Soul of Searing Steel

Starfall Year 841, sixteenth of April. 7.35 in the evening, the Void at the edge of Mycroft.

Igor, Pope of the Seven Gods Church stood before the observation deck in the Holy Mountain Fortress, silently watching as the Void Battleship Dreadnaught slowly moved past the observation range of Holy Mountain Fortress and head for the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds.

Currently, five thousand elite crewmembers had replaced the temporary elemental lifeforms Barnil created. With five hundred Extraordinary individuals amongst them, the Dreadnaught moved steadily to complete its first quest: heading for the edge of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds to attempt a long-distance warp.

Every crew and Extraordinary individuals of the entourage were immeasurably thrilled. Given that it was the maiden voyage in Mycroft history that such a massive vessel specialized for Void battles, everyone would feel their blood heating up for being a part of history even if it was a practice expedition.

“What a lively bunch of children.”

Smiling, the elderly pontiff watched as the warship slowly left the vision of his standard senses, nodding slightly as he turned and returned to his desk.

Carved out of hard redwood, Igor started to read several reports with different print material and handwriting.

“Helgamoth Empire, population census in Starfall Year 826… Apart from the northern reaches and the center region of the Empire where almost all locations are suitable for living, the total population of the southern region is around 110 million, with that number having grown 9.7% in year 826—almost reaching a total of 10%.”

The elderly man narrowed his eyes and studied every line on the report. It was thanks to policies that the Northern Empire experienced such a rise in population—when they were still waging war against the orcs, they would have been crushed by the more fertile race if they did not encourage having children. Furthermore, even if it had been 41 years after consecutive years of bloody wars against the orcs, the Empire’s population had increased exponentially to an astonishing 250 million.

Moreover, that 250 million is the present total population of the Empire center and southern zones. The people of the four northern territories were not counted into the population, and though not many, the numbers would certainly not be lacking.

Having gone through that, Igor took up and read another report: The Eastern Plains’ population count.

“Eastern Plains population census for Starfall Year 819… total population: 270 million, growth rate uncertain—because the Skypiercing White Tower, the Council of Seven and the Sea Dragon Cities do not share data with each other.”

Be that as it may, recent data shows that the Eastern Plains’ population growth over the twenty years more than doubled, boasting over 600 million people. Naturally, while there were still many places that were not surveyed, it would not affect the details by much.

Not overly concerned, Igor kept reading the population reports—this time, it was the West Mountains. “West Mountains population census for Starfall year 823… a fine number of 210 million, but population growth is just a little over 4%.”

A mountainous region in the first place, the West Mountains is not suitable for living. However, its oldest regions maintained a considerable population, and neither Draconic Plague nor Cult had truly threatened the West Mountains. Still, it was typical for the nations to experience a fall in population given their wars, and with the lacking of fertile soil, their current total population was only 440 million.

Lastly, it was the Far South.

Looking up, Igor turned towards the far southern reaches that were most suitable for human life—their census had concluded twenty years ago, back in Starfall Year 820.

Apart from the Forests of Eternity and the Trade Federation, the entire Far South was basically fertile plains. Though it was hard to repel the waves of beasts from the Dark Forests with such landscape, the fat soil where any grain could bloom was the sturdiest shield of population growth—the population census had determined that there were already a considerable number of people living in that region, with 250 million of them apart from the elves of the Forests of Eternity and the Trade Federation.

If not for the Draconic Plague that left millions dead and millions more displaced, dealing severe repercussion across all of the South, the Far Southern population would be far more than its present 400 million. According to a scholar’s prediction at the time, the Far South would have become the center of the world with a population surpassing 700 million.

Additionally, the stated data only takes human population into account. If elves, dwarves, and other intelligent races such as half-elves, pygmies, gnomes were included, Mycroft’s total population was already around one billion over two decades. Now, it was more than two billion—a double amount, not to mention that there had been several catastrophes including wars against murloc, yearly attacks from the Dark Forest, the wars against the orcs and the Draconic Plague. It was clear that despite much suffering, the peoples of Mycroft were still flourishing in their own world.

“But it’s actually not much.”

The old pontiff muttered quietly after combing through the four reports. Two billion might appear strong, but it was slightly lacking—especially in relative to Mycroft’s own progressive civilization.

