The Elven race's biggest mistake was using prophecy on Ambrose.
Not only did it alert Ambrose to their petty actions, but more importantly, in order to stop Ambrose, Catherine injected her own mana into the Wheel of Fate.
For a mage proficient in prophecy, this was practically stripping naked and delivering oneself to the doorstep.
Using Catherine's mana as an anchor, Ambrose could easily "see" everything from the past. Since the past cannot be changed, checking it was even simpler than predicting the future.
"Magic Addiction. To think they could come up with such a thing. The Elven race is really courting death."
Ambrose couldn't understand the elves' behavior of causing trouble to the point of self-extinction. It was like the child of the world's richest man. You could just be a happy trust fund baby, enjoy life, spend money—you couldn't squander the family fortune in a hundred years. But this trust fund baby had no ability yet wanted to take the family business to the next level... The result was bankrupting a fortune that couldn't even be eaten away by drug abuse in just a few years.
Catherine's operation was similar. The Elven race was originally the top nobility of the continent. They had looks, status, history, and military power.
At a time like this, instead of developing philosophy, art, mathematics, or science and humanities, why level up military power? Was there any point?
No wonder the Elven Gods ignored this completely. If Ambrose were an Elven God, he would have wanted to slap these lunatics to death.
With this intelligence, his attitude toward the elves needed a major adjustment.
Ambrose shouted directly in The Elegy Society: [The Elven race really messed up this time. I'll private message you guys. Friends, the Silvermoon High Court is now a piece of meat. Let's discuss how to divide it.]
[Withered Rose: Just saw the private message you sent. This... I can't believe it. I remember the Elven Queen Catherine isn't of such a rash character. How did it turn into such an irrecoverable mess?]
[Crown of the Headless Knight: Indeed scary. The survival of a race... to think it created such a huge scene. The Ryan Empire needs to take notes properly.]
[Pale Little Skeleton: Heard this Elven Queen isn't married. Probably because no one could discuss things with her, and no one stopped her at the critical moment. Women, once they want to prove they are stronger than men, can easily go to extremes.]
[Hates Humans: Wait, what are you guys chatting about? What private message? Why did no one private message me?]
[Tiga Ultraman: You are on the Desert Dwarves' side. Telling you this matter equals telling the Desert Dwarves. I am currently the middleman for both sides; I must keep the water level.]
[Hates Humans: Keep the water level? How much gold did you take from me? The Elven race didn't even send you a female slave, and now you talk to me about being fair? Have you been charmed by the Elven Queen's beauty?!]
[Withered Rose: Not every undead develops desire for food.]
[Tiga Ultraman: Correct. I despise perverts who get horny over food the most.]
[Crown of the Headless Knight: Correct. I despise perverts who get horny over food the most.]
...
[Hates Humans: You are slandering me! I'm not, I didn't! I am an upright vampire; I never play with my food!]
[Crown of the Headless Knight: What upright? Back then I saw with my own eyes you kissing a dwarf woman before being sent to the stake!]
[Hates Humans: That was my lover before I became a vampire! Things before becoming a vampire—does that count as perverted?!]
...
After fussing for a while, the topic finally returned from the various rumors about vampires to the main subject.
The Elven race was doomed. Attacking the City of Alchemy was only to delay their collapse. Therefore, the Elven race had two true goals.
Use the war to consume the Magic Addiction patients, and use the City of Alchemy's complete alchemy system and plundered resources to mass-produce magic potions in a short time to alleviate the effects of Magic Addiction flare-ups.
How to seize this weakness of Magic Addiction to gain the greatest benefit was not a problem Ambrose could solve alone.
In the final analysis, a mere Legend was still too insignificant compared to the entire Silvermoon High Court.
Even if the Elven race threw open their treasury for Ambrose to carry, how much could he carry?
At most, filling his personal space would amount to a billion or so gold coins, which would count as no more than a bad debt to the Silvermoon High Court.
The problem concerning the survival of the entire Elven race came with enormous benefits that Ambrose couldn't swallow alone, and it was easy to make the Elven race angry enough to fight him to the death. If the Elven race really disregarded everything to hunt Ambrose down, he would only have the path of fleeing left.
So he deceived Catherine from the start. He said it was "sincerity for negotiation," but actually, it was just stalling for time to find an opportunity to maximize benefits.
The only ones who could digest this benefit were The Elegy Society.
Withered Rose was the first partner Ambrose thought of. The Queen of the Underdark was an existence on equal footing with Elven Queen Catherine and had enough appetite to swallow this benefit.
[Tiga Ultraman: Lady Rose, how much benefit do you think we should get from the Elven race?]
