Chapter 402: The profits of war

"Good." Ethan nodded, a satisfied expression settling on his face.

"Hand command of these men over to Theron; he should be able to prepare the rest. we’ll be leaving for Fallenwinter with a thousand men—have them ready in no less than an hour."

"It will be done." Doran bowed his head once more, though Ethan’s mind had already drifted elsewhere.

His eyes gleamed as he took in the massive mountain of items, weapons, and armor stacked right ahead—all stripped from thirty thousand green-skinned creatures and forty thousand human soldiers.

Ethan stepped forward, extending a single hand over the metallic heap before activating his military talent management ability.

[Do you wish to extract and refine 176,874 items?]

"Yes."

[Refining...

Items successfully refined!

+ 12 Rank S talents

+ 287 Rank A talents

+ 1,634 Rank B talents

+ 18,790 Rank C talents

+ 76,956 Rank D talents]

Wasting no time, Ethan swiftly fused each of those talents up to the maximum rank the system allowed.

By the end of the process, he was left with sixteen Rank SSS talents, one Rank SS, three Rank S, and a single Rank A.

Honestly, he couldn’t help but be impressed by just how OP that ability was.

With such ease, he produced talents capable of carrying their bearers all the way to the sixth stage—and perhaps even the seventh, if they were lucky.

In the entire Kingdom of Burning Ice, there were probably no more than a handful of people with Rank SSS talents. And yet, he alone could forge sixteen of them in one go.

Of course, for now, these wouldn’t be handed out to his soldiers.

The reason was simple: it would make them more talented than Ethan’s own wives.

The young Lord had always planned to make his wives as powerful as possible before investing heavily in the army.

Because of this, he decided that, for the time being, the focus would be on raising his wives’ Rank to SSS and his concubines’ to S.

Only after that would he begin to invest in the army in earnest.

As for lower-level talents, Ethan didn’t even bother to think about them.

Goldenveil was practically a talent factory, and any of its soldiers already possessed at least one Rank C talent, which was more than decent.

This guaranteed they would reach the second stage without much difficulty, along with a small chance of reaching the third.

Well, that chance would be slim in other locations, but with Goldenveil’s vast resources and absurdly high magical density, even a soldier with an ordinary Rank C talent had the opportunity to become a true specialist.

For that reason, Ethan chose to funnel those superior talents toward his wives, who, in the future, could reach the level of demigoddesses.

Of course, not all soldiers were left out of the distribution.

Doran, Cain, Vaelith, Theron, Thalion, and Laine—all with maximum loyalty—received Rank SSS talents.

The remaining ten Rank SSS talents would go to his wives as soon as he returned to Goldenveil and made them honorary soldiers of the army.

Watching the gigantic pile of armor disintegrate into countless shards of light, Ethan let out a long sigh, his gaze drifting toward the endless system notifications piling up, waiting for him.

[Against all odds, you won a battle that seemed hopeless, ten thousand against seventy thousand enemies.

You have received:

500 common gacha tickets

50 premium gacha tickets

1x chance at a selected lottery

+1,500% XP]

[Thanks to your participation in this battle, you have received a special reward!

Calculating participation level....

Congratulations, you have received: Crown of Eternal Fertility (Rank SSS)]

[Name: Crown of Eternal Fertility

Description: It was created by a great empress of the past to resolve her kingdom’s terrible fertility crisis, blessed by the hands of the Goddess of Life herself.

It can be worn by a female monarch with the title of duchess or higher, applying nation-wide bonuses to the entire territory ruled by this duchess or her husband.

Effects: +150% average fertility, +250% appearance rate of Rank A or higher talents, +200% resistance for newborns, +200% health for children, +200% learning rate and fortitude for children. Fertile women have disease resistance and recovery rate increased by 300%.

Rank: SSS]

Looking at those numbers, Ethan couldn’t help but smile, slowly lifting his gaze from the floating screen.

He hadn’t been the only one rewarded.

Doran, Theron, every single soldier, and even the mages who had accompanied them received rewards fitting their achievements.

Amelia, who had practically single-handedly wiped out forty thousand men, earned an SSS-rank reward: a mana-amplifying artifact that would prove extremely useful to her.

Ethan could barely contain his joy for his mother, on top of his own.

His gains from that battle had been truly generous.

He couldn’t complain in the least.

Since that crown would eventually end up in Alice’s hands, Ethan simply tucked it away in his space ring, his eyes wandering to the status screen floating before him.

[Name: Ethan Goldenveil

Level: 120/120 (XP: 2%)

Available Rebirths: 2

Stage: 3 (Advancement quest available at level 120.)

Talent: Rank S

Noble Title: Lesser Duke. (Increase your prestige to upgrade your title)

Heroic Title: The Unparalleled Degenerate of Darkwall! (-3 prestige), Goblin Slayer! (+2 prestige, +30% fear among goblins.) +3

Prestige: 1,200/25,000

Aura: 31,430/50,000

Attributes.

Strength: 1,670

Agility: 1,551

Vitality: 1,673

Intelligence: 1,300

Charm: 2,000

Available attribute points: 0

Wives: 9

Concubines: 462

Monthly prestige gained from wives and concubines: 3,417]

For a moment, Ethan barely recognized his own status, a flicker of confusion crossing his face.

His attribute points shouldn’t be this high, and his monthly prestige gain had also risen slightly.

His mother and Ysara each granted him five hundred prestige points per month, Arwen contributed two hundred and fifty, and his other six wives—all at the third stage—now provided fifty each.

Amelia’s five disciples also chipped in one hundred prestige points apiece.

Beyond that, he had one hundred and fifty concubines from the Order of the Golden Rose, another two hundred from the Order of the Silver Wings, his mother’s one hundred mages, and six of his maids, besides Amelia, who was at the third stage as well.

Of these concubines, one hundred and fifty were at the third stage, each granting five prestige points, while the rest granted two apiece.

"Ah... this system is truly absurd," Ethan sighed.

He couldn’t wait to turn the new members of the Order of the Golden Rose and the new maids of his palace into concubines.