Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Flipping through the three-dimensional map of the Ferun Great Land, Hill gently traced the long road with his finger... He wanted to know whether William's destination was Yinbutu or somewhere along the way.

Mentioning the Starfall Ocean, anyone's first thought would be the Dragon Worship Church... Even now, there are quite a few dragon liches around there.

Of course, the Starfall Ocean was originally the place with the most metal dragons, especially golden dragons.

Unfortunately, due to the Gold Dragon King's overconfidence in his abilities and refusal to heed the advice of other golden dragons to leave Toril, he went mad during the dragon madness period and was killed by his own kin, leaving metal dragons with a psychological shadow regarding this place.

So even though the dragon madness has ended, upon returning to Toril, most of them have moved to sparsely populated areas... especially to the Supreme Desert.

After all, the Santalin Meeting has reached a dead end, and even the Felin Magic Mallow in the desert has been exterminated by the frenzied shadow soul mages.

And the Shade Soul City has little interest in slave mining for the time being... The Prince who stole the Nyscroll is still on the run!

Even during the Magicplague period where arcanists came out to vie for power, these princes of the shadow souls were focused on capturing people.

They are so powerful... which is why they don't value secular power as much. If they desire something, how many places would dare to refuse them?

It's precisely due to their arrogant attitude that the various rich deposits of metals and gemstones in the Supreme Desert are basically claimed by whoever gets there first, which is quite attractive to the metal dragons.

With the metal dragons leaving, those true dragon liches in the Dragon Worship Church don't quite like the human-populated Starfall Ocean, so the members left in this area are mostly those who once followed Samast.

The mages hiding in the shadows of Anmur, and those liches who turned into undead dragons in human form, have always had good relations.

Under Samast's rule, Anmur and Sel once had a covert alliance with the Dragon Worship Church. After Samast died, the half-dragon liches in the alliance couldn't control the giant dragons, leaving only a scattered alliance.

Whether the dragon liches are willing to acknowledge this contract depends on their mood.

For Anmur at the time, it was quite normal to choose cooperation with dragon liches and red-robed mages; their caravans needed to pass under the noses of giant dragons, and without the backing of the Dragon Worship Church, their goods could easily be robbed by these dragons before reaching their destination.

It was the same for Sel's red-robed mages; whenever they ran out of money, anyone passing by the nearby trade routes was treated like their wallet.

Hill glanced at the undead tribe ready to set off on the big screen, then went to the study to organize the first batch of books delivered from Candlekeep.

When the magic ship arrives at Yinbutu, he should understand a bit more.

Standing at the study window, Hill took one last look at the Alchemy Hall located in the city center... Although he had strengthened the control of the Water Maze Lock, if Shaer and Celene really start fighting over there... the Temporal Artifact should be pretty sturdy, right?

He put down the book in his hand and turned to say to List, who was checking the book catalog: "Grandfather is with Purwell, right? Remember to ask him to not come out for a while.

The most important thing is, Lynn and the Elven City Guards, make sure they don't go to the Alchemy Hall during this period."

List said calmly: "I've already notified Marsha not to let the Elven City Guards into the Alchemy Hall for the time being.

Mr. Lynn has also been given a hint... unless absolutely necessary, he won't go there.

But if it's related to the undead tribe, he simply cannot avoid it.

However, you need not worry so much, as even if the Lady of the Night is truly enraged, she would take out the Maiden of the Moon to fight. That lady always knows how to make calculations."

Hill looked bewilderedly at his Tower Spirit... but List's judgment in this regard has always been more accurate than his, so he stopped worrying for the moment.

Still, he couldn't help but scratch his head, turning his head in puzzlement: It's obvious there could be no ending between Shaer and William, at best it's just flirtation.

Could this be enough to make the Lady of the Night consider any major loss to William before fighting?

"Sir, stop pondering, clearly, you haven't inherited the human lineage in this aspect. People naturally think of their loved ones, the Lady of the Night has already made it quite obvious.

Not being together doesn't mean she doesn't have His Majesty William in her heart." List said with a flat tone as he checked the hundreds of books floating in the study, "Perhaps once the Earth Bear reaches the age of maturity, sir may understand a bit about what it means to always be on someone's mind.

Until then, just hold yourself to Oriana's standards."

Hill put down the book in his hand and said discontentedly, "Why isn't it based on Elf standards?"

"Logically, one hundred years should be about right," List bluntly said, "But I think it's better to look further ahead, at least that way you won't be too surprised."

