blogombal Page 20
Page 20
Author's Note: ——————
resume update
45. Besieged on all sides
Beneath the pitch-black water, specks of blue fluorescence emanate from the lush leaves and stems of aquatic plants, spreading across the lakebed. The light is even stronger than that on the "ground" covered with travertine layers.
The two high-ranking Kotō murloc warriors that Casalos was thinking about were currently hovering above a pile of rocks, looking down at the murlocs who were struggling to dig through the rocks.
“Gurgle! Those despicable kobolds! We kindly allowed them to hunt on Stone Island, and they dared to destroy it, ruining our home!” One of them exhaled two bubbles, speaking viciously. Its voice underwater became much lower, no longer as sharp and piercing as it was on land.
“It must have been that dragon.” Another chimed in, “They’re all in cahoots. It’s despicable. We were driven here for so many years, and the temples and towns we finally built have been buried like this.”
More than two hundred people, and more than three hundred eggs in the nursery pool, all gone…
“But we can’t even get revenge right now!” The first murloc warrior’s tone grew increasingly somber: “I hate these guys who can fly around in the sky.”
"Let's be patient a little longer, Liwu Lu. Mother Ocean, please help us. Although Lord Garu Jila prayed in the temple and failed to escape in time, he is still alive and well. Now we have found its location. As long as we dig a tunnel to rescue it, that dragon cub will have nowhere to escape."
"Yes, may Mother Ocean bless you..."
Casalos, above the water, had no idea what was happening underwater.
With the Koto fishmen making no move yet, the gray dwarves' slave-hunting team will soon arrive, forcing the Carrick tribe to shift its focus in its defense construction efforts.
To be honest, the Grey Dwarves' slave-hunting teams are not a problem for the Carrick tribe itself at present.
Since the Carrick tribe fled to the Rift Valley, no Grey Dwarf slave-hunting caravan has ever exceeded 40 men, and their actual combat capability is even weaker than the first attack by the Kotow murlocs. If a real fight breaks out, Casalos could wipe them all out with a few swirling breaths, leaving them no chance to escape.
However, the Grey Dwarf slave-hunting teams were not just a single group; they represented the dwarven capital city of Grevesend. The main threat posed by the slave-hunting teams to the Carrick tribe lay in the fact that their presence indicated that the Rift Valley was within the sphere of influence of Grevesend.
Previously, the grey dwarves from Gravesend weren't particularly interested in the small, geographically advantageous kobold tribe. This was a result of weighing the benefits and risks; attacking a stone pillar for a mere hundred or so kobold slaves was simply not worth the effort. But now, if they knew that the Karrick tribe had gained a hatchling dragon, things could change drastically.
Which grey dwarf lord wouldn't want to have a "dragon blacksmith" to build a "city of blades" that resounds throughout the Underdark?
A fire-type hatchling that came out of nowhere, without the protection of an adult dragon—is there a more suitable target to enslave and train into a dragon blacksmith?
"Therefore, the key to defending against the gray dwarf slave-hunting team lies in concealment."
At the weekly meeting, Casalos was still lying in the center of the stone platform, chewing on pieces of low-quality iron ore made from mushroom slices roasted on stones, occasionally taking a sip of tea made from the juice of mushroom spores and steeped in tender shoots of *Imperata cylindrica*, and casually summarizing to the kobold "leadership" surrounding him:
“You must disguise the mushroom bushes as they were originally, cover all the primitive mechanical structures that have been built up with fluorescent vines, and guard against those messy psionic spying abilities… I think it would be best to break the stone bridge and completely cut off the normal path to the top of the stone pillar, so that the slave-catching team will have much less incentive to spy.”
“What if they insist on coming up to take a look? Those Koto fishmen…” Eisen discussed with the others for a while and raised a possibility.
“That’s exactly what I was worried about. The Koto fishmen have been inactive for a long time. They might be trying to lure the gray dwarf slave-hunting team over so that they can use Gravesend to deal with us.” Casalos raised his head slightly, gazing into the dark distance.
