The Magic Empire for 20,000 years

Chapter 161 Human-Made Changes in Life
And so, the elven student Doron, wearing his newly bought robes, continued his studies as usual.

Every day, when he activated the spell model in his mind and recited the incantation, he could feel that the robe helped him to concentrate better and focus on the spell.

This was something he had always dreamed of but never dared to even think about.

The days passed.

one year later.

The magical circuits within the robes continued to operate, and the enchantment effects showed no signs of weakening.

Another year later.

The robes were still as clean and new as ever.

The star patterns on the robe would occasionally shimmer in the darkness, helping the elven student to focus more on magic.

Another year has passed. (Early 17th year of the Empire)

"Ah, my robe is torn!"

Doron stared at the robe in his hand, its luster dimmed and some of the patterns torn, his expression complex.

He sprinkled a little sand onto his robe.

The automatic cleaning function that was supposed to appear was not triggered.

He then used the [Detection Magic] to carefully observe the fluctuations of magical aura on his robes.

Under the detection of the prophetic magic, it was discovered that the magic circuits inside the robes were slightly damaged.

"It seems the problem lies in the magic circuit; we need to find a professional enchanter to repair it."

"What a pity..."

After speaking, Doron turned and handed the robe to the girl behind him:

"So, Mia, your robes are indeed in trouble. Do you need me to find a craftsman who is skilled at repairing magical items?"

"Never mind. I'll go find it myself." The girl took back her robe, frowning as she said with obvious displeasure.

"I spent 95 gold coins to buy this robe. It was supposed to be made by the magical item craftsmen of the Sunflower Family. How could it break down so quickly?"

"I still have 10 years before I graduate."

After seeing off his female classmate, Duolun stood there blankly, feeling as if the world had become unreal.

As for the robe that Doron bought himself for 6 gold coins...

It was on my body at the moment, looking brand new and radiating a faint starlight, without any malfunction.

Every magic circuit was functioning perfectly, as if it were brand new.

How did the world become like this?

How can there be a logic that cheaper goods are of better quality?

Now that things have come to this, and seeing the dramatic drop in prices of all sorts of everyday items, even if Toron were completely oblivious to what was happening around him and focused solely on his studies, he would already know where the robes he bought were made.

Eldoron, the land of humans in the East, is the magic production base of Rolling Stone Town.

In recent years, Doron has clearly felt that the overall prices of all items in Moonsong City, whether magical or everyday items that do not contain magical elements, have dropped significantly.

Some of these items were produced in Eldoron's magical production base, while others were still produced in the Elven Kingdom itself, but their prices have dropped significantly due to competition from external forces.

In any case, the products Eldoron manufactures are changing his life.

The plight of the elven student Doron is just one aspect of the elven kingdom today, and it is happening to many different towns and different elves in the elven kingdom.

……

The Elf Kingdom, the territory of the Moon Whispering Clan.

The woodland was bathed in silvery moonlight, brimming with fairy magic, and dotted with starlight.

Neatly arranged, well-disciplined, and well-equipped elven warriors stood ready for battle.

An elven warrior who appears to be a superior officer is issuing orders:

"Recently, a large number of gnolls have suddenly appeared in the woodland."

"We suspect that it was Yenogu, the demon lord of the bottomless abyss and the King of the Gnolls, who bestowed a blessing upon ordinary gnolls and transformed them into Yenogu's Venomous Fangs."

"These advanced gnolls with abyssal blood can transform ordinary hyenas into adult gnolls. As long as the [Yenogu Fang] in the tribe is not eliminated, the number of gnolls will skyrocket."

"Therefore, our goal is to go deep into the forest, find the gnoll tribe, locate the [Yenogu Fang], and completely crush the gnoll tribe's growth."

The elven commander drew his gleaming longsword and pointed it at the sky:

"For the Whispering Moon Clan, for Her Majesty the Queen!" Many well-equipped elven warriors drew their swords, pointing them towards the sky.
"For the Whispering Moon Clan, for Her Majesty the Queen!"

Each of them was clad in half-armor and equipped with the longsword and longbow that the elves favored most.

The sword gleamed with a cold light, and the bow was curved like a full moon.

Looking at his well-equipped subordinates, the elven commander suddenly paused for a moment.

He recalled that over the past century, the equipment of the more than 100 rank-and-file soldiers who followed him was not actually that good.

