Chapter 412: Silver Ring Badge

The Princess had come and gone, but the development of Daxia Territory would continue. Xia Duo paused the brick kiln's production, turning it back to its original experimental state to research truly qualified bricks. As for other aspects, there was no need for change; it remained exactly as it was when the Princess arrived and after she left. What Xia Duo had arranged before was both a facade project and not a facade project.

His entire development philosophy was consistent throughout.

However, without the pressure of the Princess's inspection, Xia Duo no longer went to the fields every day to help turn the soil; he only went to cast spells for breeding once the territory residents had cleared and turned the new land.

This work would certainly need to be done by specialized people in the future. If the sowing season hadn't already been missed, it would be fine even to let ordinary people do the breeding.

It was, after all, an accumulation of experience.

Three days later, Xia Duo returned to the Tower of Time, preparing to contact Niya to probe the situation on the Princess's side, when the Tower Spirit suddenly sent a message: Archmage Greta was visiting.

An Archmage's visit naturally did not involve flying outside the Mage Tower to wait for the door to open; it required the access key for the Tower of Time's teleportation array to teleport directly over.

Thus, Xia Duo could only hurriedly send his inquiry to Niya, then, while ordering the Tower Spirit to grant the Archmage passage, he went to the Teleportation Room to welcome her.

The Archmage's sudden visit gave Xia Duo some ideas; perhaps it was good news from the Princess's side. Otherwise, what else would be worth an Archmage making a special trip?

Thinking this, Xia Duo became somewhat impatient, and when a figure appeared on the teleportation array, he immediately went up to greet her.

"Welcome, Your Excellency Greta, for coming to provide guidance once again!"

Greta was taken aback by this enthusiastic greeting, but she quickly reacted; perhaps Niya had notified this side in advance, but she had some doubts—how did Niya know? Could it be that Her Highness the Princess had also notified Niya? But for now—

Greta's expression became even softer. "Lord Xia Duo, since you are here, I won't have to make an extra trip. Congratulations on your outstanding performance among all the Pioneers; Her Highness the Princess has ordered me to bring you a reward."

As she spoke, Greta took out a badge and reminded Xia Duo, "Take out the territory document."

Xia Duo followed instructions and took out the Gold Paper Document. A beam of light shot out from the badge in Greta's hand, shining onto the Gold Paper Document.

Consequently, Xia Duo saw the silver characters on the Gold Paper Document constantly swimming and changing, finally splitting into more silver symbols that additionally formed a sentence, displayed in both Netherese and Elvish scripts—

"Pioneer Xia Duo, in the Falling Leaf Month of the year 845 of the Netheril Calendar, has obtained the 【Silver Ring Badge】."

Silver Ring Badge? Xia Duo looked toward Archmage Greta's hand, and at this moment, Greta also timely handed the badge over.

Xia Duo took the badge and looked at it; it was indeed the Silver Ring Badge. The front was nothing but a silver ring, and on this silver ring band were even finer, intricate golden sun patterns.

Seeing these sun patterns, Xia Duo immediately thought of the Lord of Radiance. Could it be that the Princess and the Lord of Radiance had some unknown connection?

Associating this with the Small Wood Carving he had seen twice before, Xia Duo was full of curiosity, but curiosity aside, business still had to be done. "Thank you for Her Highness the Princess's recognition. Xia Duo will continue to work hard to open up more living space for the Netherese people."

Afterward, Archmage Greta introduced to Xia Duo the true meaning represented by this 【Silver Ring Badge】. The badge itself did not count for much; although it was a Magic Item, it had no practical value at all.

Its true value lay in this—obtaining this 【Silver Ring Badge】 meant that Xia Duo could receive strong support from the Princess during external development.

The most direct benefit was being able to continuously obtain population and supplies from Seventon.

Pioneers themselves had a certain amount of material support, but it was really quite far from Seventon to the Green Pearl Forest; it would take several months to transport them back. If a Portal were used, this bit of supplies would likely not even cover the cost of the teleportation.

