Chapter 515: One Merit, Three Rewards

Doen, Jin Yu Fortress, residence of Lord Drake.

In the Jin Quehua Dynasty’s noble hierarchy, a marquis ranks just below a duke.

The title of duke, across the entire Jin Quehua Dynasty, is held by only a handful, all descended from a few ancient families since the dynasty’s founding.

Since then, the Jin Quehua Dynasty has never granted a new dukedom.

Thus, in a certain sense, a marquis may be regarded as the highest noble title an ordinary person can achieve through effort and talent under the dynasty’s system.

Lord Drake is both the mayor of Doen City and the supreme ruler of the entire Luo Jun region, i.e., the regional marquis.

In the study of the mansion.

Lord Drake, nearly six hundred years old, flipped through a report urgently submitted not long ago by the mayor of Aoklan City, Count Roland, his expression slightly startled.

“Secondary plane. Since the Nolann Calendar began, as the magical energy density of the mage plane has grown denser and its stability increased, the probability and occurrence of spatial channels forming between these lower planes and ours have dwindled—yet somehow Aoklan has encountered one.”

“Fortunately, it was resolved with only a scare. Had Fengluo truly formed, it would have been a great disaster!” Lord Drake could not help but sigh.

The family steward beside him said, “Count Roland has managed Aoklan City for so many years; every time a whirlwind strikes, his aftermath handling is excellent—he has both ability and experience, which is why this dimensional disaster passed with only a scare.”

“Indeed.” Lord Drake set down the report, pondered for a moment, then said slowly, “The timely resolution of the Fengluo threat came from luck, but mostly from ability—it deserves proper reward.”

Aoklan City is one of the major cities of Luo Jun. If Fengluo had been formed, Aoklan City would have been erased; the long-term risks that followed would be secondary.

Under his rule, the destruction of any city—regardless of cause—is a major “failure of duty” for him as regional marquis.

Because of this alone, for the next hundred years, he and his family would be unable to raise their heads; the impact would be immense.

Merely thinking of it made Lord Drake’s heart still tremble with lingering fear.

He flipped again through the report he had just set down, his gaze sweeping repeatedly over a name mentioned multiple times.

Gao De, Sea Sentinel Mage

Because it was an urgent report, the information was brief, focused on conciseness—but even in this terse report, Gao De’s name appeared three times, labeled with the evaluation “critical.”

“Sea Sentinel Mage,” Lord Drake thought, then said to the waiting family steward, “Go to the Sea Sentinel office and retrieve the files on ‘Gao De.’”

The name Gao De was still unfamiliar to him.

Among the nobles or great mages’ descendants in Luo Jun, any who were outstanding and served in the Sea Sentinels, he had at least some recollection of.

That meant Gao De was most likely from a minor noble family or a commoner mage.

Retrieving the files served two purposes: first, Lord Drake himself was curious—what kind of mage could achieve such great merit in the Fengluo crisis, prompting Count Roland to propose granting him the title of Aoklan Honorary Mage?

Second, as regional marquis of Luo Jun, Gao De had rendered great service; emotionally and rationally, he must reward him—and knowing Gao De’s full background was necessary to determine the most appropriate reward.

With the Fengluo crisis resolved, the relentless rain gradually ceased, and the weather cleared.

The disaster persisted for ten days; under Count Roland’s command and with reinforcements of supplies and personnel from Doen, over ninety-nine percent of the displaced were rescued and properly resettled.

Additionally, Lord Drake summoned major nobles and merchant guilds across Luo Jun to donate, uniting the region to aid the disaster zone.

The response was overwhelming; soon, donations exceeding twenty thousand Jin Quehua coins were raised for Aoklan.

Moreover, through Count Roland’s application and Lord Drake’s efforts, the imperial court, reviewing the overall disaster situation, decided to exempt all affected disaster victims in Aoklan from taxes for three years.

With multi-pronged support, the victims’ spirits gradually stabilized.

The disaster itself was terrifying, but its aftermath was even more terrifying.

