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Let's focus on improving ourselves first and get through this imminent crisis.
After capturing the floating city, Casalos could have started a new round of trials that had been long overdue, but Archbishop Artanis stopped his impulse in time.
"Are you really going to enter the dungeon now?"
"What's wrong?" Without the archbishop needing to answer, Casalos, upon realizing the question, immediately gleaned the answer from the abstract information: its current psychic form was covered with over 50,000 layers of blazing flames, and the demiplane, in a sense, could be seen as a crack in reality. Entering the dungeon now would certainly allow it to be brought in, providing an excellent start. However, if it died inside the dungeon—which, given the current progress, was inevitable—all 50,000 layers of blazing flames would have to be wiped out.
If the spirit-like entity is properly preserved in the demiplane without entering the instance, then when Casalos opens the passage between the demiplane and the Prime Material Plane, it won't be too difficult for the main body to receive this portion of primordial power from the spirit-like entity of the same origin. There might be losses during the process of preserving and transferring the spirit-like entity, but in the worst case, at least 30% can still be retained.
This is something Casalos should carefully consider before making a decision.
Casalos can be fairly certain that the layering of flames essentially plundered something special from those killed by the flames, something that even the Dragon Treasury cannot reflect back to its physical body through slumber, which shows how precious and important it is.
Now that it has grown up, Casalos is a young dragon that can compete with the ancient dragons. However, the progress of the dungeon is stuck by the insurmountable first boss. The improvement from one or two dungeon trials is already very small. But 30% of the 1 layers of Blazing Flame is enough to make its strength undergo a qualitative transformation. Is there anything difficult to choose?
Through this abstract information, the Dragon's Treasury seems to have revealed some new functions; it turns out that these kinds of spiritual entities can still be preserved!
Sometimes Casalos couldn't help but sigh: while the Atheros's abstract inheritance method was safe and convenient, it still had huge flaws. If the Dragon Treasury's feedback wasn't based on the Atheros's abstract inheritance model, but rather like the Color Dragon's, where all the information was poured into its brain all at once, then its understanding and use of the Dragon Treasury would be on a whole new level... Well, even disregarding the issue of overheating, it seems unlikely that anyone would actively and meticulously read a product instruction manual piled high with technical jargon, right?
Judging from the scale and complexity of the Dragon Vault as it currently displays, Casalos figured he probably couldn't understand its instructions—after all, he struggled to even read one Nether Scroll, while the Dragon Vault easily replicated fifteen Nether Scrolls through information backtracking. Thinking about it that way, the Atheros's inheritance method is still better. Otherwise…
By choosing to retain his spiritual consciousness and exit the Dragon's Treasury, Casalos awoke peacefully from his short slumber for the first time. Blinking, he glanced at Fiona, who was vigilantly watching from the side. A certain instinct, or perhaps emotion, hidden deep within the young dragon suddenly surfaced, and he spat a mouthful of magma onto the tungsten dragon's back.
"What's wrong!"
Fiona turned her head nervously and asked, only to see the cunning eyes of the robust young dragon, and...
Chapter 241
Lava waves stirred up by the dragon's wings and tail.
"Hey, I think you deserve a beating, you little brat, daring to sneak up on me from behind! Watch this!" The tungsten dragon, which wasn't actually that old, roared and charged into the lava flow, flapping its wings to scoop up huge piles of bright red lava and splash them back. For a moment, joyful dragon roars echoed in the small cavity, lingering for a long time.
Casalos and Fiona returned to the Damara battlefield five days later. With Dragon Nightmare personally overseeing the operation with a large number of dragon knights, the commotion among the collateral royal nobles in the rear did not affect the stability of the front lines. Of course, this was only temporary. The infighting among those brainless bastards for the throne not only severely affected the logistical support at the front, but various factions were now also eyeing the front-line troops.
The smarter ones sent "envoys" to cultivate relationships with Long Yan, the supreme commander at the front, making a bunch of promises to persuade him to send some troops back to reinforce the front. The less astute ones sent "commanders" who spoke as if they were already the new emperor of Damara, issuing one decree after another ordering Long Yan to return to his lair to honor the emperor and punish the traitor. What's even more disgusting is that these guys haven't reduced their communication with the middle ranks at the front, and have already caused the morale of the army to waver.
