Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 809: Chapter 605 Kelben Thinks It’s a ’Lose-Lose’ Situation

Contrary to what Hill thought, Neverwinter can actually hold its ground at this moment.

For Hill, it might be difficult to understand this world’s logic, but the people of Neverwinter understand it very well.

In the minds of most people in Neverwinter, those elves would never choose to confront Luskan and the half-orcs of the Spine of the World directly.

Neverwinter is a city rebuilt on ruins with iron and fire, while the elves are the former owners who easily abandoned their territory due to severe losses.

Compared to humans, the individual strength of elves is indeed formidable.

However, in terms of warfare, Neverwinter far surpasses them.

Or rather, in the eyes of the elves, nothing is more important than the lives of their kin, but from a human perspective, a place where future generations can live and thrive is worth risking everything for.

Elves can actually be quite brave in battle, but they measure gains and losses afterward.

If necessary, they might risk the lives of their entire race, but it would definitely not be to guard the northern gates for all races.

Not to mention, as they gravely suffered losses, the human race quietly grew strong enough to compete with them for dominance over the continent.

So, after realizing the unprofitability, the elves completely withdrew. There’s no way they would willingly help humans guard against the half-orcs from the south now.

However, they will certainly support the current rule of Neverwinter; this is something good about elves—they acknowledge the contributions of others.

Even though they are unwilling to contribute to other races, they would never think that those who stand on the front lines choosing to resist are fools.

In the minds of Neverwinter’s upper echelons, if these risk-averse elves were really targeting nearby cities, it would definitely be Deepwater City.

Moreover, the key point is, a large number of Teraxil elves are still rummaging aloft and below in Neverwinter.

If the elves intended to attack them, these elves from other worlds would surely have fled long ago.

Although their premise for judgment was wrong, Neverwinter was lucky enough to judge the outcome correctly.

Deepwater City is different.

Although they were fortunate enough to send away those terrifying outer-world elves, they encountered even more serious trouble.

The Undead Tribe executed a large number of gangsters, assassins, thieves, and robbers, even killing the gang leaders who were directly commanding them.

They left carefreely, but they left behind a huge power vacuum at the bottom layer.

And to seize this most fundamental and most useful control, Deepwater City fell into an indescribable period of darkness.

After all, everyone knows that exploiting the common people is the most profitable business without loss.

Although their neighbors are troublesome, most people still harbor a fluke mindset.

Coron would probably not allow a second mishap at Deepwater City unless someone offends him again.

Right now, no one would be foolish enough to try; even if Kelben wanted to make another go of it, the other lords of Deepwater City would not follow him to his death.

The most troublesome thing now is that they can gather underlings from the Ferun Great Land, but finding management is difficult.

Although gang leaders might not be reputable, either they think they can absolutely suppress them, or, in fact, they are the most trusted people.

Considering Deepwater City’s complexity, to avoid direct annihilation, most would choose the most reliable people for the job.

But after all their unknown subordinates were wiped out, those high-level individuals, who had been controlling the dark forces for years, could only get involved personally.

Even those who hold a bit of face, those they send to rebuild the gangs can be easily recognized as someone’s subordinates.

The result of these people stepping into the limelight naturally led to an increase in the intensity of the conflict, as Toril has always been accustomed to sending opponents directly to the underworld.

Omnipresent murders deprived many ordinary people in Deepwater City of peace, even in their homes.

The people of Deepwater City previously only suspected that these gangs were controlled by those radiant-looking figures, but now they could be certain.

When the struggle reaches a certain intensity, who cares about maintaining underworld rules that keep the conflicts among the lower strata?

Every gentleman or noble killed in an assassination would have revelations the next day about which gang they controlled.

Those who merely occupy territory at the docks are one thing; even though ruthless, everyone knows the money there isn’t easy, and gangs initially appeared to combat those barely distinguishable from pirates posing as merchant ships.

But organizing thief gangs in the city and trafficking humans... truly broke the limits of tolerance for many in Deepwater City.

The people of Deepwater City do not necessarily think there’s anything wrong with such actions. Having faced countless evil forces on the Ferun Great Land, even ordinary people have adapted to such precarious lives.

But it shouldn’t, and cannot, be done by the Lord’s Mansion personnel.

The taxes in Deepwater City are notoriously high, and on top of that, the extortion by the City Guard is seen by most as a protection fee.

Now, the ones collecting the protection fee are actually those who wish them harm.

Even during the time when gangs controlled Deepwater City, they weren’t this ruthless; as long as you paid up, you could buy your life.

