World Keeper

Chapter 160: Strength in Unity

The kingdom of Hetheros had easily claimed several of Gandor’s major cities, failing in only two key points. These points were the capital itself, and Cau Buhnga. Inside the capital, the strongest army of the kingdom was present, so it was no wonder that they had endured. But as for Cau Buhnga, even the elven queen had been surprised when she heard that it had prevailed.

It did not take long for the news of the strangers that came in with the tide to reach the ears of the queen, and how they had fought back the elven army that was a thousand strong, including even ten pinnacles. But what really struck awe into her was the fighting strength of these strange people.

Over two hundred combatants, all at the pinnacle of power. Each one could themselves represent an army of a thousand normal troops. If they all moved as one, it was possible that they could crush an entire kingdom on their own, given enough time.

Queen Allor of Gandor sent a message to Cau Buhnga by way of a druid, requesting a meeting with these people. She was soon made aware of the difference in language between the two people, but such things mattered little to her. What she was facing now was the life and death of her family, herself, and her entire kingdom.

Thankfully, they had already been working on solving the matter of communication, and one among them had made great progress. With him included, a diplomatic party was sent to meet with Queen Allor. She wished to incorporate their strength into her kingdom, to give them the power to fight back against Hetheros, and keep the oldest kingdom of the elves safe.

Unfortunately, it seemed like her wish was impossible. Among this party was a member of their own royalty, someone who could not simply stand beneath another flag. Instead, they negotiated a deal. There was a large amount of unused land within the borders of Gandor, and Queen Allor designated some of it to the strangers to establish their own kingdom, forming an alliance between the two.

While this may seem like she was simply conceding the land, there was actually more to the queen’s plans. The land that they had been given was surrounded on all sides by Gandor. It was safe to say that they still had a degree of control over this new kingdom, even without any political maneuvering. After all, they held the wealth of the elven nation while the newcomers had little. It would be easy to tax any trades coming in and out of their territory.

But still, this gave the newcomers what they wished for, so they agreed to fight. A mere three months after the negotiations were finished, the new kingdom had been established with its first city. Their ruler, Queen Dis’ni, quickly took a king from one of her own. When these people, these ‘beastkin’ moved, they shattered Hetheros.

Elves were a patient people, they could go months or even years before launching a second offensive, giving their people time to rest and improve. The beastkin, however, struck with a primal ferocity that shook the hearts of any who saw them. Every day, they moved with a small force of Gandor and reclaimed a city. When the armies of Hetheros had been slain or surrendered, the beastkin left.

And once Gandor’s territory had been reclaimed, they moved on Hetheros itself. The Towers of Communication simply could not keep up with the reports as city after city fell. It was the greatest bloodshed that had ever been spilled in the elven lands, but it was short lived. In less than a year, Hetheros had been conquered, their territories and people added to Gandor.

Having seen their power first hand, Queen Allor could not help but fear this little kingdom, who had only a single city. Through all of their battles, they had only lost two of their pinnacle fighters, with the rest still being in pristine condition. Yet despite her fear, she knew that she could not attack. The pinnacle forces of Hetheros had been mostly wiped out, and Gandor had to supply their own to reinforce the defenses of each city.

They simply could not afford a battle against the much more concentrated power of the beastkin. And so, their alliance was maintained, neither side having the means or desire to attack the other. But soon, the elves learned another truth of the beastkin as the years passed.

They aged far faster than the elves themselves, fading away after a mere century at most. But at the same time, this also caused their numbers to grow. The original two hundred and fifty beastkin became over a thousand after that hundred years, and their strength had not diminished in the slightest.

Thanks to having so many powerful fighters, the path had been paved for their young to grow. The second generation may not have all turned out to be just as powerful as their parents, nor the third, but their numbers made up for that fact. From the second generation came a mere one hundred pinnacle existences, with another hundred from the third, maintaining the core of their strength.

However, by now the elves cared little, for they had their own matters to focus on. Their scholars had learned of the truth behind the dungeons, how they gifted magical treasures to those who showed their strengths. Many refused to believe so at first, until the beastkin showed them a rather unremarkable bag. A bag capable of instantly storing and retrieving items far larger than itself.

Queen Allor pleaded with the second generation queen of Zoriark, the beastkin kingdom, to trade for the bag so that they could study it. However, this queen remained firm in her ideals. She would not give up the bag, and allowed her own people to study it first. Instead, she promised to trade them another if they proved able to reproduce its miraculous effects.

