First-time offenders will be punished to be stationed in a peripheral area, away from the entire stone giant community.
This punishment is somewhat difficult to understand for many people who don't understand stone giants.
But for the stone giants themselves, this is a quite serious punishment. Stone giants, especially young stone giants, are very playful and social creatures, but the games they play are not ordinary creatures. Things that are acceptable, such as rock-throwing games or rock-catching games—throwing or catching hundreds of kilograms of boulders.
Spiritual loneliness is the most terrible torture.
Domingo is one of them. Because of his serious dereliction of duty on the last mission, he was thrown into the dwarf grave, together with these dull gray dwarves who had no enthusiasm for life at all, lost their passion for creation, and only knew how to do hard work.
The Council of Death Chiefs who formulated this punishment method only considered the punishment effect brought by this method and the convenience of task arrangement.
There was no consideration at all. For those stone giants who were punished, when they had no way to get spiritual comfort from their own kind, they could only invest their energy in their own fascinating art, thus causing two or three dereliction of their duties.
But there are also some stone giants who suspect that it is not that the immortal chiefs of the Death Chiefs Council do not know this truth, but that they do it intentionally.
If they don't do this, how can they legitimately let the stone giants join their ranks? The stone giants who have been punished for dereliction of duty three times will be deemed by the Death Chiefs Council as no longer of value to the stone giant tribe, at least It is no longer possessed while alive and will be transformed into a more valuable immortal existence.
When transformed into an immortal state, even the most basic emotions no longer exist, so where does the creative passion come from? When have you ever heard that there are artists among the undead?
There is only terror and killing!
There is a good reason for this. Giants are also immortals. Even the hill giants with the shortest life spans have the same life span of three to four hundred years as the dwarves.
Stone giants are neither long nor short. If there are no accidents, they can live eight to ten centuries.
After the stone giant ages naturally and then transforms into an immortal state, how slowly will the Council of Death Chiefs develop?
However, if there is a crime of dereliction of duty that is consistent with the stone giant's nature, the number of stone giants transformed into the ranks of immortal stone giants will increase significantly. The remaining ones are all dedicated and fulfilling their duties for the tribe.
Domingo felt a serious crisis, because he was charged with dereliction of duty not once, but twice. If he added one more, he would be reported in the immortal line.
He had just turned 200 years old, which was the most beautiful age in his life. He did not want to join the ranks of the emotionless immortals, so he asked solemnly: "You are also dwarves, and there is nothing you can do to lift this seal?"
Did this guy wear his ears when he talked to me before? With brains?
I seem to have answered this question more than ten times?
No wonder he was sent to the dwarf tomb. He was no longer simply derelict in his duties. He didn't put his mind on work for a minute at all, at least not before.
Yuriu's tribe has been enslaved by the Death Chiefs Council for nearly a thousand years, and naturally they know them very well from top to bottom.
He knew the nature of the stone giant even better than himself, so he suppressed his inner complaints and answered again countless times, "Those remnants of the Supreme Shanatar have already expected that you will use them." Furnace, so it is not an ordinary seal, but a unique mineral vein sealing technique.
They integrated the entire main body of the mineral vein into their city. This mineral vein can only be mined from the city where they are located, and it is indestructible from other directions.
To lift this seal, it must be done in the dwarf city above by a descendant of the supreme Shatana with pure blood, holding the seal key. Three conditions are indispensable. "
The seal of the City of Colossus is not just as simple as hiding and blocking the passage to the Underdark.
If this were the case, over the course of thousands of years, the gray dwarves working from bottom to top would have already opened up new passages, even if they had not dug through the veins.
Upon hearing the three conditions, Domingo was immediately discouraged. They only met half of the three conditions.
Gray dwarves are indeed the people of Shatana, but they are not considered to be members of the Supreme Shatana. Before the establishment of the High Shatana, they had been kidnapped by the Mind Flayer, let alone the mutated bloodline. Even the dwarf ancestry is unknown.
As for the seal key, who knows what it is?
It might be a tailor-made key, it might be a gem, or it might be a stone.
The seal key is just a reference to a certain item.
As for the dwarf city on the surface, it may be something that the Death Chiefs Council can do, but for him, it is just beyond his power.
I heard that a group of intelligent trolls as tall as their stone giants occupied the place and established a huge troll kingdom.
"What about finding new veins of minerals?" Domingo took the next step and looked for methods in other directions.
Mentioning this matter, Yuriu became even more resentful and gritted his teeth and said: "Finding new mineral veins is not something that happens overnight, especially since we are now four thousand meters deep underground and surrounded by thick dry hot rock formations. If Without the protection of urban heat-absorbing devices, we would be cooked in minutes.
When we start mining, we can only start after we have processed the geothermal energy in the rocks.
Two centuries ago, I raised the matter of exploring new mineral veins with Manager Samingo. A century ago, I raised the matter with Manager Alana. I also raised the matter with Manager Alana when you first took office.
