novelraw Chapter 411: Task Settlement
Chapter 411: Task Settlement
"Because I have constantly been hunted and pursued, and also because I wanted to fight for a sufficiently perfect opening start, the Frost Province promised to me by the King of Locke was the best condition for me. But it's very unfortunate, I truly didn't expect the strength of those Neanderthals to be so terrifying. They planted spies and traitors among my subordinates, causing the signing of the peace treaty between me and the King's Special Envoy to suffer severe sabotage and destruction!"
"Since then, I have constantly been amidst my subordinates rebelling against me, or my subordinates self-detonating. Sigh, it was I who harmed them. As long as I got close to them, their bodies would enter a state of extreme instability, forcing me to distance myself from them. And then followed a long pursuit and hunt lasting for nearly two months."
"During this period, that King's Special Envoy constantly attempted to receive and extract me, but the Neanderthals' pursuit followed like a shadow. I almost didn't dare to stop and rest for even half a day. The Frost Crows in my hands died one after another; until the very end, I still hadn't managed to contact him. By now, Zhao Kewu's territory has been breached, and the King's Special Envoy has unfortunately perished. I am completely isolated and without help, only able to come to your place to seek refuge."
"Li Wei, I know you are a subject of His Majesty the King. Please, you absolutely must help me this once. I am willing to offer my sincerity. I know you also possess a Frost Crow, but it isn't powerful enough yet. This is the knowledge regarding the training and fortification of Frost Crows that I found within an ancient era Mage Tower—"
As the Frost Duke finished speaking these words, several lines of information simultaneously surfaced before Li Wei's eyes, flashing past.
[Special Plot Mission! Issuer: The new King's Special Envoy. Mission Guarantor: Duke of Weir.]
[Mission Details: Please take in the down-and-out Frost Duke and protect him from being slain by Barbarian Cross-Border Players, until the arrival of the new King's Special Envoy.]
[Mission Duration: Twenty-four hours.]
[Explanation: The Frost Duke has already suffered heavy injuries and is powerless to fight again. Please do not expect him to participate in battle.]
[Explanation: The Frost Duke currently does not belong as a member of the All-Heavens Lord Alliance. He is not bound to a Profession Card, thus he cannot enjoy the benefits of direct rescue. Only within your territory, or the territory of your Vassal Baron, can he await the arrival of the new King's Special Envoy. By the same logic, if he wishes to join the All-Heavens Lord Alliance, he must also go through legal procedures. It isn't something that can be achieved just by him saying he wants to accept amnesty and be recruited.][Mission Rewards: 2,000 Campaign Points, 100,000 Standard Gold Coins, five One-Star Temple Priests, one Sequence 3 Magic Crest, one Frost Hunting Pet Fortification Scroll, and a 5% tax exemption preferential policy.]
[Please make a choice swiftly!]
Yi!
These rewards... alright, for the sake of the Neanderthal masters, it's not entirely unacceptable. Li Wei was currently truly and urgently eager to fight a battle against the Neanderthals.
"Agree!"
And the instant Li Wei made his choice, a golden light descended from the heavens, directly enveloping the Frost Duke within it. He seemed to relax his entire person for a moment, cast a grateful glance at Li Wei, and subsequently fainted and collapsed to the ground.
However, before he even hit the ground, Li Wei had already galloped over on his horse, scooping him up in a single grab. The next moment, he turned his horse around and rode back.
And after a mere minute had passed, from a direction further away, five Neanderthal Cross-Border Players also appeared on a hilltop over twenty li away.
Then, in another direction, a full ten Neanderthal Cross-Border Players also appeared.
Wow!
Li Wei turned his head and flashed a peace sign!
At least three Thousand-Man Commanders and two Centurions.
A massive explosion of loot, ah!
Li Wei galloped practically as if flying, returning to Hathaway's barony territory. At the same time, he transmitted orders via his Prestige Card; he was already prepared to fight a grand battle.
However, what he absolutely hadn't expected was that very soon Adai transmitted the latest intelligence: those Neanderthal Cross-Border Players had withdrawn.