Never mind other things—in Gao De’s past life’s feudal dynasties, after disasters, the people suffered terribly, livelihoods collapsed, and bandits rose everywhere; countless such cases were easy to find.

Yet for the Jin Quehua Dynasty, an ancient realm with over ten thousand years of heritage, though it may have harbored deep-rooted social contradictions and systemic flaws, it handled this aspect exceptionally well.

Of course, fully resolving such a massive disaster—repairing and reinforcing dikes, compensating for property losses, arranging post-disaster living conditions, stabilizing grain prices in the affected zones—was a massive undertaking measured in months.

But these matters fell under the responsibility of local officials and nobles; they had nothing to do with Gao De, a Sea Sentinel Mage.

He was only responsible for frontline rescue operations.

After responding to the mage mobilization call and returning with the main Aoklan mage force, Gao De stayed in the Aoklan region for another seven days.

During this time, all his missions involved clearing water beasts, especially those in large groups.

He traveled back and forth to six or seven areas, participating in nearly ten water beast clearance missions.

Without mentioning anything else, these few missions earned Gao De four more first-rank origin points, bringing his total back to seven.

He kept three as “reserve” resources and directly invested the remaining four into spells.

[Pursuit Without Tiring+] (Alteration, first-rank):

You enhance your body’s capacity for long-distance travel.

Bonus: During the spell’s duration, when you move at a rapid pace, your movement speed increases by an additional one-third;

Simultaneously, you gain enhanced tracking ability, making it easier to detect traces left by targets, more accurately judge their direction of travel, and improve tracking success rate.

[Entangling Spell+] (Alteration, first-rank):

This spell causes tall grass, weeds, and other plants to entangle any creature entering or within the area.

Bonus: Plants within the spell’s area emit pungent or disorienting odors, impairing creatures’ olfactory perception; if a creature relies on smell to track a target, its tracking effectiveness may fail entirely within this area.

[Flame Hands+] (Evocation, first-rank):

A cone of searing flame erupts from your fingertips.

Bonus: After casting Flame Hands on a creature or area, residual magical energy lingers; if you cast Flame Hands again on the same creature or area within one minute, it triggers a flame resonance effect, increasing the power of the next casting.

[Weighted Blade+] (Alteration, first-rank):

When you attack an enemy with a melee weapon, Weighted Blade enhances its momentum and density.

Bonus: When attacking with the enhanced melee weapon, you can better guide its momentum, potentially ignoring part of the target’s evasion maneuvers.

The first three enhancements were straightforward, their effects immediately clear: [Pursuit Without Tiring+] and [Entangling Spell+] were functional upgrades; [Flame Hands+] was a power upgrade.

As for the bonus effect of [Weighted Blade+], Gao De initially did not fully understand its meaning; after testing it, he realized:

Simply put, this momentum guidance was akin to “attack guidance” in a game—it allowed him to strike targets more easily during sword swings, indirectly improving his swordsmanship.

Never mind anything else; simply earning these four first-rank origin points made Gao De’s disaster relief mission already a resounding success.

Of course, other matters could not be ignored.

Though uncertain how much merit he would ultimately receive, Gao De was confident: as long as Count Roland reported his contributions in the Fengluo crisis exactly as promised, a first-class merit was guaranteed.

The only uncertainty was the exact quantity.

Furthermore, his contributions in Tairiel Town were worth at least several second-class merits.

He had kept detailed records of all water beast clearance missions he participated in.

But since they were all collective operations—carried out alongside Aoklan’s official mages and summoned freelance mages in joint beast-hunting efforts—

He was unsure how the Sea Sentinels would ultimately rate this portion of his military merit.

On the tenth day, after the Sea Sentinels confirmed no large water beast groups remained in Aoklan, they notified all Sea Sentinel mages who had come to aid in the disaster relief: the mission was temporarily concluded; all could choose to return to Doen.

Count Roland still had many matters to attend to; while rewarding merit was important, it was lower priority, so the promised title of “Aoklan Honorary Mage” had not yet been finalized.

Gao De could not remain in Aoklan waiting for it, so he, like the other Sea Sentinel mages, chose to return home first.

