"Luet, my friend, the forest looks great! How have you been lately?"

Roland and Luet patted each other on the shoulders, happily praising one another.

Investment? Of course, he was interested.

He had been waiting for Luet to say just that.

Luet's voice was loud and confident as still, "With my friend helping me, of course I’m doing well."

Roland's blushed; he was a little embarrassed because he was the one helping Yanis lately.

He bit his lip and decided to tell the truth.

Sincerity is the greatest trump card; it's better to tell him anyway!

"My friend Luet, I met Yanis a few days ago and asked her to build a garment factory here. I know you might be angry, but I had no choice. As a lord, I must develop my territory."

Though he hadn't told the whole truth, at least he hadn't lied, and his conscience felt much better immediately.

Luet slapped Roland's shoulder hard, pressing his feet slightly into the ground.

If Roland hadn't been a third-order knight and cast protective spells like hardened skin and rock armor on himself...

Luet's laughter made the surrounding leaves fall.

"Roland my friend, I appreciate your honesty, even though you're a cunning fellow, at least you didn't lie to me."

"You don't need to feel guilty, Yanis is hard to persuade. If she doesn't want this victory in her heart, nothing you said would have changed her mind. She's just using your request to fulfill her own wishes."

Luet seriously said to Roland, "Roland, don't be fooled by her amazing appearance. This young lady has her hands stained with blood; she's not some innocent girl."

Roland: "......"

Facing Luet's flawless eyes like the sky, Roland felt that any concealment would be disrespectful, so he cleared his throat and stated softly:

"My friend, there’s something I must inform you of. I hope you are angry after hearing this.."

"I know I’m being a shameless bastard here, but I hope you both could stay."

"Stay?" Luet looked enlightened.

No wonder Roland's promise was hoping he wouldn't lose. Now he understood what Roland actually wanted was a draw on the missionary competition. Although it's rare for missionary competitions to end in a draw, it's not impossible.

If the Divine Court of Light and the Forest Brotherhood both set up institutions in Minhausen, investing heavily and spreading religion, Minhausen would prosper soon. Such a vast land, once developed, has an unlimited future.

Roland's ambition was huge, but it was fine for Luet; He even appreciated this ambition. He was grateful that Roland chose to tell him the truth sincerely.

Luet slapped Roland's shoulder again, pressing his feet fully into the mud. Roland's internal organs were jolted.

Fortunately, Luet didn't intend to kill him, it was just a slight venting of dissatisParty, and he was just in discomfort. It was his fault for not being straightforward, this couldn't be blamed on Luet.

Luet withdrew his robust hand, chuckling:

"Roland, my friend, I've observed these days, if we drive away these trees and plant a Nature Tree here, the soil quality will gradually change."

"And the groud would be great for agricultural development?" Roland's face was full of surprise.

"Not necessarily agriculture, but definitely great for building cities."

What...great for building cities? Although it's good news, hearing such words seriously from this druid is somewhat ridiculous.

Seeing Roland's conflicted expression, Luet laughed, "My friend, any organization has different Partys and branches. Although we're all brothers within the Forest Brotherhood, even real brothers have their own ideas."

"Times have changed, druids are no longer the druids of the past. Our foundation is still the forest, but we don't resist changing the forest, stepping out of the forest, and integrating into the city. Unless you think druids are country bumpkins, not fit to build big cities?"

Luet joked with a serious face. They looked at each other and laughed out loud.

Roland's impression of Luet greatly improved. Initially, he had a stereotypical image of Luet as a traditional, rigid, inflexible, old druid.

However, Luet was only twenty-eight years old. He was quite young and had encountered new things and still had innovative thoughts.

Through Luet's explanation, Roland understood that the Forest Brotherhood internally was divided into three parties.

The Conservative Party wanted to maintain the original appearance of the druid sect, preferring traditions than change.