"If the Grey Dwarf slave-hunting team insists on coming up, then we don't have many options... We'll see how things go then. Cutting off the stone bridge and blocking the normal route to the mushroom thicket is necessary now. Your current population size is enough to be self-sufficient with the mushroom thicket's production. At least we can get through this period and then we can have another four months to develop quietly."
In conclusion, the Grey Dwarves may not necessarily be a problem; Gravesend is not the only city near the Rift.
Chapter 44
A large, powerful force. Although there seem to be no drow cities nearby, the grey dwarves also face the threat of the Abyssal Serpent Empire to the west. In the deep valleys south of Gravesend, there are numerous traces of benthic demon fish, reportedly engaged in daily battles with fish-like monsters. Unless the existence of Casalos is confirmed, they are unlikely to waste too many troops and resources fighting a small kobold tribe in a remote rift.
"The mind flayers' shell-like ships are our real problem!"
"Why do these tentacle-faced creatures, who should be hiding deeper in the earth, pass through this place every few months, and why does it coincide so coincidentally with the time when the gray dwarf slave-hunting team travels?" Casalos wondered.
The Rift Valley's remoteness stems not only from its complex karst topography, limited terrestrial living space, and scarce resources, but also from its geographically isolated location. Although it has connections to several nearby regions, these connections are mostly very narrow and winding, with no direct access to the surface, thus lacking any potential to become a transportation hub.
Generally speaking, mind flayers don't need to pass through here no matter where they want to go—their shell ships are magical vessels capable of long-distance teleportation, so it's quite abnormal for them to wander slowly in the narrow upper and middle underground spaces.
"We're not entirely sure about that. Could it be that they're tracking a grey dwarf slave-hunting caravan?"
"That's a possibility, but something still doesn't feel right... We can't worry about that for now. Let's focus on deception and disguise. The camouflage net is more effective against aerial reconnaissance. The real problem is psionic surveillance. If we hide well and don't attract the attention of those tentacled insects, and let them pass by peacefully, then everyone will be happy."
Casalos turned his head to look at the large ballistae camouflaged by fluorescent vines along the cliff edge, as well as the iron armor worn by the kobold patrol. He also felt the inner dragon's treasury about to be fully charged. He gritted his teeth and said, "If they insist on flying over to take a look, then we're not so easy to bully!"
46. The Bottom Card
Casaloz had the confidence to say this, not because of its dragon arrogance and hubris, but because the Karic tribe had already moved from the Bone Age to the Iron Age.
Beneath the mushroom bushes, within the stone pillars, lies a source of low-grade pyrite, the very source of the sacred work for the kobolds of the Kalik tribe. Unfortunately, while they can mine, they lack the smelting skills of the dwarves. This ore is of very low grade, high in sulfur and phosphorus, and the kobolds, using their primitive and rudimentary smelting methods, are essentially unable to remove the sulfur, phosphorus, and carbon without the aid of transformation magic. What they produce is nothing but scrap iron, less practical than bone tools.
This wasn't a big deal for Casalos. Although it couldn't quite remember whether it had seriously studied metallurgy in its previous life, it could recall some effective and less restrictive steelmaking methods. As long as there was coal, things would be easier.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of coal in any corner of the world—to be disrespectful, this is less a gift from the Earth Goddess Santia and more an ancient legacy, perhaps even deliberately left behind by Asgras, who shaped the planet Toril—the coal mines themselves are much older than the Earth Goddess herself, and who knows what happened on this planet before Asgras reshaped the earth.
Of course, Casalos wouldn't be thinking about these things for the time being; matters of the gods were still far removed from his mind.
It merely used its knowledge from its previous life to help the dog-headed people improve their inferior smelting techniques, teaching these hardworking little dogs to build crude blast furnaces with short lifespans and low efficiency. Then, smelting qualified iron to manufacture armor, weapons, and armor-piercing arrowheads for ballistae would no longer be a problem.
Another advantage of pyrite is that during the desulfurization process, it is roasted in a lime kiln, which also allows sulfur to be extracted.
If the Kou Tao fishmen dare to climb the stone pillar now, they might be met with sulfuric acid...
