Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 902: Chapter 698: The Pulvey Ship to the Mazteck Continent

It didn’t take long for Lynn to borrow List from Hill; he had to negotiate and clarify all resource prices with Laila: this lady is completely untrustworthy and very likely to exploit any loopholes.

Laila has always been capricious, likely to stir up some excitement intentionally to attract people to Luskan, but Lynn was unwilling to let Hill suffer such great losses.

In the past, using such gimmicks on the Ferun Great Land indeed worked; back then, there were only limited merchants capable of long-distance trade, and adventurers could make only a small profit from a few goods.

But now, there are nearly a billion Undead folks, each having considerable storage space, and they are typically wealthy—not to mention those among them with excellent economic acumen: Lynn had long noticed these intermediary traders skilled in reselling not only make profits among their kind but also trade margins between several cities.

With someone like Laila, emphasizing trouble with her is pointless; she doesn’t care about any inconvenience... At most, she’ll change immediately after something happens, but that’s not good for Hill’s reputation.

Moreover, Lynn feels that, knowing the truth, Hill might choose to bear the loss rather than damage his honor by changing plans abruptly.

He’s not like Laila, who is only halfway familiar with the Undead Tribe and definitely doesn’t think they wouldn’t exploit the price disparity between two cities to make huge profits.

Hill would be the one paying the bills then. Lynn would never agree to such a thing.

He has returned now because Laila’s city hall is provisionally set up; she must write down a letter of appointment and submit it to Hill for the seal.

Then, she needs to convene a meeting with those officials and city guards before discussing the pricing of resources between the two cities with him.

Nonetheless, most of these officials come from Agleya City and are used to the style of the Undead Tribe; there shouldn’t be any issues of maladjustment.

Hill is strong enough to turn any undercurrent into calm waters; at least for a few years, these officials will work diligently.

Eventually... it depends on whether Luskan becomes prosperous enough to tempt people’s greedy hearts.

Lynn knows well that no matter how righteous the talk is now, few people can uphold their original intentions in the face of increasing strength’s temptation.

He doesn’t even trust himself, let alone others.

”Hill...” Lynn was about to speak but paused upon seeing Hill toss and juggle his City Lord’s seal.

”Respect your seal... It’s troublesome if it gets lost or damaged,” Lynn couldn’t help but say.

Of course, he knows this seal is very sturdy; Hill fabricated it using Starmetal, combined with Mithril, and some special metals, and even the engravings on it are so deep that the patterns within the carvings are clearly visible; an ordinary person wouldn’t have the ability to produce such fine engravings.

After all, that kind of meteorite iron is actually the primary material for the Demonslayer Dagger, unusable by magic; Hill even employed a peculiar alloy formula with a terrifyingly high melting point; an ordinary steel furnace couldn’t melt it.

But... Lynn sighed helplessly; Hill always tosses such precious items around, and if it weren’t needed for Luskan this time, his friend might have nearly forgotten he owned it.

In ordinary times at Agleya, matters could be confirmed with a single small City Lord seal... Everyone knew that seal was in Lynn’s hands.

Lynn suspected that Hill initially crafted this fancy and mud-free purplish-gold seal because he believed the ancient wisdom shared during the city’s founding.

He probably doesn’t know that Silvermoon City’s City Lord’s seal merely mixes some Mithril and Mithril Dust.

Now, this seal is indeed sturdy, sturdy enough that Hill can play aerial tossing games with it.

Hill hesitantly stopped before saying, ”I was just thinking... should this seal be kept with Marsha in the future?”

”Here in Luskan, once we confirm the batch of high-ranking officials, you won’t need to constantly come to apply the seal,” Lynn reassured the reluctant Hill.

He could sense Hill didn’t particularly value Luskan, and perhaps the entire city means less to him than the Tower Spirit Lucy.

But why let go of what has been acquired?

Lynn thought for a moment before saying, ”Hill, are you worried about having to leave Toril later, therefore needing someone to keep the seal?”

Hill nodded silently.

”When you leave, you can place the seal in the Agleya Temple,” Lynn straightforwardly said, ”Marsha’s place... it’s not necessarily safe, right? What if a deity intervenes?

These things are uncertain; in Toril, anything can happen.

Only at Agleya, if something occurs, she should figure out a way to send the seal directly to her Divine Kingdom, right?

For significant matters, Marsha can go to the Agleya Temple, and for other minor issues, the small seal in my hand suffices.”

