Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Lansendel looked at Hill with a ’you’re seriously saying that’ expression.

Hill was a bit puzzled: ”What’s the matter?”

”Guess where the most bustling place in Toril is?” The Great Peacock chuckled twice, full of laughter as he spoke, ”Your Agleya!

Although many followers of deities who came along can’t enter Agleya and can’t stand the torment of the Undead Tribe, how could he or she not want to go to the place closest to their own deity?

You wouldn’t think that just because Tyr’s Righteous Knights went to Anmur, they’d build their Main Temple in Anmur, would you?

Agleya is the most suitable place to place their endless legal tomes... Is there a place more resistant to fires, thunders, and waters than there?”

Hill couldn’t help but curl his lips... Temples might not be destroyed by the fires and waters, thunders and lightning of nature, but they can be by the deities.

Although Tyr has become a bit more smooth than he used to be, he records everything, even why, although the defendant clearly should be sentenced to the death penalty, he or she can only compensate the victim in another way... every embarrassing appearance made by a deity... would be clearly documented.

However, these tomes are usually hidden in the Grand Temple, only accessible by High Priests.

But for some deities, especially those who base themselves on ’kindness’ and ’honesty’, they absolutely don’t want these to be recorded in writing... rumors can turn from reality to falsehoods, but the texts witnessed by Tyr cannot be changed.

So, Tyr’s Grand Temple is really constantly beset by disasters.

How ridiculous!

A strong divine power earthly temple would unexpectedly catch fire and be drenched by water regularly.

But if this temple is in Agleya, it would be different.

They wouldn’t casually change locations, they could only build this Main Temple in the area that Hill originally gave to Tyr Knights... next to Agleya Temple.

Speaking of which, that place, Tyr Knights could expand outward... it was the area where Bhaal Temple used to be.

Although Hill didn’t care, the Righteous Knights absolutely couldn’t accept Bhaal’s divine power lingering near their temple.

Of course, Hill just thought that in places he resides, the Force of Nature would soon expel those Forces of Death... it’s a natural cellular cycle, a blend of life and death.

But Tyrian believers couldn’t wait, they’ve always been impatient.

So, when Edna’s Path of Destiny started to become clearer, while other deity followers were nervously hoping their luck held, Tyr priests, for whom victory not only assured their survival but also placed them on the winning side due to a moment of kindness, poured their enthusiasm into that Bhaal Temple.

The area near it was thoroughly cleansed by them, even normal traces of death were swept away... the overly sacred aura there started to grow divine power moss.

In Toril, for wastelands like this, a lord can claim the place after development, not to mention when a temple intervenes.

Speaking of which, due to the efforts of several nearby temples, coupled with the Little Fairy Spirit Oberon directly declaring allegiance to the Lord of Agleya, now Agleya’s domain is vast, almost occupying all the area between the collapsed Winter’s End City and Sword Mountain Range.

Even on the east side, it’s almost reaching the abandoned Long Saddle Town.

Then Hidden Town, due to Edna’s presence, naturally expanded its territory... the reason Agleya only reached Long Saddle Town isn’t because it couldn’t go further, but that the area is already within Hidden Town’s influence.

No need for locals to fight for land, there are other places to venture.

Long Saddle Town, the once rampant Griffin Nest behind it, is now White Dragon territory.

The Griffins that didn’t escape in time now serve as ’horses’ pulling flying carts from Hidden Town.

They don’t even need drivers, they are absolutely well-behaved.

After all, within Agleya’s domain, dragons fly everywhere.

This group, due to various reasons, behaves very tamely... so when they see ’free’ griffins, they’re eager to take them out directly as rebels.

Certainly, there are no truly free large birds willing to appear in Agleya, especially those inherently evil ones.

The dragons act with justified confidence... but think about it, even these dragons, including Chromatic Dragons, must have reason before acting in such places, who would dare casually roam there?

Even beasts have brains.

This also led to another result, below Deepwater City truly developed a large metropolis jointly controlled by the Undead Tribe, Ilystri, and Villon followers... what used to be the northern part of Sword Bay, nominally belongs entirely to Agleya Alliance.

After all, no fools would build a new city above a Zholar underground city.

Deepwater City, in the future, can only be called Deepwater Underground City... Hill pondered, if it really came to this, he’d have Lynn publish some planting tasks.