With iron, coal, and sulfur, it seemed like something was still missing to make headlines. Casalos had this thought, yet it couldn't quite grasp the key point. Deeply influenced by its anamorphic dragon heritage, even its past life's memories seemed to be shifting towards abstract perceptions, making it more like a dragon while simultaneously losing something.
Fortunately, the memory is merely abstracted, not forgotten or lost. When it encounters a specific corresponding thing, it can completely recall those things that might gradually become blurred over time—this is perhaps the greatest benefit of the Atheron Legacy's abstraction of its past life's memories; it will never forget those things that might be useful.
A few weeks ago, Casalos's attempt to become a warrior through self-training failed again. It knew very well that as a strong iron dragon, a "monster" in the eyes of humans, it was the prototype for the warrior profession created by humanoids, and the possibility of achieving a warrior profession through the known training methods of humanoid warriors was indeed too low.
Even so, Casalos still felt frustrated and annoyed when he truly experienced failure. To prevent himself from falling into a state of rage and despair, he would usually fly around above mushroom bushes to clear his head, when suddenly he smelled a foul stench with a strong ammonia odor.
Instead of clearing its head, it smelled a stinky fart. Enraged, it flew straight to the source of the stench, intending to burn the cesspool to ashes with its breath. But upon arriving, it found a small group of kobolds had opened a cover somewhere within the mushroom bushes, and the stench was emanating from it.
The noble dragon was disturbed, and the kobolds knelt down tremblingly, awaiting the dragon's punishment. But Casalos landed, sniffed them a few times, and then flew away.
Casalos found that hazy flash of inspiration in its mind, and it was overjoyed; how could it possibly blame the kobolds who were at work? This small group of kobolds was just preparing to clean a latrine.
Dragons can be reasonable, at least the dragons of the Order faction are.
A latrine! What a wonderful thing! It's exactly the piece that the Karrick tribe is missing right now!
Kobolds are strictly orderly. Their lair—though called a lair, it's actually closer to a village or even a town, perhaps even more advanced—has clearly defined functional areas and features the most unique residential area among all social races on the continent of Faerûn: the living ring. As the name suggests, the living area of a kobold lair is built in a ring shape, but that's not the main point… The key point is that in the center of this living ring is a centralized "toilet," where all kobolds relieve themselves.
This centralized toilet needed to hold a large amount of foul-smelling filth, so the kobolds designed a large pit beneath it, sealed off with movable covers and baffles, to prevent the stench from seeping into the mushroom bushes.
On another note, the kobolds also discovered that the mushrooms around the large pit always grew the fastest and were the most fertile... Over time, white crystals would grow in the large pit and tunnels, mixing with the soil and clogging the pits and ditches. Therefore, the kobolds needed to periodically open a drainage channel that had been dug out in advance at the bottom of the large pit to pour the accumulated, fermented and liquefied excrement into the lake under the stone pillars to empty the "inventory" before entering it to clean off the crystals.
What is crystallization?
If a seasoned alchemist were here, they would surely recognize it as a special alchemical material, which can also be used as an additional casting material to enhance the power of certain special spells.
Casalos could directly state its chemical name: potassium nitrate!
It then summoned Eisen and ordered him to command all the kobolds to stop what they were doing and go to the cesspool to scrape ash and boil excrement.
"One part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, three parts charcoal, add a little sugar, and you're a big Ivan. Tentacle-faced snails opening their shells, I hope you rat tail juice!" Casalos didn't want to watch them play with shit. After assigning the tasks of scraping and boiling saltpeter, and giving the kobold engineers the general methods and proportions to try, it muttered something the kobolds couldn't understand.
Chapter 45
Those who knew the rhymes and muttered incessantly kept their distance from this stinking place.
After several weeks of trying to boil nitrate directly with fermented manure, there was still little progress. However, the pit had accumulated a rich amount of nitrate soil over a long period, which was much simpler and faster to process. By repeatedly rinsing the filtrate with hot and cold water, a fairly pure nitrate salt could be produced quickly. The resulting crystals were then crushed evenly, mixed with sulfur powder and carbon powder, and some sugar boiled from vine juice was added. The mixture was then placed into a spherical cast iron shell with pre-cut diagonal grooves, and a rope and fuse soaked in the same ingredients were inserted. The homemade aerial bomb was thus completed.
