Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 1676 - 253: The Great Reshuffle in the Desert

Hill certainly understood that this was inevitably the result of Aesces’s heart leaning more and more towards Lucimar.

So the luck that he bestowed upon Lucimar suddenly suppressed the overwhelming fate of Ismael. Of course, Triton’s assistance might have played a part as well.

The first reaction of the Lord of the Ocean upon seeing Ismael was definitely a curse.

As for the actions of the little princess... like that inexplicable double act, whether Triton’s will was involved, Hill couldn’t guess.

Sometimes, the deities of the Greek Gods perform actions that even surprise themselves... Was I possessed at that time?

Normal people~ just need to look at the results, don’t think about the process, and definitely don’t question why, as it might suddenly break their logical train of thought.

Instead, he always thought first of the kind of dream where good people are always rewarded, but it’s always him dreaming.

Only those with the strength to resist malice can be good people who are alive.

But every time he encounters such things, Hill hopes from the bottom of his heart that kindness will not be let down, and indeed it hasn’t been.

Even though it might be that even the luck, which usually never fails him, cannot fulfill this whimsical dream, as long as it gives kindhearted people a slim chance of survival in life’s critical moments, he hasn’t wasted this stroke of fortune.

Although these words seem a bit insincere, this is truly how Hill feels... His life can’t be compared to those with strong will and broad mind, who sacrifice significantly over life and death matters of others, but he is willing to exchange his extra, unaffected interests with those urgently in need, gifting to the pitiable ones at the brink of life and death.

Hill has always been clear and straightforward in his self-assessment: someone like him can be considered kind on Toril, but in Teraxil, he can only be considered neutral.

As for Aesces... ah, the muddlehead has yet to fully establish his faction laws!

During the time the Undead Tribe arrived, the reason why Aesces hid in his Divine Kingdom for so long and was oblivious to everything was because he was trying to integrate the faction rules that he deemed suitable for his world into the related laws.

After all, he had been learning from Toril and had long sensed something was amiss, but just couldn’t figure it out on his own.

Honestly, Hill can’t help but roll his eyes at the thought of Aesces, a Lord of Order who strictly manages his world yet learned the reckless rule-setting approach from Toril.

Not learning what should be learned, and fooling around with things that shouldn’t be, and only stepping on a mine today, it’s truly due to the Earth Deity System’s inherent fate and hadn’t wasted that spirit born of destiny.

Time flowed slowly for Hill as he watched the melodramatic battles on the ocean and desert base-building games, while in Cain Valley, the guerrilla warfare continued with ’Snow Cloud Peak’ retreating and advancing frequently.

Compared to Scaret’s side, where discussions and battles with Ismael are intertwined while discussing how to handle the child after its birth... Such as what kind of fee would satisfy a nation’s Princess from a renowned Alchemist Master.

All of Ismael’s struggles crumble in the simple phrase over there, ’the King is about to abdicate, and the Princess’s title is soon to be on par with a Crown Prince.’

The only thing he can fight for now is a one-time settlement, able to endure despite the heavy price, absolutely not accepting to be bled dry slowly, paying annually, with prices rising year by year.

Seeing this moment, Hill already suspected that this inexplicable romantic encounter was orchestrated by Triton... very much in the style of their God System, having a child to solve all problems.

But alas, Aesces provided the opposite answer.

Triton indeed thought about how to step down, but he only plans to build a wooden staircase... Prince Alexis is still crouching in his Temple!

He truly doesn’t intend to pay such a huge price just to build a luxurious gemstone slide for others to enjoy.

Anyway, whether it’s animosity or grievance, it’s all become a joke now.

Hill now only occasionally glances over there to relax his mind when his eyes get a bit tired from watching the enthusiastic infrastructure in the desert.

However, he still couldn’t quite understand the movements in the desert.

On the oasis, the people of the Black and White Path family were diligently building houses.

Of course, it’s by digging up everywhere in the oasis except where there’s green vegetation, and filling it all up again afterwards.

They even avoided the roots of the green plants and dug up the underground part as well... and then they replaced all the sand within 200 meters with nutrient-rich soil excavated from Cain Valley.

Of course, first having Earth Mages turn deeper layers into solid rock.

Black and White Path is truly a family that once mixed in the Underdark, very knowledgeable in avoiding attacks from underground.

