Chapter 341: Observation and Welcome

The two talked, gradually piecing together the origin of the golden crowns.

There were three crowns in total.

They were heirlooms the Mycelium Clan had dug out of a pile of junk left to sit for several hundred years before migrating from their old home in the damp marshes.

Strong psychic hallucinations had very little effect on mushroom-folk who constantly breathed in hallucinogenic spores.

In fact, the hallucinogenic spores they inhaled were probably stronger than the psychic hallucinations on the crowns.

So they let their guard down around them.

Mushroom-folk like Scarlett who didn't come into contact with hallucinogenic spores were only a small minority, so before arriving at their new home on the Ke Plain, none of them had ever laid eyes on the three crowns.

But in the end, these things shared the same space with them — seeing them was only a matter of time.

And so the accident happened.

A mushroom-folk caring for the young happened to see the crown — she wasn't one of the faction that avoided hallucinogenic spores.

She simply needed a clear head to look after the mushroom-folk hatchlings, so she kept her intake of hallucinogenic spores very low.

By the time the other mushroom-folk returned to the cave with supplies.

All thirty-five hatchlings had been smashed to pieces.

The enraged mushroom-folk killed the maddened one wearing the crown.

And judged it an evil artifact, sealing it away behind a secret door.

The morning after the incident, the elves of Emerald Court came knocking, requesting to purchase the mind-wrecking crowns.

"Isn't the elves' arrival a little too fast?"

Rod said.

"The crowns had a spell masking their stellar fate — prophecy and stargazing couldn't locate them. But once the first mushroom-folk was killed, that spell was already broken."

Ona straightened Scarlett's drape.

After a moment's thought, she pulled a small blanket from her spell pouch and covered the enormous spore sac on her chest.

She added: "I suspect those two elves had been watching the mushroom-folk colony on the Ke Plain the whole time. The moment they picked up the crowns' location from the stellar fate, they moved at once."

"Very likely. But what's the connection between the crown that opens the rifts to other planes and the elves?"

"In my impression, traditional elves are those stuffy, arrogant old things, always spouting 'nature belongs to the elves,' 'inferior humans,' 'is this all you're capable of,' and so on — and they never call anyone by name."

Rod shrugged.

Spouting his stereotype of elves.

See, Kaliest has never called him by name.

Hmm. Seems like she has — that night during the ambush, Kaliest was calling his name while whipping herself with a lash.

Ona laughed.

"You'd best ask the elven Young Lady in your forest. Emerald Court has always been awfully mysterious."

Rod didn't want to linger long beside a patient who needed rest.

After leaving some comfort gifts, he prepared to leave.

"Oh, Rod."

Before he left, Ona called out to him.

"What is it?"

"Two days ago, five Hesmo rubies were mixed in with a merchant caravan's ornaments and circulated through Shi Ying. I found they all carried 【Mi Fa Sight】. That's a common method dragons use to observe mortals."

"A dragon is observing Shi Ying."

Rod couldn't help feeling a weight in his heart.

The first thing he thought of was Coral Bay.

Not long ago, the dark elves of Coral Bay had summoned a red dragon and a black dragon.

Dragons rarely appeared on the Dusk Hills — the climate and resources here were just what those big fellows liked.

There had been dragon sightings over on the Ke Plain, though.

But right next door there was the Giant Mountains, where giant tribes had appeared.

For those big fellows, that distance wasn't far at all.

"Here's the thing — at the very least, he's interested in Shi Ying. But don't worry, those five gems have already been cleaned up by me."

"Sorry to trouble you again."

Ona showed a cute smile: "Please leave it to me with confidence."

In the afternoon.

Sand stretched on and on.

Rod lowered his body and, under the combined effect of Repulsion and his leg strength, plunged into the yellow barrier in the sky.

At the apex of his leap, just as he was about to fall, he activated Group Flight.

Palms back, two more blasts of Repulsion added thrust.

Boom—

Two circular reaction-force wakes exploded in the sky, his speed surging another notch, hurling Rod's body toward the distance.

Today was the day Miss Xiao Ke, the half-deer folk, was coming home.

Rod had nothing to do, so he went to meet her early.

Originally he'd planned to go find the elf Kaliest and ask her about Emerald Court and the golden crowns.

But Kaliest was probably at a critical stage in her spell experiments, holed up in her magic treehouse — even over 【Far Voice Chain】 she'd only replied with a single word: "Busy."

So he didn't want to disturb her.

Not long after, when he looked down on Shi Ying again, it felt utterly different.

Shi Ying Town had begun its expansion.

Through the yellow sand, one could faintly see quite a few laborers at work.

At the outer relay station, scattered tents and camps could be spotted here and there.

The current town hall had its own ambitions; even though funds were not exactly plentiful, they still chose to take in more people.

First came the low-wage jobs.

Expansion could bring more land resources, ease the housing crunch, and relieve the population pressure.

Next came attracting investment.

Wealthy merchants who dragged their families here to escape the world were few, but not nonexistent — there were always people who could see the value of being 'the only town-level settlement with a protective ward array.'

Rosalia always had a way to squeeze money out of these people.

The most critical issue was food.

For now it was still manageable, just barely.

After all, no war in the true sense had broken out on the Twilight Hills, so there were no massive waves of refugees.

Although there were many outsiders now, half of them treated Shi Ying Town as a way station.

Some were interested in Coral Bay, some in Windstorm City, and some might be challengers heading further north to the Supreme Glacier.

Even in ordinary years, there were always a few death-wishing brothers who wanted to conquer the glacier — and in winter, no less.

Some challengers who had misjudged their supplies for the journey would always end up stopping in Shi Ying Town for a few days.

However.

As for the current situation in the Kingdom of Etheron, it was only a matter of time before the shadow of war rolled in.

Rod had seen in yesterday's Snow Hill Evening News that Melwort City, far east of Windstorm City, had erupted in a civilian uprising over harsh taxation; a noble's manor there had been stormed by furious mobs, and the lord, along with his wife and children, had been beheaded and put on public display.

They had to prepare early.

After passing the relay station, Rod flew over the Twilight Hills for a while before landing.

The yellow sand was too thick; he was afraid of missing Miss Xiao Ke and the others.

After clearing a band of highwaymen on the road, Rod saw in the distance three figures — one large and two small.

Mainly because the female orc Aimi's green skin, combined with her crystal-stone cleaver thicker than her waist, made her far too eye-catching.

Beside Miss Xiao Ke stood a half-deer person, slightly larger in build.

That was probably her friend who had recently moved here.

Rod waved to them.

From afar, he saw Miss Xiao Ke's face light up with pleasant surprise, her four delicate deer hooves bouncing with excitement.

The little white tuft of a tail on the deer's rump trembled this way and that.

Aimi also broke into a smile.

"Hah, Master came to pick up Aimi!"

(End of this chapter)