 Fragment of Income Bulletin, suspected to be distributed by GOC internal communication division confiscated from captured sleeper agents in Site 229, Tuesday, January 15th, 2041, Income Internal Communication, Modern Thaumaturge, A-Respective, by Field Agent, Blue Sox, 44667218-7222. It is often said that modern mages have it far easier than older generations. That they know no hardship, nor the struggle of becoming true mages, that was the norm until as recently as last century. And as a result, they have become far weaker, dependent on modern convenience. While the stereotype is misleading at best, an outright discriminatory at worst, it might be worth examining how much of it is true. In a hypothetical scenario of facing an angry dragon, or to be specific, a winged, massive reptilian entity with innate thomontological capability and affinity to a certain platonic elements. A hundred years ago, if one was to face a dragon in their natural habitat in Iceland, their best course of action was to hide and pray. As the closest capable mage would be thousands of miles away playing cat and mouse against the prevalent, albeit less public, mage-hunting organization. Today, you could connect to the closest UNGOC hotline, who would then dispatch a team of mages through either supersonic transport or an apportation circle and then pummel a dragon with their enchanted bullets. Easy, right? Well, reality has a special way to twist your expectation. To begin with, dragons are protected Fiji Goodrich threat entities, with their proper environmental sanctuary. To meet one, you would have to trespass into top secret juicy facilities with their security. No way they would dispatch a team of mages to rescue you. Higher chance, they're the ones throwing you to the dragon's maw. If you've cleared the proper paperwork and we could ignore why they're leaving you alone with the dragon in the first place, there's still the problem of how expensive it is to deploy a battle mage capable of handling a dragon. Not because of the high per hour rates of such specialists, rather the logistical cost of their equipment. Such limitations that wasn't observed by previous centuries mages, makes most specialists barely scraping by, even with their outrageous hourly rates the GOC happily paid. Add to that most of the works that wasn't covered by told me supply, runic bullets that must be ordered from specialists, symbolic weapon that needs to be made and bonded specifically by the mage, training fees, the list goes on. Speaking of training, I have observed that most people who claimed modern mages have it easier never actually bothered to see just how much effort does one need to graduate from ICSUT, much less to be employed as a certified GOC field ops. Applied thermotology requires not only physical and psychological compatibility, but also massive amounts of efforts to convert one's innate talent into actual practical capability. It's an answer to why, even in the ages of unified thermotology, the amount of mages we could deploy are still far below our normal paramilitary forces. Assuming a mage is still as difficult as it is the last century, if not more, due to the stricter control under ICSUT and by extension GOC. I cannot deny that modern conveniences have lessened major struggle in some aspect. Unified form of thermotology results in more standardized equipment and even interchangeability of items, such as generic wards or grimoire, advances in imaging, detection and containment of thermic workings has lessened the burden in mages who could focus more in handling actual threats. Well, at least for those under GOC's wings. But we cannot judge the current generation of mages by the lenses of ages long past. Similar to regular Bradger military, current technological advance might convenience the personnel. But the threat they faced on regular basis also evolves and it is a matter of whether you are fighting an actual dragon or a bureaucratical one. And a file. To learn more about the SCP Foundation, subscribe to SCP Orientation Today and turn the notification bell on so you don't miss any of our videos.