The second part of the reward is privileges.
The privileges of being a "Navy New Star" are quite nurous, such as priority in receiving supplies, priority in selecting reserve crew mbers, and participating in specific alliance celebrations, among others.
But what Aiven values most is the "free passage right within alliance ports"!
As a rare flag among the six nations of the alliance.
Aiven and his battleship can unconditionally enjoy the right to freely co and go among the ports of various ho countries, including their overseas colonies, only requiring post-reporting, with no need for any application procedures.
Also enjoying the sa treatnt as their own battleship level.
In other words, in the future, Aiven can freely move in and out within the alliance!
Although this privilege seems inconspicuous and rely convenient, the biggest advantage is one that everyone knows but would never openly acknowledge—the smuggling of battleships!
In fact, smuggling with battleships has long since beco nothing new. The highly profitable smuggling activities are a big piece of at that both civilian rchants and the navy want a bite of.
Regarding this situation, the Navy Departnt mostly turns a blind eye, considering it as a welfare for the navy.
As long as it does not affect combat, it usually does not interfere excessively.
That was just as an ordinary national captain, but how much profit could the "Storm Horn" with free passage rights in the alliance and its colonies make?
It's simply imasurable!
Just by being a bit industrious, making more profit than the shares from the copper mine is a cinch!
The third part is the highlight of the reward, the treasure promised by the Ilya Kingdom.
In fact, the treasure list announced at the ti was almost entirely filled with treasures at the "Ocean Treasure" level. For the wealthy Ilya Royal Family, producing several treasures of not high level and supre extraordinary weapons was a piece of cake.
However, facing those treasures with various abilities, such as the extraordinary weapon 'Bloody Lake Light' that can greatly enhance the strength of knights! For battleships, it can serve as a trump card thod, the "Ocean Treasure: Cassaray Bronze Cannon" Bomb Cyclone with unparalleled power!...
Aiven still resolutely chose this "Golden Compass" that seems to have little use!
Many people on the sea know that the "Golden Compass" is neither an Ocean Treasure nor a Witchcraft Creature, but a Divine Gift from the legendary "Golden Kingdom".
Over hundreds of years, the total number of "Golden Compasses" known to be obtained by adventurers and various forces worldwide does not exceed 12.
Its only function is that, no matter how severe the conditions at sea, it can guide the ship it possesses out of the most feasible path of survival!
Compared to many Ocean Treasures with magical abilities, this mysterious passive ability is so small that it almost lacks any presence, but it is a treasure in the hands of adventurers who dare to explore the unknown world.
On the surface, its ability seems sowhat similar to Milan's prophecy, but it possesses an advantage absent in the prophecy witchcraft.
That is the "absolute nature" from a mysticism perspective!
What is absolute nature?
Unconditional, unrestricted. As opposed to divination art, which often needs interpretation and speculation and is linked with probabilities.
To give an example:
A deeply draughted rchant ship loaded with valuable goods is being relentlessly pursued by a vicious pirate ship, with a perilous sea area full of hidden reefs ahead.
As long as they can safely pass through here, they can escape from the fate of death.
If they have a "Golden Compass," this treasure would use the escape from death as an anchor point, map out a route, guiding the rchant ship through an absolutely safe waterway.
Of course, during this process, the compass won't give you any lucky boosts or assistance; whether you can survive this definitively safe path depends on your own skills.
If replaced with divination art, it might generate multiple guides due to the purpose of survival.
For example: altering course by 12 compass points, continuous navigation with a certain probability might encounter an unexpected lifeline; surrendering to pirates, those under the protection of the Capricorn can save their lives; if crossing this water area, one certain route might have the highest chance of evading danger.
Of course, there's also the highest possibility: there's no hope, prepare for death, good bye.
The gap between these is evident at a glance.
However, although it has absolute nature, the "Golden Compass" is not almighty.
Even if it is a Divine Gift, possessing miraculous power, it is still just a compass and not the deity itself possessing infinite divine power.
If you are surrounded by large groups of sea monsters, it might give you a vertical upwards guidance.
Whether you possess the ability to ascend is not within its consideration...
But, the capability of the "Golden Compass" is not the reason Aiven chose it.
Even if he never talks about it, he always has a dream of exploring the sea and the world's mysteries. But rather than relying on a "compass" to guide the path of survival, he believes more in his own strength!
Snap——
Taking the golden compass from a finely crafted walnut box, about the size of a pocket watch, it showed no signs of wear and tear thanks to the traits of the divine gift, appearing brand new.
