Chapter 38: Change of Plans

Alexander, at first, wanted to use war as a means to curb the arrogance of his men but Carter and Tobby brought up a different but more effective plan to accomplish this task. Alexander had shared his plan with Carter and Tobby in order to get a different opinion on his plan. Both had requested three days to think about this plan, Alexander had granted their request and now he was glad that he did this.

The new plan would not require the loss of lives on both sides but would also be effective in giving his men experience. Carter and Tobby wanted to use illusions and physical and magical training to train the men in warfare. Alexander was skeptical about this plan but allowed them to use the illusion on a test subject. The Magi got into the illusion as a newbie but came out in the mind as a war veteran. Now, he only needed to train his body and magic to the level of his memories. Tobby theorised that the physical aspect of training would be complete in 3 to 6 months. The illusion lasted for 10 minutes but for the person undergoing it, it is equal to 10 years of war. Alexander was worried that the newly created war veteran would suffer from after effects and would not be ready to participate in a real war.

But, Tobby assured him that nothing of this sort would happen as it was an elven trick. In ancient times, the elves were also assigned a tree on reaching the adulthood. At the start, many elves committed suicide when something happened to their trees so the governing body of that time, thought to teach the elves to how to take care of the trees. The newly taught elves made some mistakes but the condition was not as severe. The goblins were a newly evolved race at that time and they attacked the forests to clear away the space to build their homes. Ancient goblins were creatures of the underground so they didn't like forests and sought to destroy the forests more than what was necessary. The elves being a nature loving race was devastated at the loss of forests and pleaded to the goblins to stop. The goblins killed the emissaries and started marching on the elven settlements. The elves afraid went to ask for help from various magical species but were rejected as they were all losing hope, they found an injured dragon who offered to help them if they could heal him.

Alexander peered into the past and saw that the dragon in question was a dragon who was poisoned from the nature magic and the elves were the beings most connected to the nature so the dragon sought their help. But the pride of a dragon would not allow him to be indebted to anyone so he created this illusion trick and taught it to the elves. The side effect of the illusion was that the ones places in the illusion would become blood thirsty and extremely cruel. The elves used the illusion on the volunteers and Alexander saw how their personality was twisted to commit slaughters, the dark elves as deemed by Alexander, marched against the goblins and nearly hunted them to extinction. The only reason they were not able to finish the goblins off, was because they had angered many other magical races and were jointly hunted down by other races. The other races also wanted to hunt down the elves but the elves ran away deep into the forests.

Alexander saw how the elves researched into the magic and made it more user friendly. Now, the users would not suffer after effects. The illusion now honed the instincts of the user and gives him vague memories of his time spent in the illusion. The illusion is also layers with a compelltion which influences the user to reach whatever level he was at after existing from the illusion. The side effects of the illusion is that the user forgets to differentiate illusion from reality for some time and also becomes slightly emotionally unstable.

Alexander turned towards Carter and Tobby and said, " So, you wanted to make my men delusional and a ticking time bomb. If I was not sure of your loyalty to me, I would have taken you as my enemies."

Carter and Tobby sweated and Carter continued, " No, your majesty. We have a solution for this."

Alexander, " Speak."

Carter, " We would use this illusion on only those who are adept in mind arts."

Alexander, " No, only those who are master of occumulency, can use this illusion. The time period should be extended from 10 minutes to 10 hours in order to reduce the strain on brain. Also, a specific runic circle would have to be prepared which would dampen the strong emotional reaction in the user and also heal any effects of the illusion on mind, body and magic. That man who you used for your experiment, walked away with a limp despite being perfectly fine in his leg. You have committed a crime of harming your fellow citizen even if it was unintentional, you will take care of that man until he recovers and when this world is conquered, you will run 800 laps around the track. I see that Tobby don't know what the track is, you will explain that to him Carter and your punishment would be live telecasted to become a example to my other subjects."

Carter with horror struck face took a confused Tobby away from the Alexander's room and soon Alexander heard Tobby's scream of horror. Alexander thought, " I think the track can be used as a training tool also but first I will allow the most sadistic persons of my kingdom to design a new track for the punishment of criminals. I have grown bored seeing people running on a flat piece of land." Alexander's musings brought a deep chill to the bodies of his subjects and an unprecedented joy to all the sadistic persons of the kingdom

Anna who was taking the management class, looked up towards the heaven and said, " Looks like his majesty has some new ideas to punish his subjects. Last time when we had such a chill, the king made that track punishment permanent. I have heard that the magic world that we have partially conquered have many evil spells. May the heavens save us."

It took the scientists two weeks to develop the runic circle. Only 100 elves knew how to cast the illusion so Alexander had these elves train all the elves in casting the illusion in the week in which the runic circle. Alexander was thinking about the future when he made the elves train other elves. Alexander had billions of subjects and now that he was going to establish his country in this world, his kingdom would have magic and all his subjects would be able to acquire the ability to use magic from the fire of civilization. Everyone could practice the mind arts and Alexander was sure that he would be able to get at least few millions master of occumulency from his kingdom.

Alexander also knew that not all people would have the equal talent to use magic in his kingdom. Alexander planned to conquer the different energy worlds as everyone has one energy that he is more attuned to than others. Alexander planned to have an artifact constructed which would introduce all the energy that the kingdom has into the body of his subject and check the reaction. The degree of reaction would determine the level of attunement. But, Alexander was not going to force his subjects to follow the instructions of the artifact, Alexander believed that the hard work was the key to success. His subjects would be free to practice any energy they want.

Alexander planned to conquer a cultivation world or a highly technological world next as these worlds had the easy means to extend the lifespans of living beings. As most cultivation worlds were moon class worlds, Alexander was leaning towards the technological worlds but Alexander was going to search for a star level cultivation world also as he did not believe that in this vast existence, there would be no star level cultivation world. Moreover, the practice of cultivation can be practiced by everyone and is a easy way to increase life span.

Alexander discarded his future plans and concentrated on conquering this world. Now, it was time to meet his frequent admirers. Alexander knew all about the meetings conducted by the Potter and his war buddies. Alexander had not paid attention to them as he was busy dealing with other matters but now it was time to meet them.

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