Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Hill only felt darkness in front of his eyes...it was just enough time for that.

Even knowing that Celene was deliberately having fun, Shaer couldn't control the urge to beat up her sister, and a black shadow with a purple aura rushed straight at the silver-blue moonlight.

The floating castle trembled a few times with a huge 'boom'...the crystal flowers in the pool emitted streams of transparent light, weaving into a net in the sky, and the mist in the air rolled continuously within it...luckily, before Hill dived into the pool to hold onto the crystal flowers, the confrontation from the primordial light and primordial darkness had subsided.

Hill sighed as he climbed out of the pool, first asking List to reassure Lynn, telling him not to rush up and check on Hill's safety, and to explain to Fran that although there would certainly be such troublesome commotions frequently, they had nothing to do with Hill...so no matter how fierce it got here, he didn't need to come over...Hill had already seen Purwell's large head peeking out from the clouds.

Hill touched his long hair and for the first time felt grateful that he could control the water element: no matter how many times they fought, at least he didn't have to roll around soaking wet.

Another thing to be thankful for is that both Shaer and Celene seemed to be well-prepared for the current situation, so the blockade on the floating castle was incredibly tight...even if the Toril gods in the stellar realm were crazily curious, besides AO, probably no one else had the ability to peek in.

Hill sighed silently, counting the nine chaos crystals in the pool...he seemed to understand why a portion of the deities always emerged every time these sisters fought.

Twice now, when their divine powers collided, the chaos crystals that appeared were odd-numbered, and Hill didn't think the two sisters would consider leaving a reward for him during their clash...Celene wouldn't think of it, and Shaer wasn't that kind-hearted.

Except for Mystree, which was born as a distinct and powerful divine power, other deities emerged from the upheaval of strength...even if they each reclaimed half, the odd-numbered one couldn't be reclaimed by anyone.

Hill touched his forehead, genuinely feeling like he had developed an illusory migraine.

He pulled out another pair of boxes identical to last time, placing four crystals in each, and then placing these two beautiful jewelry boxes below the pool and the large tree.

This time, without Hill needing to inquire, the two goddesses consciously and automatically took the boxes away.

Hill couldn't help but check his inventory; he had only made 12 of each pattern of the boxes: after all, the patterns must be different and complementary, eventually forming a circle.

He brought out this set of jewelry boxes not only because they were exquisite and beautiful and valuable enough, but also because they were abundant...but today's events filled Hill with caution.

If Celene got bored and squared off with Shaer...should he be preparing more?

Could he think of many different patterns?

Anyway, he couldn't do it now...even if he was a fool, Hill knew this was not the ideal time.

His mother always cherished him, but when she discovered that Hill had quickly bought several high-end non-stick pans right after she burned a pot, she used Hill's head to verify whether these newly purchased pans were sturdy.

Since then, Hill understood that women could indeed become furious, and the ferocity might escalate with age...when they make such errors that could invite ridicule...at least in their eyes, mistakes that must be mocked, it's better for him to vanish silently rather than rushing in and reminding them of what they've done.

Hill didn't want to test whether these sisters, who were at least hundreds of thousands of years old, would be any different.

Hill returned to his seat with sighing steps...no matter how bored the undead tribe got, he didn't plan to return to the half-plane now.

Just in case one day when he's not around, Shaer and Celene have a serious clash, then what?

Hill bent his head over the list of books sent by Candlekeep...originally, he had planned to wait until the turmoil at Candlekeep calmed down to continue buying books, but now he'd buy a few more to pass the time!

Fortunately, Candlekeep wasn't asking for gold bars or gemstones...although there were a plethora of undead below, there were still thousands of living mages in Candlekeep!

They ran out of food; quite obviously, these mages had stored their grain in dimensional space...however, now that the Weave had suddenly placed a password lock over most mages, their dimensional spaces now required a password that could perform thousands of calculations instantly.

Currently, mages were attempting to find a formula to solve these complex calculations...but until then, they'd have to pay the price for having insufficient intelligence.

The existence of the Weave allowed a slew of mages with intelligence slightly above average the chance to become high-level mages, but when the Weave faced problems, these mages, promoted through extraordinary means, could only helplessly wait for others to find a solution.

Candlekeep's founder was indeed such an existence, but unfortunately...he wasn't there, and only a not-so-powerful student of his remained at Candlekeep as the librarian.