Opening the golden cover adorned with patterns resembling a cosmic star map, beneath the smooth crystal surface were scales and letter markings similar to a regular compass.
In the center was a magnetic needle shaped like an arrow, half red and half gold; on land and in situations free of peril, it was just an ordinary compass.
Clearly, the secret of the "Golden Compass" was not found here.
Aiven closed the cover and turned the compass over to see that the bottom bore an imprint of part of a golden city-state.
It is said that the golden city-states on the back of each "Golden Compass" are different, scholars, with very limited information, speculate that this might be part of the legendary divine dwelling "Golden Kingdom."
But if asked which deity it belongs to, no one could say.
Within.
So magical stories about the "Golden Compass" are widely spread, but so secrets are only known among its owners and inheritors!
The seemingly tight and integral structure of its base hides wonders inside.
This is a secret known to very few; fortunately, Aiven's unique spiritual power activation led to a comprehensive recovery of childhood mories, or he might not have rembered.
Aiven pressed his thumb hard on the bottom cover, slightly sinking down so subtly, and first rotated it half a circle clockwise, released, then rotated a full circle counterclockwise.
Click—
The bottom cover, which appeared to be a part of the compass, had already automatically sprung open.
Inside was a complex chanical structure different from ordinary marine compasses, with intricate gears, springs, gemstones, complex tiny spells, whose ticulousness is an unimaginable mystery and chanical beauty of this era.
Aiven's attention was not here, but on the side of the inner shell, there were small writings in unknown green pignt "Sea Origin Calendar 12 Year, Galliot."
"Ha, it's really it!"
Finally confirming the initial guess, Aiven once again thankful for choosing the path of the Navy, allowing this family heirloom treasure to be recovered.
If at first, he had chosen to beco a pirate, not to ntion regular official knights, even a tier 3 Great Knight powerhouse like his sister wouldn't possibly have snatched this "Golden Compass" out of the kingdom's treasury.
After a brief mont of joy, Aiven's emotions grew complicated.
Joy of recovery, nostalgia from seeing the object, lant of changed circumstances... ultimately, his heart held a mix of emotions.
After a long while, he collected his emotions and reassembled the bottom cover.
Aiven gently caressed the "Golden Compass," secretly passed down for nearly two hundred years among the patriarch and inheritor, its tales resurface in his heart.
In the stories handed down by the Galliot clan.
Their ancestor Galliot was an unknown, disheartened commoner explorer (there's a distinction between a captain, shipowner, sponsor, and a cash-strapped commoner could still be an explorer).
During one occasion while drinking in a tavern, he unexpectedly t a mysterious figure claiming to co from across the sea.
Although near-sea shipping had been very well developed by then, with ships having undergone several revolutionary upgrades.
But it was in the Year 1 of the Sea Origin Calendar that deep-sea exploration truly began, marked by the Hilus Kingdom first "conquering" Treasure Sea and discovering the Southern Continent.
So at that ti, young Galliot instinctively thought the mysterious person was from the Southern Continent across Treasure Sea.
As they drank, the mysterious guest from afar heard the explorer's words laden with distress and generously proposed a transaction.
The mysterious man's offer was the "Golden Compass," while the price Galliot was to pay wasn't money, life, soul, or anything of the sort, but rather a heart of "cowardice and comfort."
However, Galliot didn't take this perplexing price to heart.
Aspired to beco a great adventurer, Galliot believed he had long been rid of such useless things since setting out to sea and wondered if such ethereal emotions could even be used as bargaining chips.
At that ti, with an extraordinary level still too low, Galliot didn't think much and agreed without hesitation to what appeared to be a very advantageous deal.
The subsequent developnt was just as he wished.
The "Golden Compass" aided Galliot in successfully exploring the optimal route through Treasure Sea!
And the Galliot family thereby received a grant from the Ilya Royal Family, swiftly ascending into a true hereditary baronial family with forty Knight's Domains.
It wasn't until much later, with increased status and extraordinary level, already a baron, that Galliot learned the "Golden Compass" was a legendary divine gift from the "Golden Kingdom."
As for where the "Golden Kingdom" was, their purpose in sending these "Golden Compasses," and who else possesses such a compass, no one could say clearly.
Nearly two hundred years passed swiftly.
The Galliot family's "Compass" was lost during the night of blood and fire in Black Stone Town and only today was it returned to Aiven of the Galliot lineage.
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