It wasn't the kind of withdrawing to hide deep within the hills, but rather they all used a special kind of Item Card. With a flash of blue light and a 'swish' sound, they vanished from this world.
"Fuck? No way, these few Neanderthals are far too cowardly and timid! Do you still speak of martial virtues?!"
Li Wei practically stomped his feet in a raging fury. Three Thousand-Man Commanders, two Centurions—what are you guys thinking? Wouldn't it be great to just charge straight up and everyone happily massacres each other for a bit?
Fuck it, over at Black Mountain Fortress, Javier, Benjamin, and the others had already led seventy heavy cavalrymen, standing by for orders at any time.
Even over at the Territory Main City, Zhao Xuanxuan, Grant, and Mark had also led soldiers and set off.
"Li Wei, you're the one not speaking of martial virtues, right? You want a mere fifteen Barbarian Cross-Border Players to charge at my Barony Territory, which has a Three-Star Magic Well? And you still have the nerve to say that. They aren't stupid either. Ending it just like this is pretty good."
At this moment, Hathaway was standing beside the unconscious Frost Duke, clicking her tongue in wonder, as if looking at something incredibly rare and strange. Because judging from the situation currently understood, this person was absolutely a magical genius, one in ten thousand.
A pity, ultimately he was still recruited and accepted amnesty by the Royal Family.
Li Wei also quickly accepted these cruel realities.
The elite Neanderthal squads already didn't dare to come attack him. And with the Frost Duke accepting amnesty and recruitment, his City Building Pioneering Mission fundamentally arrived at the day of settlement.
Calculating it, it was equivalent to him freeloading two months' worth of magic power for free.
Three Three-Star Magic Wells, capable of extracting 150 units of magic power every day. Sixty days was 9,000 units.
It absolutely counted as an astronomical figure, but in reality, if these were used for enchanting, it wasn't actually all that much.
During these sixty days, Zhao Xuanxuan forged a total of an entire three hundred sets of Three-Star Enchanted Equipment. Each set included a helmet, a half-body armor, greaves, combat boots, a shield, plus a large sword or a long spear. Simultaneously, she also forged two hundred sets of Three-Star Enchanted Horse Armor.
These consumed a total of five hundred units of magic power. One could only say conventional troop types were truly cheap...
Aside from this, the Heavy Weapons Division subordinate to the Engineering Group forged a total of fifty Enchanted Giant Ballistae and thirty Enchanted Trebuchets, consuming eighty units of magic power in total. Also very economical.
However, Second Aunt formulated a total of fifty portions of Four-Star Magic Secret Potions and three hundred portions of Three-Star Magic Secret Potions. These drained an entire two thousand units...
Hearing about it made one's heart ache.
Fortunately, Second Aunt had stopped tossing and turning about. Estimably, she herself also felt it was far too crazy. Therefore, right now the reserves of the Mage Tower + Magic Well over at the Territory Main City had reached 2,300 units again.
It was worth mentioning that over the past two months, the magic power extracted from the Three-Star Magic Well at Riverside Fortress would be transferred to the Main City or Hathaway's barony territory at the first possible moment.
Because the small business transaction between Hathaway and Night Owl was similarly a massive consumer of magic power.
The excess magic power was all tossed into this bottomless pit.
But regarding this matter, it couldn't be mentioned, couldn't be entered into the account books. How Night Owl entered it into the account books over there, how she smoothed things over with the Royal Capital's Taxation Department, that was her business.
In short, to describe it in the simplest sentence: Night Owl borrowed one Magic Well from Hathaway, plus one Magic Well from Li Wei, and within these two months, extracted three thousand units of magic power for herself.
Anyhow, at this moment, not long after that Neanderthal squad withdrew, the Radiation Storm suddenly stopped. It was the Magic Net on this planet returning to normal again.
Naturally, it also meant that the war on the other planet had at least been brought under control.
Everything returned to the right track.
Li Wei didn't see that new King's Special Envoy either. That deeply slumbering Frost Duke was directly enveloped by a mass of gray fog. The next second, the gray fog dispersed, and the person was gone.
[You successfully completed this special plot mission! You protected the pursued and hunted Frost Duke. You rightfully deserve to obtain rewards.]
