"This works out nicely too—saves us the time of having to actually fight it."
Nolan looked at the fully suppressed Sandstorm Ancient God and simply crushed down with an overwhelming wave of spiritual power. The stone-bodied archon didn't even have time to react before falling unconscious.
[Defeated A Powerful Enemy. Obtained 132,451 Adventure EXP.]
This time the system panel finally popped up with an EXP notification—the Sandstorm ancient god was a first-time defeat, so naturally it rewarded EXP.
After obtaining t3he EXP, Nolan immediately proceeded to inscribe a Command Seal onto it, essentially doing the same thing he did with the Vortex God earlier.
With the seal successfully planted, there was no longer any need to worry about this god ever causing harm to Teyvat again.
"So it's really… that easy?" Beidou said in disbelief.
"Well, they are immobilized by the seal anyway." Nolan chuckled. "Alright, let's head to the third layer. Time to meet the Molten Ancient God."
The deeper layers of the sealing domain were almost identical to the earlier ones: every ancient god inside had already been completely subdued by Zhongli. Unless he intentionally released them, escape was impossible.
Because they were utterly suppressed, all Nolan had to do was walk in, knock them out with spiritual force, then plant a Command Seal—done.
Along the way, defeating the remaining ancient gods earned him several hundred thousand more EXP. Adding what he still had left, his total rose to over 1.5 million:
[Adventure EXP: 1,534,525]
But in terms of leveling up, this was still just a drop in the ocean. Nolan felt that after raising the girls' affection for a while, he'd need to find a place where he could farm EXP more efficiently.
For now, raising affection remained the priority—every Affection Skill was incredibly powerful and in many cases not any weaker than a few level-ups.
After he finished placing Command Seals on all the ancient gods, Beidou wanted to test herself against them to see the gap in power.
Since Nolan possessed damage-negation and damage-transfer abilities, he wasn't worried about Beidou getting hurt. So he released the seals and ordered the ancient gods to suppress their power and spar with her.
Because the ancient gods were fully under his control, unsealing them posed no danger.
Starting from the sixth layer's Toxic Cloud God all the way up to the first layer's Vortex God, every match ended in a draw.
Mainly because Beidou could shift damage away, and the ancient gods were intentionally limiting their power—only when she was too exhausted to lift her claymore would she "lose."
After the sparring session, they left the sealed land and returned to the Alcor. Nolan immediately reported everything to Lisa, Sucrose, and Xianyun.
If they were interested in the ancient gods, they were welcome to study them. The Command Seals were set to make the ancient gods obey the girls unconditionally.
So cooperation was guaranteed.
He also informed Acting Grand Master Jean, Ningguang, Ei, and Nahida—if any scholars under them were interested, they could also come and research.
Especially the Doctor—that man always wanted to create artificial gods. Maybe he could actually develop something from this.
Of course, Nolan didn't care whether any results came from it. His strength didn't rely on such research.
He simply wanted the girls close to him to expand their knowledge—and at the same time raise Teyvat's technological foundation.
"Hahaha! That was one hell of a battle! Never thought I'd get a chance to fight an actual ancient god. Thanks a ton, Traveler!"
Beidou, still riding the thrill of combat, let out a hearty laugh, slinging an arm over Nolan's shoulder.
Her affection toward him rose once again:
[Beidou Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 620 Affection. Current Affection Level: Lv.10 (MAX)]
Nolan stared at the notification in delight—Beidou's affection had finally maxed out!
Even the warm, sticky sweat soaking onto his neck from her arm didn't bother him. His gaze instead went to the next message:
[Through sincerity and relentless effort, you have forged a profound bond with one whose fate once had no intersection with your own. Henceforth, her destiny shall shine alongside yours. Affection Skill unlocked: Southern Cross Fleet.]
Southern Cross Fleet?
Could it be related to Beidou's ship?
Curiously, Nolan opened the detailed description:
[Southern Cross Fleet:
When acting as Fleet Captain, the following effects apply—
• As long as the other ships remain intact, all damage to the flagship becomes invalid (damage cap = combined level of both people).
• All attributes of every ship in the fleet increase by a percentage equal to the combined level of both people. Their primary functional attributes receive an additional increase of the same value.
• You may remotely control all ships in the fleet through thought alone.
• Maximum fleet size = combined level of both people (no size restrictions).]
So it only activates when he's commanding his own fleet.
Nolan was surprised—the Affection Skill actually buffed an entire fleet!
First, as long as even one other ship remained intact, the flagship would receive zero damage from anything below the damage cap.
Beidou was level 86. He was level 124. Combined, that was 210.
Meaning any attack at or below level 210—of any type—could not affect the flagship at all.
A flawless, absolute defense.
Even the "weakness''—that losing all other ships would expose the flagship—was easily countered: Nolan only needed to store one ship in the Void Starsea, and the condition of "all ships destroyed" could never be met.
This meant his flagship was, in the truest sense, immune to any attack.
Truly worthy of an Affection Skill—the effect was absurd.
And even its limitations could be bypassed effortlessly.
In addition, Beidou's Affection Skill greatly boosted all ship attributes: defense, firepower, energy reserves, mobility—everything.
And the main functional attribute of each ship received double the overall bonus.
For example, if he had a dedicated medical ship, its healing capabilities would first grow by their combined-level percentage, then increase again by that same amount.
At their current combined level, even if Nolan piloted an ordinary warship, its performance would be more than twice that of any identical model—and its main function could be over four times stronger.
