The Natural Empire of the Oceanic Dragon

Atilan turned his resentful gaze towards the bear-man who was slowly walking over.

"Master, don't always treat me like a child. I now have the Dragon Pearl and am, at the very least, a biological level 6.5, Druid level 7 Ocean Wyrm. I can hold my own against Old Rascal."

"Since Old Rascal is privy to this, I believe I also have the right to know."

The bear-man simply chuckled as he looked at Old Rascal.

"Robert, it seems Atilan is looking down on you."

Atilan quickly said:

"Master, don't try to sow discord. I meant that, based on levels, I can be compared to Old Rascal, but it doesn't mean I can actually win against him in a fight."

Old Rascal could use ninth-circle spells, and Atilan's dragon scales' current magic resistance couldn't withstand ninth-circle spells. Of course, if Old Rascal were hit by Atilan's fangs and claws, he would also be finished in one move.

"Old Rascal has been at level 20 Druid for so many years, even if he's not quite a Legend, I think he can still compete. He might not necessarily lose."

Old Rascal nodded in agreement. Wasn't a Legendary Druid one who could create tenth-circle spells? With the casting difficulty of tenth-circle spells, he might not necessarily lose using ninth-circle spells!

He had immersed himself in elemental magic for three hundred years. Even ninth-circle spells could be cast quickly, and he had mastered the technique of releasing ninth-circle spells using eighth-circle spells.

Aside from tenth-circle spells, even the bear-man might not have as many usable ninth-circle spells as him!

Using two ninth-circle elemental spells in coordination, the power might not necessarily be inferior to a tenth-circle spell!

Old Rascal raised his head and praised with a grin:

"Atilan, you have good judgment. I didn't waste my time helping you apply the elemental seal."

Without Old Rascal's elemental seal, Atilan's proficiency with natural magic and water elements wouldn't have improved so quickly.

With higher proficiency in energy crystallization, the raw materials for condensing the Dragon Pearl would naturally accumulate rapidly, and inferior energy crystals could even be used as the core of constructs.

"Gaegel, why don't we just tell him? Although Atilan is still more than three months away from being one year old, he's much more reliable than other Druids in the forest."

Gaegel silently looked at Old Rascal. Coming from Robert, who was notoriously unreliable, the bear-man couldn't believe a single word of "Atilan is reliable."

"I understand my disciple. If he knows what this thing is and what role it can play, he will definitely research it, and then he will definitely attract those old guys."

"I don't want to fight with those old guys. You know how tempting this thing is to them."

Atilan immediately raised his hand and said:

"But even if you don't tell me, I will still research it. On the contrary, if you tell me the truth behind it, maybe I won't dare to act rashly."

The bear-man didn't even blink. Seeing that his threat had no effect on the bear-man, Atilan could only resort to his final move.

He pounced and hugged the bear-man, rubbing his head against the bear-man's body.

"Master, please tell me! Otherwise, I swear! I will never secretly research this metal wood without Master's permission!"

The bear-man impatiently pushed Atilan's head away.

"I can tell you, but you must do as you say and not touch this metal."

"No problem!"

"It was an event that happened three hundred years ago. At that time, the Great Desert had just transformed from lush forests and grasslands into a desert, and Druids wanted to restore the environment of the southwest region."

"In fact, the gnomes and dwarves of the underground city were also thinking about how to restore the surface environment, but they were not good at cultivating forests, so they thought of using metal to forge a magical tool."

"This tool would refer to the ability of the Elves' Mother Tree, able to take root in the earth, absorb various energies, and grow on its own, turning one tree into a forest."

Atilan frowned in confusion and asked:

"Why did they make it so complicated? Wouldn't it be fine to just let the Druids cultivate the forest?"

Old Rascal interjected with a smile.

"If their purpose was only to restore the surface environment, they could naturally leave it to the Druids, but they wanted to make metal grow like wood."

"This way, they would have an inexhaustible supply of metal to forge weapons and armor, allowing the infighting in the underground city to continue without excessively affecting the surrounding environment."

The bear-man gave Old Rascal a cold look.

"You're wrong. They weren't afraid of affecting the environment, but afraid that the gods would notice their little tricks. The Fire Treasure was said to be able to melt all metals."

