Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 755: Chapter 554: Terry and Gulanba Became Golf Buddies

Hill hurriedly sent the dazed Lynn away.

This trick of his would soon be realized by Lynn: it wasn’t just the University Town that needed Lynn’s management—the residential and commercial districts were the real troubles.

When Gnomes encounter the Undead Tribe... well, Hill even felt a bit nervous for Lynn.

If the Gnomes couldn’t resist starting something, the Undead Tribe certainly wouldn’t let them finish it.

While it wasn’t possible to physically fight, there were nonetheless non-violent solutions available, and time and words were something the Undead Tribe had in abundance.

But now that both Gnomes and Dwarves had settled in Agleya City, Hill felt he could also relocate the people from the large residential areas there.

On this, Hill was quite pleased as he had always wanted to build a large botanical garden beneath his Floating Castle.

Unfortunately, ever since the Silver Shield had come here, the situation had spiraled out of his control.

Compared to the botanical garden in his mind, Hill would still choose to bring more people in; he couldn’t let the Silver Shield’s people become the only residents of the town.

If that were the case, to whom would the city belong? Even if the Paladins had enough self-control not to think or act that way, their followers and families certainly wouldn’t.

Now, things were finally back on track.

In the future, Agleya City would use nimble Puppets and Magic Arrays to monitor each alley, with the Elf Crusade guarding the main roads, ready to respond to any alerts.

The Silver Shield would continue to patrol this side of the main road, focusing primarily on the taverns and commercial street.

Indeed, the presence of the Righteous Knights was a kind of Binding for those inclined to do evil.

Many people would think of avoiding them upon seeing the white armors.

But compared to the Teraxil Elves, who indiscriminately used ’Alignment Detection’, they would probably prefer the discomfort of observing the Righteous Knights.

Here at Hill’s, the caravans would not be few.

After all, the northern route through Luskan was not the end—more daunting were the frozen lands and the Northern Ten Towns.

The caravans coming from that direction aimed solely for Deepwater City, where the prices were the highest.

However, some caravans with less influence in Deepwater City would sell the goods from the frozen territories directly to Hill.

The prices Hill offered for various materials and foodstuffs were not much lower than those in Deepwater City.

They could also save a lot on taxes, especially the entrance tax of Deepwater City, which was a hefty amount levied per vehicle.

They could easily store their large vehicles in the warehouse next to Hill’s Inn without even needing their camel creatures.

The various camel creature feeds at Hill’s were well-matched; stored for half a month, nearly all were fat and healthy.

They would even bring new recruits to the town each time to ensure that these individuals were free from the plague.

By now, the people of the Ferun Great Land had somewhat understood the transmission of plague—just avoid taking in gold bars and ancient Gold Coins that clearly seemed from within a year.

Nowadays, before hiring, caravans demanded that candidates bring no money at all.

The caravans would directly pay them their first month’s salary.

As long as one stayed clear of problematic gold, even if there were plague-carriers nearby, these caravans drinking Pure Water could avoid infection.

The value of Gold Coins in major cities had risen again, and everyone dared not use gemstones as currency.

Although the trouble this time arose from the major cities around Sword Bay, they needed not worry overly.

Even if they were not like Neverwinter with its ample supply of Pure Water to safeguard the entire city, with their financial resources, they could still procure enough Pure Pearls to clean the treasures obtained.

The nobles only needed to refrain from their usual gatherings and invitations; they rarely encountered issues. Even the poorest noble families could afford a few Pearls to save their lives.

Only when the plague first began to spread, and many nobles died—they had acquired too many treasures; even some who had become Official Professionals could not withstand it.

Hill felt that the trade teams exceptionally wary of the Undead Tribe would soon be exclaiming ’delicious’ and keep coming.

After discovering Hill’s consignment store, the Undead Tribe crazily stuffed things into it.

Their mass-produced items, even Teraxil couldn’t sell.

Hill gave two options to the families of the Silver Shield Paladin Legion: continue renting in the town or purchase residential houses in the city.

If they also moved to the city, Hill planned to convert the entire area around the Inn into shops and warehouses.

Hill felt they would choose to move into the city where the housing prices were not too high.

It was probably just the single attendants who would opt to stay here; Hill just had to move their small houses to the back and combine them with the apartment buildings.

Lynn’s Mayor’s Mansion would be directly relocated to a designated open area in Agleya City and transformed into his private residence from now on.

There was a special city hall available for his use, complete with various municipal facilities and buildings, including already constructed barracks for the city guard.

The Undead Tribe had become skilled in this area, starting from Saral, William had been employing them for such tasks.

As long as Lynn began interacting with the Temporal Artifact, he wouldn’t have time to confront Hill about that little deception.