If he led a fleet into war… it would be absolute, unstoppable domination.
Finally, he could control the entire fleet with thought alone—no crew needed. He alone could pilot an entire armada.
A terrifying, world-shaking power.
And one more proof: Max-level affection was always broken.
Other than artificial-intelligence systems, there was practically no one in the entire galaxy who could surpass him as a fleet commander—despite the fact that he had never studied anything related to the field.
As for the "fleet size limit," that wasn't really an issue.
After all, if every ship in his fleet were on the scale of an entire Xianzhou—planetary-class warships—
Then what did "quantity" even matter?
Though this idea was probably unrealistic for now, it still showed just how tremendously high the upper limit of this Affection Skill was.
"Watching Captain Beidou fight really lets you feel how terrifying these ancient gods are. So this is the kind of brutal battle Rex Lapis and Granny used to go through…"
Yanfei couldn't help sighing in awe.
At the same time, seeing so many ancient gods up close—thanks to Nolan—made her develop a small bit of fondness for him.
[Yanfei Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 560 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.9 (460/900).]
Seeing Yanfei nearly at max level as well, Nolan cheerfully said:
"No big deal. Alright then, let's head down and catch some fish for Xiangling. Once we get her ingredients, we can head back and have her cook us a feast at Wanmin Restaurant!"
"Hehe, no problem!"
Xiangling patted her not-very-prominent chest with pride. Being able to witness legendary archons up close also delighted her. Because of that, she too developed a little affection:
[Xiangling Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 560 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.9 (20/900).]
Seeing Xiangling's affection also reach level nine, Nolan's smile grew wider. He turned to Beidou:
"Beidou, let's move somewhere deeper. There's an array here, elemental energy is dense, and there aren't many fish."
"Mm. I'll tell everyone to raise the anchor."
Beidou released his shoulder and began giving orders.
A few minutes later, the Alcor slowly set off, heading toward deeper waters.
Before long, they reached a deep-sea region. With water-element barriers, they all dived straight down to the seafloor.
This was a gathering spot for many rare fish—fishermen occasionally spotted the very ingredients Xiangling wanted here.
Of course, fishermen couldn't dive a kilometer down to catch them. Most rare deep-sea species were only captured when they accidentally wandered into shallow waters.
But Nolan's group could descend directly with their water barriers.
Soon, they had already sunk a thousand meters below. No light reached this depth—making it nearly impossible to find anything by sight.
But both Nolan and Beidou could project spiritual force outward, so locating fish wasn't difficult for them.
Xiangling and Yanfei, however, were completely blind in the pitch-black abyss. The oppressive darkness made them instinctively fearful.
They hadn't gone through the same will-training Beidou had. Faced with such crushing darkness, they subconsciously gravitated toward Nolan.
The water-barrier spheres touched one another like bubbles, and Nolan simply merged them into one larger barrier—large enough for three people to stand inside.
"Uuugh… feels like something terrifying could appear at any moment. Maybe we should go back up. Forget the ingredients!"
Xiangling and Yanfei clung to Nolan's arms on each side, visibly afraid.
But once they held onto him, their fear eased significantly.
After all, Nolan's strength was overwhelming—holding onto him naturally made them feel safe.
[Yanfei Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 520 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.10 (MAX).]
[Xiangling Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 520 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.9 (540/900).]
Two notifications popped up in succession. Nolan was delighted—Yanfei had now reached max affection as well.
Indeed, traveling with girls was the easiest way to gain affection—especially in seemingly dangerous environments where he could give them absolute security.
It was only natural they would grow attached to him.
Nolan chuckled.
"Since we're already here, it'd be a waste to just leave. But yeah, this darkness is killing the mood. I'll brighten things up a bit."
He formed a glowing orb using adeptus arts. With a tap, the orb passed through the water barrier and shot upward, stopping a few dozen meters above.
It lit up a massive area around them.
The sudden radiance startled the deep-sea creatures—some froze, some panicked, some burrowed into the sand below.
"Haaa… that's much better."
Xiangling and Yanfei both exhaled with relief.
"Haha, you two go catch the fish. I'll stay alert—this glow might attract deep-sea monsters."
Nolan cast fresh water barriers around the two girls.
"Then we'll leave it to you!"
With the surroundings now as bright as daytime, Xiangling and Yanfei weren't nearly as afraid.
Still, they stuck close to Beidou and Guoba while searching for ingredients—separating alone was still too scary.
Meanwhile, Nolan checked his character panel. As expected, he had gained another Affection Skill:
[Through sincerity and relentless effort, you have forged a profound bond with one whose fate once had no intersection with your own. Henceforth, her destiny shall shine alongside yours.
New Ability Acquired: Scales of Justice.]
Scales of Justice—fitting, considering Yanfei was a legal consultant connected to the concept of "justice."
Nolan eagerly opened the skill details:
[Scales of Justice:
Summons a golden scale capable of measuring the value of any item.
Through the scale, you may perform equivalent exchange of any objects.
Distance does not affect the transaction.
After completing a transaction, you may imprint an "Exclusive" mark onto the item—making it impossible for anyone else to take or steal it by any means except trading again or receiving it as a voluntary gift.
The maximum level of items eligible for exchange is equal to the combined levels of both people.
The user may grant others the ability to summon a phantom projection of the scale.]
Equivalent exchange, huh? It really is fair.
As Nolan read further, he gradually realized just how utterly broken this ability was.
(End of Chapter)
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