514: Chapter 313: Meeting During the First Snow, That Familiar Figure 514: Chapter 313: Meeting During the First Snow, That Familiar Figure Hill was delighted to receive such satisfying feedback.
He could get started right away.
This thing required plenty of work, but it was all skilled labor, and he could make dozens in a single day.
Nodding to Ellaihu, Hill said energetically: “I’ll make a few dozen more today, take them over and try them out.
I’ll also make a few hundred more, enough to form a circular rest lounge.”
“Do you have enough Pearl?” Ellaihu scratched his bear head.
“There’s plenty with the Clan Leader, but how will you place it inside?
I doubt the Clan Leader understands your design.”
“I got quite a bit from the sea this time.” Hill replied simply.
“Where did you find them?” Ellaihu brightened up.
“We tried going to the sea before too.
Though the meat of those things isn’t very tasty unless they’re demigods, they still have quite a lot of energy, and they have Pearls that can condense water!
It’s a pity we weren’t prepared and let a demigod Shell escape.
After all, it was a water element demigod.
If it just wanted to escape, it was quite fast.
Did you capture Shells far from here?
How many days’ journey would it be?
A few more days of travel isn’t a problem; we’ve had to travel farther for hunting every year anyway.”
Seeing Hill’s exasperated expression, Ellaihu chuckled foolishly: “Ah!
I forgot you’re a Nature Warlock!
You can’t just kill intelligent Magical Beasts willy-nilly.
But you can’t even say where they are?”
Hill shook his head coldly: “No.
If I told you where they were, how would that be different from sentencing them to death?”
Hill silently gave up the idea of hunting for Shells if he ran out of Pearls.
It was a bit dangerous for him to go alone, but taking the Earth Bear would be overkill.
Hill politely took his leave from the still-inquisitive Ellaihu, needing to return home to work on the fountain cabinet.
Then he suddenly remembered Ellaihu hadn’t mentioned whether the fruit from the Large Fruit Banyan suited his taste: “Ellaihu, did you eat the Large Fruit Banyan’s fruit?”
“Ah!” Ellaihu slapped his forehead and took out a large handful of round green fruits from a ring tied around his belly.
“They’re quite delicious!
Sweet, but not like honey, more like sugar water.
Do these grow to this size in just a month?
Give me more seeds.”
It was Hill who had accelerated their growth, making them bear fruit in a month.
Hill shook his head in denial: “Even with natural spells, these seeds need three months to bear fruit.
Take these first and plant them in the outermost Cedar Forest.
I’ll prepare more saplings and let Aurelio bring them over next time.
It’ll be ready in a month.”
Ellaihu sighed wistfully: “Why did the Goddess of the Earth’s divine artifact end up with that useless whelp?
He can’t even deliver saplings without messing up.”
“What happened with Aurelio?” Hill heard a crucial detail and quickly asked Ellaihu.
“The Clan Leader assigned him to deliver saplings daily, trying not to stay out too long.
Though he’s close to becoming a demigod, he’s still just a bit short.
For now, he stays near the Clan Leader for protection.
Yet he managed to get lost in an Elemental Storm and nearly got seriously injured.”
“Lost?” Hill’s voice cracked.
The Earth Bear could get lost?
Did Aurelio have no other excuse?
“So now his injuries are mostly from the Clan Leader’s beating.
I think he got hurt worse from that than from the storm itself.” Ellaihu laughed heartily.
“The Clan Leader rarely gets that angry.
It scared everyone.
“Where did he go?” Hill couldn’t help but ask.
“The elements here are the most basic.
The area near the World’s End is different; everything manifests there.” Ellaihu explained, “If it’s the Silvermoon elements, sometimes an Illusory Realm appears.
Aurelio must have been so absorbed in what he saw that he forgot everything else.
He didn’t say what he saw, but it was probably all sorts of food.
Aurelio lingered too long, and the Silvermoon Mirage generated a storm he couldn’t avoid.
The Clan Leader had warned him many times.
Before Aurelio left, he especially emphasized it, but he still messed up.
Naturally, the Clan Leader was furious.
The Clan Leader would rather run around delivering saplings himself than let Aurelio off without a lesson.”
Hill’s lips twitched; he was speechless.
All he could do was give the seeds to Ellaihu and ask him to fetch more Mithril Ore from the warehouse.
Aurelio would survive anyway, so Hill stopped worrying about him.
Ellaihu spent a full hour in the warehouse, loading Hill up with a dozen bags of Mithril: “The bigger chunks are here.
The rest is sand; I’ll advise the Clan Leader to have everyone pick up more on their hunts.”
