stonecrandall Page 25
Page 25
Chapter 58
I'm considering negotiations:
"I have completed the most difficult step, and my progress on the path to becoming a Carved Skin Dragon will be very fast. Now, even if I do nothing, as long as I develop normally, I will be able to achieve a new improvement in less than a month."
Furthermore, I will soon enter the juvenile stage, but what about you? Judging from your appearance, you haven't been in adolescence for long. How long will it take you to grow into a young adult?
Ten years, or twenty years?
I can't do anything to you right now, but that's only temporary. I still have a bunch of dragon servants down there, and they're growing just as fast. You don't even dare go near the mushroom bushes right now, do you?
I've blown up all the exits, how do you think you can escape now?
"Don't threaten me. I know your Iron Dragons' temperament very well. You're just saying this to gain the upper hand in negotiations." The Shadow Dragon didn't interrupt Casalos's long speech immediately, but waited for it to finish before replying in a very calm tone: "I admit I've lost this time, and I also acknowledge your dominant position. I can reach a temporary agreement with you to help you deal with the Gray Dwarves—three level 12 psionic mages and eight level 10 psionic warriors. You're having a lot of trouble with them too, aren't you?"
62. Cooperation reached
"Hehe, since I dared to lock them up here, I naturally have a way to deal with them."
“You should know that I can also choose to stand on their side.” The Shadow Dragon voiced a possibility that Casalos was truly worried about. It did have a way to deal with the Grey Dwarves, but it was a huge undertaking, and if the Shadow Dragon kept causing trouble, it would definitely have no chance.
"Indeed, that would be a real headache for me, but only temporarily..."
"With my help, you can deal with them quickly and also eliminate one enemy."
"Why should I trust you?"
Casalos wavered.
Like most subspecies of metal dragons, iron dragons don't really like resolving problems through combat. They generally prefer to achieve their goals through diplomacy or intimidation. This is an inherent tendency towards order, and it's unlikely to change much without unforeseen circumstances.
Although Casalos has undergone several upheavals and experienced battles in the Dragon Vault that most dragons might never encounter in their entire lives, its nature has undergone some subtle changes. However, when the Shadow Dragon takes the initiative to negotiate, its innate instincts are still awakened—it no longer possesses the overwhelming violence to crush everything, and negotiating with the Shadow Dragon is indeed the best option at this stage.
The premise is that Shadow Dragon is believable.
"Based on your Shadow Dragons' chaotic nature, corrupted by the negative energy of the Underworld, and your reputation, which is even worse than that of the Black Dragons?"
This is not sarcasm, but rather stating a fact: if Shadow Dragon doesn't offer a solution that Casalos can accept, nothing can be discussed.
“I don’t expect you to believe me, but I have no other choice, just like you.” The Shadow Dragon understood Casalos’s meaning. After a brief silence, it made a proposal: “We can swear an oath in the name of the Watchers of Fate: while we are in this nameless rift, we will renounce hostility and refrain from causing any form of harm to each other, directly or indirectly, nor will we affect or interfere with each other’s normal actions, growth, or development in any way. Furthermore, I will do everything in my power to help you deal with the Grey Dwarves’ current group that you have trapped in the rift. In exchange, once the Grey Dwarves have completely resolved their problem for you, you must allow me to leave here safely!”
"Let you leave safely?" Casalos tilted his head, wanting to ask: Are you stupid? Can't you see that I've blown up all the passageways?
"You've destroyed all the passages, but the grey dwarves of Gravesend won't let a fire-type subspecies dragon like you go. They'll definitely try to dig a new passage, even if it takes years or decades. But that's not a problem for us, is it?"
I also believe that by then, you will no longer fear a level 18 Mind Warrior advancing to a Transcendent Mindset Master, otherwise you wouldn't have so decisively destroyed the passage, am I right?
"I suppose so... Since you're willing to swear an oath in the name of the Overseer, I can consider it and give you an answer when I've thought it through."
The Shadow Dragon actually flattered Casalos, placing itself in a lower position to slightly satisfy Casalos's dragon-like pride: the kobolds flattered and praised it from the bottom of their hearts every day, but how could being praised by a group of kobolds compare to being praised by a real dragon? This naturally made it feel much better, and coupled with the guarantee of the oath sworn in the name of the Dragon Watcher and the influence of its nature, its inclination to temporarily reconcile with the Shadow Dragon became even stronger.
