novelGreat Stone Sculptor
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Chapter 212: Great Stone Sculptor
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
[Congratulations to host for promoting to the unique class, Lord of Frigidwinter. This is a personal job class just for you, and it is impossible to pass on to any others. ]
[Congratulations to host for entering Gold rank. ]
[Congratulations to host for receiving the special isolated dimensional world, Frigidwinter Earth. The System has already prepared camouflage for it. From what the Gods can tell, this will only be a rather unique small version of your mental world, and please use it as much as you like. However, if any Gods enter it... hehe, definitely remember to kill them in order to silence them. ]
[Congratulations to host for... ]
The miserly system actually gave me a series of congratulations. This Gold rank wasn't a reward from my system either; I had broken through to this rank on my own. Actually, none of these were important to me. What was most important was that I had now confirmed my future path of development.
"I need to complete and perfect this world."
I needed to find God Equipment, materials, and Divine Souls to fill this newly-born world with. Completing and perfecting this world would mean the same for myself.
Perhaps this would be a thorny path, one that would take an uncalculatable amount of time, and perhaps I might never even finish it in my lifetime. On this path that only I walked, it would be impossible for anyone to give me any advice. But I knew that at the very end of this path I was walking, the treasure that I desired so much might exist.
"In that case, let's give it a try."
I couldn't suppress my excitement and joy—it was as if I was a child who had just received a new toy. I would obviously want to try it out, but I immediately heard another notification from my system at this point in time.
[Due to the cost of the camouflage system's activation and analysis of these new abilities having surpassed your ability to pay in Fate Points, please pay an additional 2147 Fate Points that you owe within 24 hours. Otherwise, the system shall confiscate your new world. You don't have money? Then let's use your newly-born baby to pay off the debt. ]
*Pu!*
I instantly spurted blood. It actually did this to me at such a time? Give my earlier gratitude and how moved I was back to me!
But I had no time to comment on any of this. Based on my understanding of the System, when it said something was good, it might not really be that good, but whenever it said something would be bad, it would definitely be worse than I expected. Since it had already said that it would confiscate my new world if I didn't pay up within 24 hours, then it really would confiscate it by that time.
"Wait a moment; this is the core of my new job class. If you confiscate it, then won't I become a knight without a horse, a basketball player that doesn't know how to act dramatically to get fouls, a tennis player who doesn't know ultimate techniques, a tofu brain with no sugar to run it with? Won't that be meaningless then!"
[Time remaining: 23 hours, 59 minutes. System Reminder: Just keep talking about unimportant things and making fun of me, you heretic sweet-lover!]
I... I decided not to comment any longer and instead began working hard at earning points.
...
The Helod Deep Canyon was a forbidden zone in Karo City's map because this was where the tower giants resided.
'Tower giants' didn't sound like a magnificent name at all, but anyone who took a single glance at those enormous stone giants would instantly understand how they got their name.
Every tower giant was as tall as a building with several dozen floors, and their heads and shoulders would be obscured by the clouds. Their upper halves were basically fortresses, and their shoulders and heads had the shapes of buildings and were basically the fortress's clock tower and cannon towers.
Its tremendous body meant that it had matchless physical attack power, and these tower giants were immensely destructive in melee combat. But the most fatal of all would be the hundreds of catapults within their fortresses.
The reasons for such a thing being born were inconceivable. The first pioneers to arrive in the Earth Elemental Plane had been ambushed by a tower giant, and while they suffered serious losses, they had also mistakenly believed that they were ambushed by an enemy faction's archmage.
After all, its specialized body was just like a human structure and made it obvious that it was a created object. Although the tower giants still hadn't evolved to having their own wills, their incomparably gigantic bodies and countless numbers of huge stone catapults were indisputably the best evidence that they were born to be war machines.
And for the Helod Deep Canyon's tower giants to be labeled as the highest danger level of all was because all these tower giants also contained countless numbers of residents within them that formed strange symbiotic relationships with the tower giants.
Some of them that lived within the tower giants would be stone peelers or other low-intelligence earth elemental creatures. Sometimes one could even find gargoyles or other special flying creatures within. Every tower giant was like a box of chocolates; you never knew what you would find inside it, and finding out would typically never be a good thing. [1] 1
On top of all that, tower giants even had the habit of living in groups and had a special way to communicate with each other. This meant that fighting with a single tower giant would basically be like fighting an entire war, as several dozens of tower giants would come by and create a tremendous army unit.
In the Helod Deep Canyon, the tower giant tribe numbered approximately four hundred. The exact number of tower giants and symbiotic tribes living with them were impossible to count.
