Chapter 118: Honor Points

The four silver mages returned to the mage hall together without hiding their presence, immediately causing a sensation in Stonehold City.
If Messel had remained at the peak of bronze rank for so many years before suddenly ascending to silver mage, it wouldn’t have surprised various factions as much, since they already regarded him as a silver-level powerhouse, and he indeed possessed such strength.
But now, with Chris and the other three bronze-peak mages all ascending to silver mages at once, it was enough to shock and spark speculation among everyone.
Some even wondered whether these mages had long been ready to advance to silver rank but had held back from breaking through until one of them arrived. Whether such a strategy made sense was beyond their consideration.
Later, the four mages announced their joint advancement in front of the other mages in the hall, and this news immediately sent ripples through all factions.
Dalaran now had four silver mages, meaning it had transformed from a newly developed frontier territory into the most powerful force in the Northlands. Neither the Agricultural Church Temples nor the Macbeth Viscount family, which had just lost its head, nor the military hierarchy of the Northlands—represented by Sir Brewster, the commander of Stonehold City’s garrison and the Bloodstone Fortress—could compare to Dalaran in terms of military strength.
Though there were only four silver mages, together they could exert a greater impact on the battlefield than a force of 30,000 soldiers. Even the Macbeth family, which had the largest military force in the Northlands, could muster only a few thousand troops at most.
Although Donald’s title hadn’t changed, his status was now implicitly higher than that of all the Northlands nobles. Even Baron Redmaple would likely dare not act as if he were his superior when meeting him again.
As for Bolton, the only noble in the Northlands whose title might be higher than Donald’s—there were still many steps to go before he could inherit his father’s title. Even if he became the new Macbeth Viscount, given the current situation, he probably wouldn’t dare be rude to Donald.
With the safety of his teachers and Clinton ensured, Donald planned to embark on the exploration of the ruins of the Archmage Lord, an adventure he had long wanted to undertake.
But since he was setting out, he needed to arrange matters in his territory first so he could leave without worries.

Due to the establishment of the Adventurers’ Guild, many miscellaneous tasks were turned into missions assigned to adventurers. Since the territory’s finances were robust, it could afford such expenses, and this also relieved the guards significantly, giving them more time for training and reducing the burden on the territory.

With the Adventurers’ Guild in place, it became much easier for merchants to hire guards, and more trade caravans traveled to the territory, boosting the economic development ofthe wholeDalaran.

Donald also built two logging camps in the Twilight Forest, providing a safe working and resting environment for the local loggers and hunting teams that patrolled there.

As for the mines in the Orc Valley, Uther had done an excellent job organizing them. The miners were honest people with clean records selected from within the territory, and they were well-treated. Only it was claimed externally that iron ore had been discovered there. So far, two shifts of miners have been working, and a considerable amount of black iron and hematite has been mined. Progress with blue-veined magic ore has been slow, but every few days, a small amount of magic ore could be refined. At this rate, it would be sufficient to support Dalaran’s magic coin production plans.

The only issue was that miners found it inconvenient to travel between their homes and the mines during breaks, as the Orc Valley was far from Twilight Town and the other two villages, requiring them to pass through relatively dangerous forest areas. Each time, Uther had to personally lead a escort.

Therefore, Donald planned to spend a large sum of money to exchange for two teleportation gates through the Book of Truth, allowing workers to travel instantly between the mines and the town, greatly facilitating the mining process.

In the following days, Donald led all members of the militia, the Musketeer Guard, and the elite archers of the hunting teams—these armed forces of the territory—in their first practical training exercise. The destination of this drill was the Green Cloak Forest.

One cannot always keep subordinates under protection; otherwise, how can they grow?

It turned out that this training was highly effective. Although no major attacks by magical beasts or alien races occurred, this collective experience of surviving in the wild greatly enhanced the soldiers’ discipline and sense of collective honor. The survival skills taught by several experienced adventurers hired by Donald were also very useful.

Since the establishment of the Adventurers’ Guild, Donald had issued many missions in the Green Cloak Forest, mostly involving scouting and eliminating potential threats, with the rest being material collection and hunting magical beasts.

The Green Cloak Forest has a complex terrain. As for the magical beasts, they usually have fixed territories and rarely wander elsewhere. However, some remaining indigenous creatures are different. If they engage in guerrilla warfare against one’s forces and retreat into the forest when pursued, completely eradicating them is by no means easy. After all, only those who have been thieves for a thousand days would want to guard against thieves every day. Driven by the rewards for tasks, there were many potential threats within dozens of miles, forcing many magical beasts and remaining exotic races to migrate deeper into the mountains. This greatly ensured Dalaran’s safety in the future. All Donald had to pay for was a few thousand Gold Solars and some elemental crystals—less than one-tenth of the cost estimated earlier for summoning an army to clear the forest using magic cores. Through continuous task issuance over time, the Dalaran Adventurers’ Guild gradually got on track. Although it couldn’t immediately expand its influence across the entire Northlands, so far, adventurers in Stonehold, Redmaple Town, and Dalaran were mostly official members of the guild, and they took pride in wearing the guild-issued adventurer badges when traveling. The situation in the territories could be described as excellent. Before leaving, Donald made further efforts by gathering all his subordinates responsible for guild affairs and announcing a new decision. Drawing on experiences from online games in his past life, he established a honor points system within the guild based on task levels. “Honor points are not money; they are a symbol of honor and strength. For the same task, employers will naturally choose adventurers who earn more honor points. Moreover, adventurers can use these points within the guild to prioritize the acquisition of items and equipment that are hard to find outside, which also helps motivate them!” Hearing this plan, everyone began to discuss it, with most in favor and none opposed—only a few remained silent. Donald continued, “In addition to these benefits, if an adventurer earns over a thousand honor points, they will receive a basic enchanted magical item as a guild reward. If someone earns over five thousand honor points, I will personally represent the territory to grant them the title of Grand Adventurer along with a high-level enchanted magical item.”

“Of course, that enchanted equipment is actually their own adventurer badges, to which I impart spells that can be activated at critical moments as a life-saving measure. There’s no adventurer who wouldn’t want it! This not only adds luster to the Adventurer’s Guild but also strengthens adventurers’ sense of belonging to Dalaran.” At this point, Mage Russell raised a question. “Lord, what should we do if someone completes a large number of low-level tasks quickly and earns 1,000 honor points?” Donald nodded in approval and said, “What Russell mentioned isn’t impossible, but if you think about it, many people might try to accumulate points this way, yet it’s almost impossible to actually succeed.” Donald explained the rules for earning honor points to everyone. Everyone understood that earning 1,000 honor points was by no means easy. In the point system Donald had established, the lowest-level tasks, such as level one and two, generally did not award any honor points. Level three tasks were considered high-tier black-iron tasks, and completing them only yielded 1 to 3 honor points. Although the points increased exponentially for tasks above level three, the difficulty also rose significantly, and the number of such tasks was limited. “So, if someone tries to overwhelm others by taking only the lowest-level tasks to accumulate 1,000 honor points, they will inevitably be disappointed. After all, the total number of level three tasks issued in a year might not even reach 1,000, and there will be many adventurers competing. If they fail to complete one task, they can’t take another, leaving them overwhelmed. Even a silver-ranked expert couldn’t complete 1,000 level three tasks in three years.”