The weight of a person's words constantly changes with his strength.
Gavin's initial impression of Jiharin was that of an ambitious young man. The so-called promise was just a stepping stone to cooperate with them, the remnants of the Kingdom of Tethyama. What he valued was the superb forging skills of their spirit race.
At that time, Jihalin may have seen a glimmer of hope in him, but not much. He just cooperated with the intention of not losing money.
Many things are based on normal business cooperation.
But with the restart of Colossus City, the other party still does not forget its original intention and decentralizes power to a great extent, which is commendable.
Even Jiharin, who was accustomed to seeing strong winds and waves, was completely moved. A warm current flowed in his heart. He held Gavin's arm heavily and said loudly: "The great soul forger Moradin has witnessed for us that from today on Starting from now on, the Iron Clan and Lord Gavin will forever form a brotherhood. Your matter is our matter. No matter how difficult and dangerous the road ahead is, as long as there is a call, we will rush forward without hesitation. If we violate our oath, we will not hesitate to come. God has given up."
The dwarf keeps his promise.
This is not their self-bragging, but is recognized by the intelligent races of Faerûn.
As long as it is something they promise, not only will they do their best to abide by it, but even the children and grandchildren who teach them by words and deeds will remember to abide by it. It is not uncommon among dwarves for a grandfather's promise to be fulfilled by his grandson.
This fine tradition was engraved on their souls when their main god Moradin forged them.
Therefore, they are taciturn and make few promises.
There is a premise in this matter. The strong-drinking race was not drunk when he made the promise.
If he caused losses because he believed in the promise of a drunken dwarf, and went to those strong-drinking race theories, he would only be ridiculed. This was not their dwarf's problem, but his own.
Even the dwarves would not believe the nonsense of a drunkard. If it were them, it would be worthy of belief. The whole world would have been in such chaos.
What is more solemn than the dwarves' promises is the oath they made in the name of the dwarf god Moradin.
Jihalin, however, did not drink.
Gavin said solemnly: "This is my honor. From today on, the affairs of the Iron Clan are my business. As long as there is a need, I will do my best."
"Okay, okay, okay." Jihalin shouted continuously, "Then, next, Taste and Theszet will be handed over to the lord. You will take them to the desperate Eastern Territory and let them see more of them. Seeing the world and learning more will be very helpful for their future.”
Centuries of exile have already taught this dwarf king the political skills of humans.
Tasht and Theszet were none other than his two sons, the future kings of the Kingdom of Tesyama.
He places them next to Gavin to further prove his sincerity - this is a proton commonly used by humans.
If you are planning a rebellion behind your back, you must first consider the safety of your future heirs.
"Okay, it just so happens that I lack forging talents around me. It would be too troublesome to come back to the clan leader for some minor matters." Gavin readily agreed.
What he values is not their proton interaction, but the exchange of emotions.
He is familiar with future history and knows clearly that the exiled dwarf king in front of him has entered his twilight years. If there is no other way to extend his life, he will die in ten years.
Although his fate may change because of him, he has to make two preparations to establish a good emotional foundation with the future successor of the Kingdom of Tesyama.
Jihalin may not be without this consideration.
Gavin suddenly remembered something, "If I remember correctly, your spirit race has the habit of domesticating wild boars as mounts, including razor boars, which are called thunder tooth cavalry."
"Yes, we do have this custom. It's just that the lord got confused. We dwarves call the tamed ferocious wild boar mount Thunder Fang, so we have the term Thunder Fang Cavalry.
If you want to tame the razor boar, you must open a special extraordinary advanced profession, the Thunder Fury Knight. This profession perfectly blends the bravery of our dwarves with the ferocity of the razor boar, bursting out with terrifying frontal charging capabilities. , the dwarf thunder knights rushing out of the mountains in groups, even those giants would tremble. "
Jihalin was proud and a little lonely, "It's just that this scene is only engraved in the memory of the dwarves and the stone murals. It has not appeared in people's sight for thousands of years, because the cavalry can only be seen in open places and on large scales." In the case of clusters, you can give full play to your greatest advantages.
Among the five thousand dwarves in Colossus City, there are only a few dozen Thunder Fang Cavalry, and there is not a single Thunder Fury Knight. No one has advanced to an advanced profession that has no chance to exert their maximum power. "
"It didn't happen before, but it doesn't mean there won't happen in the future." Gavin comforted, "We are not starting from scratch now. I happen to have a group of razor boars in captivity over there in the valley, and there are no suitable knights yet. I will transfer them all, and the clan leader can transfer them. Arm them with the right manpower, and I will focus on collecting and purchasing ferocious wild boars in the future, striving to create a world-famous dwarf Thunderfury Heavy Cavalry in Colossus City."
The ferocity of large magical beasts like the Razor Boar was beyond Gavin's expectations, except for the fact that Nora barely subdued the Razor Boar King by using the method of boiling an eagle.