But you either ignored it or didn't listen at all.
Exploring new mineral veins now is as unrealistic as trying to use the water of the Endless Sea to put out the fire here. "
After hearing the two names mentioned by Yuriu, Domingo was suddenly enveloped in a heavy feeling of powerlessness. No wonder this city is also nicknamed the Giant Tomb among the stone giant tribe. To work here is to step on the throne. Entered the ranks of the immortal.
Both men were notorious criminals who had left this mess until it blew up on themselves.
When Domingo attributed the blame to his two predecessors, he did not consider that he had been derelict in his duties for thirty years.
Leave the large and small affairs here to Yuriu's charge. As long as they don't try to escape and pay in full the goods stipulated by the Death Chiefs Council on a monthly basis, they will no longer care about them.
Well, Yuriu seems to have come to him more than once or twice for this problem, but several times in a row. As long as they ignore them, they will find ways to make up for the production. After all, they don’t want an immortal stone without any emotions. Giants came to exploit them.
Domingo no longer took it to heart, but this time the gap was too big.
Even if he neglected his duty, he would notice it.
Domingo couldn't help lowering his attitude and asked: "Is there no other way to think of? Let's deal with this month first, and then I can go back to the clan to think of a solution?"
Yuriu shook his head without hesitation and said: "There is no way to think about it. Now we are trying our best to produce. The quality of the ore is there. The grade has dropped from 43% to 13%. We are already Looking for iron stones among the piles of stones.
Unless there is higher grade ore, it can only be the current production. "
Domingo's eyes fell on his giant palace, and his eyes suddenly lit up, and he suddenly asked: "If this palace is dismantled and integrated into the iron ore, can it be part of the production?"
Even though Yuriu had a deep temper, he could not help but stare at Domingo with his mouth open at this moment. He couldn't help but suspect that his brain was also made of stone. He had been here for thirty years, so he didn't know anything about the situation here. learn?
The reason why this palace is made of steel is not to highlight the performance of the city, but to carry the necessities of the city and where the key devices are located.
If it is dismantled, it will not take long for this place to become a melting pot with a temperature exceeding hundreds of degrees, steaming all creatures that are not immune to fire.
After being stared at by Yuriu's strange eyes for a while, Domingo finally remembered what was unique about this gray dwarf city. A trace of blush appeared on his blue-gray face involuntarily, and he seemed to have come up with another stupid idea. .
But for a while, there was no other way to think of.
If it doesn't work, go back to the Council of Death Chiefs to find a way?
See if you can talk them through?
After all, the depletion of iron ore resources in the dwarf tomb is beyond human control. At most, I reported it a few years late.
This is not entirely my own responsibility.
"I have a proposal, I wonder if you two want to hear it." A voice rang out of thin air.
"Who is there?"
"come out!"
Both the stone giant manager Domingo and the gray dwarf leader Yuriu were startled and looked around vigilantly. Domingo in particular couldn't help but hold the carving hammer and stone chisel tightly. Although they were not specialized weapons, But their size is staggering enough, and their lethality to most creatures is still considerable.
Like most cities in the Underdark, Dwarf Tomb is a militarized, extremely closed city. Let alone strangers, even insiders are not allowed to appear in places they shouldn't be within the specified time.
This steel fortress is a restricted area. Without Domingo's permission, even Yuriu can't let those heavy-armored giant undead guards who don't know what they mean to pass through.
"Don't get excited, don't get excited. If I wanted to hurt you, you would have died long ago and wouldn't have waited until now."
Less than ten meters away from the two of them, a human statue came to life. As he moved closer, the blue-gray color of the stone was fading away, turning into a vibrant skin color.
A statue comes to life?
The statue you carved has a life of its own?
wrong.
Although my own carving skills are good, I am not yet capable of giving life to the statue.
Although Domingo was confused when it came to managing dwarf tombs, he was not confused at all when it came to carving. Over the years, he had carved a total of 203 statues of humanoid creatures such as humans and elves.
I dare not say that he remembered the physical appearance of each statue clearly. At least when he saw them again, he could recognize them at a glance among many similar statues.
This one didn't belong to any of them, but he hadn't noticed it before. After all, even if he killed Domingo, he wouldn't have thought that someone would use disguise to sneak into his statue.
How did this guy get in?
How long have you been sneaking in?
Why didn't the heavily armored giant undead guards in the palace react at all?
What about this ability to transform into a statue?
A shapeshifter?
No, shapeshifters only have the ability to transform into humanoid creatures. I have never heard of transforming into items like statues.
Could it be that the mage changes all things?
"Paramorphosis, you are a psychic, a protean." Yuriu recognized the other party's ability at a glance, his face as deep as water.
Because they were once enslaved by illithids using mind-manipulating spells, gray dwarves have an extremely low opinion of people and creatures with mind-controlling abilities.
