novelResearch Division 1
| ← Ch.0124 | Ch.0126 → |
With the rest of his day free, Daneel calmly trained in the Energized Training Chamber.
Early the next morning, a message came to his chambers which said that his first directive had already been fulfilled.
All of the talented blacksmiths and enchanters in the Kingdom had already been gathered, and were now waiting in the same clearing in which he had spoken to the Domination Corp.
This time, it was his original body which attended the meeting.
The clone had no mageroot, making it so that even the simplest spell could not be cast by it. Thus, Daneel had no other option but to use his original body if he intended to do something which involved fighting or casting spells.
Kellor was still coordinating with the ministers in order to fulfill his other directives, while Felix had gone back to the Training Hall to take care of some matters. Thus, it was just Daneel, Faxul and the two commanders who reached the clearing along with the retinue of soldiers who were now being called as the Royal Guard.
Realizing his folly before, Daneel had already decided to have the commanders accompany him as much as possible. What he liked most about them were their unyielding ideals which had stood against the barrage from the previous King for a very long time without being shattered. Also, he believed that their experience would definitely be invaluable no matter what situation he found himself in.
Both Aran and Cassandra found themselves also liking the King more and more. All these years, they had already gotten used to hiding their thoughts in order to not bring trouble on themselves. Finally, they had a chance to use their knowledge about the Kingdom to hopefully do some good to the people whom they had entered the army to protect.
Yet, even the experienced commanders couldn't help but stare when they arrived at the clearing.
What greeted them was a ragtag group of individuals, comprised of men and women of all ages and backgrounds.
Beggars, merchants, bureaucrats, slum-dwellers- each and every spectrum of the Kingdom were clearly represented in this group.
In fact, Daneel found himself wondering whether he had even come to the right clearing.
When the group saw the Royal Retinue making its way towards them from the palace, all of them either stood up or straightened themselves.
After bowing to the King, they couldn't help but notice the shock in the commanders' and the King's eyes.
Indeed, when they looked around them, they themselves doubted whether they had followed their instructions correctly.
"Greetings, My Lord. I am Sullivan, the new head of the RnD division of Lanthanor. I only took this post this morning after an inquiry into the division showed that the former head and vice-head are now imprisoned for laundering money. I was previously the one slated to replace the vice-head, thus I now represent the whole division."
The one who spoke was a man in blue robes with the symbol of a strange hammer with a single star floating above it emblazoned on his chest. He seemed to be middle-aged, with greying hair and skin that had begun to wrinkle.
Yet, his eyes were some of the sharpest that Daneel had ever seen.
Having studied enchanting himself, he knew that this was the mark of an enchanter.
Enchanters were required to have very strong senses in order to achieve the fine-tuned skill in engraving formations that was required. Thus, those who crossed a threshold on their journey as Enchanters could easily be distinguished from the masses, unless they chose to conceal the fact for some reason.
Around Sullivan were 15 other people in similar blue robes, yet their symbols did not have the star floating above the hammer like Sullivan's did.
Finally recalling where he had seen this symbol before, Daneel was startled as he realized just who this man was.
"You attended the Eldinor School of Enchanting and obtained the certification as a Grade 1 Enchanter?"
"Yes, My Lord. I passed the test for a Grade-1 Enchanter, while my 15 colleagues also attended the School."
Hearing the answer, Daneel couldn't help but ask the system to tell him all the information it had recorded regarding this School.
The Eldinor School of Enchanting was the most famous academy known throughout the 6 Kingdoms which boasted of producing the best enchanters.
Yet, the way the School worked was quite peculiar. Instead of focusing on talent, the only thing the School required was money.
Any individual who could pay a certain amount of gold or energy materials were eligible to enter the classes meant for those below the level of a Grade-1 Enchanter.
Even the price wasn't fixed, as the seats were limited which made it so that many times, a seat would go to the highest bidder.
Thus, no matter the nationality, anyone could enter as long as they had enough gold in their pockets.
In this way, the Kingdom of the Elves earned a huge sum of money each year.
Grade-1 Enchanters could only make trinkets for those in the Amateur Human Level, but this was already a very lucrative job when one considered the huge demand that an Enchanter would have no matter where he went.
If someone showed enough promise and wanted to be a Grade-2 Enchanter, the Kingdom required them to swear an oath to only serve Eldinor if they wished to obtain the knowledge required to train further.
Thus, they assured that their core knowledge only served themselves.
This reminded Daneel of the institutions back on Earth which charged enormous amounts of money for the services they gave.
With his curiosity regarding the background of these 16 people satiated, Daneel turned towards the others.
There were at least 1000 individuals in the group, with many even looking like they had come in from the countryside.
"All blacksmiths raise your hands."
With Daneel's command, over three-quarters of the group put their hands in the air, making the King sigh as he saw that his suspicion had come true.
Treading on the path of Enchanting required one to be a mage first and foremost, which meant that the possible demographic was already cut down by a large amount.
Along with that, only two types of people chose to go down the path of enchanting: highly talented mages who had the confidence to train in both effectively, or those of very low talent who turned to Enchanting in the hopes of earning a quick buck.
Except for the ones in blue robes, the rest in front of him were the latter.
Yet, Daneel's sigh hadn't been one of sadness-it had been the exact opposite.
These were exactly the people he wanted.
For many days and even years, Daneel had been thinking about just what concepts he would carry over to Angaria from Earth when he became King.
As someone who had been quite talented in academics, Daneel remembered for the most part all he had learned up until the time when he entered college, which was when the disaster which led to his death happened.
The problem with most obvious options was that there was no way to ensure that the design would stay with him. Replication was all too easy, and if he wasn't careful, it was very real possibility that he would end up making strong opponents even stronger by equipping them with advanced weapons.
Thus, he could only resort to things which couldn't be copied, like the Honey Trap Solution.
Although everyone knew the general concept, it was almost impossible for them to develop a spell similar to the one made by the system, at least in a short time.
Hence, what he needed were concepts that he could carry over from Earth which could be applied in a non-replicable manner using the system to add a uniqueness that would baffle anyone who even tried.
After thinking long and hard, he had chanced upon one concept which revolutionized the 19th Century and was instrumental in directing the way the Earth developed. In fact, almost every product sold on Earth had to have gone through this process at some point in its development.
It was the assembly line.
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