Chapter 1016: Two Major Issues, Targeted Handling

"King, following the promulgation of the act exempting Druids from mandatory military service, the public response has been enthusiastic, and some plantations have resumed operations, but the Mage community has expressed considerable grievances regarding this."

"King, the High Magic Academy you initiated has gained the support of many High Mages, but there are also quite a few who have expressed clear opposition."

"King, because the High Mage Ta La Si is satisfied with your establishment of the High Magic Academy, the full story behind the Drow sacrifice in Yisi City has now been uncovered, dispelling the public's panic, and you have gained immense prestige as a result."

"King, the Border Mythallar City rejected the inward migration and attachment of surrounding towns and expelled them all; some towns encountered Orc attacks during the migration process and suffered heavy losses. Due to this incident, the Pioneer Order you issued has been questioned by the public."

"King, after comprehensive rectification, the capital's public security has been greatly improved, but in the process, conflicts have occurred with quite a few Upper Families, and two of the investigators you appointed have gone missing."

Through the simple statements of these consultants and the specific information perceived from the surrounding environment, Xia Duo also gained a relatively comprehensive understanding of the current situation of this virtual kingdom.

Especially after one round, having issued orders and received feedback.

Generally speaking, this virtual kingdom only had class contradictions between the upper and lower levels; it did not have the contradictions between different ethnic groups within it like the Main Plane's Keman.

It is unclear whether the history of the Main Plane a thousand years ago went wrong, or if it was the kind of environment deliberately created during the reign of Yilisier Mianwang.

Xia Duo pondered carefully; in fact, the virtual kingdom in this trial might still be somewhat simplified. Although there were many problems, the core issues were only two points—

One was the contradiction between the upper and lower classes; it was not just the low status of Druids, but also the difficulty for ordinary Commoners to get ahead and for ordinary Mages to rise.

This can also be seen from the fact that although the Mage community was dissatisfied with the newly promulgated Druid decree, they ultimately only had considerable grievances rather than clear opposition, and the Magic Academy indeed played a major role.

And the fact that the majority of High Mages were in favor did not exceed Xia Duo's expectations; after all, having reached the pinnacle of power and strength, they naturally had to consider problems from a long-term perspective.

New High Mages would not just suddenly pop up; they were also cultivated with their participation, or rather, this was giving them the opportunity to cultivate their own wings.

Of course, things in the world cannot be entirely satisfactory. Many High Mages opposed it either out of "High Magic has huge dangers," or out of "protecting tradition," or simply because they "did not want others to become existences equal to themselves."

But clearly, Xia Duo bet correctly. Although this was only a trial, it must also reflect the reality (of the Projection Plane). The attitude of the High Mages in the virtual kingdom of the trial was, to a certain extent, the attitude of those High Mages who dominated the Divine Sword trial outside.

And most of those High Mages outside had experienced the Drow War, so they naturally knew the importance of cultivating Mages, especially High Mages.

And this also corresponded to the second core problem in this virtual plane—the problem of development.

In addition to development in Magic, there was also the development of territory and even the lives of the people. This was also one of the purposes of the Unification of Nations in the Listar Forest to establish a unified Keman.

Having figured these out, Xia Duo could issue orders in a targeted manner.

In the next few rounds, Xia Duo reconciled domestic contradictions while actively expanding outward.

Each round of the trial corresponded to the feedback of the mechanism behind the trial to the trial-taker's orders. As for how much time specifically, it depended on what orders were issued.

If it were daily government affairs or handling disputes, the flow of time would be very slow, but clearly, doing this for one or two rounds might be fine, but doing it more would certainly lead to being eliminated.

And if it involved major decisions in all aspects, time would rapidly advance to show the consequences of such decisions.

As for Xia Duo, because many of his orders involved a wide range of issues, time in the virtual kingdom passed very quickly; in just a few rounds, two hundred years had passed.

During this period, the achievements of the Magic Academy were the most prominent; in addition to six more High Mages, a large number of Elite Mages with outstanding talent emerged.

And in terms of reconciling the contradictions between the upper and lower levels, the Druid Skills Competition held every ten years brought a lot of attention to the Druid profession within the kingdom. Many small families no longer minded letting their second sons or branch family members become Druids.

As for the upward mobility channels for ordinary Commoners, for the time being, there were only outward expansion, joining the army, and becoming a Mage.

Yes, although Druids possessed extraordinary power and to a certain extent controlled the food lifeline of this country, they were still considered Commoners.

This was already an improved status; previously, to put it nicely, they were called plantation workers, and to put it bluntly, they were Slaves.

As for resistance, they had almost no other way except to strike; as long as a priest stepped forward, they could easily be stripped of their power.

Therefore, Xia Duo valued Yatewude in his Main Plane Territory even more. Once he could become a true Natural Druid, not to mention clearing out heretical thoughts within Netheril, he could even sell it back to the Elves.

And in fact, if it were on the Main Plane, Xia Duo would choose to popularize education and adjust the industrial structure to allow Commoners to obtain upward mobility channels, but here—

He did not doubt for a second that if he dared to issue such an order, the trial would definitely fail.

Even the previous High Magic Academy only recruited children of Nobles. Of course, there were no Nobles in name among the Elves, and the Netheril of the Main Plane was the same.

But this did not mean there were no Nobles in fact. Netheril Lords counted, and Great Arcanists also counted, and in Elf society, nobility was also reflected in the possession of the means of production.

Specifically to this virtual kingdom in the trial, Nobles at least needed to own their own plantations and be able to achieve food self-sufficiency.

The state would indeed provide food to Commoners, but this was considered unseemly. The first step to separating from the Commoners was to obtain one's own land.

Basically, there were only these three paths: outward expansion, joining the army, and becoming a Mage.

Becoming a Druid could improve one's life, but it did not help much with class advancement.

Xia Duo did not make any fundamental changes to Elf society; he only fine-tuned it from the perspective of a modern person so that it could develop better and faster.

This did not conflict with his purpose of wanting to verify his assumptions about magic civilization. For magic civilization, he relied almost entirely on imagination, so how could he forcibly add existing cognitions to it?

On the contrary, this process of gradual development, and the various problems in the process, were more worthy of his attention so that he could use them for reference when he returned to the Main Plane.

If he were to forcibly push a set of standards or theories, Xia Duo could guarantee that it would not take a few rounds before he would fail the trial.

Failure was not terrible; at worst, he would return to the Main Plane, but doing so would mean losing a rare opportunity to have many High Mages help deduce the progress of civilization.