novelraw Chapter 412: Flame Crest
Chapter 412: Flame Crest
And the instant he finished loudly taking the oath, an exceptionally magnificent and gorgeous Noble Crest, enveloped in a mass of flames, abruptly descended from the heavens just like that!
Li Wei even saw the phantom illusion of a Fire Dragon within this mass of flames.
This is at least a Sequence 4 Magic Crest, right!
Just as Li Wei was about to reach out to receive it, that Flame Crest actually transformed into a massive Fire Dragon, swallowing him in a single gulp. In this instant, he felt as if his entire person, even his entire soul, was being scorched and burned by raging flames. Searing agony rushed over like tidal waves; his head ached as if it were splitting apart.
The entire process lasted for about several seconds, but it truly felt as long as an entire lifetime.
He even felt as if he had been turned to ash.
Yet ultimately, he still returned to normal. Then he discovered his entire person was kneeling on one knee, his entire body sweating profusely like spilling porridge. The Fire Dragon was gone; only an exquisitely beautiful, mysterious, and sacred Flame Noble Crest lay quietly there in his hands.
At the same time, he also sensed that his Spiritual Power had actually surged by 5 points at this moment. Was this the benefit brought by being swallowed by the Fire Dragon just now?
Li Wei didn't dare to think too much, nor did he dare to get up. The primary reason was that his body was too painful; the sensation of being scorched and charred by the raging flames was still vivid in his mind.
But it seemed that the King's Special Envoy had already left.The others had also left one after another. It seemed the ceremony from just now had already concluded. But what about my Task Settlement?
At this time, a familiar voice sounded; it was Night Owl.
"Li Wei, I am Thorns Pass Garrison Commander Night Owl. I am now conducting certification for the second stage of your Task Settlement, and determining the basic outline for your territory. From this moment forth, you are a Four-Star Lord of the All-Heavens Lord Alliance. Your Main City shall possess the qualifications to open the Magic Arbitrary Door free of charge. From now on, you can travel from your Main City to the vast majority of cities within the borders of the Locke Kingdom."
"Now, I will first explain the relevant matters to you. If you harbor any doubts or confusion, feel free to speak to me."
While speaking, Li Wei felt the lights and shadows around him shifting and changing. The next instant, he actually arrived at Night Owl's study, and he was currently kneeling on one knee before Night Owl. What the hell?
So this is Weir City?
"Get up, what are you still kneeling for?" Night Owl's voice sounded again.
"No, Milord, what about the Task Settlement?" Li Wei struggled to climb up from the ground, extremely bewildered and confused.
"It is currently underway, ah. Li Wei, you are now already a Substantive Viscount of the Locke Kingdom, and simultaneously a Substantive Power Four-Star Lord within the All-Heavens Lord Alliance. Stop underestimating yourself too much. Your status has already been decided; there is no longer a need to be as overly cautious, meticulous, and cowardly as before. Do you want to drink tea, or coffee, or an iced beverage?"
Night Owl smiled. Her voice was very amiable and approachable. The feeling given to Li Wei was as if the Night Owls he had previously seen were all fakes, and this one before his eyes was the true one.
But this truly made Li Wei feel very uneasy.
"I'd better pass; I am not thirsty."
"Alright then. Actually, under normal circumstances, it should be the Duke of Weir personally presiding over the second stage of this Task Settlement for you. But he has no time; the pressure on the frontline is massive, presumably you also have some understanding of it. Mhm, let me explain first."
"First of all, although you have already taken the oath, from now on, your relationship with the Royal Family will solely be limited to the annual 25% taxation. The King will not interfere with your territory's affairs, nor will there be imperial envoys holding the emperor's sword investigating secretly. There absolutely won't be. Not only the King, the Duke of Weir also will not do such a thing. Your territory requires you to manage it yourself. If you don't manage it well, if expenditures exceed income, no one will catch the bottom for you. Directly going bankrupt will do."
"Secondly, you need to understand the rights and obligations you bear hereafter. Because you are now a direct subordinate of the Duke of Weir, you must eliminate worries and resolve difficulties for the Duke of Weir as much as possible. Aside from participating in a Cross-Border Mission or Conquest Mission once every five years, you can also hold some other positions. That is, as the Chief Executive Officer or Deputy Executive Officer of various departments, just like how I was previously the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."
"Of course, theoretically you can also choose to decline. But you must understand, if you hold these positions, you can select some outstanding talents for your territory, and earn some Clearance Tokens. Because after your current Task Settlement concludes, you will forever be unable to obtain Black Iron quality and above Clearance Tokens within the world where your territory is located."
"Don't think that there is still any more valuable wealth waiting for you to seize and plunder on that planet where your territory is located. There isn't any anymore. The residual fragments of ancient magic within that Snow Mountain will be extracted. The intensity of the Radiation Storms will decrease, ultimately becoming slight to the point of being negligible. Without the Frost Duke, and without the Neanderthal Cross-Border Players cooking up commotions, your territory and the planet it resides on will rapidly degenerate into a Low-Magic World."
