After Lin Jun made the decision to ask for aid, he immediately wrote a letter and handed it over to the communication station newly established by the dwarves at the border. From start to finish, it took no more than ten minutes.
...
"...The Mushroom Fortress will provide the best logistical and medical support for all assisting dwarves. Lastly," the dwarven messenger responsible for reading the letter paused, his gaze sweeping over the clan patriarchs present, "to express our sincerity, we offer a small gift symbolizing the friendship between both sides."
After speaking, he placed the sealed box he held on the long table.
The patriarch of the Deepforge Clan was the first to let out a scoff. He stroked his beard, his tone full of ridicule: "How many days has it been since we established diplomatic relations? Using the craftsmen we sent over, without seeing a single bit of return yet, and they dare to open their mouths to ask for military aid. Their skin is thick enough, I'll give them that."
The patriarch of the Firebeard Clan, however, waved his hand, his tone carrying appreciation: "You can't say it like that. That Mushroom Fortress was able to independently repel the Empire's vanguard forces and force two Dukes to retreat. Even if it relied on beheading the general, this battle record, placed in a wretched place like the Northern Territory, shows enough capability. I think it's worth investing more capital."
The gaze of the matriarch of the Zafa Clan fell upon that box. She leaned on her staff, carrying a bit of curiosity: "I actually want to see first, what exactly is their small gift?"
Deepforge snorted: "In that broken place of the Northern Territory, what good things could there be? Probably just a few animal skins."
Zafa stepped forward. Just as she undid the magic lock on the box and pulled open a crack, before she could even see clearly what was inside, both her and Deepforge's breathing stagnated.
Both old mages keenly sensed that the surrounding mana began to grow restless, converging toward the direction of the box.
Magic crystals!
This phenomenon wasn't strange, but this speed of convergence...
The box lid was pulled completely open.
Deepforge hadn't guessed wrong; there was indeed an animal skin inside, but it was only used as a cushion.
Three fist-sized crystals lay quietly on the simply processed animal skin, crystal clear and translucent, without a single trace of impurity.
The entire council hall fell into a brief silence.
"S... grade?" Deepforge's voice was so dry it didn't sound like himself.
He lunged forward, bent down, leaned close, and scrutinized them carefully.
"Truly S-grade! Those barbarians actually used such an inferior animal skin to hold such precious magic crystals!"
At this point, even the patriarch of the Black Steel Clan, who had been silent all along, couldn't help but stand up and lean close to the magic crystals.
It wasn't that the various clans didn't have S-grade magic crystals, but finding three S-grade magic crystals cut uniformly to the size of a fist was truly difficult.
After all, truly excavated S-grade magic crystals wouldn't be deliberately cut smaller.
When crafting equipment, other components were adjusted to fit the magic crystal, not the other way around.
And now, the Mushroom Fortress being able to take out three magic crystals cut to uniform size and present them as a gift all at once meant one thing.
"Marco's guess in his letter was right. The Northern Territory truly has a high-quality magic crystal vein that was unknown to people in the past!" Zafa murmured, and she thought of even more, "And now, they also hold those blueprints of the war dolls. If all these fall into the hands of the Empire..."
Zafa didn't continue speaking, but all the dwarves present thought of that scenario—the Empire, relying on the blueprint technology left by dwarven ancestors and using the high-quality magic crystals dug from the Northern Territory vein, building powerful magic crystal war dolls one after another, and launching a massive invasion of the Mountains.
Firebeard slammed the table: "Then what else is there to say? Isn't this already a situation where we have no choice but to help?"
No one objected anymore, but some thought even further.
For example, the patriarch of the Deepforge Clan; he was already considering how to use the aid to manipulate the Mushroom Fortress, transfer the research and manufacturing factories of the war dolls to the Mountains, and how to figure out a way to obtain partial mining rights to the Northern Territory magic crystal vein.
The dwarves quickly began organizing the aid. There were soldiers and craftsmen, but they also brought corresponding conditions.
Concealed within this aid was a trace of greed.
Fortunately, so was Lin Jun's.
On the Mushroom Fortress's side, the best logistical and medical services had already been prepared, striving to ensure that the assisting dwarves could ultimately all return to the Mountains alive!
Perhaps because they had seen the appearance of humans deeply bound to the mycelium nowadays, the dwarves had always maintained no small vigilance towards the fungal mat.
Regular clearing made it difficult for the fungal mat to spread in openly. Even the underground network was not so convenient when placed in dwarven territory, where they excelled at excavation.
Ultimately, it was still because there was a lack of "their own mushrooms" in the Mountains.
Create more mycelium-infected dwarves and release them back. If they didn't want to drink mana potions for the rest of their lives, they would have to try their best to promote the expansion of the fungal mat within the Mountains. They would be natural supporters of the fungal mat.
When the time came and the fungal mat linked the various races together, the one who should panic would be the surrounded Empire!
...
The situation in the Northern Territory grew increasingly tense. The deployment and mobilization of armies on both sides had already taken shape. The scale was so large that it finally reached the deepest ears of Twilight Fort.
But Mortis merely glanced at that report and set it aside.
He had long lost the heart to attend to such border conflicts.
Every ounce of his energy and power was poured into that existence that made him unable to sleep at night—the Demon King!
Having purged for so long, searching every corner of the Empire, there were only some inconsequential results.
Mortis also finally realized that no matter how widely this net was cast, it couldn't dredge up the things hidden in deep water.
So he pulled the net back.
Not giving up, but waiting.
Waiting for that inevitable timing, a certain juncture where the Demon King couldn't evade and would inevitably show himself.
He would concentrate all his power to have a thorough conclusion with that relic of the old era at that juncture.
And in this operation, there were not many subordinates he could trust.
An old-brand vampire like Eugene and a Demon-kin like Dean were not on the trusted list.
At this critical moment, having them focus their attention on the north was actually a good thing for Mortis.
In fact, even if they originally had nothing to do, Mortis would have had to find a way to give them something to do to divert their attention. To some extent, that Mushroom Fortress could be considered to have done Mortis a small favor.
Of course, this wouldn't make the Emperor grateful to the Mushroom Fortress. He similarly wouldn't tolerate an additional threat appearing in the north of the Empire.
Once the Demon King was dealt with, if the Mushroom Fortress hadn't been resolved yet, he would naturally take action to crush it to death himself.
And now, he first had to summon those loyal subordinates he personally promoted...
Fatty Xi received an order to mobilize a portion of his elite forces.
However, at this time, whether it was Fatty Xi himself or Lin Jun, they only treated this as an ordinary order, entirely unaware that the Emperor was about to cause trouble.
Therefore, Lin Jun didn't pay too much attention to this.
Lin Jun's attention, besides being placed on the upcoming great war in the Northern Territory, was also partially shared with the city of Norwood in the United Kingdom—No. 10, who had been addicted to the "Super Magic Library" for a full half-year, seemed about to come out of seclusion!
(End of Chapter)
Comments