Half a month after contacting the dwarves, Li De returned to Dawn City.
The current date was already August 7th, Glory Era 3522.
The players had arrived for more than a month now, but the influence they had caused was much smaller than he had imagined.
After seeing the miserable gaming experiences of the players on the forum, he came to a realization.
The hardcore nature of Glory indeed exceeded most people's imagination. It was also the first time Li De realized how miserable life was at the bottom.
When he arrived in Glory, he had become the Vampire Progenitor. Moreover, this Progenitor identity was openly a Baron of the Nolan Empire, a disciple of the Grand Mage Spark, and he himself bore the title of genius mage.
This status was far above not only commoners but even most nobles.
Therefore, he had never experienced what life was like for the commoners at the bottom of Glory. From the moment he arrived, he lived the noble life that everyone dreamed of, not worrying about food or drink and wielding enormous power.
Only after thoroughly understanding the players' survival state did Li De finally comprehend why the commoners of Dawn City were so grateful to him.
Compared to the tragic experiences of those players, the residents of Dawn City were practically living lives not much different from nobles.
"Good day, Patriarch."
"Good day, Harrison. Any progress on the border?" Li De sat on the gray sofa in the office on the third floor of City Hall, his eyes blazing as he looked at Harrison sitting across from him.
It had been more than half a month since he heard the news of the mithril vein and deployed all his forces. Unfortunately, although his current method of searching for the mithril vein was slightly better than looking for a needle in a haystack, it was not by much.
The border area was too vast, and it was difficult to achieve results in a short time.
As expected, Harrison shook his head.
"Patriarch, although Odys has taken most of the Bloodline Descendants, it is still too difficult to find the dwarves who may be hiding in some inconspicuous mountain range in such a wide area.
We need time."
Li De nodded, a thoughtful gleam flashing in his eyes. "The dwarves still haven't opened their mouths?"
Harrison shook his head with a strange expression. The dwarves had been undergoing 'reform through labor' in the smithy all this time, but none of the three dwarves had yielded.
The dwarves' stubbornness gave Harrison a headache. He was helpless against these beings with special body structures and minds as hard as stone.
Beating them was useless because of their unique physical constitution. Dwarves had extremely high resistance to pain. If a normal human's response to pain was 100, a dwarf's would only be about 10, so torture was completely ineffective against these stubborn beings.
As for using magic, dwarves, as the children of the earth, were extremely slow to react to magic.
Dwarves were one of the rare races in Glory that had no innate spellcasting abilities. Even lowly races like kobolds and ratmen had spellcasters, but not a single spellcaster could be found among the entire dwarf race.
It was as if magic simply did not exist for them. The most direct manifestation of their dullness to magic was their inability to cast spells, but at the same time, they possessed extremely high resistance to mental and soul-based spells. Ordinary soul spells had no effect on them at all.
So beating them didn’t work, using magic didn’t work, and combined with the dwarves’ headache-inducing stubbornness, Harrison was completely at a loss as to how to deal with these dwarves.
"Don't place your hopes on the dwarves.
We need to keep the initiative in our own hands."
Li De shook his head and spoke calmly. He was never one to passively wait; the issue of the dwarves not talking had to be pushed forward.
The value of the mithril vein was enough for him to make some investments.
Searching for the vein was like a venture capital investment. Although one had to pay an upfront cost and bear risks, once successful, the high returns were enough to make anyone envious.
"Besides, even if the dwarves really agreed to cooperate with us, it might not necessarily be a good thing," Li De's eyes were deep as he spoke meaningfully.
"Mithril veins are extremely precious, but what's valuable in the dwarven clan is not just the mithril vein.
Harrison, do you understand what I mean?"
Harrison was slightly stunned upon hearing this, then his face revealed a look of realization.
"You mean, the dwarves themselves?"
Li De smiled faintly without clarifying, instead switching topics.
"Have Odys remain cautious on the border. Although there are still a few months until the Months of Deep Winter, the Barren Plains are not a peaceful place.
The Beastmen remain a huge threat."
Harrison nodded knowingly. "Odys has been at the border for a long time now. I believe he will return safely.
It’s just, the matter of the mithril vein..."
Li De waved his hand. "This matter is not as urgent as you think." After speaking, he paused, a playful look appearing on his face.
"Do the dwarves’ actions now strike you as those of a clan that has suffered a devastating blow?"
Hmm?
Hearing this, Harrison was slightly stunned. Then, recalling his subordinates' reports on the dwarves’ recent behavior, he decisively shook his head.
"No, although the dwarves are angry, they don’t seem to be overly anxious about it."
"Exactly," Li De picked up the gilded glass teacup on the log table in front of him and took a sip of black tea to moisten his throat.
A sharp gleam appeared in his pitch-black eyes.