Facing Xinghuo who came up to greet them with a face full of smiles, Bardor didn't show much of a good expression.
As a purebred dwarf who started fighting against the Empire's demons before his beard even fully grew in, how could he possibly have any good impression of demons?
Furthermore, in this diplomatic mission, one of the original objectives was to confirm whether these demons in the Northern Territory were actually friend or foe.
In other words, these smiling guys in front of them might actually be enemies.
Bardor narrowed his eyes, examining the magic crests on Xinghuo's body, as well as those Half-Demons, Lizardmen, and so on behind him.
Finally, his gaze fell on Xinghuo's two human subordinates. Like the other soldiers, their expressions were serious, but there was no fear in the depths of their eyes.
Seem not to be coerced—Bardor made a preliminary judgment in his heart.
With the chief envoy examining the other party so undisguisedly, the dwarven deputy envoy had to hurriedly step forward and communicate with Xinghuo on Bardor's behalf, barely resolving the awkwardness.
The route Xinghuo planned for the delegation bypassed the combat zone, so there were no twists and turns along the way, just a small interlude.
The first time resting at a Puchi post station, invited by Xinghuo, the dwarven deputy envoy ate the instant mushroom meat stew taken from the station's warehouse, and then started crying out "Oh oh oh" while rolling on the ground.
Bardor, who was gnawing on the dry rations he brought himself, thought the deputy envoy was poisoned. He brandished the weapon in his hand, and just the gale stirred up overturned more than half the post station.
Fortunately, the deputy envoy, whose legs were still trembling, pulled Bardor back in time and explained the misunderstanding.
However, since then, no one dared to touch the food at the post stations anymore.
No matter what, they came representing the Mountains. Twisting on the ground emitting indecent sounds like "Oh oh oh", once was enough.
While Bardor recalled the taste of No. 4's sliced tentacles...
...
"This... is the Mushroom Fortress?" The deputy envoy widened his eyes, tugging his beard and murmuring in amazement.
Although those mercenaries had described the majesty of the Mushroom Fortress, and the dwarves on the diplomatic mission had tried their best to imagine the city built by these Northern Territory tribes to be more formidable.
But when truly seeing it, they realized they still underestimated this city!
Standing before the tall city gate, looking at the dense magic arrays on it, the knowledgeable dwarven deputy envoy was already cursing the extravagance of the Mushroom Fortress's master in his heart!
In his view, to pursue perfection, this city had reached the point of wastefulness.
Just what was exposed on the outside, there were many magic arrays with overlapping functions. Used together, consuming so many resources only brought a tiny bit of improvement.
Spreading out the resources used to build this city could completely arm four to five large cities of theirs!
Simultaneously, he also figured out two things.
First, the master of the Mushroom Fortress was truly very rich. At least they didn't lack resources; otherwise, just maintaining such a majestic city could drain those with insufficiently abundant family assets to death.
Another thing was, this Mushroom Fortress was highly likely not a bait thrown out by the demons.
Fishing is done with earthworms; who uses gold nuggets to fish?
Building such a majestic city in this extreme north, if not for resisting the Empire, it would be completely meaningless.
He didn't think any Duke of the Empire would be willing to waste so many resources just to play a conspiracy with an unknown outcome.
To welcome the delegation, this gate was specially cleared today, with no queuing.
And after entering the Mushroom Fortress, the deepest impression Bardor and the others had was prosperity!
On the streets three times wider than normal large cities, Mushroom Citizens led their Puchis coming and going.
If one had to talk about numbers, the Mushroom Fortress might not have much more population than a large city, but everyone had a group of Puchis following behind them. The sound of puchi puchi footsteps came from all directions.
It didn't look like a demon city, but more like a Puchi nest.
But somewhat bizarrely, whether it was the citizens passing by or the people stopping to watch the delegation, everyone in the Mushroom Fortress said not a word.
There were only pairs of eyes looking over, making everyone in the delegation shudder with cold.
In reality, if they connected to the mycelial network, they would discover that everyone was actually discussing their delegation enthusiastically, just like commoners watching a spectacle in other cities.
This made the deputy envoy, who had just cleared the Mushroom Fortress's suspicion in his heart, become paranoid and suspicious again.
Just as they were about to enter the administrative hall, a clack sounded from above everyone's heads.
Subsequently, a drawn-out tragic scream amplified by magic came out from the clock tower.
Through the opened hidden compartment, Bardor saw the fangs of the vampire opening his mouth to wail inside.
