Skill Extraction: Exploring Dungeons

Chapter 909 786: Unification and Founding of the Nation

Today.

The day the Lantern Territory is founding its nation.

Because of the Stone Mother Statue issue, the name for the nation after the Lantern Territory's founding has already been decided.

It must share the same name as the Platinum Country and be merged into a single nation.

So it also has to be the Platinum Country.

Many ordinary people who don't understand the situation, as well as the refugees who only just joined this country, still think it will be called the Lamp Kingdom.

Aside from the City of Two Realms, the rest of the citizens don't really understand why this name has to be chosen.

Only the City of Two Realms, the place that interacts most frequently with the Platinum Country, knows that Kane's first royal title is King of Platinum.

He has long since already been the king of a nation.

......

New Era, Year 1, April 29th.

Today is the Lantern Territory's founding day.

The City of Two Realms.

Countless citizens are already packed into the central plaza of the City of Two Realms.

To ensure everything goes smoothly today, Kane also used the Light Tower behind him to adjust the weather, making the sun shine brightly today.

The surrounding buildings are crammed full of people as well.

Many heads are sticking out from the windows and rooftops.

At this moment, a high platform has appeared on the plaza, something that never existed here before.

The platform is a long oval, higher at both ends with a smooth dip in the middle, forming a crescent shape that faces the citizens in the plaza horizontally.

Countless recording spheres float above the whole plaza, transmitting images from all sorts of angles to processors, which then project the footage onto screens in the various cities.

So that the entire country can witness this moment.

And now.

The founding ceremony has already reached its finale.

All kinds of speeches and tedious rituals have long since concluded.

At the base of the platform.

Are the diplomatic envoys from the Bihai Kingdom and from the Holy Light Alliance, who only arrived yesterday.

The Bihai Kingdom's mission is naturally led by their crown princess Miralina.

The Holy Light Alliance's envoy is led by the Bishop most familiar with Kane.

Sitting on the high platform, Kane is already wearing the crown.

A long flagpole stands behind Kane.

A huge national flag slowly rises, fluttering in the wind.

The flag has a two-colored background; on the red and white field is a platinum-colored lantern emblem.

This is the new national flag of the Platinum Country.

The red and white background naturally signifies the inner and outer realms, the lantern is of course Kane's most important symbol, and the platinum color represents the origin of the citizens.

"The Platinum Country is hereby officially founded."

"My subjects, receive the Empire's blessing upon its people.

Pledge your loyalty to me, and revel in the glory of your status as citizens of Platinum."

Magnificent chanting starts to ring out from both sides of the plaza.

Sweeping and powerful, it proclaims the grandeur of the Platinum Country.

If someone looks closely, they will notice that the citizens who have come to the plaza to attend the ceremony are mostly grouped by family.

This was something Kane and the others did deliberately.

The reason why no longer needs to be spelled out.

As Kane's voice falls, he lifts both hands, and a statue slowly appears in his palms.

It radiates light, then drifts toward the center of the plaza, where a stone pillar has long since been erected.

The top of the pillar is flat, clearly a platform meant to bear this statue.

The statue shines with dazzling brilliance and, under the noonday illumination of the Holy Light, slowly descends to the top of the enormous stone pillar.

It fixes firmly in place.

Around the pillar are finely carved the very brief history of this nation.

There is still plenty of blank space above on the pillar; as for what history will be painted and carved there in the future, that is for the nation's tomorrow to create.

As the statue settles securely onto the stone pillar.

The entire ceremony has already been a complete success.

It is time to receive the blessings brought by the ritual.

Faintly colored light-waves begin to spread outward along the statue.

Invisible ripples propagate at the speed of light, affecting every citizen.

They extend all the way to cover the entire National Capital, and even pass through the Gate of Two Realms, reaching into Kane's inner realm of the Platinum Country.

The area shrouded is the whole Platinum Country.

All citizens can feel an invisible power entering their bodies.

The most direct sensation is that they feel as if they've become stronger; in reality, they are healthier, their Constitution slightly enhanced.

Sickness and pain will find it hard to trouble them anymore.

And those affected even more by the blessing are the children.

Every family that has come to the plaza receives one pale-silver mote of light after another.

These motes sink into the children whose hands they are holding, and into the bellies of mothers who can still bear children.

Under the blessing of these motes, their childhood will pass in safety.

Their wisdom and their potential will be increased.

These citizens cannot grasp the full meaning of these blessings, but they can clearly feel the strengthening of their own Constitution.

"Long live the King of Platinum!"

"Long live the King of Platinum!"

Crystal petals drift down from the sky.

Everyone is cheering and celebrating the birth of their nation.

What follows is a nationwide revelry.

Today, the whole country celebrates.

......

The next day.

After the revelry, life must return to normal.

From now on they are no longer the Lantern Territory, but the Platinum Country.

At this moment Kane wakes from his sleep.

Kreya is already at the nearby dressing table, tidying herself up.

Hearing the sound of Kane waking, she speaks without turning her head.

"Awake, lazybones?"

"If you're awake, hurry up and get yourself ready. There's still something to do later, and it's very important."

Hearing Kreya's words, Kane got out of bed helplessly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting up."

The two of them got up, washed, tidied themselves up, and left the room.

They made their way all the way out of the City of Two Realms and arrived at the largest military camp outside.

