The Magic Empire for 20,000 years

Chapter 43, Section 42: The First Year of the Empire!
Dawn the next day.

The brilliant sunlight shone on the floating city, and dazzling white clouds drifted past on both sides of the city and flowed over the top of the tower.

Birds soared across the sky, flying past the fence of the floating city, chirping intermittently, praising the beauty of dawn.

At the Imperial Council, Elion proposed "establishing a new calendar for the Empire".

Unsurprisingly, this proposal was unanimously agreed upon by all the chief executives.

The current eight-member Imperial Council, with Elion having successfully won over four opponents—Gut, Helen, Kad, and Cassandra—and possessing the staunch support of General Thor, along with the other two chiefs who are the weakest and merely relatively weak eighth-ring mages, already has little say...

The Eldoron Imperial Council and the entire floating city are, in effect, completely under Elion's control.

In addition, the relationship between the surface and sky cities has improved over the past year, and national identity has been shaped.

Since its birth, the human kingdom of Eldoron has never been so united!
"From this day forward, we humans, we Eldoron, will have our own new calendar!"

At the end of the long black wooden table, Elian announced loudly:
"This year marks the beginning of the Eldoron era!"

……

The first year of the empire, late December.

South of Eldorlon.

Hundreds of spirits from various villages are clearing the wilderness and cultivating the wasteland.

The zombies used machetes and axes to cleave through bushes and crush thorns. They felt no pain as the sharp thorns pierced their skin.

The skeleton followed closely behind, turning the soil with a wooden plow and clearing away weeds with a stone hoe, thus clearing new arable land in the deserted wasteland.

If viewed from high above, one would surely see these hundreds of spirits, lined up at the boundary between civilization and wilderness, advancing step by step, cultivating the wasteland. This exemplifies the perfect and wondrous fusion of death and life.

It is indeed a unique sight.

This wilderness was once the territory of the orc clans.

Weak humans dared not approach.

But now, with the departure of the beastmen, the humans in the villages on the surface can finally set their sights on this place.

Unlike the orc tribes who live by hunting, nomadism, and plunder.

Sowing, working, and harvesting—guarding a piece of land and patiently waiting for the seedlings to grow—this is the philosophy of human life.

"Well done, undead!"

"This thing can really work 24 hours a day without needing any rest. It's amazing!"

"Moreover, the dead are not afraid of poisonous insects and snakes in the grass."

"Yeah, I saw an orc zombie get bitten by a black viper before, and it was completely fine. It just casually crushed the viper, which was thicker than its arm, to death."

"Nonsense! Didn't the mages say when they introduced the undead that they are immune to toxins?"

"Haha, once this land reclamation is finished, our family's arable land area will increase several times over. Then we can feed even more children!"

"..."

The humans behind them smiled with satisfaction as they watched the dead clearing the wilderness and overcoming obstacles.

This is a gift of magic from the heavens.

But the gifts of magic don't stop there!

"Apprentice mages, I'm entrusting the rest of the work to you."

Then, one by one, the children emerged from the crowd.

Among them was Grete's sister, Shiluka.

The children were seen chanting incantations softly, causing their fingertips to shoot out blazing flames.

Zero-ring trick, "Flaming Arrow"!
—After nearly a year of study, in many villages, the brightest group of children have successfully performed magic tricks and become apprentice magicians.

Although they still have a long way to go before becoming official mages, they are already genuine spellcasters!

The monks' apprentices' movements were sometimes skillful, sometimes clumsy.

Some children chanted the incantation many times before a few sparks flew from their fingertips. Seeing that their companions had all succeeded, they were so anxious that they were practically smoking. Other children, on the other hand, were very skilled and succeeded in casting the spell on their first try.

Grete's sister, Shiluka, belongs to the latter category.

Clusters of blazing flames, under the girl's control, landed on the grass, igniting the wild grass in the wasteland.

This is a crucial step in reclaiming wasteland.

Burn the weeds to kill their seeds and roots.

"Shiluka, well done! You truly are the smartest student among my students."

Watching the girl skillfully control the flames to burn away the weeds, Joseph, the teacher, excitedly encouraged her.

Over the past year, Joseph has long considered himself a member of Rolling Stone Village.

Today, Rolling Stone Village and several surrounding villages are collaborating to reclaim wasteland. Of course, he had to be there for such an important project!

"Well done, apprentice mages. You are much better than I was back then."

Joseph watched with satisfaction as his apprentices, some of whom were his own students and others from other teachers' classes, chanted magic spells over and over again.

Or cast "Flame Arrow" to burn the grassland and aid in clearing the land; or cast "Minor Illusion" and "Dancing Light" to scare away troublesome wild beasts; or cast "Magic Tricks" to move objects remotely and clear grass seeds from the soil...

It's only been less than a year, and Eldorlon has already gained so many new spellcasters...

