Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 350 The Seven Sages and the Land of Truth

The Kingdom of Aetherin is a rural place, or rather, a remote place of exile.

This is an unfortunate reality, and there's no need to emphasize its backwardness. But what exactly is the difference between it and the truly prosperous areas of the mainland?
Aren't extraordinary people still extraordinary people? But reality is quite cruel to "country folks".

"Due to recent difficulties in exploring new lands, the Steam Science Department has submitted a new funding request. They intend to build more prototype steamships, with a long-distance voyage expected within six months. In addition, they are inquiring about the previously submitted project to build steam-powered airships."

"Rejected. The steam fleet, which we invested heavily in before, was not much better than ordinary sailing ships when facing cloud whales. The huge investment yielded no return. As for airships, given the magic conversion rate of the new steam engines, we also reject them. We have no interest in using resources that are enough to develop eleventh-ring magic for floating discs."

Rean's city, Radiant City, is where the dwarves and gnomes brought a primitive steam locomotive to make a show of things, but in reality, this technology has been updated at least a dozen times.

It has developed for hundreds of years and even made technological progress to the level of the modern industrial revolution. However, unlike the other world, due to the existence of too many "more advantageous disciplines", the application of this technology has always been limited to low-magic vehicles, and it seems that it can only become a "steam science".

The place where the debate took place was a huge conference room divided into several concentric rings.

At this moment, the one who spoke up and asked for a budget was a middle-aged monk in the middle ring.

Judging from his position, he seemed to be a middle-level manager.

But in reality, as the head of the Steam Power Department under the Gear Mechanics (Dwarves and Gnomes) Society of the Modern Alchemy Department, and as he was securing a budget for the department, his status was already quite high. In fact, when he visited many small countries, such as the Kingdom of Aetherin, he was required to be personally received by their king or queen.

But within this ring, he was just an ordinary member of the fourth ring, with at least several hundred, nearly a thousand, people in the same rank.

This is the Stu Federation, the land of books and magic. Although it is a superpower at the core of the world's "civilization," its territory is smaller than most medium-sized countries, consisting of only a few dozen cities.

However, for at least a thousand years no fool has tried to attack this permanently neutral country that has no army.

“But Branch President Dilro…” The head of the Steam Science Department was interrupted halfway through his explanation.

"Make achievements, produce results, and prove that you still have value."

The one who disagreed with him was the president of the Gear Machinery Society. As his immediate superior, he disapproved of his subordinate's report that went beyond his authority.

His anger was justified; budget requests of this caliber should have been resolved within the branch.

As a result, these guys who were short of funds simply used the "Exploring New Lands" thematic conference as a pretext to dump it on the main conference.

This was clearly a case of going beyond one's level, and as a member of the inner circle, he naturally had to deny it.

President Dillow glanced at the situation in the inner ring and breathed a sigh of relief. The core black ring was empty, and there were only a few people in the second red ring as well; otherwise, they would have lost face big time this time.

The Seven Sages and Thirty-Three Kings hold the core decision-making power of the Truthful Sages Association, but the positions of the Seven Sages have been vacant for hundreds of years. It's not that there are no people; in fact, this position has always been filled and rotated, but the Seven Sages basically don't get involved.

Each of the thirty-three kings commanded a "department" to specialize in the study of a particular branch of truth.

They are all very busy people, and today, considering the important topic of exploring new lands, a total of nine of them have come.

“Dilro, don’t be so harsh. I think the Steam Science Department has a lot of potential. Maybe one day it will become an independent discipline. Our department was born from classical magic, after all.” Ferrando Flashgold, the head of the Gear and Machinery Department and one of the monarchs, stopped his subordinate’s farce.

If you're a local, you can tell from the name that it's a typical dwarf's name. It makes you look a bit like a child-like magical king, wearing glasses and standing on a chair giving a speech.

The times are always progressing, and those who fall behind don't need to be lazy; simply being ignorant and closing their eyes is enough. The eight categories of classical magic are no longer used in the true land of magic. To some, they are merely "classical theories," outdated and obsolete.

The current thirty-three faculties represent branches of knowledge, and are also the result of the continuous evolution of modern magic.

Building upon classical magic theories, they continuously produce new achievements, shaping new magic theories and spellcasting models. In a sense, they are indeed qualified to regard mages from other regions who still use the nine classical schools as bumpkins.

For them, the essence of a mage is not the spellcaster, but the scholar who pursues knowledge and progress. As for magic, it is merely a byproduct of their research.

Therefore, the steam engine, this "mechanical creation," has been transformed into a member of the magical discipline, and has even received increasing attention in recent years. This has even led to the creation of a professional system that uses steam-powered beasts for combat. Some have proposed upgrading it to a society rather than a "discipline," which is the root of the current conflict between the heads of societies and disciplines.

However, this does not mean that the Stu Federation is invincible. In fact, the Stu Federation is "non-existent" in the minds of most mages.

At least twenty of the thirty-three monarchs are foreigners. They each have their own research institutions and departments. The headquarters of many departments are not even in the Federation. For example, the Department of Dragon Language Spells is located in the Dragon Kingdom of Otto Federation. It is just a region for academic communication and a platform for them to exchange ideas.

The cities in the Federation are basically governed by mages. This may be a region that is close to an ideal utopia, but in the eyes of the locals, only mages can be considered human.

The Federation's emblem is a wizard's hat figure under a dimensional gate. However, since it is a simple line drawing, it looks more like a square with a slanted "7".

Therefore, some people directly call it the Seven Squares Federation.

Some say this alludes to the seven sages who are forever absent. Many monks accept that they do not exist, and even wish they did not exist.

After all, everyone is here to conduct academic research. It's really frustrating when managers drag everyone into politics.

But today, the turning point in history has quietly arrived, and all participants are destined to be disappointed.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, a king accidentally dropped his precious teacup, completely forgetting to pick it up.

Before him, the seats of the Seven Sages, which had been empty for hundreds of years, were now occupied by a dark figure.

"There really are seven sages?" This is a position that ordinary people simply cannot attain.

As the magic kings rubbed their eyes in surprise that the rumors had actually become reality, the shadowy figure spoke.

"The demonic tide has risen. Scout the border of the elemental demonic realm, complete sampling and calculation within three months to determine the exact time of the major outbreak of the demonic tide. Help small countries seal the beasts to avoid a chain reaction that could lead to genocide." One order after another was issued, but they were all troublesome matters that required the archmages to run away.

As he spoke, a map appeared in the void, pointing out points where elemental tides were rising in an overwhelming manner.

If Rean were here, he would probably recognize one of the elemental realms at a glance.
"Lor Storm Corridor, Kro Canyon"

Next, the sealed beasts' kingdoms and cities will naturally include familiar areas.

"Radiant City of the Kingdom of Aetherin, the Former Capital of the Kingdom of Aetherin"

(End of this chapter)