Chapter 30 - Aftermath
The day after what people immediately called the descent of the thunder God’s day.
"Enlightenment?"
"Yes, I finally have the fortune to experience that wonderful thing myself”
"Impossible"
“How envious"
"To be able to receive enlightenment in such an old age. It was even more unprecedented than just a young promising mage who received enlightenment. The size of phenomenon yesterday was an undeniable truth”
“Silence! What we want to know is how Great Mage Alfonse managed to reach enlightenment, aren't we? So let him talk first”
"That's right, that's right. Let's hear the process so we might be able to reach enlightenment ourselves!"
“So that's how, Great Mage Alfonse. Could you please explain how you managed to reach enlightenment?"
“Of course I won't mind. So the long story short. It was all thanks to my new disciple”
"Here's the details. So I want to hold a class for my new disciple to let him learn about the basics of magic and elements as that is not a knowledge that is spread outside of our mage community. I could also teach my granddaughter at once so I get her to come too”
"Nothing worthy of mention happened except for my disciple Milo asking to move out to the garden because of the heat”
"I thought it was a great idea to have a small rest and continue our lesson in the garden. So I agree with him"
“Then continuing our lesson, I began to teach my disciple and granddaughter about the lightning element. And there's when my enlightenment began”
"As I explained about the lightning element to them, Milo said that the lightning element is like an advanced form of the wind element. Just like how earth and metal works. That statement intrigued me so I ask him a bit more about it”
“According to him, his way of casting lightning magic is by pulling the lightning elements in the air and letting it go to its original place which creates lightning arcs in the process. I immediately try it out and I just fallen into a trance like that”
“That easy!?"
" Unbelievable!”
“So such small mentions of lightning being an advanced form of wind magic gave you enlightenment!?"
"Yes, I also don't know the details but, I guess my long accumulation of knowledge managed to bloom thanks to that trigger”
"Now that you say it like that, the enlightenment doesn't sound like a random happening anymore"
“Indeed, who doesn't accumulate knowledge at this stage of cultivation? And if something triggers that accumulation, everyone can get enlightenment!”
“But in the long history of our kingdom, Great Mage Alfonse is the first to experience that. Yes, we all can accumulate. But it seems that the trigger here depend on a lot of luck"
The old mages in the conference room animatedly talked about the enlightenment that Great Mage Alphonse had experienced the day before. Great Mage Alfonse then raises his hand again to gain the attention of everyone.
“If I have to say, what my disciple said when he confronted that teacher turned demon held some truth. He said something about the mother of learning, which is to discuss things with the old and the young after you gain some new learnings. So in short, sharing your secret to, well, ideally, to everyone”
"But that's preposterous!”
"That's right, that's right! How can we share our cherished treasure, our research result, to everyone?”
"I also thought of that at first” Great Mage Alfonse interject the old mages complain and continue on with his point
"You see, knowledge is indeed a sharp weapon in the right hand and a terrible disaster in the wrong hand. But only by clashing and colliding with other people’s point of view could knowledge grow and evolve”
"Moreover, you also need other people to check the validity of your result. And don't get me started with research redundancy that would just waste everyone's time”
“Research redundancy is when two or more people research on the same subject or worse, research something that had already been researched before by others because everyone are keeping it a secret”
"I can see how much money and time got wasted because magicians are keeping secret from one another”
"Thanks to my enlightenment, I could see the stupidity of keeping every knowledge you own a secret”
"Then, what do you suggest, Great Mage?"
"That's what I've been wanting to hear. I talked about this yesterday with my disciple for a while and I think it was a great idea that we all can follow. So in short, let's use the merit system”
"Merit system? As in paying people for their contribution?”
"Yes, but the deed and the reward would not be just the usual money, goods, or materials. Instead, it will be rewarding knowledge with the ability to access more knowledge”
“So like the library system but for secret knowledge?"