He left on Green Leaf 14th; he returned on Green Leaf 28th.

Back in Doen, he went to the Sea Abyss White Tower to submit his mission records, so the Sea Sentinels could make their final merit assessment.

Because this was a large-scale mandatory collective mission, all Sea Sentinel mages in Doen without active assignments had been dispatched to Aoklan, and all returned simultaneously; thus, the Sea Abyss White Tower was unusually bustling.

Even the supply office for submitting mission records had formed a queue—a sight Gao De had never seen before.

While waiting in line, some familiar Sea Sentinel mages had gathered to chat.

The topic, without doubt, was their disaster relief experiences: what powerful water beasts they encountered, what horrific scenes they witnessed, and how much merit they estimated they would receive.

They also whispered about the Sea Sentinel mages who had performed exceptionally well during the relief effort.

“The top merit will almost certainly go to Ervin Mage—he was among the first to depart, arrived at Aoklan City immediately after the city’s mage mobilization call, and joined the main Aoklan mage force.”

A mage in a Sea Sentinel sergeant’s uniform beside Gao De said to his companion.

So much time had passed that the cause behind the Catfish Whirlwind had spread widely—at least all participating Sea Sentinel mages knew the truth.

Under these circumstances, merit from the Fengluo mission would be the highest, far exceeding that from general disaster relief.

“The Fengluo formed too close to Aoklan City; thus, the city detected it and mobilized extremely early.

I heard Left Wen of the Berns family rushed straight to Aoklan—he didn’t even make it; he was second wave, riding a Flame-Mane Horse. I suspect only Envin Warrant Officer made it into the Fengluo mission.” His companion sighed.

“That’s not all,” the first replied, adopting a mysterious expression: “I heard we had two mages who caught the Aoklan mage mobilization call—meaning besides Ervin Warrant Officer, another person also participated in the Fengluo mission.”

“Oh? Who?”

“Still unknown. Everyone was busy with relief efforts, no time to gossip. Now we’ve just returned; details will likely surface tomorrow or the day after.”

“.”

Gao De stood among the crowd, listening silently; when his turn came, he quietly submitted his mission record.

Since the queue was still long, Old Neil merely took Gao De’s record, placed it aside, logged it, and marked his name before ending.

He did not find it strange; he left the Sea Abyss White Tower and headed toward Wolma Magic Materials Shop.

Gao De did not know that, even before he submitted his record, a small meeting regarding his merit assessment had already been convened on the third floor of the Sea Abyss White Tower.

Granting titles involved many procedures and ceremonies; Count Roland was too busy to handle it.

But submitting a request for reward required little time.

Thus, the moment the Sea Sentinels announced mission completion, Count Roland spent some time personally drafting a petition for reward and sent it to the Sea Sentinels.

In the meeting room.

“First, read through the petition for reward sent by Count Roland,” said Colonel Graylin, presiding over the meeting, his voice low.

Before each attendee lay a parchment copy of the petition.

Captain Merick picked up the parchment and read it line by line:

“To the esteemed mages of the Sea Sentinels:

Grateful for your powerful support to Aoklan City, I now write to formally present the extraordinary merit of your mage Gao De and earnestly request commendation.”

“This Catfish Whirlwind originated from Fengluo; Mage Gao De responded to our city’s mobilization call, participated in the defense of Aoklan City, and achieved extraordinary and primary merit during the mission, sacrificing his phantom spirit—his ability and sacrifice far exceed the ordinary.”

Long before the Fengluo mission, Gao De had formed a fleet in Yaxi Town, under Aokelan, and organized the evacuation of disaster victims.

After the Fengluo mission, though he earned the foremost merit in the Battle of Fengluo, he did not rest on his laurels; he willingly took part in the city’s order to eradicate water beasts, demonstrating a humble and unassuming spirit that reveals his deep concern for disaster victims and his noble character.

Such a man, possessing both virtue and talent, is worthy of being a model—a pillar of the dynasty’s future. Therefore, I urge you all to grant him the honor and rewards he deserves, to recognize his achievements and inspire others!

(End of Chapter)