However, the specifics still need to be discussed carefully. Although not as cunning as the devil, the Shadow Dragon is cunning enough to leave loopholes in the oath, especially since this guy has an ambiguous relationship with the Green Dragon couple.
Having received a reply, Shadow Dragon disappeared.
Casalos flew back to the mushroom patch to rest for a while, summoned the kobolds to discuss the feasibility, then ate a good meal, rushed into the lava waterfall for a nap, and after waking up, went back to his usual routine of bombing the messy gray dwarf camp.
The grey dwarves were dismantling the nearly repaired gantry catapult, seemingly assembling something else with the salvaged parts. Slaves who had initially scattered during the bombing, forbidden by the grey dwarves to seek refuge in the crypts, were now surprisingly crammed into the crowded crypts, their clanging digging echoing throughout the stone pillar. It seemed the grey dwarves had discovered all the passageways had collapsed and were changing their strategy, preparing for a long-term defensive garrison.
Casalos's actions were entirely within Casalos's expectations. If the Shadow Dragon hadn't interfered, Casalos would have quietly dug a hole in the dome above the stone pillar where the gray dwarves were stationed, found a specific spot to bury enough bombs, and then ignited them, using an unparalleled "natural disaster" to completely eliminate this group of deformed gray dwarves.
Now, if it could really get the Shadow Dragon's help, it certainly had a better option: the Grey Dwarves and their slaves—that's several hundred able-bodied laborers. Casalos couldn't survive and develop without some manpower.
Kou Tao the fishman hid at the bottom of the lake and never showed his face again. Apart from a few wild monsters wandering around, there were no other intelligent species in the rift valley. It would be difficult for the kobolds to build any miracles on their own.
After a few days of simple, monotonous, and unadorned life consisting of eating, sleeping, and bombing the gray dwarves, Casalos took the initiative to fly towards the temporary lair where the shadow dragon was hiding. Before he was even halfway there, the illusion of the shadow dragon created by the Mirror Image spell blocked his way.
"Have you thought about it?"
“You’re right. It’s always better to have one more troublesome ‘friend’ than one more troublesome enemy, even if that friend is only temporary.” Casalos didn’t slow down or hover. Instead, he maintained his altitude and speed with the Shadow Dragon’s illusion and began a wide-radius circle. “I’ve decided to accept your suggestion and request, but I think some details need to be slightly modified.”
"What details?" Shadow Dragon ignored Casalos's arrogance and went straight to the point. It was probably used to empty talk.
"First of all, the oath cannot be overseen by an inspector. The Dragon God of Destiny will not deign to handle such a trivial matter! Landis, the Scales of Justice, is the right person to oversee our oath."
"Do as you please, as long as you can provide fair oversight. I just want to get out of this awful place safely and stay as far away from you as possible in the future."
"Secondly, until the passage through Gravesend is completed, you must submit to me as your master..."
"Don't push your luck too far!"
"Rest assured, the prerequisite guarantee you mentioned remains in effect. During this period, I will not force you to do anything against your will. This substantial guarantee..."
Chapter 59
It's still you acknowledging my dominance; all I need is a nominal title, how about that?
Shadow Dragon remained silent for a long time before his true form flew out from the darkness as a sign of agreement.
63. Once you enter the civil engineering field, you leave behind the mundane world.
Unlike humanoid gods, dragon gods are not complicated and elaborate. Making an oath in the name of a dragon god does not require any ceremony. The shadow dragon, who nominally agreed to be the master of Casaloz, quickly completed his oath while concealing his true name.
Then Casalos, as a co-signer of the oath, also concealed his true name and recited the oath in its entirety.
A clanging sound came from the darkness as a sword fell onto the hard ground, followed by a distinct sound of a needle falling. Then, a divine emblem shaped like a sword balanced on the tip of a needle, visible only to Casalos and the Shadow Dragon, lit up in mid-air, split into two golden beams, and entered the bodies of the two dragons, imprinting themselves on their dragon souls and disappearing from sight.
The oath has been made.
"Now you can tell me your name, right? Or am I supposed to call you Shadow Dragon from now on?"
"Call me whatever you want, I have no interest in your name and I don't want you to know mine, you little Iron Dragon." Shadow Dragon finished speaking and merged back into the shadow.
