"It's kind of mean," Cremar said seriously, "I mean, your behavior ......"

The fat otter, bathed in the sun, glanced at him, twisted his body and lazily licked the newly grown fluff.

"I gave you six pieces of maple candy, a bottle of snow honey, and three fish you requested," Cremar said, curling his fingers, "I thought you would help me keep this little secret." ”

The otter chirped twice at him, and for the first time Cremar had heard an otter call, it sounded like a little songbird like a nightingale singing - it crouched demonstratively on its favorite platform-like rock, and began to throw a pebble with silver stripes back and forth repeatedly, from the right front paw to the left front paw, and from the left front paw to the right front paw.

"Well, you've lost a beautiful stone, but what do you want it for, you're not a sea otter, and there's no oyster to knock on here. ”

The furry creature stopped, tucked its new precious stone under its armpit, and let out another loud chirp at Cremar, rolling over and jumping into the water.

"No more maple candy! little bastard!" cried Cremar.

The otter floats on the surface of the water, belly side up, exposing its head and two soles, and it sticks out its tongue at Cremar.

- The negotiations didn't go well?Well, the lich scoffed, have you ever thought about what kind of compensation you can get? A fish?

- A hug, perhaps, said the soul of the other world, he stood up and walked towards the fissure maple tree that belonged to him.

The otter has built a new lair, but it is not far from its original lair, it remembers Cremar, and often runs to him to ask him for maple candy and snow honey, but its closest person is not Cremar, but Perrant, who allows him to pet it and hold it, and the soul of the other world does not know if this has something to do with Perrante's profession, or if it remembers Ilda, and Perrant is the elf who most closely resembles the former in the whole Huiling- He thought it was the latter, because Perrant wasn't the only druid in Grey Ridge, but the bastard with a shoveltail either fled immediately or bit their fingers as they tried to get close to it.

It only trusts Perante, and is willing to quietly curl its tail and shrink into his hand, and if any elf or half-elf provokes it, intentionally or unintentionally, it will run to sue Perante, and has the strength to not give up without getting results and compensation.

Because of this, Cremar was offered a slightly punitive job to assist the gnomes in surveying the Starlight River.

- The elves are ready to abandon the White Tower, and the former undead, after hearing the details of the work, say with certainty that at the very least, it will be stripped of its unique location.

The reason why the White Pagoda has been able to survive and develop to this extent is inseparable from the Gray Ridge and the Silver Crown Dense Forest.

The Starlight River, except that the trickle of its origin could not cause any deterrence, and after passing through the Silvercrown Forest into the Ash Ridge, it became gentle due to the entanglement of tree roots and the steep widening of the riverbed, the long road was almost all between the towering and steep cliffs, the river was suddenly narrow and wide, the largest of which could reach hundreds of feet, the banks of which reverberated with a huge roar of abundant water, the whirlpool undercurrent was everywhere, and the water surface was covered with hideous and sharp reefs, and even the most solid and huge five-masted ships would be crushed and torn apart by them。

So when the elves wanted to choose a transit point, the White Tower naturally became their best choice, it was not far from the Gray Ridge, the Starlight River had not become too violent and unruly, and the tributaries were wide enough that even if they spread their wings, the elven ships could go in pairs here, and the junction between the tributaries and the Starlight River was a gentle slope, not the most common abrupt and rugged cliffs in the Starlight River Basin.

At that time, the White Tower was a small and peaceful village, living on the only wide tributary of the Starlight River for fishing and growing grain, and it was the elves who brought their molasses, cristobal, and pure gold and mythril...... Well-informed merchants flocked to the city, and over time, fixed and irregular markets were established, and in addition to the production of elves, they began to buy and sell with each other—but just as honey always attracts swarms, so gold always attracts the attention of rulers.

At the behest and dispatch of the Grand Duke, one of his brothers moved here with his soldiers and part of the populace, and with the new surname (i.e., St. Lig) and the right to administer the land (the White Tower and the Partridge Hill), he recounted the number of people in the land, classified them according to occupation and residence, levied taxes on them, and required them to perform military and servitude, and in turn he gave them protection from bandits and thieves, and gave them special charters and written identifications, so that they could walk safely and securely from city to city。

Now, the elves want to build three, or four, third-level sluices (adjustable water levels), as well as docks and even cities on both sides of the sluices, and if they are built, then the merchants can gather in the new city, and their ships can sail on the Starlight River, which is controlled by the locks, of course, they still can't reach Grey Ridge, but they can pass through many towns and villages— Where it might have taken months to travel long distances with the legs of men and horses, now it takes only one-half or one-third of the time, and ships can carry far more cargo than horse-drawn carriages.

Grand Duke Luzel was pleased with this, more cities, more merchants meant more gold, and reduced the importance and vague sense of threat of the White Tower (he had already received a request for marriage from the last two bloodlines of St. Rigg, and he would prefer to throw it into the furnace if possible), and he even sold the elves the land they needed for a very cheap price - although the ghost places that could neither be used for farming nor mining were originally not very desirable.

