Chapter 367

Emmanuel did not know whether the Spirit Net was some variant of the Weave, but he did know that there was no fundamental difference between the two.

Both were supreme manifestations of order!

Rules permeated every aspect of the Spirit Net. Everything its members saw and used had been designed in advance, and every member was incorporated into and managed within this realm known as the Spirit Net.

It was extraordinarily sophisticated.

As a Chosen, Emmanuel thought even further.

'If the Spirit Net is allowed to keep developing, how will the world change? And what effect will it have on my lord?'

It was foreseeable that the gods aligned with order would certainly benefit, with the scale of their faith expanding dramatically.

But the domains touched by the Spirit Net extended far beyond order. Knowledge, history, currency, trade, information, craftsmanship, lies, joy, psionics, magic, spells... the list went on and on.

Take knowledge, for example. Traditional methods of disseminating knowledge would be overturned. The barriers to access would fall dramatically, while the audience it could reach would expand just as dramatically.

Oghma, the God of Knowledge, was the god of inspiration, invention, and knowledge. His faithful did everything within their power to spread knowledge and promote literacy.

They believed that the mind should not be shackled by ignorance.

The emergence of the Spirit Net might make this powerful deity's divine power even more formidable, raising it to an unprecedented height.

Waukeen, Goddess of Trade; Mystra, Goddess of Magic; Azuth, God of Wizards; and other deities would likewise benefit.

Especially the Goddess of Magic. Everyone knew how closely the Spirit Net was tied to magic. Moreover, the Spirit Net itself was stabilizing raw magic, lowering the barrier to spellcasting, and making spells more widely accessible.

And the source of all magic ultimately pointed back to the Goddess of Magic.

For Bane, however, the Spirit Net brought both advantages and disadvantages.

Bane held a straightforward set of values: the strong not only had the right to rule the weak, but the obligation to do so.

He represented ambition and strength. Those who possessed ambition but lacked the strength to realize it would pray to him for power.

The Spirit Net prevented information from remaining isolated and broadened the people's understanding of the world, making dictatorship and tyranny exceptionally difficult to maintain.

But the Spirit Net would also cause ambition to take root in many more people. When they refused to submit to a fallen, corrupt, or decaying regime, a stronger and more suitable ruler would rise from among them.

Every member of the Spirit Net was a potential conqueror!

Whatever the final outcome might be, one thing was certain: the entire landscape of faith was undergoing a major transformation.

'My thoughts... are a mess.'

For the first time, Emmanuel felt that the world had become strangely unfamiliar.

"Have you made up your mind yet? Who exactly are we going to fight?" The bearded man could not help looking at him with some disdain when he saw Emmanuel like this.

How could a Chosen of Bane be so indecisive and worry about every possible consequence?

"The Moonshae Isles!" Emmanuel said coldly.

"What?" The bearded man looked thoroughly confused. "What do we want that lousy place for? It's a complete mess."

"Precisely because it's a mess, it needs order. Candlekeep blocks our route east, and even the Emerald Queen doesn't dare provoke it. Why should we insist on smashing our heads against it?"

"The southern Moonshae Isles have undergone a realm convergence with Abeir. From the Green Fields, we can directly reach Snowdown and Gwynneth. They're close, enormous, and politically fragmented. What could be a more ideal target for war?"

"That does make some sense."

Even so, the bearded man still thought Emmanuel had gotten scared and deliberately picked an easier target.

"Our target isn't Gwynneth. That's High Lady Ordalf's territory. We'll use Snowdown as a springboard to attack Alaron, Oman, and Norland."

"So we're picking the soft fruit."

"Hm?"

"When do we move?"

"Immediately. I'm going to see the Queen right now."

A growing sense of urgency rose in Emmanuel's heart.

...

Fort Jacqueline.

After returning, Anser flew a circuit above Durlag to make his presence known, then went back to the castle for lunch.

But he could not even eat this meal in peace. The Spirit Net kept chiming away.

