Advent of the Archmage
chapter-519

Mage Tower, alchemy room

Link, Vance, and the other three were concluding the results of the experiment for the first generation of Seeds of Sunlight.

"The results look good. Of the 100, 97 became much stronger," Link said. "Though the power of the three didn't change, they still received the strength of sunlight." He drank some fire wine. He was quite satisfied with this result.

Vance nodded too. This result was beyond his expectations. He'd thought that it would be good enough if they could have a success rate of 80%. Now, they practically had no failures.

However, everyone in this team saw things from different angles during the fusing process. They obviously had different opinions too.

"The high success rate is related to the fact that they're all elites," Alloa said calmly. "I saw the entire process. I think it's still too painful. It's okay for these elites, but for regular soldiers, the success rate will decrease greatly. Should we revise it further?"

Eleanor shook her head. "I don't think so. This is good too. As the saying goes, harsh fire creates true gold. Only after extreme pain can the Seed of Sunlight enter deep into the soul. Only then can the Sunlight Warrior have more potential for growth."

Alloa and Eleanor's opinion was completely different. "But the success rate would be much lower," she argued. "We have a high rate now, but when we move to regular soldiers, I would be surprised if 50% could survive. Each soldier only has one chance. This will greatly affect the expansion of the Sunlight Warriors."

The critical part was that each soldier only had one chance at the fusion. If they missed it, then they missed it.

Both had very clear standpoints.

Eleanor wanted to create elites. She wanted the Sunlight Warriors to become truly powerful figures in the future!

Alloa, though, saw the advantage in number. In her opinion, the soldiers only had to be at the standard level. There was no need to go for the extreme. While ensuring quality, they could add on more numbers. When there were enough soldiers, the combat ability would improve in quality as well. This was the root of an army's strength.

Eliard didn't speak until now. Hearing this, he shrugged. "Why don't we separate it? One method for elites and one for regular soldiers."

As soon as he spoke, Vance waved his hand. "No, that's not fair to the soldiers. Everyone should at least have the chance to choose. And how do you differentiate between elites and regular people? Potential is hard to see. You'll never know what a soldier can accomplish in the future."

With that, he looked to Link and shrugged. "Take Link for example. When I saw him a year ago, I had no clue he would rise to the Legendary level so quickly. If we use Eliard's idea, we might miss a future genius!"

He was right too. Letting every soldier have the right to choose was enlightening. The soldiers would definitely support it if they knew. However, both Eleanor and Alloa disagreed.

Eleanor waved her hand quickly. "No, no, no, that won't do. Regular soldiers don't understand the Seed of Sunlight. If they're allowed to choose, they would definitely choose the most painful method, either due to their impatience to rise up or envy of the strong. The lower option would practically become a dummy. The failure rate would still be high."

Alloa went even deeper. "Mortals are always controlled by different emotions. They have limited knowledge as well and just can't see the truth. Giving regular soldiers the right to choose is good treatment, but we won't be able to maximize our growth. The northern army is already preparing to come southward. We must become stronger as fast as possible. We can't use your method."

Vance threw his hands up, speechless. Both of them made sense, and he couldn't refute them.

Seeing this stalemate, everyone looked to Link for his decision. He already had a mature idea in mind. Chuckling, he said, "As the saying goes, your first impression of someone will be wrong. It'll be wrong after a day too. But after one year, you won't be wrong. My idea is that we can have the soldiers choose but without telling them."

This intrigued everyone. They waited for Link to continue.

"There are 30,000 official soldiers in Ferde. It's not much. We can increase Tower Spirit Lily's functions and secretly put all the soldiers into the observation range. We'll set some testing standards as well and rate them from the details of their everyday lives. We can watch for a while. It's the first generation of Sunlight Warriors, after all. One year isn't needed, so how about one month? Those with high scores will use the elite method. Those with lower scores will use the regular method. We can become more specific too and split the methods into different levels. Like five levels with different scores. What do you all think?"

Judging a soldier's potential from their daily lives was very objective. As long as they set logical standards, they wouldn't make any mistakes after observing for one month. The soldiers were technically choosing for themselves too.