A spherical object half a meter in diameter, Casaloz can grab one with one claw, and can hang two more on its wing hook and tail. It's practically a primitive fighter-bomber. Bombing a fragile snail-shell ship would be a piece of cake.
47. The second trial begins
Gunpowder is not uncommon in Faerûn; many apothecaries can concoct it, and goblins often use it to blast things. However, most Faerûnians are used to the convenience of magic and the abundance of natural minerals, and few know about or use these troublesome traditional smelting methods.
A simple transformation spell of low level can create a whole bunch of things; who would want to spend months cooking manure to extract them?
Currently, due to limited conditions, the dog-headed people are hardworking and simple.
Hard work always pays off. The Karrick tribe now possesses about forty pre-fragmented iron-cased bombs. Their outer casings are designed to be compatible with the trenches used to release rolling stones, providing a significant surprise to ground-based attacking forces. In addition, three specially designed siege catapults are hidden within the mushroom bushes, capable of long-range indirect fire.
With the addition of one level 9 and two level 8 Dragonvein Warlocks, the Karrick tribe's strength is already quite formidable. They could dominate a region on the surface, but they wouldn't even be able to emerge from the Underdark.
With defense no longer a problem, Casalos's attention shifted to the Dragon Vault, which was about to reopen.
Having learned from its first experience, it knew that turning the benefits gained from the Dragon's Treasury into reality would not be easy. There were no elemental magic gathering nodes like those created by the Mystic Lock of the Athelon Holy Land here, and it needed to prepare quite a bit in advance.
After the routine meeting, Casalos summoned Eisen and had her prepare a whole host of items: several concentrated vine extracts with a sedative effect, a large quantity of desulfurized and dephosphorized iron ore, a 4th-level Battle Hymn scroll, and a 3rd-level Deep Sleep delayed-cast spell scroll—for these two items, Casalos forcibly took two feat slots from a certain unfortunate 8th-level Dragonvein Warlock, one 4th-level spell slot and one 3rd-level spell slot, turning him from a spellcasting turret into a major support. The latter himself felt fortunate to be chosen and given such a role by the dragons…
Once everything was ready and the Dragon's Treasury was fully charged, Casalos flew into the Lava Falls and followed the path he had come from, diving back to a lava confluence area where fire element was relatively abundant. He carved out a widened cavity to slow down the flow of lava. Then, using available materials, he built a stone platform with channels and grates, ensuring that when he lay on it, he could be immersed in the lava while keeping his head above water to avoid suffocation or being swept away by the lava.
Casalos then made several trips between the small cavity and the mushroom patch, safely bringing all the prepared items into the cavity. He then lay down on the stone platform and took a short nap of several hours to obtain detailed values on the energy efficiency of the Dragon's Treasury. Calculations showed that the Dragon's Treasury still needed 5 hours and 06 minutes of sleep to replenish the last bit of energy. Next, he swallowed all the iron ore in several portions, filling his stomach until it was bulging, before drinking the sedative vine juice. He then opened the magic scroll, set the delayed trigger time, closed his eyes, and began another short nap.
Upon waking, Casalos found himself back in the vast, empty Dragon Vault. He opened the panel and saw the new passive buff described as "The energy of the Bejuri Flame is filling your body; its specific effects are yet to be explored." He tapped his iron beak twice and immediately began the trial, entering the dungeon.
As the dark vortex dissipated, a ray of warm sunlight shone on Casalos, making it momentarily unable to open its eyes, as it had become accustomed to the darkness of the Underdark.
After catching its breath, the fledgling dragon, entering the training instance for the second time, found itself standing before a magnificent floating city, its claws resting on a ten-meter-square, disc-shaped floating stone platform. The platform was covered with intricate gilded patterns and lifelike reliefs, which did not appear to be in the Faerûn style.