Now, the safest places in Deepwater City are only Black Staff Kael’s Magic Tower and the Temple of the Silvermoon Goddess.

However, Suren, the High Priest of Deepwater City, is famous for her pride, and she’s extremely wealthy.

Apart from the believers and women being sheltered in the Temple for refuge, no one else has been able to make her relent, no matter what they offered.

In the past, some fools might have pressured her, but Suren... she has just recently demonstrated powerful Divine Power, and the people of Deepwater City saw her might with their own eyes.

So now, all the pressure falls on Kael.

After all, if not for him, Coron wouldn’t have brought over these strange elves.

Obviously, when Coron is right there, the upper echelons of Deepwater City, who had previously chosen the Goddess of Magic over Coron, would definitely not choose to offend Coron again.

The Goddess of Magic indeed deeply influences everyone, but now, before anything stirs trouble, those elves eager to find a place to establish a nation wouldn’t spare such a large prey as Deepwater City.

The Dimensional Gates at the outer harbor, through which magic ships pass, were mostly created by elves a thousand years ago, as everyone knows.

Therefore, Deepwater City’s allure is much greater than that of Neverwinter.

No matter how proud elves are, they still need money.

And most importantly, the followers of the Goddess of Magic finally realized something was amiss; unknowingly, they have inexplicably lost all their allies.

After reviewing, although many understand it was the Goddess of Magic’s haste that caused the issue, who among ordinary people would blame their Main God? Their anger naturally turned towards Kael of the Goddess of Temptation.

In the past, Kael could find Archmages willing to dissipate their bodies with him, completely indifferent to the possibility of returning to the Divine Kingdom. Now he can’t even find an Archmage willing to communicate with him.

Kael, who wholeheartedly wishes to become the next Deity of Mages, suddenly finds himself betrayed by all, and he suddenly realizes he’s almost unable to support his apprentices.

Those who followed him in leaving the Harpists couldn’t possibly be motivated by faith; even his loyal subordinates shouldn’t be treated worse than those drawn in for money, right?

The intelligence organization he established is evidently a place where work is done for pay. With insufficient funds and lacking resources, when even beef and mutton are unaffordable, morale naturally dissipates.

Kael indeed knows that in recent years, the prices of various goods have risen rapidly, but he believes his wealth substantial, and even with significant expenditure, the resources shouldn’t have completely depleted.

If things were truly that severe, it should be the civilians collapsing first, shouldn’t it?

That’s because the common folk can simply consume the cheapest fish and usually have small poultry like chickens and ducks raised at home, selling them at high prices to the wealthy and using the profits to buy coarse grains to eat with salted fish.

However, Kael’s subordinates have no habit of consuming such scraps, nor would they degrade themselves to rearing chickens and ducks, as they don’t even eat them.

Every day, the Black Tower and all its subordinate organizations, including the intelligence organization and the City Guard, consume enough red meat to sustain ten giant dragons.

If Kael truly had such wealth, he might as well raise dragons instead.

It’s just that this money flows out gradually, and if not for the large number of civilians who pledged allegiance to him, prompting Kael to calculate his material assets, he wouldn’t have discovered he was on the brink of bankruptcy.

In the end, he chose silence, not becoming the savior to these people as originally planned.

Kael is well aware that those who sought refuge with him would never consent to live like those in the slums, consuming rancid fish and shrimp daily.

They still hold onto some fantasy, hoping to improve their lives with Kael.

Otherwise, those entirely disinterested in involvement should, like those in the slums, hire the Teraxil Elves, who, though eccentric in temperament, belong to the Kind Alignment, to build some wooden shelters at the forest edge outside the city to weather this period.

In Kael’s initial plans, these people would become the lower members of his organizations, gradually transforming into his followers, ultimately establishing a strong foundation for his deification.

But this first step has already withered.

He won’t just leave his money in the warehouse, but that reserve fund can only be used to support these subordinates, and no calculation could allow these newcomers to lead the life they envision.

He can’t sacrifice the present for an unknowable future, can he?

Kael stood high atop the Black Staff Tower, gazing towards the northern floating castle. The prophecy he initially received was indeed accurate; that Archmage with close ties to the elves would indeed bring him the greatest trouble.

But the prophecy was also wrong. Kael reckons that if not for his extensive scheming, this Archmage wouldn’t resort to such a self-destructive method to deal with him. If he is out of funds, that Archmage, relying only on the sale of strange objects, certainly couldn’t afford to sustain that city.

Now, perhaps they are also living frugally, aren’t they?

Kael looked at the food on his dining table; it had been many years since he last ate such poor fare.