He never really liked that spot in Deepwater City.

The past winding alleys, various residents, inside, were truly dirty.

Although the fishy smell from the port overpowered everything... he could actually smell those complex scents.

The reason he never wanted to visit Deepwater City again after being there once wasn’t just because of the annoying Kelben.

Hill wasn’t really afraid of him.

Such troubles, if there’s a place you want to go or things you wish to acquire, can be overcome.

But to Hill, Deepwater City wasn’t worth it.

If Silvermoon City was nearby, Hill would certainly visit, even with annoying people there; after all, it was an exotic scenery.

So, Hill really thought that only the crumbling walls and widespread ruins of Deepwater City were suitable for planting some vibrant flowers that required ample nutrients to bloom brightly.

Of course, he also had a thought he wouldn’t speak out loud... a certain characteristically unique Black Dragon used to live underground in Deepwater City.

And he lived in the relatively shallow layers.

No one knew what type of experiments he conducted there... rather than suffer from a mental blow decades or centuries later, it’s better to find a way to purify and clean from the start.

William didn’t seem to intend to spread Teraxil’s kind of sunflowers to Toril: though they’re great for purifying land ravaged by demons or devils, whether Toril’s deities and people truly wish to conduct this purification is hard to say.

Look at the accomplishments of Tyr’s priests after wanting to relocate... it becomes clear that parts of heavily polluted Toril lands, aside from those where demons still rampage and cannot be cleared, elsewhere, the lack of purification is simply because someone doesn’t want it cleaned.

Good things sometimes don’t necessarily receive good returns, Hill fully understood.

But actually, similar plants aren’t absent in Toril... for instance, inside that so-called Tower of Nature, there are similar plants.

Otherwise, they couldn’t possibly live so freely in the demon-ravaged Supreme Forest.

Unfortunately, those too proud individuals with contempt for everyone don’t even want to offer their prized plants to ’outsiders’.

Including the Coron follower ’Aevraestar’s Sword’, who constantly fights demons on Star Mountain Range, hoping to leave a little bit of homeland breath for elves, can only receive the most basic purification plants offering minimal defense, unable to help clean filth.

Hill had pieced together some understanding from Lynn and his brother’s chat... the ability of Lynn’s parents to push Leonard into the Tower of Nature was aided considerably by their captain.

Though they didn’t expect Leonard to bring back precious plants later... everyone knew from the start that Leonard would surely have no access to the core spells of the Tower of Nature... but at least things could improve a little.

Aevraestar’s Sword never abandoned its belief, unwaveringly striving to reclaim the Supreme Forest bit by bit from demons.

Even if just a small part.

Leonard didn’t leave empty-handed, but in terms of purification... from his rapport with the Little Fairy Dragon, one can see the type of plants he dealt with before reaching Legendary.

Functional, but unrelated to purification.

Actually, Leonard wasn’t clueless about these; he always diligently studied purification plants.

No matter how protective, when Leonard learns the key issues, those nature mages have to teach... some things can be implicit, but not acknowledged.

Their ease in the Tower of Nature also depends on Aevraestar’s Sword guarding the Star Mountain Range!

Yet after finally reaching Legendary status, learning to cultivate purification plants from seeds, Leonard was placed on Mystra’s Path of Destiny.

Even with a gentle temperament, Leonard couldn’t resist venting his frustrations to his brother.

Consequently, Lynn unhesitatingly dragged his brother to Hill.

He understood more than anyone that the Tower of Nature pales in comparison to even one of Hill’s claws.

Though Leonard didn’t possess many successfully cultivated purification plants, he did know the base plants they were studied from.

And owned many seeds of that kind of plant.

Nature Mages, to some extent, are essentially mages who know how to intervene in the growth direction of plants... of course, there are other characteristics too, but those spells similar to other mages aren’t valued.

Whereas Druids, although they also optimize seeds, merely optimize... they won’t alter the genes of the seeds directly.

Admittedly, when seeds naturally evolve due to environmental factors into a fixed form, that also counts as nature.

What Hill excelled in was more akin to the Druid’s approach.

He wouldn’t tamper with the genetic makeup of seeds, but let these seeds naturally evolve due to environmental changes.