Supply issues aren't a major concern, and with Casalos, that cunning "middleman," around, Dragon Latam's business scope has expanded considerably, once again finding a dumping channel for some of Dragon Territory's excess production capacity. But there's nothing anyone can do about demoralizing the army.
“What a bunch of junk! If you ask me, just kill them all and sit on the throne yourself.” The hot-tempered nickel dragon Lanmuloyk offered a suggestion that Casalos found very appealing: “With so many dragons like us, what are we afraid of?”
Long Yan rolled his eyes and didn't reply. As a paladin of the three righteous gods, he naturally couldn't do something so treasonous. However, he didn't reprimand them either, which showed that the royal collateral branches and nobles had indeed angered him quite a bit.
By keeping all envoys and officials under surveillance and preventing them from receiving rewards from lower-level officials, and by using the urgency of the war as an excuse to continue delaying the war for as long as possible, Dragon Nightmare's only option became to put the war on hold for several years without any major changes.
179. Busy
Casalos had no intention of sharing the burden of the dragon's troubles. Its purpose in bringing the athelian dragons to the war wasn't to help him win; in fact, dragging it out indefinitely would be a good thing. But that was destined to be impossible. A major reshuffling of the rules of the Faerûn gods was about to begin, and how could the mortal realm escape the influence of the gods?
Regardless, the small alpha dragon colony that Casalos had forcibly raised had grown strong after several years of war. The colony expanded, and the social bonds among the dragons stabilized thanks to the strong camaraderie of comrades. Furthermore, with the arrival of female alpha dragons—dragons don't mince words when it comes to courtship—a group of older female alpha dragons came to court, and any young dragon they set their sights on had virtually no chance of escaping.
Aside from Kara, who chose the wrong partner, all the dragons who came to Damara have already found their ideal match. If Casalos hadn't been busy with the war, after Casalos's disappearance for several years, there would probably be countless little dragons with some Atheros characteristics flying around.
To the dragon's regret, even with Kara's utmost caution, two young Arethonids and one Song Dragon still perished on the battlefield alongside their knights against an enemy of the magnitude of the demon army. In war, death is inevitable. The sacrifice of comrades who had shared life and death with them was more poignant than the war that wiped out the Arethonid race. The group of young Arethonids and Song Dragons were now a united front, while Casalos, who had disappeared not long before, had become somewhat estranged from them. Even Fiona and Lothrie were closer to them than Casalos, especially the new dragons who had joined after Casalos's disappearance.
But this wasn't a big deal. After Casaloz personally led them on several bombing raids, the slight rift was easily erased. The veteran dragons, led by Kara, had long boasted about Casaloz's strength and tactics, which had ultimately left a deep impression on the new dragons. When he proved the rumors true, he easily replaced the false image that had been created in the minds of the dragons, thus becoming the true leader of this small sub-Iron dragon group.
Of course, the dragons got beaten up by Casaloz a lot during this process. What could they do when a group of adamantine dragons, along with the dragon sister and the dragon knights, couldn't defeat them?
What's more, following Casaloz has so many benefits: custom-made dragon armor and weapons, a fixed monthly gem commission, and battle merits that can be exchanged for even more treasures that dragons would covet... like living clan elders and ancient dragon overlords. Who are those? Unfamiliar, don't know them!
Casaloz is the new Supreme Dragon, as foretold in the last prophecy of the old Supreme Dragon. Who else should we Athelon follow but him?
Overall, everything has been going smoothly lately, and Casaroz is in a great mood. The only thing that's bothering it a little is that the dragon Kara seems to have taken a stronger liking to it, the young, wealthy, and powerful baby dragon. This has led to quite a few clashes between Kara and Casaroz… Casaroz is somewhat puzzled by this. Fiona is alright; after regaining some of the mindset expected of a baby dragon, Casaroz has practically come to regard Fiona, the older sister it met the first time it hatched, as its closest playmate, spending almost every day together. It's understandable that Kara misunderstands.