At least not to the point where everyone is equipped with half-body plate armor, as is the case now.

The vast majority of soldiers wore ordinary leather and cloth armor.

He clearly remembered that what changed everything was that a few years ago, His Highness Seymour ordered a batch of weapons and armor from the magic production base in Peace Town, Eldoron...

"What? The military industry is too sensitive and shouldn't be handed over to foreign powers?"

When asked this question in public, His Highness Seymour answered as follows:
"It's alright. They're just ordinary weapons and equipment that don't contain any magical elements. High-end magical items for warfare definitely can't be produced for Eldoron."

"For these basic, ordinary equipment items, we'll just choose whichever company offers the best value for money."

"Anyway, we've had the Southern Dwarf Kingdom forge weapons for us plenty of times before. This time it's just a different client..."

Soon after, this batch of weapons and armor produced by Eldoron was delivered to the personal guards of the Whispering Moon family via a teleportation array.

To the officers' delight, compared to the heavy, bulky weapons and armor forged by the dwarves, whose style was incompatible with the elven warriors' agile fighting style, the weapons made by humans were much more exquisite and beautiful, and also much lighter. The officers' helmets were even decorated with some feathers.

It is clearly a personalized customization based on the aesthetics and agile combat style of the Elven race.

Since then, the personal guards of the Moon Whispering Royal Family, the first of the twenty-four elven families to use human-made equipment among their rank-and-file soldiers, have become significantly better equipped.

When the royal soldiers and other elven families carried out monster-slaying missions together, they attracted many envious glances.

However, the only thing that worried this elven commander was:
"I've heard that recently, several other elven families have also started ordering weapons and equipment from Eldoron's magic production base..."

"By then, our equipment won't be something to be envied anymore..."

"Captain, Captain, what are you thinking about?" The adjutant's voice pulled the elven commander back from his wandering thoughts.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” The elven centurion waved his hand.

"Everyone, focus on carrying out the mission."

"It would be best to find out why Yenogu, the Abyss Lord [King of the Gnolls], who has not interfered with the continent for many years, has suddenly become active in recent years and frequently responds to the Gnolls' sacrifices."

……

The territory of the Sun Elf family—the Radiant family.

Built of pure white marble, this magnificent mansion seems to blend seamlessly with nature.

"This is really unreasonable."

"Why should our hand-sewn robes and wands, painstakingly crafted by master stave makers with tiny knives, compete with their undead and mass-produced magical items?"

"The process costs and manufacturing time are on completely different levels!"

"Even the moon silk used to sew high-end robes, the soul-gathering wood and phoenix feathers used to make wands, the meteorite crystals used to make crystal balls, and many spellcasting materials used in ritual magic are all imported from our elven kingdom; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to make these things themselves."

"Under the impact of Eldoron in the East, our family's proud magical item manufacturing industry has shrunk by 50% in the past four years."

The atmosphere in the spacious and magnificent hall was so oppressive it felt like it was about to burst into flames.

Many of the high-ranking members of the Glorious Family looked serious, their brows furrowed.

After a moment of silence, an elven elder spoke again:

"The pace of life for humans and elves is completely different. They optimize products incredibly fast. Whenever a user makes a suggestion, the product is optimized within days at the fastest."

"Our elves live at a much slower pace, so it's impossible for us to keep up with this kind of feedback speed. The gap is just too big."

Another elven elder also frowned deeply. He sighed:
"The Radiant Family's magical item manufacturing industry has been passed down for over a thousand years and has always been synonymous with quality. Could it be that it is about to fall into our hands?"

"For centuries, we have always made wands and robes by hand, and every 20 to 30 years we improve and optimize magical items according to the requests of our customers. This model has been working perfectly all along."

"But now..."

At this point, everyone's expressions became even more solemn.

Compared to the mere shrinkage of industry and loss of profits, what is more terrifying is the sense of humiliation that "our proud way of life has been forcibly changed by foreign powers."

One of the Sun Elf elders, as if he had just thought of something, turned to ask the other person beside him:
"Trade with Eldorum has severely impacted our elven kingdom's existing manufacturing industry. Is it possible for us to persuade Her Majesty the Queen to restrict resource exports to humans?"

"Without the extraordinary materials that our elven kingdom exports in large quantities, Eldoron simply could not produce so many magical items."

(End of this chapter)