Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 302 Not a Loyal Ally
Rean's sudden idea progressed exceptionally smoothly.

On the third day, after the rain stopped and the city restarted, Rean went to find his nominal mentor.

"Participate in frontline development under the guise of cooperation? I have quite a few disciples here, which one do you want?"

Alcaster, the "Star Burner," readily agreed, even seeming somewhat impatient.

Which one? Is it one that's good at fighting? One that's good to watch? Or one that's both good at fighting and good to watch?

“That will be an important base for me, and I need someone who can keep things under control. If they are of noble birth, it will save me a lot of trouble.”

The supervisor readily agreed, after all, it was a win-win situation.

The same principle applies to why Dania previously found a distant royal archmage to build the mage tower underground.

"In this environment, it seems that only the archmages can check and balance the royal family, the nobles, and the various churches to some extent."

The power of spellcasters is self-evident; they have always been a neutral and stable force, and the fact that they are subtly banding together in places like Mage Street is the most obvious proof of this.

They need to exchange resources, knowledge, and connections to make progress, and they often have relatively reliable connections with each other.

If a trustworthy third party is truly needed to check and balance the local churches and nobles, then perhaps the academically inclined spellcasters are the only option.

Unlike nobles and the church, most of them genuinely had little interest in land or population, and had no fundamental conflict of interest with the royal family. The "magical materials" they were interested in could be obtained simply by continuously visiting ruins.

The reason why there are so many mages in Radiant City is because the city truly has the resources they need.

For a long time, the kingdom's lands have been home to spellcasters far exceeding its own size.

These spellcasters basically lack loyalty, but in this situation, they might actually become the most "trustworthy" teammates.
“Our town is probably the deepest point in the underground ruins right now. If there are any rare materials, they should be traded there first.” The offer Rean made was very attractive.

Grand masters are generally not short of money; what they lack are all kinds of materials and resources, which are a bottomless pit.

Mages consume large amounts of spellcasting materials, research materials, and so on. Some utilize the materials of monsters, while others analyze the essence of monsters and transform them into their own extraordinary abilities, weapons, or equipment.

For example, a magical creature may have three or four innate spellcasting abilities. Spellcasters will try to analyze these abilities, obtain these natural magical modules, and transform them into ring-type magic that can be mass-produced and learned.

Imitation and learning are the root of mages' continuous progress and even their subtle rise to become the strongest spellcasters.

However, sometimes, obtaining certain rare materials is incredibly difficult.

For example, a spellcaster researching the "Holy Sun Beetle" would need a large amount of golden beetle-like materials. If he were to search normally, he would probably have to go to a desert country, and the results would be quite unpredictable.

He might have to dig up hundreds of tombs to be lucky enough to "archaeologically" find one or two of them. And once he finally obtains this material, he will need a research lab and other materials to assist in the research. He might even need the help of other mages. It could take several years for him to go back and forth. If the research fails, he will have to start all over again.

Many spellcasters may spend their entire lives researching and collecting materials, which is why they issue a large number of hunting and material-collecting quests to "adventurers".

However, in Radiant City, as long as the number of people going down to hunt monsters increases, these rare materials will be produced steadily.

The underground ruins yield a wide variety of resources, and can even be actively activated to generate targeted mutations, providing much-needed materials.

With enough materials and the presence of many mages, their internal trading and mutual assistance can solve most of the problems in the research.

Rare materials may not be the most valuable thing in Radiant City; most of the mages who came because of them further boosted the prosperity of Mage Street.

For many mages, acquiring research results simply by spending money is an incredibly good deal.
"It would be best to find a senior brother who is more capable, someone who can keep the situation in check and can kill indiscriminately if necessary."

“Hmm, how about my disciple Quinn Hida? Although he is relatively young among the archmages, he is not only a local but also of noble birth. He has five years of military experience. Although he is the third son and does not have a noble title, his reputation as a local is more than enough.”

Rean nodded quickly; he hadn't expected such a suitable candidate.

Even noble children without inheritance rights are considered one of the same kind in the circle. While a title is required to become a true feudal lord, being a lord's proxy is sufficient.