Because population is civilization’s resource.

Then, Igor remembered the Dreadnaught-class Battleship that had just passed by.

Forged from the full effort of all civilization and equipped with intelligent systems improved by Legendary mage, the vessel requires at least five thousand trained professionals operating it just to move. To provide the ship with enough combat efficiency, it would need another four hundred Silver-tier weapons officers.

Furthermore, fifty Gold-tier and three Supreme champions were assigned to that battleship, along with one Legend if possible.

It would sound as if the ship itself needed just five to six thousand people operating it, which was not too many.

And that would be a grave mistake.

In truth, a few hundred thousand people working on auxiliary capacity are necessary to maintain that war machine to compensate for the professional crewmembers and the Extraordinary individuals, and even that number was on the small side. Without massive imports of metal ores from otherworlds which spared them the difficulty of mining and smelting, the war machine would need two to three hundred thousand on auxiliary maintenance before actually operating.

Still, even if it appears aggressively militaristic in the present, such class of personnel assignment would be impossible in the past. After all, there would only be fifty Gold champions amongst six million if the demographics of twenty years ago was taken into account, while three Supremes would exist only amongst 25 million.

As for a Legend… there might not even be one amongst the Empire’s population of two million—it was entirely a matter of luck.

Such was the fifty scientific rules governing Extraordinary individuals decades ago.

Humans would be an Iron-class race after they reach adulthood, but only one amongst fifty adults would truly assume the path of Extraordinary power and reach Iron-advanced, reaching the first glimpses of supernatural ability.

And amongst those fifty Extraordinary individuals, one of them could become Silver—of course, that number is not precise: it would be for or five in regions where civilizations are developed, and that number increases even now. Nevertheless, the average percentage several decades ago was as such.

Then, amongst those fifty Silver, only ten would become Silver-advanced who could truly grasp Extraordinary power—in turn, only one amongst those ten would rise as a Gold, or perhaps even not.

Ultimately, only one amongst those fifty Gold would reach the threshold of Supreme—and it was a possibility, not a guarantee, for there was a world’s gap between Gold and Supreme.

There would not even be a fixed rule for percentage of Supremes who could rise to Legend. It mainly depends on fortune: Back then, with a good stroke of luck, Barnil and William, two Legendary champions emerged from ten Supremes in the West Mountains. If luck did not hold, like for certain royal families in the West Mountains, not one Legend ascended amongst all those nations.

Furthermore, all of that were also simple calculation. In truth, the concealment of legacies and how each major faction hid techniques of Extraordinary ability left not one amongst fifty could rise from Silver to Gold, but one out of one or two hundred instead. Then, when it came to barren regions with weaker legacies, that ratio would be even wilder.

It was a terrible pyramid constitution: there would not be a single Gold amongst hundreds of thousands, even millions—naturally, it was an average number, and in places with developed legacies where there were a hundred thousand or two, the nobles would have a considerable number of Silver knights and Gold-tier clan leaders. Be that as it may, there it was not unusual that there would not be a single Gold amongst millions, since talent without specialized education would mean a waste of innate gifts.

Like that young barbarian maid in the Radcliffe family who clearly had the chance to rise to Gold-advanced, without Joshua’s wise eye, she would at most be a small, ordinary handmaid.

“But now, it’s totally different.”

Igor looked up outside the window, staring at the silver halation wafting in the Void. The energy tide, known as the Great Mana Tide engulfed the entire Multiverse, filling the entire galaxy with dense wafting energies.

The arrival of the Great Mana Tide developed the rich resources of otherworlds. Then, the founding of adept academies and the popularization of Extraordinary paths, along with the spreading of Extraordinary legacies that revolved around Joshua greatly improved the chances of Mycroft peasants.

And that was the most important part!

Aside from the issue of ascension, as long as one Extraordinary individual emerges from fifty become one out of ten the Extraordinary talent in Mycroft would rise five times out of nowhere—and fifty times if all citizens were given the chance cultivate!

That fundamental growth rate was horrific, but the present state of the Mycroft world was even more so.

“Now, the ratio between peasants and Extraordinary individuals is closing on such numbers.”

Muttering quietly to himself, Igor looked down again at another document in his hand.

