Mage Manual
Chapter 468 - 387 Dominion Faction

Chapter 468: Chapter 387 Dominion Faction

He made White Bull retreat to the early morning of May 20th.

When Yvalin Belladett captured the group from the Funeral Service Office, she did not hand them over to Red Hat nor did she "nip the problem in the bud" by killing Ash and Harvey; instead, she made a strange deal with Hanna: Yvalin was willing to shelter their whereabouts and even provide them with comfortable accommodations, but in exchange, they could only move within their own estate’s premises without permission to leave.

Furthermore, the deal would conclude once the six of them collectively accrued 6000 shell points; at that point, the Funeral Ceremony’s people would regain their freedom.

There were six of them in total, meaning each person needed to earn 1000 shell points, and Yvalin would provide them with various positions; working a standard eight-hour shift could earn them 60 shell points, while overtime could even bring in 100 shell points.

In other words, if they didn’t eat or drink, they could all escape in a maximum of 10 days.

Of course, the fairness of this deal was unquestionable, with Hanna, the head of the office, personally overseeing and ensuring all details were properly set; there was no way Yvalin could exploit any loopholes to trick them.

However, the issue was that the deal itself was very peculiar.

Ash initially thought Yvalin wanted to pressure them to exercise Criminal Law, but the positions she provided were all very normal: cleaning corridors, pruning the garden, drying laundry...even positions for Psychological Medical Practitioners were offered. Besides the large workload due to the immense size of the Belladett family home, there was no hardship involved.

The only evident trap was that the consumption of food and drinks here required shell points, which would significantly slow down the accumulation of their shell points. Therefore, Ash and the others initially planned to work without spending, relying on Banjee’s briefcase for food and drink.

They hadn’t forgotten that Banjee carried many emergency rations with him.

Nevertheless, Banjee said that wouldn’t work; he had plenty of emergency food, but not enough to sustain six people for more than a dozen days, especially considering their high-intensity work required fresh, hot, nutritious food to meet their bodily needs.

Moreover, Hanna said, "If you only save money and don’t spend, you’ll easily fall into Yvalin’s trap. What Belladett likes most are people like you who delay gratification and push yourselves, because you use future expectations to overcome present difficulties, constantly applying pressure on yourselves. When faced with temptations you can’t refuse, you’ll hypnotize yourselves with the word ’reward’ and squander fortunes in exchange for your happiness."

"Currency only has value when it circulates; if you don’t use it at all, it’s just a number on paper and will be spent carelessly. Even if it’s just to understand the value of shell points and to cherish your own earnings, you need to purchase food with shell points."

"I can only remind you of one thing: at most, you can only spend the shell points you’ve earned. You must not use ’credit shells,’ nor accept any gifts from Yvalin, unless she says, ’This is an unconditional gift for you.’"

"Credit shells and gifts are precisely Belladett’s most evil Miracles, the pinnacle of the Dominion Faction’s creations."

When Hanna lifted the veil on the Dominion Faction’s mystery, Ash and his companions finally understood Yvalin’s cunning intentions.

The Dominion Faction was also a historically ancient faction, a derivative of the Spirit Faction, known as the ’Enslavement Faction.’

Its name said it all—dominating others, enslaving everything.

It’s said that during the chaotic wars a thousand years ago, the Dominion Faction once flourished spectacularly: any significant power inevitably had high-ranking Domination Mages. Only Domination Mages could represent the overall combat power of a force; forces without Domination Mages were mere trifles, not worth mentioning.

The reason lies in the Domination Mage’s ability to possess the combat power to take on thousands. This isn’t just a figure of speech but a literal ’take on thousands’: Domination Mages could enslave legions numbering over ten thousand, destroying any classic legion that needed shouting for commands or walking for communication with the ease of moving an arm.

Even Mages of the same tier could not compete with a Domination Mage equipped with a structured legion. Titles like ’Strategic Mage’ and ’Legion Mage’ allowed the Dominion Faction to look down upon other Magic Factions, and there was even a time when people said, ’The end of magic is dominion.’

But the greatest enemy of the Magic Faction has always been the advancement of the times, the progress of magic, and the changing of people’s hearts.

When the Yisu royal family unified Gospel, the demand for war was suppressed to the extreme, and the weaknesses of the Dominion Faction were amplified: Domination Mages often controlled a specific type of combat beast, such as wolves, cats, mice, pigs, etc. During war, they could sustain their beasts with the spoils or provided sustenance, but without war, there was no justification for continuing to nurture the Domination Mage’s private property.

Without legions, a Domination Mage was just a lower-grade Spirit Mage. Domination Mages also tried to reverse their fortunes, for instance, by making their legions work in production and mining, but even the most dexterous beasts couldn’t compare to the clumsiest Beastman.

As for running livestock businesses with the Dominion Faction— it’s not impossible, but ordinary people without the Dominion Faction can also shepherd sheep and raise pigs just fine.

Not all military facilities can be converted to civilian livelihoods.

This couldn’t even be described as a decline, because decline is a slow, gradual process. In contrast, the Dominion Faction fell dead on the day Gospel unified, celebrating peace outright.

Following the course of history, perhaps the day Gospel plunges into war again, or when an overall war between kingdoms occurs, the Domination Faction might be unearthed from the historical dust by Mages, updated, and bloom with even more resplendent and cruel colors.