[You obtained 2,000 Campaign Points. Currently remaining Campaign Points: 2,900.]
[You obtained 100,000 Standard Gold Coins, five One-Star Temple Priests, one Sequence 3 Magic Crest, one Frost Hunting Pet Fortification Scroll, and a 5% tax exemption preferential policy.]
[Your City Building Pioneering Mission ends here. Please immediately head to your Territory Main City within 24 hours to prepare for Task Settlement. If you cannot arrive on schedule, it will be deemed that you voluntarily forfeited Task Settlement.]
Several lines of information suddenly surfaced before Li Wei. The mission was just completed like this?
Ha, the entire process took less than ten minutes!
Li Wei sighed with emotion once. After exchanging a few words with Hathaway and Li Yue, he mounted his horse and charged straight for the Territory Main City. The Pioneering Card currently bound to him had to be extracted at the Main City, and then transformed into a large-scale Magic Shield to envelop the entire Main City territory.
Galloping like the wind and lightning all the way, he arrived at the Main City before evening. He didn't even have time to enter the Main City, nor did he have time to exchange a few words with Second Aunt in the Mage Tower. Practically when he was still twenty li away from the Main City, with his entire person still galloping on horseback, the result was that he plunged headfirst into an alternate dimensional space.
At this moment, the setting sun was like fire, yet ahead were the crashing waves of the sea. Looking up, he saw that he was actually situated within a majestically magnificent and sweeping golden palace.
And it was unknown exactly how high this palace was; anyway, just taking one more look made one feel it was incomparably overwhelmingly majestic.
Looking around again, he saw four planets actually floating within this palace. This scene was very absurd, yet inexplicably, one would feel it was very reasonable.
Clearly those four planets looked to only have a radius of a few dozen meters, but Li Wei just had a sensation that those were true planets, and his territory was upon one of them.
So, where is this?
Is it the Royal Capital?
Wait, that's—Li Wei suddenly looked up, only to see nine massive seats arranged in a circle amidst the illumination of countless golden lights. The nine figures on the seats were looking down at him from a commanding height.
However, it wasn't just these nine gazes. Li Wei could also sense that on an even higher tier, where the golden light was incomparably dazzling, there were still some gazes observing him. He could even sense a gaze that was very familiar among them.
Is it Night Owl?
Wait, there's another gaze, somewhat familiar. Fuck me, could this be that unkempt and scruffy large man?
It couldn't be wrong. Interesting. This big bro also has the qualifications to sit here? To actually be able to sit in the same row as Night Owl.
This is truly far too interesting.
Li Wei surveyed his surroundings once more, and immediately found the figure of Black Wolf from the Logistics Department on the nine seats at the lowest tier. So this represented the nine departments of the Weir Province?
The Chief Executive Officers of the Upper Four Departments and Lower Five Departments?
And because Night Owl had been promoted, her seat was on a higher tier.
Just as he was thinking this, all of a sudden he heard a mighty and majestic tolling of a bell ringing out from the highest tier of the golden light grand hall, and then a majestic voice transmitted over.
"Pioneer Li Wei, I am the King's Special Envoy. By the King's order, I convey the following edict to you! And I shall conduct certification and issue rewards for the first stage of your task settlement."
"Because you performed exceptionally well in this City Building Pioneering Mission, and effectively thwarted the invasion plots of the Barbarian Cross-Border Players, simultaneously powerfully and forcefully supporting the frontline battles... Now, under the recommendation of the Duke of Weir, and under the certification of Thorns Pass Garrison Commander Marquis Night Owl, you are specially conferred the title of Flame Viscount. From now on, you shall be a noble aristocrat of the Locke Kingdom, and you shall possess your legal territory. Now, please take the oath alongside me!"
"You shall be eternally loyal to the Locke Kingdom! Loyal to the King and his legitimate inheritors. You shall swear to the death to defend the King's authority! And you shall fight for the great cause of the Kingdom!"
Hearing this, Li Wei hurriedly discarded all distracting thoughts and followed along to take the oath. At this time, it was best not to think too much; just following along and doing as told was fine.
(End of this chapter)