Chương 436: Chapter 407: Good Loot Make Happy

Oh yes, this was far more like it. Let's see what was so important that you wrote it down, Thalion thought with a wide grin as he walked over to the shelf. It turned out every scroll was a construction plan for a weapon or armor. For Thalion, this was a treasure hoard he hadn't even considered before deciding to come down here in the last stage. This could help him immensely when rebuilding his armor and sword.

The only issue was that everything was designed for dwarves, which meant the armor wasn't perfect for him—but he could adapt the runes for his own equipment. As for weapons, dwarves loved hammers, which wasn't very helpful for him. Still, there were runes that accelerated swings or added power behind them, and those would be useful on a sword. As Thalion went through the plans, he found a small layout of the city detailing where materials were stored.

He couldn't identify the materials, since the dwarves had used some strange runic code. His language skill translated normal text, but codes and runic symbols clearly showed its limits. Maybe it had been written that way to ensure no outsiders could steal their supplies. As Thalion went through the inventory, he discovered that some of the material outposts weren't even in this city, but in special tunnels. On second thought, those tunnels might have been mines. Does it even make sense to leave materials there?

Thalion wasn't sure. It was obvious he wouldn't have any time during this treasure hunt to craft anything like his armor or sword. It required too much blood—which would weaken him—and too much time, which he didn't have. In fact, he didn't even know if he could craft anything after the system event.

In the best case, he would gain an incredibly powerful divine class—but even then, it was unlikely he could bridge the vast power gap between himself and those who had the authority to decide life and death: god-chosen elites or powerful beings like the prince who had fought Eric. Thalion was already far weaker and not because of levels. Even if he had evolved at the end of the tutorial like everyone else, he still wouldn't have stood a chance against the chosen elf who had destroyed his armor and sword.

Extra stats and maybe extra skills would have let him mount a more dangerous counterattack, but the chance of victory would still have been close to zero. The reason those chosen were so powerful wasn't just their class rarity or blessings—it was their absurdly strong bloodlines. A god giving advice or their constant stat gains, which resulted in high rarity classes, were just the tip of the iceberg. The foundation of all their power was the bloodline, which made a far greater difference than class or race rarity.

To be fair, Thalion hadn't had a divine class before, and the only skill he had of divine rarity was incredibly potent. But even his divine passive had been clearly overpowered by the elf's bloodline in their fight, since it couldn't even change the elf's flames to Thalion's affinity. Of course, it could have been something else entirely—like an transcended rarity skill Eric had mentioned, which should at least approach the power of a bloodline, but Thalion doubted it.

Watching the fight between Eric and the prince, it had been obvious that the prince was far stronger than Kaelir. Yes, Kaelir was a ridiculously strong fighter who could use powerful fire skills with almost no mana cost—but against the prince, that hardly mattered. The prince's body couldn't even be harmed by Thalion after the prince withdrew that strange mist, which had eaten through Eric's armor like it wasn't even there. Plus, the prince was incredibly fast, agile, and at the absolute peak of physical strength.

The fact that he could fight Eric—who wielded that massive sword— barehanded was insane. Without Thalion's interference at the end, the prince would have won easily, after killing Eric's entire team. The prince was at the pinnacle—but honestly, for Thalion, it didn't matter much. He couldn't even imagine winning against someone like Kaelir, and he was very skeptical that a divine class alone would be enough to close that gap. And this level difference wasn't Thalion's only future problem.

There was also the upcoming D-grade evolution at level one hundred eighty. None of the chosen would wait even a second—they would evolve instantly to gain an edge over the competition and in the war that was about to break out on New Earth. At the moment, factions weren't organized yet and hadn't connected with their allies. There was no elven or undead empire with multiple chosen waging war on others—but that would definitely change.

But every settlement would rapidly try to gain land by any means, and basically no one could stand up to a chosen. Many probably wouldn't even try. Even Thalion had simply handed leadership over to Eric. To be fair, Thalion had never been a leader—more a protector who allowed weaker people a chance to survive. In most factions, you only received resources if you contributed. In sects, you earned contribution points which you could then exchange for treasures.

This was the most common system, and even Maike and Kaldrek had used a similar one—though with the difference that Thalion, or rather that system, paid the strong to help the weak. Normally, such an arrangement didn't exist, and under most leaders it was even worse. On top of all that, the biggest reason had still been the chosen elf who was about to attack their camp. Letting Eric carry the mantle of protector was the natural conclusion and he regretted nothing.

With his curse and the passive skill that applied the curse to any flame, it was better that he didn't stay. Without his passive reined in, it had been a miracle no one had been infected. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Eric and the elven chosen clashing after the System Event was very likely anyway, since the two had spawned so close to each other. That was probably how the great war would begin, and Thalion was confident it would take years before it ended.

Every faction wanted to conquer land for their gods. Thalion doubted any chosen would stop until the entire planet was under their control. There could be a peace arrangement if two forces were equal in power—but such an agreement would only hold as long as both remained equal. Should one chosen ascend to a higher grade or gain a similar power boost, it would definitely lead to war.

