Having a powerful lord as a father figure, what's wrong with just wanting to draw cards?

He watched as golden light gathered around him, his gaze fixed blankly on the ground, a self-deprecating bitter smile playing on his lips.

"We still lost..."

Then his entire body slowly turned into sand, becoming a handful of golden sand, just like in the desert. Father Edwin was no more...

The nameless 'administrator,' who was the instigator of everything, met the same fate.

However, Tori tells Domi that this is not his physical body; he is just a soul. His physical body has long since died, and now they are only killing his soul as well.

“Little bastard from the Brofell family, there’s nothing left in this ruin, but there’s a place connected to it by a teleportation array.” Tor drew a simple map in the sand for Domi to see.

"If you feel dissatisfied, perhaps you can try your luck there."

"Oh, by the way, this is for you."

A ray of golden light separated from the hanging sun and entered Domi's body. He felt no discomfort at all, only a warm and comfortable feeling all over his body.

"A blessing bestowed upon my best friend in the Xisha Empire. You are welcome to visit my country in the future."

[An unknown blessing has been discovered. Will you accept it?]

"Take it."

[The basic three-dimensional attributes have changed.]

【力量：60.92→70.92，敏捷：64.74→74.74，精神力：60→70】

Domi was stunned. This gift was just too damn generous!

Seeing Domi's surprised expression, Toll, hidden behind the pigeon mask, smiled slightly, seemingly quite satisfied.

"If you ever meet Iris, she will recognize you by this blessing. I hope you can tell her everything she wants to know. Of course, if you don't meet her, then just pretend I didn't say anything."

Domi agreed, after all, he had received a considerable benefit from them.

"very good."

After sending everyone back to the ground, the public display of divine intervention ended, the Sun King fell back into sleep, and Toll went back to the room. However, due to excessive exertion, he seemed to have put a strain on his body and fell into a coma as well.

Meanwhile, the system kept sending notifications, and the crisp sound always brought a sense of joy:

[Achieved D-Rank Milestone - Ruins of Despair.]

Nobody knows why you seem to stumble upon ruins everywhere you go, and why you manage to destroy them every time... Anyway, let's hope the other ruins are spared your wrath.

[D-Rank Milestone Reward: 10 Villain Points/Year, settled at 00:00 on the last day of the year]

[Duration: Until the day you have not damaged the ruins for a full year.]

[Achieved C-Rank Milestone - The Last Surviving Magical Ruins]

[In ancient times, countless years ago, there once lived a legendary magician who was dedicated to leading the suffering people of the North to a beautiful new world filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers. This ruin was his testing ground. To this end, he poured countless magical powers into experimenting with various scenarios, all in order to usher in that day of harvest...]

[C-level Milestone Reward: 50 Villain Points/Year, settled at 00:00 on the last day of the year]

[Achieved a B-rank milestone – Rise of the Empire!]

[With your help, the Sun King unleashed his power ahead of schedule. Like a butterfly flapping its wings, you witnessed the second sun rising into the sky.]

That was the clarion call of empire's rise! That was the starting gun of the magnificent engine of history! On the long scroll of human history, a brand new and splendid chapter will be written in golden ink!

[Level B Milestones Reward: Blank Template x1]

[100w villain points/year, settled at 00:00 on the last day of the year]

[Currently, through major events rewards, the annual income from villain points is 260 million.]

Looking up at the extra sun in the sky, coupled with three major events in a row, Domi felt that it was all a bit too magical.

I initially thought the Sun King was just trying to show off with a big move, but it turns out that the big move was secondary; his main goal was actually to hang another sun in the sky?! Wow...

As a shrewd and calculating king, Domi knew that this guy would never speak without reason, and that this sun must have some other unknown purpose.

However, this is beyond what Domi can understand at present. Let's just hope that we won't encounter such a terrifying opponent in the future.

Rather than thinking about the future, it's more important to run away now. With the ruins destroyed, they, as the only survivors, will definitely be brought into the public eye, and their chances of survival will be slim.

So we need to slip away now!

Justin, Harlan, and the three from the long-range turret bid farewell to Domi and his group, and then went their separate ways. Domi and his group also had their own destination; he planned to go to the place that Tor had pointed out to him to see if there was anything there.

After a series of life-or-death adventures, we came away empty-handed; it was a huge loss...

However, that might not be entirely accurate, since the extra 160 million villain points each year still made him very happy.

Isn't villain value more useful than any treasure?

So, his main purpose in making this trip was to seek benefits for the team members who had been working so hard for so many days. After all, he was a generous, kind, lovable, and caring captain who always had his team members in his heart.

"The Adventurers' Guild should give me a Best Captain award..."

Chapter 148, Section 147: The Value of a Legendary Mage's Life

Upon arriving at the location indicated by the Sun King, they discovered it was merely a clearing in a forest.

Above the exact coordinates is a rotten and hollow wooden stake, which doesn't look like the administrator's secret hut at all, but more like the home of various cold-resistant fungi.

Domi's memory is so good that he couldn't possibly be wrong; if it's here, then it must be here.

“The coordinates are correct; it’s either up there or underground,” Domi said confidently.

Everyone looked up at the sky and saw a clear blue sky with a few birds flying by. Since the second sunrise, the weather in the North had improved considerably, and the temperature had only risen slightly, not enough to cause the sea level to rise...