Queen Allor was not pleased with the decision, but also could not act rashly. She had learned over the years that the beastkin had established more cities, using the islands off the coast as their territories. If the elves attempted to wage a war at this point, it would be a simple matter for Zoriark to evacuate its small numbers to those islands, islands where the elves had not explored.

Instead, they focused on scouring the land, looking for any other dungeons which they could claim as their own. It took them dozens of years, but they indeed found one, where they least expected it.

One day, a druid had been walking past the palace in the capital city of Gandor, when he felt that he could simply no longer feel the presence of the world around him. When the report was given, it was found that a dungeon had been existing beneath the palace all along, too deep for them to feel its effects.

Naturally, there were those who wanted to destroy it immediately, as it posed a threat to their very lives. However, the elven queen was forced to remember the miraculous items that dungeons bequeathed their champions. In her eyes, this dungeon was not a catastrophe, but a blessing from the goddess herself.

But first, she had to ‘negotiate’ with it. The information on the dungeons from the beastkin had been extensive, so she knew that any who died within the dungeon’s territories could never find the goddess’s embrace. She invited a scholar of Zoriark to communicate with the dungeon through its own language. She wanted to know what the dungeon wanted to remove its territory from the surface.

Thankfully, this dungeon seemed surprisingly intelligent, even by the standards of Zoriark. It easily communicated through the dungeon’s language. All it asked for was a yearly tribute of metals and different types of wood, and in return it would keep its territory beneath the ground.

Queen Allor was ecstatic with this deal, and immediately agreed. However, along with its intelligence, the danger of this dungeon was also incredibly high. There were not only monsters scattered throughout it, but also magical traps carved into the stone walls. Some spells the elves had never even seen before, and they were forced to study to learn of the effects.

With great danger, though, came equally great spoils. Although they did lose one of their pinnacle forces in the endeavor, they had beaten the dungeon’s test, and slain its final boss. A towering robed skeleton holding a giant scythe, that seemed to cut through the very air it tread. Unfortunately the scythe disappeared with the skeleton, but the rewards had been worth it.

Gandor finally had their own storage bag to study, and this one seemed to hold even better storage abilities than the one in Zoriark. Now, Gandor spent all of its efforts on developing these magical treasures, every year sending another expedition to the dungeon to harvest more rewards to study.

Ryone… I mumbled inwardly, calling the goddess of magic. I had noticed the various spell diagrams formed along the cave walls of Gandor’s dungeon, as well as a massive complex below the final boss room. A wide area that looked very similar to the spell testing area that Ryone set up in the Admin Room.

Is your main dungeon beneath the elven capital…?

Uhmm… maybe? She asked, though I could feel a trace of guilt in her voice. Don’t worry, though! I always made sure to stay down below the ‘active’ area of the dungeon. There aren’t any paths leading to my testing chamber, so they shouldn’t be able to find it!

I couldn’t help but give a small sigh, shaking my head. However, soon, the rapid progression of the world below suddenly halted. One of my alarms had been triggered, after two hundred and eighty-seven years. Unfortunately, it was not one of the magic-related alarms.

I had nearly forgotten about the underwater species that we had almost encountered during our voyage. And part of me was curious as to whether I should invest in them. They did not seem to be an amphibious race, so they would only ever exist underwater. However, those thoughts soon left me as I looked at their racial scores.

It may have been because they lived in the deepest parts of the ocean, but their physical abilities were completely obscene. Even their mental abilities were remarkable. Although they could never properly interact with those on land for extended periods, their stats made even a newborn equal to a high level human. I had been considering buying an amphibious evolution for them, but if I did that, they could just wreak havoc on the world with this level of power. Their only real weakness was a short lifespan.

Perhaps thankfully, they also had a rather obscene cost to go with this level of power. Four hundred and fifty points just to purchase this race, over double what the heroc had cost. I had to shake my head at that price. While I could afford it, it was not an easy purchase. So, I sent out a message to everyone. Alright, people. It’s time for another meeting of the gods. We have a new race that we need to discuss.

If we did get this race, they could be a huge help later on. But I wasn’t sure how much they would even be able to develop before the Games began, and I couldn’t rely on them as a layer of defense if they were still in the stone age. So this was a decision that had to be made by everyone.