As for what Kara was thinking, it's fair to say that Casalos himself wasn't entirely sure if he felt that way. He was just a young dragon, and unless he transformed into the adult form of another species, he had absolutely no such physiological urges. Rationally speaking, his feelings for Fiona were more of the dependence and trust a young dragon should have. After all, Toona couldn't possibly imagine that Casalos was essentially a young dragon in need of care; she had always been after Ratam's gametes… Casalos's human side would occasionally surface to complain about his somewhat chaotic love life.
With her limited experience from her previous life, Tao Na was already struggling to cope. Without those physical conditions, she wouldn't have thought about so many things.
Kara's hostility towards the chrome dragon Lothrie really baffled Casalos. It had never had any close contact with the cold chrome dragon, and usually just regarded it as a normal member of its small group. Why did the chrome dragon just not like her? The mother dragon's thoughts were indeed difficult for dragons to understand.
Anyway, Kara was quite sensible and didn't cause any trouble that affected Casalos's normal plans, so it didn't bother with her. With Kara having the protagonist's halo, it was a good thing that she could train Fiona and Lothrie's combat skills.
Casalos is quite busy. On one hand, he needs to find an opportunity to put on the skins of Ratambilol and Lord Thersita, and allocate manpower and resources to open up trade routes between Dragonflight, the Old Golden Dragon, and the Damara front. On the other hand, he also needs to plan for Dragonflight to receive him and open up the passage between the demiplane and the Prime Material Plane. Both of these are strategic projects that require huge investment, take a long time, and have complicated procedures.
Golden dragons need gems not just to fill their treasuries; these glittering giants eat gems like snacks, and a single old golden dragon family can basically consume the Dragon Territory's excess gem production capacity. After introducing stable gem sources to other well-connected golden dragon families, the Dragon Territory will need to find ways to expand gem production and make advance plans to maintain the good reputation of the dragon merchants.
Gems are always valuable items, and even the largest transactions can be supported by the Iron Dawn, a single psionic magic ship. The Damara front requires massive quantities of food, armor, weapons, potions, items, and other supplies for daily life and combat. Such a continuous supply of large quantities of resources, just the long-distance transport from Tindor to Damara across the entire continent of Faerûn, could cripple an empire. How to reduce transportation costs to an acceptable level while ensuring timely delivery was a major headache for Casalos. Ultimately, it was Charleson's increasingly powerful intelligence network that provided Casalos with a solution.
One of Charleson's secret agents was
Chapter 242
During the investigation of Harua, it was discovered that there is a huge swamp called Leixingze across the eastern wall of Harua. The swamp contains many permanent portals unknown to the builders, which can connect to almost all areas of the Faerûn continent. One of them leads to the Bloodstone Path!
Leixingze is not far from Tindor, and the cost of traveling by sea is very low. Bloodstone Path is basically located on Damara's defensive line. As long as we can obtain access to the portal, the transportation problem will be basically solved.
The problem is that Charleson hasn't figured out who controls these portals, let alone what's required to gain access to them.
Coincidentally, Casalos knew who owned these portals, but obtaining access to them might present a slight obstacle.
180. Sustainable Development Strategy
Teleportation portals might not be anything special, but permanent portals, especially those connecting to various parts of Faerûn, are extremely rare. Considering that the core of the teleportation network is located in the Bloodstained Swamp, Casalos is almost certain that Charson's scouts discovered the Dragonclaw Teleportation Network.
The builder and owner of the Dragonclaw Portal was a robust male black dragon mage, one of the most powerful black dragons in Faerûn, Varaksakth.
Black dragons are very "traditional" chromatic dragons, possessing an instinctive malice towards altosaurs, a trait that makes it difficult for Casalos to deal with Valaks normally. Using violence as he would with other chromatic dragons is unlikely to work on this black dragon mage—not that he can't defeat him, but as one of the weakest members of the true dragon tier, the black dragon's inherent weaknesses cannot be compensated for by a mere class level. Even though Valaksaks possesses at least a level 18 mage and seemingly legendary spellcasting abilities, he is still too young and unlikely to withstand Casalos's relentless onslaught.
