Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Hill turned his head to take a glance.

He could sense Shaer’s joy even from this distance.

The Goddess of the Night squinted slightly at him, ”Hill, you should understand, I really need to see a side of human nature that makes me feel more comfortable, so I won’t be too disgusted with the world.”

What she wanted to see was not the righteousness humans display at their smoothest moments.

But rather, the faint kindness that persists through layer upon layer of tests on human nature.

Does the scheming and intrigue of the Undead Tribe stand out?

Indeed, it is quite pronounced.

Their competition among allies, their deceit among enemies, sometimes makes it much more ’intriguing’ than the straightforward hostility of Toril.

Yet, in the world of the Undead Tribe, the upbringing even if aimed at complete defeat or even death of others, does not emit such a rotten atmosphere.

Including Zhu Meili and ’Lu Huayu’, even that arrogant ’End of the World Romance’ from the start.

No matter how arrogant and nasty they acted in the game... no one would think they deserved to die a thousand deaths.

Those utterly bad from the core do exist in the world of the Undead... but in the game, they can’t rise to high positions.

The demeanor of Eden is really disgusting, but for them to have followers, it means their demeanor is not a problem in their country.

True evil, when visible, cannot rise to the surface.

So, those who grew up in such an environment might be led astray, but left to their own thoughts, they wouldn’t come up with so much ’rot and decay’.

In some sense, Shaer’s tests, which seemed painful to the Undead Tribe, were essentially a redemption for herself... she is a true believer in the inherent evil of human nature.

But the actions of the Undead Tribe brought some reconsideration to her view of human nature.

She wouldn’t waver in her belief in the inherent evil of human nature, but she started to think that human nature could be wrapped and controlled by layers of law and morality.

At least on the surface, there can be a decent facade.

And this facade makes it possible for her, who has always harbored ill will toward humans, to maintain peace temporarily.

Hill could understand her unspoken words, but given his character, he certainly disagreed.

He always believed that life begins in purity, only painted with colors even the person themselves cannot understand at their most unintentional moments.

Some can make their crooked lines and dirty colors blossom anew with a master stroke.

But some never have that fate or will and can only retrace those lines heavier.

He would not sympathize with those who commit evil, but neither would he say they were born bad seeds.

Of course, in every universe, there is no absolute... he knows some people are born with only negative traits, but that is also a disease.

Yet, some can, due to the constraints of the environment and their own will, persist without being dragged into the Bottomless Abyss by their perpetually negative emotions.

Hill is, after all, the Child of Nature; his heart and eyes always first see the bright side.

But he also understands how exceptional it is for Shaer to achieve such a level... this is almost the first time in the long life of the Lady of the Night that she has actively restrained her emotions.

So Hill could only smile slightly.

Even Lansendel, who has always stood on the side of ’inherent goodness of human nature’ and believes only youth hold passion and sincerity, didn’t say anything inappropriate.

He just said a little awkwardly, ”That fool Josh... will probably drag your student along.”

Hill blinked, shifting his attention to several other layers.

When Lansendel borrowed from him, Hill had guessed the reason... Josh is surely not someone organized.

Even if he were given the largest storage space, he could not sort it out through his own abilities.

When the Undead Tribe hands these resource tasks, they don’t usually do it one by one; they basically throw it all together... the puppets of the God of Time and Space are certainly strong in data management.

Moreover, they are just transferring space to space, very conveniently.

But for Josh, who was to receive it, without the assistance of a Tower Spirit, this matter became a bit troublesome.

The Dawn Tower, as a creation of the deities, has the greatest advantage of giving birth to natural spirituality... no need to use Soul Crystals like the Sorcerer Toril.

Of course, though that stuff is not good, merely buying rather than producing them does not affect them.

But those who use it actually understand what they are doing... so even the Sorcerer Toril from the Kind Alignment should not be considered truly good people in essence.

From the day they become mages, they naturally abandon true kindness at heart.

Nature and the word mage are naturally antagonistic in Toril.

However, even if they could have a Tower Spirit without paying any price, mages never envy the Dawn Tower, after all, the premise of that natural spirituality is that everything about the tower is known to Lansendel, even the core is mastered by the Lord of Dawn.