As for those fools who mistakenly thought they could evade the eyes of the Undead Tribe, waiting for them to relax and infiltrate the city, they were long gone without a trace... Before entering any place, the Undead Tribe would always first sweep the area with three rounds of group attack spells.

In the end, the battle always concluded with fire rain and thunder.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so cautious to avoid the plant root areas.

As for whether there are issues under the plants... The Black and White Path folks brought a lot of nutrient potions from Hill, combined with the soil from Cain Valley that Hill had nourished, what plant wouldn’t take root and sprout after encountering such a double surprise?

Especially desert trees, those that don’t seize the opportunity to grow a few meters more of roots are basically doomed... Then, you can dig them up entirely and send them elsewhere.

Even the ancient poison hidden by some cunning old thief hundreds of years ago was found, not to mention the random junk hidden by petty thieves... All were consigned to a fiery blaze.

Of course, the Undead in the oasis have been constantly using Alignment Detection... Unless someone can hide near that white house that had transformed from a carriage into a two-story small building... the very standard one with a large hall and small room downstairs, two small rooms and a small hall upstairs, and bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, in Victorian style.

Unfortunately, on the first day, the distance around this small house wasn’t properly calculated, resulting in a scenario where everyone turned pale... Suddenly, there was a massive black-red torch along with countless small red dots beside it.

Though there was quite a bit of chaos, even making some Danboro people in the oasis almost flee, they managed to calm down thanks to the efforts of the Undead Tribe... Fortunately, ’Lucy’ was kind enough to assure responsibility for safety over there.

And she guaranteed Lucimar’s safety, albeit only within a kilometer radius around her.

Lucimar actually wasn’t very willing to accept such protection, but he understood, he didn’t have a choice.

If he didn’t want ’Lucy’ to follow him like a shadow as she did elsewhere, he had to compromise a bit... However, compared to the past, this compromise, ensured by the Main God for his life safety, didn’t seem like a big deal to Lucimar.

Although Lucimar had to return to that house every night, during the day he stayed in one of the Alchemy Halls already opened by the Undead, hosting the oasis construction and preliminary administrative affairs with ’Mobi Chenxin’.

In the meantime, they assessed some Professionals who passed the constant Alignment Detection spells released by the Undead Tribe, those screened by ’Lucy’ and willing to work for him, and prepared to assign official positions according to their abilities.

Lucimar now truly had nothing left, he didn’t take any Ishmael Household subordinates with him... Naturally, seeing him crazy enough to want to leave the family completely, even pursuing the Otherworld’s Undead Tribe, his former subordinates didn’t intend to follow him.

For any Danboro, no, besides Scaret any Aescian, the Ishmael Family is an absolutely unshakable towering tree, it’s a source of pride to be part of it!

And Lucimar had always been somewhat unsatisfactory... He was always pessimistic about his future, how could he actively win the hearts of his subordinates?

Though Lucy helped him repair some of the damage, no one sincerely appreciated her.

The final outcome was that despite receiving messages conveyed with the help of the Undead Tribe, no one took action in the mansion in Basia City that once belonged to Lucimar.

Lucimar naturally understood the reason behind all this, but he wasn’t very concerned.

Starting anew meant inevitably dealing with chaos.

His head spinning with overwhelming stress, he temporarily forgot to pay attention to Luciella.

Lucimar can forget, but the Undead Tribe cannot.

After arranging those willing to stay in the oasis for infrastructure development, the Black and White Path began dispatching squads of fixed 25-member teams to all directions: generally composed of three groups, one group formed by Black and White Path members, then mixing combat specialists from two other PVE families into the remaining two groups.

The arrangement ensured that even if some members couldn’t go online, each squad had at least 50 combat strength.

These squads, running across the desert with Alignment Detection, in a sense, indeed reshuffled the Danboro desert region.

To avoid them, small oasis sand thief teams basically couldn’t survive independently, they had to merge into the giant thieves’ guilds.

Including those who appeared as oasis camps, but in actuality were half desert thieves mini oasis managers.

Although the Undead Tribe’s main target was the elusive Luciella, the gathering of desert thieves in the major oases led to such an outcome... They wouldn’t miss the biggest, most prominent noble caravans like they did in the past.

Previously, they didn’t dare to act since nobles paid well, and attacking them would cause grave damage.

But now, there were enough people.

And having enough people meant being unable to support them.