Baihuang Star.
Once night fell and the Louyue Behemoths sank into deep slumber, the lurking Sword God resumed its work.
Avoiding the beasts he had already knocked out once, he crept toward those he had yet to "visit"… and struck mercilessly.
Notifications of earned Adventure EXP flew across the panel:
Adventure EXP +161136
Adventure EXP +163241
Adventure EXP +159234
When dawn finally arrived on Baihuang Star, the Louyue Behemoths awoke one after another. Some of them felt as though their sleep had been unusually poor—heads dizzy and heavy.
Unfortunately, with no intelligence and no language, they had no way of sharing such feelings.
If they could, they would have realized over a hundred of their companions had woken with the exact same symptoms—while a certain troublemaking individual was hiding inside his pocket space, quietly celebrating.
In less than half a day, he had knocked out over a hundred behemoths without anyone noticing, and pocketed more than sixteen million EXP in one go.
It was more than double the previous harvest—and the reason was simple: practice makes perfect.
Last time had been the first attempt. Sneaking in while the behemoths slept and knocking them out silently had required lots of trial and error adjusting the output of spiritual force.
This time was different. With prior experience, Nolan now had a good idea of exactly how much mental strength was enough to quietly knock out a Louyue Behemoth of each rank.
Naturally, the Adventure EXP gained doubled with ease.
[Adventure EXP: 32356522]
With over thirty million Adventure EXP saved up, it was more than enough for a level-up.
[Level: 116 (1523201/26000000)]
The level bar was also filled with over a million points from "training sessions" with the girls.
Subtracting that from twenty-six million, he needed only about twenty-four million EXP to level up.
Without hesitation, Nolan spent the points:
Adventure EXP -24476799
Lv116 (1523201/26000000) → Lv117 (0/27000000)
A torrent of energy materialized in his body. His cells greedily absorbed the power, strengthening his physique, and his internal Harmonized Energy rose accordingly.
Then he opened his character panel to check:
---
Name: Nolan Walker
Level: Lv117 (0/27000000)
Race: Human
Titles: Honorary Knight, Distinguished Citizen of Liyue, Legendary Adventurer, Honorary General of Watatsumi Island, Sumeru Sage
Innate Talent: Entangling Affection
Skills:
- Lumine's Musou · World Lv.10 ( Void Starsea Manifestation)
- Flowing Sky Shot: Arcane Level Lv.10 (Frostglow Arrow)
Specialties:
- Beloved by Maidens (Exclusive)
- Unmoving Gospel of the World Tree (Exclusive)
- Threads of the Northern Wind (Exclusive)
- Spiritual Core (Exclusive)
- Imaginary Energy
Adventure EXP: 7879723
---
Only seven million EXP remained. To continue leveling, he'd need just under twenty million more. When Baihuang Star fell into night again, a single sweep should be enough.
He had gained even more insight regarding how to efficiently knock out Louyue Behemoths. Next time, he could safely send another Sword God avatar to increase efficiency.
If not for the need to avoid detection by the Xianzhou Alliance's stationed troops, he could have sent several avatars and knocked out the entire population in a single night.
But that would be too risky.
Besides Baihuang Star, he had no other suitable EXP-farming locations for now. Spending a few extra days here was perfectly fine.
When Baihuang Star welcomed morning, it was still the dead of night in Teyvat.
Nolan originally wanted to check if Layla needed help returning, but through Mona's lab window, he saw Mona and Layla still deep in their study of the stars.
So he chose not to disturb them. Instead, he pulled Amber—who had just come out for water—into Kuki Shinobu's room, and began their close-contact "training."
Before long, it was two or three in the morning.
Feeling somewhat sleepy, Nolan hugged the two soft, fair-skinned girls—one on each side—and drifted into dreamland.
Morning.
When he awoke, he tried rubbing his eyes—but both arms were pinned beneath sleeping girls. He could only yawn helplessly.
After carefully pulling his arms free, he rolled over and pressed Amber beneath him to share a warm embrace, then did the same with Kuki Shinobu.
In this manner, both girls woke up. They dressed and headed out to enjoy the breakfast Noelle and Lumine had prepared.
After breakfast, around eight o'clock, Lumine and Paimon tugged him along toward Fontaine—to see what reward Furina had prepared for him.
Nolan originally intended to escort Layla back to the Akademiya first, but after a night spent stargazing with Mona, she was surely still asleep. He could send her later.
A twist of space—Interstellar Travel—and Nolan's group appeared beside Furina in the Mermère Palace.
She had already risen early and was sipping tea in the reception hall. Clorinde, her ever-reliable guard, stood nearby.
"Ah, splendid timing! Clorinde just bought these cakes. Come, as the great hero who saved Fontaine, I allow you all to share them with me."
Furina beamed with delight as she spoke.
"Yay, mini-cakes!" Paimon rushed forward, while Lumine let out a helpless sigh.
Nolan chuckled, accepted Furina's invitation, and joined them for the pastries. Then he looked at her expectantly:
"I heard you've already decided on my reward. I'm a little curious—what is it?"
He was hoping for a high-honor ceremonial title. It would make for another nice addition to his list.
"Hehe~ don't be impatient." Furina smiled mysteriously. "With strength like yours, I doubt you care for Mora, yes?"
"No, I'm actually quite interested in Mora."
Nolan answered without missing a beat.
"You… you rascal!"
Furina glared at him in irritation. She let out a disgruntled hmph, clearly losing her patience for theatrics, and said:
"Whenever you accomplish something big in another nation, they always give you some impressive title—'Honorary Knight', 'General', 'Sage', and so on.