While neither the sluice gates nor the city will be built in a day, the elves are all about time, and it took less than fifty years for the White Tower to evolve from a village to a city.

Fifty years, for a human, that's almost their life, but for a half-elf, it's only a quarter or a sixth of their life, and the changes in the White Tower will be vividly and completely visible to its rulers.

- Are the elves a little angry?, the soul of the other world asked in a low voice, although in the sea of knowledge, no one would notice even if they shouted, but sometimes he would do it out of habit.

- A little punishment, if the fool half-elf didn't care about the White Tower as she had shown it, and the lich said disapprovingly, then even this little bit would not help.

- I think she cares, that's what her father left her, said the otherworldly soul.

- Then the elves have achieved their purpose.

- Her previous actions may have been due to duress or seduction from Demon.

- Perhaps, the lich said sharply, but the elves don't see this- yes, maybe you're strong, wise and perceptive, well-read and far-sighted, but you don't expect everyone to be like you, you know they can't do what you can, they can't keep up with you, they can't see what you see and estimate what you can estimate - He spread his hands gracefully, but the elves do, yes, they believe that you can be as strong and fearless as they are, even if you have to face the sharpest sword ever made. The deadliest magic and the most sinister conspiracy, they expect you to be able to break free from prison, wipe the blood and sludge off your body, connect your bones, mend your wounds, erase the traces of torture and humiliation and pretend that nothing happened, your soul and body are still pure and intact, —— you can do it, they will recognize you, but if you can't, dear, as you can see, they will not hesitate to abandon you, just like Anrui now.

The otherworldly soul felt that he was not just describing An Rui, but he only thought about it briefly and silently, and this kind of lightning thought was difficult to read.

The lich also seemed to notice that he was talking too much, and for the rest of the day, he did not say a word.

The quest for the Starlight River lasted a full decade, a bit of painstaking but not monotonous, and the main task of Cremar and a few other mages was to fly around with the gnomes and place them wherever they wanted to take a closer look. As for the rest, such as setting up and freezing the entire turbulent and angry Starlight River, only a few high-ranking mages sent by the Silvercrown Jungle could do it—the gnomes quickly and fearfully set up their instruments on the slippery and hard riverbed, eagerly measuring every data they needed, looking like human children, dressed in fine silk clothes and small, delicate boots, puffing cheeks and fingers flushed with cold, and white frost on their brows.

The gnomes weren't so willing, and given the small profits in the business, the problem was that the administrators of Greyridge had evidence of their involvement in a war - three huge floating platforms, produced by the gnomes, and although they tried to argue, the elves' swords, scimitars, and bows could indeed make any race short of breath, and they reluctantly accepted the elves' commission for a symbolic price of a pound of Mithril.

The otherworldly souls found that the drawings they had drawn were no more crude or blurry than the ones he had seen in his world, and that they could use magic to make them three-dimensional, with real textures and colors.

The mapping work was followed by days and nights of discussion, in which elves, dwarves, gnomes, and humans were naturally arguing, but Kremar was not involved in the work, and he was already in Adel's new dwelling as they debated whether the gates of the river gates should be moved vertically up and down, sideways, or sideways, or sideways.

Adelle's new dwelling was small and dark, barely large enough for two grown men to sit cross-legged face to face, and the priests who had lost their divine grace were nothing but a sturdy physique, unable to build a house that needed a foundation, and had to dig a hole deep enough in the ground for them to hide in, as the outcasts and slaves did, and then build a roof and low walls with branches, covered with blades of grass, and covered with thick layers of earth, leaving only a small hole for entry and exit。

"It would be better if the sun was more solar. Adel said, scratching his face, there was little light in the cave, but Cremar could still see his face covered in pimples and scars: "It's been gloomy lately. He said, hanging his head apologetically, his outsized pants pulled up to his knees, no shoes, and his feet and the damp muddy ground were almost the same color.

Cremar touched the ground, the dirt was delicate and a little sticky.

"Can you go out for a bit?" said the caster, "I think I can dry it a bit." ”

The fierce flames scorched the cavern at once, but it didn't stop, but continued to lick every part of the new dwelling, its tentacles sticking out from the cavern's exit, ten feet long.

When the flames were extinguished, the entire cavern was red, and the heat emitted was like a falling sun.

They waited a long time, and after Cremar cast another lowering of the temperature, Adel could return to his dwelling, he touched the walls and the floor, and was delighted to find that they had become hard and dry, and he seemed to want to say something, but was interrupted by himself, "Praise Rosada." Cremar said in his place, in exchange for a calm, sad smile.

"Yes. He said.

The soul of the other world sighed deeply in the sea of knowledge.

"I've got a lot of spells in store," Cremar said, "and like that, would you like to see them?"

In addition to burning the priests' caves, the Cremar flames were used for many purposes, such as roasting rabbits and cooking fish soup, and the priests sat by the stream and waited for their houses to cool down, and they were all glad to see it.

"It would be nice to have a little more berries. Cremar said, turning his head and searching the bushes at the edge of the woods, where it was twilight, and it had become swarthy, but it did not prevent him from finding the sweet and sour little fruits.

He saw two bright spots.

;