Just this tower giant tribe living here in the Helod Deep Canyon made even sand dragons fear to enter this area. Only the most ancient of existences knew that the largest secret was actually within this canyon, and that these gigantic tower giants were only the door guards personally sculpted by a certain ancient existence.
"Who's that? He's actually heading inside the Helod Deep Canyon?"
Tower giants would occasionally come out to hunt or roam around. In order to prevent unnecessary losses, every faction established a temporary outpost at the entrance to the canyon. As for Karo's outpost, in addition to keeping a watch on these big guys' movements, their more important duty was to convince newbies to go home instead of going inside.
"What? A mega SSS-ranked dangerous zone? Hmph! I was born to do great things; what's a dangerous zone to me? Danger only means it's a place where treasure is hidden and miracles can be found... Hahaha! God Equipment and inheritances, I'm coming for you! There are no stairs? Perfect, I'll simply jump off this cliff!"
Idiots like that would come along every year, and there would always be those who believed too much in hero's tales. Sometimes, the mages standing guard here would get annoyed and stop trying to convince them, allowing them to enter at their own risk.
Luckily, there weren't too many idiots this year. The mage who was in charge here, Kalin, was even worried that there wouldn't be enough funny stories to share when he would finish his shift at the end of the year. When he finally saw someone coming to the Helod Deep Canyon, he was actually rather happy.
But before he could go up to that person to warn him about the danger, he stopped of his own volition.
That figure, who was wearing a gray cape, merely glanced at him, but he felt as if he had been paralyzed by a lightning strike.
"He's so strong! I haven't heard of a thunder element archmage that had come here."
The next moment, Kalin knew that his good intentions were needless, as that figure had already vanished.
The tower giants were under the command to attack all non-earth elemental species. On his way into the canyon, that continuously flashing and vanishing figure was attacked many times, but unfortunately, those clumsy and slow tower giants weren't even able to touch him, much less see him.
Once he reached the center of the deep canyon, the gray-cloaked figure stopped, and patiently waited until a voice spoke up.
"Camdian, what could be so important that you would personally come to find me?"
Even when dealing with a powerful Elemental God, this similarly ancient top-level Earth Elemental Lord had zero hesitation and respect—it was almost as if it was treating Camdian as its junior. Nor did Camdian care about the disrespect; it was rather the opposite, as he preferred being direct as well.
"Ainslo, would you like to become the Earth Elemental God? Do you want to become an existence equal to me?"
Communication between elemental creatures was always ever so direct. They were just like an ancient tribe that lacked any knowledge about modern society. This was all the more so for elemental creatures who hadn't come into much contact with mortals; they always said exactly what they were thinking about.
"... Of course! What do you intend to do?!"
The entire canyon echoed with this tremendous voice. Ainslo didn't even try to hide its own desire. As one of the most ancient existences in the Earth Elemental Plane, Ainslo had been desiring to become the Earth Elemental God for countless years.
But there could only be one Earth Elemental God. If it weren't for the fact that Ainslo was somewhat intelligent and knew that Emordilorcan would be no easy piece of cake to deal with, Ainslo would have long since opened up the seal and fought for the honor to become the Earth Elemental God.
"Then, join our plan. This time, the Fire Elemental Goddess, the Water Elemental Goddess, and I have decided to team up and completely destroy Emordilorcan."
"... That's not enough."
After a long hesitation, that was Ainslo's reply. It wasn't that Ainslo was unwilling—it was that Ainslo didn't think that these allies would be able to win.
Camdian who was rejected wasn't angered at all. This was an answer that he expected. Although Emordilorcan had angered far too many, he was still alive and kicking after all this time of being attacked by many ganging up on him. There was no other explanation—Emordilorcan was simply strong enough to the point that he could indeed fight simultaneously with the other three Elemental Gods at once.
In that underground labyrinth, Emordilorcan was even controlling the opening of the Earth Elemental Dimensional Door while facing many as one and even gained the upper hand. If it weren't for the fact that his Earth Elemental Dimensional Door met with a problem and he lost much of his power, who knew who would have won in the end.
In Ainslo's eyes, just casually joining this allied army against Emordilorcan would most likely end up in failure, and these outsiders from another plane would simply run off. Ainslo, however, would have to stay behind and face the full wrath of Emordilorcan, which would be too pitiful.
"If Emordilorcan was in perfect condition, of course we would be insufficient, but how about after Emordilorcan was seriously injured and even forced to self-destruct his Divine Soul? Don't you feel that it's strange? He's obviously returned to this plane for so long already but hasn't appeared even once, nor has he acted like how he always did in the past, attacking all the most powerful Earth Elemental Lords in order to solidify his own position."