A great many soldiers had already gathered here; practically all the powerful figures of the Platinum Country were assembled in this place.

All the members of the Guild were also hurrying over.

"Hey, isn't this Baron Raphael? An honor, an honor."

"Baron Kafka, I've heard so much about you."

Raphael and Kafka were extravagantly over the top, and then even went through a set of elaborate, nobles-only etiquette.

They even gave each other a deep, emotional hug.

Their flamboyant performance made Anrule, standing beside them, roll his eyes despite himself and shift a little farther away.

It wasn't just the two of them; almost all the members of the Guild had received titles from the Kingdom.

That included the Lantern Knight Order and all the gold-ranked generals.

Based on their contributions after entering the World Ring, Kane had conferred titles on them one by one at the nation-founding ceremony.

He had also enfeoffed them with their own fiefs.

Of course, they did not have administrative authority over those lands.

They were more like the highest administrative officials of their own territories, with a certain degree of influence over their fiefs.

And they each got to take a cut of the various taxes from their territories.

The honor and symbolic value of these titles far outweighed their practical significance.

Kane's real purpose was to deepen these people's sense of belonging to their lands.

Although these Guild members had formally joined the Platinum Country, they still addressed Kane as President.

That felt more familiar and friendly.

With Kane and Kreya's arrival—

Everyone who had taken part in the Holy Light Alliance's campaign against the Undead Influence was now almost all present.

They hadn't gathered here for anything else.

They were here to receive the Mist's reward together.

Roughly a few days ago, the Holy Light Alliance had essentially wiped out the remaining Undead of the Undead Influence.

And Kane and the others had received the information that they could now collect their rewards.

Today was just right for it.

With the establishment of the Kingdom, Kane had already taken care of all sorts of big and small matters in advance.

Receiving the reward signaled that Kane and his people were about to go into seclusion, to impact that final threshold and step into an even higher realm.

"Then everyone, if you're ready, go ahead and receive it—the reward from the Mist."

With that, Kane was the first to accept his reward, and the others, who had long been unable to wait, hurriedly followed suit.

Perhaps because the people with the greatest contributions—Kane and his group—were gathered together, a pillar of clouds shot straight into the sky.

Pale-white Mist gathered into a mass, completely shrouding the entire military camp they stood in, and a cloudlike pillar thrust straight up into the heavens.

Massive ripples of power traveled continuously along the cloud pillar, the fluctuations spreading even as far as where Xu Yuan was.

At the same time, the soldiers far away in the Holy Light Alliance were likewise receiving the Mist's reward.

This included all sorts of people who had saved refugees or indirectly aided the operation.

It was just that their contributions were too small, so there were no obvious phenomena; only they themselves knew what they had gained.

And right now, the two diplomatic missions resting in the City of Two Realms as well.

They had already received Kane's message yesterday and had long since made preparations.

To personally experience the existence of the Mist.

And the fluctuations emanating from this cloud pillar piercing the heavens were not concealed in the slightest.

All the color-ranked powerhouses within the World Ring sensed something and turned their gaze toward Kane and his group's location.

"My investment really was the right one."

Facundo, in his own earthly Divine Kingdom, gazed into the distance and sighed emotionally.

At this moment, although Kane was inside the Mist, he had already begun communicating with it in his mind.

Kane and his people were about to enter Three-Color; it was impossible to convert all their contribution into rule-comprehension attempts.

Because once Kane and the others stepped into Three-Color, such attempts would become completely useless.

The same applied to Kreya and the rest.

After a brief discussion—

Each of them would receive two opportunities for Mist rule comprehension, and all remaining contribution would be poured into energy to upgrade their weapons.

Given the level of their contributions this time, it would absolutely be enough to upgrade their weapons to the Three-Color tier.

The Mist once again displayed her generosity and absolute fairness.

The pillar of Mist lasted for a full half hour.

Only then did it begin to slowly dissipate.

When Kane and the others opened their eyes again—

Kane habitually switched his sight to Magic Power vision, and then the sheet of Golden light before him nearly blinded him on the spot.

"Hahaha, I've been Promoted to gold!"

"I've been Promoted to gold too!"

"Me too…"

"I…"

There was no doubt that every Explorer in the Guild had stepped into the domain of gold rank.

As for Raphael, Funa and the others, they had already entered the gold domain long ago and, just like last time, had received rule-comprehension attempts.

Only this time, they got more of them.

Next was the Lantern Knight Order.

Many members whose contributions were excessively high were forcibly elevated to gold rank by the Mist.

A rough glance over—

The Lantern Knight Order's gold-ranked members had already exceeded one hundred. Although they were only the most ordinary golds, without having had time to comprehend even a sliver of rules—

Gold was still gold.

Even without rule comprehension, they could still crush any enemy below gold rank.

Against gold-ranked enemies, they would at least have the strength to put up a fight.

Many soldiers and some generals who had long been stuck at a bottleneck were likewise elevated to gold rank.

Those generals who had already reached gold rank each received the rules that belonged to them.

After this campaign, Kane and his people had gained more than two hundred additional gold-rank members.

Those with rules numbered over fifty.

And among them were not a few like Raphael, Funa, Holhos, and others who had already begun advancing toward high-level gold powerhouses.

They would become the backbone of the Guild in the future, shining brilliantly within the World Ring.

Because Kane and his group were already preparing to step into the Three-Color domain and would not be able to make a move for quite a long time to come.