Coupled with the support from the Savile Territory, Xia Duo had never considered the material support brought by the Pioneer title.

However, now that there was population support, Xia Duo naturally could not leave it be.

Previously, Xia Duo had let the Silaiwen Chamber of Commerce go to the north to get population, but they only brought back a few dozen Slaves. This efficiency was truly too low. The north was not short of population at all; in fact, because there had been no Orc Tide invasions for decades, the population was somewhat surplus.

It was just that in the past, at least an Archmage had to obtain the Pioneer title to begin legal development. But how many Archmages were willing to give up their original comfortable lives to take a bunch of commoners to develop the wilderness and forests?

It was only because the Princess was currently pushing the development movement that it had caused quite a response, though of course, it was only a response and had not yet reached the level of forming a tide.

The "Pioneer" title carried permissions similar to an Archmage, and one could even read the 【Nether Scroll】, while the 【Silver Ring Badge】 solved the difficulty that ordinary Pioneers faced in being unable to obtain a large number of people to follow their development.

If a few typical examples could be created, presumably many people would be willing to follow suit later.

Thinking this, Xia Duo couldn't help but feel a bit more urgency, and he thanked Archmage Greta again; after all, it wasn't easy for an Archmage to make a trip in person.

"Lord Xia Duo, official business is finished, and I should leave. I hope to come to the Tower of Time again next time."

"Your Excellency Greta, Xia Duo will certainly not let Her Highness the Princess down!"

After sending off Archmage Greta, Niya's message also arrived, likewise mentioning the 【Silver Ring Badge】, though her news was a bit delayed.

Of course, Xia Duo was still very grateful for Niya's reply; after all, selecting a winner didn't seem like something Niya could interfere with. Since Niya happened to be free, Xia Duo asked again:

"Do you know any other Pioneers who obtained the 【Silver Ring Badge】?"

"I know a few. Besides you, two other Pioneers also obtained the Silver Ring Badge. It is said that they mobilized a lot of manpower and material resources to open up a very large territory on the Kangqi Plain."

Xia Duo was somewhat silent. Plains, well, as long as dangerous creatures were resolved, they were geographically easier to develop than forests. However, hearing that they had mobilized a lot of manpower and material resources, he felt a bit envious.

So he asked again: "How many people are in their territories? Have they carried out autumn sowing?"

Niya answered this question quickly, almost without any hesitation, "At least several thousand people. There are still rumors about them in Seventon, saying they used a Portal to send tens of thousands of people to the Kangqi Plain. That might be an exaggeration, but there should be several thousand. As for whether they carried out autumn sowing, that is certain. No Pioneer who hasn't opened up farmland could possibly obtain the 【Silver Ring Badge】."

Niya's answer gave Xia Duo a feeling of "just a little bit off." If he hadn't clearly known the Princess was coming to inspect, he would never have thought of opening a "Demonstration Field" to breed seedlings and sow in advance.

According to his plan, he should have been striving for next year's spring sowing.

However, his side was an ad-hoc action, but the other two Pioneers who obtained the Silver Ring Badge might have planned it in advance, and with thousands of residents, and being on a plain, perhaps their territory was much larger than Xia Duo imagined.

"By the way, did Her Highness the Princess mention me after she went back? Or mention the 'Pioneer Handbook'?"

"No."

"..."

Now Xia Duo was a bit confused. Could it really be that he performed very well among all the Pioneers? Without any relation to the 'Pioneer Handbook'?

What exactly was the standard for issuing this 【Silver Ring Badge】? For a moment, Xia Duo actually felt a bit anxious, hoping both that he was truly the best performer among everyone and that he had been recognized and rewarded because of the philosophy displayed in the 'Pioneer Handbook'.

But what the truth was didn't matter now; what mattered was that he had already obtained the Silver Ring Badge, and the next step should be to go to Seventon to get the people! As long as there was no explicit opposition from above, he would certainly continue with his ideas.

After saying goodbye to Niya via "phone," Xia Duo left the Tower of Time and came to Savile Town.

(End of chapter)