The number of razor boars kept in captivity at Vizeme Manor continues to grow, but no one can tame them. If you are not careful, you will be seriously injured by them, and one of them was even directly killed by the razor boar.
Gavin had to stop using brute force to tame him and wait for a more suitable opportunity.
"I didn't expect that the lord has so many treasures in his hands?" Jihalin asked in surprise, "I wonder how many razor boars the lord has?"
"There should be two to three hundred, so just prepare according to the two hundred number." Gavin's smile showed a smile that could not be concealed, "There is no way to estimate the follow-up. I used those razor boars as seeds, and combined them with a large number of female wild boars and domesticated wild boars. After sows are bred, at least two thousand will become pregnant. In the next month or two, they will give birth to cubs one after another. Even if these hybrids are not as powerful as their parents, they will not be too different. At least they can rival the ferocious wild boars. They The growth period is very short, and as long as they are carefully raised, they can be of great use in two or three years."
"The lord has a long-term view." Jihalin gave Gavin a thumbs up and said, "This is a hugely profitable deal. If it succeeds, you will get a lot of good mounts. If you fail, there will be no loss. You can still kill them. Eat meat.”
"I think so too. If we can cultivate larger pigs, it would be a good harvest." Gavin finally decided, "Leave the selection of soldiers to the clan leader, leave the equipment and mounts to me, first pull up the frame of the army, and wait If you think the time is right, you will attack the monster forces in the Troll Mountains, and I will ask the Lord of Sanoba to fully cooperate with you."
"I have been looking forward to that day." The heroic fighting spirit of the wandering dwarf king was completely inspired by Gavin, and he was gearing up, looking forward to what would happen when the dwarves' thunderfury cavalry and heavy infantry surged out of the City of Colossus.
Gavin extended an invitation: "Next, I'm going to meet with the envoy from the Council of Death Chiefs, and I also invite the patriarch to come with me."
"No, if I participate in this matter, it will be counterproductive." Jihalin shook his head and refused, "The hatred between giants and dwarves has lasted for tens of thousands of years, and it is engraved in the bones. Giants who have never seen dwarves all have an instinctive hatred for us, not to mention the Council of Death Chiefs, who are direct participants in the war between giants and dwarves. If the city of Colossus is in the hands of the kobolds, there will be some room for relaxation between the two sides, but If it returns to the hands of the dwarves, it will be difficult to reconcile the contradictions. Our Colossus City needs time to develop now, so it is best not to start the war lightly."
Gavin made an impassioned speech: "Peace is not achieved by compromise, but by fighting for it with the sword in your hand. If the messenger of the Council of Death Chiefs made excessive demands to drive all the dwarves out of the City of Colossus, would I be able to agree to it?" ? This is undoubtedly cutting off both of my own legs. I will try my best to fight for peace, but if they insist on provoking a war, I will never be afraid of war."
In the past half month, Gavin has certainly had a big impact on the East Territory of Despair.
But the war there is also subtly changing Gavin's concept, giving him a more accurate positioning of his current strength. Even when facing those top-level entities, he is not without the power to fight back, especially death. He still has quite an advantage over an enemy like the Council of Chiefs that involves the realm of immortality.
"Since the lord is so heroic, I won't be coy about it." Jihalin changed his tone readily.
After all, he didn't want to leave the fate of himself and his clan completely in the hands of others.
The Council of Death Chiefs is not a group of fools. They will not know that there are a large number of dwarves gathered in Colossus City just because they avoid seeing them.
"Let's go." Gavin and Jihalin ended their separate negotiations and went directly to the meeting hall of Colossus City.
This was once the city's dwarf royal court, and the city's style was displayed to its extreme here - big.
The size of everything has been enlarged to the giant version. The roof is fifteen meters high, and the stone throne placed in the center is enough to accommodate a storm giant to sit on it. The only exception is probably the stairs, which are according to ordinary It was built to human size, but a closer look reveals that they were added later.
It is true that this city was built by the supreme Shanatar dwarves, but there is a prerequisite.
This place once belonged to the territory of giants, and those stone giants also built their own city palace here.
Those dwarves were modified based on the giants' buildings.
In order to show their power and glory, they retained many giant characteristics, especially this royal court, in order to make it easier to receive those giant envoys and captives and declare their sovereignty to them.
After five thousand years, it once again played its role.
Only this time, the ones sitting on the throne were no longer dwarves, but a half-elf and a dragonborn, with a dwarf and a gray dwarf sitting beside them.
With a roar of steam, the 20-meter-high steel door rumbled open.
This is the real gate to the City of Colossus. The two gates used by the kobolds were both side gates.
Amidst the propaganda, two stone giants walked in with steady steps. Against the background of all the huge things around them, they looked very inconspicuous, but when they really walked up to them, they would find that they were bigger than It's a huge thing that ordinary people can enlarge more than three times.
