Chapter 234: Population
The question that Edward has to answer now is what happened to the gods? What happened that rendered them in such a weak state? And could he use the current situation to his advantage?
The current situation is the perfect time to invade the place these gods are sleeping, kill or capture them. However, this has many risks as he does not know how powerful they are, whether they are truly weak or have already regained some strength.
With so many variables, Edward decided to take things slow before acting. After all, he still had plenty of time. The first step in his plan is to wait for when Set takes over Nick’s body and then capture him.
That way, he can have access to information and knowledge about the current state of the gods. Although he has to wait at least 60 years, he did not mind. He could find something to preoccupy himself in the meantime.
While in deep thought, Hermione suddenly apparated next to him.
“As we suspected. I can now summon an army from the underworld.”
“Did anyone try to stop you?”
“Yes, but it’s useless.”
“How so?” asked Edward.
“The way my talent works is that it allowed me to use the underworld itself to form contracts with my summon. Essentially, I directly contact the Will of Consciousness of the Underworld for the summon. So, as long as I can sense and reach the other dimensions, no one should be able to stop me.”
“That’s excellent. What about other dimensions? Can you sense any others?”
“No,” replied Hermione with a frown. “This world is truly weird.”
“Take your time, we still have time.”
Not long after, Snape and Lily also appeared.
“How is it?” he asked Snape.
“I did record a lot of data regarding Evelyn’s reincarnation. From what I gathered, her memories were stored in some sort of seed deep in her soul. Somehow, the seed was not discovered during the reincarnation process, and at the right moment, it activated and the memories were returned.”
Edward nodded his head as he knew that the situation was more complex than stated. All individuals have an imprint on their souls that showed that they are the natural citizens of a universe.
Because of this imprint, once outsiders like Edward and the others travel to other universes, they are easily discovered and suppressed by the rules of that universe.
Before Edward can create a Reincarnation Spell, he has to find a way to remove the imprint in his soul, then allows his soul to be imprinted by the universe that he is going to be reincarnated into.
The previous him would be very confused about how to solve all the problems regarding the Reincarnation Spell, however, the Book of the Dead, the Book of Amun-Ra, and the Oracle Bones have extensive knowledge on the soul, life and death, and even the underworld.
In the past 8 years, he had only scratched the surface of these books. With further study, he should come really close to achieving his objective.
“It would be best to have an expert on the soul to continue this study,” said Snape. Although he had vast knowledge of the subject, it was not his main focus. So, he knew that it would be best for someone more qualified to take on this research.
Edward agreed with him, however, the situation was a little complicated. The spells in the three books relied too heavily on borrowing the power of the gods to be of use. As such, they would most likely become useless once Edward returned home–unless he could find another God to borrow power from or steal power from.
Although he had already translated these spells to the Arcane Rune Magic, the best place to further study these books was in this universe. Of course, once he returned home, he will try to see if they could work on Herpo.
“I will let Morgana take on this research,” replied Edward. “Where is the Book of the Dead?”
Previously, to ensure that the plot did not deviate too much, the book was handed to the cults so that they could revive Imhotep. Now that the mummy was once again killed and the world was once again saved by the O’Connells, the book had to return to Edward.
Snape handed the book to him.
“Now that we have some free time, what are you guys going to do?” asked Edward.
“I will continue my research on Aguirre and his men,” replied Lily.
“Oh, did you make a discovery?”
Over the years, she has been studying the ancient magic known as love magic. Unfortunately, even after decades, she is still the only person in the Empire who can use it.
Nevertheless, Lily did make some discoveries. According to her theory, the reason she can use such powerful magic is that some powerful Will–most likely the Will of the Universe–acknowledges the sacrifice she made for Harry, and after being brought back to life, it granted her control over this magic.
The Love Protection Spell she used on Harry has been used by a few people over the years, however, none of them were brought back to life. This is the reason that she’s the only person who can actively use this magic.
Beforehand, Lily was confused about how to move forward in her research. However, during her study of Aguirre’s Elementalization Ability, she had an idea.
There are many kinds of love in the world: love of family, love of life, romantic love, and love of the environment and the planet. The focus of her idea was on the last one.
The reason that she could use this magic was because of her love for her son, and the desire to protect him at all costs which resonated with the Will of the Universe.
If some people share that same love, that same passion or desire to protect the environment, then maybe, they can resonate with the Will of Planet and Earth and be granted similar magic.
And it does not have to be the planet; they could resonate with forests, mountains, rivers, and even animals.
After hearing Lily’s description, the group felt that her method might actually work. However, they also gave her a strange look.
“I know what I just describe is the same concept of druids,” said Lily calmly.
“Well, I have no problem with you inventing the Career of Druids. However, be mindful to not create the type that loves nature above everything else, otherwise, given the current circumstances of the Empire, these people will have a lot of trouble.”
When it comes to nature preservation, the Empire has done a great job in general. The issue lies with animals. Poaching and using animals for experiments is prevalent in the Empire, and with how druids often love nature more than their lives, they would most likely not stand for this kind of thing, which will in turn lead them to confrontation with many powerful people in the Empire, including the Elder Council as animal testing is legal–as long as they are moderately controlled.
Lilly nodded her head, “I will create doctrines to ensure that they do not become too radical. Additionally, I will be careful about who to choose once I actually create this new profession.”
The best people to become druids are environmental activists as they truly care for nature and should be able to resonate with it. However, people who are too extreme in their beliefs should not be accepted.
“Well, what about you, Severus? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to continue studying the Tears of the Moon and the Pool of Eternal Life. These rare materials should be able to create many new potions.”
After that, the group returned to the Floating City to do their research. Inside a room, Edward called Morgana.
“How are the things that I asked you to check?”
“I did. I compare the birth certificate of more than 100 million people and compare them to our records. Not a single person is the same in our Empire–except for a few historical individuals like Einstein and Oppenheimer.”
“In other words, we could plunder the population of this universe without having the issue of doublegangers,” said Edward with a smile.
The population is very important to any empire, and Edward has been worrying about this issue for some time–especially regarding the human race population.
Most of the human race on other planets lived in the medieval era where they have very little access to knowledge–except for the nobility or lucky ones, so their minds are very shackled.
After conquering them, Edward knew that it would take a lot of time and effort to make these people accept the way of life of the Arcane Empire. Because of this, he wanted a large population from modern times as they were more easily integrated given that the right method is used.
Now, his voyage into this Earth-like universe gave him the perfect chance for plundering the population.
“Master, although the people here have no problem, I discovered that they have a very low talent for magic. And the number of people who do is also very small.”
“Show me the data,” said Edward as he reviewed the information, then, he frowned. Just like Morgana said, in general, the average talent for magic for the people in this universe is truly low.
After pondering for a while, he asked: “Do we have any Dragon Potion in stock?”
“Yes, but not enough to feed more than 3 billion people.”
“Of course not,” replied Edward. “We just need to dump a large enough amount in the water reserve of all countries. That way, large people can awaken their talent for magic–even if it is low.
“We can then classify the awakened people based on the level of their talents, then secretly manipulate them to ensure that people of the same level marry with one another so that more talented arcanists can be born.
“After a few generations of this process, the general talent of the entire population should drastically rise.”
Morgana pondered for a moment as she did many calculations.
“This should be possible, but it will still take a lot of resources and time.”
“We have plenty of time. As for resources, the Dragon Heart used in the potion is a renewable resource. We can even grant the dragons in captivity access to potions made from the Pool of Eternal Life to ensure that they are perfectly fine.