"Moreover, the effect of the forged metal would be exaggeratedly doubled. They wanted to try to forge a weapon that could slay gods."

Atilan widened his eyes and asked:

"Slay gods! Are they crazy!?"

"That's right, everyone thought they were crazy. The so-called treasure was a conspiracy by demons to open a passage to this world through their hands."

"They were researching two kinds of metal, one that could create life, which is the one you obtained, and one that could create death, which is the metal used by the sword that killed the Gnoll King."

"They believed that with the metal of life and the metal of death, they could kill the gods and replace them."

"The Gnoll King had the same idea, so he secretly descended into this world in his true form and appeared at the forging site on the day the death metal was successfully researched, wanting to snatch it."

"Of course, Yeenoghu only wanted to obtain the Sword of Death to kill the demon lords and seize control of other planes in the Abyss. He didn't believe that weapons made of death metal could kill gods."

"But he was certain that the Sword of Death could kill demon lords, and he personally verified this point. He was pierced through the heart by the newly forged Sword of Death and died with unwillingness and ambition."

"Unfortunately, because of Yeenoghu's premature arrival, the Sword of Death was not completely finished. Therefore, Yeenoghu's impatience saved his own life. He was killed by the Sword of Death."

"But he didn't completely die. After his remnant soul returned to the Abyss, he barely maintained his status as a plane lord, but it also caused the gnolls of the material plane to break away from his control."

"Especially the gnolls active in the Great Desert of this world. Have you ever wondered why their expansion speed is so fast?"

Atilan's eyes darted around.

"Master, are you saying that although Yeenoghu's remnant soul returned to the Abyss, his body retained most of its power in this world, and then his power was obtained by that little white wolf."

"So the little white wolf dares to call himself the Gnoll King!"

"You underestimate the madmen of the underground city too much. After the death metal killed the Gnoll King, the demonic power in his body quickly contaminated a large area of land in the underground city."

"At this time, they took out the semi-finished life metal, which actually showed a natural purification power stronger than even our Druids, letting the elders of the Natural Council know."

"The elders were naturally tempted, but unfortunately, the Gnoll King's surprise attack still caused heavy casualties among the forging masters who studied these two metals in the underground city. Anyway, since then."

"The underground city has never been heard of conducting large-scale research on life and death metals again. It's as if these two metals never existed. Your recipe should be a burial item of some forging master who researched life metal."

The old urchin stroked his beard and asked:

"Why didn't they continue their research?"

The bearman glanced at the old urchin and then asked:

"Attilan, what do you think?"

"Master, I think there's something wrong with Yeenoghu's descent into the material world. If demon lords could invade so easily, then our world would have become a demon battlefield long ago."

"Then there's only one explanation: someone doesn't want to see gnomes and dwarves continuing their research, so they used the power of death metal weapons to lure brainless demon lords."

"Yeenoghu was deliberately sent into this world. After Yeenoghu kills the researchers, someone else will use the Death Sword to kill Yeenoghu. Everything is a well-arranged plan."

"And the mastermind behind the scenes easily eliminated two major threats. What a calculation."

The old urchin frowned in confusion and asked:

"Who is so calculating?"

"Unspeakable, unspeakable."

Attilan shook his head pretentiously. Who else could it be? People certainly can't plot against demon lords. Think about what these dwarves and gnomes are trying to do by researching these two metals.

Life metal and death metal already exist. The next step is to harmonize the power of the two metals into a weapon.

That would probably be the start of a God-slaying war.

But wanting to slay a god with just a weapon? These lunatics are thinking too simply. Gods aren't stupid. How could they descend into the material world in their true forms and get hit by a sword like Yeenoghu?

Attilan felt that this God-slaying weapon project was probably something that someone with ulterior motives was using to fool these gnomes and dwarves, with the goal of obtaining rare metals for manufacturing God-slaying weapons.

Dwarves and gnomes are indeed the two races most skilled at forging. With the Hell Dragon Soul specially sent out by the mastermind, forging a God-slaying weapon is definitely unrealistic.

But synthesizing the raw materials still has some hope.

"Master, they need renewable metal wood. Could it be that the metal in the underground city has been completely mined out by them?"

The bearman said indifferently:

"You wouldn't think that wanting to synthesize these two metals, which can be said to be at the god-level, would be easy, would you?"

