Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 334: Be a guest or settle down?

After nightfall, the brightly lit lord's castle hosted a welcome banquet for the first time.

Harvey sat at the head of the long banquet table and stood up, holding a silver cup inlaid with gold filigree. "Everyone, please join me in raising a toast to welcome my fellow spellcasters from the Lambert family and the Cult of the Dead!"

The officials from the city hall and the military who were invited to attend the meeting stood up as instructed, raised their glasses in unison and gave various welcome speeches to the necromancers sitting on one side of the long table.

The Lambert family and the secret cult members had never experienced such a scene before, so they could only stand up and return the greeting in a daze. Just as they took a sip of wine and sat down, they were greeted by another host representative lining up to toast. So they kept standing up and sitting down, gulping down a bellyful of wine.

Blake pulled a napkin over his face and burped a bit embarrassedly. "Hiccup... How rude, White. Sir Harvey is so warm and hospitable. We didn't enjoy such treatment the first time we came here."

White was relatively restrained in drinking, but he never stopped using the knife and fork in his hand from beginning to end. Although he tried his best to maintain his dining demeanor, the food in front of him, such as lemon roast chicken, honey-stuffed meatballs, smoked venison legs, and crispy fried pork chops, was obviously emptied much faster than others.

Necromancers have always been secretive and rarely go out. They generally do not interact closely with other orthodox spellcasters unless necessary, nor do they often socialize with ordinary people. In addition, no nobles or wealthy businessmen are willing to hire a necromancer as a magic consultant, which leads to most people living a rather poor and ascetic life.

The most typical difficulty is that they cannot, like other spellcasters, use money and connections to hire mortals to build a wizard tower for them to represent their noble status - zombies cannot be controlled to do fine construction and stonemasonry work. The undead spellcasters who are lucky enough to own a wizard tower all rely on generations of family inheritance to build it, and its location is often in remote places. After all, no feudal lord or noble would want a tower of the undead to stand tall in their city.

In addition, without the income from the nobles' betrothal gifts and offerings, they also have to spend a lot of money to purchase the large number of corpses needed for the experiments. Unlike other orthodox spellcasters, they cannot enjoy the discounts on magic materials and magic stones provided by the Federation. This makes the magic path of these necromancers extremely difficult and arduous.

They usually rely on water and bread as their main necessities. When meditating and practicing spells, they are reluctant to take magic-boosting potions or consume expensive magic stones to replenish their magic power.

As for...attending a sumptuous dinner at the invitation of a feudal lord, it is something that most people have never experienced.

At this banquet, not only did the lord himself, as the host, give the necromancers the respect they deserved, but even his officials, who seemed rather arrogant, did not show any disgust or contempt for the undead spellcasters. They stood up with smiles, served wine, and warmly invited them to eat and drink.

Especially those "gentlemen" in neat officer uniforms - among them there were actually two or three beast-like alien officers, which really made them feel incredible. These officers were the most hospitable. Some of them even stood up from their seats, walked around to where the necromancers were sitting, laughed and hugged a guest they liked, and started chatting enthusiastically while urging them to drink.

"Mage Michel, hahaha, if you want to inquire about the evil orc corpse, I'm the perfect person to come to you..." Dave held the hand of a pale, frail young mage and repeatedly gestured for him to finish the contents of his cup, leaving the mage, who had a very low alcohol tolerance, dizzy. "Come on, finish this glass of wine, and I'll tell you where to get a fresh, intact evil orc corpse!"

White keenly caught the conversation going on beside him. He quickly put down his knife and fork, leaned forward slightly, and politely asked, "Captain Dave, is your valley outpost really going to encounter a large number of fel orc tribes heading south to plunder?"

Dave narrowed his eyes and patted his chest as he replied, "How could I possibly deceive the Lord's distinguished guest? Every winter, those guys appear on time. The outpost fortress is the front line of the battle with them. After a battle, the corpses of the evil orcs pile up like a mountain. It takes us several days just to burn and bury them..."

White was stunned, and suddenly felt a tearing pain in his heart. He couldn't help but mutter, "What a waste!"

Seeing this, Dave immediately recalled the "lobbying missions" the lord had assigned to each of them before the banquet. With a swift movement of his eyes, he reached out and embraced the two necromancers, who looked regretful. He whispered, "Listen, without the lord's special approval, you can't get those corpses... You don't even qualify to go to the valley outpost. But..."

Mi Xiexi asked hurriedly, "How do we get the Lord's special approval?"