The stone platform was shrouded in thick clouds and mist, with visibility less than its length. Apart from the floating city stretching across the horizon, there was nothing else to be seen.
"Although I knew that the Dragon's Treasury dungeon was completely random, running directly from the underground mine to the sky is a bit of a difference... But it's a good thing for me, I can finally make the most of my advantages."
Muttering to itself, Casalos took a short run-up, leaped into the air, spread its wings, and flew into the dungeon entrance marked by cyclones and clouds outside the floating city. A gale then enveloped it, carrying it at high speed into the thick clouds. When its vision cleared again, it had entered a floating city plaza with five towering buildings.
Unsurprisingly, the monsters in the "room" rushed towards it all at once. They were a group of invisible beings of non-Farren species, their cawing like crows. Their feathers were predominantly gray-white and gray-blue, with tips and edges shimmering with iridescent structural colors, making them quite beautiful when they were in good condition.
Unfortunately, feathers are weak to fire. Casalos continued to breathe fire at them, slowing down and circling halfway around. Dozens of burning harpies fell to the ground of the plaza.
The first loot was easily obtained: two magical items. One of the options was a dragon armor mask that was suitable for wearing. In addition to increasing defense, wearing it would also increase the overall effect of dragon might and breath weapons by 15%.
Casaloz's Dragon's Might hasn't awakened yet, but its 15% global effect on breath is enough to overwhelm another charged staff that can cast two level 3 fireballs—this staff might be surprisingly effective in certain situations, but it doesn't seem suitable for endless dungeon battles.
"Flying field, god-tier starting gear, what great luck today." Feeling cheerful, Casalos had a sudden inspiration. The room reward item options were now displayed with colored borders. The Charged Staff was blue, and the Dragon Armor Mask was purple, with set piece suffixes added.
Taking advantage of its flying attack, Casalos quickly cleared four rooms to complete its first HD upgrade. Except for the first room, the rewards for the other three clears did not include any options with blue or purple borders. They were mostly gray or white, with only one green feat, the powerful attack it had been longing for.
"As expected, there are quality differences in the rewards for clearing the dungeon. I wonder if the blue-purple reward in the first room was just good luck, or if it was a permanent in-game boost obtained by fulfilling some condition in the dungeon last time. I must check the panel carefully after I get out to figure it out."
Casalos jotted down the questions that had just come to mind and glanced at its current stats. After growing through four HD rooms, its size and basic stats had swelled to the average level of a young Iron Dragon. Its in-game equipment included a purple epic item, a Faerûn +3 Magical Dragon Armor Mask, a blank Dragon Claw Gauntlets, a level 0 spell fatigue-like Touch, and the Feat feat of Mighty Strike.
48. Sudden change in art style
In this state, Casalos would dare to directly attack those Exemplary Professionals who have just touched the Exemplary Path outside. Unfortunately, this is in-game growth that cannot be taken out of the Dragon's Treasury dungeon; its trial has only just begun.
The monsters in the fifth room were a group of wind elementals from outside the realm of the heavens. The wind elementals' overwhelming aerial mobility caused Casalos...
Chapter 46
There was a bit of trouble – after passing through four rooms, Casalos gained an extra 1HD growth, and the monster's strength seemed to have increased dramatically as well. Last time during the trial, it suffered a major setback because of this, falling into dragon rage and ruining its own condition.
This time, having prepared itself mentally, it wouldn't make the same mistake again. It swooped down to the two interlocking buildings on the floating stone platform, pressed its back against the wall to compress the defensive hemisphere, and unleashed a barrage of breath attacks, bites, and wing strikes, killing off the wind elemental creatures that were piling up and attacking from one direction one by one, thus clearing the room with minimal damage.
"Huh? This is..."
While slowly taking off to touch the blood-bead-like reward, Casaroz observed his own injuries and was surprised to find that the scales damaged by the wind element attack were actually healing as the flames shimmered.
This is not self-healing. Self-healing requires the consumption of nutrients and energy for slow recovery; it is a form of repair. In addition, it discovered through the wound that its scales seemed to be much harder than it remembered, to a degree that far exceeded the natural armor enhancement that 1HD growth could bring.