Hearing about god-level metal, the old urchin finally reacted.

"Are you talking about the group in the sky...?"

Attilan quickly waved his hand and said:

"Just know it, don't say it out loud."

Don't dare to speak loudly, lest you startle the people in the sky.

"Death metal can't be touched, but life metal shouldn't be so dangerous, right? If the Council of Nature understands it, all druids could benefit."

The old urchin said weakly.

The bearman said quietly:

"I went to the underground city a few times before. All records about these two metals in the underground city are gone. The underground cities that possessed relevant information were destroyed in the war."

"What do you think now?"

Faced with the bearman's sharp eyes, the old urchin shrank his neck.

"Indeed, it can't be touched."

"Now go back and ask those dwarves if anyone else knows this recipe, and tell them not to continue their research."

"Understood."

Compared to collecting the power of faith, a God-slaying weapon is definitely more unacceptable to the gods.

Attilan directly and decisively left the recipe and metal to the bearman, and returned to the Water Cellar Town with a light heart, asking Fisher to call the dwarves over.

But Fisher said:

"Dragon Lord, I have already asked them about their expertise. In addition to counterfeiting, they can also change mountainous terrain and build stone walls."

"Why not let them be responsible for building the city?"

Attilan thought for a while and said:

"Bring the map over."

The fishman spread out the map, and Attilan's dragon claws pointed to the road between the gnoll kingdom and the wasteland, saying:

"Have them move earth and block both of these passages for me. Widen this passage to the wasteland, and slightly dredge this passage to the halflings."

Fisher frowned and asked:

"Dragon Lord, isn't doing this forcing the gnolls to plunder the halflings? Then wouldn't we be unable to obtain food supplies from the halflings? We could clearly move forward a little and completely block the gnolls' invasion."

Attilan shook his head and said:

"No, I will have people monitor the gnolls' movements. Why would a hundred elite ironclad cavalry be stationed in such a remote place as Water Cellar Town? It's so that they can cross the mountains to support the halflings at a critical moment."

"Repairing that passage to the halfling town isn't to make it easier for the gnolls to invade the halfling town, but to increase the cavalry's rescue speed."

"Fisher, do you think it's better for the halflings to be untouched because the gnolls are blocked hundreds of miles away and will never be attacked by gnolls again, or for the cavalry to descend from the sky and save them from fire and water after they are attacked by gnolls?"

"Which will make them more grateful to us?"

Fisher nodded knowingly.

"The Dragon Lord is wise. I will arrange the dwarves' work now."

"Before setting off, I want to see them again, and their salaries will be the same as the squad leader's. Arrange the leader's salary to be the same as yours."

"Just control the leader, and have him come to see me."

"Yes."

Fisher went down to call the dwarf leader over.

"I heard you are good at building city walls?"

"Because I barely have some connection with the dwarven royal family, I can get the job of repairing city walls. I just use the Earth to Stone spell to turn the shaped mud into stone."

"I don't need to carefully carve stones like those people. Does the Dragon Lord need me to help build city walls? I must explain in advance that the stones transformed by the Earth to Stone spell are better than stones that have been immersed in earth elements for a long time."

"The degree of firmness will be slightly worse."

Attilan showed a mouthful of sharp teeth.

"How much worse?"

The dragon's might that involuntarily emanated instantly made the dwarf leader sweat profusely.

"Half as much."

Attilan smiled. This was indeed the style of these dwarves who were good at counterfeiting.

"It doesn't matter. Even the stones shaped by the Earth to Stone spell are more solid than the city walls they pound out of mud. I don't care about counterfeiting or not."

"As long as you can create value for me. For the dwarves, it is necessary to build city walls with solid stones that have been immersed in earth elements for many years. I don't need it here for the time being."

"But the day I need it, I don't want you to use this kind of stone to deceive me again, understand?"

"I understand!"

The dwarf leader nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.

"There is one more thing. The things you got from the ancient tomb do have value, but the value is not particularly high. I asked my master, a legendary druid."

"It does not have the value of continuing research. In the future, don't waste materials to continue research. Concentrate on moving mountains. Maybe one day you can practice the descent of the gods."

The dwarf leader was stunned.

"Dragon Lord, how do you know that I have the bloodline of the dwarven royal family?"