Chapter 302: Not Exactly Loyal Allies

Li En's sudden whim progressed exceptionally smoothly.

On the third day, after the rain stopped and the entire city restarted, Li En went to find his nominal mentor.

"Participate in the front-line development in the name of cooperation? Sure, I have quite a few disciples here; which kind do you want?"

"Star Burner" Alcaste agreed at once, even seeming somewhat impatient.

Which kind? The one worth fighting with? The one worth looking at? Or the one that can both fight and be looked at?

"That place will be my important base; I need someone who can hold the scene. If they are of noble birth, it will save a lot of trouble."

The mentor happily agreed, after all, this was a good thing that benefited both sides.

Previously, Dai Niya had found a royal archmage who was her distant relative and built the mage tower underground; this was the same principle.

"In such a general environment, the only ones who seem capable of somewhat balancing the royal family, the nobles, and the various family churches are the archmages."

The dominance of spellcasters needs no further explanation; they have always been a neutral and stable force, and the vague tendency to group together, with places like Mage Street as the most obvious proof.

They need to exchange resources, knowledge, and connections to make progress, and there is often relatively reliable contact between them.

If one truly needs to find a trustworthy third party to balance the various local churches and great nobles, perhaps spellcasters leaning toward the academic school are the only choice.

Unlike the nobles and churches, most of them are truly uninterested in land and population; they have no fundamental conflict of interest with the royal family. The "magic materials" they are interested in can be obtained simply by constantly descending into ruins.

The reason Glowing City has so many mages is that it truly possesses the resources they want.

For a long time, the kingdom's lands have had spellcasters far exceeding what its scale should possess.

These spellcasters have basically no "loyalty," but at this moment, they might instead become the most "trustworthy" teammates.

"Our town should now be the deepest into the underground ruins; if there are any rare materials, they should be traded there first." The chip Li En put forward was very attractive.

Archmages generally do not lack money; what they lack are various materials and raw materials, which are an endless bottomless pit.

Mages consume large amounts of spellcasting materials and research materials; some utilize monster materials, while others analyze the essence of monsters, converting them into their own supernatural abilities or weapons and equipment.

For example, a magical beast might have three or four innate spellcasting abilities; spellcasters will all attempt to analyze them, acquire these natural magic modules, and convert them into ring-type magic that can be mass-produced and learned.

Imitation and learning are the root of mages constantly progressing and even vaguely becoming the strongest spellcasters.

But sometimes, the acquisition of some rare materials is impossibly difficult.

For instance, a spellcaster researching the "Holy Sun Beetle" would need large amounts of golden beetle materials; if he searched normally, he would probably have to travel far to the Desert Kingdom, and the harvest would be quite unstable.

Perhaps he would have to dig through hundreds of tombs just to be lucky enough to "excavate" one or two, and after he finally obtained this material, he would need a laboratory and other materials for auxiliary research, and might even need the help of other mages; a round trip could take several years, and if the research failed, he would have to start all over again.

Many spellcasters might spend their whole lives researching, with most of their time spent collecting materials, and because of this, they issued a large number of hunting and material-collection quests to "adventurers."

But in Glowing City, as long as the number of people going down to subdue monsters increases, the production of these rare materials becomes stable.

The output of the underground ruins is not only abundant and varied, but can even actively activate directed mutations to obtain urgently needed materials.

As long as there are enough materials, combined with the clustering of mages, their internal trading and mutual assistance can solve most problems in research.

Rare materials might not even be the most valuable thing in Glowing City; most of the mages who came for this reason further promoted the prosperity of Mage Street.

For many mages, being able to acquire research results just by spending money is simply too worthwhile.

"It would be best to find a more powerful senior brother, preferably one who can hold the scene, and who can kill indiscriminately when necessary."

"Hmm, how about my disciple Quinn Hida? Although he is relatively young among the archmages, he is not only a local but also of noble birth; he has five years of military experience. Although he is the third son and has no noble title, his local reputation should be enough, right?"

Li En nodded hurriedly; he hadn't even thought there would be such a suitable candidate.

Noble children without inheritance rights are also regarded as insiders by the circle; when a true feudal lord needs a title, but to serve as a lord's proxy is already sufficient.

Even as the mentor said, this senior brother is just a novice archmage, but he is still an archmage.

The advancement of spellcasters is basically the slowest of all professions, and their early-stage strength is quite subtle, but after the fifth-tier archmage, they are all treasures; their practical value is something a few great warriors cannot even compare to.