His managerial skills were not lacking, but in terms of strength, he was somewhat weak.

So Candlekeep doesn't dare trade with a place like Deepwater City, let alone the Haber family, who have recently been exposed for colluding with evil forces.

At this point, after almost wiping out the pirates in the northern Sword Bay and being famously generous, the Lord of Agleya is their only hope.

Hill was actually aware of the undercurrents in the south... Candlekeep's caution towards Deepwater City wasn't entirely wrong. That group, skilled in commerce, indeed sought to extend their reach into Candlekeep... They wouldn't care how much effort has gone into Candlekeep's collection of books or how much time had accumulated; they only saw the current book copying at Candlekeep as a highly profitable business.

If it weren't for Agleya's ships constantly patrolling the sea, with a very active Mercury Dragon always hanging at the bow, a powerful pirate group capable of breaking through Candlekeep's strong defensive magic array, and even destroying the Specter Dragon wandering below ground, might have appeared near Candlekeep!

It's all a joke, really, but in Toril, pirates are the perfect scapegoats... Even though this group of pirates committed acts of national and city destruction, they did not roam the seas or become any notable Pirate King, but instead disappeared, hiding their identities.

At first, Hill didn't plan to get involved in this matter, but now he's changed his mind.

After all, some members of the Undead Tribe who enjoy life at sea continue to roam Sword Bay! Tasding's business has always been good.

Hill quickly browsed through the book list in his hands, taking out a Crystal Pen to constantly mark the books he wanted... The book list Candlekeep gave him was of the highest level, and once he marked it, Candlekeep would see it.

So, the titles Hill marked would glow slightly, indicating Candlekeep had them in stock and he could have someone fetch them.

Then, some titles appeared in a faint green, indicating these books could be copied within three days.

Hill blinked... all the titles he marked, except those glowing, turned green... he felt a mix of emotions.

Candlekeep has always been very proud. Previously, when he marked books, most were represented by yellow, indicating a month to complete... if it was a book that needed a High-level Mage to copy, it might even be represented by purple, indicating completion in a year.

Because Hill had previously sent some of Gerns' books to Candlekeep, his treatment there was already relatively high... Sometimes, they would only leave a black mark indicating no stock for mages wanting to pre-order books.

It's worth knowing that only mages above level 20 could get such a high-level catalog. Mages below that, wanting any book, would have to travel a long way to Candlekeep to exchange... and could only swap one for one.

Unless the book was one Candlekeep didn't have, allowing for an exchange of one for five.

Even for Hill, this was the first time he experienced such an unprecedented treatment from Candlekeep... The last person with such treatment might have been the previous Mystra?

Hill pondered for a moment, then eagerly marked more books... He decided to stockpile while Candlekeep was down on its luck.

Otherwise, given his understanding of those proud Scroll Mages, once everything returned to normal, they wouldn't do even a bit of work for at least a year.

As Hill watched the Magic Ship with a slender Mercury Dragon coiled around its mast sail off fully stocked with provisions, there was finally some movement from Kalinsan.

The Divine Beasts wanted to wait until Mil Forest's economy collapsed, running out of ammo and provisions... But Amanata or Amanata's Holy Grail, well aware of Mil Forest's situation, couldn't wait any longer.

If they didn't stop the Kalinsanians from fleeing to Mil Forest, given the financial resources displayed by those Otherworldly Elves, there wouldn't be many believers left for development!

Currently, the Kalinsanians still harbor some deeply rooted dissatisfaction with life in Mil Forest... but as these days go on, they will eventually adapt.

Back when they were rescued by the Elves from the hands of the Divine Beasts, they weren't as corrupt as they are now!

So, the Amanata Believers residing in the seaside Manshaka City finally decided to open a safe route to Mil Forest... even if it could only be maintained for a while, at least it could bring back tens of thousands of Kalinsanians from Mil Forest to Manshaka.

However, such action couldn't be achieved solely by those Sun God Priests.

The intense Divine Power vibrations could be felt by Hill from a thousand miles away, and not to mention, the golden bright light that almost illuminated half of the Ferun Great Land.

Hill closed his eyes, quietly experiencing the complex composition of the power of the sun god... It seemed that Acreber's cup and amulet wouldn't recover in less than a hundred years; it depended on whether Amanata would resurrect with Acreber, otherwise, this demigod would really compensate too much.

And the other half should be the power of Amanata's Holy Grail.