Chapter 952: Chapter 748: The Temple of Heim Lays a Trap Before Leaving
Hill slowly flew along the main road towards Agleya City.
Passing by Long Saddle Town, he couldn’t help but glance over: Kelben’s friend, Marko Haber’s Dusk Tower, in its current situation, could only remain visible at the edge of the Neverwinter Forest.
The ripples caused by Purwell flying slowly beneath the clouds alerted the guards of this tower: a griffon circled the tower a few times before finally settling on the spire, craning its neck to look upward, seemingly not intending to fly up.
It seems this griffon also knows what the appearance of an Otherworldly Whale signifies, otherwise, with its irritable nature, it wouldn’t be so courteous to passing flying creatures… Relying on a Magic Tower controlled by a 20-level Archmage, it naturally wouldn’t fear any giant dragon.
Therefore, this griffon’s reputation has always been poor, its cockfighting personality is well-known far and wide; to behave so tamely, it’s estimated that the Habel Archmage must have repeatedly emphasized Purwell’s identity.
Hill glanced lightly at that famous Magic Tower and turned his head indifferently, not intending to do much more, and the odd cluster of castles on the small hill to the west also lost his interest.
If the Haber Castle he once saw in various game novel illustrations had a bit of the mystery of a large medieval castle… the real Haber Family Castle couldn’t arouse much of his interest, as it was actually a grotesque cluster of buildings consisting of numerous towers surrounding a five-story stone castle in the center… and it looked all dilapidated, with both the castle and towers showing obvious signs of multiple repairs.
However, some blue and white building clusters below the hillside seemed relatively normal, but these were just three-story garden mansions, and they were not closely connected, with at least 200 meters of distance between each building.
Then there was the small town at the foot of the hill, which didn’t differ much from most towns on the Ferun Great Land, showing no signs of being a Mage Town at all.
Hill couldn’t help but smile and directed Purwell to head straight back to his territory.
He might as well go back and build roads.
He was thinking too much; as long as one is a formal mage, they wouldn’t want to stay with others: a great magician like Marko who can protect themselves would run to build a Magic Tower ten kilometers away from his family, while others, although they must huddle for warmth, would at least need to give themselves an independent space.
Long Saddle Town is the territory of their Haber family, and they don’t have so many mages that this small mountain can’t accommodate them, so they can naturally live quite spaciously.
As long as someone is a mid-level mage, they wouldn’t be too poor, and finding a place to build a tower doesn’t cost much… Hill felt they needed more to avoid having their tower blown up by next-door neighbors.
Actually, there’s nothing wrong with the Haber family’s mages choosing to live in towers, not to mention getting used to the Magic Tower’s structure sooner… this also saves a lot of space and reduces damage to neighboring residents.
Those dilapidated towers that have been repaired countless times can prove this choice wasn’t wrong.
Hill saw the traces of time there… those edge towers, although also showing signs of repair, were clearly embellished… but the more inward, the uglier the towers, with stones of varying depths and even rough edges showing the owner’s impatience.
Hill had forgotten that the stone conversion magic of this world turns the simplest stones, and if the defensive magic array isn’t strong enough, it’s perfectly normal to have to patch up one’s house after a few experiments.
Hmm… it seems that the mages of Long Saddle Town only attract him with their abundant library collections and familiarity with the history of the Ferun Great Land.
He had thought there would be some interesting strange objects in this place… quite disappointing.
Hill landed on the ground unsatisfied, the Crystal Flower Ring on his finger glowing, and from this main road leading directly to the World Spinal Cord, pulled out a 25.5-meter-wide green road… although the mana used in his mud-to-stone magic was minimal, turning it into a rather solid cyan stone road was still quite easy.
Hill leisurely walked to the lakeside, the green highway extending beneath his feet, and he circled this lake that fell from the sky before flying again to the lake’s west side.
The shape of this lake was interesting, as it unexpectedly formed the shape of a heart… the start point on the east side was the heart’s apex, and the west side was a less noticeable indentation.
If Hill hadn’t built this highway, it wouldn’t be that obvious, but now, people flying in the sky can keenly observe the shape of this heart.
Pleased, Hill erected a small dock on the west, and then planted endless vines on this tiny stone structure, making the indentation even more prominent.
He decided to leave this surprise for the Undead Tribe to discover by themselves… if they could still remember that they could fly.
Then he turned and continued walking towards Agleya City: on the way, he had to move the passing fields to other places.
Fortunately, the fields here all belonged to Agleya City, merely hired for planting, so however he messed around was no problem.
