City of Sin

Book 8, 107

Reward Point System(2)

With the information about the rune knights revealed, all eyes landed on Rakis. As the most powerful mage participating, most weren’t willing to contend against him. For his part, the old mage kept up his smile, although it now held hints of a threat. He had brought attention to those rune knights specifically because he didn’t want anyone to contest him.

Glancing at the expressions of his peers, Rakis eventually grinned, “I do want to take all the rune knights, but I’m afraid I don’t have that many points. There are other things I want to exchange for as well, so I’ll only be getting fifteen sets for now.”

This cleared up many expressions; such a level of ambition was still acceptable and would leave some scraps for the rest of them.

...

Looking on from the distance, Romney asked his friend with worry, “They won’t give us weaker runes, will they?”

His friend snorted, “The Archerons have a strong reputation. Both times they opened up the list so far have given everyone what they wanted.”

“Goog, good,” he chuckled with embarrassment, “I was only a little worried because I didn’t know how things work.”

...

Rakis sighed, “Now that we have all these options, I think there will be even bigger surprises on the reward list in the future. Looks like my old bones will have to stay here for a little more time.”

Another mage laughed, “This list even has a saint rune, what else could they offer? It couldn’t be... Oh.”

He stopped mid-speech, realising what Rakis had implied. Richard had personally displayed the strength of Midren to all of them only a few days ago. What if, just what if... this rune set appeared on the reward list? It sounded unthinkable, but nobody had expected the Archerons to put up saint runes and rune knight sets either.

The same thoughts rippled through the rest of the crowd, causing many powerful hearts to start thumping in tandem. Nobody mentioned the rune set, but that wasn’t because they didn’t want it. Instead, they just wanted it too much, but it was obvious that the full set would be unimaginably expensive. What point was there in asking for something that was impossible to buy?

However, the reward point system left them all with a ray of hope. So long as they could obtain the rune set with points, then they would be able to inch closer and closer to it over day after day of battle. It didn’t matter if they needed 100,000 points, they could stay here for decades if that meant getting the most powerful rune set they had ever seen. After all, legends lived for centuries at minimum, and many of them spent dozens of years at a time exploring random planes for nothing.

The most attractive thing about Midren’s battle edition was its accessibility. Be it warriors or mages, everyone could gain a huge boost of power. Richard was a legendary mage, but he had used brute force to crush even dragons with it equipped. Mages definitely didn’t train to have such strength; the only explanation for it had to be his runes. For the sake of such power, these powerhouses were willing to brave everything. Time, loneliness, danger... all that meant nothing to souls that lived for battle. As they long as they could crawl up the list and get more points, nothing was a problem.

Still, there were some people who remained practical. Ironshield shook his head, “I’m not even going to consider the King of Angels, I can’t withstand its power. What else could be opened up to us?”

“Those thunder cannons,” the assassin said softly, pulling everyone’s thoughts in that direction. They had all seen the might of the thunder cannons; they required strength and some dexterity to wield, but they would be monumental at scale. Even if the Archerons only released them in the future, they alone would be enough to convince many of those present to stay and fight.

Thankfully, the Dragon Plane had more than enough dragons to kill. This war wouldn’t end for a few decades at least, which would give them time to accumulate points.

......

Once everyone was gone, Richard took a copy of the list from Nasia and had a close look. A while later, he frowned, “What is this?”

“A simple reward point system, all the rules are at the back.”

Flipping over, he found an explanation of how points were accumulated and exchanged. At the core of the system was an allocation of merit points in battle. Every single bit of loot on the battlefield itself would go to the Archerons, granting the rest of the participants a number of points that could be exchanged for goods at a later date. Some items had a stable value, like 100 points for a standard greater offering, which in exchange gave these points a discernible value.

Of course, there were some differences with market value as well. A top-tier offering was 500 points, which was a little higher than its market value in Norland, but the issue was that there was normally no direct exchange to be had. Even a dozen greater offerings could fail to get a top-tier offering sometimes.

Evidently, this system’s value depended entirely on the length of the list and the rarity of the items offered. Seeing the list in his hands, Richard felt like he was looking at that long list of blessings from the old dragon all those years ago. The quality of these options was a little worse than what he had been tempted with, but it wasn’t far off. With grade 5 runes, offerings, materials, and military supplies up for sale, who wouldn’t be able to find something they wanted?

With this one list alone, Richard could tell that none of the legends would be leaving anytime soon. In fact, as news of this system spread, more and more powerhouses would abandon their planar exploration to enter the battle on the Dragon Plane. Soon enough, he would have even more legends fighting than when he had first allowed them to explore the Dragon Plane.

When the Dragon Plane had first been opened up, even most saints refused to listen to his orders and acted on their own. Now, with the powerful legion of rune knights and druids on hand, even the most solitary fighter would have to cooperate. For the sake of points, these powerhouses would be obedient.

But how were they supposed to ensure supply?

When he asked this question, Nasia showed no worry at all. She took a copy and drew a large circle around all draconic materials, “These will be the ones in highest demand, and we’ll just need to do some simple processing that even apprentices can finish. It’ll need an expansion of our processing centre, maybe even building a few more. We might have to handle a dozen dragons in a day soon.”

She continued to point below, “We don’t even need to discuss offerings. The old dragon will take parts from most of his kin, and we don’t need too many top-tier ones. As for equipment, we have our workshops. Scales and hides can make good armour, and the teeth will make weapons. Bones for potions, and penis... you want to eat a few?”

“What?” Richard frowned in confusion, “Why would I eat that?”

Even through the mask, he could feel the bright glint in her eyes as she chuckled, “I’ve been hearing you get wrung dry every time. This stuff is really effective, give it a try. It won’t change the outcome, but at least you’ll be able to fight, right? You get to spend some more time on that edge.”

“Fuck off!” he grumbled, “Just move on.”

Nasia snickered, continuing down the list, “The Deepblue has quite a few people with nothing to do, you can use them to turn all these materials into equipment. Of course, we don’t need to employ them at the usual rate. Have Blackgold organise some younger mages, just give them a few more lessons in refinement. As part of the lessons, they can help us take care of the materials. It’ll save us a large sum.”

“How is that a good idea?” Richard gaped.

“How isn’t it? Don’t they need actual experience? We’re giving them such high-quality materials for practice, and without any fees at all.”

Feeling a headache coming on, Richard decided not to argue with her any longer.

She continued, “As for the absolute top end, just use offerings. Go get all the equipment on offer during your next ceremony; we don’t need it, but there’s bound to be someone who does. This list has to get longer, that’s all that matters. Once the system is running at full speed, you’ll never have to worry about offerings in the future.”

“And where am I going to the ceremony? I’m not going back to Faust, and the Sacred Tree Empire is impossible. As for—”

“Just go to the Millennial Empire!” Nasia interrupted him before winking, “Didn’t that girl Macy almost go crazy from your touch?”