1330 Utopia Part 2 (1/2)

”There is no civilization that lasts forever, Saleen... Master,” Heinreiz said.

Saleen was only able to hang his head low and accept the lesson. That was a notable saying among mages, and one that he should not have forgotten.

He lifted his head moments later and said, ”There is no civilization that will last forever, but we mages keep striving for eternity, nonetheless. There wouldn't be the likes of Holy Rock City and Alchemy City otherwise. Master, well... Regardless, I'm rich now, so just take it as me wanting to help fulfill Lex's ideals.”

”Ideals?” Heinreiz asked.

”Yeah, aren't there bards singing about utopias?” Saleen asked. ”I want to help make the Bitterwater Prefecture into a utopia.”

Heinreiz laughed.

”I don't find it funny,” Saleen said in a serious tone.

”It is funny, but it'd be interesting to do them precisely because such things are funny,” Heinreiz said. ”Alright, Lex isn't around, and she told me to watch over the city. I only ask of you of one thing: don't wreck the city walls at the north. That is Lex's favorite place.”

Saleen slightly blushed in embarrassment. He knew that he had always been heavy-handed when it came to modifying cities, like some upstart who had just gotten rich overnight.

The front walls of Bitterwater Prefecture was one of the most beautiful architectures that Saleen had ever seen. The buildings within the city were also stunningly beautiful. The city did not look like one that mages would have lived in at all. It looked like some kind of center of art.

Saleen nodded in agreement. Building a city was not something that could be done within days. The lightning puppets' combat capacity was enhanced by over 100 times when they were remade into lightning warriors. However, that came at a cost of losing their construction abilities. The original puppets were capable of being used for large-scale labor.

All the parts on those puppets had been able to be used for construction. The lightning warriors, on the other hand, were made specifically for killing and nothing else.

Saleen organized a massive lecture event right before Heinreiz's tower. It was not a speech event of the nobles but one of mages imparting knowledge. All the mages who joined the Bitterwater Prefecture's viscount's office had the right to participate in the lecture.

His lecture went on for one day. Most of it involved answering questions from the mages. The lecture became something the people of the prefecture remembered for ages to come because there were over 100 mages who advanced right there and then. Those mages had gathered enough magic chords. All they lacked was a chance of gaining higher understanding of magical powers.

Saleen gave them that opportunity and laid out advancement magic arrays on the fly, supplying them with huge amounts of magic nuclei. That made the mages extremely grateful.

Most mages found it difficult to accumulate enough magic nuclei for advancement. While mages were generally rich, with the mainland being at war everywhere, the prices of magic nucleus skyrocketed. Even the wealthy mages were unable to get through the situation without struggles.

Saleen made his speech for real after imparting magic knowledge. The topic of the speech was none other than ”Utopia.” He did not get very long-winded. Instead, he gave the mages an interesting lesson using matters happening around them.

Alchemy City was no longer the heaven that mages sought. Metatrin City was being put to the test by a constant state of war. Mages did not exist to fight wars, yet they were now compelled to research day and night ways to kill people just to survive. The notion of a mage unable to fight was worthless was wrong.

Saleen illustrated his vision of a utopia. In one such nation, a mage's mission was to make the lives of everyone more comfortable. Mages would no longer need to fight for a living. They were to return to their very nature as mages, learning about the truth of the world.

During his speech, he said, ”That was the first saying I learned when I first formed my magic chords, and I knew right there and then that it was the truth. Our world requires exploration. The mission of a mage is not to fight wars!”

Saleen's words evoked massive responses among the mages. Most mages did not get into magic-learning to fight wars. They chose to walk the path of a mage because they had personally witnessed the mystical side of magic.

However, a mage's journey was an unusually arduous one. One needed immense persistence to continue walking on that path. Persistence alone was not enough. One needed to form magic chords before one could truly be called a mage. Magic chords were not something achievable by everyone.

The nation illustrated by Saleen was one in which most people could learn magical knowledge. Even if they were unable to become mages, they could experience the beauty of magic. He did not deny the significance of mages in fighting wars.

He came to a conclusion through his analysis that it was war that fueled magic's progress. For example, the Cleaning spell. It was originally just a spell for wiping off dirt and was low level. In war scenarios, it could be used to help the injured, maintain large-scale equipment, and so on.

The Cleaning spell developed due to being specific needs for it. Thus, a level zero magic became a spell that could be advanced to level one. Before anyone realized it, a level one Cleaning spell became something that could clean huge rooms within moments, creating magic arrays that enabled those rooms to be kept clean forever.

Mages could make life better, as long as one had money. The Bitterwater Prefecture was one such example. The city had a beautiful environment. Before the mages came, the place was unable to even sustain peasants who labored in the fields.