This creature is quite an oddity among the black dragons. It's unclear what it went through as a child that instilled in it an "escapist" personality, actively avoiding any form of violence or conflict. At the slightest hint of danger, it will immediately use teleportation to escape. And throughout the entire history of Faerûn, probably no one's mastery of teleportation magic can match Valak's. The Dragonclaw teleportation network is the most convincing evidence. Neither the Ismakar Empire nor Netheril, nor any of the various elven empires, has ever built such a vast teleportation network.
Valak built this wonder with the power of a single dragon!
This black dragon archmage, who is skilled in teleportation, can convert all spells above the fifth ring into teleportation spells for use, and has permanently fixed one of his known ninth-ring spell slots into an instant teleportation spell... If it wanted to run away, probably no one could stop it except the goddess of magic herself.
These problems are actually quite easy to solve. Casalos could simply disguise himself as a chromatic dragon and engage in friendly exchanges with Valak, since Valak's philosophy is one of mutual benefit: "If you take one of my scales, I'll take one of yours." He often invites different chromatic dragons to participate in short-term collaborative projects—perhaps a highly speculative business deal, a purposeful adventure, or even manipulating a kingdom's trade for a short period to accumulate more wealth.
For safety reasons, the dragons that Valak seeks to cooperate with are usually far away from the Blood Swamp, and their territories are kept at a sufficient distance from each other, with no substantial conflict of interest, which greatly reduces the risk of possible internal strife.
Dragon Claw Portal was created to foster relationships with its partners.
To maintain the cooperative relationship, it never relied on its greater strength to take away the rewards of any cooperative project. Instead, it strictly abided by the contract and agreement, and through its own efforts or by cooperating with the new three-good colored dragons who were thoughtful, cultured and virtuous, it successfully built its own huge treasure trove and made a good reputation among the colored dragons. Cooperating with Valak could get rich treasures without much danger, and the red dragon could also temporarily suppress its chaotic and silly attributes and pretend to be a new era three-good evil dragon.
If a colorful dragon who knows a merchant from another world takes the initiative to cooperate with Valak, Valak will most likely not refuse.
The problem now is that Valaksaks has been missing for about fifty years. Charson's spies have even reached the core of its lair and discovered the location of the Dragon Claw portal, but they still haven't been able to find it. So where is Casalos supposed to find it to discuss a business cooperation plan to lease the Dragon Claw portal?
"Keep an eye on the merchants active across the continent. See if any of them share these characteristics: they are mages but don't wear robes; they always dress like nouveau riche merchants; they are kind-hearted but constantly shrouded in area-of-effect telepathic spells; they never accompany caravans but always provide large quantities of goods, seemingly transporting them in multiple dimensional bags; they frequently engage in speculative long-distance travel in unknown ways, for example, one morning they might be promoting high-end wines from the Vihon Sea to the nobles of Neverwinter, and the next afternoon they might be peddling precious glassware from Neverwinter in Dambreth..."
On one hand, he provided Charles with some clues so that he could send out spies to find a needle in a haystack. On the other hand, Casalos went to Gaelos Dragon Nightmare to get a map of the distribution of chromatic dragon nests around Bloodstone Path. He also asked Kara to take a few chromatic dragons that were not likely to arouse the chromatic dragons' hostility to make contact with them. The Dragonclaw Portal was essentially an Internet of Things that Valak had built for himself. Since there were nodes in Bloodstone Path, it proved that one of the chromatic dragons around Bloodstone Path was Valak's partner dragon. Perhaps they could even contact Valak.
Both methods rely on luck. Casalos doesn't think the Smiling Lady will favor him at this time, so he needs to prepare a feasible plan with a higher cost: bringing Toothpicker into the fold and having it break through the Dragon Claw portal.
Toothpicker has been really unreliable lately. When Casalos called for its help in Westgate, it teleported to Pointy Ears' territory; during the Dragon Tournament, Casalos once again called it over, but the dragons were all swallowed by the demiplane before it finally arrived, only to find that it couldn't find Casalos and went back to Waterdeep to stare at the Dragon Staff... Although both times it was late due to stronger arcane interference with its teleportation, Casalos couldn't help but feel a little resentful. If it weren't for the fact that it really couldn't find any other usable arcane dragons to do this big job, it wouldn't want to play with it.