To be more precise, there is fear and fear from the heart, so they will study them to prevent making the same mistakes again.
Gavin grinned at the stone giant who was slowly moving towards the palace door: "Manager Domingo, there is no need to waste your efforts. Your heavy-armored giant undead guards are no longer yours. They are all gone." He was infused with the power of shadow and became mine."
Maybe it's because the enemies I faced during this period were all a bit unusual. Many monsters had to use unusual ultimate moves or had unusual origins until the end.
For example, Ivanso's necromancer turned out to be an evil beast in disguise, with the devil's Grand Duke Maman standing behind him.
Another example is that the trolls in the Troll Kingdom turned out to be the cultists of the Two-Headed Baboon, the Lord of the Abyss, and almost brought Demogorgon over.
Not to mention the god-ascension battle in the Goblin Borderlands, everyone has their own trump card.
This troubled Gavin. Every opponent seemed to have multiple hands hidden behind his back, and he was 100% cautious. The same was true for his infiltration into the gray dwarf city this time.
As a result, he found that things were much simpler than he thought.
He lay dormant in the gray dwarf tavern, listening to them complain about the heavy work and the increasingly difficult iron ore to mine, but no one could notice his presence.
He got into their iron-making, steel-making, and forging workshops and observed with his own eyes how the city worked, as if he were in an uninhabited land.
He manipulated the power of shadow into the bodies of the heavily armored giant undead guards, replacing them and turning them into puppets of the Vizeme Manor. Then he watched the stone giants who were obsessed with carving, but he was completely unaware of them.
This situation arises because Gavin's current methods are extraordinary. Whether it is the ghost cloak or the ability to change states, they are extraordinary methods. Without restraint, it is difficult to find him.
The power of shadow that can control the undead and replace it is not available to everyone. This already belongs to the category of God's power. Whether it is calculated mentally or not, it can be done accurately.
The main reason is that this place has been peaceful for too long, and all the surrounding monster forces have been wiped out by them. They are the most powerful existences. It would be good if they don't hunt those monsters. No monsters dare to harass this place.
The heavily armored giant undead guard led by the stone giant manager is more suitable for guarding the gray dwarves than for defending against foreign enemies, and supervising their mining and forging.
After discovering that the stone giant manager was not as evil as imagined and the predicament of the gray dwarf city, Gavin immediately adjusted his conquest strategy in a timely manner.
If the city could be taken over relatively peacefully, it would be better not to start an undeclared war against a tribe of monsters that had existed for thousands of years.
The gray dwarf city is easy to get to, but it does not mean that the Death Chiefs Council, headed by the undead stone giant chief Dokong, is easy to provoke. This is clearly demonstrated by the hundreds of heavily armored giant undead guards stationed here.
These heavily armored giant undead guards are not made from the corpses of stone giants. All true giants, as long as they are of pure blood, must be at least five meters tall when they reach adulthood.
These heavily armored giant undead guards are only over four meters and less than five meters tall. Although they can be classified as a giant species, they are all pseudo-giants like trolls and hobgoblin giants.
They are all made from the giant corpses of the monster races on the Giant Plains. They are neither skeletons nor zombies, but somewhat similar to mummies. The armor on their bodies is a shroud.
This is using undead methods to imitate the golem armor.
A group of steel monsters with extraordinary hit dice, no pain, no sense of fear, but possessing extraordinary combat awareness are definitely a disaster on the battlefield.
And there are so many such soldiers, those Council of Death Chiefs who have been manipulating the situation in the Giant Plains behind the scenes for who knows how many years.
Gavin used the power of shadow to control them, purely to take advantage of sneak attacks and assassinations. On the battlefield, when they started charging in groups, this method could no longer be used, and they could only resist head-on.
The real core of them is the immortal stone giant.
Giants are an extraordinary race. Even the weakest hill giants, as long as they reach adulthood, they are born with ten life dice. The stone giants who are far above them are born with fourteen life dice. With a little effort, they can They can enter the ranks of quasi-legends, and transforming into an immortal state will make them stronger.
Not to mention the successive immortal stone giant chiefs, especially the first immortal stone giant chief Duokong, who has transformed himself into an immortal state for thousands of years.
Gavin had reason to suspect that he was not an ordinary undead creature, but a lich, a high-level lich with at least thirty hit dice.
Gavin's kind reminder not only did not make Domingo give up, but instead twisted the super large ring on his hand more frequently and said repeatedly: "Come in, everyone come in, there is an intruder."
At the same time, he kicked off his footsteps and ran towards the entrance of the giant palace.
Even though he has a stature and terrifying strength that is nearly three times taller and stronger than his opponent, if forced to do so, Domingo will still not easily enter into close combat. He will let those heavily armored giant undead guards hold the opponent back while he uses his innate abilities. The ability to throw rocks to blast enemies is the way to go.
(End of chapter)
