Chapter 960: Chapter 756: Setting Out for the Underworld
Luck always accompanies, as Lynn, with the City Guard, methodically accounted for the supplies sent from Long Saddle Town, good news also came from the Undead Tribe... they finally found an underground passage suitable for large troop movements.
The White Dragon Queen actually knew about this route for a long time, but she always tried to see if there were paths elsewhere... after all, this path is located under the lair of Arausato, known as the ’White Death’.
Before the Ancient White Dragon willingly moved to the Hidden Forest, Elvia Tulais did not want to anger her mate, although he definitely could not match the Teraxil Elves, and would eventually have to move reluctantly, Elvia Tulais still hoped to give her longtime shelter a dignified exit.
However, witnessing the increasingly irritable mood of the Teraxil Elves, who set off with some White Dragons to search the southwest corner of the World’s Ridge, Elvia Tulais was truly worried they would eventually find Arausato’s cliff.
Fortunately, after the first batch of contracted White Dragons received their first month’s reward from the Undead Tribe, Arausato finally had a change of heart: the Ancient White Dragon is not necessarily willing to contract with anyone, but he plans to follow the Mercury Dragon Tasding’s example, staying in the Hidden Forest and taking temporary hire tasks.
In Arausato’s view, he is worth more than that annoying Mercury Dragon!
Thus, without hesitation, he moved his possessions to a mountain peak by a large lake named ’Star Lake’ in the Hidden Forest, becoming neighbors with Hidden Town, albeit separated by kilometers.
After his move, the White Dragon Queen inquired about Arausato’s plans for the road: this path is usually White Death’s way of going underground to raid when he feels short on money.
But for White Dragons, who are not skilled at mining themselves, raiding the underground world is not that easy... even though Arausato is an Ancient Dragon, there are plenty of forces underground that could hurt him.
Moreover, even with Arausato exercising restraint, his presence discourages many weaker forces from moving here... making it increasingly difficult to raid.
Thus, Arausato easily gave up... having already taken on his first task, escorting a group of Teraxil Elves to greet the old Mist Dragon living on the Luskan coast, successfully securing a promise of his peaceful compliance.
Elvia Tulais could never undertake such a thing... that Mist Dragon Saraqute’s strength far exceeds hers, she would only provoke Saraqute by interfering.
However, Arausato was able to communicate with Saraqute... after all, they once cooperated during Dragon Madness: robbing the Arcane Brotherhood of Luskan while in a frenzy, and splitting the books in the Magic Tower according to needs with perfect coordination.
This mode of madness was quite peculiar too.
Thus, the task of communicating with the former partner yielded a rich reward, earning Arausato as much as 10,000 gold... this fellow is an Ancient Dragon after all, and as per William’s reward table designed for White Dragons, taking a task guarantees top-tier pay.
Therefore, ’White Death’ realized that even if the Teraxil Elves remained on Toril for a mere hundred and eighty years, he could earn enough to retire... as for the underground passage, does it matter to him?
No matter the underlying entanglements... when Hill delivered the underground resource map from the Haber Family to the Alchemy Hall, William had already begun calculating the best time to enter the underworld, especially since Master Fran had really developed a potent mana potion... this Alchemist Master understood the Undead Tribe deeply, realizing that restoring mana was far more crucial for them, who had many priests.
Regarding blood recovery potions, Fran had actually developed some slightly better than those from the Teraxil side, but he felt they wouldn’t apply to the Undead Tribe... replenishing an elemental body is entirely different from restoring a flesh body.
William then borrowed some nimble puppets from Hill, to place the small diamond-shaped crystal formed from the Temporal Artifact; although these avatars’ capabilities were scaled down, they could at least serve as task automatons for the Undead Tribe and be revived near them.
Receiving the information from Hill, William was overjoyed... he had been anxious that he couldn’t provide enough energy for the crystal stones sent for splitting from the Temporal Artifact!
The Mirabar Dwarves did offer him a lot of intelligence, yet they had been away from the underground for too long, recalling at most some distribution maps of minerals, and William was uncertain when the Undead Tribe would find those Dilo Dwarves below.
But now, with the data Hill provided, he could plan to arrange the revival points to save as much energy as possible... Coron had warned him it was best to wait three years before sending things into Toril.
Otherwise, AO might directly expel the Undead Tribe from this world.
Under such conditions, the Father of Elves found it unbelievable too... the Undead Tribe caused such a stir, yet AO showed no displeasure whatsoever!