The other dwarves couldn't help but shiver listening to this miserable howl, but the dwarven war hero revealed his first smile since embarking on the mission.
It was impossible for the Empire to dispose of blood kin like this. Even a sinner among the blood kin wouldn't be treated this way; this was a complete humiliation to the entire blood kin race.
He slapped Xinghuo on the shoulder: "Who built this? Really good taste!"
Lin Jun felt Bardor was pretty good too.
...
After entering the administrative center, Thorin and Master Marco also rushed over upon hearing the news.
Seeing that it was Bardor who had beaten him before, Marco's face darkened at first, but then he remembered what he came here for and forcefully suppressed the resentment in his heart.
He and Thorin pulled Bardor and the deputy envoy, repeatedly emphasizing that they must build a good relationship with the Mushroom Fortress.
Most importantly, go back and find more people to come and assist them in researching the war dolls!
Since Marco got involved, the speed of analyzing the war doll technology had greatly increased.
However, having researched a lot of theoretical knowledge, when it came to practice, they lacked helpers competent enough for this kind of high-level forging work.
After becoming familiar with the situation in the Mushroom Fortress, they completely gave up the plan of selecting helpers locally and could only pin their hopes on the dwarves' side.
"Master Marco, this involves many issues of interest distribution; we cannot decide on our own," the deputy envoy said with difficulty.
Marco couldn't help but roar: "What interest distribution? Xinghuo already promised me that the researched technology will be shared, and we can leave anytime we want. You guys just bring people to help me finish researching the war doll technology, and then take the technology back. A guaranteed profitable business that won't lose money, what interests do you still want to distribute?"
Thorin also came out to chime in: "Yeah! Let me tell you, the Empire is currently attacking the Mushroom Fortress. If the Mushroom Fortress can't hold them off someday, these technologies will all belong to the Empire. Who knows, maybe one day they'll build two city-destroying war dolls and attack the Mountains. Can you bear that kind of consequence?"
The deputy envoy was retorted to the point of retreating repeatedly, only able to say "Will try my best, try my best."
Bardor didn't pay attention to their argument. His attention was placed on the other side, where there was a Puchi wearing a blue cape.
That was No. 2, who was responsible for discussing the specific matters of establishing diplomatic relations with them.
Originally thinking that staying in the Mushroom Lord's base camp, the Mushroom Fortress, it should have every advantage and completely outshine that No. 1 who was thrown into the forest.
But reality was cruel.
As the Mushroom Lord's base camp, it had the most core members responsible for various affairs. It was named the Northern Territory Administrator, but in reality, it was just an empty shell without real power.
Looking at it, it wasn't even as good as the dispatched No. 1!
This made No. 2 burn with anxiety.
This time, under No. 2's active volunteering, it finally managed with great difficulty to get the job of contacting the dwarven delegation as a diplomatic representative.
Being able to represent the Mushroom Fortress made No. 2 incomparably attentive to this job. It even imitated the Mushroom Lord and got itself a cape, just that it was blue.
It appearing here was naturally to make contact with the dwarven delegation before the formal talks to let them witness its heroic bearing.
It faced Bardor, puffed up its mushroom cap, and took a step forward!
Then it stepped on the cape it wore for the first time, slipped, and rolled gulu gulu along the aisle, finally stopped by Bardor stretching out his foot.
Under Bardor's somewhat weird gaze, No. 2 climbed up as if nothing happened, pretending to be an ordinary Puchi, walked past the room where the delegation was close to the corner of the wall, and disappeared around the corner of the corridor.
Before the formal talks on the second day, Lin Jun arranged for No. 2 to take the dwarven delegation to participate in the Mushroom Fortress military parade.
Putting aside how the combat power was, the neat formations, coupled with the vast sea of Puchis, were still visually very shocking.
Everyone in the delegation was secretly pondering the strength of the Mushroom Fortress, but Bardor glanced at No. 2 beside him: "Did we... meet yesterday?"
No. 2, who had deliberately not worn the cape again, gave a shudder with its mushroom body: "No... probably not. You outsiders look at us Puchis and think we all look pretty much the same. You probably mistook me for someone else."
Looking at No. 2 who had even started dropping spores, Bardor rubbed his chin and nodded: "Then maybe I mistook you for someone else."
...
Lin Jun used the high-status No. 2 as a "Mushroom Hostage," letting the dwarven delegation, who had recognized the value of the Mushroom Fortress, take it back to the Mountains in exchange for formal diplomatic relations and the legalization of dwarven blacksmith recruitment.
(Book Recommendation skipped)
(End of Chapter)
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