The character panel popped up three affection notifications in a row. Seeing this, Nolan felt quite pleased.
Beidou and Yanfei's affection toward him had already passed Level 8, and Xiangling's was close behind.
His affection-gaining speed was far faster than before.
Aside from the exclusive trait "Beloved by Maidens" and Tingyun's affection skill, the main reason was that he had recently lifted the restrictions on the "bonus affection gain per title" effect through applying Spiritual Core Attributes.
Speaking of titles: Mondstadt gave him Honorary Knight, Liyue gave him Distinguished Citizen of Liyue, Sumeru gave him Sage, Fontaine gave him Prince…
But Inazuma still hadn't given him anything.
After all, "Honorary General" was given by Kokomi, representing Watatsumi Island. Inazuma City's shogunate never officially granted him any honorific title.
Mainly because Inazuma hadn't faced any external crisis—its turmoil was caused by Ei herself.
Nolan simply made a deal with her to stop enforcing the Vision Hunt Decree and Sakoku Decree.
That contribution was huge for Kokomi's territory, which was why she granted him the title.
But for Ei, she was just retracting her own decree. Nolan only negotiated with her; he didn't save Inazuma from an outside disaster.
Naturally, there was no occasion for awarding him a title.
But now that both Ei and the Shogun were his wives, asking for an official title wouldn't be hard.
Most likely, such a title would increase affection from Inazumans, and once he lifted the region-restriction via Spiritual Core, he would gain affection faster overall.
However—titles don't just appear magically just because his wife is the Electro Archon.
Even if Ei jokingly granted him dozens of titles, the character panel wouldn't automatically generate real ones.
Otherwise, he could ask Ei or the Shogun to shower him with titles and instantly max everyone's goodwill.
Obviously impossible.
The character panel, despite its power, was ultimately just a talent, a special type of ability.
A talent that could convert certain conceptual forces into things like EXP, traits, and so on.
His rapid level-ups came from defeating enemies and obtaining the energy known as EXP.
The essence of EXP was probably a conceptual energy collected from defeating someone—something like their condensed "life experience."
Just like Furina's authority gathers energy from people's faith in justice, the character panel gathered something as well.
But instead of faith, it collected life experience, turning it into EXP—a higher-order special energy.
"Experience" clearly refers to knowledge, lessons, and life insights.
By defeating enemies, their "life experience" would be condensed and turned into EXP that he could use to strengthen himself.
In essence, it was similar to Furina's authority—just far stronger.
And just like how Furina gathering "faith" wouldn't harm others, collecting "life experience," which was vague and conceptual, also wouldn't affect anyone.
The only requirement was that the target be unconscious or dead—likely because a conscious person's instincts would resist being "collected."
The character panel wasn't powerful enough to forcibly extract "life experience" from someone who was awake.
Having had the character panel for so long, Nolan had already grasped its true nature.
Aside from Adventure EXP, his innate talent "Entangling Affection" required girls to have high affection toward him to obtain affection skills.
This was also a form of gathering and transforming forces—likely collecting their "fondness," "admiration," "affection," and so on…
Or perhaps, it gathered the fate-interference energy generated when he forcibly intertwined his destiny with theirs.
Once enough accumulated, it would manifest as a powerful, absurd affection skill—since those skills were essentially Constellations.
Or perhaps it collected all of these energies simultaneously.
Later features like racial traits and personal traits were probably similar—they formed only after collecting certain conceptual powers.
Titles were no exception.
For example, the title "Legendary Adventurer" manifested because his fame as an adventurer was great enough—his achievements were known throughout Teyvat.
It was likely formed from the conceptual power of reputation.
When Acting Grand Master Jean granted him the title Honorary Knight, that was only because he had already contributed enough to earn "merit" within the Knights.
Thus, the title wasn't created by words alone—the character panel condensed the corresponding conceptual energy created by his deeds.
This second category of titles was formed from powers such as great achievements, or influences that changed the world.
So the character panel wasn't some illogical, rule-breaking cheat.
It was simply a talent that converted various unseen conceptual forces into a form usable by Nolan.
Things like life experience, affection, fate—everyone had access to these concepts, they were objective parts of the world.
Most people just couldn't utilize them.
The reason the panel took on a "game interface" form was likely because of Nolan's own subconscious influence.
Thus, no matter how many titles Ei casually bestowed upon him, the character panel wouldn't generate them unless he had the actual conceptual power to support them.
Of course, Nolan did have some "achievements" in Inazuma—
such as surviving the Shogun's Musou no Hitotachi, rescuing the previous Electro Archon Raiden Makoto, and later accompanying Miko to the past to plant the Sacred Sakura.
Even if he only helped a little, that was involvement nonetheless.
Taking all these together, they should be enough for Ei to award him an official title.
The achievements required were far more significant than what earned him "Honorary Knight."
Thinking this through, Nolan immediately used the Waymark to message Ei and the Shogun, asking them to discuss what Inazuma title would suit him.
Hearing that titles could increase his strength, Ei and the Shogun weren't surprised.
This guy had all sorts of absurd ways to grow stronger—even cuddling with women worked.
Using "reputation" to strengthen oneself wasn't strange at all.
It resembled the gathering of faith in some ways.