If I'm not mistaken, this should be one of the effects of Bejuri's Flame!
Thinking this, it didn't rush to collect the loot, but instead landed back on the ground. Its mind raced as it activated the in-game encyclopedia function of the Dragon's Treasury, using its own attribute panel as a benchmark to create detailed attribute lists for the monsters in the dungeon, and then compared them to derive a defense reference. As a result, the previously missing defense value in its attribute panel finally appeared: Casalos's innate defense value in the game was now 11, a full 3 points higher than what it should have been when it normally developed to 9HD.
Its thoughts continued to race, and a green +3 icon appeared in the annotation of the innate defense extension. Focusing its attention on it, the description that appeared, "Bejuri's flames filled the scales," confirmed to it that this was indeed the effect of the flames.
"What's so special about this? It's a charged armor, a phase-shift armor, and it even has automatic repair capabilities."
Casalos made a clicking sound as it tapped its upper and lower beaks together. Satisfied, it flew up and touched the room's completion reward. Looking at the two blue-framed feat options, its mood became even more pleasant.
Both feats are unique to dragons and are super-breathing feats. One is breath recovery, and the other is breath retention. Casaroz did not hesitate and chose the former, which is essential for continuous combat, making him more and more like a machine dedicated to licking the ground.
The opened passage didn't reveal a corridor filled with a menacing aura, indicating it wasn't a fixed boss room, but rather a randomly appearing special challenge or hidden room. Casalos wasn't sure whether his inexplicable collision last time was due to exceptionally good or bad luck.
The training continued. Casalos crushed over thirty winged, ferocious lions, incinerated nearly forty two-headed giants, and then smashed apart over forty pterosaurs from some unknown world, who could breathe lightning and wind blades and wore light armor. He gained a 0-circle spell, Divine Guidance, a 1-circle spell, Lesser Rejuvenation, and a +1 Constitution belt, along with an additional 1 HD growth.
The whirlwind passage leading to the ninth room exuded an aura Casalos had never experienced before. Gritting his teeth, he entered, only to be blocked by a group of witches.
A barrage of disgusting, spell-like abilities, including weather manipulation, magical cages, curses, mirages, and illusions, assaulted Casalos, leaving it dazed and unable to fly. Not only that, the few witch corpses it managed to kill with its close-range breath attack hadn't even been lying on the ground for long before other witches used their corpse manipulation to pull them up and rejoin the battle.
Left with no other choice, Casalos had to change tactics and switch to guerrilla warfare, relying on the restorative abilities of Lesser Rejuvenation and Bejuri's Flame to slowly wear down these evil creatures that the dragon loathed.
Casalos's successful completion of the challenging task rewarded him with two pieces of loot. One was a purple gem that offered two class options, unfortunately humanoid rather than dragon-like: Paladin and Warlock.
Dizzy and confused by the witch, Casalos decisively chose to become a paladin, a profession dedicated to eliminating such evil creatures.
No training, no ceremony, and no additional conditions were required. Casalos simply made a choice and obtained a combat profession that he had been trying to figure out for a long time in reality without success.
"A witch, right? An evil creature, right? Take my Broken Shoe Slash... Wait, that's not right. Where did my Broken Shoe Slash go? What is this... Holy Healing, isn't that an ability that only a level 2 Paladin can obtain? And what is Divine Perception? Isn't it for detecting evil... Is there some mistake somewhere?"
Upon becoming a first-class paladin, Casalos immediately experienced significant growth. It could feel its attacks becoming more effective—not just through visible numerical changes, but as if it had undergone long-term, targeted training, becoming smoother and more fluid. Its body became more resilient, it adapted and mastered the dragon armor mask it was wearing, and it gained additional feats and special or supernatural abilities.
However, its abilities seem to be somewhat different from what it had in mind.
Its choice of paladins stemmed from their signature attack, the Evil-Slaying Slash, specifically designed to target evil creatures. However, the Evil-Slaying Slash wasn't among the abilities it acquired; instead, some unfamiliar things appeared.