"I've decided I'm going to give you a title even grander than all of theirs!"
Furina lifted her chin slightly, wearing a proud, triumphant expression.
"Oh? Now I'm even more interested. What title will it be?"
Nolan's curiosity showed plainly.
It really did seem like Furina intended to grant him a new title. And that made sense—his contribution was massive. Giving Mora or treasures felt too shallow.
But granting him a title on the level of "Honorary Knight"—that was appropriate.
And though Furina could be silly sometimes, she is the Hydro Archon with centuries of experience. She understood the basics of statecraft. So naturally, she used other nations as reference and prepared a dignified, respectable title that would make sense to everyone.
"Ahem. In Fontaine we have titles like viscount, count, duke, and so on. For those who make great contributions, we grant such honors.
"But for someone like you, even 'duke' feels lacking. So after much consideration… I decided to grant you the title of Prince. This is Fontaine's highest honor. You're not allowed to dislike it!"
Furina leaned forward, staring nervously at Nolan.
"I helped resolve the prophecy crisis mainly because I didn't want to watch Fontaine fall into disaster. Whether there's a reward or not doesn't matter.
But if you're giving something, then naturally, I won't turn it down."
Nolan smiled as he replied.
"That's good! I'll make the formal announcement later—you will officially become Prince of Fontaine!"
Hearing he was satisfied, Furina let out a tiny sigh of relief.
[Furina Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 360 Affection Points, Current Affection Level: Lv.7 (320/700)]
"Perfect."
Seeing the affection notification pop up, Nolan nodded in satisfaction.
After finishing their cakes, Furina dragged Nolan and the others to Chief Justice Neuvillette's office…
…where she loudly demanded he help draft the official decree conferring the "Prince" title.
Neuvillette, busy reviewing documents, looked helpless. This was clearly Furina's job, yet she insisted on pushing it onto him.
He had no choice. After all, even a Chief Justice must bow to higher authority at times.
Besides, he held favorable feelings toward the one who had delayed the prophecy crisis. So he quickly drafted the document within minutes and handed it to Furina.
Once she confirmed it, she announced the conferment of the title on the spot and sent people out to broadcast the news.
Though the title of "Prince" was purely honorary and held no real political power, in Fontaine it granted privileges second only to the Hydro Archon herself.
It was extremely effective in spreading Nolan's fame—and helped him gain more Spiritual Energy in the future.
As Furina announced the new title, Nolan's character panel displayed a prompt:
[New Title Acquired: Prince of Fontaine]
He immediately opened it to see its effects:
[Prince of Fontaine]
• Extra Affection gain from all Fontaine citizens.
• Within the borders of Fontaine, possesses the ability to declare "laws."
Any law he proclaims will compel all people within a certain radius to obey it.
Resistance increases with the target's strength.
The increased Affection gain was similar to past titles—very useful.
But the ability to create laws?
If he understood correctly, it meant that if he stood on a street and said, "No fighting here," everyone within a certain range would be forced to obey that "law."
As for the exact radius and strength—only actual testing could reveal that.
Of course, this wasn't the right moment to try such a powerful ability. He'd need an appropriate situation.
With nothing else requiring attention, Nolan and the others left the Mermère Palace. Just as they began strolling through the city—
Navia approached with her two subordinates.
She flashed a bright, breezy smile.
"Well well, if it isn't our legendary adventurers. What a coincidence!"
"Paimon don't believe you can just walk down any street and bump into someone you know," Paimon said, arms spread.
"Haha, don't mind the details. Since we've run into each other, I'd like to ask for a little help!" Navia said, adjusting her parasol.
"Paimon knew it."
Paimon raised her hands and shook her head—just say you want help from the start!
"We don't mind helping. What exactly do you need?"
Since he had no urgent tasks, Nolan nodded and asked for details.
"It's about Poisson Town—our Spina di Rosula headquarters. It's underground, and the environment is far from ideal.
But since the 'serial girl disappearance case' was resolved recently, we consider that a new beginning for us.
"So we want to brighten the place up—move the whole town to the surface. That means large-scale construction, so I wanted to ask for your help."
"Move the underground town to the surface? That's going to cost a lot of Mora!"
Paimon's starry eyes widened in shock.
She and Lumine had visited Poisson Town earlier. It was deep inside an underground cavern with awful lighting—only the entrance received a bit of sunlight. Everywhere else required lamps just to see.
And being in a low-lying area, it easily flooded during rain.
Its only advantage was defensibility—good during large-scale battles. But Fontaine was peaceful, so that meant very little.
Better to relocate and build proper houses under real sunlight.
Navia could reduce a large part of the construction cost using her Geo vision…
…But her strength alone wasn't enough to rebuild an entire town.
Fortunately, she knew another Geo user—one extremely strong.
The legendary adventurer Lumine.
With her help, Navia believed construction would proceed smoothly. Seeing Nolan as well, she extended the invitation.
"Ohh? Navia, you're quite bold. Moving the whole of Poisson Town is a huge project. Did the Spina suddenly get rich?"
Paimon asked suspiciously.
After all, when investigating the previous case, she had visited their Gray River outpost—and saw that the members couldn't even afford a proper inn.
It was obvious they weren't wealthy.
Now they were talking about relocating a whole town—it sounded like they were aiming too high.
"Well… hahahaha… that's why I'm asking you for help," Navia admitted with an embarrassed laugh.
"In that case, let's go take a look. If we can help, we will."
Nolan nodded. Lumine and Paimon also agreed with small nods._
(End of chapter)
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