Chapter 855: Human Advantages, Increasing Influence

So, compared to Elves, where do the advantages of humans lie?

Reproduction—although an Elf female might only bear a handful of children over her hundreds of years of life, basically not exceeding one birth every hundred years, that is the result of many factors such as customs, social systems, and religious beliefs.

If they were to actually let go and reproduce, the population growth rate would absolutely exceed that of humans.

Not long ago, Xia Duo visited the 【Projection Plane: Underdark】, and he knows that Drow are even more aggressive in terms of reproduction; every Drow female must give birth approximately every 25 years after reaching sexual maturity—this is mandatory.

Such a reproductive frequency allows them to maintain orderly population growth even when their mortality rate is far higher than that of their Surface kin.

According to Xia Duo's calculations, as long as Elves reproduce one generation every hundred years, they can surpass humans in population growth rate; that is to say, the current population growth rate of the Elven Nations in the Main Plane is slightly higher than that of Netheril.

There are many factors involved here, and one of the most important reasons is that the survival rate of human infants is far lower than that of Elves.

Only if the infant survival rates of both sides were similar could Netheril's population growth rate slightly lead that of the Elven Nations.

Clearly, in terms of reproduction, humans cannot compare to Elves; whether it is quality, quantity, or the current population growth rate, they are inferior.

As for strength, whether in terms of individuals or the whole, humans are still lacking compared to Elves.

The only advantage is perhaps that human society is currently in an upward phase, while the Elven Nations are in a declining phase.

The biggest influencing factor here is that the Netheril Magic System is easier to popularize than the Elven Magic System, and it is also easier to rapidly convert into actual productivity.

But such an advantage cannot be reflected in any specific battle or war; on the contrary, this advantage might attract more attention, which does not necessarily bring good results for humans.

As for the advantage Xia Duo is thinking of, it is only in the Green Field Plane, a specific area where both sides have a certain tacit understanding.

In his view, Netheril does not necessarily need to hold onto this plane this time; as long as they can inflict heavy casualties on the Elves, causing the Seven Towers Council and the Pioneers of the new era to take a stand on the Elf issue and develop the courage to fight, that is enough.

Once this point is recognized and a clear goal is set, the advantage becomes very obvious.

The Elves want this plane—otherwise, it would be impossible for them to force their way in—and if they want this plane, the Mythallar might be the key, and the Mythallar Nodes are the entanglement they cannot give up.

As long as pressure is applied to the various Mythallar Nodes at the same time, it will certainly be able to pin down the majority of Elven Mages, forcing them to be unable to gather.

Even if the Elven Mythallar is eventually built, as long as enough Elven Mages can be killed to reduce the war potential of Cormanthor, then Netheril will not have lost this time.

After all, there are still so many lands to explore in the Main Plane; the Green Field Plane is merely a place with a slightly better environment and does not affect the overall situation. Furthermore, Plane Exploration is endless—who knows if another similar plane will be discovered?

Xia Duo even guesses that those Great Arcanists above are likely thinking the same thing; otherwise, why not arrange unified scheduling, but instead let each small team play freely?

Netheril certainly does not have the well-organized and disciplined Army system he understands, but anyone with a brain knows that unified command and scheduling are more combat-effective than a scattered group.

Xia Duo does not believe those Great Arcanists are truly brainless; perhaps there are considerations of evaluating talent and preparing for a real war in the future.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo decides to seize this opportunity; he does not ask to perform exceptionally well, but at least he must leave a deep impression on the Great Arcanists.

He is now only one step away from being a Senior Arcanist, and a Senior Arcanist can already be considered the core ruling class of Netheril.

One more step forward is to become a Great Arcanist, becoming a true ruler of this nation.

It is also time to show off!

In fact, ever since he sent books at the exchange meeting not long ago, Xia Duo has decided to gradually enter the high-level field of vision to gain real influence in this nation, rather than just a little bit of fame.

Who doesn't want to be a trendsetter of the era?

Although Xia Duo knows very clearly that once the 【Mythallar Core】 comes out, Iolum will become the absolute focus and protagonist of this era, but who says a trendsetter of the era must become the focus or protagonist?

As long as one has enough influence, one can still play with history and lead the era, especially for a transmigrator who knows the so-called "historical trend" and has seen another highly developed civilization.

Thinking of this, Xia Duo cannot help but sigh; it has taken him nearly ten years (personal perceived time) since transmigrating to reach this step—he really has dragged down his fellow transmigrators!

Of course, whether there are really transmigrators who slaughtered gods and destroyed demons within a year or two of transmigrating, or even if there are other transmigrators, Xia Duo is not sure.

This is just a joke he makes about his past experiences; in reality, he must keep a level head and focus on being steady, so that he can accumulate strength and live up to this journey of transmigration.

……

In the Sending with other High Mages, Xia Duo did not mention focusing on killing Elven Mages, although Archmage Fusitemu had mentioned it several times before, it was not the main content of the mission.

He still took the mission as the starting point, proposing to unite with other teams outside the support agreement to form several mobile High Mage squads to deal with Elven raids at any time.

Of course, the most important thing is to establish a relatively close communication system, agreeing to attack simultaneously to apply enough pressure to the Mythallar Nodes, forcing the Elven Mages to give up gathering or reduce the number of gatherings.

Only in this way can the role of the High Mage squads be brought into full play.

Unified scheduling—to use a term from Earth—is already the way to victory at the strategic level.

As for tactics, it is not difficult to form local victories of many against few and strong against weak through unified scheduling, eventually accumulating small victories into a big one to complete the major strategic goal.

……

Before long, Xi Ge Si sent back some not-so-good news, "Mage Xia Duo, I have asked several people over there, and they do not seem willing to unite with us."

Although he had anticipated this before, when he actually encountered this situation, Xia Duo still felt a bit unhappy.

In addition to their twenty-plus teams joining together, there are another twenty-plus teams, but most of those teams are veteran High Mages, and the core is a group of Arcanists who are very close to being Senior Arcanists.

Xia Duo is no stranger to those Arcanists; during this year's Snow Melting Competition, they were the ones representing the Seven Towers and Netheril.

He even trained those Arcanists in the non-magic version of 【Arcane Maze】, which is Chess, so they have at least some friendship.

But when it comes to fighting and their own safety, those Arcanists are still relatively cautious, as are those veteran High Mages.

Perhaps they are not as good as Xia Duo's side in terms of potential, but in terms of specific combat ability and combat experience, those people are much better than this side.