Dragon Valley

This valley was the source of his fortune, giving him more than thirty greater offerings every month.

Dragon Valley continued to prosper. Most of the legends and sky saints had returned from the Dragon Plane at least once, bringing along their great harvests. The valley itself had become a completely self-sufficient town, containing all sorts of things like a brewery and vineyard, rune workshop, blacksmith, and even a brothel.

Forty rune knights constantly patrolled the valley, in charge of guarding the portal to prevent random dragons from poking their heads in. They still caused a bit of a commotion whenever they patrolled the manors; even legends didn’t normally use a single rune knight for such a low task.

Of course, there wasn’t anybody in the valley foolish enough to challenge Richard anymore. News of him defeating a level 22 mage when he wasn’t even legendary had spread long ago, as had the fact that he had now become a legend himself. Even though he would have to spend some time stabilising, nobody had the courage to challenge him. Some of this had to do with Sharon and Ruben, but his own power and status had made him an equal to the other legends here. At this point, his arrival and departure were considered significant events.

## Explorers

A list of powerhouses that participated in the events of the Dragon Plane invasion:

* Sharon
* Ruben
* Apeiron
* Romney
* Duane
* Saunder
* Rakis
* Lambest
* Ironshield

Ironshield and companions, consisting of four legends and ten saints. That group was different from his followers, more akin to mercenaries hired by the Archerons than anything else. Eventually, only one legend and a handful of saints decided to leave. All of the remaining one's ended up signing slave contracts imbued with chaos.

The Archerons will be focused on battling the reapers for a while; the threat is beyond our wildest imaginations, and even legends are likely to die. The situation is different from when we first started our partnership, so you have a chance to choose. Decide to stay, and I’ll treat you like followers. If not, you can leave right now and it’s fine. You can return to the reward point battlefields if you wish.

“Heh, who hasn’t almost died a few times at this level? I want to keep improving, that’s more important than the danger. If I survive this battle, I’m likely to level up.” Many of them nodded in agreement; while things would be dangerous, the rewards would be just as great. At the same time, becoming a trusted aide of Richard Archeron was an opportunity few even legends would ever have. This was at the peak of Norland in runes, power, and military might, someone threatening to match Emperor Charles and found his own era.

## Point System

The rewards were distributed through a point system of contributions. The list is as follows:

* Runes
	+ Rosie’s version of the Savage series: 30 Points
* Dragon Materials
	+ Metallic Dragon Fang: 150 Points
* Military Supplies
	+ There was a section for this at the absolute bottom of the list, containing military supplies that could be bought in bulk. Things like a hundred sets of enchanted armour, refined frostiron ingots that weighed a hundred kilograms each, and various other resources were listed for fair prices. This was a good choice for those who wanted to strengthen their families, but it would be of little help to individuals. Most hadn’t even looked at the options.

### **System Information**

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.

### **Reapers**

Having gained a considerable amount from the offering ceremony, Richard left the Church feeling a vague sense of elation for the first time in months. He had the activated ember essence to form the core of a grade 6 rune, with enough left over to upgrade three pieces of equipment to the divine grade.
Returning to his island, he took out three of his best legendary weapons and upgraded them immediately, adding them to the reward point system with a condition: Only points obtained by battle against the reapers could be used to redeem them. News about this spread like wildfire, shocking many legendary powerhouses out of their shells as they rushed to Faelor immediately.

Even otherwise, the mercenaries were slowly transitioning to fight the reapers anyway. The Five-Coloured Dragon had blocked the portal to the Dragon Plane and was sending fewer and fewer of her troops through the portal, while the demons were very erratic in their attacks. Of course, that wasn’t the only consideration to be had. The dragons and demons were also much safer to fight, which was why so many powerhouses preferred to remain in the other two battlefields and gradually accumulate credits. Many already espoused a philosophy that survival was the best way to earn points.

If not for the wealth he had amassed from the reward point system, he wouldn’t have decided to battle the reapers. This system gave him both the finances and the legendary subordinates to take on such an impossible enemy, and its collapse would be his doom. In the end, Richard transferred control over all of his followers and troops to Nasia, returning to Bluewater while she flew west with Mountainsea. At the same time, Zangru, Waterflower, Phaser, and even Ironshield and Shaun flew out to meet up with her.

There was a reward mechanic for fighting the reapers. Despite the three divine weapons on offer, even epic beings like Ruben didn’t want to take the risk. Asa was an epic being, while Greyhawk with his now jet black hair was somewhat of a mystery even to Richard himself. The addition of the two would definitely be a huge boost in the battle against the reapers, but knowing what he did about the Prince’s background he simply couldn’t take on the risk.

The harsh truth was that it was the shameless ones that would get the opportunity to make a killing here, and the reward point system continued to grow more attractive by the day. While the number of regular runes and other war supplies had dropped, a plethora of possible saint runes and divine equipment were now on offer that simply couldn’t be refused. While most legends had strict requirements for runes, Richard’s repertoire was simply so wide that anyone could find something they wanted.

The items on the reward list continued to grow, but earning potential was starting to drop. One now had to head deep into the Dragon Plane to find a nest, and while the abyssal battlefield was a little better it was much more unstable. While the rewards themselves stayed constant, there were simply too many competitors. One could no longer earn thousands of points in mere weeks, and spending months to earn enough to buy something meant limited supply items could run out. In the end, most people shifted their attention to extra requests the Archerons made; with even an epic being like the Celestial Sage willing to help Richard manage his battlefields, none of them felt embarrassed in effectively becoming errand boys for the Archerons.

In the end, pride was the fall of man. One’s number of points was both absolute and relative; if others had a large number of them, that meant one’s own purchasing power was far lower. Many thus gave in and participated in the competition as well, which only meant increased competition for those trying to prove themselves.

The era where one could earn points easily was over.

### **Three-year Gap**

One other important matter was the reward point system. Richard had made a handful of saint runes before leaving for the abyss, including three more parts of Midren, but there had only been enough to support the system for a year. He had assumed that he would most likely have died if he didn’t return by then, at which point the system would be unsustainable anyway. Unfortunately, he had met that terrifying man and sword in Arbidis, forcing the Eternal Dragon to activate the portal that saved his life. He had spent two more years in the Darkness, and Nasia had taken it upon herself to back the system in his absence. While she wasn’t a runemaster, she hosted sacrifices with an efficiency even he would have to be envious of, coming back with large swathes of divine equipment that propped the system up for the past two years. With Rosie’s occasional grade 4 runes added on top, they still managed to attract a number of powerhouses.

While things had died down in the Dragon Plane, the abyss had become more and more popular with time. It was incredibly vast, and with the expedition finding pathways to other layers the humans were now looking at a limitless treasure trove. A large number of legends and sky saints flooded the ancient battlefield and killed the demons, harvesting them for everything they were worth.

Surprisingly, the Celestial Sage had gone beyond his obligations and remained to keep things in order. Although he wasn’t famed for his combat ability, his defensive skills with the nebular chains were top notch and he was still a threat against anyone aiming at the Archerons.

## Trivia

* Richard felt fortunate that the reward point system had left him obscenely wealthy; he had no idea how he would tackle the expenses of the upcoming effort otherwise. However, this war would be certain to burn through all fifty of those top-tier offerings given enough time.

## References

1. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 22
2. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 106
3. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 107
4. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 41
5. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 49
6. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 70
7. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 74
8. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 127
9. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 23