Dave blinked and smiled, "Of course, join us and serve the Lord... Not only can you go to the front lines yourself and choose from the corpses, but there are also many evil orc priests... We even captured some alive!"

Living material of an alien spellcaster!!!

White and Michelle looked at each other, and noticed the desire and greed in each other's eyes, and turned their eyes away in shame.

For a necromancer, it is harder than climbing to heaven to have living experimental materials at the level of a spellcaster without bringing disaster to himself. In the past, colleagues who dared to do so were eventually punished severely by the Federation and the Church, or were directly tied to the stake and burned.

...Halfway through the banquet, Harvey sat at the head of the table and took in the situation at the venue. He found that the atmosphere was almost set, and it was his turn to show his true colors.

He gently tapped the crystal wine glass beside him with his silver knife and fork. After a soft ding sound, the "drinking activity" that was still in full swing stopped immediately, and everyone sat down and returned to their seats.

"Everyone, I've already issued a construction order to the Territory City Hall today for the Academy of Sciences building..." Harvey smiled and looked around. Seeing the puzzled expressions on everyone's faces, he explained calmly, "Until the building is completed, you'll have to temporarily stay in a tourist hotel. I've had the City Hall vacate a hotel to ensure everyone has their own comfortable room."

Sirius and Prall, who were already a little tipsy, were stunned for a moment and asked, "Your Excellency, thank you for providing us with such a comfortable and luxurious temporary residence... But, we don't quite understand what that Academy of Sciences building means..."

Hooked!
Harvey smiled slightly and raised his hand to signal two waiters to push up a huge wooden blackboard and hang a huge architectural design drawing on it.

"Everyone, please look... This massive building, with five floors and nearly the size of two lords' castles, is the Academy of Sciences building."

Harvey stood up and talked about the architectural drawings.

"Except for the lobby on the first floor, each floor has independent functional areas, including lounges, material warehouses, laboratories, study rooms, libraries, restaurants, archives, and conference rooms..."

This kind of reinforced concrete building would have been considered a slightly exaggerated self-built building in the countryside in Harvey's previous life, but in this world, both in terms of height and scale, it far exceeded the specifications of a common wizard tower.

Everyone looked at the huge "U"-shaped building complex drawn on the blueprint and couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

Prall asked doubtfully, "My Lord, what does this have to do with us? With all due respect, you should be well aware that zombies and corpse puppets are incapable of completing such a large-scale and elaborate construction project... and we don't have any corpses to use right now."

Harvey waved his hand. "Who said I invited you here so that you could use zombies to build a house for me?"

He looked around and said sincerely, "My colleagues, this building is what I plan to build for you. It's a magical research institute dedicated to undead spellcasters. Upon completion, it will be delivered to you completely intact. Furthermore... it will be equipped with the most advanced magical experimental equipment and an abundant and continuous supply of magical materials. This is all directly linked to the cooperation agreement signed between the Federation and the Alchemy Exploration Society."

What? A magic academy dedicated to necromancers!!!
Hand it over to us? Necromancer, will I ever have the chance to own my own magic laboratory in my lifetime?
This... this is dozens of times more magnificent than those private mage towers of orthodox spellcasters!!!

Sirius' eyes were slightly red, his body trembling uncontrollably, and he struggled to squeeze out a few words through his lips. "Lord... Your Excellency, this... this... what price will we have to pay?"

Harvey said calmly, "No price is required. I simply hope that you will stay and settle down in my territory permanently... As for whether you are willing to serve and work for me, it is entirely up to you."

He paused, then slowly added, "Furthermore, if you join my ranks, I can absolutely guarantee your safety... and the respect and treatment you deserve. The Union and other spellcasting organizations will never again discriminate against or treat you unfairly. As for the Church... hehe, the heads of those Inquisitors and priests are hanging in the City Hall Square..."

Such sincerity, what else can I say...

The Lambert family and the Cult of the Dead have struggled to survive for too long. Today, even the only three high-level wizards left are almost dead. If they continue to hide and flee like this, they will eventually be completely destroyed by the attacks of the church and the nobility, and the Federation and other wizarding organizations will definitely sit idly by.

Sirius and Prall looked at each other, then stood up decisively and gave Harvey the most solemn ancient wizard salute. The necromancers behind them also stood up and saluted with excited expressions on their chests.

"We are willing to serve your lord! May your path of magic reach the ultimate truth!"

(End of this chapter)