Even if, as the mentor said, this senior is just a novice archmage, he is still an archmage.

Spellcasters advance the slowest of all professions, and their early strength is quite unpredictable. However, after reaching the fifth-tier archmage level, they become incredibly valuable, far exceeding the capabilities of a few powerful warriors. The teacher was very satisfied with this collaboration; from his perspective, it was the result of deep cooperation with the local royal family.

Rean was also very satisfied. He chatted with several of the senior brothers and sisters who had been summoned. Half of them were half-elves who had come with their mentor, and the other half were local beastmen.

They didn't hide their expectations either; they longed to become "Kingdom People" and be able to weather this demonic tide together.

This seemed unbelievable to Rean, but to them, who "had no homeland/country," it was perfectly natural.

In their view, the demonic tide was destined to be a major reshuffle, and "weak races" would be wiped out if they were not careful.

Half-elves, being a race that is inherently half-elf, are easily caught in a dilemma where they can't please either side.

"In times of peace, we are always outsiders."

Thinking back to my previous conversation with Dania, that's definitely the case.

The kingdom is not desperate, nor will it rely heavily on the power of foreign tribes.

The fact that Dania became a "Mirror Maiden's Chosen One" does not mean that the kingdom will allow the Mirror Maiden faith to become a so-called state religion.

The conditions that Dania negotiated were only to allow the establishment of branch churches on the ground, to allow open missionary work, and to allow the formation of a friars.

While this would also lead to a large influx of dark elves into the kingdom, it is entirely different from the princess directly declaring the kingdom the state religion.

If they really start announcing the conversion of the Dark Elf divine kingdom into a royal religion, the royal family may soon disappear.

“When the situation is dire, the Great Power will become increasingly radical and xenophobic, and it is common for it to incite racial and nationalism, but for the Kingdom, every bit of strength is precious.”

This was the result of Rean and Dania's discussion. Unlike other beastman nations with relatively homogeneous races, the kingdom now had no choice but to accept the power of foreign races.

"In fact, powerful gods today do not pursue national-level faiths, as they are a slow poison disguised as sugar. Their lifespan is longer than that of most countries."

Becoming the state religion of a country and gaining a large number of followers in the short term can indeed make it stronger, but once the kingdom falls, the "state religion" will naturally perish as well, and the original faith will naturally turn into hatred.

The loss of faith power in a short period of time is similar to a sudden illness like hypoglycemia caused by a mortal suddenly fasting and depriving himself of water and food; he might accidentally fall into a deep sleep.

This is quite dangerous for the gods, but even more dangerous is the "backlash war against Buddhism" caused by excessive interference in the mortal world.

Rean even knew about this. The Goddess of Law and her kingdom perished together.

It has been proven that when deities, who are inherently representatives of power and order, merge with the national order, they often create overly extreme theocrats.

Countless historical developments have proven that when a theocracy is destroyed, the faith in the gods is also severely damaged. Even from a purely logical perspective, if a king and a god are mixed up, the succeeding king must exterminate them.

Some deities tried to avoid it, but ultimately could not resist the ever-expanding faith. Once they began to interfere on a large scale with mortal governments, becoming a theocracy seemed inevitable.

Too many examples have led these ancient deities to a consensus that they tend to remain at the level of large, transnational churches.

Often, only minor gods and evil gods who disregard long-term goals are particularly fond of religious kingdoms and extreme short-term expansion; they usually don't live long either.

"Is it only when you don't get involved that you can't lose no matter what? Uh, isn't this some kind of deep-seated government, behind-the-scenes manipulator, or big capitalist lurking in the shadows?"

Rean himself was quite open-minded; he didn't have any racial prejudice, after all, he didn't know what race he would be next.

And Dania didn't either. After all, she was actually a dragonborn.

Dragonborn are probably the most unique hybrid race. In most countries on the continent, they are regarded as non-dragon bloodlines.

In a sense, as a hybrid race, Dania might be the most friendly royal family on the continent to half-elves.

"When you are about to drown, the hand that pulls you out will naturally not refuse you, regardless of its race."

(End of this chapter)