Joseph was quite pleased.

What Joseph didn't know was that in the distant future, thousands of years later, in an era when humans had already taken over the land, the birth of a new mage would be far more difficult than in this era.

At that time, the common language used by humans had undergone many changes and was completely different from the ancient common language derived from dragon and elven languages ​​we use today. It also did not have the function of directly using magic to manipulate the power of nature. This meant that an ordinary human who wanted to learn arcane magic often had to spend many years learning the languages ​​of supernatural races such as elven and dragon languages ​​from scratch.

This is also one of the reasons why later generations of Buddhist monks were perceived as "learned" and "proficient in multiple languages".

Unless one is exceptionally gifted, no matter how much one studies, it is unlikely that one will reach the level of fluency in Elvish and Dragon languages ​​that is their native language.

This huge language barrier has directly kept many intelligent people with magical potential away from the path of becoming a mage.

This is also one of the reasons why, in later generations, despite humans having a far superior talent for learning compared to other races, the number of mage professions was not large.

In the ancient Eldorian era, humans themselves used an ancient common language derived from Elvish and Dragon languages.

This is equivalent to taking a shortcut.

Skipping the most difficult prerequisites, you can directly learn arcane spells!

This is the primordial year when magical education is most efficient and human mages are most likely to be born!
Just as Joseph was basking in the glory of Eldoron's magical education, a startled cry suddenly rang out from afar:
"Wow, there's a monster ahead!"

All that could be seen was a large bulge suddenly rising from the newly reclaimed land.

With a loud "bang," a giant, insect-like monster, at least two meters tall, emerged from the soil and opened its ferocious mouth towards the crowd.

Drops of strong acid dripped from the monster's mouth, sizzling and corroding as they touched the ground.

Clearly, the large-scale reclamation of wasteland has disturbed the monster's lair.

"Ahhh!"

"What kind of creature is this?"

"What should we do? It seems we've provoked some kind of terrifying creature?"

Terrified screams erupted from the crowd.

—On this fantastical continent, compared to Earth in Elian's previous life, the early humans faced far greater difficulties in survival.

Because this land is teeming with terrifying, fantastical monsters!

Whenever early humans tried to cultivate wasteland and expand their territory, those terrifying creatures would stand in their way.

This time, humanity has a new weapon!

"Don't be afraid, everyone."

Joseph waved to reassure the people from different villages.

"This monster is called a burrowing worm. Its individual combat strength is equivalent to that of a low-level second-ring mage."

Let's take it down together!

"Apprentice mages, heed my command, let's attack together!"

Joseph directed his panicked mage apprentices to unleash a spell together.

Corrosive strong acids, frigid rays, scorching hot rockets...

One spell after another struck the burrowing worm's carapace, causing it to let out a painful scream, and its movements became extremely sluggish due to the frost.

The monster was beaten until its skin was torn and its shell was shattered. It turned around and tried to burrow back into the soil to ambush any lone targets.

However, at that moment, a group of zombies and skeletons rushed in from all directions.

They raised their machetes and stone axes and pounced on the monster, quickly chopping the wounded burrowing worm into pieces.

"Great!"

"We've taken down that giant monster!"

"I thought it was some kind of powerful monster, but it was dealt with in no time."

"Yes, we have the knowledgeable Mr. Joseph in command, the mage apprentices, and these tireless, fearless undead. No matter how many monsters lurk in this wilderness, we are not afraid!"

The villagers cheered and celebrated their victory.

Under Joseph's command, everyone peeled off the carapace of the burrowing worm.

"This shell is a valuable item. It can be made into high-quality armor."

"Oh, right, the burrowing worm's acid sac is also an important alchemical material. Don't forget to collect it. Selling it to those high-level mages in the floating city can make a fortune!"

Under the guidance of such a monk, the villagers increasingly felt that:
The terrifying monsters that once lurked in the wilderness are no longer scary at all; instead, they are a rich source of resources and materials.

"I see. As long as we are strong enough, those things that once threatened us can become resources that we can utilize."

Hiluka watched the villagers remove the acid sacs from the burrowing worms, and was deeply moved.

"Very good, let's continue."

No matter how many monsters come, they will all become our materials!

The village chief encouraged everyone, and the teenagers also picked up their farm tools and shouted in response.

The dead and humans continued to cultivate this wasteland, overcoming all obstacles.

He spread knowledge across the land, labored the souls of the dead in the fields, drove away beasts and men from beyond the borders, and made all people aware of the name of the nation.

They pioneered the way through hardships and difficulties to open up the mountains and forests.

This was the first year of the empire.

(End of Volume 1)

I'll post the closing remarks later.

Tomorrow I will update the next chapter, "The Year of Prosperity." After initial development, Eldoron's reforms and development have yielded some results, and it's time for the "Results Settlement" phase.

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(End of this chapter)