NOVEL NEXT 36 – Battle power
I had told them that the "God of the Internet" wouldn't ask them to fight any battles personally, but that didn't mean that we wouldn't have any battles to fight.
Even though Arcantor had a reputation among mortals that this realm was like a turtle, extremely well protected, that didn't mean that some insignificant god wouldn't try something against us.
So to deal with that, we needed a way to defend ourselves against both divine and mortal attacks.
And I had a couple of ideas.
The first one was the one I'll explain next.
"If an army invaded Arcantor today, how would you react?" I asked first.
This was very important information for a kingdom, because knowing how they would react would make it even easier for an enemy to strategize how to counter them.
So for them to tell me this, they had to trust me very much.
And I knew they didn't trust me that much; on the other hand, they had no choice but to trust me with a battle against other gods.
Sighing, it was Charles, the eldest Archmage and apparently the one with the most authority in the kingdom, who replied.
"When an invasion began, we were originally notified via the mages scattered throughout the kingdom using the message spell, but now we're in the process of replacing that with an internet message so that the information gets out even faster."
"As soon as the information about where the invasion was coming from and the possible size of the enemy army reached us, we would send an army of mages to that location to deal with the enemy army using a teleportation formation and finish off the army in the shortest possible time." Charles explained.
Seeing Charles talking to me about this formation, I noticed that the other mages in the room were surprised.
Even I was surprised, since information about this teleportation formation hasn't been mentioned on the Internet yet.
Apparently noticing my surprise, Jaina explained. "This teleportation formation is something that consumes an enormous amount of gold in terms of magical materials and is only used as a last resort.
The last time it was used was over 110 years ago, so few people know about it, and those who do keep it a secret from anyone below the rank of Master Mage."
Nodding my head in thanks, I began to understand how deep the waters of Arcantor's defense ran.
This deterrent power of the teleportation formation, which could take an army anywhere in the kingdom, was something very strong that would definitely deter any invader from trying to invade Arcantor without good reason.
Unfortunately, the gods were more than enough reason for that now.
From what I've calculated, each student would have to keep their kingdom intact, as well as invade or cause enough damage to at least 2 other kingdoms before the end of this test in order to pass.
So a way to attack other kingdoms was essential for Arcantor, and I had thought about it.
"Instead of an armed invasion, the God of the Internet plans to invade the other kingdoms just by using the Internet and spreading this to the population of the other kingdoms in a discreet way until the God of that kingdom no longer has enough believers to listen to his orders." I explained, making the mages' eyes widen.
I could see the gears in their heads turning as they realized that this was exactly what the "God of the Internet" had done to Arcantor.
I went on to explain: "In order to send the Internet to other kingdoms, the God of the Internet has already sent some trade caravans with missionaries on a mission to win more believers in these countries, but these missions can work very well for a while until they don't work anymore..."
When they heard what I said, the shock on their faces became even greater as they realized that the Internet God was already spreading his influence so powerfully in Arcantor that there were even missionary groups to get believers for the Internet God in other kingdoms without them realizing it!
"And what would the Internet God do if 'this doesn't work anymore'?" Harry asked in a serious voice.
I waved my hand at him, causing another holographic window to float in front of them.
Since they had already seen the first window, they weren't as surprised this time, but the practicality of it for showing things was high enough for this group of teachers to see how useful it could be in class.
But I just ignored that and focused on what was on the screen.
There was a picture of three colorful creatures, a green squirrel holding a wooden stick, a blue snake with little whiskers, and an orange fox with a yellow glow at the tip of its tail.
"These three creatures are the Internet God's alternative to dealing with the problem of 'when things stop working'," I said. I said. "Each of these creatures is related to an element and can learn skills, fight, grow stronger, and even evolve."
Hearing my explanation, the eyes of all the mages in the room lit up.
"Sure, to create these creatures, the God of the Internet spends a huge amount of divine power, to the point that it would be unsustainable to form a gigantic army, so his idea was that every Internet user could create such a creature on the Internet, feed it with mental power from prayers, and develop the strength of these creatures so that they have the same power as real magicians... now imagine what a small village with several such creatures can do when an army comes to invade the place?" I asked with a smile on my face.
Hearing this, the mages' faces turned pale.
If every person had access to such a creature that could have the strength of a real mage, wouldn't invading a village of 500 people with such creatures be like invading a village protected by 500 mages?!
"Can these creatures really have the power of a mage, Lord Athenos?" Jaina asked skeptically.
"Sure, but to develop such a powerful creature, the amount of investment would have to be as high as the cost of developing a mage, so the God of the Internet thought of a way to deal with it more easily." I explained a part that I didn't even need to explain to them, but since they had been honest with me about the teleportation formation, I could be honest with them about this as well to show goodwill.
"First of all, the God of the Internet has decided to develop a Premium Internet Coin, where the user has to pray to get this PIC, and this PIC would be used to feed and give power to these monsters.
"For example, let's say all 30 wise mages in this room had such a monster, every day the 30 wise mages would use 1 PIC just to 'feed' these monsters without summoning them into the real world, that would be 30 points every day that would be stored in the PIC bank." I said.
"When the creature was 'fed' by that PIC, the user would see the creature getting stronger through his app on the Internet and be satisfied with that. When he needed that creature, he could spend an amount of PIC that he had stored and summon the creature into the normal world with the strength that the creature had when it was fed and trained by that user."
"Even if the creature spent more PIC than the user had to pay to summon it, the points stored by other users could make up for it with plenty of spare, allowing a powerful creature to be summoned by any Internet user anywhere, including members of the Internet God's Missionary Mission."
"Now imagine 200,000 people feeding the creatures with just 0.5 PIC every day, that would be 100,000 PIC for the PIC bank every day!" I said smiling, watching their expressions change from shock to horror as they imagined that I was actually developing an army within their realm, and if I didn't tell anyone how it worked, they might not even realize it.
With the test I did when I summoned a small dragon in the school dormitory in the divine world, the cost of summoning such a creature in divine power was only 10 points, but the creature had the strength of a six-year-old child.
For a stronger creature, the cost of Divine Power would also be much higher.
That's why I came up with the idea of practically making these cloud monsters.
The user would choose the monster he wanted, take care of that virtual monster like a Tamagochi from my previous world, and when he needed it, he could use the Divine Power he had generated for me and accumulated in the form of Premium Internet Coins to "feed" that monster over time and summon it to the normal world.
The development of this Premium Internet Coin was an idea I had when I was trying to think of something to give power to my believers without having to rely on such expensive blessings.
The part about creating creatures and things that didn't exist was much cheaper than the things I copied from other deities, possibly because creatures that didn't exist were creative things, which fit perfectly with the God of Creativity, which was my original title.
The biggest cost I would incur would be developing the interface and 'servers' for the app for these monsters, but once that was done, not only would players have an extremely fun and addictive game, but a combat-ready army would be created.
And the colors of this army were green, red, and blue, with the possibility of more colors coming in the future.
///NunuNote//
So guys, I'm thinking hard about these combat creatures and strategies on how to use them efficiently for attack, defense, and fun.
If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment below.
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