Chapter 3324: Golden Scales Are No Mere Pond Things; Once They Meet Wind and Cloud, They Turn Into Dragons

————Working overtime, slacking off to rush out a chapter, this chapter will be late~

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But under normal circumstances, no member of an Upper Family would actually do such a thing.

Being a member of an Upper Family is not equivalent to being a natural superior; even an illegitimate child like Aolin has a chance to become a member of an Upper Family, provided he gains the recognition of Aosimantusi.

Yet even with that recognition, it is almost impossible for Aolin to become the family heir, and it is even impossible for him to be given any decent training; barely being trained into an Elite Mage would be remarkable.

Under such circumstances, as long as Aolin is not stupid, he could never think of himself as a true member of an Upper Family and thus boss the Commoners around.

As for true members of an Upper Family, they have received systematic training and simply could not do something like banishing a Commoner; if they really did that, they might become the laughingstock of the Upper Family circles within Taiweimansa or even the entire Yierlan by the next day.

The authority of an Upper Family is not demonstrated by direct oppression of Commoners; in fact, the attitude of Upper Families in Elf society toward Commoners is mostly quite friendly.

Even Keman, who advocates Golden Elf Supremacy, would not let a most ordinary Wood Elf suffer any unbearable humiliation.

The oppression of the lower classes by Upper Families, or rather High Elves, exists throughout the process of social operation, such as restricting the spread of Magic.

They also do not say that they forbid Wood Elves from learning Magic, but rather—

Wood Elves lack talent, and no Mage is willing to take a Wood Elf as an apprentice, nor is the Magic Academy willing to accept them, but if a Wood Elf is willing, they can come to the Magic Academy to take the assessment.

If you pass, congratulations on becoming a glorious Magic Technician, from then on working in a workshop until you die. If you don't pass, then go back to where you came from; the best result thereafter would be becoming a glorious Druid, working in the fields until you die.

If you can't do anything, that's fine too; even if you do nothing, the High Elves will not let you starve to death, but you won't be very comfortable either. If you want to be more comfortable, you must work harder.

As for the real Magic Academy that systematically teaches Magic, sorry, those are private societies or clubs that do not accept applications from outsiders, and the state cannot manage them either; if you are outstanding enough, the Magic Academy will send you an invitation.

Besides this, there is also raising prices, making the labor income of Wood Elves barely enough to support themselves; wanting to improve oneself by saving money is almost impossible.

In reality, there are also almost no channels for improvement.

In the eyes of High Elves, Elves of the middle and lower classes are just tools with different uses; for example, the middle class can help them save money, and once it is saved to a certain degree, they harvest it all at once.

The lower class is specifically for doing chores; the best of the lower class are those who don't think about anything and wholeheartedly contribute to the prosperity of the Elf World.

For such Elves, the High Elves do not begrudge giving a certain amount of honor; such honor is very respected and popular among the lower class, and can also serve as a certain qualification in the middle class.

But in the eyes of the upper class, that is merely a bit of leftover scraps they casually bestowed, just a means of controlling subordinates.

If any High Elf took that seriously, they would only be considered unworthy of being a High Elf and would sooner or later fall to the lower class.

Therefore, regarding tools, as long as they have not offended them, how could High Elves be so bored as to torture their tools? On the contrary, they must protect them well and maintain them regularly!

Although this cognition does not exist in the mind of every member of an Upper Family, in the actual process of acting and making decisions, they still unconsciously make the choices most favorable to them, which is treating the middle and lower classes as tools and consumables.

Even if a very small number do not do this, they will quickly be excluded from the upper class and even suffer continuous suppression until there is no voice left.

This is the most disgusting part of class solidification: individual will can no longer be a decisive factor; the will of the group, or rather the class, occupies the leading position and excludes and suppresses all voices and behaviors that do not conform to the interests of the class.

Under such circumstances, the lower class seemingly has no worries about food and clothing, but in reality, their future has long been severed; they have just become the meat pigs of the upper class.

In the kingdoms of short-lived species, such a way of raising pigs might work; after all, Wisdom also needs time to grow, and by the time the short-lived species grow enough to recognize the status quo, they are already deeply trapped and unable to change it.

But as long-lived species, even if Elves read no books for hundreds of years and only learn from life experience, they can gradually realize the cold and cruel nature of the current society and subsequently develop the idea of change.

And Magic is the only way to change one's fate.

Xia Duo had long witnessed the longing of the lower-class Elves for Magic, enough to overcome the long-standing contempt and disdain for Netheril Magic in the Elf World, just to seize this opportunity that is highly likely to be the only one to change their fate.

Regarding this status quo, Xia Duo cannot completely change it for the time being, but he believes that intelligent life should not be treated this way, so he has a plan to actively spread Magic.

The technician route is generally the best choice for lower-class Elves to change their fate (gaining Magic Knowledge); this route will not harm the interests of the High Elves, at least not in the foreseeable future; on the contrary, it will greatly increase the interests of the High Elves.

The reason for this, explained using the theory from Xia Duo's hometown, is—training lower-class Elves into Magic Technicians is actually equivalent to increasing productivity.

But while productivity increases, the treatment of lower-class Elves will not improve much because of it; according to Xia Duo's speculation, it will likely remain the same as before—that is, a level where they have enough to eat and wear and can occasionally have some entertainment.

The benefits brought by the increase in productivity are almost all taken away by the High Elves; this proportion will be far higher than in the past, and may even reach 99%!

This is the great growth in interests that the High Elves can foresee.

The only hidden danger, and also the only opportunity for the lower class, is coming into contact with Magic; as long as enough of the lower class come into contact with Magic, it will be enough to produce a qualitative change.

Like on Earth, if one really discusses who holds the most power, it is actually the lower class that holds more power; even the violent apparatus, in the absence of fully automatic robots, still needs to be directly controlled by the lower class.

The upper class relies on systems, Faith, honor, money, and so on to control the lower class, thereby controlling the most powerful violent apparatus.

If the minds of all the lower class were connected in an instant and all produced the idea of change, then those upper-class people who do not actually directly control power or resources could completely cease to exist!

The biggest difference between the Magic world and Earth is that the High Elves directly control the most powerful force; under such circumstances, the lower class wanting to change their fate may face the most cruel suppression.

Of course, the Magic world is not without advantages, and that is that as long-lived species, the Wisdom accumulated by Elves over hundreds of years allows most of their lower class to possess a higher level of awareness than the lower class of humans.

Of course, one could also say that the longer one lives, the harder it is to endure long and endless oppression.