Chapter 15: About Eldros World
After Ram agreed to Ash's proposal of loyalty.
And,
Ram goes onto his knees and pledges his loyalty towards this city's altar and Ash.
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Ash feels somewhat awkward about Ram's pledge, but he thinks he should respect the culture of Eldros, and he embraces the world's rules not to change people's beliefs because this is a world where great power makes the law, and there is only one law—might is right—and an altar owner's might will always be higher than a person in a world where most people have to depend on the altar's purification power to live; otherwise, they will not become street dogs and cats but become mindless monsters.
And he also has some understanding of this world, and he feels its power is vaster than he can compare and think, and he has this gut feeling.
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Don't underestimate the power of the altar and altar owner. This power is only a fraction that he can feel,
Ash gets to know various things from his altar and from evan and ram about this world, he thinks in his mind that "Ram also knows that meeting a new altar owner and becoming his trusted man is mostly an opportunity rather than a risk, and he knows in the Eldros world how many people want to become an altar owner—and almost everyone wants to—but very few get this chance. Even kingdom-level altar heirs want a chance to become a new altar owner rather than directly having a kingdom-level altar owner because they can combine the altar's talent. If they have a new altar and their kingdom-level altar they inherit, they can combine the kingdom's altar and the new altar and get two talents: first from the kingdom-level altar and from the new altar. And this can boost the power of their altar very much.
And any price to get a new altar is acceptable in the world, and if the heir of the kingdom of the altar doesn't get a new altar, and if his brother or sister is chosen by a new altar, provided that they have a direct blood relation with the current kingdom's altar owner, then that prince or princess will become the new heir of that kingdom of the altar. No matter what, the previous heir can't do anything about it.
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Because everybody is dependent—from citizen to minister—on the altar for long life and peace, so everybody wants to increase the power of the altar, they pledge their loyalty, and their interest is to make the altar as strong as possible, and the altar owner also has that mindset.
After all, new territory or lower-level altars are assaulted by monsters less compared to bigger-level altar cities' assaults by monsters because every altar has to share the brunt of monster attacks in the world of Eldros. And the higher the level of the altar, the more the percentage of assault, but everybody wants to increase its level, and there is no guarantee if your altar level is lower that your altar won't be destroyed. So, most of the altar owners want to increase the level of the altar as much as possible while having more fundamental strength in the city.
And having more than one talent in an altar always increases the fundamental power of the altar, so it becomes apparent every altar owner has to increase their children because it increases the possibilities of having a child get a new altar, and after transferring their altar to him, his altar foundation increases and becomes more powerful, increasing the safety of the altar."
Ash get to know from Ram that ram also listens—some older altar owners give new altar owners their daughters as brides, and the baby born from them after age 5 can inherit both altars and combine the altars. After that, both the previous altar owners become deputy altar owners with the baby's permission, ruling the city, but they can be removed by the baby's permission. But this type of method is used by desperate altar owners when they know their altar can't survive more attacks from monsters.
So, they have used this method to survive. So, ash get to know from Ram that the talent his city altar has should be good because ram can feel his attack killed the monster easily. But ram knows himself well and his power—that's how he survived after his previous city altar was destroyed.
And Ram knows this city has the potential to survive in this kind of world. After all, if your city doesn't have talent to become a powerhouse, then your city will be at the mercy of other cities' protection. But here is a twist in fate. First, you have to find a city owner that has the capability to protect his city and yours, because if an altar submits to another altar, then the altar's percentage of monster attacks from this city has to be shared by the other altar that made the submission. But the problem starts here—your city should have talent that makes this worth it, because their city's upgrade resource will also increase compared to other cities that don't have another altar in submission.
So, generally, most city owners do not accept altar submission. But in the combination of altars, resource problems and attack percentage share do not arise, and their upgrade resources will be the same as a normal altar. That attracts most city altars owners. It makes city altar survival more viable compared to city submission.
After 30 minutes,
Ash said to Ram, "Why not you absorb the mana from the mana tree? It will not heal you, but at least it will maintain the condition of your body." And Ram said, "What?"
After some silence, Ram said, "Let's see if mana trees can help me." And Ash said, "Let's go." After, both started walking toward the mana tree.
Then, after seeing the mana tree, Ram said, "It can help me but not like an altar." And then he said, "It is better than nothing." And Ash nodded with smile.
And Ash sees the mana tree and a pop-up window comes in front of him.
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Name: Mana Tree (Specialty)
Status: Occupied
Ability: Able to produce mana with different levels of trees
Level: 0 (Growable)
Production: Mist Mana Level 0 * 2 per day
Description: After planting in altar city, it will grow into a tree slowly and be able to produce mana naturally for the city without harming the city's mana production because it produces mana with the help of its roots.
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After seeing this, Ash was surprised because he thought the mana tree would take some time to increase the output of mist mana, but he feels this is very good because having more mist mana output means having a stronger source in the city. That will ultimately make him stronger compared to others, and his city will become strong, and he feels this resource will attract more strong men.
And Ash asks about the mana tree from Ram, but he said he doesn't know anything about mana trees, but he said that having a new source of mana increases the fundamental strength of a territory, and no owner will publicly tell anyone else unless he is sure about their loyalty. And he advised Ash never to publicly admit it or reveal it to strangers because a lot of altar owners can become your enemies and blackmail you to get this special resource from you—or maybe attack you.
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Ram said to Ash, generally altar owners support each other because the more altars they have in Eldros, the better it is for them because they will have to face fewer monster attacks. But sometimes fights for better resources happen, and special and unique resources always slay many men of altar owners if both altar cities have the same level of strength and one can't suppress the other. Sometimes both share 50-50%, and sometimes they sell the resource if they don't want to fight.
After listening to Ram, Ash understands more about this world and resource distribution, and he knew that he got something very precious, and he was proud of himself. After all, the mana tree is upgradable, and its contribution will always stand in this city at any level.
After this talking with Ram, Ash said "Goodbye" to Ram, and he started to walk in the city for surveillance.
And he sees in the altar where Evan is refining mist mana in his body, and a window pops in his mind after he wants to see Evan's status window.
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Name: Evan (Altar Subject)
Age: 18
Status: Healthy
Abilities: None
Level: 0 (30/100 Mist Mana Level 0)
Weapon: Low-grade axe, low-grade shield
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And after seeing, Ash knows Evan is refining his mana easily without having any problem in refining, and he feels Evan can easily upgrade his level to Level 1 the next day without any problem.