"King Skythunder gave his permission to distribute the Star Map," Duke Whirlwind proclaimed with a victorious smile to George and Shang.
He told them all about what had happened and what changes would occur in the next couple of days.
However, Shang and George only felt relieved.
This made things so much easier.
"That's good to hear, Duke Whirlwind," Shang said.
When Duke Whirlwind heard that, he did a double take. "Duke Whirlwind?" he asked.
Shang raised an eyebrow.
"Shang, I thought we were closer than that," Duke Whirlwind said. "Just call me Jerald."
"Oh," Shang said. "I wasn't sure if that was appropriate."
"You are no longer subservient to me, Shang," Jerald said. "We are on equal footing, and we are working towards the same goal. Our powers might still be quite far away from each other, but it will only be a matter of time."
"I've seen how determined you are, Shang, and I know that you might become the very warrior to completely close the gap and maybe go even further."
Shang wasn't sure what he should say to that.
Yes, that was his goal, but it felt a bit weird hearing it come from someone else.
It sounded unreal.
Jerald, George, and Shang talked for a while longer. They had to plan how to properly distribute the Star Map and how they should teach the warriors.
Thanks to the God, Shang had comprehended the Star Map in an instant, but for everyone else, learning the Star Map was definitely not an easy undertaking.
Jerald learned it, and it took him about three days to master it.
That wasn't a lot of time, but one had to remember that Jerald was a Late High Mage. His mind was beyond powerful.
George still hadn't mastered the Star Map, and according to his estimates, he would need another three weeks or so to learn it.
They guessed that an average Mid Commander Stage warrior would probably take several months to a year to learn the Star Map.
They had to create a proper schedule to teach this technique to warriors. Having someone teach someone in person expedited training several-fold.
In the end, it was decided that George would be the one teaching the warriors after he comprehended the Star Map himself.
Of course, Shang had also been a possibility, but all three of them voted against it.
Shang was growing very quickly, and forcing him to teach someone else would break his momentum. At such a high level, one didn't count training in hours but in days. People on this level didn't train a couple of hours at a time but several days at a time.
Additionally, motivation, inspiration, and creativity came and went at seemingly random times. If one felt particularly motivated to work on one's power, one should take advantage of it. Having Shang focus on something else might break the flow of his training, which would be bad.
In comparison to him, George was basically standing still. He was only waiting for Mervin to finally reach the True Path Stage so that he could create his new and improved Path.
It wouldn't be a loss if George sacrificed some of his time to teach others.
Obviously, Jerald didn't have any time to spare due to his packed schedule, and on top of that, he was a Mage. The warriors definitely wouldn't be big fans of having a Mage teach them a technique specifically for warriors.
"After I master the technique, I will teach it to Ranos and Soran. They will then teach it to the most talented Commander Stage warriors while I teach it to the other teachers," George said. "After that, the teachers can teach the technique to everyone else."
Jerald and Shang nodded. Ranos and Soran would learn the technique very quickly, which made them perfect for passing on the knowledge. The teachers would probably also learn the technique in quite a short amount of time.
Everything would go very smoothly.
It was almost like running an academy was quite effective at teaching things.
"I also know the strengthening techniques that the barbarians use," Shang said. "We can also teach that."
"We already know of the technique," George said. "Over the years, many barbarians fled to the Skythunder Kingdom. We already know the entire thing."
Shang raised an eyebrow. "And why did we never teach that?"
"Before the invention of the Bloodline Infusion," George answered, "the strengthening technique only worked for the Soldier Stage, which is basically worthless. After all, we didn't have access to this so-called Ascension of the Grandmountain Kingdom."
"Over the past couple of years, I was also focusing on adapting the barbarian strengthening technique to the Bloodline Infusion. This was my second big project, the first one being the Path Reforging."
Shang still wasn't quite sure what the problem was. "You don't need to adapt it. I've been using it for a decade now, and it works just fine."
George and Jerald looked at Shang.
Then, George gestured to Jerald to explain things since the issue was more related to the Mages.
"Lack of information, fear, and politics, Shang," Jerald said with a sigh.
Shang raised an eyebrow.
"We only have access to the few barbarians that flee to our Kingdom, and we can only listen to their first-hand accounts. We can't actually look into the Grandmountain Kingdom and see how things really are, making the information foggy and unreliable."
"So?" Shang asked. "I've been there for a long time, and I can give you all these things."
"We know," Jerald said, "and your recounting of the events definitely helps. After all, your recounting will be from the viewpoint of a warrior and not from a barbarian."
"However, that only solves one of the issues," Jerald continued. "Another problem is that the Council and the other Dukes are making problems. They don't want warriors to eat the hearts of beasts. It seemed, and mind the pun, very barbaric to them."
"Okay," Shang said, "but the Council is already our enemy, just like the other Dukes."
Jerald nodded. "Yes, now they are, and that problem has basically resolved itself. I can introduce the technique immediately, and it wouldn't change how the Council acts towards us. They know that if they try anything, I can just go to King Skythunder, and he will side with me on the issue."
"Their threats were more implied and more subtle than actual threats. They wouldn't directly disallow the usage of the technique, but they would ramp up the pressure on my territory."
"But now, that's no longer an issue."
Shang nodded. "So, can we introduce it?"
Jerald and George looked at each other.
"I have been running tests for the past decade on a select few warriors that have undergone the Bloodline Infusion," George said. "In about a decade, when they reach the Commander Stage, we can introduce the technique."
"In a decade?!" Shang asked in shock. "How is this such a problem?"
"Side effects," George said.
"Side effects?" Shang asked. "It has side effects?"
"We don't know yet, which is the problem," George said. "Usually, I would just go ahead with the introduction, but there are signs that things could go bad."
"In what way?" Shang asked.
"Shang, you have interacted with several barbarians in the past, right?" George asked.
Shang nodded.
"Then you should understand our concern."
"It might be possible that the strengthening technique has a degenerating effect on the mind."
"Every barbarian we met was dumb as a pile of rocks. There might be a possibility that the barbarian strengthening technique is responsible for that."
Shang looked with a surprised gaze at George.
