Chapter 623: The Banai Medal

The light of the magic portal flashed, and a group of over a dozen people appeared at the teleportation point in Beren City.
“Is this the Frozen Plateau north of the Great Snowy Mountains? I heard the climate here is extremely cold. Why do I feel only slightly cooler than in Dalaran, with no sign of true coldness at all?”
A young nobleman dressed in splendid attire, leading the group, spoke in confusion.
The plateau guards at the teleportation point replied with a smile, “This is all thanks to the magic array created by the great Master Merlin for our Beren City, which keeps it so warm. Now, Beren City is known as the Pearl of Ice and Snow—spring in the plateau!”
These guards were outstanding young men selected and trained from the plateau tribes, capable of speaking the common human language fluently. They were naturally very proud of everything about Beren City.
The young man was clearly visiting Beren City for the first time and began chatting with the guards out of curiosity.
“Master Merlin? Is he a powerful mage?”
Facing the young man’s curious questions, the guard replied with a smile, “Of course! Master Merlin is the strongest mage in our Beren!”
After learning about Merlin’s rank, the young man felt somewhat disappointed.
“Just a Silver Mage?”
The guard defended him, “Master Merlin isn’t just a Silver Mage; he’s also an alchemy master. Even the Mage Kingdoms in your southern continent awarded him the Banai Medal, calling him one of the greatest mages in a hundred years!”
“What? The Banai Medal?”
The young noble was truly astonished.
“That’s an honor reserved for mages who have made the greatest contributions to the development of magic. Only two have been awarded in nearly a hundred years, and one of them refused it because they became a true god.”
“You’re right! Master Merlin is the third recipient in a hundred years. The one who refused it was the great Nature Guardian, who was also Master Merlin’s teacher!”
Hearing this, the young man was deeply moved. Although his family had always lived in the western part of the continent with little contact with the outside world, he had heard of the Nature Guardian. This figure, who rose from a mortal noble mage to become a mighty true god, was an idol to many young nobles, including him.
It was through his family’s connections that he obtained a trade permit to travel to the plateau peoples’ lands from Dalaran, and that’s why he wanted to visit this magical land on the famed continent.

The awe he felt from all the beauty and wonders of Dalaran had not yet faded. Planning to complete the transaction ahead of time and head to the city of Belen brought him yet another surprise. With the protection of the followers of the Nature Guardian, Merlin, as the chief mage of Belen, had also set up large-scale temperature-control magic arrays throughout the city. As a result, there were no signs of the desolation commonly seen in the Frozen Plateau within Belen; instead, lush greenery persisted even in the snowy landscape, making the environment even more beautiful. This temperature-control magic array, which covered the entire city, maintained its temperature by absorbing sunlight, requiring only a small amount of low-grade magic cores and crystals to keep it functioning year-round—a truly remarkable innovation in the history of arcane magic arrays. Just for this reason, the young silver mage was worthy of the respect of mages across the continent, and indeed, after news of this energy-efficient magic array spread through merchants, the Banai Medal, awarded by the Kingdom of Borin and selected by powerful mages from various nations, was given to this young mage from Dalaran. Due to the infrequent connections between the Frozen Plateau and the continent, the award was not officially presented until this year, and the news had only just reached the various forces on the continent by then, by which time the young man had already left his family, so they did not hear the exact details. After processing this information, the excited young noble immediately stepped onto the streets of Belen. Everywhere he looked, there were people from the plateau celebrating joyfully. He stopped a passerby who resembled a merchant from the continent and asked what they were celebrating. The man replied, “You must be new here! The residents of Belen are celebrating the birth of their chief’s heir!” The young man asked in surprise, “Is that chief so highly respected in Belen?” The merchant explained with a smile, “Of course, it’s more than that. You don’t know, but this heir is a mortal blessed by the great Nature Guardian. The lord himself sent down an oracle, saying he will surely become the ruler of Belen and even the entire Frozen Plateau!” “I see!” Hearing about the oracle, the young man understood the emotions of these people from the plateau. “In that case, the goods I brought this time are just right. I’ll give them to the residents of Belen for free as a tribute to the great Nature Guardian!” With that, he took out a delicate pouch woven from silver and gold thread from his bosom and miraculously poured out dozens of sealed wooden barrels from it, clearly containing fine wines.

It didn’t matter that they didn’t carry loads of goods like ordinary caravans—after all, they had such a space storage device, which was extremely precious and rare even among the human nobility. The young man then asked his attendants to announce this news in the crowd, instantly causing a sensation. A large group of tall plateau men, carrying wine bags or cups, rushed forward eagerly. The attendants opened wine barrels and filled their containers with fine wine. Although a few armed guards tried to maintain order, the young man clearly hadn’t taken into account the plateau men’s obsession with alcohol. Wine was a very precious resource in the cold, food-scarce plateau, and only on such festive days could the men drink heartily. Yet even just one or two cups was barely enough to satisfy their strong appetites for alcohol. Now that free wine was being distributed, the men naturally rushed to grab it, and even some fierce plateau women joined in the crowd. In the end, the city guards of Beren stepped in, successfully rescuing the young noble from the crush and restoring order during the drinking. At this point, the young man no longer showed any signs of nobility—he was disheveled and in a mess, with his guards seemingly lost in the crowd. After all, against plateau men whose average strength was above bronze level, his silver swordmaster guards couldn’t do much, and the family-appointed gold sword saint couldn’t act in public, as that would only cause greater chaos. Fortunately, though the plateau people were rough, they were generally friendly to outsiders. The young man was likely not just disheveled—he probably had several bones broken!