NOVEL NEXT Chapter 94. The Calm Before Storm
After several years, Cedric finally stopped studying the knowledge he took from earth.
Previously, his knowledge was mainly skewed toward biology. Especially the biological structure of humanoids and lizard-like creatures.
He indeed also knows a bit of chemistry, and has slight knowledge in physics related fields, but his specialty is still biology.
Even so, his knowledge can be said to be unorthodox as most of it is gained from experiments and dissecting creatures. He is basically grasping around blindly and only achieves the feat of creating a dragon through sheer will and some luck.
Thankfully, the knowledge he acquired on Earth has helped him address those weaknesses.
Cedric closed his eyes and muttered, "Right now, I have some ideas to further optimize the dragons. After studying the training method in depth and trying to create a training method for blessed with Divine Strength, I should be able to create dragon v2."
The System suddenly chimed in.
[Bewildered look.jpg]
[Why are you so attached to dragons? Can't you create another race?]
Cedric looked at the messages the System had just sent and became utterly speechless. "What is that bewildered look.jpg thingy?"
For information, the System didn't send an image. Instead, it just sent him a message with the word 'bewildered look.jpg'
[Well, the System doesn't want to waste extra energy by sending images. Anyway, why are you so affixed to dragons? From what the System has seen, you should be able to create an intelligent race as long as you study a bit more on that path.]
"Hmm?" Cedric read the System's message and fell into contemplation.
After recalling the things he has learned, Cedric indeed found he seems to have the basics to create an intelligent race. After all, while he was on Earth, he also gathered a lot of knowledge related to brains and nervous systems.
With that knowledge as the base, he should be able to do an even more daring modification.
'Unlike the current dragons that are just several magic creatures spliced together, I should be able to use an intelligent race as a base for my dragon v2 so they'll also have some intelligence.' Cedric then shrugged, 'Perhaps it's time for me to dissect more intelligent races. But this time, I'll need to focus on their brains.'
At last, he stopped thinking and observed the situations in the Crystal Cube world. "It's been a few years since I checked them. There aren't any warnings about the birth of the demon king from the System. So, the situation should be stable for now."
After sending his mental power to the world, the first thing that Cedric checks is the dwarf's situation.
The last time he checked them, the dwarf's situation was quite precarious, especially since there were now several ant queens attacking them. So, Cedric focused his attention on them.
Controlling his mental power, a dwarf city soon came into his view. It's the city where the second-generation ant queen has invaded.
Right now, the city has turned into a fortress city with two defensive walls.
The first one surrounded the city and guarded it from outside attacks.
The second one surrounded the mining tunnels where the giant ant's nest is located.
In the tunnels, Cedric saw a lot of the dwarf's newly invented weapons.
After years, they have successfully created some guns. However, those guns failed to become mainstream weapons because the enemy they encountered were mostly ants with strong carapace. But those dwarves haven't stopped researching stronger guns.
Right now, some guns can easily pierce through the ant's carapace. But it used too many precious materials and the dwarves are still busy finding alternative cheaper materials.
Furthermore, unlike a portable cannon that requires a blessed with divine strength to use. The guns can be used even by children. Of course, the fact that dwarven children are a lot tougher than human children is also a contributing factor.
With the help of guns and cannons, the amount of low-leveled blessed in the dwarven race kept on increasing. This has also increased the amount of Level 2 blessed in the dwarf races to twelve, which is almost half of the human's.
Of course, it's half the amount of level 2 blessed that Cedric last checked. God knows if there are any massive changes in the human race.
Except for the city, Cedric has also checked the other cities and found a new good trend.
The dwarves seem to have found steam power and began utilizing it to create simple steam machinery.
Although they are currently only used as pumps to transfer water. Cedric believed the dwarves would find a new usage soon enough.
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"The dwarves seem to be doing fine." Cedric muttered, "If this goes on, I believe I can balance the human's power with the other races soon."
Then, Cedric moved his attention to the humans.
After all these years, the number of human kingdoms somehow hasn't changed. Which is a pretty good thing. At least that means the human race hasn't caused a massive battle that resulted in a massacre.
Then, he focused on the northern area. In the north of human territory, the northern kingdoms have begun to encroach into the mountain range. But not long after they took the resources from a few mountains, their path was blocked by the dragons.
Even by gathering an alliance of three northern kingdoms, the dragons still stand strong. Especially since the battle happens in a mountainous terrain which gives the winged dragons a great advantage in mobility.
On the other side, the southern kingdoms had already repealed the first dragon and taken control of more islands. Still, their march is blocked by the dragons that have gathered to occasionally attack the invading human ships and human settlements on the islands.
When Cedric thought those dragons with intelligence equal to children actually do that for revenge. He found out they actually don't really mind being attacked by the humans.
The only reason they fought back and attacked human settlements was to steal the food that humans created. It seems those dragons found the human's food to be more to their liking than wild food.
