Norris took the Aeon away, leaving. He was going to use it to set up a factory. "Just set up parameters, and it will follow the rules and keep doing them all and all over again till eternity. No—till death."
Norris looked at the crystal floating beside him with jokes. "Every capitalist will die to get this guy. A capitalist wet dream."
This got him thinking, "If I kept an Eldritch entity, would I have unlimited environmental simulation and variation for testing spells? Damn, nothing is really useless."
Norris got back from the twilight forest. Then to the administrator center of the territory and to the space provided by the nobles for the mage group.
No lesser undead could be seen out in the open. He saw some mages and nodded as a greeting. They nodded back.
He walked up to the bell used for announcing and rang it by inputting mana.
Then he sat on the bone throne and waited for a while. The mages began to trickle in. They came in groups. With the exception of Lister, who came in alone.
They came together because of similar research and undead species. Race could be a very strong bond. And knowledge is a similarly strong bond for mages.
He began naming the mage groups. At this point, there's really not much he could do to separate them. With a double bond, the gain is not worth the hassle.
He called the first group the spectrals. Led by a banshee named Veyle. They are incorporeal undeads. They mostly study spiritual magic targeting the mind and soul.
The second, he called them 'The Beloved group'. They were all Liches, led by Mortimer. Liches were really the beloved of the death realm. It's pretty obvious. Domination of lesser undeads without casting spells. Peak magic talent in the realm of Mortomancy, the manipulation of death-attributed energy.
The third to come in were 'The Gluttons.' Ghouls. They were led by Grisel. Most of their spells involve eating and gaining something, even if only symbolic.
The fourth to come in were 'The Mummies'. He called this group Pharoahs. This was an annotation to his former life. In front and the leader of this group was a mummy named Amunet.
The fifth to come were 'The Zombies'. He called them Resident Evil. That game, from his previous life, was what came to his mind anytime he saw zombies. They are mostly into Mortomancy and restoration necromancy. That explains their normal-looking bodies instead of rot like other zombies.
The last group was the revenants. They looked almost normal. Except their unnatural red eyes like gem with a flame. Their magic revolves around curses.
He commenced the meeting.
"Well, everyone, I have been away for a week now. So I want to know what you all can do in the week. Give me some results, surprise me." Norris looked on with expectations.
Lister tried organizing them, but this was chaotic and messy.
Norris wasn't expecting them to be like soldiers from his previous life, but this was way beyond what he expected. It was way worse. Even primary school students in his former life were better—could assemble themselves better than this.
The group cast spells at a hill. The hill was desolate. The cast spells didn't interfere with each other, which was honestly satisfying.
Bones grew out of the ground, forming a cage. Dark beams of death-attributed energy passed through the gaps without interfering. If not done right, it could potentially form a riot.
Bending the world to one's will doesn't mean it won't fight back. Spell casting should be done with the flow. Two Spellcasters casting spells too near each other could cause the world to fight back.
At least Norris nodded at what he saw. As a leader, he had to encourage anything done right. At least that's what he thought.
To Norris though, it was still too individualistic. A battle group in Norris's mind should basically be 1+1 = 4. Reading novels from his previous life fueled this. Of course, it also has its logic.
If every individual fights equal when they come together to form a battle group, then logistically speaking, it's better for them to fight as individuals. So since battle groups are a thing, that means they have to be exponential benefits.
Norris even had a dream that the battle group would cast a core spell that would resonate so well. With that, they would surpass the sublimation realm and reach the legend.
Of course, after facing a divine creature, he knew that was a joke. Concepts, authority, and all those abstract stuff can't be done just by resonating. Or could they....?
"Well, yes, I was really wrong. I thought, as adults and mages, you know, they could do way better without me meddling. But my expectations—being high, or not even that high—but they can't get what I want. For my head, I messed up." He looked at the spell being cast and the surroundings taking the brunt.
After the demonstration was over, Norris had to speak up.
"Well, you guys were very good," then he made a standing ovation for the mages.
The mages also followed as they applauded for themselves.
How do they know how to applaud and its meaning? Well, the psychic network helped with that.
Sitting back down, Norris began talking about the issues he thought of:
"Well, it's not quite what I was expecting, but your efforts are appreciated. Well, I guess most of us here have never fought wars. Well, I haven't really too." And with that, he began uploading to the psychic network all the scenes of war from his previous life; imagined by reading novels and seen by watching movies, of course with some tweaking.
Guns became spells cast, tanks became powerful spells. What he needed for them to understand was the discipline involved. Seeing his example, other mages who had participated in wars also joined forces to upload their experience. Of course, with their own filters.
The mages seeing Norris's example looked at him carefully. The orderliness could be felt in the way the mages (soldiers) fought. Even if the mages from the memory were weaker and could only cast a type of spell projectile, they could still be killed if they were not careful. At the same time, they couldn't maintain eye contact....soul flame contact. Thinking of their previous performance…they didn't want to think anymore.
Norris, seeing that they understood, felt satisfied.
Now he showed his imagination. Spells resonate each other to affect more areas in devastation or using riots to affect the enemies while protecting yourself.
The mages took what he said seriously even if whimsical. Apart from the orderliness of the weak mages (soldiers), they also saw the devastation of war. If they were not serious before, now they are. The war is at hand, and they might become victims. The only way to survive is to be strong.