The right way forward is to cultivate our own professional arcane research talents as soon as possible. Right now, there are a lot of bloodline-based warlocks who are more than capable of being magic cannons for destruction and can barely make some magical punk stuff, but when it comes to something like this where real research is needed, they are all completely clueless, which is really not conducive to sustainable development.
I need to give her a good talking-to after her tour ends.
Speaking of Isis, Casalos couldn't help but recall something: when Isis was flying around erratically a while ago, she couldn't contact it with magic, so she wrote it a few original paper letters to report on her tour.
The letters were delivered to the Dragon Ridge hounds, who sealed them away after receiving them. Later, after Casalos woke up, Isis mentioned them briefly, but it wasn't anything important, so it decided to read them later when it had time. Now that it had nothing else to do, and the Dragon Mother still had some time before her awakening period, it was a good time to take a look.
This discovery gave Casalos quite a shock: Isis, that little brat, had quietly hooked up with a big, powerful man!
181. Letter
Dear teacher, this letter is as if we were meeting in person.
It's been a long time since we last met. I've had a lot of interesting things happen that I wanted to tell you, but I can't get through on the phone. I'm also afraid I'll forget everything in a while, so I can only write to you first.
My touring troupe departed from Desera by boat and first arrived in Harua, the land of mages. We performed in Harigad and Harayah, but the mages seemed rather uninterested in my performance, and many Harua people felt I had blasphemed the sacred art of magic. I think they—this group of believers in magic—are truly as you described.
Chapter 243
...They're a bunch of bumpkins, which is an interesting description, but after getting to know them, I realized how apt it was.
We showed hostility to the followers of the Goddess of Magic, so we had to hastily end our tour in Harua and then sail around the evil, black-skinned, pointy-eared Danbreth, entering the land of the halflings, Ruren. The halflings seemed to enjoy my performance, but I felt they were much more interested in my ship than my show. Large groups of halflings surrounded the ship all day, studying it, and after each performance, they would chase after Sister Eisen and the others, asking them all sorts of questions.
Why can't we see the paddlewheels? What propels the ship forward? Why isn't there black smoke or steam coming out of the chimney? What kind of coal does it burn? Is it a magic ship? Eisen and the others aren't craftsmen, so how would they know these things? If they asked me, I could answer them, but they seem to think I'm some kind of singing and dancing diva. Well, I won't presume to know.
The Golden Sea region of Ishtargand, Golden Val, and Dupa is much more normal. There are many songstresses from all over the world performing here. I can see the Kabuki of the Eastern Continent, the highly ritualistic masked dance of the Maztecs, and the wild performances of the Katashar. It really broadened my horizons... However, your disciple's performance using magic to create effects is still unique. Even Pointy Ears has started to pay attention to me. Isn't that amazing?
After Dupa's performance, we went ashore and took the land route. Following your suggestion, we avoided the extremely dangerous Mulholland and Enser, traveling along the East Xia'a Plains to the Great Rift Valley, the home of the Golden Dwarves. Oh dear, these dwarves had absolutely no interest in the singing and dancing; instead, they were completely captivated by the disinfectant supplies the touring troupe brought—they drank all the alcohol spray and hand sanitizer like it was liquor, and then, drunk, surrounded us, insisting on giving it to the gods Modin and Saman first… What a bunch of crude fools! Don't they have their own alcohol industry? How could they act like this?
In the end, I gave them the production method of methanol from coal to get out of trouble. Anyway, I saw that these guys were fine drinking propanol without washing or disinfection, so it should be okay for them to drink methanol like strong liquor, right?
After escaping the Great Rift Valley, the touring troupe followed the edge of the Philstaup Mountains and the Jondar Forest into Jondars territory, then toured the border kingdoms along the shores of the Steam Lake. The inland human world was far more desolate and barren than the Golden Sea, and the conflicts between followers of different gods were intense, leaving the border kingdoms rife with war and refugees. I could only turn the touring into a benefit performance, attempting to use the power of magic to awaken a glimmer of light within the suffering common people.
