Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 647 Perfect Match
"Out of 500 recruits in a basic training camp, excluding those who were unwilling to volunteer... only 19 people passed the tests after three rounds of assessments?"

Harvey closed the test report presented to him, pinching his brow and unable to suppress a laugh of exasperation.

Chris shrugged and spread his hands helplessly, saying, "Your Majesty, you know how low the endurance of mortals is... The less combat experience a new recruit has, the weaker they are in this regard. We might as well change our approach and seek a way out from those mentally resilient veterans."

“Indeed, while battle-hardened veterans may not possess the extraordinary abilities of spellcasters and bloodline warriors, their mental fortitude and spiritual strength are clearly superior to these half-baked recruits,” Egno chimed in.

Harvey hesitated and shook his head, slowly explaining, "It is precisely because of the veterans' long-standing combat mindset and unbreakable mental imprint that they find it difficult to truly enter the illusion experiment. Coupled with their high confidence in their own strength and weapons, once they enter the dream, their mental power will manifest powerful magical weapons that they have seen and touched in the real world, easily killing the target magical beasts that match them."

In this way, Harvey's attempt to achieve his goal through the experiment would fail directly—he wanted the soul and mental strength of the human and the target magical beast to be roughly equal, so that he could achieve a perfect match and high degree of integration in the subsequent magical armor experiment.

Since it was discovered that using spellcasters and bloodline warriors to stitch souls together with demonized creatures would result in uneven distribution of soul energy within the demonized armor, ultimately causing the [Beast Soul], which is capable of casting spells, to be suppressed and thus suffer from severely insufficient attack power.

Harvey immediately realized that as long as the [human soul] and [beast soul] were synchronized and equalized, with their strengths and weaknesses balanced, there was a high chance that the forced "stitching" of the past could be transformed into a complete fusion. This would allow the test subjects to possess the innate combat instincts of the [beast soul] and their own spellcasting abilities when equipped with armor, while also maintaining a clear and rational human mind.

He immediately shifted the test targets to those "raw recruits" from all over the kingdom who had just undergone basic training.

With the assistance of Dawson, a master of mental spellcasting, Harvey quickly catalyzed a ready-made illusion stone using the [Mastery of Magic Stone] technique and successfully "content-programmed" the dreamlike illusions within it, making it perfectly suited for the special recruitment assessment.

In the second round of assessment, the ferocious monsters that the new recruits saw in the dark room were actually scenes created by the Illusion Stone. In the final test, the illusions were intensified even more through soul connection, making them a concrete mental dream, allowing the soldiers to personally experience them and engage in life-or-death battles with the matched monsters.

The best possible result for the test is one that can complete the dream hunt while maintaining a level of strength comparable to the target monster.

The soldier named "Sek" in the report had accomplished the task almost perfectly.

The remaining eighteen qualified candidates will need further repeated training to meet the standard of successfully killing targets in dreams. Harvey felt there was no need to rush this.

"Your Majesty, several more groups of new recruits from the southern border of the kingdom will arrive in the capital this month. Should we wait until they have all been screened before training the qualified ones together?" Pierce suddenly asked in a deep voice.

Harvey decisively refused, saying, "No need... These future enhanced warriors are not meant to fight in large-scale groups. They should be trained in small groups in batches so that they can quickly adapt to the demonized armor and become familiar with combat methods that are completely different from the past."

Pierce nodded and bowed to indicate his obedience... but for some reason, a faint sense of melancholy rose in his heart. His Majesty seemed to have great confidence in these new recruits who were about to be transformed into armored warriors. This might threaten the bloodline warriors who were also created by him. He wondered if these two groups, who both possessed extraordinary power, would inevitably have many conflicts in the future.

After all, when facing one's "creator," the deep-seated desire for closeness, flattery, and vying for favor is simply unavoidable.

……

"Ugh—" Looking at the stinky Demon Claw Bear in front of him, Sek couldn't help but let out a soft retching sound.

Despite having passed three rounds of tests and been officially registered and selected for the special operations force, two full days have passed. Not only do I not know the name of my unit, but I am also forced to stay in this assessment courtyard, serving these ferocious beasts every day.

After the fierce battle in the dream world, Seker no longer felt the fear he once had for the demonic bear that was always in a deep sleep. Every now and then, researchers would come to inject it with a sleeping drug, and all he had to do was clean up its excrement three times a day while it was asleep, and use a thick metal tube to pry open the bear's mouth and pour in the meat paste that was meant to sustain its life.

It sounds simple, but when it comes to actually doing it, the pungent, sour smell coming from the bear's mouth during the feeding process is enough to make him feel nauseous on the spot.

The cage next to it, where Baler was responsible for feeding the griffin, was in an even worse state. Bird-like magical beasts are naturally straightforward; while they were being force-fed minced meat, he was already pooping and pooping in the back, with runny feces even splattering onto him, and the stench immediately filled the entire room.

"Ugh—I can't take it anymore! It's disgusting!"

"Ah! Damn it! Baler, stop right now!"

"No! I didn't do it!"

If even one person couldn't hold it in and vomited on the spot, the entire airtight room would instantly react like a chain reaction, with everyone else also dry heaving. The floor, which had just been washed with a large amount of high-concentration liquor, would immediately become a mess again.

What is the point of doing this?
While wiping away the tears brought on by the fumes, Sai Ke forced himself to continue working despite the discomfort.

The door was suddenly opened from the outside, and the staff officer who had been in charge of the assessment and selection reappeared. He hesitated for a moment in front of the door, but wisely chose not to step in.

"A bunch of useless bastards! You have five minutes to clean up the mess, then assemble in the yard!"

After everyone finally cleaned up the mess and assembled at the appointed time, they found that the staff officer, who was getting impatient, had a strange expression on his face that seemed to carry a hint of wicked amusement.

"Starting tomorrow, you will officially begin your special training, and you will no longer need to take care of these sleeping magical beasts..."

He pointed to the lab technician standing beside him, and the box full of injectable drugs he was carrying.

"Because all those magical beasts will be awakened and live with you... cultivate good understanding and bond!"

(End of this chapter)