For now, Hill needed to find Terry, who had been waiting on the mountain for an explanation, to have a good talk about the future.

Hill passed through the labyrinth and arrived at the entrance of the Dragon Nest, where he couldn’t help but stand and blink.

How had the God of Earth Elementals, Gulanba, gotten mixed up with Terry?

They were playing a ball game, one using its tail and the other its fists, trying to control their strength as they played with a lightweight leather ball.

The mountains of torn and worn balls next to the Dragon Nest told Hill that in the past couple of days, the two had not bothered about external affairs and had simply been playing this game.

”Sir,” Marsha appeared beside him, ”the Undead Tribe played ball and this Earth element lord saw it. He was very interested and had been wanting one, so I bought many from the Undead Tribe and brought them here for Mr. Terry.”

”Well done,” Hill nodded, ”Thank you, Marsha, you’ve been very thoughtful. Both Terry and this one are not suited to be in contact with the Undead Tribe just yet.”

”Why?” Gulanba had of course noticed Hill right away, ”Even if there were thousands of Lansendels, I wouldn’t be afraid~”

Hill couldn’t help but laugh; indeed, to the Elementals, the issues with Lansendel really weren’t much; their own mischief when unleashed caused even more destruction.

After all, as long as a trace of their consciousness remained, they could fully recover in the Elemental Realm.

”At least one-third of them can cast Banishment Spells,” Hill said frankly about the most likely scenario, ”Don’t think that because you are much higher level, you won’t have any problems. Banishment Spells are always a matter of probability.

If you really want a group of people to test their luck on you every day, feel free.”

Gulanba was huge, standing a good half-person taller than the other lord leaders who were merely spectators.

As long as they were within casting range of a Banishment Spell, the first reaction of the Undead Tribe upon seeing him would definitely be to use this magic.

After all, Gulanba and other Earth Elemental Spirits were different; the latter were summoned by Hill and had to obey his orders, so in the eyes of the Undead Tribe, they were considered allies.

But Gulanba was different; he was neutral.

Banishment Spells could be used on him.

Hill really didn’t want to mention this matter; if he stressed to the Undead Tribe not to use Banishment Spells on this towering earth spirit, it would only result in the opposite effect: reminding every Undead who saw Gulanba that this fellow actually could be hit a few times to test.

And the ultimately invincible Undead Tribe would certainly end up using Banishment Spells every time.

Being unable to resist meddling is an impulse inherent in every gamer, and everyone harbors the beautiful fantasy of ’what if I succeed?’

Gulanba considered the number of new Elves that had arrived, and his stone face displayed annoyance: ”But I still want to stroll around in your city. It’s rare to have a place where I can walk freely.”

As Terry pressed the ball in his claw, he couldn’t help but tilt his head and ask, ”Why don’t you sign a mutual alliance contract with Hill? It’s not about obeying his commands, but you should at least ensure that you won’t cause trouble for him!

Otherwise, in Hill’s city, you would never be considered one of us by the Defensive Magic Array.”

Gulanba said gloomily, ”Elemental Gods must remain neutral. They have too many concerns.”

”You?” Terry accidentally exerted too much force with his claw, and the leather ball ’popped’, breaking as he ’ahhhh’ flailed for a moment before settling down to ask with fluttering wings, ”I’ve heard many stories from my mother, you...”

”That’s different!” Gulanba said dryly, ”Also, stop listening to their nonsense, those ridiculous love stories. How could I find a Beastmen Goddess prettier than a rock.

It’s just that she was devout enough towards the earth, so I was more friendly towards her.

I really don’t understand, I only gave her a gemstone mine, but isn’t it better what I give my own followers?

It’s just that her propaganda everywhere made it known, while my followers have no interest in showing off my gifts.”

Seeing the disdain on Terry’s dragon face, Gulanba turned squarely to Hill: ”You are also a child of the earth, although not from my earth.

You tell me, would you find that female Beastmen attractive? She doesn’t even have legs as long as mine!”

”Since when is height a problem for deities?” Terry couldn’t help but interject.

”Do not measure the God of Earth by the standards of a Giant Dragon!” Gulanba got angry, ”We have our own aesthetic standards! They don’t change based on race!”

”Terry, shut up,” Hill said calmly.

Terry shrugged his shoulders and finally asked, ”Do you still want to play with the ball?”

”Of course, I want to play!” Gulanba quickly said, ”It’s rare to find such cheap leather balls! The new Elves must be very skilled at Alchemy!”

Hill touched his cheek but suppressed the urge to retort: the Undead Tribe really did well only in making such items, and for some reason, manufacturing leather balls was rated higher than making magic lamps.

Hill understood very well how many leather balls the Undead Tribe must have in store, as the Teraxil folks would never spend so much money just to buy a ball to kick around.