The fields distributed to the town citizens, according to Lynn’s suggestion, were all distributed along the Green Forest; although relatively close to the cemetery, there was a creek there to help with irrigation.
Moreover, the Toril people would actually feel safer near the cemeteries of the Just Knight Corps and Silvermoon Priestess, at least knowing evil undead definitely wouldn’t dare to appear near there.
Hill didn’t mind this, Temple Cemetery has always been sealed tightly, and the flowers, plants, and trees nearby probably don’t have much ability to absorb nutrients from those corpses… anyway, he wouldn’t be eating the grain from those fields.
He slowly walked to the east gate of Agleya City, where Lynn was already waiting with a smile for him to finish. Behind him, many curious citizens were watching, and even the Dwarves and Gnomes had come out rare.
Lynn peeked over and clapped his hands, saying, “It seems our lord has finished building the road, and what’s left is to plant beautiful shrubs on both sides of the avenue… Ilsa, I’ll leave this matter to you. I will allocate a fund for you to hire the Teraxil Elves.”
A Druidic Wood Elf stepped forward, bowing slightly, “Okay. I’ll go to the Alchemy Hall first thing in the morning.”
“I built a small dock by the lake,” Hill instructed, “I found that the fish in the lake are all brown finfish, which are considered quite good among freshwater fish… Maybe this lake was cut over from the Comyr Kingdom.
This fish is a specialty of that country, and it’s said to taste quite good.
Inform the citizens that I allow them to fish in the lake, but fishing is prohibited during the brown finfish breeding season.”
Before Lynn could speak, the citizens behind him cheered… Although the road was quite far, they seldom visited that lake before, but having an extra food source was a good thing for everyone.
And now there is a road… even the poorest families in Agleya City can afford an ordinary horse.
Hill nodded to them, “Go if you want! The road is safe; just don’t stray off the Ferun Road.”
Many citizens surged onto the road, seemingly planning to see the lake and its fish with their own eyes… Part of them turned back home, these being the smarter ones who knew to first go find their rides.
Hill couldn’t help but shake his head, smiling as he asked Lynn, “Is there anything else?”
“Back to the castle first?” Lynn suggested softly.
Hill reluctantly grabbed his arm and flew directly toward the Floating Castle. He really was just asking casually… how could anything happen in just one day?
Purwell had already run back on his own… He loved the open-air garden on the castle.
The garden bathed in pale blue moonlight always made him feel a sense of homecoming.
The first time Hill heard this description, he couldn’t help but wonder if the blue primordial world without land but with endless ocean of the Otherworldly Whale was some sort of sleeping moon…
Back in the study room, Lynn spoke quickly, “The Temple of Heim has chosen Neverwinter City, and they plan to leave early tomorrow morning… I actually knew their hearts were uncertain for a long time. Even if we gave them a place, they only built an ordinary church that they could evacuate at any moment.
Apparently, they never looked favorably upon Agleya City.”
“The Temple of Heim wanting to leave doesn’t come as a surprise to me. The followers of Heim are adventurers and mercenaries, especially those working as bodyguards.” Hill poured a glass of wine for the disgruntled Lynn, “Not to mention their basic protection jobs, where in Agleya City would there be assignments for these people?
Didn’t the Undead Tribe even snatch the tavern tasks?”
Lynn sighed, “But how dare they go to Neverwinter City… The Just Knight nearly went mad… the people from the Temple of Heim even had the gall to ask them to escort them back, nearly getting beaten by the Demigod Captain of the Silver Shield.
In the end, it was the former captain from Neverwinter City who took action, and he threw out all the guys from the Temple of Heim along with the messenger from Neverwinter City.”
“Finally, a bit of wisdom.” Hill commented blandly, “They found out that the people from Heim were up to no good in secret… Making such a big scene to come here, wasn’t it to make us view the Just Knights negatively?
As long as we act unwelcoming, with the rigid hardheads of that group of tin cans, they would certainly leave.
By then, Neverwinter City might just be a good choice…
These guys, they really don’t care about the thousand-year-long relationship with the Just Knights… Heim, their relationship with Tyr isn’t that good after all.”
Lynn snorted, “They really got lucky… Normally, all those Priests of Tyr would be rushing to the front lines, they should all be in Luskan.
But they are well aware of the capabilities of the Undead Tribe. There was no need for them to risk the Weave’s backlash to release Divine Arts, so they all stayed in the temple.
The Priests of Tyr all come from a legal background…”
Hill laughed, “It seems their relationship with the Toril Nobles is quite delicate indeed.”
The righteous followers of Tyr must have learned many lessons to react so quickly to these dirty schemes!