The Reformist Party believed they must change, requiring the Forest Brotherhood to step out of the forest and enter the human settlements' big cities to preach.

The Neutral Party's attitude was, "We're all brothers, no fighting, no fighting."

Luet was a core member of the Reformist Party.

Roland wasn't surprised; a group, of course, needs to maintain a united front externally, but it's terrifying if there are no different voices internally.

In the face of major interest differences, even blood-related brothers would turn against each other. How much more so for the Forest Brotherhood, a "fraternity" of unrelated brothers?

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Watching the zeal in Luet's eyes, Roland patted his chest hard, declaring loudly, "I'll always stand by my friend's side!"

His tone, as he spoke, was as if he was already a member of the Forest Brotherhood, expressing support for the leader of the Party.

Luet was pleased with Roland's attitude.

Although Roland's flirtation with the young lady from the Divine Court of Light annoyed him a bit, he believed his investment wouldn't go to waste.

Roland might be cunning, but only towards enemies.

Luet transformed into a large bird. He carried Roland to the treetop and outlined the future prospects for the vast forest.

In his passionate voice, Roland also felt his blood boiling. If these ideas were fully realized, Minhausen could easily become the capital of the empire.

Roland had an ambition which he hadn’t told anyone before. He wanted to build the fourth empire on the continent. He was ignited by the great future of Minhausen.

The founders of the three great empires might not have been of noble birth.

Since they’d managed to do it, why couldn't he?

...

"The names of the eras are bestowed by the gods and descended to the human world in the form of divine oracles before the start of each era, also determining the main theme of the era."

"Tiamat's history has gone through seven eras, the first six being the Dragon, Titan, War, Mechanical, Tree, Chaos, and the seventh being Annihilation."

"The first era featured the fights between dragons and beasts, ultimately leading to the beasts' victory, which gave birth to a wise species known as humans."

Sitting in the library, flipping through the archived books, brewing a cup of tea, was truly a supreme enjoyment.

The only regret was the lack of a beautiful girl to accompany his reading; Granni was helping the druids chop trees, Melannis spent more and more time in the northern forests, and Egilina returned to the StarGazers’ headquarters, temporarily not in the castle.

As for his maid...

Grandma Nia was indeed a beauty in her youth, but it wouldn't be right to have the elderly lady accompany him in reading, would it?

Flipping through "The Book of Eras", the endless history of the seven eras leaped off the page, as if he were transported to the era of fierce battles between dragons and titans.

The humans of the first era claimed to be spirits of the earth and related to giants. Giants were a superior race undertitans, with formidable combat capabilities; they led the entire human race to victory over the powerful dragons.

But the dragons did not go extinct, the surviving dragons fled to the peripheral islands and dared not to set foot on the central continent again.

The remaining dragons on the central continent were reduced to the birds in the sky and the poultry on the plates.

The historical records of the first era are very brief. After all, they are dusty events from millions of years ago, more akin to legendary stories than history.

Tales like "The black dragon spreading its wings, covering the sky and sun, tearing a huge rift in the earth" are merely for amusement. Roland certainly didn't believe them.

How could the historians know what the dragon said, what expression it had when waving its claws? Did he visit the first era? Who would believe that?

Closing "The Book of Eras" Part One, Roland continued to flip through the history of the Titan era.

He casually flipped through the history of the Titan era and without hesitation, closed the scroll and put it back on the shelf.

Interesting, but the authenticity is doubtful.

The third era was a time of strife for supremacy.

The most frequently appearing words in the entire summary were "XX, exited the stage of history."

As long as a race didn't go extinct, it would always make some voice, so exiting the stage of history means extinction.

He roughly counted, and in the third era, at least hundreds of races "exited the stage of history."

What surprised Roland the most was the fall of the titans.

How could the super race that drove the dragon race out of the central continent fall?

It was due to the combination of internal strife, refusal to adapt and arrogance.