Lynn sighed, in Hill’s heart, Toril was always just a temporary stopover... He had no intention of staying here for long.

Just hoped his friend wouldn’t leave too soon.

Hill sensed Lynn’s regret, smiled and said, ”You’re worrying too early! I’m just thinking about going traveling. In the short term, I definitely won’t leave Toril! Midnight’s legendary story... I must see the grand finale.”

He really wanted to see if the Mazteck Continent had really swapped with another world’s continent.

Lynn raised his eyebrows in surprise, ”At a time like this, you still want to go out?”

”If the Undead Tribe hadn’t returned, I would definitely stay in Agleya.” Hill said nonchalantly, ”But now haven’t they returned?

The deities can’t descend, and ordinary mages can’t even use magic... To bring the number of Arcanists back to its peak, it will take at least several decades, even a hundred years of nurturing.

Now, who on the Ferun Great Land can compete with them?”

No matter how many warriors other countries have, can they withstand the Undead Tribe who can still use spells?

Actually, at this time, Agleya is the safest instead.

Hill wants to travel more before Midnight comes of age... When that lady begins to slowly recall who she is, he definitely has to come back and watch the show.

Lynn finally understood what Hill wanted to do. He thought about it and nodded in agreement: rather than being distressed watching the strange growth of the Midnight girl here, it’s better to see how that goddess feels after she awakens.

After Hill finished stamping his seal, Lynn immersed himself once again in negotiations with Laila.

Their tug-of-war lasted for nearly three days. With the assistance of two Tower Spirits, they finally reached an agreement: he conceded a bit, allowing Laila to set her own prices for various craftworks, magic materials, and even fragments of strange objects collected from Icewind Valley, without needing to be consistent with those on the continent.

The rest were just normal business transactions. In this regard, both Laila and Lynn were very straightforward, so the discussions almost rapidly reached their end.

During this period, Hill built a 10-meter-high bridge above the water in both the city’s Mirar River and the eastern section. For Toril, the height of the magic ships should not exceed 7 meters, so there shouldn’t be a problem.

However, during this time, besides the clerics of Tyr and Heim building their temples on the North Shore of Luskan, a group of Tampas priests also found Laila, hoping to establish a temple of the Lord of Battles here.

This group of Tampas priests... Actually, everyone knew what they wanted: to advance to become Tampas War Guards.

The War Guard does indeed serve as excellent war supporters, but the leader Tampas has requirements for advancement that many find incomprehensible: first, they cannot be from the Orderly Camp... This is understandable; war... is always about disrupting order.

But the most important requirement... They must have participated in at least five battles and emerged victorious in at least three battles involving fifty or more participants.

This makes it very difficult, and Tampas also requires that their priests are not the ones to initiate the war, although they can hint or tempt others to act. Without initiative, the course of war can easily go astray.

Despite many battles over the years, it is said that those who managed to advance to War Guard have not exceeded 2000 in number.

So when these Tampas priests discovered that Luskan was about to enter a war, they rushed over without hesitation from Baldur’s Gate, almost arriving no later than the paladins of Tyr... They came riding griffins.

Informed by Laila, Hill thought for a while and agreed to their request.

Just to cut off Baldur’s Gate from its best source of soldiers, Hill would agree to this request.

While he didn’t plan to engage with those petty people, Hill wasn’t without temper.

Moreover, if they were around, the people from Heim would be uncomfortable... More than Tyr, Tampas disliked Heim... Their ways of doing things completely clashed.

Hill thought the only unstable factor in Luskan was the Temple of Heim. They could very well turn against Laila over a small matter... Even if they suddenly turned against them during battle and dragged them down, it wouldn’t do much good as the Undead Tribe would surely give them a fitting lesson, but if someone could always be on guard against them, that would be even better.

Tampas’ priests, to avoid their advancement being hindered, would definitely be diligent in keeping an eye on the people of Heim.

Hill’s wariness of Heim was not something he could speak about.

Sometimes, he even suspected that the Guardian God might have already been replaced by AO.

Fortunately, neither Lynn nor Laila had any reaction to Hill arranging the Northern Temple District for the Major Temples in sequence, so the Temple of Heim ended up sandwiched between the Temple of Tyr and the Temple of Tampas.

After everything was settled, Hill returned to Agleya, packed his belongings, placed the City Lord’s seal safely in the Agleya Temple, and on a sunny and breezy dawn, rode the Pulvey Ship towards the Mazteck Continent.