"This is a certainty, not an accident. Because in a certain sense, we have already completed a rescue-and-salvage style plundering of this planet. Do you understand my meaning? What should be taken away has all already been taken away. The King took away the Frost Duke, this magical talent, and all his subordinates. The Duke of Weir took away the residual fragments of ancient magic within the Snow Mountain. As for me, through you and Hathaway, I obtained sufficient support, practically allowing me to establish a firm foothold at Thorns Pass. In the future, Thorns Pass might even upgrade into the Thorns Province."
"As for you, you obtained a territory, a portion of the Frost Duke's subordinates, as well as five thousand Freemen. We all obtained benefits; we all have bright futures."
"Speaking honestly, if it weren't for the Neanderthals stirring up trouble and heavily injuring the Frost Duke, thereby preventing the Frost Province from being established, you would have come to experience the nightmare of being gradually continuously nibbled away and encroached upon by the Frost Province."
"Li Wei, you absolutely must understand this point. Hereafter, unless the Neanderthals still obsess over you and still want to invade and exterminate you, otherwise, the greatest use of your territory and that planet is to cultivate newcomers, and incidentally issue some Three-Star difficulty Chaotic Killing Missions. The moment the City Building Pioneering Mission was completed, was the absolute peak."
"Wanting to obtain dozens, hundreds of Four-Star Universal Gold Cards in a single battle just like before, is impossible now."
"However, you were still relatively intelligent, knowing to exchange Universal Gold Cards for legal territory. Note this: the legal territory you retained is the greatest wealth. As for the other illegal territory, only the magic power stored within the Magic Wells can be considered wealth."
"Therefore, I'll tell you explicitly. If you do not go and hold those positions, your territory will ultimately, at the absolute maximum, support itself for another 100 to 150 years before it inevitably goes bankrupt. Or even if you do go hold those positions, ultimately it still won't be able to avoid bankruptcy."
"You must constantly understand one thing: a territory is the staircase for you to climb upwards. Of course, if you are formidable enough, and the profits derived from every Cross-Border Mission are exceptionally rich and generous, then pretend I said nothing. But the Neanderthals' hatred towards you; they truly hate you far too much. Previously, they didn't even dare to charge into Hathaway's territory to slay the Frost Duke. Tsk tsk, all this karma has fallen upon your body now."
"The more they tolerate and endure you, the more severe the rebound will be."
"Additionally, holding these positions also has some other benefits. For instance, if you serve as the Chief Internal Affairs Officer in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for five years, you can postpone participating in a Cross-Border Mission by one year. If you can cumulatively serve as the Chief Internal Affairs Officer for twenty-five years, you can postpone it by five years. You need to understand, this is very important."
"In fact, I relied precisely on this method to accumulate five years of time. Up to now, it has been nine years since I participated in a Cross-Border Mission. This gave me sufficient time to accumulate my own strength, and ultimately breakthrough at a crucial moment, becoming a Four-Order Caster. I could even seize the opportunity because of this, stepping forward bravely during this crisis at Thorns Pass and turning the tides. It can be said that if Thorns Pass can successfully upgrade to Thorns Province in the future, it has a massive relationship with these decades-long plannings and schemings of mine."
Night Owl spoke with calm assurance and eloquence. Li Wei listened with a startled, palpitating heart, feeling his head ache even more, because he self-assessed that he couldn't accomplish this kind of thing.
At this time, Night Owl spoke again:
"However, if you truly do not wish to go take up a post in the departments, you can also choose to head to the frontline to garrison and defend. Or even, just choose to be unburdened by official duties, solely operating your own territory, and participate in a Cross-Border Mission once every five years. It doesn't matter, as long as your strength is sufficient to ensure your territory develops without problems, that is fine."
"Now, what I should say has already been said. Do you have any doubts or questions?"
"Many thanks, Milord. I wish to understand the Territory Ascension Card, and the Magic Main World where the Locke Kingdom is located. Exactly what is going on with that?"
Li Wei immediately asked. In the past, he didn't have the qualifications to ask, and asking would have been useless. But now he absolutely had to understand a thing or two. He was exceptionally interested in that sparkling golden palace from just now.
"The Territory Ascension Card is a Six-Star Item Card. Just one card can ascend a territory of ten square kilometers. With your current 190 square kilometers of legal territory, you would need at least nineteen cards."
"As for what the Magic Main World is, it was the world where those ancient Magicians once lived. But due to the impacts brought by the frenzied tides of the Magic Origin completely disordering, their world was transformed into countless fragments. These fragments vary in size; the large ones are like a continent, possessing tens of millions of square kilometers, while the small ones might only be the size of a fingernail. So you understand now, right? The Royal Capital of the Locke Kingdom is established upon a gigantic world fragment. And the so-called ascension isn't allowing you to ascend your territory onto that world fragment, but rather like individual small satellites, flying alongside it."
"Incidentally, I can also answer a question related to this for you. Do you know why our great Six-Star Lord is also simultaneously the King of the Locke Kingdom?"