As long as one refuses to progress, one will fall behind someday, however dominating one used to be. This was confirmed by the fall of the titans.

The giants fared slightly better than the titan race; they at least knew how to adapt, so they survived a bit longer. However, they still exited the stage of history during the sixth era, the Chaos era. The reason for the giant race's extinction was because they competited for living space with the human race.

The fourth era was the Mechanical era.

In the long history of Tiamat, no oil, natural gas, or even coal were found; the so-called mechanical civilization was mainly powered by magic crystal mines, driven by magic and alchemy, completely different from Earth's mechanical civilization. The rulers of the fourth era were dwarves and goblins.

The fifth era was the Tree era.

This was the era of the elves. They created a splendid magic civilization and completely ended the dispute of "goblin mechanics are the best" and "dwarf mechanics are the best."

There is no need to argue anymore. Elf magic was the best.

Then, the elves began to misuse magic, even attempting to research artificial deification.

Trying to stand shoulder to shoulder with gods as mortals, unsurprisingly, incurred divine punishment.

If it weren't for the protection of the goddess of nature, the elf race might have also "been eliminated from the stage of history."

At the end of the Tree era, the human race, which had been on the sidelines in the previous eras, made a poor imitation of the elves' natural magic, and thus the druid religion was born.

The sixth era, Chaos, lasted a long time. It was an era of endless wars. The brutal wars even split the central continent on the spot, dividing it into Gaea, Gondwana, and Nina continents.

Roland was on the Gaea continent.

The Chaos era has detailed historical records and archaeological artifacts; the historical records are very clear.

The sixth era can be simply summarized as a time of chaos, of which the consequence was the rise of the human race. The era witnessed the change from the dominance of the elf race to the predominance of the human race.

There were not a few races that exited the stage of history in the sixth era, but compared to the War era, the defeated races could at least surrender to be guaranteed survival. Well, except for the giants, because they provoked the human race.

The seventh era is now.

The word "Annihilation" sounds chilling. The meaning of the word is terrifying.

Roland couldn't be bothered to think about something too far away.

The shortest era lasted a hundred thousand years, the longest era is said to have extended for hundreds of millions of years.

It was only 1453 years from the start of the ear now. Even calculated by a hundred thousand years, the end of era was still very far away.

As well known to all, the lifespan of a sixth-order mortal was at most five thousand years. End of the era was not something he should take into consideration for now.

On earth, scientists had warned humanity that the sun would expand into a red giant in a few billion years, but does anyone care when the sun will explode? Roland's attitude towards the Annihilation is similar to how Earthlings care about the sun's end.

Just as he put "The Book of Eras" Volume Seven back on the shelf, text appeared in the void.

【You survived the fight with the quasi-fifth-order human Luet. You unlocked the achievement "Beyond your Limits". 500 divine gold coins distributed.】

Wait, that day my friend Luet was only half-angry and half-jokingly slapping casually, not really hitting. And even this could activate an achievement?

After being startled, he then felt relieved.

Just as he thought the system's reward was over, the golden text in the sky changed a few times.

【You read "The Pseudo-Book of Eras" and unlocked a hidden achievement. You received "The True Book of Eras"】

The exquisite book slowly appeared from nowhere.

Roland casually waved, and the book fell into his palm.

The material of the book was very special, appearing to be made from some special beast skin combined with magical materials.

The book didn't look big, but it was somewhat heavy to hold.

Just as he was about to open the book to read, the scroll suddenly disappeared, and the contents of the book, like engraved memories, fell into the sea of consciousness, clearly visible.

Roland's pupils sharply contracted.

The author of that pseudo Book of Eras was actually in the realm of gods.

He had a faint feeling that the author of "The True Book of Eras" was himself. It's just a pity that he could only see a small part of it. Roland's power was insufficient to check the hidden truths.

But at least he knew that apart from the parts that were identical between the two books, the other parts of the pseudo Book of Eras were all fake.