Aphrodite shrugged: "It doesn't look like it's in the sky."

"It's definitely underground!" Domi stomped his boots on the snow. "Let's dig, everyone, just dig straight down."

As he spoke, he molded four shovels out of slime gel, giving one each to Tori, Tower Shield, and Swordsman, and keeping the last one for himself.

Then he said to Forty-Seven and Afu, "You two should patrol the area with it and try to keep strangers away."

"clear."

"I see."

"..."

The four of them grabbed slime shovels and started digging at their feet.

It has to be said that the blessing bestowed upon him by the Sun King was truly effective!

With a direct increase of ten points in strength, I'm incredibly energetic when I work, and I don't get tired at all!

Besides him, Tor was also a muscular hunk, digging like a donkey in a production team, incredibly strong. Tower Shield Bro and Swordsman Bro were mainly known for their hard work and dedication; compared to the first two, they were less efficient, but very consistent.

Through their tireless efforts, when the pit reached a depth of about three meters, Domi's shovel finally touched something hard besides soil, and he was overjoyed.

Then he realized that since the administrator traveled between the ruins and the secret chamber via teleportation and his physical body was dead, the secret chamber probably wouldn't have a door or ventilation shaft, and he would have to dig a hole by force to get in.

The secret room didn't seem particularly valuable; the walls were made of ordinary stone, and a hole large enough for one person to pass through was easily carved out.

Just to be on the safe side, the swordsman went down to scout ahead first. After confirming there was no danger, Domi also went inside. Since the secret room was not large, the others stayed outside and waited for good news.

The room was dark, but Domi had night vision.

Once the view cleared, it became clear that the secret room was quite clean, at least there was no dust accumulation. The furniture inside was very simple: a desk, a chair, and a bookshelf next to it. There wasn't a single finished book; instead, there were rows and rows of parchment documents with rough edges.

The things on the desk were even simpler: a diary, an ink bottle, a quill pen, and an oil lamp.

Based on this environment, Domi could pretty much conclude that this wasn't a place to hide treasure, but rather a private hut belonging solely to the administrator, since he had even openly placed his most private notebook here.

The floor behind the chair was engraved with a teleportation array. This was all the furnishings in the secret room—simple and unrefined.

Domi was greatly disappointed, but adhering to the belief that a thief should not leave empty-handed, he decided to carefully study the information left by the administrator.

However, time was limited, so he first stuffed the diary into his pocket. The slime clothes had a pocket inside the lining, which was very convenient; even a book could be easily placed inside.

Then he placed all the documents from the bookshelf on the table, sat down in the chair, and began to scan them one by one.

The ability to read ten lines at a glance and the ability to remember everything played a significant role at this moment.

"The 4,481st environmental simulation experiment: This time, the simulation is of desert terrain, based on the western desert of the continent. High-temperature light magic is used to simulate the sun. The temperature difference between day and night in the desert is extremely large, so ice magic is used to create low temperatures at night... Oh right, the remnants of the Xisha Empire that we kidnapped last time can be put here as guinea pigs."

"Experiment result: Failure. The magic power consumed by relying on high-heat light magic and high-intensity ice magic is too much to sustain."

"The 4,482nd environmental simulation experiment: This time, we simulated highly mobile terrain to enable rapid disease isolation, fire isolation, and other measures..."

"Experimental result: Failure, randomness could not be controlled."

"The 4,483rd environmental simulation experiment: simulating thunderstorms and windy weather for the sake of residents' mental health..."

"Experiment result: Failure, excessive magic consumption."

"The 4,484th environmental simulation experiment... I seem to have overlooked something... The facility's magic reserves are depleted, the treasure is exhausted, it can no longer continue simulating, nor can it continue to attract outsiders to conduct experiments, it's pointless..."

This facility, in the end, failed to bring the people of the North to a perfect world. I poured all the time and energy of a legendary mage into it, but... there was still no reward.

What does my life really amount to?

As Domi writes this, he can almost see the administrator's mood gradually becoming irritable and his rationality on the verge of collapse, most obviously manifested in his handwriting, which went from delicate to messy.

Every stroke, every line, is so frantic, just like his heart.

"Anyone who toils for hundreds or thousands of years without any reward would go crazy."

Domi is starting to feel sorry for this guy now, after all, his intentions were incredibly kind and upright, and he really paid a huge price for it.

"That's fine, let's leave it at that... I'm really tired."

At the end of this last document, he left this sentence.

How desperate and heartbroken that must have been.

Domi organized the documents and then took them out of the secret room. These documents might let the whole of the Northern Kingdom know that there was once a legendary mage who spent nearly a thousand years researching underground for the sake of everyone's livelihood, and even abandoned his physical body.

When he came out, Tori and Afu surrounded him to ask what had happened, and even Forty-Seven pricked up his ears, wanting to know what was going on inside.

"It was just a secret room with a table, chairs, and a bookshelf. There was nothing else besides these documents."

Everyone was disappointed upon hearing this, as they had thought there was a final treasure hidden inside, but this was the result they had expected.

"Hey~ let's call it a day."

"Even adventurers on horseback or oxen get some pay, how come he won't even give them a severance package..."