Chapter 2605: Stepping Stone

Moreover, Weide's ambition went far beyond this; he even wanted to recruit students from across all of Netheril, rather than limiting it to the territory of his student, Yousina'er!

This once again exceeded Xia Duo's expectations, but Xia Duo did not pour cold water on Weide; with such a more radical person out in front, his own pressure would be much less.

If it could spark a trend that other lords would emulate, that would be even better.

"If you have already made up your mind, you can select a batch of articulate Mages and send them over. I will arrange for people to train them into qualified, full-time Teachers; consider it a small bit of help from me for this cause of yours!"

"You are willing to help me train full-time Teachers?"

Upon hearing this, Weide was overjoyed. He had originally only harbored the thought of being able to visit and understand the Tower of Time's mechanism for popularizing education; he had not expected to be able to send people to participate in it directly.

This would surely greatly accelerate the progress of education popularization under his command.

"Helping each other is an obligation between allies, isn't it? Of course, the training fees cannot be lacking, though," Xia Duo said with a smile.

These words left Weide stunned for a full few seconds, after which he let out a long sigh and said with great emotion: "I am far inferior to Lord Xia Duo!"

Afterward, Weide politely declined Xia Duo's invitation to stay and tour the Cultural and Arts Festival; he was already impatient to return and select seeds for full-time Teachers. As for culture and arts, he did not care much about them.

The situation at the Tower of Time, because it was not yet open to the public, could only be indirectly guessed by the Li Jie from some situations regarding the recruitment of new people in the Territory, but Weide's case was different.

Taking Xia Duo's own personal experience as an example, in a Traditional Mage Tower, one could only listen to lectures during the Apprentice stage, and could not ask questions. The various consumables and infrastructure necessary during the learning process—every single item was inseparable from money!

In the earlier days, as long as one came from a tower, no matter how one muddled through, one could at least muddle into the status of a Mage; in later days, the offspring of local lords were also far more likely to become Mages than ordinary people.

This was not as simple as just training a few full-time Teachers; it also included at least one set of basic textbooks that could be put into use immediately, and even many details of the entire educational system.

At the very least, given the current scale of Nan Jing, it was difficult to remain aloof.

But what about the other lords of Netheril?

Even after becoming an Official Mage, it was nothing more than escaping the fate of being an Advanced consumable, only to become a relatively higher-level consumable. The first step for a new Mage was to choose a mentor, choosing someone to exploit oneself.

Xia Duo prepared to use Weide as a pathfinding stone first to test the reactions of lords across Netheril, and also to see the problems that might be encountered after the appearance of a Magic School, before deciding on a response.

The more enlightened ones might not consider too much; as long as they saw the benefits, they would join the camp of education popularization. But those conservative ones, even if they saw the immediate benefits, would find it hard not to think about how the strengthening of the Mage class would weaken their current authority.

This problem seemed unrelated to Xia Duo, but the development of the Great Xia Territory could not be separated from the wealth and resources obtained from other parts of Netheril. Once problems arose elsewhere, it would actually be very difficult for him to remain aloof.

It could be said that in the past, a group of Traditional Mage Towers, including the Tower of Time, basically treated Apprentices as nothing more than consumables and tools for accumulating wealth; the probability of becoming a Mage was pitifully low.

Even if ordinary people had the chance to enter a Mage Tower to come into contact with Magic, there were still all kinds of obstacles waiting for them ahead.

"Weide, oh Weide, I hope you can blaze a viable path!"

As for those guests who came in a private capacity, Xia Duo did not meet them again, but let Laidun host them instead. Whether they wanted to stay in the surface territory of Linshui Village or in the Floating City, he tried his best to accommodate them.

When he was in his hometown, Xia Duo had seen a saying more than once, which went—never had he seen a country that went poor or perished because it promoted education!

……

If one were to do so, where would the cost come from? One must know that in order to promote Magic Civilianization, Xia Duo had artificially transferred a large amount of wealth to the common people. Did other lords have such great courage?

Even if they did, supporting the entire territory with one's own strength was unrealistic. The problem of development still had to be solved through development, but once development was frustrated, would those lords still be willing to popularize education or promote Magic Civilianization?

……

If one insisted on saying there was any art in this world, then in his eyes, Magic was the only art.

Besides this, Xia Duo still had to consider another problem, which was how to arrange the large number of new Mages brought about by the school system.

It was conceivable that once the school system was made public, it would trigger a huge disturbance in Netheril.

But would other territories do the same?

Chaos was almost an inevitable result.

After the meeting with Weide, Xia Duo did not immediately go to see the next guest, but sat alone and pondered quietly. He was thinking about the various impacts that helping Weide establish an educational system might bring.

The Mages of Netheril in the past were not selected from top to bottom according to talent; to a large extent, it was only related to one's background!

Afterward, there was a high probability of spending a lifetime locked in intrigue with one's mentor. When one finally had the qualifications to take on Apprentices, would one be willing to impart the knowledge and experience gained through painstaking effort and wealth to the Apprentices without compensation?

In Xia Duo's hometown, there was a saying called "a young daughter-in-law eventually becomes a mother-in-law." Even if people who grew up under this apprenticeship system became mentors and could control their own destiny, it was very difficult to shake off the inertia of this system.

Afterward, Xia Duo successively met with several councilors, as well as some lords who had come for his reputation. Xia Duo also met them personally, but he met them together; he really did not have the time and energy to meet and negotiate with them one by one.

In any case, he himself did not want to directly confront the conservative forces of Netheril. It was not that he couldn't, but since there could clearly be a better way, why be at loggerheads?

Like Weide, he probably wouldn't think about this problem; he might only be thinking about collecting the talent he needed through popularizing education, and then that would be enough.

Wanting to run a Magic Academy, or school, facing the entirety of Netheril—if it didn't achieve any results, that would be one thing, but once there were gains, it might attract a large amount of emulation.

Xia Duo, like Weide, could be considered a vested interest, but they were both relatively special. Xia Duo himself did not have much dictatorial thinking, and Weide was single-mindedly seeking technical breakthroughs and did not care much about anything else.

It could be seen that promoting education was beneficial to social development; only vested interests would fear a cause that so easily produced an emerging class.

In Nan Jing, simultaneously with the popularization of education, Xia Duo was also promoting Magic Civilianization, thereby creating enough social division of labor to accommodate the constantly increasing number of new Mages.

But Xia Duo had to consider what would happen if a rapidly expanding emerging class could not obtain the things it wanted.

In fact, this problem had already transcended the scope of enlightened versus conservative; it was that this old system naturally possessed a conservative tendency.