Shang and Jerald read through the lengthy contract while absorbing all the information.
There was a lot written down in the contract, but their minds were fast enough to read through all of it in a relatively short amount of time.
The five Kingdoms were known as Area 23, and it was one of about 100 Areas created for different fields of research.
All these 100 Areas belonged to the Lightning Manor, and the contract also introduced the Lightning Manor.
The Lightning Manor owned around 10% of the world. There were nine other powers that also owned 10% each, but the contract didn't name them. It only said that they existed.
The Lightning Emperor was the leader of the Lightning Manor, and he was one of the ten Mage Emperors of the world.
The levels of the world went like this:
Apprentice.
Adept.
True Mage.
High Mage.
Archmage.
Ancestral Mage.
Mage Lord.
Mage King.
Mage Emperor.
The Mage Emperors were the absolute strongest beings in the world, and they were unfathomably old and ancient.
The contract conveyed all of this so that the person signing the contract knew how powerful the organization was they now worked for.
The Lightning Manor consisted of one Mage Emperor, eight Mage Kings, and over 7,000 Mage Lords!
Just one single Mage Lord was unfathomably more powerful than even the strongest Zone Beast in Area 23, and the Lightning Manor had over 7,000 of those!
The contract also introduced the eight Mage Kings with pictures and names, and Shang noticed a familiar face.
The Starlight Queen!
When Shang saw her, he had to take a deep breath.
Shang had met such a legendary existence.
The Starlight Queen might actually belong to the 100 strongest humans in the world.
After introducing the Lightning Manor, the contract went into introducing more of the Areas.
The 100 Areas were divided into five groups, with 20 being in each one.
Areas one to twenty were responsible for testing new Spells, crafts, and techniques.
When the Lightning Manor created something new and wanted to test it, they would introduce the relevant technique into one of the Areas.
The technique would be quickly spread throughout the Area, and the Lightning Manor would see how this technique would work when given to a great number of people.
The stronger people in these Areas were often switched out. The True Mages and more powerful would be sent to the outside world, leaving the Area filled with Apprentices and Adepts. With that, the knowledge of the predecessors was gone, making the remaining people more likely to try out the new technique.
Area 21 to 40 were isolated experiments.
The Lightning Manor made it nearly impossible to come into contact with the outside world and let everything develop on its own.
The goal was to see what kind of Paths and techniques would be created in such a vacuum.
The Mage Path had basically already been perfected, and this was a good and bad thing.
It was good because the Mage Path was extremely solid, with a clear direction from beginning to end.
The bad was that there was a severe lack of innovation.
The Mage Path worked extremely well, but that didn't mean that there wasn't a better way.
Any interesting Paths or techniques created in these Areas would be sent to the Lightning Manor to be evaluated, and if they proved to be usable, the Lightning Manor would sell them to the public. Of course, a lot of times, the technique would be refined further by a couple of Mage Lords dedicated to improving these techniques.
Areas 41 to 60 were dedicated to natural research.
Different biomes, matter, kinds of Mana, and beasts would result in the creation of different natural treasures.
The Lightning Manor mixed and matched all the different kinds of beasts, biomes, kinds of Mana, and so on, and looked at what kind of natural treasure would appear as time passed.
These Areas didn't have any humans except for the employees of the Lightning Manor.
Areas 61 to 80 were the Recruitment Areas.
The Lightning Manor gave everyone living in these Areas amazing techniques but let the people in the Areas develop independently.
This created a place where everyone had access to the best techniques, even if they didn't have any money. It essentially got rid of the advantage or disadvantage of status, allowing everyone to battle on an equal playing field.
The people that managed to rise to power in this kind of Area had to be the most talented among all of them.
The best of these people were directly recruited by the Lightning Manor, while many of the others were simply sent to the outside world when they reached the High Mage Realm.
Around 1,500 of the over 7,000 Mage Lords of the Lightning Manor came from these 20 Areas.
Lastly, Areas 81 to 100 acted as reserves.
Depending on what the Lightning Manor needed, one or more of these Areas would be assigned to one of the other four groups.
Since the five Kingdoms were Area 23, this place belonged to the second group.
This explained so many things.
This explained why there was basically zero knowledge about the outside world in this Area.
This explained why there were Summoners, Spiriters, Barbarians, and warriors in this Area, even though the Mage Path was objectively the best at the current moment.
If everyone in Area 23 had access to the Star Maps of the outside world, all the incredible Spells, and all the valuable treasures and crafts, there would basically be no other Path.
Nearly everyone would be a Mage.
After talking about the Areas, the contract talked about the specific duties Jerald would have as an Assistant Supervisor.
It has been proven over many years of research that war and fear were the best motivation for people to innovate and become stronger.
Fear of losing one's life.
Fear of losing a loved one.
Fear of becoming old.
Fear of becoming poor.
All of these things could be solved by becoming more powerful.
Because of that, there always had to be an external enemy present.
The people would band together and become more powerful by helping each other when they all were afraid of the same enemy.
Beasts were too passive to act as such an enemy, and the Abominations weren't stoppable.
In order for the fear to motivate someone to become stronger, there also had to be hope.
The Abominations didn't offer such a hope.
Because of that, other humans had to act as these sorts of enemies.
For Area 23, specifically, this enemy was the Magic Purity Kingdom.
The Assistant Supervisor of the Magic Purity Kingdom had been tasked to create an elitist and purist society that abhorred every human that wasn't a Mage.
Like this, the Magic Purity Kingdom would act as the common enemy of all the other Kingdoms. The other Paths had already been integrated into the other Kingdoms, and they represented a big part of the Kingdom's power.
The Magic Purity Kingdom saw such a form of symbiosis as heretical to the Mage Path and would kill not only all the people of the other Paths but also the "sympathizing" Mages.
Of course, as the common antagonist, the Magic Purity Kingdom also needed the power to fight all other Kingdoms, which was why it received a couple of techniques and Spells from the outside world.
As an employee, it was Jerald's job to increase the power of his assigned territory and make it go to war with the Magic Purity Kingdom.
An Assistant Supervisor was not allowed to publicize any knowledge about the outside world or introduce techniques and Spells without authorization.
If the Assistant Supervisor managed to conquer the capital of the Magic Purity Kingdom without fighting themselves or cheating, the Assistant Supervisor would get a bonus.
If the Assistant Supervisor's own capital were conquered, they would be let go with only getting 50% of what they had earned over their career.
In short, it was Jerald's job to increase the power of the Skythunder Kingdom and conquer the Magic Purity Kingdom.
Of course, Shang's contract differed.
As a plus one, he was only responsible for helping the Assistant Supervisor do their job while still being under similar restrictions.
But in comparison to the Assistant Supervisor, the plus one was allowed to join fights as long as they were not a Late High Mage or more powerful.
The contract specifically mentioned that this restriction was based on one's Realm, not one's Battle-Strength.
The minimum duration for this job was 50 years, but it could be expanded for additional benefits.
Then, the contract talked about payment, and Shang had to raise a skeptical eyebrow.
Pay: being allowed to plunder the area without endangering the long-term development.