After casually tossing out a sentence, Mirror Image vanished without a trace with a pop: "Call me when you're ready to deal with the gray dwarves. You know where I am."
"Hehe, then I'll call you Shadow One. Just focus on recovering; I'm not planning on taking any action for now..."
Casalos had a reason for having Shadow Dragon change the Oathkeeper to Landis.
Chronipus, the Watcher of Fate, is a silent and impartial observer of time and the fate of dragons. He knows the full intertwining of the lives of all dragons and dragon-like creatures and guides the departed to the afterlife. In the mythology of true dragons, if Io is the beginning of all things, then Chronipus is said to be the end of all things, and will watch over the final moments of the multiverse and the end of time itself.
The fact that Shadow Dragon was willing to swear an oath in the name of the Overseer is enough to prove that it truly does not want any further conflict with Casalos—which suggests that the accidental blow from the Winged Toe Bone must have caused it considerable injury. After all, Casalos is a thick and strong iron dragon, while Shadow Dragon is slender and, even in its adolescence, is still a size smaller than Casalos.
As long as that wing toe doesn't poke the Shadow Dragon's wing membrane or tail, it's enough to give it a hard time... Mine is big, so bear with it.
Even so, Casalos is not completely at ease with Shadow Dragon because of this; the validity of the oath is the real guarantee.
This raises a problem: the ombudsman is not a good oath-keeping ombudsman.
This is not Casalos slandering the great Dragon God of Fate; it is determined by the authority of the Overseer: as the death god of dragons, the Overseer only judges dragons when they die, but does not punish them. It simply weighs the fate of a dragon and then sends their souls to the appropriate places in turn.
If a judgment is only made after the dragon is dead, how much validity will the oath made in its name have while the dragon is still alive?
More importantly, Casalos, with his semi-God's-eye view, remembered after the Shadow Dragon mentioned the Overseer that this dragon god, who held the fate of dragons in his hands, had completely abandoned the kingdom of Celestial Realm, leaving only one empty-faced being, "Nur," who silently watched over Faerûn, the one who controlled the death of dragons. The oath made in its name had no real power.
The Shadow Dragon probably couldn't possibly know such divine secrets, but Casalos dared not trust such an unsecured oath. Therefore, the oath's overseer had to be the Scales of Justice, Landis. It was the embodiment of pure justice among the dragon gods, unaffected by external factors such as mercy, bribery, or second chances. Most importantly, if a dragon broke an oath made in its name, besides facing normal punishment for breach of oath, it would truly descend in its avatar to personally retaliate against the transgressor!
With this guarantee, Casalos could completely trust Shadow Dragon... and incidentally, trick Shadow Dragon a little.
Its demand that the Shadow Dragon publicly acknowledge it as its master is merely a diversionary tactic; its true purpose lies hidden in the subtle time-limit change of "before the passage to this place is opened in Gravesend."
According to Shadow Dragon's original intention, the moment the Rift Pass was opened would be the moment it regained its freedom.
Casalos's slightly modified oath may seem harmless at first glance, but the difference is actually significant: it limits the city of Gravesend to the action of opening the passage. If Gravesend never manages to open the passage to the rift, will the oath remain in effect indefinitely?
Achieving this condition doesn't seem impossible; for example, Gravesend might suddenly be wiped out by Serpent's Abyss—who knows? Hopefully, the Shadow Dragon will realize this little trap too late; after all, the Shadow Dragon's initiative is indispensable in capturing the Grey Dwarf Expeditionary Force…
With the Shadow Dragon gone, the Grey Dwarves were forced to adopt a strategic defensive posture, and life in Casaloz became more regular, allowing the Karrick tribe's construction progress to accelerate rapidly.
Self-sufficient small-scale production has no future; construction cannot be separated from industry. Of course, industrial development cannot be separated from the foundation of productivity. Productivity is a very broad concept. The actual productivity of the various races of Faerûn was not as backward as their social systems suggested; it's just that none of them used it for good.
It's worth noting that the neighboring continent of Karatu, also on the planet Toril, has a similar level of magical technology to the Dragon Empire of Faerûn, yet it has long since entered the interstellar age. Only Faerûn, plagued by a bunch of immortal scourges, remains trapped in a feudal era.