Withered Rose looked at the word "we" and began to have that strange feeling again.
Last time Ambrose said "we," she thought the other party was using her as a shield to deal with the Elven race. Only a few days later, this time "we" meant Ambrose was delivering a heavenly benefit right to her face.
From a minor character seeking protection to a big shot delivering a kingdom... this change was too fast for Withered Rose to react.
But one point could also be confirmed: this Lich was sincere.
From sending the phylactery to delivering the Elven race now, this sentiment was already clear; there was no need for any more doubt.
This even made Withered Rose feel some guilt because, until now, she still hadn't managed to generate similar emotions. She had read so many research works on vampires, but she couldn't make herself produce the same feelings. In any case, Withered Rose wouldn't give the entire underground kingdom to Ambrose; that was absolutely impossible.
Reason told Withered Rose that such unilaterally given emotion was very fragile, and collapse often happened in an instant, unlike the bone dragon couple who fought daily and made up anytime.
Although not out of love, Withered Rose still hoped to maintain a good relationship with Ambrose, so she took the initiative to say: "Whatever benefits we get from the elves, they belong to us jointly."
Ambrose was instantly delighted upon seeing this sentence. Indeed, he hadn't chosen the wrong ally. Queen Rose was truly generous and reasonable, the most perfect partner.
[Pale Little Skeleton: You two, don't be busy showing off your love yet. Why are you talking as if the negotiation is already over? The Elven race is facing a crisis of extinction. Anyone blocking their way will be dragged down to die with them. You want benefits? The premise is helping the Elven race solve this problem; otherwise, why would they give you benefits?]
Showing off love?
Seeing this expression, Ambrose couldn't help but sigh. This Bone Dragon young miss really had a romance brain; she fantasized about that direction with everything. Aside from their pair of weird undead, who else had the mind to think about love?
However, the Bone Dragon young miss wasn't wrong. If the Magic Addiction couldn't be solved, the Elven race wouldn't talk about any cooperation with you. Since they were going to die anyway, they would definitely choose a vigorous death, dragging people down as cushions before dying, rather than discussing cooperation.
All benefits were premised on Ambrose being able to come up with a solution to Magic Addiction; otherwise, knowing this secret would be meaningless.
Ambrose replied confidently: [Don't worry. regarding the Elven race's problem, I already have a preliminary idea. Give me a little time, and it should be solvable.]
[Pale Little Skeleton: Real or fake? The Elven race spent so many years without finding a solution, and you just found out and already thought of a way?]
Ambrose didn't explain in detail because this was just a hunch.
When you give up struggling and are willing to accept the constraints of fate on you, you also accept the gifts of fate.
Ambrose's intuition was now extremely strong. After learning about the Elven race's Magic Addiction, he had already thought of a direction to solve the problem. Although it was just a very vague idea, he felt he shouldn't be wrong.
It was hard to say exactly how much time it would take, but it shouldn't take too long.
Magic is actually a special kind of science. A problem that has plagued the world for years might very likely be solved by some genius in one night. This is the function of inspiration.
And Ambrose was currently in a state where inspiration was nearly inexhaustible, particularly suitable for engaging in research.
[Hates Humans: Although I don't know what you guys are talking about, regarding dividing benefits, can you count the Desert Dwarves in? I, this middleman, also want to earn a bit.]
[Pale Little Skeleton: Yes, yes, yes. Don't look at us dragons being far overseas; we like many things from the Silvermoon High Court too.]
Several members of The Elegy Society began to discuss how much benefit they could dig out from the Elven race and how to specifically divide the spoils.
Ambrose watched for a while. Just these imaginings made him very excited, but he didn't participate in this discussion because his vision wasn't broad enough.
The three currently discussing were discussing from the perspectives of the Golden Kingdom, the Dragon Race, and the Undead Empire respectively. Ambrose had never had the experience of managing a country; many opinions would seem childish if spoken aloud. Anyway, these three parties couldn't do without him. Once they finished discussing, they would naturally give Ambrose enough benefits.
This was the advantage of controlling intelligence and technology: never fearing being tossed aside by these powerful forces.
Exiting the discussion, Ambrose came to his library. From those dusty books, he dug one out—*[The Nightsinger · Goddess of Darkness · Shar]*.
Shar was a goddess born from the Primordial Chaos after Ao created the world, counting as one of the oldest deities in this world. The birth of many subsequent gods had a close relationship with Shar, including the Goddess of Magic.
And when mentioning the Goddess of Magic, one cannot avoid a thing that all spellcasters both love and hate—The Weave.