"Mostly like that. But still, there are a lot of problems that need to be addressed before we can start sharing our secret. Like the problem regarding safety, how much merit each knowledge should be worth, creating a committee to watch over the process, dealing with how to store all that data, and maybe developing a system to trade with foreign powers? Those are problems that float on my head once I think more about it and there's definitely more that I miss"
"Yes, it is indeed a lot of trouble involved and money to spend. But it is for the sake of our own advancement and enlightenment. Of course I will also chip in my wealth if everyone support this new institution to be created"
The talk between high ranked mage of the kingdom then continues on for a while after that.
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#Milo POV
"And that idea got rejected in the end?"
"That's right. *sigh* Why would those old folks not see the benefit of a consolidated research center? We can increase the level of our mages faster with that facility! Isn't sacrificing their secret a bit for a better future the logical way to go?"
"Well, I expected it actually"
"You expected our proposal to be rejected?"
"Well, yeah. Humans are, after all, beings that rarely think about things in the long term. Most would get tempted by the benefit in front of their eyes and stop thinking at that point. It has been repeatedly written in history and humans never learned"
"That's… I'm speechless. Are you sure you are just a 15 years old adult?"
"That is what boredom and a lot of books did to me. I think I won't be the only one like this"
"Indeed reading is a good way to earn wisdom. But what should we do with this project, then?"
"We can just do it ourself. Build a guild or something similar then recruit people to study together while we create a product that could sell from what researched”
"Making a research guild is good but why should we sell products? Money is the root of all evil. Your seniors are all stuck in the 4th tier because they keep chasing money and neglecting their cultivation. There's even one that died foolishly from chasing it”
“Haven't we talked about this before master? We should use money, not let money use us”
"Ugh. I'm sorry, disciple. I think I still feel sore about it. Yes, we have talked about it before… Indeed money is a necessity ij everything but it is not the end goal”
"That's right, Master. And haven't we got the perfect thing to sell there?"
“Magitech? But that light magitech might make the academy resent us. I don't want to make them enemies if possible”
“Master, it is normal to make enemies in business. But to make you feel better, let me ask, how long ago did the academy find the way to craft that light magic item?”
“It was a few hundred years ago, why?"
“That is exactly my point. It has been a few hundred years and they still haven't improved that technology yet? They got complacent with what, their ancestors' invention? What would happen if someone other than me found a new cheaper and better way to make a light magic item? They will immediately get kicked out from their business all the same. I'm actually helping them by providing them a wake up call”
"Indeed, being stagnant for a few hundred of years feels pathetic if you put it that way”
“Monopoly kills creativity while competition promotes it. That's also why I want to share magitech to the outside world. Of course, that is after my business gained a step ahead”
"That sounds like a sound idea”
"Then I will make that research guild as soon as possible. I will be hoping for your support, Master”
"Sure, I will watch over you so you won't get tempted by money”
"When that time comes, please do scold me harshly, Master”
####
Yesterday seems to be a close call with everyone getting enlightened at the same time but in reality, it was not. Or rather, I am the only one showing a dangerous phenomenon according to my master.
Thinking about it again, well, I should have realized it after I heard about how Princess Isabella showed a harmless phenomenon when she was entranced by my enlightenment. At that time, she got enlightened about casting magic from the other elements beside her own affinity after listening to my lecture and she just manifested those other elements in the form of basic training drill form.
In other words, the phenomenon that she created is basically harmless. It is also similar to her guard that just managed to reach tier 1 mage as they are only a tier 2 knight before. Their phenomenon was just a basic training drill form for their own elemental affinity which is fire and water.
I was surprised to know which one of the twins has which elements but seriously, Katherine, that little spicy fellow, actually has water affinity while the gentle (assassin) elder sister, Kimberly, has fire affinity.
Well, it's not like people's elemental affinity is related to their personality. This needs a deeper research to know whether this hypothesis is true or not but as far as I can tell, there is no relation between a mage’s elemental affinity to their personality. But still, the fiery Katherine is water while the gentle Kimberly is fire. Such contrast is just funny to me somehow.
