Chapter 622 – The Sorceress’s Advance Notice

On this day, news of Fireworks Witch Lady Anita’s fall had just spread widely among the spellcasters of the Continent of Valen.

The Angels of Heaven’s Peak continued to watch the turbulent undercurrents of Valen with cold indifference.

On Delicacy Island, Krotack had just used the news of Anita’s fall to “pressure” a Culinary Witch eager to leave into placing her exclusive recipes on the Scales of Knowledge for weighing.

The Demons, who coveted witches’ souls, were secretly fanning the flames everywhere, stoking the fires and inciting members of other races to move against the witches.

The mages summoned by contract by the old noble mages of the Mage Empire were on their way to reinforce the southern border of the Duchy of Lance.

The new commander of the Border Mage Corps, Beyond Peak level mage Yurius, was drafting a formal indictment accusing witches of stealing mages’ magical knowledge.

The Acolytes and Paladin legions of the Yala Empire had finished assembling and were marching south along the River of Origin.

Commoner mages quietly worried for the Dawn Society and the witches.

Adventurers in the taverns of the Land of Chaos were discussing the various high-bounty wanted notices on witches.

The BeastmanProphet had finally discovered that the prophecies in his notes had been leaked.

Goblin merchants counted the gold coins earned from selling information, their eyes gleaming with golden light.

The Dwarves were working overtime to rush-produce the Alchemy bombs ordered by the Iron Stone Monster ranch owners.

The Elves quietly sent messages of concern and inquiry to the witches they knew…

And the witches at the center of the vortex were either on the road, packing up and secretly returning to the Wilds, or already in the Wilds preparing for war.

The giant trolls, with the feeding and assistance of the Blue Witches, had moved their homes to the waters south and east of the Wilds.

The Necromancer Witches led all the undead creatures under their command into the Black Forest.

The Green Witches inspected the devastatingly powerful magical plants they had deployed along the border of the Wilds.

Combat-capable witches had spontaneously formed patrol squads and were patrolling the borders…

Just when all intelligent beings in Valen—including the witches themselves—believed that the Witch’s Wilds and the witch race would plummet in status after losing the protection of Fireworks Witch Lady Anita, and might even descend into prolonged turmoil, on this evening, at an utterly unremarkable hour, every single Dawn Society member across all of Valen received a card.

{Advance Notice: Friendliness Reward and Punishment System 1.0 Going Live}

When they read the card’s name, everyone was bewildered.

After the card fell into their hands, it transformed into a sheet of deep purple stationery.

“To all members of the Society,

For the stable development of the Dawn Society and for internal harmony within the Dawn Society, we have decided to introduce a new feature: ‘Friendliness Reward and Punishment System 1.0.’

In one hour, the Dawn Society’s Card Magic will undergo an upgrade. Once the upgrade is complete, the ‘Friendliness Reward and Punishment System 1.0’ will go live.

Below is a detailed explanation of the core rules of the ‘Friendliness Reward and Punishment System 1.0’:”

“1. The lives and freedom of Dawn Society members are inviolable. Any act of unjustly harming a member’s life or restricting a member’s personal freedom will result in a large deduction of friendliness points.”

“2. The Dawn Society belongs to the witches. All unfriendly actions targeting individual witches or the witch community will result in additional friendliness point deductions. Friendly actions toward individual witches or the witch community will be rewarded with additional friendliness points.”

“3. The Dawn Society encourages fair and friendly sparring challenges between members. Challenges that do not involve higher ranks bullying lower ranks, do not involve outnumbering the opponent, do not involve malicious ambushes, do not involve exploiting vulnerability, do not endanger the opponent’s life, and do not restrict the opponent’s personal freedom may be classified as friendly sparring and will not incur friendliness point deductions. Friendly sparring conducted with a witch’s approval may even earn additional friendliness point rewards.”

“4. The maximum friendliness value is ‘+100’ and the minimum is ‘-100.’ The higher your friendliness, the greater the card purchase discounts and permissions you enjoy. When friendliness reaches maximum, you unlock the Witch Special Edition Card Shop, enjoying the same discounts and card resources as witches. When friendliness is reduced to the minimum, the member and their direct family members will be stripped of Dawn Society membership, permanently barred from rejoining the Dawn Society, and prohibited from using cards and Card Magic.”

“5. Friendliness is divided into individual friendliness and collective friendliness. Collective friendliness only calculates friendliness related to witches—racial friendliness and national friendliness both fall under collective friendliness. Groups with high collective friendliness will enjoy additional friendliness bonuses and card purchase discounts for all members. Groups with low collective friendliness may also face higher card usage costs.”

“…”

“Finally, the right to final interpretation of the ‘Friendliness Reward and Punishment System 1.0’ belongs to the Dawn Society and the witches.”

“Attached: 《Detailed Friendliness Reward and Punishment Rules and Examples》”

“— Master of the Dawn Society, Card Sorceress Moira”

When the Society members read the first core rule, they assumed it had been established to prevent internal conflicts from causing losses.

After all, everyone now knew that only magical energy could be exchanged for Gem Coins, only Gem Coins could purchase cards, and the Dawn Society certainly needed that magical energy too—and magical energy came from living spellcasters.

When they read the second rule, many understood: this was the Dawn Society’s response to the recent actions of all parties.

Every member of the Dawn Society had seen that name written in Witch Script when they signed their contracts and knew that the Dawn Society had deep ties to the witches. Given how fiercely witches protected their companions and their race, they would never stand by and watch the witches fall into danger. It wasn’t surprising that they were stepping forward now.

What no one had expected was that the Dawn Society would roll out such a baffling friendliness feature.

Some were puzzled, some sneered—but when they saw that friendliness levels would affect card purchase prices and permissions, the puzzled ones understood the function’s purpose, while those who had sneered could no longer laugh.

Having enjoyed the conveniences that cards brought and the more easily obtained magical resources, no one could endure going back to days without cards—especially days when everyone else could use cards but they couldn’t.

Even the old noble families of the Mage Empire and the Yala Empire who controlled vast resources felt the same.

Even they did not command limitless resources, and the Dawn Society’s Card Shop had things they needed and couldn’t do without.

If the day came when they could no longer use cards, their advantages would vanish entirely—no different from being abandoned by the mainstream spellcaster community.

No one doubted whether the Dawn Society could revoke cards at will, because this letter was written in the common language that all spellcasters were required to learn, and every single person understood that final signature.

Master of the Dawn Society, Card Sorceress Moira!

A new Sorceress had been born among the witch race!

Since she was the Card Sorceress, the origin of the Dawn Society’s wondrous magic cards was now glaringly obvious.

A Sorceress’s mastery over her own Manifested Gift was something even children who had only just heard tales of Sorceresses understood clearly!

That was the power of rules—a power of rules that belonged to a Sorceress alone.