"Emordilorcan was injured? For real? How did he get injured? How serious is it?"
This series of hurried questions indicated just how much Ainslo was convinced and eager to know about this.
"Of course, I personally witnessed it and even helped injure him. In fact, the Earth Elemental Heart belonging to his body in the mortal plane even became someone else's victory loot."
*Boom!*
The underground passage that had suddenly opened up was the best evidence of Ainslo's current attitude.
"Come in and let's continue our discussion."
Ainslo even personally came out to welcome Camdian. Unlike that tremendous voice that rattled the ears, Ainslo was actually an incredibly short elemental creature. Its ugly skin was filled with black scales, while its mottled head was filled with sharp earth elemental crystals. Ainslo's four limbs were rather short, and its eyes were quite ugly; just judging by physical appearance, Ainslo was quite close to a gnome's.
But Camdian would never underestimate her just because of physical appearances. Ainslo was the creator of many strong earth elemental creatures, including all the tower giants. The great stone sculptor Ainslo also had the beautiful title of "Mother of 10, 000 Stones."
That's right—her, not him. While elemental creatures didn't have genders to begin with, after reaching a high enough level, they could choose their own genders.
As one of the most ancient Elemental Lords in the Earth Elemental Plane, Ainslo's fame and might was no lower than the Elemental Gods. If it weren't for the fact that Emordilorcan was ridiculously strong, she actually had power on par with the other Elemental Gods.
At the very least, if Ainslo had been a Wind Elemental Lord, Camdian himself felt that he didn't have any guaranteed chances of victory against her.
"This time, we have a grand plan. In order to ensure its success, two of us Elemental Gods have personally joined in, and I've even recruited 30 something Earth Elemental Lords, and they're all very interested in this plan. Of course, that also means that they're interested in the treasured position of Earth Elemental God."
"... As long as Emordilorcan is eliminated, I won't lose to anyone."
Camdian faintly smiled and didn't say anything more. He had already heard this type of phrase more than thirty times in the past few days. Every single Earth Elemental Lord would say that to him.
"As long as Emordilorcan is eliminated, I will steal the position of Earth Elemental God for myself."
There were no promises given. These ancient existences didn't need promises either, as all of them were filled with self-confidence. They also knew that the moment Emordilorcan died for real, all promises would be worth nothing more than blank paper, and in the end the Earth Elemental Lords would have to decide things among themselves based on real strength.
This was also why Roland had Camdian take the task of personally coming out to convince the Earth Elemental Lords. Normal people wouldn't even be able to receive a chance to speak before these ancient existences. Only the similarly ancient Wind Elemental God would know how to get all these ancient existences to temporary ally and work together for the same cause.
"Then, please take a look at this blueprint. In order to deal with Emordilorcan, we need a fortress—a huge moving fortress."
Ainslo accepted the blueprint, and then—
"... I haven't read many books, but you can't fool me! Is this really a fortress? Do you think I've never been to the mortal plane? This is obviously just a duck!"
Yep, on that blueprint was a large yellow duck, albeit without a neck. And on the top of the blueprint, there were also several large words that were written.
"Moving Fortress—Large Yellow Duck!" This was obviously the blueprint of a certain individual who had spent so much hard effort on designing it. Fine, you could also say that it was the product of terrible hobbies.
"No, no, no; I didn't understand it at first either, but you see, making it into a bird's shape is in order to reduce air resistance while it's flying, and choosing the strange shape of a featherless, neckless duck is all in order to have better contours for less drag. Apparently, this is supposed to be humanity's newest technology in the area of air resistance. It's the crystal of scholarly wisdom."
"Are you sure that you're not joking with me? This is a crystal of scholarly wisdom, not some random object made by someone with too much free time?"
It was obvious that Ainslo wouldn't be so easy to fool. She had a premonition that with just this ridiculously laughable outer appearance alone, if she ended up creating it, it would become the greatest humiliation of her long, long, life.
"Of course, the one who designed it was a major scholar of the Truth Research Society (Margaret), and this time, she's also personally joining us in the attack on Emordilorcan!"
Alright, Camdian didn't intentionally lie to Ainslo. It was Roland who had fooled Camdian about its designer to begin with. But now, the Wind Elemental God's words sounded extremely convincing. Even though Ainslo still felt rather confused and doubtful inside, she could only agree.
"Wake up all those stone carvers and sculptors; we have a new job! Let us begin creating the Large Yellow Duck! Under the lead of I, the Great Stone Sculptor, it shall become the grandest duck in this entire world!"
Note:
1. Forrest Gump reference!
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