Sixtieth Section: The Power of Faith (Part Two)

"Let's hear your thoughts," Grant said softly. He felt somewhat uncertain about the Machiavelli before him, but if this man could genuinely solve his problems, he was not averse to adopting whatever methods the fellow proposed. Back in the former world, a great man had put it well: whether a cat is white or black, a good cat is one that catches mice.

"My method consists of two parts. The first step is a core plan—a massive magic circle, one that I have spent half my life researching. This magic circle uses a special kind of magic crystal as its initial startup energy source. Once activated, it has the function of regulating, converting, and storing spiritual energy, capable of gathering and holding the spiritual energy attached to this magic circle," Machiavelli said with a smile. "The principle behind the first step is something I drew inspiration from the totem gods worshipped by those barbaric tribes. Among those low-intelligence races, some will even worship a single stone all day long. Over hundreds of years, these inanimate objects develop energetic responses, and the shamans among their tribes have mastered certain tricks on how to stimulate the energy within those dead objects."

"You mean that if we construct something similar, we can collect the spiritual energy generated by everyone's faith in Comynson..." Grant's heart stirred as he listened; he was beginning to understand Machiavelli's idea.

"Yes, the principle is like that, but compared to those, it is far more complex. Because some of those tribes might worship something for a lifetime without producing any effect, while others get lucky, as if by sheer chance. But in reality, there is a reason for this," Machiavelli pointed out the difference. "The objects used as sacred relics by certain tribes—for example, the animals they worship, whose stone statues are carved into the likeness of those beasts—happen to be magic crystals with storage or regulatory functions!"

Grant nodded imperceptibly, and Machiavelli continued: "Yet these primitive tribes do not understand the profound mystery behind it. Through their endless generations of worship, the shamans occasionally sensed the energy reactions within and slowly figured out how to utilize that energy for their own purposes, leading some to believe it was a gift bestowed upon them by the gods. In truth, they haven't truly mastered this power. Since they are merely users, and haven't even fully grasped that usage, waiting for spiritual energy to automatically transform into other energy through their methods would be an exceedingly long process. The magic circle I created by combining magic and Daoist arts, and even referencing the rules of divine magic, is different. As long as the spiritual energy supplied to it is continuous, it can undergo uninterrupted transformation, using one part to maintain its own operation and storing the other part. In this way, it is equivalent to us having a massive source of energy."

"And then we can figure out how to utilize this massive energy source?" Grant's tone couldn't help but rise with a trace of excitement.

"As long as we can construct something akin to the rules of divine magic, we can harness these tremendous energy reserves," Machiavelli said with certainty.

"Yet that hardly sounds like an easy task," Grant frowned.

"Of course it is not an easy task, which is why it requires a collective effort. A single person cannot accomplish it, even if I have spent decades researching it. I have only managed to research a portion of it, and without practical testing, there might well be flaws. But look at the continent today—the church can undoubtedly be regarded as the most colossal organization. Furthermore, few exceptional high-tier mages stand alone; every ambitious mage who desires to leave their name in the history of magic always has a group of people serving them, working together to establish and practice magic theories until a true spell is created. This is also the second reason why I sought you out. My dream can only be realized with your assistance, because we are mutually needed. Even if I shared my ideas with other high-tier mages, they would not follow my concepts entirely," Machiavelli said.

Grant nodded. That was indeed the case. Machiavelli could only realize the dream he spoke of by cooperating with the revolutionary army, because aside from the revolutionary army possessing the conditions he mentioned—capable of generating such a source of faith—there were very few suitable alternatives. Be it the church, the orcs, the dwarves, or the elves, their faiths already had their respective deities. He could only hope to find a large totem tribe to perhaps have a chance. Moreover, cooperating with high-tier mages was unlikely; those fellows were arrogant, might not necessarily believe him, or if someone did try to test his dream, they would undoubtedly strip the flesh from his bones. Cooperating with high-tier mages would only result in Machiavelli being sucked dry, kicked aside, or even turned into a corpse. Yet in the territory of Gaul, where mages were severely lacking, Machiavelli stood a much greater chance of bringing his ideas to fruition.

"At first, we may only be able to complete some low-tier spell-like abilities—of course, if you prefer to call this method of utilizing the power of faith 'divine magic,' that is fine, though we do not possess any deities whatsoever," Machiavelli shrugged. "However, given time, I believe we will attract more people to participate. At that point, our headache will actually be controlling the influx of participants, because before a certain scale of power is formed, someone might try to destroy it. But once a system is established, even if it is only a low-tier spell-like system, you will have sufficient capital to no longer fear those mages."

"Can this power be applied to production and daily life?" Grant was also concerned with this aspect.

"Of course it can. You must understand that the power of spells and divine magic can equally be applied to the lives of ordinary people. The reason it has not been popularized is because the power of divine magic is monopolized by the church, while the power of spells cannot be easily mastered. The greatest difficulty in the core plan of the first step is how we can get others to project their faith onto that magic circle," Machiavelli said with a hint of distress. "You must realize that the subjects we face are not the lowest-tier races, but human beings with a certain degree of intelligence. They are not foolish enough to casually worship an inanimate object."

Grant fell into silence. This was indeed the most crucial and difficult hurdle. The power of faith in the church was generated because believers trusted in their deities and underwent rigorous religious rituals, such as true believers reciting scriptures several times a day.

After a long while, Grant slowly raised his head and smiled slightly. "Actually, we are not entirely out of options."