Dragon, choose cultural victory to make money

The alchemist Bruce, the first believer under Drogo, the well-deserved high priest of Drogo's faith, the current war hero of the Principality of Orion, is facing something that makes him very annoyed.

This matter began when he followed the instructions of "My Lord" and threatened Lord Knox to resist the attack of the Roman army.

Originally, the story behind this incident was a bit shady and not suitable to be brought to the table. After all, it was threatening the lives of the man's entire family and forcing him to fight a battle that seemed to have no chance of winning and was a complete death battle.

But because the Sutton Air Force descended from the sky, really descended from the sky, it opened the eyes of all the people in Knox County and made them realize the importance of air supremacy.

At the same time, it also achieved the first major victory for Orion since the invasion of Loman.

Lord Knox, and Bruce, unsurprisingly, became war heroes.

It's just that there are some minor differences between the version of the story that has been circulated and the version that actually happened.

In the version that has been circulated, it is no longer a threat to the lives of the entire family, but Lord Knox is far-sighted and keenly judged that Sutton has the strength to fight against Loman, so he boldly asked for help and fought for a glimmer of hope for Orion.

Bruce was a man of great sense of justice. He did not care at all about the isolation he had faced within the Knox Territory. He resolutely stood at the forefront of the war and made great contributions.

Both became war heroes.

As Bruce had said to the lord, "You will thank me later," and the lord was indeed grateful.

Ever since that battle, the Golden Plains has become the focus of the world, and everyone is paying attention to the changes on this battlefield.

The Principality of Orion gained the confidence to fight back. It gathered all the forces it could muster and, with the help of the devil mercenaries, started a tug-of-war with Roman on the Golden Plains.

Actual combat is always the best classroom.

During the war, Orion's traditional, unprofessional noble private soldiers began to gradually reform, and the soldiers who survived the battlefield with a high mortality rate also adapted to the new form of warfare.

As for the lord himself, there is hope that the title will change.

Military merit is the most reasonable way for nobles to advance.

The lord's military achievements were already quite outstanding in this era. He led his army to drive the Romans out of Knox Territory, advancing all the way to the edge of the Golden Plains, and reached a stalemate there.

Of course, in theory, this can be achieved mainly thanks to the large amount of new equipment provided by Sutton and the devils who continue to come forward.

But Orion still gave the credit to Lord Knox. It is better to give the credit to the countrymen than to give the credit to foreigners who are not even human beings.

Sutton and the devil didn't care about it. What's the use of credit? As long as Orion paid for it, it would be fine.

Compared to Lord Knox, who was in high spirits and hoped to surpass the glory of his ancestors, this war brought almost nothing good to Bruce.

In order to better learn and verify the valuable knowledge obtained from the "Great Being", Bruce's long-abandoned laboratory became busy again.

As he was already old, he no longer carried out any large-scale experiments, so he only used one of the many experimental sites in the tower and most of the apprentices were dismissed.

The huge spire looks like a haunted house.

Until his desire for knowledge was rekindled.

Under such conditions, it is impossible to verify new knowledge.

So Bruce had to reopen the many testing sites in the tower and start recruiting apprentices.

In name, they are apprentices, but the requirement is to be outstanding talents with independent academic research capabilities and the ability to stand on their own.

At least that's what Bruce wanted to ask for at first.

However, things soon developed in a direction he had never expected.

Other nobles in the Principality of Orion have realized that the Golden Plains is the best place to make achievements.

The "Golden" Plains is simply the best choice for the descendants of aristocrats to gild their resumes.

The so-called gold plating is naturally not real gold.

Those nobles didn't want their descendants to rush to the most dangerous places and fight with real swords and guns to gain merit.

Descendants who had made contributions but died were of no use to them, not to mention that most young people among the nobles did not have that ability.

Naturally, these nobles set their sights on Bruce who was in Knox Territory.

Because the Roman army has been pushed to the edge of the Golden Plains, Knox Territory is the safest area in the entire territory of Orion that is still considered a war zone.

I just heard that Master Bruce has reopened his laboratory and is working on a major project, so there is a great chance that he will produce results.

