Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 385: Chapter 184: A Man is No Match for a Leopard, What Can One Do?

Hill looked at the pipes, arranged either horizontally or vertically, silently calculating in his mind as he sketched a rough blueprint.

This castle didn’t require many water pipes since they were likely to use water crystals for water production, but it seemed they had opted not to use a magic array for instant disposal of waste. Instead, they had constructed a sewer system.

It was probably because too many fire element arrays could be dangerous.

Adrian approached the construction of these ice pipelines with great caution.

There must be some special reason for this.

Continuing his observation through the window, Hill finally noticed that the ice walls Adrian had constructed were double-layered, with a hollow ring in the middle.

Upon discovering this, he took a closer look at the ice net, whose strands of ice, though not very thick, were also hollow tubes.

Had Fran invented some special material?

Then, he quickly noticed that both the ice rings and the ice net connected to the cliffs on either side.

The ice rings extended from top to bottom, essentially encompassing the entire subterranean space.

The interlocking ice pipes also connected to passageways on the cliffs, extending almost five thousand meters out before directly connecting underground.

Hill extended his spiritual power slowly and discovered that the area had been constructed into an underground culvert.

Inside the culvert, several magic arrays had already been inscribed.

Hill sensed them—combinations of fire and space element arrays, likely of intermediate level.

This must have been crafted by the Undead Tribe; otherwise, such a lengthy culvert couldn’t have been built so quickly.

Anything entering the culvert would first be shredded by the spatial arrays on the walls before falling below to be incinerated by flames.

This provided an expansion space of 5000 meters for the outer city.

As an ancillary structure to the castle, five thousand meters was the limit.

After all, Central City already covered a vast area.

Hill looked down at this castle that occupied ten square kilometers; as a city, it was small,

but as a singular massive castle, including a kilometer-deep underground space, it was unimaginably huge.

Even in a fantasy world, it was hard to imagine the immense resources this would consume.

Fran taking over the construction of this city didn’t surprise Hill at all.

Even for a legendary alchemist, such lavish resource expenditure was rare.

Hill didn’t know what others thought, but he could hear Adrian’s murmurings.

The underground was just the framework completed, and he was already grumbling about a loss of a Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower in Adrian’s mouth would, at the very least, be of a mage level.

Soon, the cavern was completely sealed, leaving only a central passage of 1,000 square meters.

Fran swiftly flew over from the Magic Tower, holding a shell box in his hand.

His speed was extreme. As soon as he opened the shell box, a silver dragon gleaming with golden light burst forth, instantly transforming into countless streams of water that surged into the pipes.

Fran looked extremely serious and moved swiftly.

In nearly a minute, he had filled all the water pipes and water nets.

Though Fran remained composed, Hill could feel that his spiritual power had nearly been depleted by half.

Hill brought his Cloud House next to Fran and loudly invited his grandfather aboard, ”Grandfather, what material is this?”

Fran smiled faintly, took a glance at the table and chairs Hill had specifically placed on the lawn at the bow, and walked over to sit down.

”Adrian, you take care of the rest,” Fran said.

After instructing Adrian, Hill took the Cloud House towards the Forest Array again.

Fran, sipping the juice Hill had prepared, relaxed his spirit a bit.

He then watched as Hill stood at the bow and used Nature’s Blessing once again, followed by his routine of the Forest Array, starting from the Water Mist to the Water of Tranquility.

Fran silently felt the Mana and spiritual power slowly recovering in his body and smiled faintly.

Hill looked down at the joyously bouncing Alice, who had again used her Power of the Sun, and sighed helplessly.

The Captain of the Guard was almost cheering as he jumped up, holding a grilled fish in his hand, attempting to feed it to Alice perched on a branch,

but was kicked away by Merkel emerging from behind a tree.

Hill would not stop Alice; as a Spirit of Nature, she contributed to this world, and the rewards would be substantial.

Alice might appear young, but she was actually several centuries old.

As long as a Spirit of Nature does not advance, it retains a childlike nature, and she was particularly indolent.

So, she was still in the form of a small kitten when she met Hill,

though after following Hill, she had advanced quite quickly and was now a legendary cat.

But if Hill had taken her with him during those few trips he made outside, Alice might have advanced even faster.

Hill couldn’t bear it; taking a few risks himself was one thing, but if anything happened to Alice, he’d probably collapse.

If it weren’t for Merkel, with Hill’s doting nature, Alice would hardly have become legendary.

Hill might talk tough, but when it came to making Alice sit still without moving, he knew it would be a struggle.

Alice was too good at acting aggrieved and cute.

Technical straight men simply couldn’t control themselves.

This opportunity was rare, and Hill had become legendary, thinking he could keep this cat before daring to bring her out.

And he had to be extremely careful about it.