Regrettably, with little success.
Perhaps, as you said, the suffering in Faerûn stems from the will of the superstructure, and there is no possibility of change from the bottom up... But I don't want to think about that. I'm not a social scientist, and you haven't taught me much in this area. Let's talk about something happier.
The oysters farmed in Yap City are really delicious. No wonder Uncle Kenneth can't stop thinking about them, even though his place is quite far from the steam lake.
Afterwards, we went to Deepflow Lake, the hometown of Uncle Kenneth, and after circling the Abyss Mountains, we performed in Lunds. We then bought a boat and toured the narrow Vihon Sea, fully experiencing the romance and passion of this cradle of mankind before entering the Sea of Fallen Stars. We then traveled west along the Dragon Coast Traders' Road, circled Dragon Lake, and finally entered Dahlren in Zambia.
Strangely enough, from the Sea of Radiance to the Vihon Sea and then to the Dragon Coast, everyone was using steam-powered iron-hulled paddle steamers as merchant ships, while Cormier on the opposite side of the Dragon Coast was still using very primitive wooden oar-sailed boats. However, after crossing the Guangze, all the merchant ships running around the port of Darren were paddle steamers.
Is Cormier so nostalgic? I don't understand... I remember you once said that the waters off Sword Bay are full of old hullboats and caravels with triangular sails boarding each other. It's so strange and disjointed.
Compared to the repressed Cormier, the Zambians seemed much more open-minded on the surface, but I could still see the arrogance and conceit in their eyes. They were only interested in the commercial value of the tour, not genuinely welcoming us. They're clearly just an agricultural country, much poorer than Tindor, yet they have this sense of superiority that I don't know where it comes from. If these uncultured peasants were to visit Desera, their jaws would probably drop to the floor in astonishment.
Today, the touring troupe arrived in Urspil, and the performance went very smoothly. No one could resist the breathtaking and magnificent effects of magic!
After the performance, a strange woman sneaked into my room. She said she wanted to have a proper talk with me… I figured since Sister Eisen had let her in, she probably didn't mean me any harm, so I tried to chat with her. It turned out she was also a follower of the goddess of magic, and like the mages of Harua, she wanted to stop me from using magic to please the "ordinary" people. However, rather than the mages of Harua using force, she preferred to have a friendly exchange of arcane magic insights with me.
"This is a desecration of the sanctity of magic!" That's what she said, much like what the mage Harua said. When I asked her why, she couldn't quite answer.
“Because from the moment you first encountered magic, your teachers who taught you magic, your friends who shared magic with you, the archmages you respected, and the priests of the goddess of magic all told you the same thing.” I saw the doubt in her eyes and felt that there might still be hope for her, so I talked to her more deeply: “They told you that arcane magic is sacred, and that commoners without arcane talent should not look directly at the brilliance of magic. They should lower their lowly heads to worship the spellcasters who wield arcane power, using their ordinariness to highlight the nobility of magic.”
But is this really your own thought?
Think about it carefully. Is magic, which can only be used to kill and destroy, really as noble and sacred as they claim?
182. Isis's Persuasion
Magic is noble and sacred, a arrogance unique to mages—don't misunderstand, this isn't mages targeting warlocks; mages mean that all other spellcasters are trash.
If other spellcasters are viewed this way by mages, what about the countless ordinary people of Faerûn who have no access to any arcane wisdom?
Because Isis is a mage, setting aside the issue of rank, the magical skills she displays are so impressive that even an archmage would feel ashamed of himself; she possesses an innate ability to see the warp and weft of magical networks. Therefore, in the eyes of mages, Isis's use of magic to create a performance effect is far more egregious than that of a bard. After all, bards are essentially combat professionals; their performances primarily involve using magical tricks to create atmosphere, while the truly magical elements are still used in combat.
Isis, however, often uses improvised high-level magic spells to create grand scenes directly, such as setting off meteor bursts like fireworks, and enchanting each fireball generated by the meteor burst with shaping magic, turning them into dragons dancing in the sky, and so on...
According to Casaloz, the mages of Harua's hostility toward Isis was more a product of jealousy.