The nobles' minds immediately opened up.

Who says that only achievements earned through hard work are merits?

In the "harsh environment" within the war zone, they still resolutely walked on the path of pursuing truth, never complaining about the hardship or fatigue, and contributed to the Principality's scientific and technological breakthroughs.

Isn’t this also a brilliant resume?
"I'm sorry, but your child doesn't meet the requirements of my alchemy laboratory."

"Yes, I know your child has obtained a double degree from St. Gor University, but shouldn't you know better than me how your child got in? Playing the violin well is not an academic ability."

"No, you misunderstood. My laboratory is not short of funds at the moment."

"Do I have to say it again? No means no. An alchemist must study alchemy!"

Bruce hung up and threw the phone aside.

"What do you think science is? Is it a tool for profit-making that you can use whenever you want?"

His skinny face actually had a bit more color because of anger, and he looked more like a living person than the old man who was like a deep pool of water before.

This was the umpteenth call he had received in these days.

They are all similar content.

A certain noble wanted to stuff their children into his alchemy laboratory.

For them, it doesn’t matter whether the major is relevant or not. It’s just a stepping stone for the future. What does it matter if it’s not relevant? They don’t plan to produce any real results, so wouldn’t it be better for them to just share some of other people’s results?

As soon as Bruce refused, the nobles' first reaction was that the benefits offered were not enough, and they immediately started talking about funding.

An exchange of interests? That's how their world works.

This annoyed Bruce, who didn't like socializing.

If it were the original him, he might agree to part of it because he needed the money.

But now, it's impossible.

This is not about money, but about faith. It is a step to follow the great Drogo and seek the ultimate truth, which cannot be tarnished.

He had performed poorly in the exam and would not allow himself to fail in the experimental verification phase as well.

Therefore, the apprentices currently recruited in his laboratory have all received a complete education, come from ordinary families, or even poor families, and have gone through layers of examinations and screening, studied hard for more than ten years or even dozens of years, and obtained professional qualifications and certification from the Alchemist Guild to become serious and capable alchemists.

Rather than those who originally studied literature, art or other messy subjects and suddenly want to get involved.

It's not that he has any objection to these subjects, but he always believes that it is much easier to dilute or falsify the content in these subjects.

In fact, Bruce is not targeting family background. There are also several apprentices in the laboratory now whose families are quite wealthy, but this does not affect their seriousness and concentration, their love of learning, and most of them are also talented.

Otherwise they wouldn't choose this profession.

If a mature alchemist wants to grow, in addition to the initial learning in school, he must also become an apprentice after graduation, a very traditional master-apprentice system, and learn from a certified alchemist.

Starting from the most basic apprentice who can only help and is not allowed to do experiments independently, after a few years, he becomes an assistant, and after a few more years, which may be longer or shorter depending on his talent, he can finally become a true alchemist. Under normal circumstances, every certified alchemist has to go through this process, the only difference is whether to go to school first or be an apprentice and do odd jobs for a few more years.

Of course, this is only under normal circumstances.

It took Bruce a while to calm down, and he decided to turn off his phone.

No matter who you love, he won’t serve you.

Anyway, he only has a few years left to live, and the last of his life will be dedicated to truth and faith. He has no intention of entering politics, and he can ignore those so-called aristocratic families.

The old man stood up and walked to his test bench.

What is going on here is an experiment in how faith creates conscious entities.

The power of faith and consciousness are actually not within the scope of alchemists' research.

Rather, it is what the other organization he belongs to, the Soul Ascenders, are most passionate about.

Bruce was also studying this, also under Drogo's order. The knowledge bestowed upon him included methods of observing faith and ways to test weak consciousness.

His task was to demonstrate that enough beliefs brought together at the same time could change the nature of consciousness and ultimately shape reality.

This is what the Ascending Souls have always dreamed of, to condense the consciousness uploaded by generations of Ascending Souls into a true man-made god.

This idea is of course problematic. Bruce has learned from the knowledge he has gained that God is man-made. To be more precise, God is shaped by the beliefs of all living beings.

But no one knows what the Soul Ascenders want to create.