Quentin and some of the other senior officials who had joined the Spirit Net had created several group chats and were discussing matters with tremendous enthusiasm, seemingly without regard for time or place.

Every now and then, someone would also message Anser privately to ask about something they were uncertain how to handle.

Only after becoming the man at the top did Anser realize that even a federation of only tens of thousands of people had an endless supply of irritating problems to manage.

Requests for money or manpower were easy enough. Worse were the matters that were clearly not major, yet still required his personal approval.

Military flags, uniforms, salaries, benefits, official appointments, the design of boundary markers, official seals, textbook editions...

Each councilor and ministry official managed their own area, but in the end, all those threads converged on him. There were so many of them that just thinking about it made his scalp tingle.

As Prime Minister, Quentin was excellent at carrying out decisions, but his personality was far too cautious. He did not dare make decisions on his own.

Halfway through his meal, Anser finally could not take it anymore. He pulled Sakkors into the working group and gave him the position of Assistant to the President.

Sakkors had accumulated an almost monstrous amount of experience and knowledge over his long existence. Handling matters like these could hardly have been easier for him.

Over the past few days, he and the mythallar had been devouring Spirit Coins at a frantic pace, causing their computational power to soar dramatically. The Spirit Net was also spreading outward at a rate of dozens of kilometers per day, an astonishing pace of expansion.

But Sakkors's temperament had undergone obvious changes as well.

At first, his emotions had become extraordinarily rich, and he approached everything with tremendous enthusiasm.

But once the supply of Spirit Coins grew large enough, things swung to the opposite extreme. His emotions instead became increasingly faint, while reason took the dominant role.

Whenever the two spoke, Anser could barely detect any emotional fluctuations from him.

Yet Sakkors's obsession with Spirit Coins had not diminished in the slightest, which was extremely strange.

Perhaps Sakkors had not actually become emotionally detached. Perhaps he was simply dividing his attention among dozens or even hundreds of events at once, running countless threads simultaneously. The joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure within any individual thread were simply too insignificant compared with the whole to be readily noticeable.

Anser did not know whether this was good or bad, but he did not interfere. He merely strengthened his control over the mythallar.

It was also because of this that he completely abandoned the idea of consuming Spirit Coins himself.

He shook his head and sent a message to Graham, who had only recently joined the Spirit Net, instructing him to begin preparations for constructing a city in the underground ruins of Viheral beneath the Wood of Sharp Teeth.

Delira and her sister had already proven their sincerity. They had fought wholeheartedly, so Anser could not go back on his word either.

The city would be divided into two levels, one aboveground and one underground. Humans would primarily inhabit the surface, while drow, Myconids, and other subterranean creatures would primarily inhabit the underground level.

'We'll call it... Twin City!'

Before building a city, they first needed to build a road.

The Durlag local government would first have to establish a dedicated team to determine the route of an official road running from Durlag to Moonscar Basin. There was only one requirement: it had to be safe.

The adventurers and Hunters' Guild would inevitably have to take part. The government could post bounties and have them assist in clearing monsters and wild beasts along the route, ensuring the safety of the road crews that would follow.

Only once they had a broad official road could supplies be transported continuously to Moonscar Basin and construction truly begin.

They could also bring in the Stonemasons' Guild for the city-building project. This was their specialty, and they would certainly be better at it than a group of half-trained officials standing around giving orders.

Anser sent Graham the broad outline of his plan and instructed the treasury to approve ten thousand gold pieces for him as an initial allocation. Beyond that, he left the rest to Graham.

The Federal Commercial Alliance had now formally expanded across Durlag, White Stone Island, and the Rock of Bral. Dawn Town and Waterdeep would soon follow. It was already generating considerable profits and tax revenue, more than enough to support the Federation's construction projects.

"Master, the Spirit Net has detected traces of Bane's Chosen and a Thayan lich!" Sakkors's telepathic message suddenly arrived.

"Huh? How did you find them?"

"They applied to join the Spirit Net themselves. I approved them."

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