That was for the tier 1 and tier 0 enlightenment. For tier 2 enlightenment, well, for my subordinates, they do tend to produce dangerous phenomena but it mostly only surrounds themselves. Their phenomena have a short range of around 1 or 2 meters around them so they aren't really that dangerous either if they get separated in time. Of course, as the affinity of my mage squads are not destructive in nature, people might escape unharmed even if they get too close to their phenomena.
That is only applicable to Ray and Rocky though, as their phenomena are just flashing and small scale quakes. For the others, Robin’s might bind you with the vines growing around him, Clay’s might stab you as he produced many sharp edged metal around him, and the most lethal one in my opinion, Lily’s might turn you into a block of ice.
It's good that I place them away from each other and especially away from me as my phenomenon is the most dangerous.
According to Master, when he awakened from his enlightenment process, he witnessed a 3 to 4 meters tall flesh giant whipping its tentacles everywhere around it and only my face was visible in the flesh giant’s chest.
After Master realized the situation he once again sealed me with the sealing technique / shield so I won't hurt anyone.
It's good that I suddenly have the inspiration to throw them instead of just placing them with my tentacles at the end.
Because they would be in range for my tentacles to hit them when I was still entranced if I were to just put them down.
It can be seen from the phenomena that Robin, Rocky, and Clay manifested as the area closest to me got destroyed by my tentacles.
That really was a close one.
But then again, talking about the flesh giant, that reminds me that I still have other spells in the fleshmancy study that I still haven't yet explored. The flesh golem spell. There are many isekai stories in my time that showed how OP a skill that could create an ally was. Either it was necromancy, soul entrapment, golemancy, summoner, mechanic, and other classes that could ‘summon’ helpers.
So I guess, fleshmancy is basically an OP study too. It made me tanky by summoning more bulk to my flesh, could heal me, and flesh golem which had unlimited potential.
Even if fleshmancy study is inferior in offensive power, it can win by surviving longer. So I just need to fill in the inferior part with other magic study and I can become OP.
Or just depend on equipment. That is also a way. Sigh, I really wish I had a cheat power when I reincarnated into this world. Unfortunately for me, I don't have that. So yeah, I can only work hard.
Well, it must be karma for me as I was a NEET in my previous life. So I have been forced to work hard since childhood. Not that I complain though. I can see clear results from my hard work after all.
After we are all finished with our enlightenment, we regain our consciousness while being surrounded by old mages who come to check what happened. And they immediately ask Master for an explanation which leads to that meeting between famous mages this morning. Everyone could see Master's phenomenon after all. So there's no hiding it.
Of course I give Master some ‘suggestions’ on things that should be hidden like hiding my earlier enlightenment and hiding that I am already suspicious of Master's possible enlightenment before it happens as it would disturb me. Master agreed as he thought that my freedom to learn magic is number one so he helped me cover up some things.
What causes more headache to me is that the saintess, Celestine, visits me in the afternoon asking me about enlightenment and asking me to help her study too.
Okay, okay, I get it. You want to become strong right? Then I will personally train you with Isabella. Of course I will train you with Isabella as Master entrusted her to me. I can't reject my master request, can I?
If you don't like it then you don't have to train with me. There are other people stronger than me that can train you, right? Okay, okay, okay. Sheesh. If you want me to train you, we will do it my way. Understand? And also, I can't guarantee that you will receive enlightenment. If you are fine with that then just come to my mansion early morning and afternoon for training.
Of course you also need to pay. What? You think you are an orphaned child that can't work to pay for other people's services? Of course you have to pay. You can also pay with your body, you know? Wait, wait. No violence! I'm just kidding! What I meant by paying with your body is doing a legit job via the hunter guild where you will use your body to work hard for it.
Sigh, what a troublesome lass. Give me a break.
I should also call Leon to help. Don't wanna lose my personal training time.