Hill clenched the book tightly... yet he himself didn't know if his indifference towards certain things was due to immaturity or because he had seen too much in the past, leaving him indifferent to the chaotic interpersonal relationships in this fantasy world.

In the end, he decided to let it go... List knew him too well, there was no need to deliberately provoke himself.

Hill buried himself in copying books for a few days. During this time, Marsha came over several times and talked to him about the happenings on the Alchemy Hall's side... Just as List had thought, even though Celene lingered in the Alchemy Hall attempting to converse with William on the other side of the Temporal Artifact, no trouble arose.

Although William usually reacts explosively, his tolerance could actually exceed all deities in Toril... He just generally didn't find it necessary to exert himself so hard.

So even though Celene muttered about what kind of rivals William might have, he remained silent, merely letting the mechanical-minded Temporal Artifact play a question-answer game with Celene.

Perhaps because William behaved relatively well, even though Celene exposed a lot of Shaer's secrets, the Lady of the Night was not angered by her sister, only occasionally showing up to freely discuss Amanata with Celene.

It seemed that in Goddess of Toril's eyes, all of Shaer's suitors combined were not as impactful as Amanata. Celene did not persist for more than two days before retreating.

Rather than causing discomfort to Shaer, she preferred to abandon the topic... Amanata's pursuits would only bring ridicule from all female deities, whether good or evil.

Although Shaer and Celene's attention were not currently on Hill, he still had his own sources of information... The God of Singing spent a day and night chatting with his self-proclaimed chosen one, Lynn.

This was not confidential information, so Lynn naturally relayed it to Hill.

Even though the Sun God had returned to his domain, with faint divine power he seemed only able to banish elemental creatures back to the Fire Element Realm, and close the countless micro-Dimensional Gates on the Sun, while those peculiar Helian people, being indigenous to the Sun, could not be expelled even by Amanata.

Or rather, according to the normal trajectory, this race born from the Sun should inherently be Amanata's subjects, yet by sheer coincidence, during their emergence period, Amanata died thoroughly.

As a naturally demigod race, they even looked down on Amanata with lower rank divine power, and dared to set traps for him. Now, it was even more impossible for the faint divine power Sun God to make them obey.

Used to freedom and carefree living, who would want a famously strict boss above their head?

While the Helian people relinquished the location of the Sunshine Temple Palace, they still occupied their own territory in the region where the Sun's black holes were most concentrated.

This seemed like a concession... but would only infuriate Amanata further.

The Sun originally belonged entirely to him!

Such was Amanata that he couldn't even bother with issues in Kalinsan... After all, Karin and Mannan couldn't return, and if priests and Sun Knights, with three divine artifacts in hand, couldn't deal with scattered divine beasts like stragglers, it wasn't surprising the Sun God rescinded his initial promises to them.

The resurrected Sun God had less need for followers... Due to severe injuries, he retained only the Sun's fundamental divinity, and the faith-based divinities of order and ruling authority.

These three types require very little from followers, so Amanata, who was always meticulous about weighing profit and loss, showed a clear change in attitude... So obvious that even the undead left behind in Kalinsan couldn't help but curse him as worse than a dog.

The mercenaries from the Sun God Temple, when fighting divine beasts, once they found themselves doomed, would desperately flee to Mil Forest seeking salvation from the undead. It was during their 'friendly exchanges' with the undead that the current situation in Manshaka was analyzed.

Indeed, after Amanata's resurrection, he provided corresponding returns for his promises to believers... Enhanced capabilities for the devout, and maybe a bit of good health for those who merely grumbled.

But they would need to fight for anything more important... Now they remembered, the Sun Priest's promise was merely that Amanata would certainly drive out Karin and Mannan, providing substantial assistance for them to become the new masters of Kalinsan.

The Sun God Temple had already fulfilled its fundamental promise... As for those ambiguous commitments thereafter, whether they would be fulfilled depended on Amanata's mood.

Everyone understood, Amanata with faint divine power was simply not capable of offering more.

So they could only venture into Karin Desert themselves... Even if these divine beasts couldn't be thoroughly driven away, at least prevent them from leaving the desert.

When Hill learned that Tethyr's merchant ships had appeared in Manshaka, he understood Amanata had given up on absolute rule over Kalinsan.

Actually, from the start, this Sun God who was still living hundreds of thousands of years in the past was destined to fail, as in the present Toril, it's simply impossible for a country to appear that elevates him as the sole True God in a theocracy.