In the last ten years, all of Mycroft had seen dramatic changes, the greatest being the appearance of more Extraordinary individuals than ever before.

With the present ratio, one out of ten individuals would become an Extraordinary individual. Then, with the Great Mana Tides and the spreading of legacies, one out of those ten Extraordinary individuals would ascend to Silver.

And one Gold could rise amongst those twenty-five Silver!

By Starfall Year 841, one Gold could emerge out of twenty-five hundred mortals, a ratio fifty times greater than how it was decades ago!

Naturally, that was a theoretical calculation since there were many places on Mycroft still without adept academies. Moreover, most Extraordinary individuals would simply work at new magical factories as foremen even when there were, and not real Extraordinary individuals who fought in battles. Still, the number of Gold champions who would appear in the immediate future are thirty times more than before.

Hence, the Gold champions of the worlds would increase from thousands to almost a hundred thousand—an expansion beyond a blown balloon.

That drastic shift was observable even in the Winter Fort Academy, with graduates who excel having basically improved to Gold-tier. It would be fine even if they did not, since as long as their talent was not weak, they would just have to work for years, accumulating resources to have the chance to ascend as Gold.

While Supreme tier would never be affected by energy densities, the basic number of Golden champions having changed, meaning that there would naturally be more Supreme too: where there were less than a hundred Supreme decades ago, there were probably around seven hundred now across the world.

With one Supreme amongst three hundred thousand compared to the millions or ten million before, it was a lot more than more.

“It could even be said that the population standard now approaches the Glorious Era.”

The Unified Archives records the feats of the Glorious Era, with the one thing which left the Starfall Legends most astonished being that Supreme and Gold tiers present everywhere. In the Starfall Era, the noble and powerful Gold and Supremes were little village lords or mayors.

Putting down the reports in hand, Igor could not help but sigh. “But being near does not mean reaching… even if the standard of Mycroft population has increased an unknown amount of times, our numbers are not enough.”

With the general number of several hundred thousand individuals working as auxiliaries, along with follow-up assigned factories, resource extraction, grooming personnel, various weapon designs and selection… with all those random matters, Mycroft would need a million people to maintain and run a single Dreadnaught class Void Battleship optimally.

In that line of thought, the world’s population could maintain little over two thousand Dreadnaughts.

But could they do that? To have the entire civilization exist for the Void Fleet? Apart from civilizations such as the nomadic Starherders who had essentially migrated as Void Fleets and wandered the galaxy, no civilization would do that—war is not everything for civilization, and they still require services in other sectors to keep society stable.

It was already considerable militarization to have only one-tenth of the population in service. If that was the case, the two hundred of those Dreadnaught-class battleships could be maintained, which would make five thousand ships when conscripted into the global combined fleet.

A fleet of five thousand ships of various sizes… was that number really enough for a civilization that had set their ambition on going to another galaxy?

That was no joke. Igor rubbed his head in pain by simply thinking about it.

In the Glorious Ear, one Legendary champion could command a combined fleet of hundreds, even thousands of vessels. On the other hand, even with all their people, the Starfall Era would at most wage a small battle—not to mention that the Starfall Era simply did not have that many warship instructors to train fine crewmembers.

“But now there’s no time for us to consolidate and increase population.

Igor, one of the leaders of the civilization, sighed deeply in his seat. He looked up in melancholy, towards the 3D galactic map formed from Holy Light that hung in front of his desk.

If that was so, they only had a single choice.

With that thought, the pontiff reached out and gently gestured at three points on the galactic map.

The Starherders, Sartre and the Sixth Abyss.

Octopedal fungi, Sartreans, and the demons.

“Since our population is not enough, we could only rely on the population of other species and civilizations… It sounds like the slavers of centuries ago, but there’s no helping it even if it sounds like injustice… Even so, slave or foreign mercenary armies is necessary.”

Both Joshua and Igor stared at the star map.

All Legendary champions, leaders of great factions and even gods were studying the star map before themselves.

When a civilization leaves their homeworld entirely and strides towards the Void, their vision would broaden just as their needs would urgently increase. It was the price of an unavoidable refinement.

And now, this was the moment that Starfall-era Mycroft civilization had to make a choice.