Even if Thalion wasn't a nice person and had killed pretty much everyone in his way, he still didn't want innocent people—those who just wanted to live—to be harmed by power-hungry chosen. It wasn't like any of the factions were particularly kind either. The elves had not shown kindness toward other humans. Vampires were likely even worse, and Thalion didn't have great experiences with orcs either. To be fair, it wasn't a race issue alone—humans had been horrible to other humans too.

There had been people like Thorwald or the Blue Robes, who simply killed anyone for their own gain. The weaker the target, the better for them. At some point, Thalion would have to take over and hand all organizational responsibilities to Kaldrek and Maike to ensure that weaker people could actually have a peaceful, long life. As things currently stood, everyone was forced to level as fast as possible just to survive.

Even in nicer factions like Eric's, they would still have to contribute—especially once war broke out. The problem was that even if Thalion reached a level of power where he could wipe the floor with the chosen, they still had numbers behind them—and the gods. Thalion had no idea when the new universe would open to the rest, allowing gods to travel there. But when that happened, all the power he had gathered would become meaningless. The more territory he claimed, the harder it would be to protect his people.

A very small territory was possible, but then it would end up like the Gauls versus the Roman Empire in Asterix and Obelix until the new universe opened. Thalion also had no idea how to deal with someone like Eric. The fellow seemed reasonable, but it was clear that his patron would never accept a system like the one Thalion envisioned. It was obvious Eric had orders from his patron that he had to fulfill. Even if Eric conquered New Earth, why should his patron allow a faction like Thalion's to exist at all?

The only reason that made any sense was that he didn't want to lose his chosen if Thalion surpassed him in power. Well, those were all future thoughts, and Thalion wouldn't be strong enough to have his own faction for a long time—especially with how things looked on New Earth. Which brought him back to smithing and the initial question: Could he allow himself a few weeks without leveling to craft some cool armor or a sword? It likely depended on how quickly things escalated and how rich the hunting grounds were.

If he could make a few levels a day, it was better to just grind. But if he only got one level a day—or even less—then yes, he could think about crafting something cool. Thalion had always loved crafting, especially when it got crazy with formations and crystals, and he needed new armor and a new sword anyway. There was no way he was simply going to buy a weapon. He might accept one if it came as a reward from a System Event, but otherwise? No chance. Fighting with his self-made sword just felt so good.

Speaking of rewards and System Events: A divine class would allow him to join any future System Event, since lifetime didn't matter in the slightest—he had an eternity in that regard. If other events were anything like this one, he might find time to craft his armor and weapon there. Thalion would already have his divine class by then, which meant he wouldn't need to finish first—or at least not with such a high ranking. It would be nice, yes, but if he got the chance to do some smithing, why not take it?

For now, what he could do in this stage was gather every ingredient and material he needed for a crafting session. That meant looting all the dwarven materials, or at least the best ones. Thalion quickly skimmed through the scrolls until the whole room was empty. Everything that could fit into his spatial amulet went inside. Even the anvil and the few hammers hanging in a rack beside it. He continued upward through the stairs, which brought him to the final chamber—and it looked promising.

There were fewer scrolls on the shelves along the walls, but each one looked far more expensive than the ones below. The entire room looked a bit like an observatory, judging by the shape of the ceiling. In the center stood a large round table, and on that table lay something covered in dust that looked suspiciously like a map. Thalion dashed over and began cleaning the large piece of parchment. It was a map—and not a simple one.

It was a complete layout of all dwarven settlements and mines, including one very interesting structure that had to be the grand treasure inside the volcano. It seemed the largest dwarven city was located directly beneath the volcano.

"Bingo!" Thalion exclaimed with a wide grin. This was an excellent start—if he ignored the time he had lost at the beginning of the stage restraining his passive skill. But one question began gnawing at him: If such a map was placed in this tower, could someone else have found a similar one? The massive red crystal marked on the map was likely extremely valuable and would grant a huge amount of leaderboard points.

The crystal might be perfect for the Sanguis Impera and Thalion's fire cultivation in the future— if he didn't need the leaderboard points. But on the other hand, it might be too dangerous to venture there. Anyone even remotely strong would want Thalion's head, and most chosen could probably accomplish that easily. Last time Thalion only escaped because Kaelir didn't want to kill him—they needed him alive to reveal the name of his patron. Other chosen wouldn't care at all and wouldn't take such risks.

Thalion had started in the tunnels because he had descended to the ground during the forest stage, but most others likely dove underground with the descent of the bees from the crowns. Maybe you only began underground if you had climbed down fully. If Thalion was lucky, many chosen had stayed near the treetops to fight the bees for more XP and leaderboard points. On the other hand, a whole day had passed—more than enough time to find one of the entrances into the dwarven empire.

And Thalion had spawned very close to the main volcano. In fact, the next city would be the dwarven capital.

"Ah, fuck it. I'm too greedy to turn away now," Thalion sighed before rushing through the room like a tornado, stuffing everything into his spatial amulet. He would have liked to examine everything carefully, but he wanted to reach the main city and the grand treasure as fast as possible. He could return for materials after securing the main treasure. Additionally, the capital itself would likely contain many materials—even if Thalion wasn't planning a gathering trip.

The safest approach was simple: Get the grand treasure and then run for his life.