Only when William returned did he dare to let her go outside.

In reality, there were many Spirits of Nature which advanced so quickly, but none had become Deities because they were too lucky, their leveling up too fast, which meant more were ill-intentioned towards them.

The more they did for the world, the higher their luck was, and only then could they really avoid problems.

Eliminating Dwarves was currently the most coveted action by the World Will; even a small contribution would bring joyful rewards.

Hill allowed Fran to also bathe in the golden rain of light.

Fran took out two shells for him, ”These are new materials I’ve made, His Majesty the King offered many interesting suggestions, but I don’t think they were his own ideas.”

Hill understood that this was the research outcome of that big shot from The River of Time and Space, with some messages brought by William.

Fran, feeling a kindred spirit with the God of Time and Space, said, ”Although many cannot be realized on the ground, they are crystallizations of Divine Power. As long as they are usable ideas, they are particularly practical. It’s a pity that he is too busy to delve into research.”

Hill smiled and poured another cup of juice for Fran.

This was made from the fruits given by high-level magical plants in his valley, very good for the recovery of spiritual power.

”When you use it, open it and after one minute of contact with the air, this material will become solid,” Fran said with a slight smile. ”His Majesty the King’s space cutting takes an hour to sever it. It’s not only because it’s sturdy but also because its toughness is strong, and its conductivity is very good.

When one place is damaged, it dissipates the force along the entire line.”

The shortest line Fran had just made was probably also 5000 meters long.

”It’s just too consuming,” Hill thought for a while, ”Why didn’t grandfather make it in two parts?”

”I want to try too,” Fran slightly closed his eyes. ”If possible, I’d like to use this material to strengthen the Magic Tower you gave me. This material can also be mixed with other things.

His Majesty the King gave me a Golden Light Cluster plucked from the Sunflower, and I’m thinking of mixing it in, which then lends it Evil-Banishing properties and can purify automatically. Hill, you have really helped me a lot.”

Hill didn’t feel much; he had long known what Sunflowers could do.

He was very willing to do something for this world, especially such small matters.

Hill only leaned forward to ask, ”Is grandfather very tired? Does he want to go sleep? My Cloud House has very good hypnotic effects.”

”A bit tired,” Fran stated simply. ”This is the first time I’ve used spiritual power like this since becoming legendary, splitting it into too many parts at once, it’s a bit damaging.”

Hill nodded and stood up to lead Fran to the second-floor attic of his Cloud House.

Though it was an attic, it was also a separate space, with a bathroom and a study fully equipped.

Hill had never expected guests, but he had also prepared a guest room.

Alice and Merkel preferred to sleep in the meditation Quiet Room below him.

But because no one had slept there continuously, Windmill Jasmine and Lily of the Valley had almost taken over every corner outside the attic.

Very suitable for inducing sleep.

Although Hill didn’t know why Fran didn’t want to return to the Magic Tower, he was very willing to take care of his grandfather.

Fran’s eyes were smiling as he watched Hill bustling around to serve him.

Then he happily lay down and quickly fell into deep sleep.

Hill gently closed the door leading to the attic, casually pulled a branch of Windmill Jasmine, and sealed the pathway leading up.

If Alice saw it, she would know someone was there and definitely wouldn’t go up to play.

But, was there an outsider now in Fran’s Magic Tower?

Or was it someone he had to entertain as soon as he returned?

Hill called Alice and Merkel back and asked them to stay on the Cloud House first.

Then he quietly raised the Cloud House above the clouds and silently activated the formation that hid the Cloud House.

Although he didn’t understand Illusion Magic, Hill still knew how to hide his house.

But this method made it very easy for people to feel it was out of place, so understanding how clouds appeared, he wrapped his Cloud House in layers of white clouds.

”What happened?” Merkel, sitting beside Hill, watched Alice play with tearing the clouds.

”Grandfather is a bit tired, but in his Magic Tower, there seems to be some unwelcome guests.” Hill said impassively — he thought the reason Fran planned to modify his Magic Tower was also because he had entertained some displeasing guests.

”Mage Association?”

”Probably. It must be someone from Legendary Laws who gets along okay with Grandfather,” Hill sighed. ”But him coming to see Grandfather at this time, they can only become strangers in the future. No wonder Grandfather isn’t happy.”

”You humans, isn’t friendship mostly for betraying at times?” Merkel asked curiously.

”There are always truly sincere friends; humans are very afraid of loneliness,” Hill smiled and replied.

”So, it’s kind of like gambling, more losses than wins,” Merkel made a very apt summary.

Hill helplessly took out a book, no longer wanting to deal with this particularly astute Leopard.

Sometimes he really felt he didn’t even have half the emotional intelligence of this Magical Beast.

Luckily, Merkel was special, otherwise, he really would cry.