"The answer lies precisely within that massive world fragment he occupies. Within that fragment continent, there is an ancient, lost Locke Kingdom, preexisting the era before the ancient Magicians led to the complete disordering of the Magic Origin. This country possessed over a dozen provinces. One of the provinces was called the Weir Province, another called the Juniper Province, and another called the Cadel Province. Even, based on unearthed documents and literature, there was also a Thorns Province."
"Li Wei, all of this is not accidental or fortuitous. Including your Flame Viscount title. Why do you think that Frost Duke called himself the Frost Duke? It is because he obtained a special kind of magic from the ancient era, thus he obtained the identity of the Frost Duke."
"Including the codenames we are currently required to obtain, in the era of ancient Magicians, these genuinely possessed inheritances. You thought the codename you obtained was meticulously and painstakingly acquired by yourself, but in reality, that is an ancient resonance straddling across countless years."
"Including our Profession Cards, they all possess a tremendous connection with that ancient magic era."
"So, do you have any other doubts or questions?"
Night Owl inquired again, unexpectedly possessing great patience.
"Many thanks, Milord. I have no more questions."
"Very good!"
The moment Night Owl's voice fell, the next second the lights and shadows all around fluctuated and changed. Li Wei was actually brought to a high altitude above a planet by her again, descending like lightning, until they appeared precisely fifty kilometers directly above Li Wei's Territory Main City.
Looking down from here, he could faintly see his tiny, insignificant Territory Main City.
"Come then, officially commence the Task Settlement. You currently possess a total of 190 square kilometers of legal territory. How do you wish to circle it out?"
At this time, as Night Owl spoke, she waved her hand. The Pioneering Card within Li Wei's body automatically activated, transforming into a super-massive Magic Shield, falling upon the great earth. In the blink of an eye, it formed an area of 190 square kilometers.
"I will remind you, this kind of Magic Shield was purchased by that great Six-Star Lord, His Majesty our King, from the legendary shop of the All-Heavens Lord Alliance. It possesses the advantages of powerful defensive effects, an effective existence duration reaching as high as 300 years, and extremely minimal energy consumption. However, it is best to set it in a perfectly circular shape right from the beginning. This is the optimal shape; not only will the defensive power be maxed out, but the energy consumption will also be minimized to the lowest, and it will even be very easy to repair."
"And if you wish to set it into a rectangular shape, or some other bizarre and strange shapes, then don't blame me for not reminding you. If you do that, the durability of the Magic Shield might drop by half, the defensive power will also be slashed by half, or it might even be worse."
"What if it's an ellipse?" Li Wei asked at this time, because if it was a perfect circle, it deviated a bit too much from his plans. The diameter wouldn't even be 16 kilometers.
"An ellipse? You'll have to take a 20% discount on those stats."
This—
Li Wei frowned as he looked at the earth, then asked again, "Must the center point of this Magic Shield of mine be located at the Main City?"
"It is best to set it at the Main City, especially nearby the Mage Tower. This is convenient for maintenance, and also convenient for supplying magic power. For this kind of Magic Shield, with your territory's area, it will need to consume 19 units of magic power annually. But if the center point is too far away, for every five kilometers it exceeds, the consumption increases by one unit. If it reaches the edges, the consumption will be even greater. You can give it a try!"
Hearing it like this didn't sound too bad; he wasn't lacking this bit of magic power. The fertile farmlands in the northern valley couldn't be abandoned.
Presently, Li Wei extended his hand and pointed. That Magic Shield formed by the Pioneering Card below slowly shifted ten kilometers to the north, which was arriving at the location of the Northern Fortress. Like this, both the Main City and the Mage Tower were still within the Magic Shield, but the annual consumption would reach 21 units.
But similarly, at least half of the mountainous valley plains to the north of the Northern Fortress were incorporated into it. This equated to tens of thousands of mu of land.
Continue!
He shifted it another five kilometers towards the north. Thus, the Main City and the Mage Tower were practically located at the very edges of the Magic Shield. It required consuming 22 units of magic power annually, but practically incorporated all the mountainous valley plains to the north of the Northern Fortress smoothly into it. There wasn't too massive of a discrepancy with Li Wei's previous plans.
Moreover, it even thoroughly enveloped the mountainous hills on both sides as well. Exceptionally excellent.
"Are you certain?"
"Certain!"
The moment Li Wei's voice fell, a golden light descended from the heavens. In an instant, this Magic Shield explosively blossomed with a swath of gentle cyan light. Aside from Li Wei and Night Owl, the people on the ground fundamentally felt nothing.
Simultaneously, a white magic card also appeared in Li Wei's hands. This was the card capable of operating this Magic Shield.
Aside from not being able to move its position, its other functions included: fine-tuning the magic reserves within the territory, fine-tuning the yields of the farmlands, absorbing and capturing Chaotic Magic Particles from the outside world, and so on.
Very excellent.
"Very well, the second stage of the Task Settlement has been completed. Next, the Minister of Taxation of the Royal Capital and the Chief Taxation Officer of the Taxation Department subordinate to the Duke of Weir will conduct the third stage of the Task Settlement for you. I wish you good luck."
(End of this chapter)