Over the next couple of years, everything went as planned.
Nearly half of the Commander Stage warriors had comprehended the Star Map by now. It had, by all intents and purposes, become standard and normal to train with the Star Map.
Of course, the Mages had also received their Star Map.
With both Star Maps introduced, the political climate completely changed.
The war between the Kingdoms nearly completely stopped as everyone was busy interacting with the Star Map.
This would change the entire world, and they knew it.
The one that could make use of the Star Map the best would have an overwhelming advantage over all the other Kingdoms.
It was an arms race.
The Kingdoms took out their saved-up resources and pumped them all into talented True Mages. The more High Mages they got, the better.
One High Mage could take down a normal frontline on their own. One High Mage was worth more than 50 True Mages.
Originally, the Dukes feared that the other Kingdoms would now start to focus on creating warriors. After all, the warriors had also received their own Star Map.
However, with the introduction of the Mages' Star Map, the warriors became even less relevant. All the Kingdoms fully focused on their Mages now, and warriors were mostly ignored.
Even the Grandmountain Kingdom began to ignore their barbarians. What was the point of having a thousand Fighter Stage Barbarians when they could get more High Mages? The only thing the barbarians were useful for was to act as cannon fodder and delay the enemy attacks.
But a High Mage could win the entire battle.
One was fighting not to lose, while the other was fighting to win.
The Council also didn't have much time to go against Duke Whirlwind. They were too busy with increasing the efficiency of training for the future High Mages.
Of course, they were still planning on dealing with Duke Whirlwind, but the High Mages took priority right now.
The warriors were definitely a danger to the Mages, but there was a much greater danger.
The Magic Purity Kingdom.
The Magic Purity Kingdom was the most advanced Kingdom when it came to knowledge about the Path of Magic, and with the Star Map, they would shine even more.
They already had the most High Mages, and the number could very well skyrocket even more after the introduction of the Star Map.
Forget the potential future problem with the warriors! Right now, they had to keep up with the number of High Mages, or they would be run over!
Due to that, the next couple of years were relatively relaxed for the Storm Eagle Zone. The number of vanishing warriors reduced, and with that returned a newfound motivation to undergo the Bloodline Infusion.
Additionally, a new strengthening method that only the people that had undergone the Bloodline Infusion could use had appeared!
It was said that, with the Bloodline Infusion and this technique, a warrior could have a body equal to a beast!
How did the Warrior Academy handle the technique?
The Grandmountain Kingdom changed the technique into incomplete sets and demanded years of servitude to get it.
But the Skythunder Kingdom and the Warrior Academy were different.
As soon as the technique was announced, books were created, and they could then be purchased in any bookstore in the entire Kingdom.
The price?
25,000 gold.
Such a sum was unobtainable for a normal person, but a General Stage warrior could get that with some months of work.
Back then, Shang had sold the corpse of the Initial General Stage Vanishing Snake for around 2,000 gold.
A Trash Bird was worth around 500 gold each.
With the Bloodline Infusion, the warriors wouldn't need to hunt in teams anymore. Now, they could hunt beasts on their own, which meant that they would also get to keep all the money.
25,000 gold only equated to about 50 Trash Birds.
Hunting 50 Trash Birds might not be possible in a day, but it was definitely possible within a couple of weeks.
One could say that 25,000 gold was even on the cheap side. After all, this technique would follow the warriors for maybe their entire lives.
One had to remember that the cheapest Focus cost several hundred thousand gold.
25,000 gold was nothing in comparison.
For the first time in a long while, the Warrior Academy was flooded with requests for the Bloodline Infusion.
Luckily, they had already hired several Adepts and warriors to perform the Bloodline Infusion.
Over the past years, the Bloodline Infusion had transformed from the gory mess Shang had gone through to a streamlined and clean process.
For example, the warrior no longer needed to stay awake. With some new Spells, the Mages could now stop the subconscious rejection of foreign material. This meant that the warriors no longer needed to have an insane resistance to pain.
Another change was that the back no longer needed to be cut open. Instead, two holes would be created, one near the bottom and one at the neck. The old marrow would be sucked out on one hole while the new one would be siphoned in via the other.
The Warrior Academy had also created some medication that made the following process of one's mind basically burning away easier.
So, right now, the Procedure looked like this:
Warrior receives medication.
Warrior gets sedated.
Two holes are created.
Marrow gets sucked out, and the new one gets put in.
Holes are closed.
Warrior stays unconscious for a couple of hours.
Warrior wakes up with a new body.
It would be like they had simply gone to sleep for a while.
Now, compare this new Bloodline Infusion to the one Shang had gone through.
It had definitely become much easier and quicker.
One team could perform about two Bloodline Infusions per hour, which was astonishingly fast.
Sadly, all the equipment, time, and medication were still expensive.
A warrior would need to pay about 125,000 gold for a Bloodline Infusion.
Of course, something like this was unachievable for a Soldier Stage warrior to get, which was why the Bloodline Infusion was sold on a credit basis.
The warrior simply had to pay back the cost within the next ten years.
But even at that price, it was definitely worth it.
With the Council mostly ignoring the warriors for now, the warriors finally received a moment to breathe.
The entire world went into silent preparation.
The wars halted.
The attacks on the warriors halted.
The Dukes kept to themselves.
For just a couple of years, the world was at peace.
But that peace wouldn't last long.
