Chapter 2144: Local Impacts
Martial Art had a deep impact on human civilization, having come to affect all domains of society. There wasn't a single field or section of the species that Martial Art hadn't come to become an important variable in defining or altering.
Be it business and commerce and the various industries and markets that they enveloped, the sciences and adjacent fields in pursuit of the truth, or other fields of intellectual pursuit of any kind.
Developments in Martial Art affected everything and everyone.
Everyone knew this, whether they liked it or not.
Keeping an eye out on Martial Art to keep up with its dynamics and developments was something that everybody with any amount of power of any kind knew to do. After all, it would definitely affect everything.
That was why the revelation about the hundreds of simultaneous Martial Apprentice breakthroughs at one of the sixteen branches of the Martial Academies rocked everyone out of their seats.
Their first instinct was to deny it, but they couldn't.
It came from too many directions to possibly ignore.
And it impacted too many directions of human civilization for anybody to ignore.
It didn't take everybody much time to put two and two together.
This was certainly not an organic development and the Martial Union was certainly responsible for it.
Did this mean that they had made a massive breakthrough in their training technology that resulted in such an absurdly high rate of breakthroughs?
It appeared so. Then, was it sustainable?
They quickly found the answers to that in the following days as exploration stage students from across all branches also began experiencing mass breakthroughs!
This only poured more fuel to the fire.
No amount of prudence could keep the intelligence hidden. It spread across all echelons of the Kandrian Empire, across the entirety of the political class of the nation-state.
The moment the truth became absolutely irrefutable, many broke out into a cold sweat thinking about how this crazy development would affect them. A massive increase in the supply of Martial Apprentices would completely disrupt local business at all levels. Weak and inconsequential as they were on the international stage of East Panama, they were the bedrock of the local Martial industry. They were the sole constituent of the security industry of the Kandrian Empire. They also played an important role in labor and hunting, which constituted a part of the production of countless goods and services. They were useful for intelligence gathering and surveillance as well.
Their services were the bedrock of a massive amount of trade and commerce within the Kandrian Empire and even outside.
If the availability of Martial Apprentices spiked, it would massively impact all that trade and commerce in many ways.
For one, the economic value of Martial Apprentices would decrease. After all, supply would increase exponentially while demand would either not change or increase upon the increased supply and the lowered prices needed to commission Martial Apprentices.
Regardless, it would mean that any goods and services that involved Martial labor at the Apprentice level would experience a substantial decrease in the cost of production due to the lowered price of Apprentices caused by this increased supply.
It was a good thing for businesses and commercial endeavors of any kind, stimulating the supplier market greatly. It was also great news for the consumer market, as the lowered cost of production represented lower prices for the same goods and services.
It stimulated the economy greatly.
It was great for everybody in the nation.
Everybody except for Martial Apprentices themselves.
For Martial Apprentices, this was horrible news.
It meant more competition for the same limited amount of resources and market opportunities. It also meant a systematic devaluation of everything that they had to offer.
It was a deeply unpleasant and hostile development.
One that could cause the eventual mass displacement and emigration of Martial Apprentices to other nations in search of less competitive regions that still had a greater appreciation of their services.
If it wasn't handled extremely carefully and effectively, the benefits of the mass Apprentice breakthroughs could spill over to other nations. Maximizing both the economic and military benefits of the Apprentice breakthroughs was actually extremely difficult.
Perhaps a lesser leader would have fumbled, causing the worst to unfold.
Not Emperor Rael, however.
"Charles," he gazed down at the prostrating man from atop his ostentatious throne. "I trust the preparations over the past three years are complete, yes?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." His deep voice was filled with admiration. "It is as you foretold. The DiViliers Division has stockpiled enough cutting-edge training and growth resources to accommodate nearly a hundred times as many Martial Apprentices."
"Good. Ensure that the timelines for the distribution of these resources match those of Operation Transcension." Emperor Rael's powerful tone grew imperious. "Ensure that every new apprentice that breaks through does not experience any heightened difficulty in attaining all the resources that they could ever need. Ensure that they never ever have any reason to leave the Kandrian Empire in search of resources."
"Your wish is my command, Your Majesty." Three years ago, when Rael had uprooted the entirety of the Underworld with the power of prophecy, he had finally found enough evidence that tied Charles DiViliers to the Underworld and all the crimes that came with it.
However, rather than executing the man, he had decided to dissolve his company and turn him into the mafia equivalent of a prisoner of war. The man was a highly effective developer of strategically valuable Martial resources; it would have been a waste to kill him. This was especially true considering the fact that these resources would matter a lot once the war began ramping up.
Thus, he essentially absorbed the man and all his work into the government under his absolute command and control and squeezed him for all the value he could. As far as Rael was concerned, this itself was more than the man deserved, considering all the misery and despair that he had been complicit in spreading.