This is also the reason given by Drogo, why he wanted Bruce to become a sage and hand over the method of faith entity to the Soul Ascender.

Perhaps He wanted to see what the false god created by the Ascender would become in the end.

Bruce had no intention of speculating on Drogo's purpose. No matter what Drogo wanted to do, he would follow him unconditionally.

After recording the experimental changes and data, he calculated that it would take another three hours to get the final result.

Bruce thought about it and decided that there was nothing more important right now, so he might as well take this opportunity to guide the apprentices in the laboratory.

None of the apprentices in the laboratory were idle. They were all assigned experimental tasks. Tasks that were not related to the Soul Ascenders were the parts of the knowledge that Drogo imparted that were more suitable for public disclosure.

It is also his duty as the high priest to spread this knowledge.

Bruce left his own room and went to where the apprentices were.

As soon as the sound of his room door opening was heard, the apprentices trembled visibly.

The young people all knew that the time had come to preach.

Yes, Bruce calls this process of guiding apprentices "missionary work".

In his opinion, this is indeed the case, spreading the knowledge from the true ancient gods to the lost beings in the secular world.

Very missionary.

What is being disseminated is a little more hardcore and has a stronger logic.

Moreover, the content is very rich. It not only contains "doctrines", but also comes with examples and experiments.

But to the apprentices, this sounded a bit abnormal.

Stern, eccentric, maybe mentally ill, probably caused by years of exposure to alchemical materials, but he teaches real things.

This was the impression the apprentices had of the old alchemist.

Bruce's way of preaching also matches the impression of the apprentices.

He would stand beside the apprentice who was doing the experiment without saying a word, staring at him with eyes just like a village butcher looking at a pig on the chopping board.

Every apprentice would feel nervous and want to cry when he looked at them like this, and would inevitably make mistakes.

There's no way around it. It's understandable that he's under a lot of mental pressure when being watched by a mentor who has made great achievements but has a lot of bad rumors about him, looks like a dangerous old man in a horror movie, and lives in a eerie mansion like one in a horror movie.

However, all this seemed normal to Bruce, and that was how the great Drogo viewed him during the exam.

Religious tradition!

Bruce floated behind a female apprentice like a ghost.

It was very obvious that the female apprentice's hands were shaking.

"Idiot, are your hands pig's trotters? You can't even hold a glass rod!"

The apprentice became even more frightened after hearing this, and he lost his balance and dropped the glass rod.

"Oh, that's great. I really hope you have a dangerous material in your hand. Then you can blow me up and I won't have to suffer this."

The apprentice picked it up immediately and continued his experiment.

"How do you record the experimental data? Don't you understand the numbers? The purification yield is 92%, why don't you just write 120%? It doesn't matter anyway."

"Oh my god, how come I haven't learned the basic inscription attributes? Can these two inscriptions appear in the same rune?"

"If I were you, I would increase the magic power on this node by 12% so that you don't have to stare at this turtle-like operating efficiency."

Bruce is indeed a very strict mentor.

"Bring me the lab report!"

This is the real "death sentence" for the apprentice.

I handed in the experimental report tremblingly, waiting for the final judgment of the Chief Justice.

"Shit! What a piece of shit! How could you design such a beautiful experiment like this?"

"Are there any innovations? Didn't you get some inspiration from those great knowledges..."

After severely criticizing the work, he threw the lab report back to the apprentice like he was throwing away garbage.

To be an apprentice under him, one needs to have some mental endurance.

After reading the report, Bruce estimated that it was about time and prepared to go back to check his experiment.

Before leaving, I suddenly remembered the teachings of "my Lord".

Be more tolerant towards those who are willing to pursue knowledge and give appropriate encouragement.

Bruce reflected that he might have been too harsh on these young people.

We have to make up for it.

Looking back at the apprentices, they shuddered again.

Bruce looked troubled, as if he was thinking about some extremely complex ultimate question.

The thinking lasted for half a minute.

Bruce managed to utter, "Well, uh, the layout is pretty good."

This is the only merit he could think of that deserves encouragement. (End of this chapter)