Having brought up the matter of titles, their breakfast was nearly finished. After cleaning up the dishes, Xiangling informed Master Mao that she was heading out to search for new ingredients.
Then the group headed toward the harbor together.
Beidou's Alcor had delivered cargo yesterday and was currently docked, though leaving it at the pier too long would block other ships from loading and unloading, especially since the crew had several days of vacation afterward.
The remaining crew members—those not going ashore to rest—steered the Alcor away from the dock to avoid blocking other ships, guiding it instead to the waters near Guyun Stone Forest.
After their several-day break ended, they would return; the next set of crew members going on leave would switch with the ones currently on land.
Since Nolan and the others were also heading to Guyun Stone Forest, they simply rode along on Beidou's ship.
Teleporting straight there would mean missing the chance to enjoy the beautiful ocean scenery with the girls.
And since Liyue Harbor wasn't far—about an hour's journey—there was no need to rush.
After all, the main purpose of this trip was bonding and increasing affection; dealing with the sealed ancient gods was only secondary.
The Alcor slowly set sail. It now had a newly installed elemental steam engine, meaning it could move even without wind.
Beidou mentioned she planned to install an electric motor as well, so even if they ran out of Pyro ore fuel, the ship could still power itself.
In emergencies like whirlpools or sudden sea crises, having two propulsion systems could also greatly increase the ship's speed.
Yes—electric motors had already advanced enough in Teyvat to be installed on large vessels, and their performance wasn't bad at all.
Nolan even heard from Ningguang that prototypes for new-generation warships and electromagnetic cannons had already been developed.
Once deployed, they could defend Liyue far better against sea monsters.
Thanks to elemental technology, Teyvat's technological level had already caught up to, and in some fields surpassed, Earth's technology before he transmigrated.
They were even close to launching an actual spaceship.
Nolan had asked Cloud Retainer, and the Starsea Vessel Project was progressing smoothly.
With the knowledge he had brought back from beyond Teyvat, scholars rarely encountered true bottlenecks.
Even when they did, elemental power, runes, and formations allowed them to brute-force solutions by creating functionally equivalent results through extraordinary means.
Of course, Teyvat's cutting-edge research was advanced, but basic infrastructure for ordinary people still lagged behind.
Mainly due to time—technology took a while to benefit the masses.
Standing on the deck, Nolan enjoyed the sea breeze while chatting with the girls, mostly bragging about his adventures beyond the Stars.
Stories of unknown worlds were always captivating.
"Beyond the stars, huh… My Alcor has sailed across every corner of Teyvat's seas, but I wonder if I'll ever have the chance to sail with this partner of mine among the stars."
Beidou looked up at the bright sky, though drifting white clouds blocked most of the view.
You don't long for what you don't know.
Once you know—it's impossible not to dream.
"There'll definitely be a chance. Teyvat will soon finish developing spacecraft capable of navigating the Stars. By then, we can retrofit the Alcor into a starship.
"But even then, I'll need to establish a foothold in the galaxy first, or we might bring trouble to Teyvat."
Nolan said with a smile.
With his current strength, aside from the unknown Heavenly Principles and the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles, no one in Teyvat could defeat him.
By the time the starship was complete, his strength would have improved even further—perhaps enough to defeat the Heavenly Principles and uncover the truth behind the "false sky" imprisoning Teyvat.
If all went well, Teyvat could enter the interstellar era.
To be safe, Nolan felt he should reach Emanator level strength. Surely even the Heavenly Principles weren't that powerful—right?
If they were, they wouldn't be hiding in Teyvat, and no one would dare oppose Teyvat at all.
"Oh? Then I'll be waiting for that day!"
Beidou laughed boldly.
[Beidou Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 600 Affection points. Current affection level: Lv.9 (300/900)]
Her rising affection showed just how much she trusted him.
"Then what about me? Will other stars have ingredients I've never seen before?"
Xiangling's eyes sparkled in excitement.
"There'll probably be so many that even if you discovered one new ingredient every second, you still wouldn't finish after tens of billions of years."
Nolan said, looking at Xiangling.
"You can join Beidou and sail the Stars together on the Alcor."
Even the Star Gods didn't know the size of the galaxy; it grew endlessly, with new unexplored regions appearing all the time.
"Mhm! And… Nolan, will you come with us?"
Xiangling looked at him expectantly.
"Of course. Traveling the Stars is dangerous—you'll need a powerful bodyguard like me."
Nolan tapped his chest confidently.
"Then I'm relieved!"
Xiangling grinned. Guoba also seemed excited, jumping twice with a chirp.
[Xiangling Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 560 Affection Points. Current affection level: Lv.8 (260/800)]
Watching two new affection messages pop up, Nolan turned to Yanfei and asked curiously:
"So Yanfei, what about you? Are you interested in the Stars?"
If possible, he also wanted to increase Yanfei's affection further.
"The Stars, huh… The laws over there must be incredibly complicated. I haven't even fully mastered the laws of all Teyvat's nations yet…"
Yanfei showed a troubled expression.
"The principles of law are interconnected. Once you understand one system, you can understand countless others.
Interstellar civilizations' laws aren't so different. Yanfei, you're already Teyvat's top legal consultant.
"With just a bit of study, becoming an interstellar legal consultant isn't impossible."
Nolan said with a smile.
(End of Chapter)
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