But the lady Isis recently encountered was different. She genuinely believed, based on her simplistic and one-sided understanding of magic, that Isis's actions were a desecration of magic, which is why she was easily fooled by the little girl Isis.
Once she got caught up in it, there was no escaping it. Isis then began to instill more ideas that didn't belong to this world into this naive lady—of course, not the crystallization of the great friendship between Mr. Ma and Mr. En, or the complex social science theories that were subsequently put into practice by various parties. Casalos never intended to lead Isis in that direction. Apart from some scattered words that occasionally popped up when he was complaining, he never formally educated Isis on related content.
Whether this world is suitable for this is another matter, but the inherent "class" nature of Casalos Iron Dragon's identity, as well as its dragon life experience and nature, will prevent it from having related thoughts.
Chapter 244
To put it more broadly, productive forces determine relations of production, not the other way around. With the gods being almost equivalent to the ultimate producers of the kingdom and the heavens, trying to change the social structure of Faerûn through changes in relations of production is simply wishful thinking.
Revolution is not a dinner party. In a society where there are end-owners, class revolution will only take away one's own life, unless one becomes a new end-owner.
On a smaller scale, Casalos himself is a beneficiary of the current social order. Could he really betray his own class, lead the liberation of the loyal lackeys of Dragonflight, the large number of slaves after conquering the Grey Dwarf City, and the dragons he violently subdued, letting them rule the land and himself become a lone socialist warrior? That would be more like a new form of mental illness.
Casalos has only one goal: to cripple the chromatic dragons and the dragons behind them, so that the atheros can become great again. He has no interest in the bizarre social problems of Faerûn.
And Isis, as its obedient disciple, naturally followed the direction of its wings.
The core argument she made with that woman was: which is greater, magic that makes people live better, more comfortably, and happier, or magic that kills? It is believed that as long as a person harbors even a shred of goodwill and conscience deep within their heart—different physiology shapes different psychology—this argument and related conclusions are valid only when the subject is limited to humans. After all, many intelligent species in Faerûn genuinely only want to cause trouble or destruction, and that might even be their "good"—as long as one hasn't completely fallen into evil, no one would make any overly absurd judgments about this.
Having formed her initial judgment, the woman began to doubt her original values. After hearing Isis's embellished praise of Desera's "glorious magical industry," a new idea began to take shape in her mind...
Isis, a dark-skinned, white-haired girl, and Midnight, who had become her best friend, lay on the beach where the silver light of Suren shimmered, gazing at the phosphorescent Falling Star Sea and listening to the whistles of merchant ships entering and leaving the harbor.
“Isis, the world is so big, I want to see it,” Midnight suddenly said. “Since I completed my studies and left the academy, I’ve only wandered around the Dragon Coast as an adventurer. I thought that would hone my magical skills, increase my arcane knowledge, and bring me one step closer to the path of my dreams…”
"Why would a perfectly normal person want to become a preacher? You have to kill the previous one to take over the new one. If you didn't know the rules, people would probably think you were an abyss lord."
“Heh…but that’s a preacher mage.” Midnight didn’t really respond to Isis’s somewhat blasphemous remarks, and shifted the topic back to herself: “Perhaps, as you said, the life of a ‘native’ adventurer has limited my horizons. I want to see the splendor of the magical ‘industry’ of Desera that you spoke of, and I also want to experience the prosperity of the Golden Sea, and even more so, I want to experience the flourishing scene of the continent of Karatu. There are also magic ships that shuttle between different worlds, the City of Mark where even the gods set aside their status and abide by order, the boundless astral plane, and the phlogiston sea that separates different prime material planes…Only these places can make me feel the true greatness of magic, and no longer feel smug about blowing up a goblin’s nest with a fireball, or using levitation to lift myself off the ground.”
"Actually, you don't need to think about things that far ahead. Over in Jondas, a low-level druid of Mother Earth can help ten farmers grow enough food to feed thousands of people for a year. Isn't that much greater than you throwing a few fireballs? And this only applies to primitive agricultural practices. Just go and see for yourself."
"Indeed, you're right, so I want to go and see."