Those things are irrelevant to Casalos right now, and it won't consider them for the time being.
However, the small Kalik tribe was limited in size, and even if everyone became a Dragonvein Warlock, their productivity would still be completely restricted.
Fortunately, Casalos didn't want to build a country, or even a city; the "industrialized" production area it wanted to create was just a small mushroom patch.
Steel is the mother of industry; without it, nothing can be built. The meager amount of low-quality iron ore that could be mined from the stone pillar where the mushroom patch was located was completely insufficient to support the industrialization process of the Kalik tribe. Once Casaloz settled down, its first priority was to ensure the Kalik tribe had a continuous supply of iron ore. Under Casaloz's careful guidance and assistance, two weeks after Casaloz made a pact with the Shadow Dragon, Eisen successfully advanced to Dragonpledge Warlock, and within a week rapidly rose to Rank 2, officially embarking on the path of Exemplars. Furthermore, without changing his Dragonpledge Warlock rank, he gained a +1 spellcasting level boost, thus mastering 5th-circle spells.
At Casalos's request, the first high-level spell Eisen mastered was Turn Mud to Stone, which offered almost no improvement in combat power.
"My loyal little dog, from now on you are a civil engineer. Battles and worldly affairs are no longer your concern. Focus on building the new Carrick tribe!"
64. A Lesson
"Leader of the Karick Tribe, Ruler of the Rift, Dragon Who Shakes the Earth, forgive the dullness of your loyal servant, Eisen. Why do we need a spell like turning mud into stone?" Eisen only posed her question after completing the "task" given to her by Casaloz. She remained the Karick Tribe's smartest little dog: "If we need stone, here..."
“Yes, you’re right. We need stones, and there are stones everywhere here. We also have many stonemasons who can mine and process stones at will.” Casalos was happy to answer his servants’ questions. The more they learned, the easier Casalos would be—due to the influence of the Atheros’s abstract inheritance, Casalos found that when faced with certain problems, he could always recall knowledge he had forgotten in his previous life. This was excellent, but not…
Chapter 60
You should do everything yourself; otherwise, what's the point of having servants?
It dug out two stones from the iron ore pile beneath its belly, one sandstone and the other limestone, a type of rock commonly found in the dark regions.
"These two are both stones, are they the same?"
“The same… no.” Eisen answered instinctively, but immediately rejected his answer, thinking for a moment before replying, “They still look a little different. This one is a block of stone formed by many tiny stone particles stuck together, which is rather… soft. Stonemasons generally don’t use this kind of stone to make things. This one, on the other hand, is a single piece of rock, very hard, but not as hard as those speckled stones that are difficult to work with. It’s the material that stonemasons most often choose.”
"Yes, you've discovered one of the essential differences between the two stones, but there's a slight error. In fact, both stones are made up of many tiny particles 'glued' together; this is the structural nature of 'rock.' The difference in their properties depends on the size of the particles that are bound together—structure determines properties."
Besides, the two stones are actually composed of different substances.
Casalos used his wing to nudge the two stones in front of Eisen, pointing to the limestone and saying, "You already know that this kind of stone can be burned into lime. So, what will this other stone become after it's been calcined?"
Eisen made a thinking "hmm" sound, then his large, protruding eyes suddenly lit up as he replied, "It's obsidian! When hot enough lava flows through an area of this stone, it leaves a layer of obsidian."
“Obsidian, or rather, glass.” Casalos remained calm, watching Eisen, who couldn’t contain his excitement. “That’s right, the glass you’re thinking of. The glass that surface elves and humans use to decorate the windows of beautiful buildings in big cities.”
Magnificent, noble, and exquisite glass originates from these ugly stones; to accomplish this, one doesn't necessarily need magic like turning sand into glass.
“Minerals!” Eisen realized: “Even rocks are minerals.”
"Yes, stones are all minerals. Limestone, glass, metals, and even gemstones all come from stones, or are even 'stones' themselves."
"Then turning mud into stone?"
Understanding that stones are minerals is not enough to make the kobolds understand the significance of turning mud into stone. To figure this out, we need to go back to the first essential difference that Eisen noticed through the phenomena.
"If the Karrick tribe wants to develop, it needs a large amount of materials with various properties for construction, and steel is undoubtedly the most basic and in the largest demand. But our smelting technology is too backward and our smelting level is too poor."