Listening to Coron’s words, William considered elevating Edna’s importance even further.
When this girl turns 16, she’s likely to embark on the Path of Destiny... he specifically reminded the Undead Tribe not to meddle in Edna’s interpersonal relationships on Toril... they could offer advice, but must refrain from forcing her to adhere to the rules of the Undead World.
What if one of Edna’s friends someday turns out to be that Midnight Mistrala?
William thought maliciously: With Midnight’s style, how could anyone from the Undead Tribe possibly like her?
No matter the world, insisting on justice is certainly admirable, but when your sense of justice is off-kilter and you demand those around you to act in that skewed way, it’s off-putting...
"William." Hill interrupted his thoughts from the other side of the Temporal Artifact, "I need a screen in my study where I can see the progress of the Undead Tribe in the Underworld, preferably a big one."
He revealed a gentle smile: "In exchange, you don’t have to return those borrowed puppets to me."
Both of them knew well that the puppets sent underground had no chance of returning... it was just William feeling embarrassed to ask Hill if he could delay the payment, so he found this excuse.
The next time he has the opportunity to deliver goods, William will definitely turn this loan into a purchase.
But Hill felt it was meaningless; the puppets Fran gave him were enough for internal use in Agleya and the Otherworldly Whale, and those he gave to William were ordinary puppets he made in the past... After observing Fran’s finished products, Hill had already lost interest in that batch.
The only commendable aspect of his puppets was their robustness, which was why William valued them.
William thought for a moment and agreed readily, understanding from his relationship with Hill that such a trivial matter wasn’t worth Hill’s concern.
He had the Temporal Artifact produce a Crystal Casket: "This thing can connect to my giant screen... similar to the one from your past domain, but because the elemental content here in Toril is relatively weak, I’ve somewhat reduced the connector’s effect, so the projection screen can only expand up to two meters wide and three meters long."
Hill laughed: "To watch in the living room, that’s enough."
"As long as you’re satisfied." William replied softly, smiling slightly.
Their relationship seemed to have mended a bit, and Hill was willing to make requests of him again... Though he didn’t know what changed his friend’s mind, William wasn’t about to press for answers; it was a positive development.
When Lynn knew that the Undead were about to set off underground, his first reaction was to hastily arrange a large number of planting tasks... Although the spring breeze was still a bit chilly, plants in Hill’s domain always grew robustly.
Of course, the Undead tribe wouldn’t give up such a valuable task, spurring fast horses from Luskan and Hidden Town back to Agleya.
In Luskan, there was no way to expect the Undead to work. They couldn’t start spring farming there until at least a month later.
Laila could only recruit civilians to farm, even hiring those Mirabar Dwarves who had already allied with the Undead Tribe to open blacksmith shops and the like in Luskan.
However, Lynn felt Laila might prefer this... it seemed she really wanted to build an independent domain from scratch... Considering her twin sons might actually inherit that so-called City of Hope one day, with only a Magic Tower remaining amidst the ruins on the Supreme Wastes, Lynn could understand this lady’s plans.
Though it meant Luskan, a city like that, might rub against the grain with the other territories of Agleya in many ways, he also heard Hill mentioned that for cities like Luskan, which were strategically important and often caused issues, Hill wasn’t keen to meddle; otherwise, he wouldn’t have handed it directly to Laila, a follower of Mystra.
Having heard many past stories from Miliel, Lynn quite agreed with Hill’s approach. The Elves got involved too much before, which led to their current situation.
On the first day of the Toril people’s spring festival, the Undead Tribe queued up and scaled the World’s Ridge.
Hill sat in his study, surrounded by a group of Little Fairies, watching the Undead’s journey: Fran and Lynn only planned to take a look after the real fight started.
The spot where the Undead entered the towering mountains was an abandoned path across from the Hidden Forest, barely wide enough for five or six people abreast.
This path was quite close to Arausato’s former lair... the reason for its abandonment was evident.
But it conveniently prevented the Toril people from noticing their movements too early.
The mountain path was steep and cliff-ridden, and the snow on the World’s Ridge only melted fully in midsummer. Climbing the nearly 45-degree cliff leading to the White Dragon Lair caused many careless members of the Undead Tribe to fall, though for them it wasn’t fatal... Slipping might just mean rejoining the end of the queue to climb again.
The only downside was the battlefield reporters’ mocking cameras.