The stone giant on the right is very similar to Domingo, the stone giant manager who was imprisoned in the City of the Colossus. His blue-gray skin makes his body look a little thin. In fact, it is covered with as solid and shapely bones as rocks. Muscles and wearing a thick giant body armor make him look more brave.
Yuriu, who was sitting on Gavin's left hand, recognized it at a glance. The giant's full-body armor came from Colossus Dungeon and was made by them. Therefore, they knew how strong this thing's defense was. It was a soldier's sword below the extraordinary. , directly without breaking the defense.
Everyone's attention couldn't help but fall on the stone giant on the left. He was wearing the same style of giant full-body armor, but the armor on his body was no longer the original color of steel, but gray, exuding a strong aura of death.
The most unique thing is that, except for those joints with gaps for easy movement, there are no ropes or buckles for removing the armor in the entire set of armor. It is as if it is directly welded to his body. The position of his eyes is shining with a cold light. The cold glow, from which I can't feel any emotion or temperature belonging to living beings.
The undead stone giant.
This is what makes the Council of Death Chiefs most famous.
The stone giant's name was Asim, and the immortal stone giant's name was Upendra.
After introducing each other's identities, the stone giant envoy Asim took the lead in attacking, "I come on behalf of His Majesty Duokong, the great Lord of the Eternal Giants, the Great Chief of the Council of Death Chiefs, and the last King of the Giant Kingdom Nedheim, to give you the final The ultimatum requires you to return our mine dwarf graves within ten days, expel all dwarves in this city, and then pay 10 million gold coins as compensation for your unauthorized attack on our industry, otherwise we will use force."
Just as Gavin guessed, this Council of Death Chiefs really came with bad intentions. They put forward three extremely harsh conditions in one mouth.
"What does it mean to attack your property without authorization?" Before he could speak, Jihalin jumped up and retorted condescendingly, "Have you seen the heart of the mountains above the Lord? This is the energy of this city. The key controls everything that belongs here. The person who controls it is the real owner of this city, including the dwarf tomb you are talking about. You are the real intruders. It is good that we have not held you accountable. You If you still have the nerve to ask for war compensation and want us dwarves to leave our city, don’t even think about it.”
The political acumen of this wandering dwarf king is absolutely top-notch. Many things can be understood with just a hint from Gavin.
When talking about something like this, someone needs to be a good person and a bad person. Dwarves who have a feud with the giants are the best choice to act as spoilers, especially when the other party's demands are a real threat to their interests.
Whether it was the huge potential shown by Colossus City or the significance of this place for their army to counterattack the Tesyama Mine, they had no way of giving up.
Especially after they had just reaffirmed their alliance with Gavin and gained greater autonomy, they couldn't give up easily.
"Your city." Asim, the stone giant messenger who was still a little tepid at first, involuntarily raised his voice several bars, and the entire palace seemed to be resonating with it, "The Giant Running Mountains were once a playground for us giants to play. Field, the Giant Plains is the big garden in front of our house, and the Troll Mountains are our backyard, where we keep our servants.
This palace was dug out of the mountain bit by bit by our ancestors with chisels and hammers, even the stone chairs you sit on are no exception.
When we giants owned this place, you were just a bunch of rats hiding underground.
How dare you, a group of descendants of thieves, declare your sovereignty here to us, the real masters? "
In terms of long-term memory, giants are far superior to dwarves. They are also a long-lived race. Even the shortest-lived hill giants have a natural lifespan of more than five hundred years. Although the stone giants are not the longest-lived, they still have memories of thousands of years. life.
Not to mention, when these stone giants did not take the ordinary path and transformed themselves into intelligent undead, their racial memory would be even longer.
Even for dwarves, the Giant Empire Nederheim is a legend, but for these stone giants, at least some of them, it is still a living memory.
It would have been nice not to mention the ownership of the City of the Colossus, but this mention directly hit the stone giant's lungs and exploded on the spot.
"You giants brought this upon yourself. It was you who robbed our ancestors. As your miners, it was your unbridled greed that led to the great alliance of all Moradin people and brought disaster to yourself." Harlem had long understood the history of the city through the history of the murals in the City of the Colossus, and he responded generously.
The main purpose is not to distinguish right from wrong back then.
Instead, he attracts hatred, completely muddies the water, and takes the opportunity to learn more about his opponent.
When you lose control of your emotions, you are more likely to reveal your true intentions.
The stone giant Asim obviously wanted to refute, but was interrupted by the undead stone giant next to him, "This kind of struggle for ownership happened five thousand years ago, when the dwarves of Supreme Shatana were still alive. There is no clear distinction. What is the point of talking about this now?
We only say that now, the dwarf grave has been under our rule and management for two thousand years, and he and his people are the property of our Death Chiefs Council. If you take it without asking, you are invading and starting a war. .
Making compensation is a matter of course. We remember that you are young and ignorant, and we will give you a chance to make amends in human ways.
If you don't know how to cherish it, we will use the Death Chiefs Council to resolve this dispute. "
(End of chapter)