"I know what you're trying to say. I did teach you new smelting methods. If the iron ore weren't so poor quality, the makeshift blast furnaces could indeed produce good iron. But that's not the real problem. The fundamental issue lies in the limitations imposed on smelting technology, and the biggest limitation is high-performance materials—this creates a paradox: we can't produce good steel, so our smelting technology can't improve; but without improved smelting technology, we can't get good steel… Turning mud into stone is a solution that can immediately help the Karrick tribe solve their high-performance materials problem."
Casalos said, picking out a small iron ingot and grinding it into a fine powder along with two rocks. He then added a little juice from crushed vines and mixed it into mud, indicating to Eisen to cast a spell to turn mud into stone on it.
Without Eisen making any casting gestures or chanting any spells, he simply waited a moment, and a hazy magical light, turning mud into lime, enveloped the mud Casaloz had stirred up. Eisen, now an advanced level 2 Dragon Pact mage, had learned the way dragons cast spells, able to channel magical energy in a manner very similar to that of a dragon. He no longer needed any gestures or words, just as if he had simultaneously acquired the supermagic feats of silent spellcasting and fixed spellcasting. He only needed to consume specific casting materials to release any spell he had mastered. If his Dragon Pact mage level increased to level 3, the casting materials would be eliminated, truly transforming his spellcasting into that of a real dragon.
When the light disappeared, the mud had turned into a lump of dark gray stone with a metallic sheen.
"Now, use the Stone Shaping spell to transform this stone into your preferred melee weapon, and then give it a good try."
Eisen, following orders, produced a stone spear, picked it up, and thrust it hard into the stone platform. With a crisp clang, a chip appeared at the point of impact on the platform. The stone spear, which should have broken, remained intact, with only some white marks on its sharp tip. After a gentle rub, it regained its original dark gray color with a metallic sheen. The spearhead did not break, wear down, or even show any signs of chipping.
"This...is there mithril or adamantite inside this stone?" Even though he was prepared for Casalos's "magical" mentality, Eisen, who had personally crafted this stone spear, was still somewhat surprised.
“Nothing like that. It’s just lime, sand, iron powder, and a little bit of plant fiber. It’s still stone.” Casalos chuckled. “You can call this kind of stone ceramic. Because of the iron powder, you can also call it powdered steel… Whatever you call it, it’s still stone in essence, so it can be directly affected by spells that work on stone, such as Stone Shaping.”
However, as long as the ingredients are reasonable, the ceramic products you make by turning mud into stone can achieve extreme levels of mechanical properties, especially in terms of hardness, heat resistance, rigidity, etc., that even high-quality steel cannot reach.
In this way, we can build real blast furnaces and converters. With blast furnaces and converters, producing high-quality steel will no longer be a problem.
Casalos turned to look at the stone pillar where the gray dwarves were. There, too, glowing furnaces were being erected in the crypts. The gray dwarves, having made the decision to defend for the long term, had also begun their steelmaking endeavors, probably preparing for an "arms race" with Casalos and the Karrick tribe...
65. Timing
Smelting and forging are the proud talents of the dwarves of Faerûn, and are their hallmark!
Whether it's the hill dwarves or the mountain dwarves of the surface, or the Dilo dwarves and grey dwarves of the Underdark, they are all renowned for forging steel products. Dwarf products are always of the highest quality; any steel weapon or armor made by dwarves will fetch a significantly higher price than similar items of the same grade on the market.
The dwarves represent the pinnacle of steelmaking technology on the continent of Faerûn; this is a consensus among every Faerûnian with even a modicum of knowledge.
But is that really the case?
Leaving aside the surface dwarves, when it comes to the highest quality steel and the finest steel weapons in the Underdark, those are undoubtedly from Glaxtug, the "City of Blades." Glaxtug's achievements are due to the "Red Dragon Blacksmiths" who have been passed down through generations.
Within the City of Blades lies a red dragon, which the grey dwarves use to raise the temperature of their furnaces with its breath, thus producing steel of unparalleled quality throughout the Underdark.
However, due to the danger posed by red dragons, every "Red Dragon Blacksmith" in Blade City never lives to adulthood. In other words, the strongest flame in Blade City's furnace only comes from a young red dragon.
How powerful would the breath of a young red dragon be if used for smelting?