What mage would want to share everything with deities... even the most devout followers of the Goddess of Magic cannot achieve that.

Everyone knows clearly whether they have a guilty conscience or not.

Even if they haven’t done anything wrong now, they can’t guarantee they won’t in the future.

Therefore, even though the mighty Lansendel can create such a perfect living environment for his believers, very few of his believers possess strong logical thinking as mages.

Although Josh’s train of thought was straightforward, he could actually be considered an artist.

He can draw architectural blueprints that are perfectly suited to the environment, but he needs a qualified construction master... and then, a foreman who can oversee the work.

Although the building materials were already distributed by List across different floors according to different attributes, and then placed according to size and volume... not only will adjacent materials not trigger any special reactions, it’s likely they will be used together.

List absolutely won’t make any mistakes in this aspect.

But Josh only knows what effect he wants, yet he’s not quite sure how to achieve this effect... He has numerous formulas for alloys, concrete, and even gemstone pigments in his mind, but asking him to produce them himself is truly difficult for him.

He has no issues with color matching, but building a Magic Tower requires more than just color matching.

In Toril, every architectural master like him had a sufficiently professional team behind them... though it seems incredible, under the coordination of magic, their fantastical building layouts could essentially be built perfectly.

However, the Josh now doesn’t have his auxiliary team.

He’s even unsure how to handle the materials on those few floors.

Hill estimated that Lansendel never expected Josh to gain nothing in this world... In Toril, although the Morninglight Elect weren’t welcomed by the aristocratic monarchy, young nobles were very enthusiastic followers of them.

Whether for justice or for art and freedom.

Most people might awaken after a few years of living as Dawn Believers... though life was fun, it was also tough.

New Dawn Believers generally started by following these architectural masters to build Temples and Dawn Towers in remote places for Lansendel’s hobby.

Those who persevered and stuck it out were then eligible to truly enter the Temple.

But, even if some people leave, there will always be new arrivals.

Following Lansendel, though it might elicit a silent smile in the adult world, it’s actually a pursuit of a bright future in the young world.

So, Lansendel truly didn’t anticipate that this world would have no young ones inspired by Josh.

Josh had many flaws, but his sheer enthusiasm could ignite everything.

It can only be said that the world the Lord of Devils favored indeed had its reasons for being favored by him.

Such indifference and rationality.

Lansendel felt quite helpless too.

But he certainly can’t personally help Josh build this tower, can he?

Though it’s not a big deal, constructing the Dawn Tower was always a test for the Dawn Believers... Offering help would be a huge harm to Josh instead.

Lansendel doesn’t want to affect the future of his Chosen due to his momentary amusement.

Of course, there are definitely some in the Undead Tribe who know construction... Yet, handling these more troublesome and tedious tasks, how could he have the Undead Tribe do it?

Besides, there are some matters Lansendel doesn’t wish to entrust entirely to the Undead Tribe.

Hence, he can only hope Hill’s student possesses the skill.

After all, Lansendel is very aware of his friend’s proficiency in architecture.

If his student has even one-tenth of Hill’s skills, then Josh’s bit of trouble would be insignificant.

Originally, Lansendel intended for Josh and Russell to help each other, but now it seems Russell will have to take charge alone.

Tch, my Chosen, I have to protect them myself.

At worst, he’ll just grant Russell more blessings.

”Okay, Russell has studied some basic architectural construction,” Hill nodded, ”Let them discuss it on their own.”

He is actually quite willing to let Russell use the Dawn Tower to practice.

But, it all depends on Russell’s own choice.

Every Dawn Tower constructed by the Morninglight Elect is an artwork... Correspondingly, building one is truly troublesome.

The stronger the artistry, the greater the pitfalls.

Though one can learn a lot, it truly is exhausting, tiring both body and mind.

Even though Hill has high academic expectations for Russell, he won’t demand that he excels at everything or does everything... His students, ultimately, have the freedom of desire and reluctance.

The students he willingly accepts are naturally those he likes, thus Hill will accept all of this child’s strengths and weaknesses.

Fran may not discipline him often, but he has greatly influenced Hill through his words and deeds.