Hill worked diligently until the early hours of the next day, creating a hundred water curtain fountain cabinets.
The large bear had already been sitting at the door, waiting quietly.
The Silvermoon still hung in the sky, and Ellaihu was ready to set off.
Handing the cabinets to Ellaihu, Hill couldn’t help but ask: “When are you going back to the camp?
I also want to go to the World’s End.”
“You’re not ready yet; going there would only cause trouble.” Ellaihu said bluntly.
Despite just receiving a hundred cabinets, the Earth Bear didn’t spare Hill’s feelings.
Seeing Hill’s crestfallen expression, Ellaihu finally remembered he was still a young bear: “Don’t be discouraged, you’re much better than that fool Aurelio!
It took him tens of thousands of years to become a demigod, but you won’t take nearly as long.
We’ll be back to rest within a year.
The World’s End has winters every few years, where even we can’t stay there.
During that time, we take a break.
We hunt in the south first, then come back to rest for a month.
The Clan Leader is eager to meet you!
So be good and train hard for a while.”
Hill couldn’t help but smile wryly.
According to the Earth Bear, he could only go to the World’s End once he became a demigod, meaning he’d have to wait to see the Earth Goddess.
He really doubted he’d be able to toughen his body to a demigod level within a thousand years.
He could already sense the world was accelerating its restoration process.
He genuinely wanted to help rather than just wait.
Ellaihu comforted Hill briefly before setting off, not wanting to be pestered by him.
He wasn’t foolish enough to take the Clan Leader’s cub to such a dangerous place.
Even Aurelio, not fully grown, got badly beaten.
If it were him, his bones would likely be broken.
Grace wouldn’t comfort or take care of him for this; not getting another beating would be lucky.
Hill felt genuinely disappointed.
He found Ellaihu much more approachable than the three female bears, but even he refused to take him along.
He could test his endurance slowly!
If he couldn’t make it, he could just turn back.
Hill dejectedly returned home to continue making water curtain fountain cabinets.
Though Oriana had been let down from the tree by her father, she was still wallowing in dejection, lazily squatting on the climbing frame to sunbathe.
All three young bears had some injuries, so Hill brought them some restorative fruit.
Seeing them quietly eating, even Oriana wasn’t being aggressive.
Hill agreed with Ellaihu’s assessment; the Ring Mountain would be peaceful for now, allowing him to focus on his work.
The shells that Crystalline Flower gave Hill were filled to the brim with Pearl, and many stronger Spiral Pearls too.
Without counting, Hill knew, he wouldn’t need to worry about running out.
Yunifrola had claimed there weren’t many, but Hill couldn’t begin to guess the true number.
Hill labored for two months before he felt he had enough.
Not counting the hundred that Ellaihu had taken, he made enough cabinets to form a large lounge area of around four thousand square feet.
Hill smiled as he assembled these cabinets on the southern wasteland beyond the Ring Mountain: despite the time that had passed, his accuracy with arcs hadn’t dulled.
It fit perfectly within four thousand square feet.
With the cabinets finished, Hill began venturing out to the northern mountains of the Ring Mountain.
The Elemental Storms were much stronger here than within the mountains, testing his spell-casting precision.
Hill knew he should be cautious, as the northern Cedar Forest was vast and old trees over ten thousand years stood there.
Anything he did would be known to the Earth Bear.
Though running back to the valley daily with countless injuries was painful, he didn’t want to get a scolding from his elders.
When Hill mastered his wind spells, he felt a chill in the air.
He immediately returned to the Ring Mountain, not venturing out again, the Earth Bear’s return was imminent.
The three young bears had long recovered their spirits.
While they no longer dared to run away from home, their mischief hadn’t lessened but increased.
They had started to use some of their talented spells, causing Elemental Storms they willingly dragged their companions into.
Even the lazy Nils had become very proactive.
Hill figured that Nils preferred causing trouble over being dragged into it by Oriana.
Far better to cause mischief himself than endure her misadventures.
Luckily, Hill had made their climbing frame out of Mithril; otherwise, they’d have broken it by now.
Still, it wasn’t pure Mithril, only an alloy coated with Mithril.
Upon seeing some cracks, Hill made a new set with pure Mithril.
Thankfully, Ellaihu had given him plenty.
On the first day it snowed, Hill stood at the door, greeting all the Earth Bears.
Their ancestor, whom Hill had seen in memories many times, led at the forefront.
The gleaming golden bear locked eyes with Hill.
Hill couldn’t help but laugh: despite this being their first meeting, the old ancestor looked very familiar indeed.