide his true self.

Since He is a benevolent god, then His mortal phase must have been a good person as well.

"Uh, as for the other heroic spirits, I wonder if there are corresponding chess pieces?"

Thinking about it, I wondered if the "Godslayer" Sull really existed. This archmage, a serious enthusiast, had heard of it, but there shouldn't be any such obscure piece in the kingdom. I wondered if there were any pieces from the ancient Great Sage, and even if there were, they should be within the scope of Elf Chess.

But there's one person whose pieces are not only easy to obtain, but also very cheap.
"That's enough, that's enough. Three versions of the Heroic Piece are enough." Lex Thorne's pieces are not only available in this city, but they're also very cheap.

However, Rean searched for a long time but couldn't find any differences between the three versions of the chess pieces.

"Look at the heroes' faces. Their masks are made of different materials. This one is bronze, this one is gold, and this one is a glitter alloy. The last one is a rare version, which is more than ten times more expensive than the other versions!"

Well, at this moment, Rean really couldn't hold back anymore. He genuinely couldn't imagine that just exchanging a small piece of metal could lead to such a price increase.
"This must be the chess master."

(End of this chapter)