Five months passed quickly.
During this period, apart from eating and sleeping, Herag was busy compressing his spiritual power. The liquid spiritual power in his mind had already shrunk a bit.
In those five months, the airship stopped at many cities, staying two to three days at each one.
Except for the stopovers when he could get off and take a walk, Herag spent all his ti on the airship.
Silver Beach City is too far from Silver Moon City, located at the southernmost part of the Land of Dawn, and the airship couldn’t fly there directly. It takes considerable ti stopping at other cities along the way.
Standing on the deck, Herag watched as Silver Moon City ca into view, a sense of returning ho washed over him.
Back then, Franz activated the witch array, throwing him deep into the pollution zone.
This ti, he truly experienced a near-death journey to barely make it back alive.
The airship slowly docked at Silver Moon City’s harbor, and Herag could already see Reese from the deck.
He had only told Reese the exact ti of his return; others only knew the approximate timing but not exactly when he would arrive.
As soon as Herag stepped off the airship, Reese rushed into his arms.
"It’s okay, I’m back," Herag comforted, patting Reese’s back.
The harbor of Silver Moon City is located at the northernmost part, and after leaving, the two hailed a carriage to go ho.
A few hours later, Herag got off the carriage, looking at the familiar yard and the surroundings of King Street.
It was nightti, at nightfall, when they reached ho.
As soon as Herag and Reese entered the house, they clung to each other closely.
Reese wrapped her arms around Herag’s neck, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him with her soft red lips.
After being apart for so long, the brief separation felt like a fresh honeymoon.
...
Early the next morning, Herag looked at the ss in the house, and although he was not satisfied yet, Reese was exhausted, so he let her rest.
Herag was full of energy now, lying there holding Reese, feeling her softness as he closed his eyes and entered a ditative state.
His current plan was to dedicate all his energy to compressing his spiritual power for the foreseeable future, striving to advance to the crystalization wizard stage as soon as possible.
Having experienced a series of events in the pollution zone, Herag deeply sensed his own weakness.
The environnt inside the Land of Dawn had left him too comfortable, but the world in the pollution zone was the real world.
There, no one would guarantee your safety, and no one could create a safe environnt for you.
Now Herag had only one thought in mind — to beco stronger.
He checked the balance on his talisman stone, noting he had 130,000 magic stones, and his space ring contained another 40,000 magic stones.
This amount of magic stones was only enough for a few months of ditation practice at the Wizard Tower, though he no longer needed to practice there every day.
The purpose of ditation practice at the Wizard Tower was mainly to increase the speed of spiritual power growth slightly.
Herag’s spiritual power had reached a bottleneck now, unable to grow further until he advanced to the crystalization wizard stage.
Therefore, for daily living, the 30,000 magic stones were more than adequate.
Herag’s bloodline mark stored the energy of a divine core, and he wasn’t sure if it could be used to complete the compression process of his spiritual power.
Herag ditated until afternoon when Reese finally woke up.
Over the following days, Herag didn’t leave the house, staying ho with Reese, laboring day and night.
A few days later, Herag finally left the house to find Pries.
During previous communication through the talisman stone, Pries had already inford Herag to see him after returning as there were things to discuss.
Herag took a carriage to the City Hall, observing no changes along the way.
The impacts from the events in the Mozambique Slums had completely vanished; it seed people had discreetly forgotten about them, as no one talked about it anymore.
Herag alighted from the carriage and walked into City Hall to find Pries.
When Pries noticed soone staring at him, he looked up to see Herag and smiled, "Finally you’re back; you really are one lucky guy to co back alive from the pollution zone."
"It was just luck. Had things gone worse, I wouldn’t have made it back," Herag replied with a laugh.
Pries walked over and patted Herag’s shoulder, aware of how difficult it must have been for Herag to return.
Pries knew well how dangerous the pollution zone was, and even if he were thrown in, he might not make it out.
"Here’s a docunt for you to sign; there’s a reward of 1,000 contribution points," Pries said, taking out a parchnt from his space ring.
"A thousand contribution points? What kind of reward is this?" Herag asked, surprised.
Contribution points were hard to earn; previously, Herag had earned only 870 contribution points through the exhausting task of catching Abyssal Cultists, 500 of which ca from breaking the Wheel of Fortune Witch Array.
Receiving 1,000 contribution points all at once left Herag a bit bewildered.
Pries laughed, "These contribution points are a reward for thwarting Franz’s sche. A thousand points is actually quite low, not matching the contribution you made. If so people weren’t blocking it, you’d definitely have gotten more contribution points."
"Soone was blocking it?" Herag was puzzled.
Reflecting, Herag realized he had indeed foiled Franz’s plan, resolving a potential threat that nearly saved everyone in Silver Moon City.
Such a significant achievent deserved ample reward, so why was anyone deliberately obstructing it?
Pries explained, "The matter had too big an impact, so it reached our high-level authorities in Serlandir. There were two opinions on how to handle your case, one advocating for a reward, the other for punishnt."
"Punishnt?" Herag was speechless — who would want to punish him, when he hadn’t wronged anyone?
"The ones advocating punishnt believed, after the investigation, that your actions were too reckless. A minor mishap might have plunged the entire Silver Moon City into ruin. After a basic reconstruction of the events, it was found that Franz’s sche wasn’t sothing a Level 1 Wizard could prevent. It was probably due to your good luck that you unexpectedly thwarted Franz’s plan," Pries explained.
"But after calculations showed your failure probability was extrely high, there was a strong likelihood you’d not only perish but implicate everyone in Silver Moon City," Pries elaborated.
Herag pondered and slowly comprehended.
Back then, Franz nearly activated the witch array, only for the divine core to be absorbed by chance by him.
His ability to absorb the divine core was due solely to the ancestral bloodline power; no other wizard could have stopped Franz.
Therefore, it was understandable that the high-level authorities in Serlandir found his actions reckless and risky, and they didn’t want to encourage such reckless behavior.
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