Except for the three northern and southern kingdoms that are busy expanding, the two great kingdoms are calm.
The great sun kingdom and sacred kingdom that stood in the middle simply took advantage of their strength and location to focus on trade. They collected riches by becoming a hub connecting the smaller kingdoms while maintaining an absolute advantage in technology.
Right now, Cedric has found many interesting technologies in the two great kingdoms, especially in terms of potioneering.
They actually have successfully created a kind of potion that can help humans with gathering mana in their body, thus increasing their level.
Of course, the effect is still pretty weak and there are some other limitations and side effects. But it's still a groundbreaking achievement.
That potion has also become a hard currency among the higher up of human races.
As for Lacius and the temple. They are still controlling the human race through faith as usual. The only thing of note is the density of Level 2 blessed in the temple.
The six small kingdoms now have 2 Level 2 blessed on average, while the great sun kingdom and sacred kingdom have 4 blessed each.
As for the amount of blessed in the temple, it actually has reached a staggering number of 33 Level 2 blessed!
Cedric guessed it had something to do with the stele he gave and how the temple's inheritance method differed from the kingdoms.
In the kingdoms, the training method for Level 2 is inherited only by members of the royal bloodline.
The reason why the great sun kingdom and sacred kingdom are more blessed is simply because they have more resources to gather magical plants to be used as ingredients for potions, and because the royal family has a much bigger side branch compared to other kingdoms.
The talented children from those branches will be recalled by the royal family to marry into the current royal family before being granted the chance to train in the Level 2 method.
Meanwhile, the temple allows anyone with sufficient faith level, contribution, and talent to get the training method for Level 2. Furthermore, unlike the royal families of the kingdoms that only have Level 2 training methods for one to three elements. The temple has Level 2 training methods for all elements except for the recently emerging nature element.
Now that he thinks about those natural elements blessed in the humans and dwarf race, he kinda feels they're a bit pitiful. Because he didn't give them a training method, those people are still grasping around to create their training method.
Their current plight is even more pitiful than those blessed with divine strength who still haven't found their training method even until now.
At least those blessed with divine strength can raise their rank in their respective race army relatively quickly. But the blessed with nature element of the dwarves race usually only works as a farmer.
The situation in the human race is slightly better as those with natural elements are usually hired by alchemists as humanoid plant growth boosters.
***
Cedric shook his head and moved his mental power to a secret underground room below the main temple as his final check at the human territory.
After finding that Lacius was still petrified, Cedric breathed a sigh of relief before finally moving to check the elves.
The first thing that came into his sight were the four cities with some villages sporadically built near them.
Thankfully, after the elves and Elisa's hard work to kill every demon, the demon population has decreased.
Previously, because most elves had entered the city, small and big elven villages had disappeared.
Without those villagers to kill and gather Negative Energy from, coupled with the efforts by all elves to kill the demons. They have pretty much gone extinct in the elven territory.
Even so, most elves still choose to stay in the city instead of rebuilding their villages. One reason is that there are still a few demons that they might meet if they're unlucky. The second and most common reason is that the elves have gotten used to life in the city. It's even more so in Elisa's cities.
If the other three cities have slightly less than twenty percent of elves decided to leave and return to their village. In Elisa's city, only less than five elves choose to leave and rebuild their village. Furthermore, Cedric often sees those villagers returning to the city.
Another thing of note is that the exchange between the four cities has become active because most demons have disappeared.
Elisa and the elven queen have also pushed the trade between cities while experimenting around to create a healthy economy.
With trade between cities, news between the cities has also spread. It caused Elisa's city to become famous among the elves, with many elves traveling to Elisa's city.
Except for looking at the city's wonder, most elves have arrived in the city for the sake of joining the school that they have heard of.
This caused a sudden influx of students joining the school. Thankfully, the first batch of students has graduated and helped Elisa and Ghiana manage the school.
After looking at the elf's current situation, Cedric nodded in appreciation, "Now, let's check Elisa's progress, and the amount of Level 2 elves."
He used Divine Sight to focus on Elisa.
[Life Level: Peak Level 2
Potential: Upper Level 5]
Cedric has used Past Observation before and knows that Elisa has advanced thanks to her city.
Although Elisa can't move, the elves living in her city could.
The elves in her city created a team of agile blessed to herd the demons close to the city. Then, Elisa simply beat the demon senseless with her strength. After baiting and killing a lot of demons, Elisa's strength has risen like a rocket.
After Elisa, Cedric also checked the other cities and found the amount of Level 2 blessed in the elven race is much lower than the humans and the dwarves.
Including Elisa and the elf queen, there are only five others blessed that have reached Level 2.
Cedric isn't too sure why the amount of Level 2 blessed in the elf race is extremely low. But he guessed it might have something to do with their long lifespan.