The four exchanged glances and nodded in agreement.

"In that case, let's start. We have a lot to do."

The five began working in a flurry again. Upgrading Lily and large-scale production of the Seeds of Sunlight could only be done by them. It was a lot of work.

Link was responsible for 60% of the work. The other four divided the rest equally. Even so, they were still all exhausted.

Another month passed like this. Working so hard wasn't without its benefits though.

Link was constantly using up all his power. His Dragon Power limit kept rising as he used it without stopping. It rose almost 1000 points, reaching 17,000 in total. He also had many inspirations for spells during the process.

The other four benefited a lot too. They were practically learning and working at the same time, receiving great knowledge from Link.

Eliard especially gave himself the most difficult Seed of Sunlight after finishing all the work at the end of the month. He survived it and received Level-9 Sunlight Power. His magic knowledge improved quickly as well. He grasped a Level-8 spell and officially became a Level-8 Magician.

The first week of the month was spent on modifying the tower spirit and inputting the soldiers' names. Then they worked on creating Seeds of Sunlight for the next three weeks.

During the process, the five modified their production method and raised their speed hundreds of times. They created 50,000 bottles within three weeks.

After observing the soldiers for three weeks, the tower spirit had a general rating of each soldier. Their scores were out too.

What came next was the large-scale fusing.

This was mechanical and repetitive work. Link didn't want to do it, so he made Vance responsible. He went back to his regular routine and tried out his new inspiration. When he had time, he would wander around his territory or accompany Celine. His days were comfortable.

Once he was relaxed, time flew by. Another half a month passed in a blink.

Today, Link was reading the fusion reports in the Mage Tower.

The situation was quite good. The regular soldiers all increased one level with the Seed of Sunlight. On average, they were at the pinnacle of Level-3. This was a scary number. The demon army from earlier had only been at this level too.

Those with the biggest improvements were the generals who were stronger to begin with. They had strong willpower and used the most difficult fusion method. It was greatly effective. There were almost 100 Level-7 Warriors now.

There were also some geniuses like Allen. Lily chose them, and they used the most difficult method on him. On average, they reached Level-5 or higher and had a greater potential. It was a great gain.

As the marshal, Jacker naturally chose the most painful method and succeeded. He suddenly became a Sunlight Warrior at the pinnacle of Level-8. He was now the strongest soldier in the army.

Sunlight Power was similar to Dragon Power.

It was practically equal to Dragon Power in terms of fast recovery. This ensured a soldier's endurance in battle. It could also heal. Though it wasn't as crazy as demonic power, it could still lower the casualty rate.

There was also a unique attribute. Under the sun, a Sunlight Warrior's attributes would increase. If they were under the sun when close to dying and had strong enough willpower, they could recover just by sunbathing.

Link had a deep knowledge of each type of Warrior's combat ability. He estimated that his Sunlight Warriors could completely counter a demon of the same level. This way, Ferde possessed a Sunlight Army of 30,000 that could fight demons face to face.

This huge force could change the entire state of the continent.

Putting down the report, Link walked to the window. Seeing the camp filled with sunlight and confident soldiers, he was very satisfied.

It isn't enough though. They don't have sufficient equipment. Ferde also lacks the ability to respond to a large-scale magic attack. All these things need to improve.

Having magic equipment that corresponded with the Sunlight Warrior's strength could double their combat ability. Paired with the strict military discipline, they might be able to completely crush the demons.

Of course, this required a great amount of resources and money. Things had to be taken step by step. Link couldn't do it alone either. For example, Eliard was already close to Level-9. If he was trained a bit more and broke into the Legendary level, he could become Link's, right-hand man.

Just as he was planning further, Link's heart jumped. It was the communication rune.

The signal is from Southmoon Kingdom. Something must have happened. Seems that the Syndicate still hasn't given up. In this case, I'll have to visit… Yes, I'll bring Eliard too. He's still too naïve and should have some more experience.

Thinking of this, Link used a life detection spell to find Eliard. Then he used Telepathy. "I'm going to Southmoon to take care of something. Do you want to go?"

"Of course," Eliard replied immediately. He'd wanted to travel through the continent for a long time.